6-25-09 Thursday (Forget the Memory)

It’s a pretty laid back day here in Arlington.  There’s probably tons of things we could be doing.  It’s 101 per weather.com and surprisingly the humidity is low.

I was strong willed today.  We had sandwiches here at the coach rather than going out to eat.  We’ve been so bad about that.  Coupons or not, eating out isn’t good for us.  After lunch we went to Walmart to get my cholesterol prescriptions. 

 

Above: Look at how large the selection of costume jewelry is at Walmart!

It’s so damn hot here.  We bought a can of R134A that I’m hoping will solve the lame Jeep A/C cooling problem.  Jim picked out a solar-powered car fan.  Over the years, I’ve had customers that have had this.  I’ve asked if they liked it and most have ranted and raved.  Some people even had 2 (one on each side) installed.  So, this fan is supposed to suck the hot air out while it sits parked and baking in the sun.  We’ll see.

I’ve also installed the memory upgrade into Jim’s laptop.  Jim’s laptop was definitely needing an upgrade.  Sometimes the harddrive would just go and go and go and meanwhile whatever he wanted to do, didn’t really matter to the possessed laptop.  We often joked that his laptop was busy calculating ways to take over the world.  He’d get frustrated and I’d be annoyed hearing the sighing.  He was reluctant to have me upgrade it.  Price was an issue but it turned out to be $30.00.  Also, it’s been our bad luck that 1 upgrade always lead to others because part A didn’t want to work with the old part B.  It was a domino effect really.  The cheap upgrade would soon merit a mortgage loan.  This time -- $30.00.  Yeah baby!  Now if I could just get my sound card to work in my laptop.

Wow, ask and I shall receive.  I seemed to have made my sound card work again.  It’s something with the computer’s BIOS.  Hmmmmm.

The solar fan seems to barely move, if at all.  Perhaps the window tint is preventing it from getting enough sun?  It can also run off 12V so we may utilize it that way OR it may go back to the store.

It’s been a sad week.  Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett and then Michael Jackson have all left us. 

Jim and I have went to a Redbox DVD rental unit, got a movie and will just kick back this evening.  Jim has been working on some plans for the next few days.  John and Derek have been here a while and haven’t done a lot of sight seeing.  We plan to drag them along too.

6-24-09 Wednesday (No Fire Sales)

Today’s adventure started with a grill fire.  No, not our grill.  The grill at TGI Fridays.  No, we weren’t even there.  We were ready to use our buy one, get one free coupon at the local Friday’s but they were closed.  Yeah, 7 fire trucks in the parking lot over a small fire.  I think the fire was small enough that they’ll be open tomorrow.  I found it a bit unnerving to have so many fire trucks there.  Were they bored?  What if someone else was having a fire but all the trucks were at the other end of town?   What to do?  We found another location, and went there instead.  We both ordered the heart attack on a bun.  That’s right, I’m talking the Cheesy Bacon Cheeseburger.  The menu says: Topped with two kinds of cheese–mild American and gooey, golden–fried Provolone. We add crisp bacon, stack 'em all on a toasted bun.  The golden-fried Provolone?  Think of a mozzarella cheese stick only not mozzarella, and not a stick, but rather a patty instead.  Heaven.  Yeah, so a oil/butter toasted bun, cheese, fried cheese, greasy burger, and bacon.  It had lettuce on it so that made it healthy, right?  UGH!

Remember, always tip your server on the amount prior to the discount.  Thank you.

We drove an hour to visit the Southfork Ranch.  I didn’t know what the hell it was either.  If you were a Dallas fan (I’m not) then perhaps you’d be interested.  We visited a Dallas museum and gift shop and then went to the Ewing’s TV home.  Only the outside of the home was used, never the inside.  Filming outdoor BBQ or pool parties or what not was done in the summer months per the owner’s agreements.  Indoor shots were done in Hollywood.  It was said that it was so hot that when you saw the actors drinking booze, most of the time it was real.  They were permitted to drink and act. 

Jim enjoyed this quite a bit.  Look at the shit-eating grin below:

 Above: What’s worse?  He paid $10 for this photo.  I look like a farm-hand.

But wait, there’s more!  You’ll also get:

Above: The cute tour guide explaining that BASICALLY since the inside of the house wasn’t used in the show, nothing will look familiar and just enjoy the A/C (It was 100 degrees) because this is all you get.  She was bubbly.

Since she was quite young, Jim asked how much of the show she saw.  She replied season 1-5 but it was time to study.

 

Above: Oddly, most rooms were totally walk through as evident by the dirty carpeting.  Here’s Jim in the Ewing living room which was never used in the show.  I guess then it’s just a living room with some Dallas photos strewn about.

 

Above: There it is!

  Above: Check out the cool pavers.  Shaped like TE-AS.  You guessed right!

After a 30 hour stuck in traffic drive, OK not 30 but certainly more than the hour the GPS projected, we came home to grill some boneless pork ribs, baked beans and fresh broccoli.  John joined us for dinner.  After dinner we chit-chatted.  Derek (his other half) is to return from Philly tomorrow evening.  Hey Derek, Friday night dinner.  Choose a place off restaurant.com, we have a $25.00 certificate we’ll share with you guys.

