There’s no better way to remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice than to buy a bunch of crap on sale.

In this post: Memorial Day, on this date in history, muu-muus.

We never made it to Hong Kong Royal yesterday for dim sum. I had to settle for grilled cheese on low-carb white bread with sugar-free sweet pickles because I was asleep almost all day — just like Saturday — and couldn’t talk myself into wearing a brassiere for any reason whatsoever, including shrimp dumplings. I felt like a first-class sloth and loved every minute of it. How’s your three-day weekend shaping up?

For a limited time ... free high-class Obamacare bumper stickers!

In this post: Insomnia, barfy images.

4:13 A.M. It’s the middle of the night and I can’t sleep again, although this time I think I’ll blame my predicament on way too many Saturday naps. There were THREE. (Oy.)

Maybe we’ll go for a ride today. I’ll even wear a brassiere and shoes.

In this post: Quakes, bags, dumplings.

I just read on CNN.com that Los Angeles had a 5.1-magnitude earthquake last night followed by a bunch of smaller aftershocks. The quake’s epicenter was in Fullerton (in Orange County) but shaking was felt all over the region, including the Hollywood Hills, Rodeo Drive, beautiful downtown Burbank and the usual list of snooty stores and restaurants. Also palm trees. Sam and I have a lot of family in L.A. and we both hope you’re all okay and nobody’s bathroom mirror fell off. EARTHQUAKES ARE SCARY.

Shaquille O’Neal soda has his face on every can.

It was 106° in Mesquite today, people. Holy crap … OUR HOTTEST DAY OF THE YEAR SO FAR. The good thing is, tomorrow is September, the days are getting shorter and temperatures should be trending lower over the next few weeks with occasional blasts of Arctic air plummeting us into the upper 90s. To tell you the truth, if it had been hot like this back in May or early June I’d be mighty depressed about another unbearably hot summer like last year and the year before. (And the year before that, too.)

Sam and I went to Hong Kong Royal in Carrollton today for dim sum, and I have to admit … they actually had some damn wonderful LOW-CARB DUMPLING OPTIONS made with tofu instead of noodles! Two hours after lunch my blood sugar was only 111, which was excellent.

Show of hands. Do any of you know that Shaquille O’Neal has his own line of soft drinks? With his face on every can?

Despite the fact that Shaq’s signature beverages were originally supposed to be DIET drinks, one 23.5-oz. can contains 72 grams of sugar — equal to 17 teaspoons — which has pissed off a number of health-conscious consumer groups. The Center for Science in the Public Interest issued a press release pointing out Shaq’s previous history of diabetes activism and called his endorsement of a high-sugar soft drink “shameful hypocrisy, presumably motivated by money.” Shaq? Motivated by money? STFU.

Thank you for reading this.

If I were you, I’d sleep with one eye open tonight.

You know how it is. Some Saturdays are better than others. For Sam and me, though, today was PERFECT. We slept like a couple of rocks last night, woke up early and drove to the other end of town for dim sum at Hong Kong Royal, which included lots of hot sauce, nice waitresses and unlimited napkins. This was so much fun I almost couldn’t stand it.

Our perfect Saturday didn’t end here, however. When we got home we watched two deliciously shitty movies, Irwin Allen’s Five Weeks in a Balloon (1962) starring a typical gang a 1960s actors looking for a fast paycheck, and The Blob (1958) starring Steve McQueen, Helen Crump and a wad of homicidal caramel. We’ll discuss Five Weeks in a Balloon first.

It’s amazing how thoroughly Irwin Allen can destroy a story with possibilities, this time a 19th century Jules Verne classic about a bunch of Brits ballooning over Africa. The characters are all cartoonish — especially Peter Lorre as a fake Arab with crappy sprayed-on makeup and Billy Gilbert doing his old-time radio sneezing shtick — and the females are always helpless, half-dressed and “in distress.” And we definitely didn’t need Fabian singing the title song three times with an accordion.

And now The Blob, a late 1950s sci-fi flop that introduced the world to Steve McQueen. Steve was almost 30 when he made this film but was cast as a teenager alongside deadpan Aneta Corsaut (whose next big break was Helen Crump in “The Andy Griffith Show”) and an amorphous mass of oozing caramel trying to take over their town. They finally manage to get the man-eating caramel under control by freezing it with fire extinguishers, then asking the U.S. government to haul it by air to the Arctic circle to keep it frozen forever.

