I wish I could find a better copy of this, but I have to share this hilarious local commercial:


I guess some parts of this culture make sense to the people here but just seem completely absurd to an outsider.

Maybe I'm living in a more densely populated area than I realize, but it sure seems like there's an abundance of fast food restaurants down here. Walking out door of my office I can almost always catch the oily smell of Dairy Queen, or is it McDonalds... or Sonic Burger? Despite all that I've been eating pretty well. I think I can count on one hand the number of fast food meals I've had since I got here.

Last week I spent a day at Nameless Vally Ranch, the summer camp the Texas Conference sold, but is still leasing until the new camp is finished. We spent the day setting up for several upcoming events. Outdoor school this week, youth festival this weekend and camp throughout the summer. It's a very nice facility in the hills just outside of Austin. The new camp has the advantage of being located on a lake, but in one afternoon I could see the nostalgic attraction to this came. I'll be back down there this weekend and maybe snap a few pictures if I have some time.

I'm kinda toying with the idea of getting a dog. Seeing all the pooches at the art festival put the idea in my mind and then on the way back from the summer camp everyone started passing around cell phone pictures of their dogs. One of my co workers even has Great Pyrenees puppies, but those are a little excessive for an apartment. Strangely, when I looked up apartment friendly dogs Mastiffs and Great Danes both make the cut. I thinking more along the lines of a dog that is not mistaken for a horse. One of the leading apartment-friendly candidates more closely resembles a frog:


We'll see what ends up happening. I'm going to do a bit more homework before I make any decision.

Fort Worth

Finally a full weekend without any work obligations. It was great! Not to mention the fact that the weather was glorious. Lots of time outside. Much of it at the Fort Worth Arts Festival:













They could also name it the Fort Worth Dog Festival:






I'm only a little bit jealous...

Watch Out

Life keeps rolling along and keep rolling along with it. It continues to surprise me how abrupt the weather can be here. It seriously seems like it only took about two days to transition from winter to spring. I could literally see the landscape turning green by the hour. Temperatures soared well above 70 degrees and when the wind finally stopped

I discovered a thick blanket of humidity settles over north Texas when the air stops moving. On Thursday night I cracked up a couple of my co-workers on the way to the Dallas town hall meeting. I said the weather kind of reminded me of Hawaii, pretty much the only other humid place I've ever been. Maybe it was just my naive optimism talking, but they found it funny at any rate.

I'm not enjoying having to wake up in the dark again, but it is nice to have a considerable amount of daylight after work. Not quite enough for nine holes yet, but enough for a leisurely stroll around the neighborhood:



Regardless of the risk:



So far I haven't seen anything too dangerous. One Armadillo, dead on the road. A roadrunner and a turtle, alive on the road and not appearing to be engaged in any sort of race.

Last Sabbath I took my inaugural trip to Lake Whitney Ranch, the new summer camp the conference is developing, for the inaugural Pathfinder Camporee there. It's a very impressive site. More than 900 acres, with two miles of lakefront property, most of which is made up of impressive cliffs. I have pictures, but they're on the conference camera and not online at the moment. I'll share eventually.

Sunday I enjoyed immense amounts of leisure. I wandered around Fort Worth, wished I had shorts on and tried to figure out the formula of which stores were open on Easter and which were closed. I didn't find any pattern. I also went to a park near the Fort Worth Botanic (not to be confused with Botanical) Garden. I didn't go into the actual garden because you had to pay and I didn't know how interesting it would be by myself. I had fully intended to spend some time downtown, but I got too warm and had to head home for some shorts. By that time laundry and dinner were calling my name.

This week looks to be a bit on the relaxing side... hopefully. Then it's two very busy weeks before I trip back to the northwest. Yah... I can deal with that.