6-23-09 Tuesday (Cricket Food)

Coupon!  We’ve been using a lot of coupons lately.  Remember, we purchased the entertainment.com membership so we print coupons all the time.  As usual, we used a buy one/get one free.  This one was for Grandy’s in the heart of downtown Dallas.  It worked out perfectly because we ate lunch and then went to the 6th Floor Museum.  The museum is a tribute to JFK and a history of the assassination.  I’m torn about the exhibit.  It was presented very well but I think it was pricey at $13.50 each less a ($2.00 off coupon we printed).  No photography was permitted so you can click on the website link I included OR you can move on.

Above: The famous assassination window.  This now houses the museum.

 Above: Here’s where it took place.

Up the street is a John F. Kennedy Memorial.  It’s very simple so there’s not much to report about it.  I thought it to be ugly, Jim referred to it as giant Legos.  Funny, Wikipedia mentions Lego resemblance. 

We stopped off at a large Texas souvenir shop, bought our ornament and spotted these.  They’re candy made to look like bugs.  They’re so real looking, it’s gross.

Here’s some other downtown shots:

We had 2 more stops on our way home.  CompUSA for some additional memory for Jim’s laptop (thanks to Dave for the advice).  Then a stop to the Container Store for a new treat canister for Dasher.  We needed something plastic.  Glass is typically bad in the RV.  The stainless steel/acrylic treat container we had fell to the floor one too many times.

After enduring gobs of freakin’ traffic, we made it home, freshened up and went to dinner with John.  PF Chang’s.  Yum.  We tried 2 different appetizers, and 3 different dishes, all of which the 3 of us shared.  We then waddled to see The Hangover at Studio Movie Grill.  The movie was funny.  Let me tell you about the theater though.  You sit at tables in the theater.  It seemed like large leather desk chairs.  They give you a menu and a light up coaster.  Just light the coaster when you want something.  From burgers to popcorn.  They bill you and collect toward the end of the movie.  It was pretty wild.  Click here for the website’s video and explanation.  Dinner was so 2 hours ago so off to Cold Stone with our coupons we went.  Yay!  This was the only photo I got.  I forgot to get a photo of the 3 of us.  They’ll be more opportunities.

6-22-09 Monday (Walk in the Park)

I’m getting very frustrated with my laptop.  First off let me tell you that this particular model is called the HP Pavilion Entertainment PC (DV9000 series).  I want to emphasize the “Entertainment” part of the name.  Entertainment as in sound and video, right?  Apparently not.  I’ve had to buy external speakers so Jim and I could hear any movies we watched.  Next is from watching movies, the thing would overheat and lock up so I’ve had to install higher feet under it to allow for better airflow.  The most recent crisis is that it says “No Audio Output Device is installed”. So now, I have no sound, at all.  Skip the next paragraph if computer stuff bores you.

So, I install drivers.  But mind you, it’s not that it doesn’t have a driver, it’s like the sound card is missing.  I’ve rolled back to a different restore point which does indeed allow the sound card to work … for a few hours.  I’ve tried different drivers.  I’ve tried the HP support website.  I’ve Googled my error and found that tons of people have it.  Oddly, everyone seems to have a different fix for the same problem and what I’ve tried, hasn’t worked.  It all makes me want to have a Mac.  I hear such good things about them but they’re so expensive.  Maybe they aren’t as expensive as PC’s being too cheap?  I’m sad.

This campground, Dallas Metro KOA, is pretty nice.  We’re in a spot across from the dog park.  Dasher loves it.  We can let him off his leash and he can enjoy the large open space.  It’s almost too large, I think.  I think it would have been better to have 2 smaller areas.  The fence around the dog area is low.  It concerns me a little since he can jump high but so far he’s not tried the jump.  Most of the time, he’s not interested in running around but rather laying in the sun.  He’s working on his tan I guess.

It’s almost 3pm now and we’ve not done anything today.  We’re here for 10 days and there isn’t that much to do here.  Oh sure, there’s some things but most are museums and things we aren’t all that interested in.  Last night I also ran tripadvisor.com for things to do in Dallas, Fort Worth and Arlington.  I confirmed, that 90% of the stuff was – well – blah.  I think we’ve probably narrowed down the sightseeing to just a handful of stuff.

 

Above: Pool, clubhouse, swing set.

 

Above: Dog park.

 

We made our menu out, made the grocery list, went to Sam’s, came home, unpacked, went to Walmart, came home, ate lasagna, surfed the net for a while and then went to Coldstone with a $1 off coupon.  Yum for cheaper.  Yeah, just go to coldstone.com, join their club and get coupons.  For $300,000 we can get our own franchise.      

6-21-09 Sunday (Where to Send the Moving Van?)

I’m happy to report that at 97 degrees outside, the air conditioner has been working quite well.  Yay!

We weren’t home for most of the day though.  We started off with  lunch at Macaroni Grill.  We had a gift card for $50 that we got from some point redemption program that Jim is utilizing.  Penne Rustica.  Yum. 

After some serious yummy eating, we set off to drive by different CitiGroup corporate offices.  There’s several in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.  That’s good because just as Phoenix is, Dallas is a potential relocation consideration.  The work situation seems to be grim for me all over the place.  Perhaps I’ll need to do something different.  We’ll see. 

I finally cooked dinner at home!  It’s been so long which I’m sure is adding to the fatness.  I’m sure my fat drenched meatloaf that oozes with cheese and sausage doesn’t help.  Maybe the mashed taters with gravy.  I DID use Molly McButter on the corn which is always yummy and healthy.  I’m sure the corn negates the badness of the loaf and taters.  Right?