Unfortunately, people, global warming may do the unthinkable. If I were you, I’d sleep with one eye open tonight.

Here’s a little something from our Fun with Beverages department! For those of you with a little too much time on your hands the Howdygram is pleased to include the following educational video courtesy of Foodbeast.com. I actually want to try this.

Two more things to cap off my perfect Saturday. First, MORE NEW FONTS! I totally love some of these, particularly Avalanche, Cocktail Script, Emblem Chief and all those cool ampersands.

Second, I think I’ll head back to the family room now with Sam to watch Key Largo (1948) starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall accompanied by chocolate soy milk and a bowl of green olives. (The soy milk and olives are mine. Poor Sam is not a gourmet.)

Sam responds badly to hysterical screams in the middle of the night.

Ah, Friday. It’s 4 a.m. and I’m trying to bounce back from a hypoglycemic (low blood sugar) episode that started about an hour ago. I woke from a sound sleep feeling clammy and screwy with a craving for sugar and wound up where all loopy diabetics would go in that condition — THE CAN — at which time I began shouting for Sam because I knew I couldn’t make it to the kitchen for the various whatnots I needed to undo what was going on. Sam, as always, came to the rescue, although I tried my best to not sound panicky because he responds badly to hysterical screams in the middle of the night. (Actually, I guess everybody does.)

At any rate, I’m definitely much better now after consuming a low-carb ChocoPerfection bar (the kind that tastes like cheap Easter bunnies from Walgreen’s), two chewable glucose tablets and a Marcytini with extra ice. Extra ice is an important part of this complete breakfast.

Yo! We’re expecting a nice, balmy day today! The forecast says 70° and partly sunny, and that’s a nice change of pace for the middle of January. (It’s typically about 50° here this time of year when we’re not having an ice storm.) If it doesn’t rain I’m hoping for a dim sum outing with Sam on Saturday because we haven’t had dim sum for an awfully long time and I need shrimp dumplings bad.

I also need more sleep, but before I sign off here’s another batch of free fonts that I downloaded on Thursday. I think all of them are from FontScore.com. I especially love Neutra Small Caps and Din Condensed Pro, but I can’t explain why.

Thank you for reading this.

Shrimp dumplings and a bunch of eastern European contortionists showing off to music.

I discovered a crazy new sport last night at the London Games: BMX racing! BMX is fun to watch but really shouldn’t qualify as an Olympic sport because it’s basically just the roller derby on bicycles. You get eight riders on midget bikes — wearing helmets that make them look like alien raptors — exploding out of the gate at 40 miles per hour, except nearly everybody smashes into the wall at the first big turn so only two or three ever get to the finish line. Hilarious? Yes. Dangerous? You bet. Olympic? Not on your life, pal.

Sam and I went to Hong Kong Royal for dim sum today , which was AWESOME and even better than last time, probably because I brought home an order of Cantonese Pan Fried Noodles with Shrimp for an afternoon snack. God bless Cantonese Pan Fried Noodles! Even better, on Hong Kong Royal’s big-screen TV we had a chance to eat dumplings and watch rhythmic gymnastics at the London Olympics ALL AT THE SAME TIME, during which one hapless athlete dropped her mile-long twirling ribbon and collapsed into hysterics on the floor of the arena. Try to imagine her pain for a minute. You just invested 15 years of your life training for this moment, you make your mother work three jobs to buy you a $1,200 figure skating tutu with rhinestones, and then you DROP THE STINKING RIBBON AT THE OLYMPICS. She deserves to spend the next ten years in a labor camp when she finally goes home to Uzbekistan Kyrgyzstan Turkmenistan Bulgaria wherever the hell she’s from.

For your possible interest here are three representative images of rhythmic gymnastics from the London Olympics. The one in the center is clearly reminiscent of Titian’s painting Diana and Actaeon from 1556. (Google it if you don’t believe me.)

In my opinion rhythmic gymnastics don’t belong in the Olympics because it’s just a bunch of eastern European contortionists showing off to music. However they really know how to point their toes.

News flash! My new sleep aid, Trazodone, worked pretty well last night, although it apparently wears off after six hours because at 5:30 this morning I was wide awake, thirsty, hungry and bored. It was like somebody flipped a switch and WHAMMO. So I decided to move forward with Plan B: 1) a Marcytini; 2) Cheetos; and 3) an old Myrna Loy movie. (That’s technically an oxymoron. Every Myrna Loy movie is an “old” Myrna Loy movie.)

