June 2009

The Debacle At The Rainbow Lounge

June 30, 2009

Y’all, I would love to be a fly on the wall to hear Fort Worth City Chief of Police Jeffrey W. Halstead explain why in Thunder someone thought it would be a good idea to conduct a “routine inspection” of a gay bar on the 40th anniversary of Stonewall. Didn’t anybody think that through? Didn’t [...]

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Couldn’t Bring Home The Bacon

June 30, 2009

The recession has hit home to me now. It wasn’t enough that my favorite Starbucks Coffee Shop closed. I expected that. It was down in Colleyville, Texas … and there were four Starbucks within a mile of it (most of them located in grocery stores). I always visited it when I was in the area, [...]

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Unexpected Maturity

June 29, 2009

This is my favorite photograph of my beloved spousal unit. It’s a self-portrait he made when he was a teenager. Don’t you just see the joy of youth in this? Fortunately, most of the time he is more like the above than this more solemn picture below. In fact, it was hard to make him [...]

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Playing Footsie

June 28, 2009

I always look down when I’m walking, and I can’t tell you why. It’s just a habit from years of collecting rocks and seashells. If I didn’t have that habit, I wouldn’t have seen this sight. Although it’s summer in Texas, and doggone hot, some girls have to wear their boots. I wish I could [...]

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Lavender’s Blue, Dilly Dilly. Lavender Ridge Farms near Gainesville, Texas

June 27, 2009

“Lavender’s blue, dilly dilly, lavender’s green, When I am king, dilly, dilly, you shall be queen. Who told you so, dilly, dilly, who told you so? ‘Twas my own heart, dilly, dilly, that told me so.” ~English folk song Actually, “lavender” is “a pale to light purple to very light or very pale violet” but [...]

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Friday Slipped Up On Me

June 26, 2009

Do y’all remember what it felt like when you were in High School, and the teacher told you there would be a test on Friday, but you got busy and plumb forgot? That’s how I feel this morning. It’s a good thing that I’m addicted to designer coffee! If I hadn’t started jonesing for an [...]

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Kilgore, Texas. Boomtown, USA

June 25, 2009

Kilgore is a tiny town in east Texas that has a big history. I didn’t know that when I drove there yesterday to tell stories at the public library. In my three hour break between performances, I decided to explore “downtown” Kilgore. I was surprised at the treasures I found. At first, it didn’t look [...]

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Chicken’s Good Enough For Me

June 23, 2009

Everyone conceded that my Mamaw, Estelle Cumbie, was the best cook in Wood County. That’s how she caught my Papaw, Guy. Well, maybe she caught him because she was darned good looking, but her cooking helped. Hers wasn’t fancy gourmet cooking; it was just down-home Southern style, flavored with a LOT of bacon grease. Like [...]

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Child’s Play

June 22, 2009

If you had this clown coin bank — would you be inclined to save your money? I came around the corner in an antique store in Gainesville, Texas and saw this face leering at me. I was ready to jump out of my skin. Evidently, one was supposed to put a coin in its hand, [...]

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THIS Is Summer In Texas

June 21, 2009

Summer in Texas means a lot of things, these are just a few. I visited a local farm and bought lavender and strawberries. Watch next week, and I’ll tell you more about those trips (with more photos) in the series I call My Neck of The Woods. These photos are entered in a photo project [...]

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I’m So Glad Spoons Cafe In McKinney Is In My Neck Of The Woods!

June 20, 2009

Y’all know by now that I’m a gal who likes to eat. If I find a restaurant I like, I’ll go out of my way to visit. “Spoons,” in McKinney, is one of those places. I had visited it more than a year ago during an Arts Walk night in the town. I loved it [...]

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Ready For Delivery And Raring To Go. Only The Good Friday

June 19, 2009

Yes, it is a “good Friday,” my friends. For almost a year, people from all over the world have utilized their time and talents to bring cheer to children with cancer. They have been making “medicine bags” and sending lucky charms to deliver to children at Camp Sanguinity. These are kids with cancer, and their [...]

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Interlude

June 17, 2009

“The sun rose to a cloudless sky and what seemed to be an endless sea of waving grass. The prairie goes on forever as far as the eye can see. The wildflowers make it look like a floral tapestry woven with threads of yellow, white, blue, lavender and pink” ~ Nellie Morgan, 1855. Back in [...]

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Helping My Friends Go Green

June 16, 2009

This “shoe” dominates my kitchen. It once lived served its purpose as a display rack at a department store. However, I found it languishing at the bottom of a pile in a junk store and recycled it as a spice rack. It’s only one of the weird pieces of decoration at my house that people [...]

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Jurassic Texas

June 15, 2009

Dinosaurs! I encountered a small exhibit of them at The Heard Natural Science Museum and Wildlife Sanctuary in McKinney, Texas, which is right here in my neck of the woods. My children went through a period when they both loved anything to do with prehistoric reptiles. I delighted in this interest, because I had wanted [...]

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Kids, Don’t Try This Trick At Home

June 14, 2009

When summertime arrives, we all have back yard barbecues, don’t we? Friends all gather and we fire up the grill. Well, we have a friend who could almost grill his own steak — without a charcoal grill! He is a “fire breather,” who performs at fairs, festivals, and the drop of a hat. Here is [...]

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A Splash Of Color On The Riverwalk

June 13, 2009

Perhaps you can see, from the name of this blog, why this particular store caught my eye. The Eclectic Art Gallery, on San Antonio’s Riverwalk, was up on street level, which meant I had to drag my tired old body up a flight of stairs from the river level. Once I spied the place I [...]

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It’s Your Choice. Only The Good Friday.

June 12, 2009

For Only The Good Friday, I’m working on some “affirmations.” It didn’t start out as a good, day–so I’m having to work at reminding myself. That’s the point of this “optimism virus” that I’m trying to spread on the internet. Staying positive and being optimistic is not a natural trait for all of us. We [...]

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Sisterhood of The Grappling Pants

June 11, 2009

We all have that one pair of jeans that we just love. You know the ones — they make our butts look really good, but they are just a smidge too tight. One has to grapple to fit into these jeans. To put them on, first you have to do that Blue Jeans Jig. The [...]

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Mahalo for Sweet Hawaiian Mini Burgers

June 10, 2009

It should have been simple, I mean I picked the least demanding of the five recipes offered to me to cook for the Texas Beef Council as part of their Grilling Experience. Y’all know I like easy, but most of the recipes sounded a bit frou frou for this Texas gal. However, they might be [...]

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