Saturday, September 27, 2008
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Plano Balloon Festival
Miss Daisy
Zoopendous
Woodrow-C-Greenleaf
Oggy
Lonestar
High-Jack
Dallas Morning News
I had heard this way going on a couple of weeks ago and thought it would be neat to go out with Sydney and see what it was all about. I decided to invite Rebecca to come along for the visit with the condition that she would be okay waking up at the "butt crack of dawn."
I set my alarm for 5am and decided to sleep in 15 more minutes then at 5:15 turned on the light and was like everybody up. We got dressed and were out the door and on the way to Plano by 5:30 a.m.
We arrived at the location at about 6:00 a.m., parked and got our tickets to get in. The actual balloon lift off was not scheduled until 7am so we walked around for a little bit and then found a spot to sit on some tables right in front of the viewing area, which would turn out to be an open field where the balloons would begin arriving, setting up, and eventually lifting off.
We sat there for a while, bracing the early morning chill and fog that was settling. Then, we saw the first vehicle pull into the open field and park literally right in front of us and next thing we knew, the basket where the driver or any riders would be in, was brought out. For a while, this was the only balloon out there - they tested the burner for a while which was a neat sight.
The balloon we sat there watching for a while was "Woodrow C Greenleaf." The balloon was not like your normal round ones, this one turned out to be a tree with a tucan and a parrott on its limbs. It was really a neat balloon and HUGE. Unfortunately due to a lack of wind that morning and possibly because of the size of this thing, Mr. Greenleaf was unable to make it up into the skies for us to see.
The balloon that I had my sights on seeing was "Miss Daisy." As the name implies, she was in the shape of a flower - absolutely gorgeous and very big as well. Unfortunately too, for the morning liftoff, we were unable to view her.
Other neat balloons were: "Oggy," who was a shape of a dinosaur or dragon type deal, and "High Jack," who was a face of a pirate.
A neat regular balloon to see was "Lone Star." As the name would imply, this was a bright yellow balloon with the State of Texas flags all around it.
Overall I think we got to see about 45 balloons lift off. Some of them flew really, really high, while others seemed to be a bit more precautious and hang low.
Out of the three of us that went, I think I might have had the most fun. It was definitely a sight to see and I'm hoping next year to make it out again but this time during one of the evening lift offs to see them put a "glow" show along with fireworks.
Monday, September 22, 2008
My Horrible Luck in a Span of an Hour!
So here it is Friday, September 19th, and I've decided I've had enough with my cell phone wanting to stay on the same random times for hours on end, and decide after getting Sydney from day care, I would drive out to the Sprint store and have them check my phone out (which mind you had been done before), and order me a replacement if need be - which is what I was hoping would happen.
On the way over there, I get a call from my sister Erica asking if Sydney and I would like to join her, Hector and the boys for dinner at Christina's at the mall and I said yes but told her what I would be doing before that.
I get to the Sprint store and long story short, one of the reps tells me that I don't need a replacement phone - what I need is an upgrade. I apparently have a 5.0 version of my phone and need it upgraded to the 6.0 and that this will fix the problem. He tells me that I can do this at home using the CD that came with my phone. The rep does make one point, which I would later find out was huge. He said if I opted to do the upgrade at home, I needed to make sure EVERYTHING on my computer was in sleep mode and that for no reason during the 45 minutes to an hour that it took the download to occur, should I even remotely touch anything on the computer, much less the phone. And you may be asking, why so much concern about letting the upgrade do its thing without ANY interruptions....well solely for the purpose of preventing my phone from getting FRIED! I guess I kind of had this confused look on my face, as he next said, "Well we don't normally do the upgrade at the store because of liability purposes, BUT if you would like, you can leave the phone with us overnight and we can do the upgrade and get you your phone Saturday morning.
I told him that I couldn't do that because there was no other form of communication and that even though I hardly got any calls on my phone, just because of my luck, one of my sisters would try calling me and possibly call the cops after several unaswered calls fearing the worst.
The rep then said if I wanted to, I could leave the phone with them so that the upgrade could be done and come back to pick it up in about 45 minutes. I opted to do this and go home and change Sydney from her school clothes to a different outfit so that afterwards we could go out to dinner.
