Dallas, Texas

This is related, but since in German (only) for Thomas :wink:



Since he might be to young to be able to read the above, here's the transcript:

Annexation, diplomatischer Ausdruck, durch die Nordamerikaner eingeführt; sie kolonisirten zuerst das mexikan. Texas, unterstützten es dann unter der Hand, als es revoltirte, anerkannten es als unabhängigen Staat und nahmen es endlich in ihren Staatenverband auf; diese successive Eroberung nannten sie Annexation; der mexik. Krieg war die Folge.
Source: Herders Conversations-Lexikon, Bd. 1, S. 199, 1. Auflage, 1854-1857 [Digitale Bibliothek]

Thank you very much, blatham! One thing to know about Fort Worth is that one of its bookshops sold me Paul Krugman's brand new book a whole week before it was officially released. Try topping that, librul Portlanders!

PS: I walked downtown Dallas for four whole hours without passing a single bookshop. Maybe it was just bad luck -- but for what it's worth, that's another reason I liked Fort Worth better.

PPS: Off to DFW airport to complete my last round trip from Germany. I'll get back to you in a day or so.

Ah! I wondered what you were doing flying to Philadelphia in your other saga. It was just a stop over on the way to Dallas. Like I said before, it doesn't matter TOO much where you end up to begin with because once you're here you make the best of it and then move on to something else if it doesn't work out.

Short stints from new employees (wondering if the other guy started but then left) make me nervous but maybe it's an expansion thing and they're doing lots of hiring.

Congrats on getting the offer, Thomas. It'll be good to have you nearby :wink:

1.000 miles - even I wouldn't do that normally in one day. :wink:

300 miles?

yes, that is so...would you rather drive 4 and a half hours, dealing with other drivers and heaven knows what kind of traffic you'll run into once you get into a city, or fly for 55 minutes? Especially if it's for business.

For business, flying means you have your laptop, cell phone, blackberry...you don't have to waste hours in a car with just a phone.

Then there's the trip back.

Believe me, if you have to go back and forth in one day from Austin to Houston or Dallas for a meeting, you DON'T want to drive.

We had a new project manager, who didn't think about the geography here, call me from Dallas one morning, first thing, maybe 8:30. He said he'd meet me for lunch, maybe around one. I asked him when his flight was going to get in.

He seemed puzzled and said..."I'm not flying, I'm going to drive over to Houston and drop off some plans at the divisional office, then head over to Austin.

I didn't think I was hearing right, so I asked if he knew how many miles he was going to to going....he said "Well, I figure it'll take an hour, hour and a half to get to Houston, then an hour to Austin. I've never been here so I thought it be a nice drive to see what it looks like."

I never did see him that day. He sheepishly called me when he got to Houston, and said he'd see me in the morning, when he was going to fly in.

Driving 300 miles from Dallas to Tulsa....hope you like looking at dirt and grass.

It takes 4.5 to 5 hrs. to drive from Dallas to Tulsa...bit longer from Ft. Worth. Unless you plan to get up and on the road early, and get home late, you can't drive to meetings in the other city and back again. But for a weekend, it's perfectly doable.

I agree with you about the differences between Dallas and Ft. Worth. Dallas is definitely not made for walking. IMO, Ft. Worth is a much nicer place to live.

If you hafta be in Texas, that is. :wink:

(Congratulations on the job! It will be SO nice having you in our part of the country! We'd love it if you'd come for a visit. Just let us know when!)

Wow, congratulations, Thomas! I missed this Dallas possibility back in July and I'm thrilled to hear about your new job.

I lived in Fort Worth briefly in 1983, working at a theater there. I liked it very much. I went to Dallas often to attend art films and concerts, and the drive over was no big deal. Do they still call DFW the Metroplex? I thought it was a horrible nickname. Perhaps they've found a better one.

Many years ago, I had a phone-based relationship with a group in Irving (near Dallas). I was living in Vt at the time and mentioned driving over to NH for a meeting with some co-workers and then driving on to Boston for another meeting. Three states in one day. The woman I was speaking to began to laugh and said that they equate traveling to another state as most folk's concept of international travel. Advanced reservations required!

