On Friday, we headed to the giant Christmas tree in Sundance Square to participate in WFAA's Santa's Helpers Toy Drive. Like hundreds of others, we were dropping of unwrapped toys, and participating in festivities. Participants included personalities from WFAA Channel 8 (including Troy Dungan and Pete Delkus), Dallas Maverick's dancers and also the Mav's Maniacs, representatives from Dr. Pepper and Chik-fil-a, and 'a surprise visit by a Dallas Maverick.' The Maverick's occasionally do meet-and-greets in downtown Fort Worth, and they always send us one of the NBA's finest, like a 3rd-string bench warmer who only gets playing time when we're winning/losing by 30+.

Turns out, this time, they sent Dirk Nowitzki.

In the season's spirit of peace on earth and good will towards men, I garnered every ounce of my strength and did not tell Dirk that we should have traded him for Kobe 4 years ago when we had the chance.

Posted by Jonathan on 14 December, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (1)

Whilst taking care of some Saturday afternoon errands, I detoured down a couple of back streets (as I often do) and found this.

Posted by Jonathan on 19 October, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0)

...at Pizza Hut Park in Frisco, with our friend Charles, to see David Beckham and the LA Galaxy take on FC Dallas.

Posted by Jonathan on 27 July, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (1)

It's our first non-crazy Saturday in over two months, and we decided to spend it in one of our most favorite Fort Worth spots, The Modern Art Museum. The wonderful exhibit by Martin Puryear is coming to a close May 18th, and we wanted to go see it one more time.

What are you doing this Saturday?

Posted by Jonathan on 10 May, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's here! We've waited all year, and Bubby has been anxiously awaiting his favorite part, The Yo-Yo People. Good news for Bubby's who love good news: this year, he got to be part of the show!

Posted by Jonathan on 18 April, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sunday, Foggy Sunday, originally uploaded by laughcrazy.

Posted by Jonathan on 27 January, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (1)

The Scat Jazz Club is now open in downtown Fort Worth, in the heart of Sundance Square. It features old school jazz and drinks to make the Rat Pack proud.

While the club has opened to rave reviews, this particular entrance (which will be the main one for the club, which is actually underground, in the basement of the old Woolsworth building) did not get finished in time for the opening, something to do with elevator installation. Either way, it's a very groovy back-alley 'front door,' off of 4th Street, between Houston and Main.

We welcome you, Scat Jazz! Downtown Fort Worth, and Cowtown in general, has long been in need of such an establishment. Here's to many years of classic jazz and much success.

Posted by Jonathan on 21 December, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (1)

Seventh Street, view from a side window.

Posted by Jonathan on 1 December, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Seventh Street, view out our corner window.

Posted by Jonathan on 1 December, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0)

After 4 great days off, it's back to work at the new job. Part of my responsibilities there include being part of the team overseeing the build-out of the new floor we're taking in at the Oil and Gas Building, in Fort Worth.

We are supposed to be moving in by the first of the year. What do you think?

Soon, one of these empty spaces will be my office! I have no idea which one.

Posted by Jonathan on 26 November, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (1)

Posted by Jonathan on 23 November, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Sundance Square tree is up, the Christmas ornaments are up, and at
the Carroll highrise, mere blocks away, we are counting down the days
(2!) until the lighting of the tree, which is celebrated annually with
the Parade of Lights.

Posted by Jonathan on 21 November, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0)

...and Sundance Square is getting ready...

Posted by Jonathan on 20 November, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (1)

View of My House from My Work, originally uploaded by laughcrazy.

Posted by Jonathan on 11 November, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (1)

Posted by Jonathan on 3 November, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Posted by Jonathan on 3 November, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0)

My good friend Denton Hunker (far left above, although normally he doesn't have 'crazy eyes') is living out the dream, his band Green River Ordinance having just signed with Capitol Records, home of The Beatles and Coldplay, to name a few. Over the past few years here in Fort Worth, they have earned the title Best 'Local' Band, and having heard scores of local bands, I can easily agree with it. Green River Ordinance has an excellent rock sound, and they put on a superb live show. In fact, when they play at a venue, it feels more like a 'big-time' band is there, and I feel certain that with the help and direction of the good people at Capitol, GRO soon will be that 'big-time' band.

