Monopoly or Flinstone's?

Street names are kind of fun. For example, I wouldn't want to live on Dickey Lane or Ira Drive, but Cottonwood Lane or Walnut Drive are nice.

Yesterday we were in two neighborhoods that have their own theme going on.

First up: Monopoly! -All the streets pertain to the Monopoly game. Boardwalk Drive, Reading lane, Marvin Gardens, Oriental Avenue, etc.
Second up: The Flinstones! - There was Bedrock Lane, Barney Court and Dino Drive.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We are still trying to figure everything out as far as living quarters for us. Living in the RV for 3-5 years, as it sits in one location, doesn't sound good for the RV itself. It would show deterioration rapidly and lose its value.
Fortunately, we have the RV to live in, so don't need to rush into any changes immediately.

H. starts the new job on Monday, so I'll be sure to have the camera ready and grab a couple shots of him heading out the door!

Pappasito's

I LOVE Mexican food!! Tamales, enchilada's, tacos, it doesn't matter. I love Mexican food, so was excited about trying a place here in Dallas. pappasitos had excellent reviews, so we gave it a try.

We showed up about 5:30 and the place was busy, but no wait time. After being seated, we each ordered a margarita....mine on the rocks with salt, his blended, no salt. It was happy hour, so I figured that meant, you know, a $3.00 margarita. Wrong...How 'bout $5.95? Oh well. It was good! Their chips and salsa were fantastic, too!


Pricewise, they are a little high for mexican food, but it was delicious!! I had the tamale, enchilada and taco combination, and needed a to go box because there was so much food (and we always bring something home for Jack).

I'd go back to Pappasito's without a doubt. If you're in the Dallas area, check them out! On second thought, if you're in the Dallas area, we'll check them out together!

Hello, Remember Me? Im Your Flag

What To Do

Dallas, Take Three. We literally spent all of last weekend driving the surrounding areas, trying to get a feel for what may be considered a good neighborhood or bad neighborhood.

We went to four open houses, wrote down a dozen addresses of houses that had 'for sale' signs in the front yard and even looked at a condominium. In all the driving around, we did find an area that we absolutely loved. It's an older area with well kept homes, manicured yards and lots of space. The houses didn't all look the same, which we like. Anyway, after getting back home and plugging the addresses in, we learned that the highly sought after area is just a wee bit over our budget. Or to put it another way - 'there is no way we're going to spend that kind of money on a house.'

The bigger issue I personally have is that after having lived in 400 square feet for the past 5 years, it's hard to walk into a house with 2200 square feet and imagine myself living in it. What in the world would I do with 4 bedrooms? Or 3 baths? A living room AND a family room? Formal dining and breakfast room? And a yard? Uh, that means grass, which translates to 'need a lawn mower', and an edger, weed killer, flower pots, a spade.......the thoughts make me tired.

Another option is a condominium. No exterior maintenance to worry about, right? There are several drawbacks to condo living though. First and foremost, HOA fees which can run anywhere from $300-a month and up. Second, living in a condo is really no different than living in an apartment. Would your neighbors blast the TV at 3:00 a.m.? What if they cooked brussel sprouts all the time? What if they have a newborn baby with colic?

Option Number 3: Rent. We did look at loft apartments in downtown Dallas to lease. They were nice...I could see myself living in one. But! $1500/month to rent....plus utilities. Shoot, that's a house payment. And, you'd have the same possibilities you'd have with a condo. You don't know what your neighbors are going to do. OH! Plus, they charge a huge pet deposit, 1/2 of which is non-refundable, and the 'pet area' would never work for Jack.

Suffice it to say, the past few days have been exasperating and exhausting. At the end of the day, I love my RV.