On the way home, I cut through a residential street I always go through to avoid a major street with a ton of traffic during rush hour (5pm) on a Friday. I am going about my merry way and end up behind a truck that is carrying some kind of wire in its bed. The wire was not secured and for whatever reason I thought to myself, I best keep my distance before this wire decides it's gonna come poking me through the windshield.
So I kept my distance and I'm assuming because of the load the truck was hauling, it was going slow and so aside from me always driving this way, I followed patiently behind. I noticed that a car was coming up from behind real close and I just thought to myself, you go on right ahead and pass me up - you see the entire street has the solid line on it which would preventing you from stopping.
Anyways, I'm driving along and right before I get to the street where I'm supposed to turn, I hear police sirens and look at my rear view and see a motorcycle cop and well thinking he is maybe going somewhere, I pull over to the side and low and behold, he pulls up right behind me and that's when I'm like you have got to be kidding, right...what on earth is he stopping me for? Seriously, this is the God to honest truth that I had no clue - especially not for what he would eventually cite me for.
Okay so picture this, the bad policeman is parking his motorcycle and by the time he does that and gets off, my kid who is much quicker than this cop will ever be, manages to unbuckle herself, scoot from the middle seat and to the far left and roll down the window. As the officer is approaching my window, Sydney pokes her head out and with the biggest smile and high pitched voice tells the officer, "HI!"
By this time still not knowing why on earth I was stopped, I thought OK now for sure I'm going to get a ticket because this officer for sure thinks I'm driving all around town with Sydney unbuckled. He gets up to my window and of course asks for license and insurance. I give that to him and the next question out of his mouth, is do you have an emergency. Of course I didn't so I said no and ask why, and he says because he clocked me "back there" going 47 on a 35.
I'm sitting there thinking to myself "whatever dude...Mr. Dude, I was not speeding." I decide not to argue and just watch him from my rear view fill out his dumb little citation pad. He comes back up to my window and asks me to sign my citation and then hands me my copy - PINK of all colors, and tells me to have a good day.
I pull out of that spot and head home. By this time I am running real late as due to being stopped for like ever, now I still have to go home and dress Sydney and somehow get back to the Sprint store before 6:45 and here it is 6:30. I hurry up and change Sydney and get back in the truck and head back to the store.
I walk in and it's like all eyes were on me, literally. The 3 guys and 1 girl that were at the store (employees) are all starring at me and the one I had left my phone with just picks up my phone and turns the screen to where I can see it as I'm approaching the counter and all I can see is basically ALL the colors of the rainbow and maybe even some undiscovered ones. Next thing out of his mouth is, "I FRIED YOUR PHONE!"
I ended up being OK with it, as I was able to get a loaner while my replacement came in. The guy felt really bad and was very shocked that I didn't try to kill him or anything.
All the while I'm thinking, this is the least of my worries, if you only knew what all I've been through in the last hour! I leave the store with a phone similar to mine except it's the HTC Touch and of course only knowing the basics on how to handle it.
I call Erica and give her the down low of what all has occurred and meet up with her at Christina's. Unfortunately and just because what the heck everything else was going bad, why not one more thing - I wasn't able to even eat dinner thanks to the horrible soreness in my mouth from my braces being tightened the day before!
CJ
Tyler & Dathan
Sydney Poo!
Sydney & I
My Ticket!
On the way over there, I get a call from my sister Erica asking if Sydney and I would like to join her, Hector and the boys for dinner at Christina's at the mall and I said yes but told her what I would be doing before that.
I get to the Sprint store and long story short, one of the reps tells me that I don't need a replacement phone - what I need is an upgrade. I apparently have a 5.0 version of my phone and need it upgraded to the 6.0 and that this will fix the problem. He tells me that I can do this at home using the CD that came with my phone. The rep does make one point, which I would later find out was huge. He said if I opted to do the upgrade at home, I needed to make sure EVERYTHING on my computer was in sleep mode and that for no reason during the 45 minutes to an hour that it took the download to occur, should I even remotely touch anything on the computer, much less the phone. And you may be asking, why so much concern about letting the upgrade do its thing without ANY interruptions....well solely for the purpose of preventing my phone from getting FRIED! I guess I kind of had this confused look on my face, as he next said, "Well we don't normally do the upgrade at the store because of liability purposes, BUT if you would like, you can leave the phone with us overnight and we can do the upgrade and get you your phone Saturday morning.
