A few weeks ago Mitzy and I discovered a pomegranate tree with a few stray pomegranates still clinging to its branches. The tree was, and still is, in what appeared to be a fairly neutral area at the end of the cul-de-sac. We pilfered the easy to reach ones, then went back a few days later to get the harder to reach ones. We got three all together and they were yummy.
I discovered yesterday that Dungeons & Dragons online is now free to play. So, the price is right.

I’m having trouble with motivation this morning. It’s overcast again and dull gray clouds are bumbling around outside.
I have a co-worker who speaks in a very loud voice, I don’t think he does it on purpose exactly, just that his voice carries. A lot. Soon I shall put on head phones and listen to music while I try my hand at report development again.
Last week Mitzy’s oldest niece took her driving test in Mitzy’s car. This meant we took my car in to work. Right around the Whole Foods area of Gaston I felt something go wrong. There was a brief odor of ‘burnt’. Instead of pulling over and inspecting the car for possible faults I applied my usual tactic when dealing with potential problems, I ignored it. Eventually I learned that the fan belt had broken, after the car finally ground to a halt right outside of the parking garage. I found it interesting how the symptoms manifested over time as I continued driving after the initial happening. The first thing I noticed was that the power steering and power brakes went, this wasn’t a deterrent to driving as I grew up driving a car without these niceties. As time went on the power started to go, the lights on the console and on the radio began to dim, and the windshield wipers began to slow. This all culminated with the gauges going limp, and shortly there after the car finally stopped for good. At first I thought that the battery had gone out, as that happened shortly after I bought the car, but after pushing the lifeless hulk to a parking meter and opening the hood it was pretty obvious what had happened. There’s only one belt in my car. They call it a serpentine belt, and I kind of dug that. I think this is pretty common now-a-days. My belt was wildly shredded, and small bits were all over the place under the hood.
I’ve been pretty lucky with my car, it hasn’t given me any mechanical problems in the ten years, and almost 90,000 miles, that I’ve had it. This means I have no mechanics, nor do I know of mechanics. I don’t deal well with conflict and adversity, especially when I can’t ignore it anymore, or get the situation to a point where I can safely ignore it for some time. This means I was briefly panicked as I tried to figure out what to do. After going over a lot of ideas and schemes in my head I decided to be practical, so I checked the Better Business Bureau’s website for a local auto shop with a good rating. I found a place with an A minus rating that was kind of close to my neighbor hood, and was also on the way home, The White Rock Pit Stop. So I called them and arranged for a tow and repair, and they took care of everything for a reasonable price. I lady that works in another department checked with her husband, who is a mechanic in East Texas, as to what he would charge to replace a serpentine belt, and his price was almost the same as the one I was charged.
They were very nice and professional, and while I do realize that replacing a belt is not a monumental task, they still got it taken care of by the time I got off work. They also recognized that I was well past due for an oil change, and called me make sure that it was okay that they did it. I won’t go into that, since it involves some embarrassment on my part, but I appreciate the heads up on work that needed to be performed that wasn’t a part of the original issue. They also recognized that my clutch is in need of some work, and he provided me a quote on the work with no pressure or hard sell. I like that too. They’re also a local and minority owned shop, so I liked that as well. What started off as a stressful day was resolved with a minimum fuss, and I was very satisfied with the results. So if you’re in the East Dallas, White Rock area, and need a mechanic I’d recommend you give White Rock Pit Stop a try.
Oh yeah, and Connie passed her driving test on the first go.

It’s Wednesday, so I felt I should put down my memories of the weekend. It was an unusally busy one filled with activities. On Friday night we went to a rock -n- roll show at the Lakewood Theater that was titled the Hot Klub reunion, but that didn’t hold any meaning for me, we were only going because our friend’s husband’s band, The Big Guns, were playing. Come to find out that the Hot Klub was the divey hangout for the Dallas punk scene back in the late 70’s and early 80’s, so they had a long list of bands that had frequented the place back in the day reuniting to rock our world punk style. Before the show we tried out a new restaurant that is located in spot that has seen many new restaurants come and go. I was feeling a little under the weather, so I had a bowl of Minestrone soup, and Mitzy had the same. The food was good, nothing to go crazy about, and the service was energetic. Of note was the obligatory before-meal bread, only in this case it was a pizza crust dusted with Parmesan cheese, I’ve never experienced anything of this nature so I thought it was a nice change of pace. After a quick dinner we enjoyed the show, but cut out around 11:00 since we were getting tired, but we got to see The Big Guns, Ball of Wire (both Mike’s bands, one current, the last old), and the Barry Kooda Combo which was fun…Barry is an old Nervebreakers guy. Despite ending early it was a fun outing.
Saturday we got up later than usual and went to the White Rock market, I bought some local honey with the cone still in it, but other than that we only visited with our co-worker who had setup a both. Saturday was also State Fair day for us, we were supposed to meet up with a Meetup.com group that we’re members of, but we were pretty lazy and didn’t get out to Fair Park until around 3:00. The original meet up time being 1:00, but with a venue like that I didn’t really see the point of trying to maintain a group as what I wanted to see probably wouldn’t have been the same as others. We did see a portion of them later in the evening, but they were headed out, so we only talked for a bit. I’ve never been a big fan of the Fair, mostly because I see it as just a big money pit, but this year I tried to play along a little more. I had found an article in the Dallas Observer listing the “award winning” foods this year, so I felt like I had a game plan of sorts, and that added to my sense of being able to enjoy myself. I purposefully let go of my frugality and decided not to worry about the money, and I think that all worked out pretty well, as this was probably the most I’ve enjoyed the Fair. Getting to see the Killdares, a celtic rockband that I’ve been a fan of since the late 90’s, was a big help, and they were just as awesome as the last time I saw them more than a few years ago. We staid for the parade, and then we rode the huge Texas Star Ferris Wheel, neither of which I’ve ever done before, and that added to the novelty. The ride was 12 tickets each ($6), so we had to get a few more from the booth, then some couple offered us almost 40 tickets for $10, so I took that deal, and I was glad that I did because it led to some good eats later.
As far as the food went I really enjoyed the Fried Sweet Cornbread Shrimp in Jalapeno sauce (at least I think that’s the name), and the Twisted Yam on a stick (though I like my Yam spicy and this was sweetened with sugar and Cinnamon). All the hub-bub this year was the Fried Butter, and after waiting in line forever to get some I was disappointed to some extent. What you actually got was more of a fried biscuit that had lots of butter on it, and while it was good I didn’t think it was worth the tickets and the wait combined. After the Ferris Wheel ride we got some roasted corn on the cob, and that was really tasty, but what I really had been wanting was coming up. And that was the absolutely most awesome thing that we had out there, the Fried Chocolate Covered Strawberry Waffle Balls, and oh my fucking gawd were they super delicious. Both Mitzy and I agreed that they were like an orgasm in your mouth, or maybe that was just me, but they were by far the most scrumptious balls I’ve ever had in my…um…mouth.
I think Mitzy could have left several hours earlier, but we ended up getting out around 9:30 or so. We were both exhausted, but I think we both really enjoyed the time spent, and Mitzy was an extreme trooper in that her little feet were killing her by the end of it all.
Sunday was a little more low key, we cleaned house a little, watched Mad Men, and started our first fire in our fireplace ever. We took the opportunity to make smores.