Elf Elsie Hotpepper Spreading Christmas Cheer To Me With Cheesecake, Key Lime Pie & Coconut Cake

As you can see, Elsie Hotpepper is in Elf Mode today. Before I say anything else, I must say, Elsie is not going saloon hopping in Elf Mode.

Elsie is out and about, today, bringing Christmas Cheer to those in short supply of Christmas Cheer.

That would include me.

My normal state of mind is pretty much Cheer-Free, but during what is commonly known as the Holiday Season, my Cheeriness really hits a low ebb.

This begins some time after Halloween and then begins to abate quickly following January 1 of the New Year.

This means I have about 17 more days of feeling fairly Cheerless.

I did experience some small amount of personal Christmas Cheer last night, at Gaylord Texan, partaking of desserts, which is something I usually do not partake of. But the few things, in Desert World, that I actually like, were present at Gaylord Texan.

I had what may have been the best Cheesecake I've ever had, topped with several types of berries. Then there was Key Lime Pie. Just a small slice of that. And Coconut Cake. I had never had Coconut Cake before, til I discovered this place called Sam's Buffet, about midway between Dallas and Houston. Gaylord Texan's was at least as good as Sam's.

This morning, when I got on the scale, I was mortified to see I have ballooned to 212 pounds. I'm so fat I likely will have no problem getting in the pool when I get around to doing that again, what with this nice layer of insulative lard I've added, keeping me warm, that will also likely let me float like I've got my own built in air mattress.

I have long envied Fat People regarding their advantages whilst playing in water. And now, thanks to a couple months of overeating, I am one of them.

I think it's time to go eat my nightly bag of tortilla chips with melted cheese.

The Thin Man Of The Tandy Hills Thinking About ISO, Scrabble Queens, Climbing Mountains & Texas Sharon's Bad Gas News

With my camera's ISO setting set on the correct setting, today I was able to take a non-overexposed picture of the Shadow of the Tandy Hills Thin Man.

This morning I was pleased to learn, from a link provided by Waldo, what ISO means. ISO makes sense to me now.

Thank you, Waldo, for alleviating me of one of my many areas of ignorance.

I was overdressed when I took off for the Tandy Hills today. There was no need for a windbreaker. There was no need for an extra shirt layer. There really was not a great need for a stocking cap. I was probably glad I was in long pants.

Right now, at almost 4 in the afternoon, it is a few degrees shy of 70, here in my formerly frigid zone of Texas.

The Scrabble Queen of Washington is currently Scrabbling from Pullman. That is over in Eastern Washington. Far eastern. Almost to Idaho. It is snowing and cold in her location. The Scrabble Queen wanted me to go out to Starbucks with her this morning, but distance restraints made that a bit difficult. The Scrabble Queen is over in Pullman, at Washington State University, staying with her daughter, Danielle, who's birthday is tomorrow.

I have mentioned Danielle before. She is world famous for being the youngest person to reach the summit of the tallest mountain on each of the 7 continents.

Today I got Facebook Friended, for the first time, by a dog. Shelby. Shelby is one of Princess Annie of Wink's guard dogs.

I learned from Texas Sharon today that I am not alone in thinking the Barnett Shale Natural Gas Driller's dirty polluting practices may be why I have not been feeling my usual tip/top self of late.

How ironic. Just as I typed "tip/top self" my throat itched and I coughed. Followed by a sneeze.

I need someone to come to my rescue and transport me to a place where the air is clean. I may be too weak to do this myself...

Going To Grapevine's Gaylord Texan & Getting A New BBQ

That's my new gas BBQ grill sitting outside on the patio.

I have yet to use the new BBQ. I got it out of its box this morning. I hauled it in here last night, late, returning from a Christmas Party at Gaylord Texan.

Christmas at Gaylord Texan is quite a spectacle. If you don't want to go inside and experience all of Texas under one roof, things like the San Antonio Riverwalk, the Alamo, Palo Duro Canyon, and more, just driving the road into Gaylord Texan you'll go by some over the top, well done Christmas displays.

In fact, you can pretty much say that for all of Grapevine, as in the drive through the main part of the historic town is done up quite nicely. And you will see some mighty big Xmas balls sitting on the ground. Biggest Xmas balls I've ever seen.