This makes me wonder, seriously...Does anyone in France drive from one end, to the other, and return, on the same day? I mean, not for a weekend getaway, but for work?

I know, it's sounds conceited maybe, but there really are huge driving distances here, and in Oklahoma.

Golly, look at Alaska, you pretty much have to fly to get around there, even though people inhabit such a small part of it.



Same with parts of Canada. Good Lord that is one big country.

No -- and they wouldn't fly it either. Practically noone commutes to work from one end of France to another. And it is only out of routine caution that I added the "practically".

Could be both. They are doing lots of hiring because they just finished a round of cost cutting as demand for their products surged on the customer side. Now they're drowning in business opportunities and don't have enough staff to grab 'em. (Thanks, cost cutters!) This means a large workload for employees and lots of new hiring. So both of your explanations could be true.


Thanks, and I will! (I'm a little disappointed that Chai mentioned grass and dirt, but not tumbleweed. Don't they have tumbleweed between Fort Worth and Tulsa?)


Mac, I know this was over 20 years ago, but do you remember if there was a grocery store in downtown Fort Worth somewhere? I didn't find one, but maybe I just didn't look in the right corner. Downtown Fort Worth looks much like the kind of place where I'd like to live, but it looks much like a business and entertainment district to me. Great cafés and pubs, few places to just buy a few pounds of apples.

Looks like there is a Whole Foods on Lamar - no idea re close to downtown.

(Whole Foods and Trader Joes are a lot of miles from us on the west side of Albuquerque. Whole Foods, aka whole paycheck. Still, they have apples galore).

I need to look up a few more markets..

Address: 801 E Lamar Blvd, Fort Worth Texas 76012
Tel: 817-461-9362

Found this when looking for Sunflower market, a place I like here, as do some of my pals. Probably not the chain market, but maybe interesting -

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Sunflower+market+Fort+worth&btnG=Google+Search

Aha -

I loved the Co-op in Eureka; the one here didn't grab my fancy and is more trouble to get to than Sunflower...

http://www.yourhealthsource.org/

I saw they had a place in Ft. Worth, but the link is more general.

Possibly a hairball on public markets -
http://www.durangotexas.com/eyesontexas/textour/market/santafe.htm

A not-so-bad grocery chain, where the Ft. Worth stores are -

http://www.superpages.com/b2b/N-Albertsons/S-TX/T-Fort+Worth/



I bet there are smaller grocers there somewhere.

We have one here, named Keller's, that is small, has good items..

Back in Venice, and a lot of LA, we had local markets that had great butchers, for example. Not all these places would have websites.
I'd chat up... a local newspaper food blog.

Thanks Ossobuco!

There's a seven-eleven and a Target just a mile west of downtown. That's close enough, so grocery stores in walking distance wouldn't be a deal breaker.

Make a small excursion over to eastern New Mexico, Thomas. Down around Roswell and Portalis, they've got lots of tumbleweeds, and the season is now. Give them a little wind and they'll form up into echelon formation and give your car a good run for its money.

Tumbleweeds (actually Russian Thistle) were first reported in the United States around 1877 in Bon Homme County, South Dakota, apparently transported in flax seed imported by Ukrainian farmers. Within two decades it had tumbled into a dozen states, and by 1900, it had reached the Pacific Coast.

heh

The only time I have seen tumbleweeds was when driving through Idaho. Well, maybe out by El Paso, not sure.

Oh Thomas, I didn't mean as a commute, but for business purposes, like an all day, or 2 day meeting.

Acutally, the last time I was in Dallas for work, I was about to head for the airport, when I ran into a co-worker of mine, that I hadn't talked to for over a year. She was driving, since she lives, oh, an hour west of Austin, and it would actually be faster to drive. Anyway, we had a lot to talk about, and so I rode back with her. That drive felt really quick, because of the good company, plus she delivered me to my doorstep.