Give fealty to our new cow overlords

Friday night was Scout Night at the Mequite Rodeo so I went over to Mesquite with LilHombre and members of his troop. It was a night that won't be soon forgotten. Long story short, the cattle kicked cowboy butt. The first bull-rider didn't even last two seconds. Another didn't even last one. No one did better than five seconds.

Other events fared little better. Cattle proved to be better at wrestling and also showed a great ability to slip out of lassos. (lassoes?) The bright spot came when the kids turn arrived. Apparently there is an event where they put 5 and 6-year olds don helmets and are strapped to sheep and then released.

The evening came to a shortened end with the wind blowing down a tree which in turn knocked out a power transformer. The lights went out and after 30 minutes they decided enough was enough and cancelled the show. They did promise to give us a free show next season, however.

All in all, it was a fun evening. But I shall be readying to bend my knee at the hoof of our new Cow Overlords.

Well that was a letdown

So everyone here in the D/FW area battens down the hatches in preparation of the coming rain. And what happens? Zip, zero, nada. Friday we had lots of wind and a few trees knocked over. But not a drop of rain. Saturday, Sunday, and today the skies were a cloudless blue. So I'm breaking the sprinklers back out to try and save what's left of the lawn. *Sigh*

And on a more somber note, the Dallas Morning Snooze just ran this about our own little levee system along the Trinity River.

If Hurricane Rita had roared through just west of Dallas, stalled over Arlington and dumped as much rain here as it is expected to drop on East Texas, the levees that keep Dallas dry could very well have been breached, flooding a sizable swath of the city.
Downtown Dallas relies on a much-compromised 30-mile levee system to keep it dry from the Trinity River. Because of extensive development in the counties north and west of the city, the levees, completed in 1958, can no longer handle the severe storm runoff they were designed to contain.
Dallas is therefore now vulnerable to a far less serious storm breaching the levees and flooding business and residential areas that equal about 20 percent of the city's taxable property value.

Why bother with the toy store?

El casa de El Hombre is filled to bursting with toys. Boxes of them all over the house. Multiple toy chests in two different rooms. Toys from Christmas, birthdays, Grandparents, you name it. So what is the most popular toy in the house right now?

The big box the dishwasher came in.

Rita, we have to talk...

It looks like the worst fears about Hurricane Rita won't come to pass. Everyone was fearing that Houston would be wiped off the map like New Orleans was. She seems to be taking a stroll up the Sabine River instead. Which means rain for my neck of the woods. Maybe a lot of rain. My lawn is all but dead right now, so I imagine it'll do a bit of good. I'm not worried about flooding. One advantage of living at a high elevation is that all your water flows away.

Friday Cat Blogging

I understand that posting pictures of a cat on Friday is something of a tradition. So allow me to introduce Janis, the world's most anti-social cat.



We see her here hiding under the bed, a favorite place of hers when strangers are over. We'd let her stay there as long as she wants except for her habit of licking herself loudly in the middle of the night. Congratulations, Janis. You've made it to the internet.

New Appliance Day

In the first bit of news I have to offer, I have two new appliances. (I know what you're thinking, 'My God, that guy is dull'. Patience, I have my reasons...) The replacement dryer has arrived for LaSenora and at long last I have replaced that GE dishwasher that came with the house with a real dishwasher from Maytag. This may not sound like a big deal to most of you. You likely don't have to wash the dishes like I do. No more -pre-washing' before putting them in the dishwasher. I just scrape the biggest bones and organs off the plate and jam it in. Presto! They come out clean. And I mean clean!

So what, you say? That means less work for me! Ya-Hoo!

and off we go...

Why should they have all the fun?