Ice in Texas!!!

January 28th....this is what happens in Texas after a little bit of rain....icy roads. The only thing stopping anyone from sliding...good driving and a bit of sand. No salt here. The over passes are the worst. Two of these pictures are from the overpass we take to work. The three lane highway is usually PACKED with cars. Not on the 28th. Around noon is when the ice was mostly gone, but if you were on the roads after dark, there was more ice. The next day, we had freezing fog. It took 45 minutes for us to get to work. It usually takes about 20. The temperatures stayed in the high 20's to low 30's for 3 days. Usually, it is about 50 or 60 in the day and around 35 at night. When the pump is running on the pool at night, that means it is 32 or below. That is the only way I know when it is really cold outside. :-)

Dallas Stampede

Saturday, November 8th.

The Supper Club girls had fun for 24 hours.

I met up with Heather, Laura, and Becky at Amber's house. Amber was very sweet for driving us into Dallas.

We started with lunch at Jake's in Dallas. They specialize in burgers. Then we headed to the W hotel. It is located across the street from the American Airlines Center. Laura and Becky headed to the Spa for manis and pedis, while Amber was relaxed with a massage. Janay, Heather, and I walked around the Stampede Marketplace to shop and took some pictures of the scenery from the hotel. I got a great shot of the horse trailers outside the hotel. Bobbi arrived around 5. We headed back to our rooms and got ready for the rodeo.

This was a professional rodeo. Check out the website. http://www.texasstampede.org/

I have seen the rodeo at the Fort Worth Stockyards, but this is NOTHING like that. These guys (and gals) were definately professionals. There was bareback and saddle bronc riding, bull riding, steer wrestling, team roping, tie-down roping, barrel racing, muttin bustin', and a monkey that rides a sheep herding dog. Yes, a MONKEY!!! Please check out that site, even if it is just to see the monkey. :-)

After the rodeo events, the concert began....Blake Shelton and Miranda Lambert. I never heard of them, but I did like them and there were a few songs I would like to download from iTunes.

We were in a suite on the Platnum level at the stadium and we had food and drink galore. LOL

We hung out in the box and had a great time. These ladies are great fun and the sweetest to hang out with. We had a nice mix with the 7 of us. Laura, Becky, Janay, and I are married. Bobbi, Heather, and Amber are not. I am the oldest of the group. :-(

Breakfast on Sunday was at Bread Winners. That was an awesome place. The food was great and the building was cool. It as an old house, actually it looked like two old houses put together.

http://www.jakesburgers.net/ - Jake's Burgers
http://www.starwoodhotels.com/whotels/property/overview/index.html?propertyID=1521 -W Hotel
http://www.breadwinnerscafe.com/locations_up.htm - Bread Winners

October Vacation

As you can see in my previous post, Mike and I went to South Carolina to visit our friends Barbara and Jack. I finished the front and back of a quilt and a gift for my folks (I can't say what, since they may see this post). LOL. :-)

We found out that the Hard Rock Park has closed and filed for bankruptcy. The saddest part of all that...it was only open for one season. It never had a chance. We bought the commemorative park guide that showed how the park came about and what type of changes occured during construction. From what I read on line, the park tickets were only supposed to cost about $50, but they charged over $100. They were supposed to have bands booked into the holiday season and now they have canceled them. It is really a bummer. The park was awesome and I would have loved to have gone back.

http://www.hardrockpark.com/index.cfm

Mike read 3 Patterson books while we were there and took many well needed naps. He and Sugar went for pretty many walks too. Sugar enjoyed the naps mostly.

Elaine's Quilt (in a week)

We finally had our vacation after very long projects, for both of us. We decided to have a relaxing vacation with our dear friends, Barbara and Jack in South Carolina.

I decided to take my sewing machine and a bunch of Hawaiian remnants that I bought in Hawaii last year. We set up a plan and B told me that we would have it finished by the end of the week. My words...what are you smokin'?

Low and behold...I finished it. Here is the front, back, and the tag.

The front is a bunch of remnants...and yes, there is a pattern.

The back is a bunch of remnats too, but they are all the same pattern.

The label is the name of the quilt, the occasion, and the creation date.

Koch's in Texas 2008

Mike's Mom and Dad drove down from PA and arrived September 19th. They stayed until September 29th. Unfortunately, I was out of town for 4 of the days they were here.

We went to a Rangers Baseball game on the 20th. That was our Father's Day gift to Rich. A little late, but that is okay. We were able to get Rich's birthday, Fran's birthday, and their anniversary in during this time too.

Mike and I still had to work while they were in town, so they would go out and about on their own or hung out at the house with Sugar and their dog, Baxter.

We did eat out, but Fran cooked some of the nights. She also made her famous broccoli salad. YUMMY!! One of the places we went to eat was Boi Na Braza. It is a Brazilian steak house. The guys walk around with skewers of meat and slice off pieces right at the table. It is definitely an experience.

We took the train ride from Grapevine to Fort Worth. We saw the cattle drive while we were down there. They had more cattle this time. I noticed one of them this time. The black and white Longhorn. He was kinda small, but his coloring was cool.

Montreal, Canada

Skyline from the 36th floor of the hotel. This is just one of MANY pictures of the skyline.






Ann, Michael, Elaine, and J. at the dinner on the last night of the conference.





September 21st to 24th, I was in Montreal at the Epicor conference with two folks from our IT department, Ann and J. We currently use one of the products by Epicor at GameStop and we were there to learn more about their other products and see if we could learn more about the current product. I have to admit, the sessions were not that useful, but the networking was great. I met a lot of nice people and I did learn a few things. So, I would say it was a successful trip.

Vegas Baby...

Well, actually, I was in Vegas for work. I went for our annual Store Conference. It was held at the Mandalay Bay. I was there September 6th to the 10th. Bobbi and I were sent to inform our store personnel of ways to decrease loss. We had fun when we had time to ourselves, but it was a lot of work and it was a LOT of walking. The Mandalay Bay is HUGE. They even have an extra wing that is called THEHotel. Yes, that is the correct spelling and it looks like that on the sign. It was very ritzy. After our meetings, we hung out with Josh and Chuck. I got to see a lot of folks from the EB side, which was a nice treat for me.



GameStop Nascar, Joey Logano




Josh and Chuck...acting like they are working. :-)





Elaine with a Lego Batman and Robin.





Bobbi and Elaine all dressed up to go to dinner at a French restaurant with the rest of the Accounting department.