South Padre Island . . . Again!

Camping, the beach, and new friends? Yes, please, especially if it involves kite-flying, ball-chasing, weanie-raosting, song-singing, bible-reading, picture-taking shenanigans by the seaside.

South Padre Island is quickly becoming one of my favorite Valley places.  

La Sal del Rey

I love exploring a new place, and that's what I've been doing since I moved to the Rio Grande Valley.  This weekend's explorations ended at La Sal Del Rey, a natural salt lake that was mined into the 1930's and still holds nearly four million tons of salt.  This weekend, La Sal Del Rey was mostly salt and soggy lake bottom with little water, which made for a wide-open expanse of nothingness. I liked it.

Bad Week?

I could write that this was a bad week for me.  On Tuesday, I locked my keys inside my car . . . while my car was still running.  I immediately called Chris and reported the emergency.  Chris dropped everything at work, drove to my office, and unlocked my car within 30 minutes.

Yesterday, I struck a concrete pole with my car in the parking lot at work.  My bumper was the only property damaged as a result of my blunder.  Nonetheless, security specialists in the building where I work reviewed the security cameras that recorded the accident, photographed the lack-of-damage to the concrete poll, and instructed me to draft an incident memo for internal files.  Frustrated and embarrassed, I called Chris for comfort.  An hour later, Chris was at my office with a giant arrangement of flowers.

Today, my bothersome wisdom took was finally extracted.  I remember very little about the actual surgery due to a wonderful intravenous sedative, but the surgery and the sedative left me a little groggy.  Chris took the day off work, drove me to and from my appointment, picked-up my post-surgery prescriptions, and spent the day preparing no-chew meals for me.  

Considering the oral surgery, a minor vehicle accident, and locking my keys inside my running car, I could write that this was a bad week.  Thanks to Chris, though, the week wasn't so bad after all.

Kite Festival

This weekend Chris and I went to a kite festival.  We went with my great aunt and great uncle, who are winter Texans in a neighboring town.  As it turns out, the rest of the crowd at the kite festival were also winter Texans.  This made me feel really young.

In addition to stationary kites and crowds of winter Texans, the kite festival featured stunt kites performing choreographed routines to music.  One man flew two kites at once.  Another group raced six kites in impressively untangled formations.  Other performances, however, reminded me of Napoleon Dynamite's performing with the Happy Hands sign language club.  One man flew his kite to music from Phantom of the Opera while wearing a white mask and a velour cape, integrating theatrical hand motions, and ending with a rose sliding down his kite line as the finale.  The winter Texans around me seemed to enjoy the performance, which made me think that older people do not have a dark sense of humor like I do.    

Shortly before Chris and I left the kite festival, a woman dressed as the Cat in the Hat passed through the crowd.  When the Cat in the Hat passed directly in front of our row of chairs, Doug jumped up, approached the woman, and began barking at her.  The woman played her part and reacted as if she were a frightened cat, which made Doug bark even more.  All of the retired people around us started laughing.  One woman behind us stated that our dog knew a cat when he saw one.  After the the Cat in the Hat left, the woman behind us stated that our dog either knew a cat when he saw one or he knew a weird woman when he saw one.  Older people do have a dark sense of humor after all.

Tall, Thin, Blonde, and Gorgeous

Last time I spoke to my grandma, she told me that she saw a tall, thin, blonde female guest on the Jay Leno Show who reminded her of me.  She couldn't remember the guest's name, but she said that the guest had just turned 40 and that her name was something like "Palto."  Hmmm...Gwyneth Paltrow just turned 40 and she is definitely tall, thin, and blonde.  She is also gorgeous.  Yep, I definitely think my grandma likened me to gorgeous Gwyneth Paltrow.  And no, my grandma is not biased at all; not one bit.      

Love that Chicken from Popeye's

Popeye's, the fast food fried chicken restaurant, opened a restaurant in the Valley about three weeks ago.  I was surprised when I saw a drive-thru line backing  onto the street and a security guard directing traffic through orange cones on opening weekend.  I don't know what to think now.  Three weeks later, the line of cars, parking attendant, and orange cones remain.  What the heck?  Why are people in the Valley so obsessed with Popeye's chicken?

This place is ridiculous.