Last night, I got to attend my first Cirque du Soleil show in person - Delirium. I had a chance to see the show at the American Airlines Center in Dallas from one of the suites on the Platinum level.

The show was absolutely amazing, but in some respects it wasn't exactly what I was expecting. I have seen several Cirque shows on Bravo, including the Cirque du Soleil Fire Within reality series that captured the behind the scenes preparation for the Varekai production. Based on those programs, I was expecting something similar - something in the vein of avant garde circus with really cool acrobatics and some awesome background music. And there were those elements in Delirium. But it was much more like a rock concert with some very cool production value.

Which is not to say that I didn't thoroughly enjoy myself. The opening musical act, Nitza, was a nice mixture of eastern and western music. Not to mention that the opening act started right at 8pm (as advertised), ran 20 minutes (as advertised) and was followed by a 25 minute break as Delirium got set up (as advertised). Very unlike a typical rock concert. Which pretty much followed the theme for the rest of the evening. Lots of music, lots of visual elements to try to take in, a few acrobatic elements (which were simply amazing - hard to believe that human beings can do those things), and an audience that really did appreciate the production.

Would I like to have seen more of the circus type elements that Cirque has become known for in shows past? Yes. But this was still an experience unlike any other I expect to ever witness. The musicians were incredibly talented, and everything flowed very smoothly.

All in all, well worth the price of admission.

Our immediate family is plagued by geographic and time constraints when it comes to celebrating holidays. Most of my family is now in the Dallas area, and the rest is spread across West Texas. So getting everyone together for Christmas *near* Christmas is tough.

Case in point - this year, we didn't celebrate Christmas with my brother and sister, who are local, until a few weeks ago. In March. Nearly three months after Christmas.

But that's not the story I want to tell you.

I collect playing cards, and I have my world-traveling uncle who helps me quite a bit. He's been to Australia, Germany, Finland, Russia, Spain, Japan, etc., etc., etc., while speaking at various conferences or holding positions at various Universities. Everywhere he's been, he's picked up a local or regional or unique set of playing cards and sent them to me. So I've got quite a collection (and I'm still working on a way of displaying them, so if anyone has any suggestions, I'm open to them).

But that's not the story I want to tell, either.

This year, my sister, who has been doing bunch of traveling for her job, decided that she would help add to my playing card collection. She started in August when she was in New Orleans. She picked up a deck of New Orleans logo playing cards, and had to leave suddenly because Hurricane Katrina was baring down on the area. A few weeks later, she went to Houston and picked up a set of cards there. Again, she had to leave early because of the evacuation for Hurricane Rita.

So I only got two decks of cards, because she didn't want to bring any other hurricanes to other parts of the country last year. Not quite the "Gift of the Magi," but I understand where she was coming from...

In just over two weeks, I've got the return of two completely different things happening within 36 hours of each other.

First, on Monday, April 3, we celebrate the return of Major League Baseball to Arlington with our annual trip to Opening Day. This year, the BoSox are in town to help us determine how the new-look Rangers are going to fare in 2006. No more A-Rod, no more Chan Ho, no more Kenny Rogers, no more Orel Herscheiser, no more Alfonso Soriano, no more Chris Young. Gonna be weird to see how this one flies. Our returning favorites, Mark Teixeira, Michael Young, Hank Blalock, David Delucci, Kevin Mench, and Rod Barajas will hopefully anchor the team, but it's definitely a new look pitching rotation.

Second, on Tuesday, April 4, I make my return trip to Amsterdam after a 19 year hiatus. Technically, I didn't see much of Amsterdam on my last trip, other than the airport and a brief walk through the streets unintentionally ending up near the red light district (but that's a story for another time), spending our time in Holland mostly in Rotterdam and Kinderdjyke. I probably won't get to see too much this time, either, as my plane lands at 9:30am local time in Amsterdam, and the conference I'm attending runs Thursday and Friday. I'll have a few hours on Wednesday (when I'm sure I'll be beat from the flight) and most of the day on Saturday, but the rest of my trip is pretty much booked solid. If you want to know more about what I'm doing while in Amsterdam, you can check out my business blog that I'll be updating regularly, internet access willing.

In the meantime, I've go lots to do to prepare for these returns. Busy busy busy...

A few weeks ago, we made our annual trek to the Neil Sperry All Texas All Garden Show in Arlington. We had to make an abbreviated trip this year for a variety of reasons, but we came away with some really interesting information - a portion of the land that our house sits on may have historical significance!

Anna stopped and spoke at length with an arborist at the show about an old oak tree we have in the back corner of our lot.



