Fourth Recap

My niece and her husband joined my wife and I yesterday for a fitting celebration of Independence Day. All but I got up after a LONG leisurely sleep and were treated to the closest thing to bacon my wife allows in the house: turkey bacon. Then, after lots of conversation, we all piled into my car and drove downtown, where we had hamburgers at The Angry Dog.

After lunch, we wandered around the downtown area a bit more, showing them some of the architecture of the city (yes, we do have a sprinkling of interesting architecture in Dallas). Perhaps the most interesting thing was our little foray into Fair Park, home of the Cotton Bowl, the Women's Museum, the African American Museum, and lots more museums and art-deco eye candy. We didn't stop in to see the museums (they're not into museums), but we did stop at the esplanade and took photos of one another (one day they may be posted here). For those who may happen across this blog and don't know it, Fair Park was the site of the 1936 World's Fair and is awash in art-deco buildings, statuary, reflecting pools, and the like.

Then, we wandered around a bit more, stopping briefly at The Old Monk, an old pub for which I have a particular affinity. What I really wanted was a frozen margarita, but one does not order a frozen margarita at The Old Monk and expect to like what one is served, so I got a Stella Artois to cool me down. The others seemed to think alcoholic beverages of any kind were fundamentally wrong, so they got an assortment of tea, lemonade, and water.

Our next diversion was to drive by The Urban Reserve, which is the only place in Dallas that my wife and I would be DELIGHTED to have a home. We love the modern architecture of the homes; we just cannot afford one. And, to be perfectly honest, we'd prefer to have one of those homes in another environment, like the Pacific Northwest or the New Mexican desert.

Back home, the womenfolk took naps, while I futzed around on the computer and my nephew (is that what one calls one's niece's husband?) called friends and family in Paraguay, where he is originally from. During this period, a police helicopter buzzed my neighborhood and four police cars screeched around my neighborhood in hot pursuit of something...but I never learned what.

Late in the day, I made dinner; grilled pork ribs that I'd marinated in my special barbeque sauce, coupled with grilled veggies (squash, red bell peppers, and jalapeños) and some tomato wedges. Then we watched the Capitol Fourth fireworks show on PBS, followed by a gut-bustingly hilarious Lewis Black comedy special.

And there you have it. Our Fourth.