I Had Myself A Fine Dinner Time At The Ahwatukee Sweet Tomatoes Tonight

Ahwatukee Sweet Tomatoes At Sunset

As you can sort of see in the picture, the sun had mostly set for the evening by the time we left the Ahwatukee Sweet Tomatoes tonight.

I have never seen a Sweet Tomatoes as busy as this one was tonight. And this is the biggest Sweet Tomatoes I have ever seen.

Come to think about it, I have only seen the insides of one other Sweet Tomatoes, that being the one in Arlington, Texas.

Unlike the Sweet Tomatoes in Arlington, the one in Ahwatukee, in addition to being bigger on the inside, also has an outside covered patio, cooled with misters.

We sat in the outside covered patio area. But there was no need for misters.

My mom and dad and I arrived far in advance of my tardy sister and my favorite brother-in-law. That worked out well, because we were able to secure seating in the seating scarce restaurant.

Tonight I found out that it is no longer true that I don't eat dinner. I consumed far more than any of the others in my party of puny eaters. The only thing most of my party seemed to consume, with any sort of relish, was when the Chocolate Chip Cookie Boy came by with small platters of hot out of the oven Chocolate Chip Cookies.

My Sister Smiles While My Favorite Brother-In-Law Smirks
While I Administer A Gentle Scolding

My favorite brother-in-law began eating the hot out of the oven Chocolate Chip Cookies prior to finishing the non-dessert items on his plate. I felt compelled to issue a gentle scolding about this egregious behavior.

And then I remembered the poor guy was ailing and yet he mustered the energy to come to Sweet Tomatoes to have dinner with his favorite in-laws.

After about an hour of trying to eat as much as I possibly could, it was deemed time for me to stop indulging in my new found eating dinner pleasure.

The drive back to Sun Lakes was in inky black darkness. I was able to navigate, without co-navigator help, the return to my mom and dad's homeport. It took me about 10 days to learn this. No one has ever said I am a quick study. This would be an example of that.

A Snake In The Lake Before Going To Arlington's Sweet Tomatoes

I was running early on my way to Sweet Tomatoes in Arlington, so I stopped at Veterans Park in Arlington to sit on a bench under the shade of a tree to gaze out at the turtles on the Veterans Park Pond.

I was doing some phone talking whilst doing my pond gazing when I said to the person I was doing some phone talking to that something long was coming across the pond towards me.

The person I was doing some phone talking with told me I should get off the phone and get out of the incoming gator's way.

So, I hung up and turned on my camera. Soon it became obvious I was looking at a water snake of some sort, a big one, swimming across the pond, towards me.

The snake swam up to the log the turtles like to sit on and then disappeared. I stood at water's edge waiting for a reappearance, but that did not happen.

So, I turned off the camera and got back on the phone for some more phone talking.

I must make note of the fact that every day since Gar the Nerd sent out his dire "Unpleasant Warning" about an incoming snake invasion, I have had a snake encounter of one sort or another.

After surviving yet one more snake encounter it was on to Sweet Tomatoes. I am currently feeling very well nutrified. I do not believe I have been to Sweet Tomatoes since the Queen of Wink and Princess Annie took me there.

Both CatsPaw and Elsie Hotpepper informed me today that a Sweet Tomatoes will be opening soon in Fort Worth, on 7th Avenue, across from the newly opened In 'N Out Burger joint.

CatsPaw also asked me if I'd been to Souper Salad and how it compared to Sweet Tomatoes. Well, I really like Sweet Tomatoes and have been there many times. I have only been to Souper Salad once.

Up Late On The Last Day Of March Thinking About Wildflowers, Sweet Tomatoes & Shooting Ronald Reagan

I was up way after midnight, well into the wee hours of the last day of March of 2011.

Which has me up well after the arrival of the sun has revealed that the last day of the month is a clear blue sky day, so far, in my zone of North Texas.

I am not going swimming this morning. It is only 42 degrees out there. I don't know if the 24 hour average has been over 50 degrees. I suspect not. I'm not in the mood for a shivering episode of the extreme trembles.

