That's The Denton Mall . . . But, Wait, There's More

That "A" is the location of Imagination Station daycare. Somewhere else on the map is the location of a Hooter's restaurant. (It's somewhere along I-35 on the mall side, but that's all I know.)

So what do the two have in common? A wandering five year old.

Courthouse Square Carnage

Man, I just missed this. Apparently some lady zigged when she should have zagged and took out one of those fancy lightposts. But I'm not sure what all those bricks came from.

Edit: We have a good idea on how long it will take to replace.

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

• That charisma factor between McCain and Obama is a no brainer.
• Minimum wage has been boosted to $6.55 an hour beginning today. Incredible. That $262 a week before any deductions.
• This heat is getting to me. And I work indoors.
  
• I saw Wall-E last night. It was really pretty good. But has there been any reference at all to how the old school robot looks exactly like the one from the movie Short Circuit? Have I messed that? Edit: Someone has thought about it.
  
• That back road behind Denny's and Braum's off of Western Center Boulevard now has a pothole in it that is as deep as . . . . well . . . a huge hole.
• I really don't care for the manager of a restaurant coming around to see how my "dining experience" is going
  
• I hate waking up, looking at the clock, and realizing the alarm is going off in five minutes
• I'm not real sure who Sophie Monk is but I saw some beach pictures of her yesterday and they were-a-good
• I keep a pump shotgun in my house. The reason? I had a buddy tell me once that the sound of putting a shell in the chamber was "universal" and that sound alone might cause an intruder to flee.
• WBAP's Hal Jay was shocked today to learn that some of his co-workers had purchased things off of Ebay.
• Paul Harvey is back on the radio. He doesn't sound dead at all.
  
• Odd thing I did as a kid: I designated March 1st as "my holiday." No reason. I just wanted a day designated for me like any other holiday. I celebrated it for almost five years straight by drinking a coke or something. But I didn't tell anyone because I was afraid they would think it was weird.
  
• I think I'd like being a long distance truck driver.
• Forbes list of Top Five movie actor earnings last year: 1. Will Smith - $80 million, 2. Johnny Depp - $72 million, 3. Eddie Murphy - $55 million, 4. Mike Myers - $55 million, 5. Leonardo DiCaprio - $45 million. (How'd #3 get in there? Oh, yeah. He does that donkey voice in Shrek.)
• The murder of two young girls in Oklahoma who went out for a walk gets very little press. And I don't understand why.
• When I was a boy, I came across at least 10 head of cattle that had been slaughtered in a field near my house. (Near where Overland Drive is now.) They were all within 30 feet of one another and, stay with me here, their stomachs were ripped open. I told my dad who called the owner but I never really got an answer as to what had happened.
• Has anyone else seen that NFL/Reebok "migration" ad? It's kind of creepy but kind of cool. For about two seconds (at the :42 mark), you can see a group of Cowboy players but the only one I recognize is Greg Ellis.
• Kind of nerdy, but some commenter on a Texas Criminal Justice blog created a little skit taking civil libertarians like me to task. It was pretty funny.
• Stumbled across "Brooke Hogan Knows Best" - a new reality show on MTV of VH1. Awful. Completely staged and awful. But she's kind of hot. I watched the whole thing.
  
• I loved Mystery Science 3000 but, man, it was the show where you had to watch with undivided attention.
• Speaking of hot, Megen Henderson of Fox 4 mysteriously missed the 5 o'clock hour this morning but showed up beginning at 6 o'clock. I'm not sure I've ever seen her do this before.
• In a metroplex of a krillion people, is it really news when someone tries to steal an ATM machine?
• The DPS office in Decatur used to be in the basement of the courthouse
• I like Chipotle and Rosa's as far has quasi-fast Mexican food goes.
• Great "ATM out of service" video.
  

Random Boring Vacation Pics

The last one appears to be a croc. Yep, dang straight!!!! It was in the small "lake" outside the hotel. For the longest time I thought he was fake until his eyes opened and his mouth opened wide. And then I jumped on his back and wrestled him - laughing uncontrollably. Or not.

Report of big 380 wreck

Two careflight helicopters and more.

Barry (from mobile)

Rep. Phil King

Spent this much moola during the first six months of 2008 to be your State Representative according to his July "Semi Annual Report". Mercy.

