Ride 'em cowboy!

I haven't retrieved the pictures of our trip to Fort Worth to the museums from my phone just yet, but I do have this cool Quick Time movie:


We went to see the Star Wars exhibit, but it was really crowded, so we had plenty of time to hit the planetarium and the National Cowgirl Museum / Hall of Fame (which is where the movie came from - pretty cool, eh?) before our ticketed time slot to view the exhibit.

What's for dinner? (the return of the Sunday Supper Club)

It feels like for forever since we last did this, but I made dinner for the extended family this evening ("uncles" Ron and Bill plus the three of us; Tia Elsa was busy). We had a feast from Ruth Law's Indian Light Cooking:

• tandoori chicken
• green beans with coconut
• rice and green pea pilaf
• cucumber raita
• red AND yellow watermelons and leftover jello cake for dessert

(the jello cake was lovely as well as delicious, but I forgot to take a picture of it - white cake, from a mix, baked in a bundt pan and soaked in raspberry and cherry jello)

It was actually a pretty eventful weekend overall, as Saturday was spent in Fort Worth at the Museum of Science and History and the National Cowgirl Museum (more on those later in the week), and Sunday was water service at the church -- traditionally at the end of the summer, we bring back water from our travels to blend into our common water. We also had "splash day" for the kids, with water balloons, slip-n-slides, and a big bouncy inflatable water slide.

And the grand adventure starts next weekend, when the weintraubs and guerreros put their friendship to the test on a road trip with 4 adults, 3 kids, and a destination cabin without the conveniences of electricity and indoor pottys.

The Great Religious Questions Series I

J: Why do we have to go to the Church?

G: Church is where we learn about being in the World, about how to be around each other and love one another, and about our relationship with God.

J: I like to help people.

G: Helping each other is one of the most important things that we can do in the world, and we try to teach people that at the Church.

J: God should be pretty happy with me...

G: Why?

J: Because I help people all the time at school.

G: I'm sure He is, I'm sure He is....

G-Man: Our Survey Says...

You Are An INFP

The Idealist You are creative with a great imagination, living in your own inner world. Open minded and accepting, you strive for harmony in your important relationships. It takes a long time for people to get to know you. You are hesitant to let people get close. But once you care for someone, you do everything you can to help them grow and develop. In love, you tend to have high (and often unrealistic) standards. You are very sensitive. You tend to have intense feelings. At work, you need to do something that expresses your personal values. You would make an excellent writer, psychologist, or artist. How you see yourself: Unselfish, empathetic, and spiritual/ When other people don't get you, they see you as: Unrealistic, naive, and weak

What's Your Personality Type?

You drive us wild, we'll drive you crazy...

I realize that if the air conditioner is going to go out, it's going to be in the summer, but why is it always on Saturday, when they can't get the parts to fix it until Monday -- or later, like the time it gave out over Labor Day or Memorial Day (don't remember which, just that it was a long weekend)?

Luckily, the little window unit we bought that fateful three-day weekend a couple of summers ago saved our hash once more, with all three of us camping out in the guest room for tolerable nighttime sleeping temperatures (and thank goodness for that king-size bed we put in there, while we're at it!)

Anyway, after the guy finally showed up with the parts this morning (late!), it was NOT cooler after work this evening. And when the repair man called us back two hours after we put a call in about that, he said "oh, it takes a couple of days to stabilize." So for the third night in a row, we are blessing the little window unit -- although I will admit, the main A/C seems to be having a cooling effect now, so we hopefully will be back to normal soon.

Ah, well; as Gil says, it's all part of life's rich pageant...

P.S. Apparently the heat is getting to everyone -- Gil was putting Julian to bed, the conversation:

G: Julian, stop messing around and go to sleep.

J: I'll never go to sleep...

G: Why not?

J: I want to rock and roll all night.

And, presumably, party every day...

SHOULD do
...balance checkbook, clean cat boxes, laundry, Pilates, straighten up, wash dishes, make granola, take out the compost and the trash and the recycling, show Gil "u" charts in Minitab (the Guerreros sure know how to have some great fun with statistical analysis - can you say "control charts"?), get on the elliptical trainer...

probably WILL do
...super-short post, Divine Design or Nigella Feasts or maybe The Minor Accomplishments of Jackie Woodman, go to sleep...

Is there Messy Couch Potato Procrastinators Anonymous (MCPP-A)?

Wein-rerro Dinner: The original

OK, for all those waiting impatiently (=none!), here's the menu and recipe links from our FIASCO dinner on Saturday night -- I pulled pictures from Jen's blog (and you'll see why she's a professional photographer!) and I'll be back with the details of the wonderful wines that Chuck paired with these later...

Spicy Glazed Shrimp
Summer Squash Tart with Kalamata Olives
Salt Crust Fish (our variation was halibut scented with lemon and fennel)
Shaved Fennel & Mushroom Salad (from Julia Child’s Cooking with Master Chefs)
Toasted Almond Panna Cotta with Saba (from Judy Rodger’s The Zuni Cookbook)

Jen's pix... The table



the tart

the salad


the fish...

random thoughts...
OK, we're cooking away this morning in preparation for our co-dinner tonight and to keep Julian amused, we're listening to XM Kids. And Weird Al came on, singing "Sling Us a Web, Mr. Spiderman" (to the tune of Billy Joel's "Piano Man"), which made us go out and find this:

That guy can really rock!!! (especially like the scat-Indian-doo-wap bridge towards the end...)

I am an INTJ -- still!

The Scientist You have a head for ideas - and you are good at improving systems. Logical and strategic, you prefer for everything in your life to be organized. You tend to be a bit skeptical. You're both critical of yourself and of others. Independent and stubborn, you tend to only befriend those who are a lot like you. In love, you are always striving to improve your relationship. You have strong ideas of what love should be like. At work, you excel in figuring out difficult tasks. People think of you as "the brain." You would make an excellent scientist, engineer, or programmer. How you see yourself: Reasonable, knowledgeable, and competent When other people don't get you, they see you as: Aloof, controlling, and insensitive

What's Your Personality Type?

Not much new on the home front this week. The Dallas weather is getting semi-normal for summer; the big boss in the corner office at work wryly observed that we'd made it to five o'clock without an afternoon rain shower the other day. (If I wanted to live in Florida, I would live in Florida!)

We're starting to plan our end-of-summer vacation to Colorado: a road trip with good friends and their kids -- seven of us together in one vehicle, and three of the seven under five years old. We'll either be super-bonded or ready to kill each other at the end (or perhaps a bit of both).

But before that, six more days of Lean Six Sigma training (still a long way from "Black Belt in training" a.k.a. BBit, to "certified" Black Belt, but the formal classroom training is almost done) AND another FIASCO dinner to co-host. Dog days of summer, here we come!