We liked the tree because it had a lot of character, especially its interesting shape. It certainly didn't look like it could have grown that way naturally, and as it turns out, we were right.

Anna was discussing the tree with the arborist because, less than two years after we moved in, the tree died. In the spring. Right after it started blooming. The day we started building a custom-shaped deck right underneath it. But I digress.

The developers backfilled the trailing portion of our lot to level out the slope from street level down to the creek. In that process, they buried the root flare of this tree under at least four feet of backfill. We know this because we tried to dig down to the root flare, and I gave up after digging down 4 feet and not finding it. So, the developers killed the tree, it just took a few years for it to finally die out.

So in sharing this story with the arborist and trying to see if anything else could have been done to save the tree, Anna described its physical characteristics. And that's when the arborist told her that we might have an Indian Marker Tree.

He then told her how Indian tribes in the area would take small saplings and tie the top of the sapling over so the tree was actually bent, and then leave it that way for years. They did this to mark location and direction to a resource, usually water. He asked if there was water nearby, and that's when Anna told him about the creek. After growing this way for years, the tree would have a unique shape that was easy to identify and it would point in the direction of whatever resource was nearby. Given the shape of the tree and this bit of history, we're pretty certain that the tree was a marker tree.

Fortunately, even though we did trim back the tree a couple of years after it died, we left a good portion of the tree, including a large area of the trunk that shows the odd shape, possibly preserving at least a portion of local history. In doing a web search on Indian Marker Trees, I ran across a posting from a regional publication outlining the search for Indian Marker Trees very close to us. Searches on Indian Trail Trees came up with other pages, including this one, with pictures of trees that closely match the shape and growth pattern of our own tree.

So we had more than just a cool looking tree, we most likely got to experience a real piece of old west history, right in our own back yard. Maybe it was outlaw Sam Bass who made the trail tree as a marker to where he hid his stash of stolen gold coins, and I just didn't dig down far enough to find the hidden wealth...

Today was graduation day for the second pass at the fitness boot camp I've been attending since the first of the year. I was the biggest loser in two categories - weight and inches. My results for this camp were:

Body fat % lost - 2.5%
Weight lost - 5 lbs
Inches lost - 9.75"

Not only that, but I dropped 10 seconds off my time in the 400m run (1:45), increased my situp count in 60 seconds by 7 (32), and increased my pushup count in 60 seconds by 3 and 5 (20 full, 25 modified)

Given that I missed two full weeks of camp during this 5 week term, that's not bad.

So here's my running total for 2006-
Body fat % lost - 7.5%
Weight lost - 13.5 lbs
Inches lost - 13.75"

The company name is Start Caring Wellness, but they used to be called See Results Fitness. I know why - I can certainly see the results in myself. You can see a little more about the company and the program in a local news promo that was done earlier in the week.

My passport arrived in the mail last Friday. Wat on earth is that all about? Why, it would be the last piece of the not too complex puzzle that gets me out of Denton for a few days in April.

OK, it's a little bigger than that. I get to spend almost a week in Amsterdam! Yes, that Amsterdam. As in Holland. The Netherlands. As in for the first time in 19 years, I'm leaving the country. Well, sure, I did get down to Mexico on a cruise a few years ago, but this is REALLY leaving the country!

Let the countdown begin...

All around us are signs that spring is just aroudn the corner, at least north of the equator anyway. Temperatures are slowly rising in general (we hit 95 degrees at the house on Wednesday), football season is finally and officiall over (thank goodness), neighbors are beginning to have their lawns chemicaly treated for weeds and fertilizer, and baseball activities are beginning to pick up.

And this time, I'm not referring to spring training in the Majors or that silly thing they're calling the World Baseball Classic. Doesn't something have to be around for a significant amount of time to be referred to as 'classic' anyway? But I digress.

No, spring is officially arriving becuase activities surrounding the Denton Outlaws baseball club have started. Today, the host families are meeting to start assigning players to families for the season. We'll get our first good look at the roster for the 2006 season today, an we get to bring a few new families into the fold. Plus, the new General Manager will get to meet with the other host families for the first time.

In addition, we've been going to the TWU softball team home games, at least as much as we'vee been able. So many things about women's softball that I'm just not used to. First, the games started in early February, and it's still COLD then, especially when you're sitting facing into a steady north wind. "Uniforms" on the field in some of these games have been layers of sweats on sweats on longjohns for the colder games. And that thing where a team starts their inning with a runner on second in extra innings? Not used to that one.

So yes, spring is coming quickly. I'm so ready for "Play ball!"