I learned, this morning, from one of the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin's botanists, that this year's Texas wildflower crop will not be a bumper one.

I also learned that a Sweet Tomatoes restaurant is coming to Fort Worth. Sweet Tomatoes is a good thing. A really good thing. The Fort Worth Sweet Tomatoes will be among all the other restaurants in the booming Fort Worth zone of West 7th.

It was 30 years ago, yesterday, that Ronald Reagan was shot by a Jodie Foster addled crazy man. How can that be 3 decades ago? Time flies way way too fast.

Case in point, it is already past 8 this last morning of March of 2011. It is now time to go do something other than swimming. Like maybe have breakfast.

The Shadow Of The Tandy Hills Fat Man On The 2nd Day Of The New Year

I hauled my bloated carcass to the Tandy Hills today, parked on top of Mount Tandy. I was optimistic that the hills had dried out and were no longer muddy.

As is way too often the case, my optimism had no basis in reality.

Too much mud was quickly adding too many inches to my height.

I don't know what the deal was with the sun and the shadow today, but it appears I have gained a lot of weight since I last saw the formerly thin shadow of the Tandy Hills Thin Man.

Once I realized I'd picked up some mud, I decided to continue on, since the damage was already done. I had a fairly brisk hike. During most of it I was talking to Tootsie Tonasket, who had gotten me on the phone on the way to the Hills. Tootsie invited me over for Key Lime Pie.

And after that, Aunt Alice invited me over for ham cooked in ginger ale. I don't know if that sounds good, or not.

I realized, whilst navigating the mud, that today is exactly one year since the Tandy Hills Manly Men & Wild Women Hike. An event where about 100 hikers were strung out for miles on the Tandy Hills.

The Queen of Wink and Princess Annie drove all the way from their realm in West Texas in order to hike the Manly Men/Wild Women Hike. However, the hiking soon proved too strenuous for the Queen, when she developed a serious case of the vapors.

To recover from the vapors I drove to Arlington, to Sweet Tomatoes, where we found food. If I remember right, I then drove back to the Tandy Hills with the Queen of Wink and Princess Annie driving off into the sunset. Almost never to be seen again.

A year goes by so fast. And yet so much happens and changes during the course of a year. I'm looking forward to 2012. It's only about 364 days away.

Veterans Park, Fry's, Sweet Tomatoes and Strawberries

Isn't it about Day 12 of the Swine Flu Siege? Everywhere I go there are kids. It's time for them to go back to school. Then again we are almost at the time of year when school here lets out for the summer, so the respite would be brief.

I have a slightly sore throat and an odd burning sensation. I'm not much of a hypochondriac, but I'm almost certain my immune system is battling something.

I needed to get a web cam today. That meant going to Fry's Electronics in Arlington. That easily turned into going on a hike around Veterans Park on the way.

There were a lot of those aforementioned kids running around in Veterans Park. Veterans Park is in Arlington. Has Arlington closed its schools too? I don't know.

Today the Veteran statue at the memorial in Veterans Park, in addition to his regular guard duty, was also protecting wildflowers, helping to enforce a sign asking people to please STAY OFF WILDFLOWERS. Sadly, there did not appear to be too many wildflowers to stay off of, with no real need for a guard.

I don't like shopping, unless I already know exactly what I want. This was not the case with the web cam. Too many choices of varying levels of quality. I ended up with an HP web cam.

After Fry's it was around lunch time. Since I was in the neighborhood, a visit to Sweet Tomatoes seemed to make sense. Despite previously saying that until this flu crisis abates I was going to stay out of buffet lines.

But, I came prepared. I had my mask, I had several pairs of surgical gloves, I had my hand sanitizer. I'm almost 100% I did not pick up a virus while picking up stuff to eat in the buffet line.

Speaking of eating, it had been awhile since I'd been to Sweet Tomatoes. It seemed particularly good today. Strawberry is the theme for the month. There was a strawberry salad, strawberry buttermilk muffin,, strawberry mouse (is that how you spell that? It does not look right), strawberry cobbler and I'm probably forgetting a strawberry thing or two.