As long as I’m on the subject of movies, a couple of days ago Sam and I watched The Wolf Man (1941) with Lon Chaney, Jr., Claude Rains, Ralph Bellamy and Bela Lugosi. This was not nearly as scary as I remembered it as a kid, but it was genuine buttered popcorn entertainment with the silly Wolf Man costume, all that fake fog and Maria Ouspenskaya as the creepy gypsy fortune teller.

It’s time to move on with some afternoon activities, such as: 1) making chocolate pudding; 2) eating my leftover Cantonese Pan Fried Noodles with Shrimp; and 3) I can’t think of anything else. Sam is asleep in the family room and he definitely has the right idea. Thank you for reading this.

There’s no parade for Irish cowboys in Mesquite.

Sam and I would like to wish all Howdygram readers a joyous St. Patrick’s Day. We’re planning our own official celebration later today with lunch at Hong Kong Royal — dim sum! — and a nice long drive that might include a trip to the Choctaw Casino if I can talk Sam into it. This is the best we can do considering we don’t drink beer and there’s no parade for Irish cowboys in Mesquite. Also we’re Jewish, which means Chinese food and slot machines are perfect for all occasions.

Thank you for reading this.

I love Sundays with Errol, Fred and Ginger and Sam.

There are hundreds of very good reasons why I didn’t write a second post yesterday. For starters, Sam and I were way too busy eating dim sum for lunch at Hong Kong Royal, after which I spent two grueling hours online horsing around with Turbo Tax, whose seriously untrained “live chat” help desk is staffed by a team of Einsteins. (Yes, we’re getting a nice refund. No, you can’t have any.) I waited an hour and 15 minutes to connect with an agent named Tonisha WHO NEVER HEARD OF A SCHEDULE C. Seriously!

I also enjoyed a luxurious nap, made our favorite one-pot Greek rice dish for dinner (check out my recipe), watched The Adventures of Robin Hood with Errol Flynn and The Gay Divorcee with Fred and Ginger, and then we tuned in for the last half-hour of the Super Bowl, which was a mighty smart thing to do because Ahmad Bradshaw’s weirdo touchdown for the Giants in the final 60 seconds of the game was really something to see. In an effort NOT TO SCORE he accidentally fell backwards into the end zone and sat down. Photos of Errol, Fred, Ginger and Bradshaw landing on his ass appear below

From our Why Didn’t I Think of This First department, I’m pleased to introduce Ebon-Aide® Bandages for people of color. I saw the link alongside an article about Black History Month but apparently brown bandaids haven’t “wowed” their intended audience because the company’s website no longer exists. I don’t know about you, but I think these are a great idea and I’m surprised they didn’t sell. I wonder if anybody ever tried inventing brown Q-Tips.

And finally, here are two of the world’s craziest Asian dining establishments for your possible interest. Photos appear below.

• The Clinic in Singapore is a hospital-themed restaurant and club with seating on golden wheelchairs and metal hospital beds that have been converted into booths. You can request an I.V. of your favorite soft drink for a small additional charge. Due to health considerations the restaurant does not distribute bedpans.
• Modern Toilet in Taipei is such a huge hit that a dozen branches have opened across Taiwan. Diners are seated on standard-sized toilets and eat out of miniature ones. Drinks are served from tiny urinals. (I’ll bet the food tastes like crap.)

And now I’m going to load up the kitchen with a pile of homemade fake sweets: Pillsbury sugar-free fudge brownies and a sugar-free pumpkin pie. I’d be glad to share except Sam’s been waiting for these and I’ll bet there won’t be anything left after he gets home from work tonight. Maybe next time. Thank you for understanding.

Prizefighters, brownie procrastination and avoiding Maria Ouspenskaya.

Saturday was lazy and wonderful around here. Following a nice lunch at Denny’s I took two mega-naps, almost baked brownies and watched a middleweight fight on HBO, the FDR biopic Sunrise at Campobello with Greer Garson and Ralph Bellamy, and The Rains Came with Myrna Loy, Tyrone Power and Maria Ouspenskaya, who’s four feet tall and ugly enough as a maharajah’s wife to scare the crap out of just about ANYBODY. I actually slept through most of The Rains Came, but that’s okay because I watch it every time it’s on TCM and could recite most of the dialog by heart. This movie has some incredible special effects for 1939. Trust me, you’ll start looking for water wings.