At last night's Christmas Party the gift part was done via a method I have done before. Only previously I was required to bring a gift to add to the gift pile. When I have done this style of Xmas present exchanging, before, it was called the Greed Game. A person opens a gift, the next person can either take it or open another. On and on it goes.

This can be amusing.

Last night's method was called The Chinese Gift Exchange. This somehow seemed borderline politically incorrect to me. The gifts were not wrapped. When your turn came you either took something from someone or took something from under the tree that no one else had taken. After 3 iterations of taking something new you were stuck with your 3rd choice.

I picked the BBQ and no one took it from me. I have an intimidating scowl when I want to keep something. I'm assuming. Maybe no one else wanted a portable BBQ. And found the digital cameras, flat panel TVs, I-Pads and trip to Las Vegas more enticing. Those items were heavily exchanged. Among others.

So, my first Christmas Party of the season is out of the way. At the next one I know I will not be bringing home anything good, because it is a work party and only those who work at this particular place get to play in the gift part of the party.

I usually don't blog about anything I do between 6pm and 6am, but this morning I made an exception. Maybe because unlike most periods of time between 6pm 6am, this time I got myself a new BBQ. It is so rare I get something new....

Looking At The Litter In Two Flooding Rivers With One In Texas & One In Washington

Above you are looking at a railroad bridge across the flooding Skagit River, from the Mount Vernon south side of the river, a couple miles from my Washington abode. This picture was taken yesterday.

A log jam has built up against the bridge that has caused some concerns. Bridges in Washington have often been badly damaged by log jams.

The Skagit River is a bigger river than the Trinity River, which is my current neighborhood river. The rivers styles of flooding are quite different. Note how clean the Skagit River water looks. Do you see any litter besides those vexing logs?

I have been looking at a lot of pictures of the current flood event on the rivers of Western Washington. I have not seen any litter floating in the flooded rivers. Not in any pictures or video. I am sure there is some litter floating in the current flood, there would have to be.

But not in the astonishingly copious amounts I have witnessed in the Trinity River.

Above is a picture of the Trinity River during its most recent flood. The picture was taken from the south side of the river, at Quanah Parker Park, about the same distance from my current abode as the first picture, above, was from my Washington abode.

Do you notice any differences? To my eyes the Skagit River appears to be clear, clean water, while the Trinity River looks to be rather dirty, with litter floating in it.

I have boated on the Skagit River, long floats on my rubber raft. I've eaten fish caught in the Skagit River. I have inner tubed the Skagit River. These are things I can not say I have done in the Trinity River. Though inner tubing in the Trinity has become a bit of a fad among life-risking daredevils.

Below is a video of the most recent flood event of the Trinity River. In the video you will see a lot of litter float by. Ironically, this flood occurred a short time after the more dire flood that was caused by the remnants of Hurricane Hermine. One would have thought the supply of Texas litter would have been a bit in short supply for a flood following so quickly after the biggest flood I've seen since I've been in Texas, but one would have been wrong, the supply of litter had been re-stocked, totally ready for the next flood event.

Texans seem to pride themselves on being World Class Litterers. We  like World Class stuff here. Soon we will have the World's Premiere Wake Boarding facility. Where people can come from all over the world to enjoy the fragrant waters of the Trinity River....

Getting Educated About ISO With No Heat In My Hot Tub On The 2nd Tuesday Of December

Looking through the bars of my patio prison cell, on this early morning of the 2nd Tuesday of the last month of 2010, we should be seeing a steamy vapor rising from the hot tub, due to the temperature being only 35.

But, there is no steamy vapor rising. Because the hot tub is turned off, due to a thermostat malfunction.

The hot tub not being hot wreaks havoc with my ability to get into the pool during this less than balmy time of the year. In cold times past I would run into the cold water, staying in it til I neared the frostbite point and then escape into the heat of the hot tub.

And then, after getting too hot from the heat of the hot tub, get back into the cool pool til I started to get bitten by frost again. Then back in the hot tub. Repeating the cycle til I was sufficiently stimulated.

Change of subject from getting cold to getting ISO.

Yesterday I blogged about getting caught on camera overexposed on the Tandy Hills due to having my camera on the ISO setting. I mentioned being unable to find an answer to what it is that ISO is.