Non-Stop Rain, Flooding, Tomato Soup & Baseballs In Texas

Three days in a row of gray skies with over 24 hours of non-stop rain. And it's cold. Just a few degrees colder and this rain would be snow.

The view in the picture is heading east on Pioneer Parkway, around noon, on the way to Fry's Electronics to get a little digital recording device to use to catch a culprit.

The recorder can record hundreds of hours of talking. It's such a little thing. But who can listen to hundreds of hours of talking just to catch a culprit?

After Fry's my Mexican Restaurant plan was aborted due to time restraints. That and being so close to Sweet Tomatoes. Before getting to Sweet Tomatoes I remarked that it seemed ironic that Tomato Soup was never one of their soups of the day. Well, today it was. Best Tomato Soup I've ever had.

After Fry's I dropped a culprit off for an appointment and then went to the Wal-Mart Supercenter across the street, that street being Randoll Mill, across from the new Dallas Cowboy Stadium. I was only in Wal-Mart for a few minutes. The walk in and out was very wet and cold.

Leaving Wal-Mart I saw an interesting view of the new stadium with the Wal-Mart in the foreground. This particular Wal-Mart has giant baseballs adorning the outside of the building and on the walls along the parking lot. The baseballs are due to the fact that the place where the Texas Rangers play baseball is a short distance away. But not nearly as close as where the Dallas Cowboys will soon try and play football.

So, when are some footballs going to be replacing the baseballs on the Wal-Mart? There was a big sign at the Wal-Mart entry today saying some Dallas Cowboy football player I've never heard of was going to be there for a couple hours in a couple weeks.

After Wal-Mart I went to Barnes and Noble. There I overheard a pair of distinguished looking gentle ladies discussing how all the bridge and road construction on I-30 has been hard on business. They seemed quite concerned. The mood in Barnes and Noble always seems a bit funereal to me, particularly this one, particularly today.

With all this rain I worry that one of my favorite Tarrant County rabble rouser politicial sorts will be looking at her backyard nervously, with it being recently restored to its pre-flood damage glory, and with way too much rain falling. And with nothing having been done to fix the problem that caused the killer floods the last time we got way too much rain here.

While nothing has been done to fix that real problem, we are moving ahead with fixing a non-problem by building an un-needed river diversion channel, a little lake and some canals in a lofty project called the "Trinity River Vision." I think it got some earmark bucks in the budget that just passed. But no earmark money to fix the Haltom City flood problem. That has actually killed someone. And done a lot of damage.

Sweet Tomatoes & A New Computer

I've had me a day of diving deeper into Computer World than I usually like to go. The day started off with me thinking I liked the idea of having the World's Lightest Laptop, a little itty bitty Sony thing that seemed way too little when I saw it in the flesh, so to speak.

Then my eyes fell upon another one, it was also slim, but had a much bigger screen, 3 gigs of memory, a huge hard drive and one of those duo core processors that I know nothing about, except that they must be fast.

The new laptop is a Toshiba. Don't they make cars?

On the way back here a feeding was needed. Fry's Electronics is on the south side of I-20 at Matlock. Sweet Tomatoes is on the north side of I-20 at Matlock. So, it was to Sweet Tomatoes I went after computer shopping made me hungry.

I forgot to mention, I also got that Dragon Speak program that converts the spoken word, via a microphone, to text. This should help me finally be more prolific with this typing words thing I do.

When I got back here, the getting a new computer working thing went way easier than the last time, which was about 5 years ago. I may be remembering wrong, but I think there was some user error involved that time.

I've got this place being a hardwired network connecting a few computers together. Ever since I got rid of Charter Communications and replaced that bankrupt, poorly run company with AT & T U-Verse, I've suspected that that huge modem/router thing they installed was a wireless modem.

I've long noticed when I turn on the wireless connection, on my other laptop, I see several possible connections, with one being at full strength. I suspected that was my own wireless connection. But I did not have a WEP key.

