Great Chinese Food In Dallas

Shoko and I went to a friend of her's (Ellen) and had homemade Chinese food last night. Ellen's mother is visiting from Taiwan and made us a feast of five dishes - all of them spectacular. My stomach is still happy this morning. Shoko asked her for the recipe of one of the dishes we both especially liked - a very spicy noodle and pork dish. Unfortunately, as with all great cooks, she said she never makes it exactly the same but she will write down the basic idea for us.

DFW Off-Road Bike Trail Map

I had this little booklet with about 12 mapped-out off-road bike trails in the DFW area that I bought about 10 years ago. I tried to find an updated one and was told by the bike stores that they don't make this anymore and others have been looking for it. It was really handy and even graded the trails much like a ski map - beginner, intermediate, and advanced.

I thought I had lost it but was elated yesterday when I found it in the most unlikely place. In my bookcase. Huh. A logical place. Who'd of thunk THAT?

It's kind of beaten up, but I'm excited to have it. I'll bet other trail bikers are jealous of my little old beat up trail guide!

Rita / Dallas Update

Well, it looks like Rita has decided to plan to take on some East Texas sites instead of the Dallas area. Of course, with hurricanes everything can change but right now the forecast is much better than it was just a day ago:

In North Texas, Ryan said, rain will average an inch in scattered showers and thunderstorms, meaning some places would get none, while others might get a bit more. "I want to stress," he said, "not everyone is going to get rain out of this." But the outlook was a relief to Dallas-Fort Worth area meteorologists. "We're on the western dry side" of the storm, meaning far less rain, wind and tornado threat, Ryan said. "If this were just another 50 or 100 miles to the west, we would be very concerned." The most significant rainfall will occur east of the eye, where 10 to 15 inches is possible. Far East Texas and western Louisiana will get the brunt, Ryan said. "We're talking serious flooding," he said.

Here Comes Rita

Oh boy. Texas is about to get visited by that famous meter maid, Rita. Sure, she's lovely but she's also mean and mad. Many people don't realize that Houston is the 4th largest metropolitan area in the country. Right now the highways are jammed with people getting out of Houston and going, well, anywhere.

I was getting my car looked at (yes, again - the engine light was on) yesterday and my service manager told me that there were people looking for rental cars but the none available. Also, apparently, hotel's throughout the state of Texas are booked pretty solid as a result of Katrina victim's and evacuee's from Rita.

I haven't seen any real visible effects of what I'm sure is more people in Dallas right now. But we'll see. Rita is supposed to come through here Saturday night/Sunday morning. Here's the current Dallas weather:

Friday Night: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after midnight. Mostly cloudy, with a low near 71. Northeast wind between 10 and 15 mph.

Saturday: Showers and thunderstorms likely. Cloudy, with a high near 82. Northeast wind between 10 and 20 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%.

Saturday Night: Showers and thunderstorms likely, mainly before midnight. Cloudy, with a low around 72. Windy, with a north northeast wind 25 to 30 mph increasing to between 40 and 45 mph. Chance of precipitation is 70%.

Sunday: Showers and thunderstorms likely, mainly before noon. Cloudy, with a high around 83. Windy, with a north northwest wind between 40 and 45 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%.

Sunday Night: A 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Cloudy, with a low around 71. Windy, with a west northwest wind 35 to 40 mph decreasing to between 25 and 30 mph.

Monday: A 40 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a high around 88. Windy, with a north northwest wind 20 to 25 mph decreasing to between 10 and 15 mph.

Something Smells...

My back patio smells like garbage. Like what you would smell in a back alley after garbage has been sitting around for awhile. Probably what a lot of New Orleans smelled like for awhile (and perhaps still does). What could it be. A visual inspection found no garbage in the area. My thoughts are that there may be a dead critter underneath the patio. I haven't looked there yet as it's not super easy to search down there. I may have to look through the slats. Do dead critters smell like garbage?

A New Bike

I bought a new bike yesterday to replace the one that I had stolen a couple of years ago. I wanted a bike that I could hop on for a quick trip around White Rock Lake with (I live about 2 miles from the lake which has a nice bike path all around it) as well as get on and do some unpaved wooded trails.

The bike is what they call a 'comfort' bike which is basically a hybrid cross between a mountain bike and a road bike. The Giant Sedona LX favors more mountain bike characteristics with wider tires, front shocks and a bit of a larger more rugged frame. Interesting technology (to me) that is new to me on this bike are disk brakes and tires that apparently repair themselves... hmmmm... think I'll still bring my repair kit...

Next up is finding a mountain bike for Shoko and going to hit some trails. Pat may even come!

Here's a pic of the bike but mine is in black.