Armadillos, cont.

It breaks my heart that so many of these sweet critters die in traffic accidents each year.

Thanksgiving

We are thankful to be in Fort Worth. We are thankful to have jobs, health, groceries and each other.
But we miss our friends and family, especially the Bruce Clan, who are now a 20-hour drive from us. This is what Thanksgiving Dinner for three looks like.

A Trip to Dallas

Gwendolen and I headed to Dallas to see the Children's Museum, which is inside the Dallas Museum of Nature and Science I've been to about 20 children's museums, in Boston, Brooklyn, Indianapolis, Chicago, San Diego, Cincinnati and elsewhere, both as research for the UnMuseum and as a parent of a toddler. The Dallas Children's Museum is pretty good, but offers nothing surprising or extraordinary. We had fun, as we always do, but Gwenny didn't like it as much as she did the Museum of Discovery in Little Rock.

The best was just outside the museum: a fabulous tongue-like sculpture that one can walk upon. It writhes around the shore and into Lenhardt Lagoon, providing turtles a place to hang and little girls a fun place to scamper.

Kindergarten Feast

Ushering at Circle Theater

No one to go to the theater with? Then be an usher and see the show for free. That's what I did Saturday.
The Children's Scientology Pageant was an off-Broadway hit exposing the absurdities and abuses of Scientology in the form of a bunch of happy kids singing and acting out the life story of L.Ron Hubbard. The Circle Theater produced an enjoyable show with a cast of likable local kids. I hope they don't get harassed, spied on or intimidated!
(For fun, wiki Scientology.)

A Night on the Town

Celebrating six years of matrimony and a possible job offer for yours truly, Lloyd and I got a babysitter for Gwendolen and went to downtown FW for dinner and a show. First we went to Piranha Killer Sushi. Yum.
Next, walking through FW's Sundance Square, we went to the McDavid Studio to see a concert by folk music giant Dave Alvin. The McDavid Studio is part of the Bass Performance Hall and a cross between a theater and a nightclub. Concert-goers watch the show from cocktail tables and can drink throughout the concert. Unlike a bar, however, well-mannered concert goers don't talk, smoke or dance. The atmosphere was a little...sterile? But otherwise fabulous.
Oh: Babysitters get $10 an hour for putting a kid to bed and then spending the next four hours watching TV, which gives me an idea if I don't get that offer.

Log Cabin Village

Sunday, 72 degrees and sunny. We went to Fort Worth's Log Cabin Village. There are five or six log cabins from the mid-1800s, complete with interpreters...albeit with different interpretations. One interpreter told us a family had raised eight children in the Seely cabin; another told us, "well, they didn't live in one room for very long, they added a room every time they had a child."

Lloyd and I celebrated our sixth wedding anniversary today. Like today, the day we got married in Carmel, CA, was 72 and sunny The traditional gift for the sixth is iron, so Lloyd gave me a new cast iron skillet, which is actually made in the USA! Turns out that Log Cabin Village had more stuff made out of iron than modern folks usually see: pots, pans, bells, stoves, pumps, wheels, axes, plows....

More Fort Worth Nature

Woke up this morning to bright blue sunny skies and cool, as in mid-50s, weather. I found a park on Grapevine Lake that promised a hike bike trail. Not only was it really beautiful, but we found an armadillo skin (what Gwenny is holding), a turtle shell and several bird nests. It's called Oak Grove Park.

Texas Ballet Theater

I saw the most amazing performance of the Texas Ballet Theater. First, Cincinnati Jane's Fort Worth cousin, Ellen, invited me. Ellen Appel is the official photographer for the ballet (and Opera) and a true arts lover. It was a one night stand for the Ballet, a benefit performance in the intimate Scott Theater. The very contemporary choreography by TBT's awesome Ben Stevenson and top notch dancing by the company dancers, all experienced up close and personal, made it one of the most enjoyable dance performances I've seen. Ellen tells me that TBT is able to attract such talented dancers because they all want to work with Stevenson. I don't doubt it.

Just mention the Ballet to anyone around here and they'll tell you about its much publicized financial trouble. The dancers took it upon themselves to help raise the needed $2 million. They took to the streets, literally, with a grass-roots fundraising campaign called "Get Behind Your Ballet" consisting of a night club fundraiser, shopping mall performances and bake/garage sales. Watch their feel good video on my space. Well, the Ballet has been saved. I just hope they'll do more performances like the one I saw tonight.

Remembering My First Car

With GM threatening to go under and bring the entire economy with it if the government doesn't give them another $25 billion, I can't help but think back on my 1973 Chevy Vega Hatchback. A "subcompact," it was GM's answer to the smaller, more energy efficient cars the 1970s market demanded. It wasn't perfect, but it was a blast to drive. Now GM's got the country by the balls claiming it needs govt money to "retool for innovation." What the ??? They've had 35 years to perfect the Vega! And don't tell me they didn't see this gas price thing coming...for three decades.
NYT Op Ed piece on GM

The American Flag

I've never seen as many American flags as I have in Fort Worth. Flags, in fact, are the most remarkable feature of the Fort Worth landscape, which is generally devoid of tall buildings or interesting geographical features. Average wind speed is around 10 mph here, which flies a flag pretty well. And against either bright blue skies or backdrops of puffy white clouds, they look pretty cool. I pass this huge one at the Ford dealership every day and it has the most beautiful fluttering, waving action although note that the edges are frayed. After the result of the recent presidential election, I'm feeling pretty patriotic.

Back to the Nature Preserve

They lied. There is fall in Texas. We spent a glorious day at the only park we know of, by Lake Worth, where nature is left alone to be herself. It's very dry, like California, with a splash of fall color thrown in. Lovely.

The Anole

Reptiles abound in Texas, much to my delight. This amazing critter found its way into my house. Turns out it's a wild green anole.
Watch the color change.

Dickies 500

The Dickies 500 Nascar race at the Texas Motor Speedway is a big deal around here. Seats in the hot sun, listening to about 40 very loud cars go around in circles while Nascar fans scream in your ears is definitely not my style. Gwenny and I prefer the symphony.

Fossil Rim

A friend recommended this place about an hour southwest of Fort Worth: the Fossil Rim Wildlife Park. You drive through a 1700 acre park where African wildlife roams in "their near natural environment," so we grabbed our binoculars and set off. We needn't have bothered, with the binoculars, that is.

I never knew ostriches and emus could be so...friendly. Did I mention you buy a bag of food for $7.50?

As one big-eyed animal after another approached our car seeking handouts, I began to realize how bizarre it really is. And ethical?

Here there were these deer, with antlers worthy of any trophy room, walking up to pickup trucks like streetwalkers.

Families of zebra with the little ones in tow worked the road, while giraffes stuck their heads in through sun roofs.
The fall scenery was prettier than I ever thought the north central Texas prairie could be. The wooded grassland is a lot like the African savanna, which explains why the animals thrive here. On a warm (not hot) late afternoon November 1st everything was tinged in gold. Gwenny and I stuck our heads out the sunroof as we drove, taking it all in.

I wonder what AZA (association of zoos and aquariums) would have to say about feeding animals from cars when most parks don't even want you to feed the squirrels, but it was fun. And the animals were healthy, if perverse.

Giraffes have really soft lips.