One of the available networks was 2WIRE063. I Googled for info about a U-verse wireless connection. I found out I could use a browser to connect to and control my modem. Doing that I found all sorts of info, including the fact that my broadband connection's wireless connection is named 2WIRE063, thus confirming I have a wireless system here.

But, what is the Network Key? Well, clicking "I forgot my Pass Code" brought up "Hint: Look on the Label." Label? I thought, maybe on the modem? Sure enough. There was a label on the modem and on that label was a number. And that number turned out to be the Network Key!

I feel like a detective who solved a very complicated problem. That should give you some indication of how low the level of technical proficiency operating here is, if I could have a wireless system, unbeknownst to me, that has to be figured out via Googling for help. Pathetic.

The next technical hurdle was getting the network to recognize the new computer. That turned out to be not too baffling. Files are being transferred even as I type.

I am going to try and watch last night's Survivor tonight. I hope I don't pass out again, like last night, but it's been a long day, and my poor little brain has really been overtaxed today. I may pass out at any time.

See you all tomorrow at the Tandy Hills, hauling brush to the street! I can't wait!

Valentine's Day Fight & Sweet Tomatoes.

What a Valentine's Day it has been. A cold Valentine's Day. With little sun.

On my way to Sweet Tomatoes for my annual Valentine's Day lunch I went to Veterans Park in Arlington to walk in the cold, dank air for awhile. I like the backwoods part of Veterans Park. That's what you're looking at in the picture on the left.

I'd not been this way in awhile. There is a log bridge across a gully that I've crossed many a time. But a chunk had decayed away, leaving the bridge crossing a bit adventurous for my acrophobic tendencies. But not too adventurous. I made it across.

There was way too much going on in Veterans Park today. A small army of disc golfers was preparing for a disc golf tournament. Once that started, hiking would be treacherous with way too many discs flying in the air. The disc throwers have the right of way over walkers in Veterans Park.

I've read of problems with gangs fighting in parks. And other places. But, I've never seen such a thing.

But, today at Veterans Park there was a raging battle, the likes of which I've only seen once before. At Scarborough Faire. It was brutal. I watched from a distance, then got closer. I was afraid my picture taking might cause the fighting gangs to turn their battling on me.

After exhausting Veterans Park it was on to Sweet Tomatoes. The traffic was appalling. Long long long lines behind each stop light. I had not listened to the radio or tv all day. I wondered if there'd been an announcement that the Great Depression 2.0 was over and we were back in boom times, so the masses were out in a shopping frenzy.

I still have not had a radio or tv on, so I don't know, yet, if the Great Depression 2.0 is still in motion, or not.

I did get great news from Don Young upon my return home. The City of Fort Worth is finally doing the right thing and beginning the process of restoring the Tandy Hills Natural Area to its, well, natural state, thus finally making it true to its name. I hope.

Veterans Park, Sweet Tomatoes & Horny Goat Weed

The early gray, sort of foggy morning, turned, by noon, to a typical blue sky Texas winter day. In the 70s. The windows are open again.

That leafless tree in the picture is in Veterans Park. Veterans Park is in Arlington in the heart of the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, in which about 6 million people live, give or take a few.

Does the view, where this tree sits, look as if it is in an urban zone? This is only a few miles from where I live. This is not the only location like this, just a few miles from where I live.

Where I lived in the Washington town of Mount Vernon, population about 30,000, I could easily get to wild, natural areas. Almost as easily as I can in Texas. See why I like it here? For the most part.

After I was done hiking around Veterans Park I went to Sweet Tomatoes. If you live near a Sweet Tomatoes and you've not checked it out, do so. It is good. Real good. You'll be on a health food diet and loving every bit and bite of it. I leave there feeling so nutrified.

After Sweet Tomatoes I went to Fry's Electronics. They did not have the version of Dragon Speak that I wanted. They did not have any sort of Walkman that I wanted. But I did get a camera tripod that I wanted.

After that I went to Arlington's Hong Kong Marketplace on Pioneer Parkway & New York Avenue. I got a lot of good stuff and a box of "Horny Goat Weed Tea Male Vitality-Yang Herbal Tonic."