Today is Super Bowl Sunday, a thoroughly meaningless event for Sam and me since we have no vested interest whatsoever in who’s playing or who wins. Our day will be filled instead with other worthwhile activities, such as dim sum for lunch at Hong Kong Royal, baking the sugar-free brownies I put off yesterday and trying to figure out whatever happened to winter in Texas. The grass is turning green, our lawn service already started their spring weed treatments, outdoor bugs are emerging and we haven’t had daytime temperatures below 53° since the second week of December. As a matter of fact, temperatures in January and February (so far) have been more like March and April. If you think I’m making this up, take a look at our forecast.

As long as I’m rambling about weather you may be pleased to know that the drought is over for Dallas/Fort Worth. We received triple our normal rainfall in December and January, which helped our reservoirs and lakes rise more than five feet. (Lake Lavon actually rose TEN feet, which is excellent news if you live in Plano.) Most local municipalities will continue to enforce stage three water restrictions for the next few months, but that’s no big deal since it’s still winter and we’ve already had more than enough rain for our trees and lawns. Incidentally, I should mention that the rest of the state is still under an “exceptional drought” warning. This is crappy news for crops and cattle, and we Texans LOVE our crops and cattle although I have to admit that I wouldn’t recognize an actual crop if it jumped up and slapped me in the face.

I should probably go to bed now so I won’t oversleep and be late for dim sum. Thank you for reading this!

Mobsters, dim sum and Raisinets.

I thought it might be worthwhile to write a quick post before I go to sleep. I’m not exactly tired at the moment and it always helps me unwind if I horse around with the Howdygram for a little while. First, here’s a really cute video clip from YouTube for your possible interest. (Sam and I both got a kick out of this.)



And now, three unforgettable events from this date in history!

• December 26, 1946. Mobster Bugsy Siegel opens the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas. Comedian Jimmy Durante was the headliner with music by Cuban band leader Xavier Cugat. A crowd of Siegel’s Hollywood pals showed up, too, including actors George Raft, George Sanders, Sonny Tufts and George Jessel. Unfortunately, the grand opening flopped due to seriously crappy weather, the casino lost $300,000 its first week and Bugsy wound up in deep doo-doo. (I can’t believe I just typed that sentence.)
• December 26, 1973. Legendary horror film The Exorcist opens. Based on the novel by William Peter Blatty, the movie starred Linda Blair as a 12-year-old girl named Regan who’s possessed by a demon. When her freaked-out mother (played by Ellen Burstyn) finally decides to contact a priest, he recommends performing an exorcism, during which Regan’s head spins 360°, her body levitates and she projectile vomits green bile. The Exorcist earned a reputation as one of the most terrifying movies in history. (Popcorn sales sucked and nobody bought Raisinets, either.)

• December 26, 2004. A magnitude 9.3 earthquake — the second-largest in recorded history — off the coast of Indonesia triggers a deadly tsunami that killed an estimated 230,000 people from Southeast Asia to the coast of Africa. The quake lasted almost ten full minutes, triggering other earthquakes as far away as Alaska and causing the entire planet to shift on its axis. Holy crap.

In case you’re interested, Sam and I had a pleasant, typically Jewish Christmas yesterday. We drove to Hong Kong Royal for dim sum, fondly recalling that classic scene from A Christmas Story when the family winds up at a Chinese restaurant (pictured below) on Christmas and the waiters are singing “Deck the Hors with Boughs of Horry” as they whack off the head of a Peking duck.

Pass the soy sauce and thank you for reading this.

I promised you an update, so here it is.

The results of my lab tests weren’t as thrilling as the rest of my checkup earlier this week. Apparently a couple of blood tests indicated that my renal function is beginning to decline so we’re experimenting with different doses of my two diabetes meds. Also, my triglycerides are still too high so I have to take TWO Niacin capsules every night instead of just one. I’m supposed to go back to the doctor in four weeks for another round of lab work. Maybe the lab should just install a 24-hour hotline in one of my veins so I can shoot them a few tubes whenever they need it. Sheesh.

In other news, all of a sudden my Ovation Creative website clients are dropping like flies. In the past month I’ve lost FOUR of them — three closed their businesses and the fourth went broke and hoped I’d be dumb enough to continue hosting her website for free.

