Oh, The Weather Outside is Frightful

Too bad we don't have a fire, that would be delightful.

Just some interesting weather info for the Dallas area...Yesterday's high was 78 degrees. Right now it is 26 with a wind chill of 13. We even have a winter weather advisory! I found this map on weather.com which I find fascinating.



The Ravens are coming to town on Saturday, and Brittany and I are going to do our best to cheer them on. I don't know how much of a chance they have, but maybe we will get lucky. Friday night we might have to drive around looking for Ray Ray and Ed Reed hanging around town.

Dexter is a weirdo.

"so we're pretty much dating now, right?"

I was going to cook dinner but we're going out to Blue Goose instead. We're celebrating half a decade of dating. Love!

it's beginning to look a lot like...

We finally got our tree up! The glowing blue light is a Coca-Cola ornament, just so you know. What do you think?

"We're Goin Up Around the Bend"

Warning: this update will be long.

Brittany and I just got home from our trip to Big Bend/West Texas on Sunday, celebrating our Thanksgiving away from home for the first time. Our journey to the Southwest began Wednesday night, driving three hours or so to Abilene to get a head start. Thanksgiving morning we headed to Marfa, TX, home of three movies...Giant, There Will Be Blood, and No Country for Old Men.

The theme along the way was definitely energy. In every direction there were constant oil dereks and wind turbines.




They were even filming a sequel to There Will Be Blood, as this oil gusher was burning up in the distance



Then the scenery started to get real good looking.



Then we made it...Hello from Marfa



We stayed at a historic landmark hotel, call Hotel Paisano. It was the filming location of Giant, starring James Dean and Elizabeth Taylor.



I "fell asleep" in the courtyard.



The next day, on the way to the park, we tried to find a place to pee in Presidio, TX and wound up almost accidentally going into Mexico! It was quite a thrill.



We drove around a little bit, and snapped this random shot of a typical Presidio car.



From there it was about 2 hours to the park along the Rio Grande. It provided spectacular views of the river and Mexico on the other side.



We finally made it and even the sign provided the perfect backdrop.



It was 7.7 miles and 40 minutes down a gravel, dirt road to get to our campsite in the back country.



But the Suby was up for it, as it basically felt like we were starring in a commercial the whole time while driving in it.



A quick background of the geological history of Big Bend:

The highlight of the park is called the Basin. It is a huge caldera, or a collapsed volcanic crater. All the water in the caldera drains out a small notch called the Window. Over the years, the water carved down the rock to create an opening into the distance. Volcanic rocks are everywhere, layered with intermittent bedding of sedimentary rocks. The elevation at the basin was a mile high. The wildlife consisted of about 30 bears, mountain lions, eagles, javelinas, etc.

Our first evening gave us probably our best picture of the weekend. This is the "window" at sunset. On a clear day, the view beyond stretches 242 miles, limited only to the curvature of the earth.



Sunrise at our campsite was a welcoming, as I couldn't sleep for more than about 20 minutes at a time. It had nothing to do with the cold temperature, but everything to do with hip bones and rocks.



These are the rolling hills as seen from our tent that same morning.



We started off with a 2.2 mile hike to the balancing rock. Basically, it was Stone Henge but natural.



Then we decided to be brave and attempt the 5.6 mile hike to the window, as mentioned above. It was an 800 foot descent, meaning 800 foot ascent the way back. Whoa baby. Here are a few pics from along the way.

A species of tree that occasionally popped up



A lizard! It was about 10 inches long and the most exciting wild life that we saw.



Our destination was plenty worth it. You can't really tell here, but the view was unbelievable.



After suffering back up the trail, we took it easy for a while. However, we were attacked by many grasshoppers that day similar to this guy. He was about three inches long, and he had meat on him too.



One more hike to Tuff Canyon. The total for the day was 9 miles, as made obvious by Brittany and her classic pose.



I had to take advantage of the weirdo holes in the walls of the canyon. I have a hard time sitting indian style.



A look at the Basin late in the day.



Couldn't pass up the cactus/mountain combo.



These were some snow white rocks formed from volcanic ash. Incredible!



And lastly, a silhouette of the desert vegetation.



Unfortunately we had to go home. It was a 9 hour drive, which took forever after we left the good looking parts of the country. However, it felt really good to get home and to realize that Dallas feels like home to us now. We walked in the door, saw our Christmas lights we had up, and I went straight for the shower. Man that felt good.

Overall our trip was extremely satisfying, and we are very proud of ourselves for making it through a full fledged camping trip. We have plenty of pictures for everyone to see during Christmas time. Hopefully this whetted everyone's appetite.

This will be the longest week of work ever!

roar!

A picture to go with my latest Twitter:

help me get my boots back on

Here's that last video I promised. "I Don't Wanna Die (In the Hospital)"

The only annoying thing is that we recorded this after moving to the back. Please notice that at one point, I'm pretty sure C.O. takes off his boots and socks to dance better! Also, the guy that comes on at the very end and messes up Conor's hair is his old friend, Clint.



Tonight we leave for our great adventure. Be prepared for a million pictures when we get back! Happy Thanksgiving eevvveryoneeee!!!!

reunited and it feels so good

Let me preface this entry by saying that I have the best boyfriend ever. Will sacrificed a weekend night and part of his sanity so that I could go see Conor Oberst play at The Palladium. Despite the fact that he can't stand the music, despite the fact that I used to have the biggest crush ever on Conor, Will took me out and let me indulge. I'll have to spoil him somehow.

I get it now. Conor's just grown up a little bit, and I guess I didn't want to grow up with him... but I had an amazing time last night and really appreciated the performance. I did not appreciate the fact that I almost got in a fight at a show AGAIN, but that's not important. At least this time I got a lot of people involved and they all had my back. Since when did I become so scrappy? Whatevs I hadn't seen Conor in five years, I had to fight for my spot. PS - I eventually gave up and went to the back and stood next to his long lost friend that was attending the show.

ANYWAYAYAYAYAY it was incredible. The first opening band, Rig 1, was some crazy rap-ish, electronic type band that reminded me of Cex.


They were fun, and Mike would love them. We later saw the lead singer (rapper?) in the audience so Will snapped a shot.


The second band was The Felice Brothers.

This guy got licked on the face by one of the girls I pushed around.
Poor guy, I hope he gets tested. They were really fun too, and put on a good show. I need to get their CD.


And Conor was perfect. He was even losing his voice, and he was perfect. Here he is performing a new song, "Slowly" ..sorry if it's shaky, I was wayyyy too excited and couldn't keep still!



Here is "Cape Canaveral" - Taylor Hollingsworth is awesome on the guitar.


Check back for the upload of a few pictures and "I Don't Want to Die (In the Hospital)" because YouTube is being weird, but it's worth the wait, I promise.

Ahhh. I feel like I saw an old friend after years of not talking for no good reason.