Not that they are small potatoes now: they have already played on tour with Bon Jovi, including a stop at a 'local' venue, American Airlines Center. We're going to be headed to the huge patio at 8.0 tonight to rock it out with GRO at their signing party. It's going to be totally groovy.

If you want to check out their music, which you totally should, go to www.freegro.net, where they are giving away their first CD online as a free (and legal) download. And then, book it to iTunes and buy their EP, Way Back Home

So congratulations, boys, and buckle up! The fun has just begun, the fun has just begun...

Posted by Jonathan on 11 October, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (2)

grrrrrr....

Posted by Jonathan on 1 October, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (2)

We had the chance to pop out for some shaved ice the other evening...so we did, and it was yummy!

Posted by Jonathan on 6 August, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (1)

Sometimes, you've just got to stop and have some P.F. Changs...

And the Chinese food wins...again!

...walk home...nice ride...

Posted by Jonathan on 30 April, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (2)

...to a high-rise near you us: good Mexican fast-food:

Yeah, they've been building it out for a while, but they are almost done now, and we are mere days away from an opening. How do I know this?

They finally put out the menu in the window...

Posted by Jonathan on 25 April, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (1)

...at convincing us to stay in this great town. It is a great place, and the Main Street Arts Festival only highlights that. We enjoyed all four days of it. It was easily the best Arts Festival in ages--the artists were great, but they also had much better music on the stage areas, better street shows, and several free (as in, not asking for tips) musicians just wandering around. It really made Main Street Fort Worth feel a bit like Main Street, USA.

I took off most of Friday, and on that very sunny afternoon, we stopped to see the YoYo People.

Later, we headed to Mi Cocina, got a table on the street's edge, and sat there for a few hours, soaking up the sounds and culture, and enjoying some of our favoritest mexican food.

Matty joined up with us after a little while, and made it more merrier!

Later, we were super-stoked to discover that, at our continued prompting, Earth Bones had finally gotten out the bubble machine.

He likes bubbles.

Bubby took some pictures, too. And he's getting better at holding the camera still:

Posted by Jonathan on 23 April, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (4)

...is just about the right word to describe it...Tomorrow, our 'neighborhood' is going to look like this:

They're almost ready now! Today's walk in to work reveal that all the booths are almost entirely set up, and dozens of the artists are already here, unloading their beautiful wares; the performing arts stages are all up, and a sound-check was going on about 8:30; 3rd Street is now offically closed all the way through; and I can almost taste the corny dogs.

Posted by Jonathan on 18 April, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (3)

Yessiree, sir! It's all smiles at the Carroll house highrise:

Why? Cos the Main Street Arts Festival is mere days away!!! And we are giddy with anticipation! While it would be a stretch to say we moved downtown just for the Arts Festival, it wouldnt' be that much of a stretch. We just love the whole thrill of it all: Main Street totally closed to all traffic, filled with thousands of pedestrians, artisans, musicians, and yummy-smelling food. Bins and bins of beautiful artwork, from hand-tinted photography to functional ceramic pieces to quirky 'yard art'--we just can't get enough.

Main Street is already closed, which makes the 'It's-almost-Christmas!' feeling even better! This morning on my walk in, dozens and dozens of workers were already out, getting ready to build stages and booths and set up sound equipment and in many other ways transform downtown Fort Worth into a perfect stage to host an additional 200,000 visitors this weekend.

It runs from Thursday through Sunday, and at the moment, the weather looks like it should be perfect throughout.

...which was not the case this past weekend...

We didn't get much rain, no hail, and truly not much severe weather, but it was very windy, and it looked pretty bad our our windows.

At some point, the wind ripped the exterior lights off the Bank of America building and they flapped about wildly for a bit. I was worried they were about to come straight through our windows, but they didn't...

Posted by Jonathan on 16 April, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (1)

Okay, so unlike most people, these guys heeded the wind warnings and took down the Red, White and Blue, in diligent anticipation...

I don't know, however, if they were expecting this scene

...to so quickly devolve to this:

Our winds were gusting up to 60mph. You could hear our old building creaking, although gladly, you couldn't feel it swaying.

