Fair Park Aquarium

part 3:
This is the entrance sign for the Dallas Aquarium building at Fair Park. It's not the largest aquarium in the "Metroplex", and it wasn't full of trendy modern chrome and it didn't have a restaurant, but I considered it to be well attended and well stocked. The $4 price was a fair deal, considering aquariums 3 times as large costing at least 3 times more. At my friend's suggestion, I figured it would be a good idea to see a sea turtle, and the Aquarium at Fair Park had one.

Fair Park in Dallas has several attractions. Several other cities have been enhanced by the presence of "leftover" fairgrounds which I have seen in varying degrees in my travels. San Diego features Balboa Park, which was once the Panama-California Exposition (1910-1916). It contains the world reknowned San Diego Zoo. Chicago has museums on the former grounds of the 1893 Columbian Exposition. To find out more about the Columbian Exposition, read "The Devil in the White City". I strongly recommend this book. Fair Park is also the home of the Texas State Fair. It is the only unaltered pre-1950s World's Fair site in the nation.

Shopping center parking lots

part 2:
A couple of nondescript restaurants in a nondescript strip shopping center development. I still have not eaten at a Quiznos. I was scheduled to eat at this one upon "de-planing", but I received an unexpected huge breakfast on the plane just before the plane landed and decided not to skew what was already an unusual dining schedule for the day.

Next to this Quiznos is a regular restaurant; a nice hospitable place, and I assumed it stays open quite late. Therefore, there's no reason that people who eat there can't stay inside and have coffee or something at a table rather than continue conversations afterwards in the very cold parking lot right in front of the restaurant after their dinner. Especially someone warned us not to stay out there because it was not a safe area.

But no. I stood there talking to my friend, with my back to a busy commercial strip that offered several additonal late-night restaurant/coffee options as well. And we really did start to freeze. Looking back, I think I spent 6 or 7 hours of one day at this nondescript strip shopping center development that I will likely never see again (inside two restaurants and out in the parking lot). But time spent with friends is time well spent, even if it is not in the best places.

A visit with the Romulans

part 1:
And so the journey begins. As with many such journeys, a stop off at Romulus to see what the Romulans are doing happens early on. The birds-of-prey are run by companies like Northwest, American Airlines, and Continental. I'm talking, of course, about the Detroit Metro Airport, which really is located in Romulus.

In this photo, a Romulan walks past a Quiznos in the food court area. Notice that the Romulan is blurred: I think maybe he was in the middle of engaging a personal cloaking device at the time the photo was taken. Now, I have no idea if he was a real Romulan or not: the tips of his ears were hidden by the baseball cap.

I did make sure to drop by the Quiznos to inspect their menu. Even though the Quiznos was not open. I really had never been to one before, but was scheduled to go to one later that day, and wanted to see what they served, and maybe see if there were any coupons sitting there or something.

Not all was closed: a place next to it was selling big ol regular sloppy pizza slices. For breakfast.

Another sunset

Found another sunset photo. This was from closer to home, on the eastern shore of Lake Superior in Canada. It was a couple of years ago.

Eagle in Flight

This picture of an eagle flying was snapped near La Crosse, Wisconsin last year around this time. Around this time of year, many bald eagles (even flocks of them) can be seen around the Mississippi River around La Crosse, Wabasha and other parts of the area. I know I saw scores of bald eagles without even trying very hard.

Sundog (December 2004)

Just two days ago, I saw sundogs alongside the sun. I did not have my camera with me, or I would have snapped a photo. Fortunately, I just now found a photo of a sundog from December of 2004. The sun is on the left, and the sundog is on the right. There was, as there usually is, another sundog over on the left (off the edge of the photo). I think I've only ever seen this three times: once back around 1992, once in 2004, and just a few days ago. Each time it was very cold (which I believe is necessary for sundog creation). Has anyone else seen sundogs before, or anything unusual in the sky?

Rhinos (San Diego, September 2006)

Just a nice picture of a couple of rhinos, as seen from the tram tour at the San Diego Wild Animal Park. That's not armor plating, even though it might look like it. It's just the way the tough skin folds. There was a baby rhino around; I'll have to find the picture.

"Final" Harry Potter day Announced

The release of the final Harry Potter book has been announced for midnight July 21, 2007. The last release was on July 15, 2005. Downtown went all out for this and had a Potter festival of sorts. They had a scavenger hunt, a sort of Quidditch (?) and other games, many stores renaming themselves and staying open past midnight, lots of great window displays, costumed Potter fans galore, real live owls, and more. If I recall correctly, there was one store that pretty much had a name right out of the Potter books, but it was closed during this for some reason.

I hope to be there for this one, with a better camera this time (I think my hard drive ate the pictures from the last one), and perhaps looking the part a little more than the last one (which was not at all) by wearing something Potter-related. If the trend of the past books continues, this last book will be heavier and drearier than any of the previous ones.

Hawk Attack

Well, I did end up going out in the snow, only to go next door. I passed this grisly scene near the bird feeder. I'd never seen something like this before. A hawk managed to get a cardinal an hour or two before I took this photo. Feathers and tufts were strewn over a 20 foot wide area.

I guess I'm not going anywhere today

This is a picture of the yard taken from inside looking out through a screen window, about 30 minutes ago. I don't think I'm going out at all today.

I miss her. We had such good times.

I miss her so much.

We had such good times together. Any time of the day, she was just a phone call away, ready to give me what I needed.

She's been gone a few years now, and she is missed.

I'm referring, of course, to the Time Lady. You know, that voice that would say "At the tone, the time will be...", and was always located at a number ending in 1212. A few years ago, she stopped answering. Now there is no way to find out what time it is without using a short-wave radio. The times showing on clocks in the house are now all over the place. Computer clocks always seem to be off, as do cell phone clocks. Computer network clocks are even worse. Now everywhere I go, there seem to be a variation in what clocks and watches say the time is that varies by as much as 10 or 15 minutes. I just want time to be measured more accurately.

Where did she go? I figured I'd ask Google. Sure enough, there's a nice biographical page:

http://www.etcia.com/barbe/timelady.html

Jane Barbe died in 2003, which is around when the time lady phone number went silent.

You know you're from Michigan when...

This has been kicking around for years in different forms, before blogging and maybe even before the Web came about.:

You know you're from Michigan when...
.... you define Summer as three months of bad sledding
.... you have ever gotten frostbitten and sunburned in the same week
.... you can identify an Ohio accent
.... you point at the palm of your right hand when telling people where you grew up
.... octopus and hockey go together as naturally as hot dogs and baseball
.... traveling coast to coast means going from Port Huron to Muskegon
.... a Big Mac is something you can drive across
.... you have no problem spelling Mackinac Island
.... you have as many Canadian coins in your pockets as American ones
.... you know that a place called "Kalamazoo" really exists
.... you bake with "soda" and drink "pop"
.... you don't have a coughing fit from one sip of Vernor's
.... you know what a Vernor's is
.... you know WHY Paradise is colder than Hell
.... your car rusts out before the brakes wear out
.... if you think of Indiana as the South
.... half of the change in your pocket is Canadian.
.... you know that Pontiac and Cadillac are cities (and people!) as well as cars
.... you can travel through Detroit and not get mugged
.... your idea of reaching Climax is driving just past Kalamazoo.

Any such lists for other states?