I had a great weekend with my children and their friends in Fort Worth. (Actually, we were in Arlington when I saw my daughters, Molly and Megan. We met them for dinner Saturday night at a steakhouse there.)
Patrick picked me up at Love Field in Dallas and then we headed for Cowtown. We grabbed a late supper at the original Fuzzy’s Taco Shop near Texas Christian University.
He and I messed around Friday. talking, walking his dogs and eating good food, including fried chicken, waffles, shredded sweet potatoes and collard greens at Buttons for lunch. On Friday night, we were joined by his girlfriend, Sarah, as we tried the Flying Fish location near TCU — several photos on the wall of fishermen and -women from Arkansas showing off their prize catches.
Saturday afternoon, the three of us sat in the bleachers at Lupton Stadium and watched the TCU Horned Frogs take on the Cal State-Fullerton Titans in a college baseball game featuring two nationally ranked teams. It was a great game, but the Titans turned a go-ahead-run on a close call at the plate in the top of the ninth inning into a full-blown five-run rally and then held on for an 8-4 win.
That seemed to start a trend because TCU, ranked No. 3 nationally entering that game, lost to CSU-F in the ninth again Sunday in the rubber game of the series. Then the Frogs repeated the trick Tuesday night against the visiting and much-more-lightly regarded Dallas Baptist University Patriots in a 4-3 loss. http://gofrogs.cstv.com/sports/m-basebl/recaps/030111aaa.html
At night, we stayed up late talking and watching movies. One was Robert Duvall’s latest, “Get Low,” also featuring Bill Murray, Lucas Black and Sissy Spacek. It’s based on a true story of a hermit in from Tennessee in the 1930s. Quite entertaining.
On Sunday morning, Patrick, Sarah and I met his longtime friend from high school, Andrew McKernon, for a great brunch at Taverna, an Italian restaurant in downtown Fort Worth.
I made some friends from Maumelle, Myron and Stephanie Putnam, waiting at Love for the flight back. Southwest had some trouble with a part in the windshield heater of our plane. After first trying to fix it, they moved us to a different gate and put us on a plane originally scheduled to go to Lubbock, Texas, and then Las Vegas, Nev. Lubbock was experiencing high winds at the time, so us Little Rock travelers replaced the Lubbock passengers and we arrived at Little Rock national Airport about an hour late. Then the plane went on to Las Vegas for the other folks.
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Residents of the Lansbrook neighborhood of North Little Rock will host a party at the corner of Lansbrook and Bethany from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Oct. 30.
Organizers Irene Sanders and Elsie Moore said a tent will be set up on the vacant lot at the corner. The party is designed to serve as both a belated “back to school” celebration and a “get acquainted” gathering for people who live in the neighborhood, Sanders said.
An inflatable jump house, music, basketball, pingpong and other games will be available at the party.
Food and drinks will be served.
North Little Rock police officer Tommy Norman and a female officer will speak with children about dangers and temptations they may face growing up and how their actions have consequences.
Sanders said children are the focus of the event, but anyone from the area is welcome.
Sanders noted that the committee is still accepting donations of hot dogs, hamburgers, bread and buns, fish, chicken, coleslaw, baked beans, chips, cookies, bread, pickles, cooking oil, soft drinks, water, juices, plates, forks, spoons, napkins, cups and large trash bags.
Anyone wanting to donate items or get information may call Sanders at 945-9661 or Elsie Moore at 945-4994.
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Can you get rusty at writing a blog?
Has the process existed long enough for rust to form? Still, it has been more than a week, so I should deposit butt in chair and write, as an old English teacher used to tell me.
Between the unseasonably cold weather, the sickening slaying of Salvation Army Maj. Philip Wise on Christmas Eve and the apparent sudden death of former state Rep. Sharon Dobbins on Wednesday, it has been tough getting into the spirit of 2010.
(By the way, I think I’ll go with the pronunciation as “twenty-ten,” rather than “two-thousand-ten,” because it’s shorter and … let’s face it, we’re all going to be saying either “twenty-whatever” or “two thousand-whatever” for the rest of our lives.)
A few items to close out 2009:
- My favorite Christmas-related moment in the spiritual sense was the beautiful job of singing by the children (consisting of three youngsters) of First Presbyterian Church of North Little Rock at the Christmas Eve candlelight service Dec. 24.
- Favorite Christmas album discovered this year was the one by Chris Isaak (released in 2004). It has a lot of steel guitar and clever rephrasing of some traditional lyrics that gave it a Hawaiian feel and made offering seem light and enjoyable.
