TEXAS LIVING!

So much to share with our friends and family who live outside Texas, and especially those who have never visited the ‘Lone Star’ State! Let’s start with beer! YAHOO! TEXAS BEER - For my beer drinking buddies, those who like the Lone Star brand and the long neck bottles, they are getting harder and harder to find. When we’ve had visitors; that is one of the most popular requests to have in the house. The local Tom Thumb (Safeway) doesn’t even carry Lone Star beer. What’s a guy to do? So far the local Kroger store has it! Just too many choices to put every beer on the shelf I guess. So let's drink more Shiner! ENTERTAINMENT, DINING, & SHOPPING - WOW! More exciting news here to keep us busy and spending our hard-earned retirement funds! The City of Allen is growing soooo fast, what with three major developments in various construction phases. One development, about 2 miles away, has a new theater under construction, another Starbucks (I’m feeling like the NW), and about 6 new restaurants. One opens tomorrow the 16th, and it is one of our favorites, PF Changs. We were lucky enough to be invited to the staff training dinner on Friday night. We invited our alley neighbors, Jerry & Mickie to go with us. Our dinner cost must have easily exceeded $100 and all we paid is $4 for Donna’s Bud Light, she is such a ‘lush’! Well, we also tipped our wait staff. In conjunction with the new mall coming 2 miles the other direction, we are getting a new $70 million dollar arena complex with a minor league hockey team. I’m hoping Wade will split the cost of season tickets with me! WATER SHORTAGE - It has been pretty interesting watching & reading about water conservation and the current water restriction issue. Actually it’s been pretty entertaining! I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to express my opinion on the matter and sent an e-mail to the City and the local PR rep for the North Texas Municipal Water District. I’d love to see my City step up and take the ‘lead’ and keep the twice-weekly yard watering restriction in place. Heck! We were able to keep our lawns green watering just one day a week. I also mentioned I thought they could do more with tips for residents and referred them to Clark PUD”s web site. Good thing we’ve had near-record rainfall! SIX FLAGS OVER TEXAS! - On Friday we visted one of Texas' most visited parks, 6 Flags! Ashley and I rode the Texas Giant and the Texas Titan, as shown above. I think I'm too old for so much excitement in under 3 minutes! We also played games and Ashley won the squirt gun race! Waaaaay to go Ashmash!