The entire PDF report is here. (Quite frankly, I really don't understand the time period because he had to file several reports before the primary election that cover the same time span. )

But get this: It says he spent on $911.20 on the Wise County Messenger during that time frame. That can't be right. I think the number may be closer to a half billion dollars.

(All his filing are listed here. You guys feel free to root around in them.)

Ugh

Any you Wise County folks having trouble with Embarq "sputtering" over the last couple of days? Or is it just my connection?

Drives me nuts.

Wednesday Afternoon Pick Me Up

Reminds me of one week ago.

(Putting head on desk. Silently weeping.)

I'm Not Sure . . .

. . . why my law partner is in Seymour, TX (I thought that end of the hallway was kind of quiet) but he just sent in the pic of a fine dining establishment.

Based upon all that activity, it kind of looks like the Barnett Shale (insert "power down" sound) doesn't reach that far.

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

• It's that annual UCLA "undie run" and thank goodness someone brought a camera to document the type of activity that offends me.
• A couple of week's ago I wrote I was skeptical of a sexual assault claim made by a woman in Keller. While I was on vacation, apparently the police released a statement that it "may not have happened." But I can't find a link to it.
• T. Boone Pickens comes across as a snake oil salesman.
• Man, there is lots of Texas Tech hype this football preseason. I'll believe when I see it.
• The television series Black Gold really isn't that good. But I'm glad I don't work on an oil rig. I'd be killed within 48 hours.
• I don't understand anyone who eats in a restaurant by themselves but doesn't bring along something to read. Just staring off into to space seems weird to me.
• They sell Viagra over the counter in the Mexican airport. Does that explain the high number of illegal immigrants?
• I only drink skim milk. Even with cereal.
• I've hyped the iPhone for five months now. I'm not backing off. Two weeks ago Apple added applications/programs to its iTunes store (most of them for free.) Man, good stuff.
• During my cave exploring in Mexico, four 18 to 19 year olds were placed in my group of 8 to go with the guide. One of the kids kept referring to "when I was in Switzerland." Was it wrong to hate him for that?
• Finished watching Coming To America last night. Kinda funny but, dare I say, overrated?
• Man, there's a church on every corner in Wise County. So much so, you can find one that's "perfect" for you. Which seems backwards.
• I'm still can't get used to a McDonalds being in Bridgeport.
• I've not had a Big Mac since, at least, 1990.
• Once again, I am a meteorological expert by accurately declaring Hurricane Dolly to be no big deal.
• Argyle football player whom I feel sorry for if the allegations are not true. (And his family had $35,000 laying around to post as a cash bond.)
• There's a quote that has always stuck with me from the old Moonlighting show when the characters played by Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd were being shot at. Shepherd, fearing death, asks Willis if he is religious. He replies, as bullets go flying by, "No, but if you know one that's big on forgiveness with a short initiation period, I might be interested."
• Remember when everyone freaked when Magic Johnson announced he got The HIV? That was in 1991.
• I haven't been to the Wise County Reunion since 1993. And I was only there then to park cars. I'm still getting the dust out of my eyes.
• Stolen from bagofnothing.com: A satellite view of the high tone subdivision that the Jonas Brothers are moving into.
• How is it that even the poorest of the poor in America are still fat? (Heard that on Generation Kill last night.)
• Funny report from the Reunion last night: "I've never seen so much spitting in my life."
• The Cowboys open up training camp on Friday. Man, there is no bigger beating than the press coverage of it over the next four weeks. "Patrick Crayton made an outstanding leaping grab over Terrence Newman during 7 on 7 drills." Yawn.
• As I prepared to leave Mexico by getting in line to get my boarding pass, I couldn't find some danged postcard size customs form I was supposed to hang on to. At that point, the attendant said I couldn't get in line and "had to go see Immigration." All the life force was sucked out of me as I was pretty sure I'd be in Mexico for another week. But I walked down to the office, there was no line, they handed me another card to fill out, she stamped it, and I was on my way.

-

And Another: Motorcycle Wreck at FM 730 & CR 4756

Credit: Emailer Amy

Motorcycle wreck in front of Taco Bell

No photo unless someone else got one. Barry (from mobile)

Lawyer Of The Year

Let's just say it involves prison, underage sex, and a wheels off lawsuit against American Express. You know, normal stuff.

Here. (And the comments, especially #5, are pretty funny.)

I feel pretttttty, pretttttty, pretttttty good about my life right now.

Update News

It's all about a shut down Wise County highway this afternoon, but if you are interested in things like that go here.

