Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Holidays Are Never Long Enough !!!

Dear Fellow Blog Followers,

Aaron and Brandon had their first visit to Dallas in May and stayed for three weeks.  We had a great time here by the pool, had some nice dinners out and also spent one week in Aruba!  Never go to Aruba for one week.  It simply is not long enough.

We stayed at the Costa Linda Beach Resort.  The pools were warm and the resort was really clean.  The beach was miles of white sand and the ocean was warm and crystal clear.  We only had a few light rain showers throughout the day that did not last very long.






Aaron and Brandon named the Kreepy Krawly "Katie" and the yellow rubber ducky is "Harold".  They are their new brother and sister.  For the most part, Katie and Harold are well behaved.



Aruba... We'll Be Back !!!

Monday, August 29, 2011

Dung Beetles !!!

Dear Fellow Blog Followers,

Dung Beetles are members of the cockroach family. They arrived here in April and are completely disgusting!

They come out at night and they can fly and are attracted to light. So, I stayed inside when it was dark out and we do not turn the pool light on. Normally they are active in May/June, but the bug guy said this is an off year and they are early in the season.


I forgot to turn the pool light off one night and the next morning, there was a nice surprise in the pool.  I stopped counting after 60, but there could easily have been about 100 floating in the pool.  Good thing the pool guy was on his way to clean up that mess.  Just talking about the Dung Beetle creeps me out!

The Dung Beetle mainly eats pooh!!!  See what I mean - they are gross!  They roll up pooh into a ball and then bury it in the ground, lay eggs in it, and feed off it.


Some people eat these awful creatures.  I suppose if our planet did not have the Dung Beetle, our world would be a stinkier place!

Dung Beetles are Gross !!!

Friday, August 26, 2011

Southfork Ranch

Dear Fellow Blog Followers,

In April, we also had the opportunity to attend a corporate function for Kevin's company. It was held at the Dallas Southfork Ranch which is about 10 minutes from our house.




We enjoyed cocktails, food, live band, and a tour of the Dallas House on the Ranch. The Ranch is quite large, but the Dallas House is much smaller than it appeared to be on the prior Dallas TV Series.


There was a casino set up with "play" money and prizes were given away. Unfortunately, we do not gamble and did not win a prize.


One of the main singers/guitarists in the band works with Kevin. He is also a geologist. It seemed weird to see a geologist jumping around on stage and singing his heart out. One of his colleagues told him to quit the day job as he was better as a musician (ha, ha).

In case any of you folks are fans of the Dallas TV Series from years ago, guess what? A new Dallas TV Series will be coming out on TNT Summer 2012!!! JR, Bobby and Sue Ellen are back!!!

Click on the link below for a Sneak Peek!


Who Shot JR ???

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Ring Ceremony

Dear Fellow Blog Followers,


Aaron finally did it!!! He graduated from the University of Calgary with a BSc., Mechanical Engineering and started his full-time job on June 1, 2011.  We are very proud of him and excited for his successes.


We attended Aaron’s Iron Ring Ceremony for his Mechanical Engineering Degree graduation.  It was about two hours long with about 1,000+ graduating Engineers.  The place was packed with two to three audience members per Grad totaling about 4,000-5,000 people. All graduating Engineers had to pledge an oath to perform the best work possible, etc.


The organization that hosts the Iron Ring Ceremony is a Canadian Organization and is sworn to secrecy for the most part (no photos taken during the ceremony, do not speak to the press, only speak of the ceremony to family and engineering grads/professionals).   It was quite awesome.

Sunday, August 21, 2011

More Tid Bits...

Dear Fellow Blog Followers,


We have had a couple of busy months, so my apologies for not blogging since February.

Here are some more Tid Bits to share with you.  Enjoy!!!

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Dallas Transit

The transit here in Dallas is called "the Dart".  Apparently, you do not have to wait long and it is NOT packed with standing room only.  Unbelievable!!!


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Sales, Sales, Sales!!!

I saw an ad the other day from Bachman Pawn & Gun Shop.  By the way, they were having a discount and you could go to the Fire Arm Center to Pick Your Own Gun.  That won't be happening.  EVER!!!

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Fine Dining!!!

We visited an Italian restaurant a while ago and we were chatting with the Owner.  Our "accents" give us away as we admit to being Canadians.  It turned out that the owner's son played hockey in Saskatoon.  T'oon Town invasion!!!

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Winter in the Big D!

I know winter can be pretty ugly in some places.  However, we did get a pretty ugly week or two of winter in Dallas in January.  The problem was that the snow melted during the day and froze over night and we woke up to a 4 inch skating rink on our roads and sidewalks.  I did go out to buy a shovel, but shovels do not exist here in Texas.  What I needed was an ice pick.  Seriously, our news showed people ice skating on residential streets.  Skate in the Texas State!!!

There are good things about winter... NO BUGS!!!  Stay tuned for the Spring Bug Thing!!!

Shoveling with a Dust Pan!

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More Silly Stories to Follow !!!