Please allow me to discuss client number four for a moment, who was a semi-deadbeat from the get-go. During the past three years every time she made a payment to me for ANYTHING I’d get a “declined” error message on my credit card terminal and would have to play email tag with her for days on end until she finally paid what she owed me. The last straw was earlier this month when she was supposed to shell out $89.85 for quarterly website hosting. Her card was declined on the date the payment was due and I had to send FIVE EMAILS over the course of seven days until she finally got back to me with the following message: “Sorry, I’ve been so busy! I’ll send new my credit card information tomorrow!”

The next day was Friday, which came and went with no communication. Ditto for Saturday and ditto for Sunday. Finally, on Monday she sends the following email sometime during the evening: “I will not be able to make my web hosting payment. Financial issues are taking every dime I have and I honestly can’t afford to pay you. Thanks!”

I’m especially intrigued by that cheerful little “Thanks!” at the end, because she apparently assumes I’m running a website charity service for bankrupt ninnies. I write back and tell her that, under the circumstances, I’ll have to unpublish her website and cancel her hosting account, and please feel free to get in touch some day in the far, far distant future if you ever win the lottery and want to start over. She freaks out and shoots back a fast email asking isn’t there anything she can do to please keep her website online. So I write back: “ONLY IF YOU PAY FOR HOSTING.”

I never heard from her again.

On the plus side, however, new clients are filling the void. I designed and published a really cool website for Michael Page Associates a couple of days ago and I’m also creating one for a local handyman service here in Mesquite. These projects are excellent distractions so I won’t have to think about what the devil is going on with my kidneys. I also wouldn’t mind dim sum tomorrow for lunch.

Thank you for reading this.

Reflecting on a thoroughly terrific day.

This has been one hell of a Saturday. Maybe the best Saturday we’ve ever had. The weather was sheer perfection ... 72°, clear skies, light breeze, bright sun. We began with a drive to Hong Kong Royal for dim sum, which (in my view) is the only sensible way to launch the weekend because I love hot chili sauce on just about ANYTHING except chocolate pudding and breath mints. Unfortunately, when we got home we discovered that Sam’s Macintosh computer had died in its sleep, but this really wasn’t too traumatic because his Mac was already six years old — ANCIENT for a computer — and had enjoyed a full, productive life. So we visited Apple.com and ordered Sam a cool new iMac that’s exactly like mine. It should be here on Tuesday. The iMac below agreed to pose for the Howdygram.

Feeling sated after our online shopping spree Sam asked if I’d like to go for another drive, so we bounced back into the car and headed to Sunnyvale to wave at cattle (sometimes they even wave back) and do a test-run to the Texas Regional Medical Center because Sam is scheduled for out-patient surgery on Thursday morning and we wanted to check out the facilities. On the way back we discovered a classic car show in a strip mall parking lot so we stopped and walked around for an hour. Seriously, these cars weren’t just somebody’s hobbies ... they were genuine works of art with pristine paint jobs and engines cleaner than my kitchen. Sam and I love classic cars!

As the perfect ending to a perfect day, for dinner we picked up a pile of barbecue from Dickey’s and watched A Night at the Opera. Sam fell asleep sometime during Harpo’s big number on the steerage deck and he’s still unconscious on the couch as I write this post (Sam, not Harpo).

Ssshh. And thank you for reading this.

Celebrating food with the Howdygram maven.

Saturday was an unforgettable food-fest here in Howdygramland. It started at 10 a.m. when I surprised Sam by announcing that I wanted dim sum for lunch. He didn’t even have time to object or develop a counter-offer, because within half an hour we were already in the car heading for Hong Kong Royal in Carrollton. The food was wonderful. We shared seven plates of different little steamed dumplings plus gooey chicken rice soup, barbecue pork buns and my favorite sticky rice wrapped in tobacco leaves. (Just kidding. They’re actually lotus leaves but Sam thinks they look more like tobacco). The smiling chef pictured below is Ken, who owns the restaurant. Those are shrimp dumplings posing in the photo to his right.

But the food-fest continued at dinner when we had those gigantic stuffed portobello mushrooms we bought Thursday morning at Costco (see below). Seriously, this was probably the best house-made fresh entree I’ve ever bought at Costco ... and that statement covers a lot of territory. The mushrooms are about five inches in diameter, they’re stuffed with crumbled spicy Italian sausage and cheese, and you just heat them in the oven at 375° for half an hour. Heaven. At the moment I’m wishing I had leftovers.