Happy Easter Everyone

Listen

I saw this on one of my favorite sites, and in light of all that seems haywire in the world today, I felt some calm was needed. So, here ya go. Enjoy.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



Author Unknown

There is a field up the road with two horses.
From a distance, each horse looks like any other horse.
But if you stop your car, or are walking by, you will notice something quite amazing…
Looking into the eyes of one horse will disclose that he is blind. His owner has chosen not to have him put down, but has made a good home for him.
This alone is amazing.
If you stand nearby and listen, you will hear the sound of a bell. Looking around for the source of the sound, you will see that it comes from the smaller horse in the field.
Attached to the horse’s halter is a small bell. It lets the blind friend know where the other horse is, so he can follow.





As you stand and watch these two friends, you’ll see that the horse with the bell is always checking on the blind horse.
And that the blind horse will listen for the bell and then slowly walk to where the other horse is.
Trusting that he will not be led astray.
When the horse with the bell returns to the shelter of the barn each evening, it stops occasionally and looks back.
Making sure that the blind friend isn’t too far behind to hear the bell.





Like the owners of these two horses, God does not throw us away just because we are not perfect or because we have problems or challenges.
He watches over us and even brings others into our lives to help us when we are in need.
Sometimes we are the blind horse being guided by the little ringing bell of those who God places in our lives. Other times we are the guide horse, helping others to find their way.
Good friends are like that…You may not always see them, but you know they are always there.
Please listen for my bell, and I’ll listen for yours.

Shopping...Ay yi yi

I need to premise this post with the fact that H. and I have been cruising in jeans and T-shirts for the past 6 years. We do not frequent department stores or malls.....at all. So, now, the following tale of today will make more sense.

Neither H. or I are very fond of department store or mall shopping, but he needed clothes for the new job, so off we went. First stop: Kohl's. Did I mention I hate department stores? Yeah, I thought so.

Locate the Men's department...check.

Hunt down the short sleeve button front shirts....check. Woo hoo! SAVE 50% (I like it!)....until we notice the REGULAR price is $50.00! For ONE button front polyester/cotton shirt?? (Not even a Ralph Lauren.) Okay, Okay, so 1 shirt at 50% off is going to cost us $25.00, and we need 10 shirts. So, after weeding out all the Charlie Sheen look alike shirts, we had several we liked in an assortment of colors.

Next up: Slacks.

Find the casual slacks (Dockers)....check.

Holy cow. There are officially at a minimum, 10 variations of Dockers slacks today. You have your classic, your chino, your pleated front, flat front, microfiber (I'm serious!), straight fit, individual fit, comfort fit, cargo and soft. ----- Okay, no problem. We just needed to find the regular basic style of Dockers that H. wore 10-12 years ago. After a few minutes, we spotted them.......for $36.99 each! Man, when did the prices for clothes skyrocket???

After working through the pile to find the right size, we ended up with a light khaki, dark khaki, charcoal grey and navy.

On to the dressing room. ....................................One hour later, we have matched up the selected shirts with the selected slacks, tried everything on, second guessed it all, then finally said 'what the hell' and marched to checkout. We were tired, we were hungry and we were so done with shopping at this point. ......The cashier was quite cute as she commented on each shirt saying 'how nice' or 'this is quite nice', and she was even cuter when she said 'that will be $330.22 please, but you saved $180.20!' Uh, yeah, that's because everything was marked up 300% first...duh.

Next stop, the mall. Oh, I hate malls. We found the food court, and a mexican place that served two enchiladas with rice and beans for $3.99. That works! We took one, found a table and scarfed down our lunch.

Sears, JcPenneys, Macys or Dillards???? We still needed one more pair of slacks, socks and a belt. ------------(why didn't we buy them at Kohl's you ask? We didn't think of it. I know, I know) ......We chose Sears. Fast forward through all the locating where we needed to be, with the exception of complete shock with the price of shoes, made in China if I may add; we managed to find one pair of slacks, one belt, 9 pr. of socks and 2 additional shirts, headed to the checkout, paid them $178.10 and got the heck out of there. It was time to go home.