For those of you that aren't in Texas or familiar with this kind of 'weather,' basically, a very strong front moved through rural west Texas and picked up a wall of dirty, pushing it several hundred miles in our direction. Basically, a normal spring day in Lubbock...but not one Fort Worth sees almost ever.

Shortly before this great wall of dirt encompassed downtown, we were watching out our windows while the fierce winds were catching stray leaves on the street, and shooting them straight up about 100 feet, before they would join a whirling vortex of other leaves in a mini-tornado. It was wild to watch...

Posted by Jonathan on 26 February, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (3)

...fire?

Posted by Jonathan on 15 February, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Snow Day! The office is closed!

...and this time, it was actually snow, not ice...

....I hope he's about to get some hot coffee!

No hamburgers today!

Mommy and Bubby enjoying watching heavy snowfall, early this morning

Let's catch some snow!

See larger versions of these pics here:

Posted by Jonathan on 17 January, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (3)

...well, not really TallMan, but his park:

Burnett Park Might Be Re-Designed

They are talking about making it more user-friendly, more of a park. Apparently, somebody has noticed that Noah needs more grass and less concrete in his park...as he's the only 'resident' of downtown who uses it as a park.

Otherwise, it currently gets used for:

a) lunching by downtown office workers who brownbag-it
b) a maze-like sidewalk for downtown office workers

So, as a resident and father of a downtown resident, I very much second the idea of making the park into what Mr. Burnett envisioned it when, in his Will almost 100 years ago, he dictated that it be made a park amongst the trees, for mothers and young children to be able to escape the unbearable heat of Texas and enjoy themselves. While we always enjoy ourselves there, it doesn't really beckon people to come and think of it as a park. It has more of a 'business park' feel to it, the kind that makes you feel like you need to keep moving, for fear of being ticketed for 'loitering,' just the opposite of what TallMan actually wanted.

Posted by Jonathan on 16 January, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (1)

The Neil P. building is close to being entirely finished, and while we have seen movers and have even noticed a few pieces of furniture popping up in windows across the street, there are no signs of resident life yet. I suspect this will change soon, though.

These are shots out one of our bedroom windows this morning at about 7:00...

One of the things I love about the living in the city is that it wakes up like we do: a little at a time, a bit quiet and groggy early in the morning. It kabumps about in the dark, you hear it making coffee, as the sounds of traffic and garbage trucks slowly percolate. There's a bit of a surge around 7:00 or so, maybe that's a quick shower. It finally rousts itself to a lively beat, the sound of cars, the quick walk of people getting out of the cold and into the office--or maybe they're going to Starbucks for something warm.

It's a quiet dance the city does, every Mon-Fri...and then on the weekends, it is sluggish and sleeps in...

...just like us.

Posted by Jonathan on 9 January, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0)

www.flickr.com More of Life Less Normal's photos tagged with Christmas

Posted by Jonathan on 8 December, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)

...for the tree to be lit!

Noah is getting pretty excited about this coming Friday's tree-lighting in Sundance Square. We visited the un-lit tree on Saturday night and he just couldn't wait for them to come on...and to 'slide down the slide,' meaning the circular ramp that takes you up to (and then away from) Santa...yeah, we didn't tell him about Santa yet. No reason rushing the avarice.

Yes, living downtown has been all it's cracked up to be. And we are loving it.

...as if you couldn't tell....

Posted by Jonathan on 19 November, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (2)

...as promised...

O, Christmas Tree

O, Christmas Tree

O, Christmas Treeeeeeeee

O, Christmas Tree

As we gather round the yuletide...

...To eat our cranberry sauce, shaped like a can.

Posted by Jonathan on 16 November, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (1)

I love walking to work. And I also love having a camera phone.

Living downtown continues to be quite a treat...Part Two coming soon!

Posted by Jonathan on 15 November, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (1)

...and the Bubby is happy. He's also pretty thrilled with all the acorns!

Posted by Jonathan on 14 October, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (1)

We have annual passes to the Fort Worth Zoo (even though we also tell Noah that Curious George was very sad to be taken out of the wild and put into a cage by the man in the yellow hat). If we go, the camera(s) go.

...which means you get to go, too!

Posted by Jonathan on 26 June, 2006 | Permalink