Well, the ubiquitous Anonymous commented on the ISO blogging. Well, actually it was not a comment. What Anonymous did was copy a link to a Wikipedia article about ISO.

I had already looked at that article. It was of no help to me. On and on it went about ISO without ever saying what ISO has to do with a setting on a digital camera, like in the blurb below from the Wikipedia article...

"The organization which today is known as ISO began in 1926 as the International Federation of the National Standardizing Associations (ISA). This organization focused heavily on mechanical engineering. It was disbanded in 1942 during the second World War but was re-organized under the current name, ISO, in 1946."

I guess I now know what the initials stand for. So, progress in my ISO education is being made.

The Overexposed Icy Shadow Of The Tandy Hills Thin Man Worrying About Natural Gas Dissipating All Over Fort Worth

You are looking at a photo facsimile of the Overexposed Icy Shadow of the Tandy Hills Thin Man, taken around noon today.

I don't know what the technical term for that Shadow photo is. Overexposed? I did not realize, when I was taking pictures today, that the camera was still on the ISO setting that I use to take a picture when it is dark, like the picture, this morning, of the view from my cold window.

I do not know what ISO means. No one will tell me. Not even Google.

I reluctantly agreed to take Big Ed hiking with me to the Tandy Hills today. I usually am not agreeable to that, due to a propensity for incidents that reduce the peacefulness of being in the Tandy Hills Sanatorium.

Big Ed wanted to go hiking today due to too much sitting apparently causing his feet to swell up like an overweight pregnant lady in her 8th month.

Yesterday I saw an odd comment or posting or whatever you call it on Facebook, by Big Ed, something about screaming like a school girl. It really made no sense.

For me the hiking did not go well. Why? I don't know. It started off badly when I tripped on a cable. After that I seemed a bit unstable. So, I sort of cut the hiking short.

I was parked at the top of Mount Tandy.

You can tell when Big Ed approaches due to the loud wheezing and the thumping of his heftiness as he stomps along the trail.

I got myself a big chunk of wood, hid behind a bush and waited for Big Ed to wheeze past on his way up Mount Tandy. When he did I threw the chunk of wood at him. He jumped and let out a scream like one of those school girls he Facebooked about.

As soon as I saw the height of the jump and volume of the scream I regretted not having my camera out and on and in video mode.

On a completely different note. This past week I have speculated as to whether or not my recent respiratory woes might be related to Chesapeake Energy activity at their gas pad across the street from my abode, which they were working on last week.

This morning, in north Fort Worth, an XTO Engergy gas well site was pluming out a big vapor cloud. Fort Worth Firefighters arrived and blocked off the site of the leak, while Fort Worth police routed traffic away from Main Street. I am guessing this leaker is a gas well site due west of the Trinity River, due south of the Fort Worth Stockyards. I recollect being appalled when I saw one going up there whilst pedaling my now stolen bike on the Trinity Trails.

An XTO crew got the leak under control before the fire officials went into evacuation mode.

A spokesman for XTO Energy said the vapor cloud dissipated as soon as the leak was stopped.

Dissipated? As in mixed in with the air we all breathe? Or, for some of us, try to breathe? I prefer my air to be free of dissipated natural gas.

A Freezing Monday Morning In Texas With Sweet Chili Sauce

You are looking out at my icy 2nd Monday of the last year of 2010 view, this early morning of December 13.

It is 26 degrees out there. Brrrrr.

It is about twice as hot here up in the Seattle zone. Where heavy rain continues to fall with the rivers now in flood mode, closing a lot of roads, due to mudslides, with Amtrak no longer able to make it to Portland.

My distressing ailments of the last week seem to have abated for the most part. This pleases me.

Yesterday I went to Chinatown in Arlington for the first time in a couple months. I'd run out of chili sweet sauce, oyster sauce and some other good stuff. I went to Saigon Cho Market at Pioneer Parkway and Collins Street first. They did not have the sweet chili sauce I wanted. So, I went to where the former occupant of Saigon Cho moved to, to a former Albertsons near 360 on Pioneer Parkway.

I forget what the name was of the market that moved from Pioneer/Collins to Pioneer/360, but it is no more. Yesterday I saw it had turned into Hiep Thai Arlington. And it was its Grand Opening. So, I got a lot of unexpected good stuff.

