Progressive Reunion.

I wrote about half of nice, long entry here at terminal B75 in IAH. A lady across the room has a Very noisy, squeeky sounding dog. After 30 minutes, the dog had gotten on my nerves. So I set my phone on the chair beside me to get some headphones from my bag, as I then reached to unzip my notebook case, my phone slid off it's resting place and hit the floor without too much sound. As it hit, the battery cover shot off along with the battery. And that was the end of that entry. So now, I begin at square one, but this time with a new opening paragraph.

The ladies will be happy to know that the woman next to me is reading 'The Wedding.' The guys will be happy to know that I don't remember if that's the sequal or the prequal to 'The Notebook.' The lady on the other side of me is reading a magazine featuring scantly clad Hispanuc people. Neither of these ladies were next to me when I began my original entry. Let's get back to that.

I'm waiting patiently to board my flight to Midland. I'll be spending a couple of nights there, doing business in Seminole. I've never visited either of these citis, but with the affection I have for West Texas, my expectations are fairly low.

So that's where I'm going. Now where have I been? A couple of weeks ago, after spending a couple of days in Laredo, I determined that it was a terrible city to visit (right up there with Kerrville). Krispy Kreme and a pretty decent authentic Mexican food place called Palenque Grill are among its very limited redeeming features. Last week I spent a night in Waco, got to visit the new Taco Bueno, and ate my Chiladas with my bare hands (they forgot to give me silverware). I hope the towel washer at the Fairfield Inn was able to get the Chilada stains out of the towels that night. The next day I made stops in Coryell County and Eastland. Eastland County Courthouse has an interesting display at the entrance. They have an embalmed hornytoad encased in a coffin on display. Old Rip is a local hero and his annual parade is coming up in February. Clinton, hit me up with a link to Rip's story in the comments. While in Eastland, I ate at the Texas Cattle Exchange. A tasty restaurant that offers an excellent all you can eat buffet. The restaurant portion of the building is fairly small with about 15 tables of 4. Also in the building is a section with offices. Most notably, a 3rd door takes you to the cattle showcase area. In this cold room, you'll find a strong cattle smell coming from the outside barns and arenas. There is seating in this area and a small section below where cows can be brought in. Here, in the mud/hay the cows are bid on. But my favorite part of the story: in this cold, smelly barn, Eastland residents have church services every Sunday. The only comment I had was, 'I bet they have really good nativity scenes.'

That night I returned to Conroe through Dublin (picked me up some Dublin Dr. Pepper) and CS. The higlight of my week occurred after we beat OU in basketball. That night, Penny and I travled to Dallas to see Sister Hazel in concert. We were met there by a few of her friends and Nick and Vanessa. SH rocked. Pretty good live show. Afterwards, I got the guys to sign my ticket. My A&M Basketball ticket. We didn't have a ticket to the show because Penny won some all acess passes, which were in the form of stickers. With no real alternative, I handed them my basketball ticket and they were happy to autograph it. I spent that night at Nick's place. It's definitely nicer than mine. We had some late night Denny's after the show where we were entertained (annoyed) by a group of children singing (yelling) such hits as The Hokey Pokey and Barbie Girl. No idea why these children were out past midnight, but they should have definitely been elsewhere.

Now, I'm flying to Midland where I'll see Clinton. The progressive Ranch Reunion is nearly complete. The trip takes me all the way across Texas. But I'm excited. Honestly, I much preferred having Ranch get-togethers in the hall between the kitchen and the bathroom of Apartment 19 on Balcones Drive... But this is quite enjoyable too.