Josh, Lindsay, and Mackenzie

Well, it's been a while since I wrote a blog (mostly because I couldn't log into the site properly, but that has been remedied), so I thought I would document some of the learnings of the past weekend. Obviously Hurricane Ike was on everyone's minds (some more than others), so I wanted to share a DFW perspective.

1. Everyone loves my mom. I don't know whether it's because she has fed most of the people I know in some form or fashion, or whether it's because everyone just happens to know she lives in Houston. Whatever the reason, my phone was text-messaged and phoned all weekend by people across the country to see if she was alright. Ironically enough, some of them I hadn't even heard from in a while so it's clear where everyone's priority is: chocolate cherry bars. She has to lace them with something because there is a strong addiction out there that she has facilitated for years. For those of you that didn't send an inquiry - she is fine. Hurricanes are pretty old hat to her; I'm pretty sure she could supply the northern hemisphere with at least one battery of their choice for a month and could bathe comfortably for a week in the amount of water she usually has on hand.

2. People vote for names. A creative name, or a recognizable name will equate to more votes regardless of what it is they are voting for at the time. We went to Grapefest this weekend (since Ike didn't come up to DFW - as I predicted) and at Grapefest you get to taste about 100 wines in an hour and a half and then you vote on the winners. There was a wine there called "Habanero Mead" which looked like urine of a deathly ill person and tasted about as good. I refer to this wine from here on as the "tongue number" because your tongue goes numb immediately - which is a good thing actually because then the horrendous taste is lessened. Every person who tried it made the same face and comments, and yet this wine WON FIRST PLACE in it's respective category. Come on guys...get with the program. Vote for something you actually tasted and liked, because there is no way anyone voted for that stuff based on taste. It's impossible; if we had left the wine in our glasses too long I'm pretty sure it would have eaten right through the glass and burned a hole into our hands.

3. States that aren't Texas have state flags and mottoes that are hard to remember for people from those states. Now, Texas has the benefit of having a very easy flag to remember - it's three blocks of color and a star. There is probably a statistic that the younger you are when you can actually draw your state flag, the easier it is to remember (therefore making Texas one of the easiest). I have a coworker from Michigan and we were discussing her state flag and motto yesterday (yes, we're nerds). She started to describe her flag and told me there were two deer on it. I responded, "no, I think one of those is an elk". Annoyed at my obvious affront to her flag she looked it up. Not only is one of the animals an elk, the other is a moose - so no deer at all. Add to that the horrible state motto of Michigan, it's no wonder no one knows it ("If you're looking for an amenable peninsula, look around you"). Of course, the fact I actually KNEW there was an elk on the state flag of Michigan is an entirely different discussion...

4. Battle re-enactments should be more common. Allison got to go to a re-enactment of the Battle of Fort Henry from the War of 1812 this weekend and I'm extremely envious. Being from Texas, we obviously have one very large battle to re-enact, but I'm not in San Antonio so that's pretty much a moot event for me unless I'm willing to travel. It must be awesome to be in the New England area because there were battles fought all over the place. Just once I think we should re-enact a battle here in Dallas. Sure, it's not Fort Henry, but why does it have to be? It can just be the re-enactment of the battle of Fort. Henry at the ranch where they filmed the TV show Dallas; it's probably big enough anyway. Regardless, if I ever get the opportunity to attend such an event I'm planning on dressing up as Lucretia Mott and running into the re-enactment to free some slaves. I might get arrested, or kicked out, but what a great story to tell: "Yeah, I freed some slaves today. What did you do?". No one could top that.

5. People like to choose when to get wet. Rain is to some people what snow is to me. I like to decide when I am exposed to it. I will visit snow, but I would prefer it not visit me because it just mucks everything up (and obviously means it's very cold). Apparently, the people of Dallas are the same way with water, which is ironic because we all CHOOSE to get wet at least once a day (well, those of us who are of a cleaner persuasion), and wash our clothes somewhat regularly so it's not as if the water will HURT anything. But man, pick a dry person up and put them in a rainy parking lot and it's the worst thing in the world. People who haven't run in eons become sprinters. In fact, I think rain could be the best trainer there is. Dallas-ites don't need a big burly man standing over them shouting, "run faster!", they just need rain.

Well, that's about it for the learnings. My blogs seem to get longer every time I write one, but hopefully you got a little bit of insight into the world of DFW. It's a different world than Houston to be sure, but it's definitely entertaining!