I'm drinking a pot of Horny Goat Weed right now. So far I'm not feeling any more vital than before I started drinking. It promises to promote vitality, stamina and healthy natural energy levels.

If I get any more energetic I'll have a heart attack.

The Detox Tea I've been taking has had me so relaxed I've slept well two nights in a row. I'm so relaxed I feel like I've been dosed with natural Prozac. I really don't think there is anything that could possibly annoy me right now. My cell phone just rang, a call from Washington. I let it go to voice mail. I don't want to test exactly how un-annoyable I am right now.

It's the dead of winter and there are more flowers in north Texas than in the dead of summer. Heat is hard on flowers. Winter is hard on palm trees. Last week I saw the biggest outdoor tent I've ever seen, on the grounds of a Vietnamese temple place in Arlington. Today the tent was down and I saw what it was covering. A forest of palm trees being protected from last week's freeze. The pansies you see above were in Veterans Park today. They didn't need any tent protection from the freeze.

Sweet Tomatoes,..Etcetera...

My one longtime reader, Layla, a real sweet tomato, may remember that ever so once in awhile my imagination runs dry, or I'm just not in the mood to spew out voluminous words at rapid pace.

This morning I've got a lot of things that have crossed my mind to blog about. But at the forefront of my mind right now is I'm thinking of going out into this overcast, warming day and head to Veteran's Park in Arlington to go on a long walk. Followed by lunch at Sweet Tomatoes, my new favorite restaurant.

After Sweet Tomatoes, I'm going to Fry's Electronics, again, to see if I can find Dragon Speak, which is a program where you can talk into a headset and it converts your words to editable type, with a supposed 99.7% success rate, at 300 words per minute. Which is way faster than I can type. And about half as fast as I can talk. I estimate, if this works, it will amp up my blog spewing a minimum of three times. Oh, the horror.

I also want to see if Fry's has any sort of Walkman type thing. You know, those old-fashioned headset things where you can listen to the radio. Wal-Mart and Target no longer have such things.

I'm going from Fry's to Chinatown in Arlington to get stuff I forgot 2 days ago. I need to remember to make a list. After Chinatown I'm going to go by the new Dallas Cowboy's Stadium, which is almost completed, and maybe get a good picture or two. Maybe not. Last time I was there it was so congested with construction obstructions all I wanted to do was escape.

On my mind to blog about, today, likely this afternoon, is something I learned about this morning, that being that Dallas also is in some sort of deal to have Omni Hotels build them a convention center hotel. The deal has hit snags. I'm not getting why Dallas would have to go to any extreme measures, unlike Fort Worth, to get a convention center hotel, because Dallas actually has a lot of conventions and already has a lot of downtown hotels.

I have also been amazed at how many people come to my blog after searching for help about how to deal with "Only Child Syndrome." That's always fun to write about. Also, I am perplexed as to why, all over the world, people are looking for info about the "world's biggest butt." Yes, I did blog about that after I saw what I thought had to be the world's biggest butt at my local Wal-Mart Supercenter. But what causes people all over the world to keep searching for this? And they usually do the searching in packs. Look at my FeedJit stats and you'll likely see what I'm talking about.

Alma, my favorite Songbird of the South, sent me an email, this morning, with "Tips For A Better Life in 2009" that I thought was pretty good blog material, though it is one of those things that has likely spanned the globe a million times via being forwarded.

Also, I had it in mind to blog about how well my Chinese Herb Detox program is going. Last night I had another insomnia free sleep. What a difference that makes. This morning I took my blood pressure for the first time in awhile. I could tell it would be low. 123/68. I recently learned my little brother is on BP medications. He drives down to Mexico to get his pills. My little brother is actually my big brother. He's about twice as big as me and a little shorter.

Anyway, it's time to get ready to get out of here. Sorry to disappoint my one longtime reader, Layla, my one, self-described, adoring fan, that I wasn't in the mood to blog this morning. Maybe I'll feel more word-worthy this afternoon. After I have my daily Chinese Herb Detox Tea.

Gar the Chunky Texan & Contagious Obesity

Earlier today I blogged about going up to Turner Falls with Gar the Texan. Later in the day, Gar took exception to the accuracy of what I wrote.

