Cowpoke

I just had to say "cowpoke". Moving on...

Getting up to a sleepy last day of John's conference. The hotel has this awesome "Wake up to your day" feature on the TV that you can set to automatically start up, and instead of a blazing alarm sound, it's really gentle music set with a gorgeous video montage of nature shots, starting with a long shot of the sun peeking through the clouds. Stunning scenes of water falls, blowing trees, time elapsed video of the sun shifting through a forest and the stars rotating through the night sky with flashes of the Northern Lights, and still prairie fields against blue, blue skies are so pretty, I wish this were a feature on our home TV. It's the most glorious way to be woken up :)

We caught a Ranger's game the other night after John's day was done, and it was awesome! Outdoor baseball is just the way it should be (I say that sitting pretty here in the hot sun of Texas and not the 40 degree chill of Minneapolis, however...). Click here to see how cute we are! (If the link doesn't work, it's www.texasrangers.com/fanphotos, select the May 11 Rangers vs. Oakland game, select Gallery 5). The stadium's got nothing on our new beauty at home, though, but it's always cool to tick off another stadium on our list of must-sees. We had fun watching a group of harmless drunks that security seemed to think were worthy of most of their attention because they spent the last 5 innings bugging them. That's called "too much time on the hands", my friends! The game itself was good, and they tied it up in the 9th at which point we decided to head out so as to miss the traffic and John could get some decent sleep. It's amazing how easy it was to get to and from the ballpark, a straight shot on 30 that was one of the most leisurely intercity drives we've ever experienced. Drivers here are, overall, very mellow. I have to say, I'm impressed. I haven't cussed uncontrollably once ;)

John had a busy day yesterday so I sat around reading most of the day. Have I mentioned to you (because I know I've bored John to tears with this) how much I adore Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix? It's my favorite of the 7 books, and it was very nice to drag my book around and have my nose in it all day. I sat out for an hour and a half at the Water Gardens reading, the sounds of water and trees blowing was a lovely atmosphere for utter relaxation. It's been hot, in the 90s, here but the breeze has helped. Later in the afternoon, I FINALLY braved the pool!! It was completely empty, and a wonderful break in the day. They've got the temperature a bit too warm for my taste (85 degrees, the pool guy informed me). I paddled around a bit, did my version of water aerobics and then spent 5 minutes in the boily, bubbly whirlpool before nestling onto a lounge chair with my book. I felt a bit silly as a group of fully clothed business people came through on a tour, and shortly after that I noticed my skin was all red, likely from the mondo-chlorination of the hot tub, so I decided it was time for a shower.

We went for dinner at this rockin' place called The Flying Saucer. They had a FOUR PAGE beer list (none of which I had ever heard of), and we both had brats with hot German potato salad which was delicious. We then caught Iron Man II in a nearly empty theater (highly entertaining, but in keeping with the latest trends in movie making, a little over-the-top). We had an exhilarating walk back along the festive Main Street, which was alive with celebration: an outdoor band, dancing in the streets and late-night happy hour crowds milling about. It was all sweet and romantic except for the furious wind which brought that all to a grinding halt by blowing something directly into my eye....good feeling gone, I whined the whole way home with my eye pouring out tears and no way to deal with the situation. We went to bed directly without any preamble :*(

Today is John's final day of the conference, and we are looking forward to a final evening here, then setting off as early as possible tomorrow to make some good time on the way home. I'm going to do a little art journaling (yes, I brought all my paints and crap!), more Harry Potter, looking over my Container Gardening book, more time at the pool and then we may try to hit one more touristy-type thing tonight. I'd like to check out the Botanic & Japanese Gardens. Or maybe we'll just try for another romantic evening, without something lodged in my cornea!!

Ok, enough of my blather! I'll have John upload more photos later.
Love & hugs :)