September 22 & 23 - "Hanging Out" in Dallas

     It's nice to just "hang out" with family and friends at times, and these were two good days to do it.  Sunday started to heat up again towards "normal" Dallas temperature, in the high 80's.  Jeff's family went to church in the morning while we enjoyed the dogs, lazing around, and not doing too much.   The afternoon wasn't much different. 

     Winston, their cute little dog, acted as if he had finally discovered there were two other dogs in "his" house, and he made every possible attempt to get Dudley to play with him.  Just picture this 12 pound dog trying to rouse the 180 pounder!  No way!
     In the late afternoon, Lea had to get Beth prepared for "Cotillion" that evening, and she braided her hair into two pig tales.   Beth  was really cute, and had a good time at the dance lesson.  Becky kidded her before she went that she would be doing the Cotton Eyed Joe!  At the same time, Jeff and Drew decided to brave the heat and go for a "short" hour-long bike ride.  The photo is of Jeff wearing his "kit".  Becky and Jim were invited to go along and spectate, but given the near 90 degree heat decided to remain stay put in the house with the dogs. 

     The evening was spent watching TV, playing a family trivia game with everyone participating, and reading.

     Monday the kids were back to school, Jeff went off to a meeting and Lea went walking with friends.  Washing our clothes, sheets and towels was the order of business for us.  Again, Winston tried to get Dudley to play with him, with exactly the same results as the day before!  He certainly was persistent, though!
     Late morning Jim and Becky rode over to Euless to visit with Jim's younger brother John.  John has been remodeling the kitchen in the house he and his wife Lynda live in, and he's doing a terrific job installing the new cabinets by himself.  All the lower ones were done, so this week he will install the upper ones.  We had a great lunch at the nearby Old West Café, and had a very pleasant time catching up.
     Jim used to collect airline memorabilia, such as timetables and magazines.  In addition,  he took thousands of airplane pictures over the years.  The hobby has been inactive, and about a year and a half ago he contacted an old friend in Grapevine, Will Blunt, who was a full time seller of commercial aviation material and had his own EBAY store.  Last year Jim consigned a good part of his collection to Will to sell, and made some good money as a result.  This year Jim has been selling "stuff" on his own, both for himself and his cousin.  Will still had a good part of his collection, however, and then died unexpectedly in the early summer from a stroke and blood clot in the brain.  His life partner returned most of Jim's stuff to John, and we were there to pick it up while there for our visit.  Jim called Will's partner Lisa while we were at John's, and she had found more of his collection.  We picked it up on the way back to Jeff's. 
     After returning to Dallas, the family went out to a Chinese restaurant and then we  engaged in another family trivia game for the rest of the evening.  Nice way to end a relaxing day!