I had suggested that, due to his butter loving German wife, Gar the Texan had packed on a few pounds and was no longer the skinny Gar the Texan in the Turner Falls pictures.

Gar claimed, "I weigh the same now as I did then."

I then asked for photo documentation with a date/time stamp.

Gar the Texan then pointed me to the picture you see above. To my observant eyes it appears he has packed on quite a few pounds since I last saw him. Even his hair has gotten bigger.

Meanwhile, I listened to Rush Limbaugh for a very short time today. He mentioned some UK Scientist saying that obesity can be contagious. Rush can be so far behind the times. That news has been out there since 2007.

Obesity is not contagious in that there is some virus or bacteria that you catch. Rather it is contagious in that you tend to pick up the bad (or good) habits of those with whom you associate. I did not gain any weight when I was in Tacoma for a month last summer. I had done some heavy duty immunity precautions to prevent any dire weight gain during a month of being exposed to bad habits and obese people.

When I used to hang out with Gar the Texan he was skinny. I would worry about hanging out with him nowadays, what with that obesity being contagious thing. And I do like butter. I had me some today at Sweet Tomatoes. On real good whole grain bread.

Sweet Tomatoes is a very healthy eating type restaurant, that is also tasty.

Unlike my usual buffet haunts, like Zorro's Buffet in Fort Worth, where at least 30% of the patrons appear to be obese, I saw not a single plus-sized person at Sweet Tomatoes today.

An Ice Storm is predicted to be here by morning, with up to an inch of ice. Which means I won't be going anywhere until it melts. The National Weather Service Ice Storm Warning ends at noon on Wednesday. I'm stocked up and can survive 2 days of being stuck.

I hate it when that happens.

Sweet Tomatoes & My Shadow

Within the past year or so a restaurant called Sweet Tomatoes opened in Arlington. Since then 2 more have opened in the D/FW zone, one in Addison and one in Irving.

Sweet Tomatoes is like Fresh Choice. Without the roasted chicken. Fresh Choice used to be my favorite Fort Worth restaurant. And then it closed.

I'd not been to Sweet Tomatoes til today. My Shadow wanted to take me there for lunch to meet up with a couple of her friends I'd not met. My Shadow has forbidden me from putting her name on my blog. Or much of anything about her for that matter. I was given permission to mention going to Sweet Tomatoes with her if I called her My Shadow.

Well, here's my restaurant review of Sweet Tomatoes. I liked it. I probably like Zorro's Buffet in Fort Worth better. And I may have liked Fresh Choice better, but it's been so many years since it closed that I don't trust my memory.

Sweet Tomatoes is a buffet-like setup, like Fresh Choice and Zorro's. The menu consists of Tossed Salads, Prepared Salads, Soups, Pastas, Muffins and Desserts.

In the Tossed Salad category there was Azteca Taco with Turkey that I liked and one called Won Ton Chicken Happiness that was real good. I did not try the Caesar Salad Asiago.

Of the Prepared Salads I liked the Whole Wheat Creamy Chipolte Salad and Joan's Broccoli Madness. I didn't try the Southern Dill Potato, Three Bean Marinade or Tuna Taragon.

Of the Soups I tried the Yankee Clipper Clam Chowder and the Chicken Pot Pie Stew. Very good. There were at least 9 different soups. You'll have to go to the Sweet Tomatoes website to see what the rest of them are.

I didn't try any of the Pastas. The Macaroni & Cheese looked good. There was also a Vegetarian Marinara and Steamed Veggies with Lemon Butter.

The Muffins category is a bit confusing because there were also Buttermilk Biscuits and a couple Focaccia bread choices in addition to some muffins. I tried the Quattro Formaggio Foccaccia.

I'm not a big Dessert fan and there weren't all that many dessert choices. My Shadow thought the Tapioca Pudding was good. That stuff always reminds me of baby food.

So, that was lunch at Sweet Tomatoes. I'd go back. But not tomorrow. Right now I'm in need of walking off eating too much.