Hey, Heyyyy

I soooo stole this from D Magazine so everyone go buy a copy of their publication so they won't send one of their high priced, silk suited lawyers after me. (Don't sue me! If you think I'm letting you take that five year old Envoy from me, you are sadly mistaken!)

Anyway, to quote D about this pic:

"[Which] includes one of the greatest facial expressions I’ve seen in a while. Here’s what I imagine going through the guy’s head: 'Okay. Look good. Look sharp. Be cool for the camera …. whoa, HEY. HEEYYY.'"

And visit the D Magazine blog, Frontburner.

(I'm probably good now.)

I Have Discovered A New Mental Disorder

It's called Barnett Shale Tired Head (or "BSTH"), and I hereby claim copyright and trademark and all those other legal words. So everybody else back off.

I can't turn on the TV invention without seeing something about the Barnett Shale. Then there's billboards and the countless newspaper articles. Everybody is getting rich off that stuff except me. Not a dime. (OK, maybe a few bucks from some random oilfield worker gets falsely accused by a trooper of driving while liquored up.) But, in general, mention of the Barnett Shale causes a great deal of depression in my life including Barry tears rolling down my Barry cheeks. I mean, I can hardly breathe when I see terms like "$800 million," above.

Anyway, I'm working on getting "BSTH" included in the DSM-V. If I pull that off, I'll buy my own oil well. Just like Eddie Chiles told me to do when I was a boy.

As We Go Into A String Of 100 Degree Days

Let us all remember March 6, 2008.

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

• I'm not sure I've ever liked a Woody Allen film
• Stumbled across CSPAN last night and watched some of a daily press conference held by presidential press secretary Dana Perino. She's awful. She simply seems scared to death and I can't tell you the number of times she said, "I'll have to get back to you on that."
• Speaking of press secretaries, I never got to mention the death of Tony Snow. Probably the best ever at the job. And he seemed like a nice guy.
  
• The Drudge Report is obsessed with tropical storms and hurricanes.
  
• Hurricane Dolly is a big bag of nothing but be prepared for minute by minute coverage over the next couple of days.
  
• Anyone who is extremely close to me knows this fact: I have an uncanny ability to drop something but catch it before it reaches the ground. I know of three people that know that about me.
• In Mexico, I swam through a long underground cave that has only been open to the public for a about three months. Creepy. It was called "Rio Secreto" and some folks have loaded up pics of it on Flickr here. But, man, to get to it they put you in the back of some renovated World War II truck and then hauled arse down a bumpy narrow road for five miles.
• At one point in the cave, they shut off all the lights and allowed us to sit in the darkest of darkness for four minutes without sound. And then the silence was pierced with the sounds of my stomach growling. And then I had to suppress laughter. I wasn't mature enough to be there.
  
• I think I'm beginning to figure out why older guys wear some wheels off clothes. It's not that they don't understand fashion, it's that they don't care anymore. (I'll mow the lawn wearing some weird stuff sometimes.)
  
• Another death of a kid left in a car yesterday. It's both unthinkable yet believable when you consider the millions of people in the metroplex.
• There were more details released about the Russ Martin incident (he allegedly made threats to his fiancee while holding a gun and, legally speaking, some other stuff) but, man, his house in Southlake is huge.
• I'm not sure what I think about Fox 4's Emily Lopez. I see some "fake sincerity" but I need to observe her some more.
• The new Tiger Woods labeled Gatorade with "25% more electrolytes" makes me think of the movie Idiocracy.
  
• From The Ticket this morning: Greatest Sports Year Ever? (Great Super Bowl upset, NCAA Basketball Championship went to overtime, Tiger's crazy U.S. Open win, a Wimbledon men's final that was insane, an 80+ seed of Fresno State winning the college baseball world series)
• David Letterman last night: "It's so hot in the northeast that vice president Dick Cheney has replaced his pacemaker with an icemaker." Kill. Me. Hard.
  
• I couldn't pick the Jonas Brothers out of a lineup. But the Morning News is reporting the boys are buying a home in Vaquero in Westlake. (I drove by that subdivision once wanting to go in but the thing is built like a fortress.)
  
• More troubling banking news: Wachovia, the nation's fourth largest bank, reported this morning a loss of $9 billion for the second quarter. Last year it made $2.3 billion during the same period.
• Not sure why the "locally owned bank" in Decatur is opening a Colleyville branch. Other than they are sure they can make money by doing so.