Afrah

The dinner hour found me in Richardson Wednesday, so I made free to visit one of the area's best middle-eastern eateries, Afrah at the southeast quadrant of Beltline and Greenville.

I usually get kebbeh, but today I chose beef shwarma with tahini with Baba Ghannouj and fattoush. The radioactive looking pink stuff is pickled radish, or turnip, I believe. They are piquant and a lovely foil to the savouries and oils of the rest of the dishes. They also serve little pickle slivers. Though I love all kinds of foods, I rarely eat pickles, but here I'll tuck into them with relish. ;)

I'm really itching to get out of Dallas, but while I'm still here, I need to make the most of the tastes and sights so readily available here. For now I'll try to make the best of it.

Coming Friday: Concert review from Big Bad Voodoo Daddy at House of Blues. Time to get out the Betty Boop shoes. WOOHOO!

petty, much?

Here's a quote from someone I deal with who harrassed me about not paying for their services. Received this on November 14.

XXXXXX will be coming by your office to clarify that it was our XXXX that helped him. We have a chain of emails to provide support of the evidence of XXXX working on this.

Checked with my accountant, and found we'd paid on September 12, and the check had funded to their account on September 14.



Even if there had been an oversight on my part, I don't believe I care for that tone. We are not amused.

One should always check one's records before accusing others of louche business practices.
***********************

What's odd to me is that when I took the 10 hour a week job in an apartment management office, I had no remote thought of this eventually turning into a career. Now other management companies have tried to poach me from my property and other managers call and vent to me. Wednesday a manager at a neighboring community-- one of the places I would look first for an apartment in Dallas-- called me up on the verge of tears about her predicament with the corporate arrangement.

There's a lot I love about the work I do. I really like making things function they way they should do. I like taking care of all my little baby chicks. Other aspects: not so much.

Gun Nuts tonight...

From their site:

Gun Nuts Programming Change!

FYI, if you're planning on listening to tonight's show, the topic has changed slightly to focus more on the issue with DoD destroying once-fired brass. Tonight, 9pm Eastern time, we're going to give you the inside scoop on how you can fight this at www.blogtalkradio.com/gunnuts

Duck!

Went to First Chinese BBQ last week with Blackfork's Redhead.

No one does duck like these folks. I'll pass on the feet, though, tyvm.

Is it rude if these ducks make me think of A Christmas Story? Fa ra ra ra ra, ra ra ra ra!

Atomic Nerds mobile...

Seen in Dallas Thursday afternoon on Midway Road just north of LBJ. Sorry I couldn't snap a better photo, but this will have to do.

Wow. I don't know if that's good-wow or bad-wow.

Irony...

I just realized how funny it is that all the emails I get which promise to enlarge my manhood I immediately move to "junk mail."

Sunday, Puppy Sunday - friends, feasting and fur-bearing critters...

Sunday found me close to home. I called a friend, frequent commenter rabbit, who'd graciously offered to troubleshoot my computer (while I longed simply to shoot it, rabbit had said "we can rebuild it") and he and his wife agreed to come over for a mid-afternoon meal. Then - heigh ho! - a brainwave: Holly and JPG agreed to come over as well.


I navigated yet another blasted marathon to make my way to the market. To my delight, a $21.99 little crock of stinky french cheese (glory!) had been dramatically marked-down, so I took the opportunity to try the stuff at a fraction of the usual price. You can see it's in the dark, low ramekin in the photo under the crystal dome right next to Our Lady of the Parsley. I think it's a good sign when a cheese is so roguelike as to require crockery containments. ooze... I also picked up a buttery bleu cheese to compliment the two havartis and manchego I had in the fridge to serve. Yum. I roasted a hen for a pasta dish with toasted pine nuts and sultanas and made a simple salad. This was not the most elaborate meal, but I think it hit the hungry spots. Vast quantities of iced tea were consumed.




rabbit & his lovely wife L brought their fresh pup Panda, a Siberian Husky. She was a little vexed by my little dogs, but she held her own. Panda mostly napped and sat around looking pretty.



Chuy was well-behaved and refrained from begging until we trotted out the Tiramisu Hols and JPG so graciously brought to the gathering. Then Chuy planted himself on rabbit's lap in a most determined fashion, to no avail. Poor pup.


Praline never tired of begging at table and was limitless in her creativity when it came to finding ways to pop up level with the dining surface. She was largely unsuccessful in her quest, though I suspect a few wayward foody bits found their way into her gullet.

Thanks so much for coming over, Holly, JPG and rabbit & L! I enjoyed your company immensely!

And endless thanks to rabbit for making my computer work better/faster/stronger than before.

Now I'm for a bath with a Lush bomb and a book. Clean house and a functioning computer. Yays!

Let slip the kittens of war...

This could get ugly.



Hackles raised... the sharpening of claws... blood on milk teeth... upturned saucers...

what American accent do you have?

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Midland "You have a Midland accent" is just another way of saying "you don't have an accent." You probably are from the Midland (Pennsylvania, southern Ohio, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and Missouri) but then for all we know you could be from Florida or Charleston or one of those big southern cities like Atlanta or Dallas. You have a good voice for TV and radio.
The Inland North
The Northeast
Philadelphia
Boston
The West
The South
North Central
What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

You see that? I have a great voice for TV and Radio. Someone should tell TV and Radio. I know they must be longing to hire me.

the blue screen of death,

...she has visited my computer.

i'm blaming harry dresden for recent tech failures.

will post more later.

Allow me to say-- I just want to say--

The Palm Centro phone from AT&T is a colossal piece of crap.



Save your money.



Yes, there have been moments I really really liked this phone. Like, the first, oh, couple months I had it. The first time.

I'd put a Palm Treo through a rough 2.5 years before it crapped out utterly, one day last spring. I wasn't delighted the phone gave up the ghost, but it was a complicated machine and I had put it through its paces. I supposed it deserved a rest.



I grabbed my bonnet and sashayed out to an AT&T store and selected for my fab new phone the Palm Centro. Smart choice, right? It's a lot like the Treo, but smaller, cuter and with nice grippy QWERTY keyboard. Sweet. The first week I had that phone, I dropped it and put a rather smart little *ding* on the corner of the phone, but it kept working. Seemed fine.

To make a boring story short, the first Centro crapped out shy of the 3 month mark. That ding on the corner never seemed to affect the efficacy of said phone. AT&T warranty folk felt otherwise. They'd already replaced the phone but they said the warranty was void because of the mark on the case, so they charged me a brand new $349 for the new centro on my phone bill. NOW, I'm shy of the year mark for when I got the first Centro, and the second one-- the $349 one, TYVM, crapped out Wednesday night.



Yes, I'm back on a $20 go-phone from Target. ARGH! Seriously aggravating.



I will miss my internet access and my 12 flavors of solitaire, but I won't miss dreading the day my über-expensive phone will utterly crap out. I'm calling AT&T first thing in the morning to cancel my internet service on the phone, and that'll save me about $40 a month right there. I won't miss shelling out the extra $40, either.

ARGH!

Hideous fan art

Search google images with "bad obama paintings."

Or don't.

Lots of unicorns and rainbows. Some nudity. Much hideousness.

*shudder*

There is one bright ray of sunshine, though: a Michelle Obama pancake art with pink dolphin which you can buy now on ebay. Love it!

You know it's a good day when...

...you find out your favorite shoemaker is following YOU on twitter. Before you are following them.