Val in Dallas

At the Will Rogers Memorial Center, the American Miniature Horse Association were having their annual show. Val, of course, wanted one to take home. Fortunately, we didn’t have a suitcase big enough.

Val wasn’t in a cleaning mood, so this didn’t prove to be too much of a problem.

I worked with Sook on the American Airlines project a year ago. She and her husband, Sriram, are originally from Singapore. Their daughter, Anna, is now a year old, and we were invited to her birthday party.

While we were away, Jude, the Restaurant Manager at the hotel opposite, looked after Splash for us. One of her hobbies is making bead jewellery, so we took back some beads for her to say “thank you”. Val is standing in the bead “aisle” of a nearby Hobby Lobby!

The Farmers’ Market in Dallas features produce, crafts and furniture not only from the local area, but also imported from Mexico. There are so many varieties of hot peppers that we’d never heard of, dried and fresh beans, fresh crop pecans, pumpkin, white corn …

Val found a Texas longhorn cow skull rendered in tin, which is now mounted in our hallway. The stall owner wrapped it well for us after hearing that it had to travel to England in a suitcase.

In the parking lot of the Farmers’ Market, with the downtown Dallas skyline in the background.

What can I say? We went to the outlet mall on Route 75 at Allen, and I thought, since we were so close, we’d head north to Oklahoma. That would have been fine, except that I chose the “scenic” route back. Val, bless her, stayed awake and appeared interested for the whole time!