I don't know why the Chinatown markets are not more popular with the Anglo population. I love how I go in one of these markets and I am the only white guy. It is like getting to visit Viet Nam, Thailand and China. Actually, mostly Viet Nam. One of the strange unplanned for consequences of one of America's ubiquitous wars. As in a large number of Vietnamese Boat People ended up in Arlington, creating a thriving community and adding one more nice patch to the beautiful American quilt.

I am going to brace myself against the cold and get in some aerobicizing today. I have been borderline sedentary the past couple days.

It is currently not windy, unlike yesterday. I am hoping the current no wind remains steady.

My Dad's Happy 80th Birthday Is Today

That is my Mom and Dad at Fair Park in Dallas, between the Midway and the Cotton Bowl in January of 2009. It was a Thursday that eventually ended in Roanoke at Babe's Chicken. With a McDonald's in north Dallas in between.

The last I've seen Mom and Dad was a few days after this picture was taken. We'd gone to the Ol' South Pancake House for breakfast. After breakfast I led them back on to the I-30 freeway and waved them goodbye as they headed west towards Phoenix and their Phoenix suburb location of Sun Lake.

Today is my Dad's 80th birthday. That is a rather significant birthday. I remember like it was yesterday the surprise birthday party from my Grandma Vera's 80th, up in Lynden.

Lynden is about 5 miles south of the Canadian border for you non-Northwesterners reading this. My Mom and Dad grew up in the Lynden zone. It is a Dutch dominated town.

I remember Mom and me going up to Lynden to get Grandma's place ready for her surprise party while a cousin kept Grandma occupied. It was a rather large party.

I'd assumed I'd be getting informed that I needed to be in Phoenix for a birthday party for my Dad today. But, a few weeks ago my Mom told me they wanted no party. And, so no party will there be.

Or so Mom and Dad have been led to believe.

Today is the annual Christmas Party for the managers of several dozen McDonald's in the Phoenix area. My Mom and Dad have gone to the annual McDonald's Christmas Party previously, and they are doing so again today.

What Mom and Dad do not know is that their McDonald's family is also going to be throwing my Dad an 80th Birthday Party today. With a cake. And, I assume, an awful lot of candles.

Of my siblings only one will be at Dad's 80th Birthday Party. My sister Jackie. The others, including me, will be phoning in their Happy Birthday Dad messages.

Freezing This Sunday Morning In Texas

It is 32 degrees at my location on this second Sunday of the last month of 2010.

Those 32 degrees must be why the view from my window this morning is a bit frosty.

I seem to have recovered, finally, from whatever it was that was causing me a respiratory malady. Did yesterday's wind blow the bad stuff away?

Was there bad stuff in the air of late? A lot of locals seemed to be having some breathing woes.

In Texas there is no state agency that monitors the air quality in any meaningful way.

Because Texas does not have any state agency that monitors the air quality in any meaningful way, the federal government tries to help with air and water quality issues.

Like in the past week, or so, the EPA was appalled to find that the drinking water supply to some homes in south Parker County had an acceptable level of methane and other bad stuff. Methane is another name for natural gas.

The Texas state agency that should have been appalled that the result of some poorly regulated Barnett Shale Natural Gas Driller had been contaminating a water supply, instead made the EPA and the federal government intervention the issue, making the embarrassingly bogus claim that Texas had looked into the water problem and saw no problem.

Anyway, I'm glad to be back breathing easier. For now.

No Pineapple Express Is Getting Me Wet In Texas Today or Tomorrow

Above is Seattle's 5 Day Forecast, starting with today's arrival of a very wet Pineapple Express coming in from the  Pacific Ocean water in the Hawaiian Islands zone. Regular rain in the Pacific Northwest is not of the Texas downpour in copious amounts style. Instead it is a slow motion rain that can go on for days, taking a long time to accumulate an inch, unlike Texas, where an inch can easily fall in a few minutes.

Like I said, slow motion rain is the Pacific Northwest Norm.

Except for a Pineapple Express.

That is the only time a Pacific Northwest rain can resemble a Texas Downpour. I recollect the Pineapple Express that brought on the Pacific Northwest's Thanksgiving Day Storm, back in the 1990s. It rained 5 inches in just a couple hours. I had never seen anything like it.

Now, below is today's 5 Day Forecast for my current Fort Worth location. And people ask me why I live here rather than my previous location....