- Funniest moment (in retrospect) was my two brothers and I sitting at Mom’s dining room table playing dueling smartphones, all of a different make and model, as two of us compared a new iPhone and Droid received as Christmas gifts while the other brother showed why he was sticking with his Blackberry.
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What we have discovered at our house in the past couple of years is that you can enjoy the season of Christmas, both spiritually and secularly, without repeating everything you have done in past years.
That list might include things ranging from getting the entire roofline covered with icicle lights and stringing up every card you receive in the mail to going to every upscale neighborhood for viewing the battle of Christmas decorations and getting homemade cookies baked for every neighbor.
Sometimes we get some of them done and sometimes we don’t, but my wife and I have enjoyed the holidays just as much.
The children are in Texas. We planned to travel south to see them last year, but an illness caused us to postpone the visit until late February. We called it the February Festival and we enjoyed it so much that we are doing the same thing for the 2009-10 holiday season.
With less rushing to see different members of the family, we had time to attend a wonderful Christmas Eve candlelight service at North Little Rock’s First Presbyterian Church. It was a beautiful service, complete with a fourth-generation child being baptized in the sanctuary.
We got some of our cards mailed and others we did not. Some of the ones we received had photographs of friends and family whom we likely see several times a year, but never think to photograph.
One thing I did have an opportunity do for the second year in a row was make a phone call playing the part of Santa Claus on a last-minute check of the naughty-or-nice list to a pair of beautiful neighborhood girls. I don’t remember how the relatively new tradition started, other than from a conversation with a neighborhood mom. The first year only the kindergartner was willing to get on the phone with Santa, but this year, the younger sister — now a toddler — could not wait to get her turn on the phone. She was anxious to tell Santa what she wanted, but his old ears heard “a camera,” when what she wanted was “a camel.”
Sometimes even Santa can be thrown a curve.
What we have discovered, though, is that it seems to be easier to get the new year off to a good start when you are easing into January from a more deliberate speed, rather than rushing up to Jan. 1, trying to slow down.
Happy New Year. I hope yours is off to a good start.
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It’s been a great Christmas for our family.
It started with a wonderful candlelight service on Christmas Eve at First Presbyterian Church in North Little Rock. We thank all of the members for their graciousness in sharing their special service with us. It was their first service back in their sanctuary after nearly two years, thanks to a generous donation from a contractor who donated and installed a new HVAC system.
On Christmas, Nancy and I went to my folks’ house, where we spent part of the day with them and my brother, Pat, who lives in Carrollton, Texas. He arrived safely after a tough drive, running from the threat of snow in the Dallas area and through a series of closed roads because of flooding here in Arkansas.
My younger brother, Andy, who is a Memphis paramedic-firefighter, is scheduled to come down Saturday.
On Christmas night, we spoke by phone with our children, who live in Texas.
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Luckily for those of us who encounter a sweet tooth from time to time, we often buy too much Halloween candy, under the pretense that you have to be prepared for a larger-than-expected crowd of trick-or-treaters at the door. You can’t disappoint the children, you know?
That self-rationalization gets us through Halloween night, but rarely does it do us much good the next day as we realize we indulged way past the “I’ll just have a few pieces” level that we promised ourselves.
Kids may experience the drop in blood sugar and call it the blues, but we adults get the chance to throw in some guilt, too. But we still may call it the blues.
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Charity Grace Campbell was at the Stephens Media office in Little Rock today with her mother, Priscilla Campbell, to attend the baby shower for Emmy Buffalo, new daughter of Mark and Linda Buffalo.
Priscilla is our reporter at the Lonoke Democrat. Her husband and Grace’s dad is Nathan Campbell, who does HV/AC work in Lonoke County.
Grace, who will acquire a nickname from me at some point, was born Aug. 20 at Baptist Health Medical Center-North Little Rock, a month before doctors expected her. She weighed just under three pounds at birth. She is now a healthy-but-tiny five pounds.
After gifts were opened and the eating of cake commenced, several of us drifted back into the newsroom. When Priscilla wondered if cake was still available, I told her I would hold Grace while she went back to the conference room to eat.
My childrren are 27, 24 and soon to be 22, so I’m not exactly in practice at the baby cradling thing. But who can resist a tiny miracle?
We started out by letting her snuggle into a comfortable position — she fits entirely on my lower left arm when I bend it at the elbow. First, it was the gentle rocking full-body rotation from left to right. When that got old for her or I got tired, we went to the old standby: walking the floor. We made several laps around the editorial department and the news bureau and that did the trick. Gracie was out like a light.
Mama had to ask for her back.
Oh, that nickname? I am leaning toward Maizy, short for Amazing Grace.
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