I told him that I couldn't do that because there was no other form of communication and that even though I hardly got any calls on my phone, just because of my luck, one of my sisters would try calling me and possibly call the cops after several unaswered calls fearing the worst.
The rep then said if I wanted to, I could leave the phone with them so that the upgrade could be done and come back to pick it up in about 45 minutes. I opted to do this and go home and change Sydney from her school clothes to a different outfit so that afterwards we could go out to dinner.
On the way home, I cut through a residential street I always go through to avoid a major street with a ton of traffic during rush hour (5pm) on a Friday. I am going about my merry way and end up behind a truck that is carrying some kind of wire in its bed. The wire was not secured and for whatever reason I thought to myself, I best keep my distance before this wire decides it's gonna come poking me through the windshield.
So I kept my distance and I'm assuming because of the load the truck was hauling, it was going slow and so aside from me always driving this way, I followed patiently behind. I noticed that a car was coming up from behind real close and I just thought to myself, you go on right ahead and pass me up - you see the entire street has the solid line on it which would preventing you from stopping.
Anyways, I'm driving along and right before I get to the street where I'm supposed to turn, I hear police sirens and look at my rear view and see a motorcycle cop and well thinking he is maybe going somewhere, I pull over to the side and low and behold, he pulls up right behind me and that's when I'm like you have got to be kidding, right...what on earth is he stopping me for? Seriously, this is the God to honest truth that I had no clue - especially not for what he would eventually cite me for.
Okay so picture this, the bad policeman is parking his motorcycle and by the time he does that and gets off, my kid who is much quicker than this cop will ever be, manages to unbuckle herself, scoot from the middle seat and to the far left and roll down the window. As the officer is approaching my window, Sydney pokes her head out and with the biggest smile and high pitched voice tells the officer, "HI!"
By this time still not knowing why on earth I was stopped, I thought OK now for sure I'm going to get a ticket because this officer for sure thinks I'm driving all around town with Sydney unbuckled. He gets up to my window and of course asks for license and insurance. I give that to him and the next question out of his mouth, is do you have an emergency. Of course I didn't so I said no and ask why, and he says because he clocked me "back there" going 47 on a 35.
I'm sitting there thinking to myself "whatever dude...Mr. Dude, I was not speeding." I decide not to argue and just watch him from my rear view fill out his dumb little citation pad. He comes back up to my window and asks me to sign my citation and then hands me my copy - PINK of all colors, and tells me to have a good day.
I pull out of that spot and head home. By this time I am running real late as due to being stopped for like ever, now I still have to go home and dress Sydney and somehow get back to the Sprint store before 6:45 and here it is 6:30. I hurry up and change Sydney and get back in the truck and head back to the store.
I walk in and it's like all eyes were on me, literally. The 3 guys and 1 girl that were at the store (employees) are all starring at me and the one I had left my phone with just picks up my phone and turns the screen to where I can see it as I'm approaching the counter and all I can see is basically ALL the colors of the rainbow and maybe even some undiscovered ones. Next thing out of his mouth is, "I FRIED YOUR PHONE!"
I ended up being OK with it, as I was able to get a loaner while my replacement came in. The guy felt really bad and was very shocked that I didn't try to kill him or anything.
All the while I'm thinking, this is the least of my worries, if you only knew what all I've been through in the last hour! I leave the store with a phone similar to mine except it's the HTC Touch and of course only knowing the basics on how to handle it.
I call Erica and give her the down low of what all has occurred and meet up with her at Christina's. Unfortunately and just because what the heck everything else was going bad, why not one more thing - I wasn't able to even eat dinner thanks to the horrible soreness in my mouth from my braces being tightened the day before!
CJ
Tyler & Dathan
Sydney Poo!
Sydney & I
My Ticket!
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