One last stop. Walmart. Wine/Beer. Yes. Okay. Home, James. :)

Tax Facts.....In honor of Tax Day

In honor of tax day, Business Insider put together a slide show on the 20 tax facts that will “make your head explode.” Here’s a sample:

1. The IRS has more employees than there are people in Flint, Michigan (106K vs 102K).

2. Americans spend $28 billion and 8 billion hours each year doing their taxes.

3. The number of pages in the tax code has increased 16,775% in the past century.

4. You could fill Dallas with the number of accountants Americans hire to help with taxes each year (over a million).

5.The number of pages in the tax code has increased 16,775% in the past century

Go here to get the facts-about-taxes-

OH, in case you were wondering, Mr .and Mrs. Obama received a $12,344 tax refund.

And, We had to write another check payable to the Department of Treasury. It's weird.

Farmer's Market - Downtown Dallas

Dallas in the background Wow! Watermelon, peaches, plums, pineapple Pepper Paradise! (I'm in love) And, the flowers! Impatiens, salvia, geraniums, roses and more



Hey! Considering it was Saturday, we decided to take a drive to the heart of Dallas. As it happened, we stumbled upon the Dallas Farmer's Market. We're talking food, fruit, fresh vegetables and music! My kind of place! This was by far the BEST EVER Farmer's Market we've seen. All the produce is Texas grown, prices were more than reasonable......AND, they were handing out samples! We sampled our way through on watermelon, oranges, cucumber, pineapple, mango, papaya, jicama, plums and the best tomatoe I've had in a long time.


Then there were the herbs and flowers. Oh my gosh. Herbs of every flavor and flowers, some of which I've never heard of. The Farmer's Market is open every day of the week, so I know where I'll be shopping! After enjoying the Farmer's Market, we did a bit more driving uptown, then hit a Sonic on the way home.


Dallas, so far, is looking pretty good!

Dallas, Part Two

2000 Nissan Maxima One owner, only 73k miles No dents Immaculate interior Dallas, Part two. We needed a car for commuting, so we've been on the hunt for the past few days. After seriously weeding out the scammers and avoiding all dealers, both new and used, we finally settled on a 2000 Nissan Maxima. It is a one owner vehicle with just 73k miles and in immaculate condition. This guy had literally ALL maintenance and service records. We did not hesitate with an offer and within the hour were driving it home. He even took us to the DMV where we registered and titled it. In Texas, you need both a State inspection and emissions, but fortunately, the inspection on this car is good until November. We are happy with our purchase! Now, on to Part Three.....shopping for clothes! Woo hoo!

The Big "D"

It's not Vegas, Baby. It's Dallas! We arrived here a few days ago and have been overwhelmed by the amount of traffic and number of people. So much activity everywhere! I guess we've been living the relaxed lifestyle for so long, a little culture shocked has definitely shocked us. In our fulltiming, we've always avoided Dallas like the plague, and here we are, thrown right into the middle of it.

We will make our way through, but it will take some time to adjust for sure.
First on our agenda is to find a car to commute in. Our Jeep is not the commuting type of vehicle, so it may be sitting for a spell.

That's it for now, from Dallas. I haven't decided yet about this blog, but will probably keep it going as we make our transition from fulltiming to worker bees.

How Corny is that?

Yup. Corn. ??? (don't ask)





Me, our daughter Amanda, H. and of course, Jack. We had such a great time in Arizona with our daughter and her boyfriend! It was tough to leave. Makes me wish we lived very near so we could always be there for her, whenever she needs something. Of course we don't and she is quite frankly a pretty independent young lady, so will leave it at that. We did finally find a replacement Jeep for her. Pictures should be coming shortly. It is a great looking Jeep with very low miles, so we are hoping she will be happy with it, especially since she was able to buy it and put some money in her pocket. As I type this, we are on our way to Dallas. H. has accepted a full time permanent position so our life as fulltimers will be changing, but I fell it's too soon to speculate on that, so will be posting updates of our 'life in Dallas' as things come.

Who Doesn't Love April Fools Day...from 1911?