And now for a completely different subject. I’m wondering if any of my Howdygram readers can tell me why a person’s hair would suddenly get curly without a reasonable explanation. I had stick-straight hair my entire life until about a month ago when, according to Sam, I started to resemble Shirley Temple. (I think he might be exaggerating a little.) Any information would be appreciated, however, and thank you for reading this. Also, don’t forget to buy those portobello mushrooms at Costco as soon as possible.

Catching up.

In case you’re wondering where I’ve been for the last few days, it’s really no big secret: I’ve been right here at my desk working on projects and NOT ANSWERING THE TELEPHONE. For at least four straight days up to and including Election Day on November 2 we were receiving nonstop “please remember to vote” robo-calls from every Democratic club, caucus, incumbent and candidate throughout the state of Texas and nationwide ... including no less than four recorded reminders from Bill Clinton himself.

Ironically, when Sam and I show up to vote Tuesday morning at the Dunsford Community Center we find out our district has been subdivided and our new polling place from now on is at Porter Elementary School. Although Porter Elementary is actually closer to our house than the Dunsford Community Center, this is the kind of information that might be nice to know in advance. All those hard-working Democratic organizations wasting all that time reminding everybody to vote ... too bad nobody thought it was important to tell us WE HAVE A NEW POLLING PLACE.

For your possible interest the map below indicates the following Mesquite locations: A) our house; B) Porter Elementary; and C) the Dunsford Community Center.

By the way, a million smooches to everybody who sent me birthday cards this year. All of them were adorable and I hope I remembered to thank each of you individually. Sam had the day off on my birthday so we drove to Hong Kong Royal Restaurant in Carrollton for a dim sum lunch. I meant to take pictures of my dumplings but we were too busy eating them. Maybe next time. Thank you for reading this.

It's been quite a week around here.

First of all, I got a clean bill of health during a follow-up visit to the oral surgeon yesterday, which was no huge surprise because everything feels great and I love my new teeth. Afterwards I decided to commemorate this big hoo-hah with a shopping spree, so I drove over to Costco and loaded up on two pounds of lox, a gigantic tub of Sam’s favorite cashews, bread, chipotle chicken taquitos, hand soap, canned ravioli and a nice meat loaf for the weekend. Then I spent the afternoon finishing up a new client’s website design.

Other incredible events this week have included the following: 1) I got a flu shot on Tuesday; 2) the weather is finally cooling off here; 3) my Aunt Matilda is celebrating her 90th birthday; and 4) I think I’m getting a bladder infection. Also, Sam has today off work so we drove up to Carrollton for a dim sum lunch at Hong Kong Royal Restaurant. Click here to examine their dumplings in exquisite detail.

They have the best dim sum on earth ... and that includes all the Chinese restaurants we used to enjoy in L.A. I’d like to go back for dinner tonight except I’m positive Sam would rather have lox and bagels. What a meanie.

Thank you for reading this.

I really hate street festivals.

Yesterday was our wedding anniversary. This year’s unofficial theme was “Sam and Marcy forever,” and to celebrate we’ve got dinner reservations tonight at Hattie’s, a fun, upscale restaurant in the Bishop Arts District in Oak Cliff that specializes in MODERN SOUTHERN CUISINE. (Translation: fried green tomatoes and cloth napkins.) Except 10 minutes ago while I’m browsing around on DallasNews.com I notice there’s a huge weekend street festival in Oak Cliff that starts today at noon and runs through 9 p.m Sunday. It’s some weird event called Blues, Bandits and Barbecue honoring a local dead guitarist that includes 23 restaurants in tents for a barbecue cookoff, a live music stage, lots of sweaty people eating ribs and lousy parking in a neighborhood that’s already too congested. And although the poster wants you to believe everything starts at noon Sunday, they’re LYING. The news article posted alongside it said all the major access streets in Oak Cliff will be blocked off starting at noon TODAY to built the stage, set up the tents and haul in all that restaurant equipment. Plus they’re expecting a bunch of street musicians. (I hope they have a swell time. It’s supposed to be 94° with 78% humidity.)

What this means is, bottom line, we definitely have to reschedule our dinner reservation at Hattie’s. I’m thinking maybe we’ll wait until my mother-in-law is here in October ... so maybe we can celebrate our anniversary with dim sum this morning instead at Kirin Court in Richardson. (I love dim sum.) Now I have to break this to Sam. Oy.