I just saw on Good Morning Texas a segment on the 12 years old jewelry designer, Kelly Alexandra. She custom designs and creates her own jewelry. You can check out her website at The Art Addict. The pricing of her peices range from $100-$300.

I have to say this is the BEST chicken I’ve had in my life. I first heard about this place from a plumber…yeah, a plumber! We were talking about food in Dallas and food in Southern California. Then somehow El Pollo Loco came up and he then mentioned Charo Chicken. He said he had it in Cali and saw one driving on his way here. The thing is that I’ve never heard of it even though I am from So. Cali. That’s because most of them were far from me.

So this location at Coit and Park just kept staring back at me everytime I past by it. Though I never had the chance to stop in and try it. Two days ago we were driving by and my husband mentioned Firehouse Sub right next door. So I told him he can go get something there while I hop over next door to Charo Chicken. Somehow he ended up eating at Charo Chicken also. He had the Chicken Quesadilla and I had the Mama Charo, which was basically 2 peice leg & thigh with a side of rice and grill vegetables. My food looked so good my husband said he wish he had what I was having. After having a few bite of the chicken, I’ve told him we’ve found our other kitchen (since we eat out more often now with two kids and all).

The chicken was really good in my opinion and the grill vegetable was tasty. I especially liked the skin. It wasn’t fatty looking. It looked more like the fat just all burned away and left a VERY thin crispy grill chicken skin. The seasoning was yumalicious and the meat was moist and not dry ( I hate eating dry chickent ).

So I hope this place stays around because it’s currently my favorite place to go and I’m so tired of eating everything else that I almost gave up on eating because I didn’t find anything I wanted to eat anymore. I’m also glad it’s from So. Cal !!

So I was checking the stats and the thing that people click on the most in terms of external sites is the Dallas Metropolis Forum. Which make me think of a couple of reasons for this.

One is that we are living more an more in a virtual way, most things we do is online. For me, almost everything is online. This is a advantage and disadvantage with technology. Being online more mean less face to face interaction with people. At times my husband and I joke around since we email or instant message each other for something even if we are in the same house. Anyway, because of this decrease in interaction, more and more people are looking for some kind of interaction online. Forums offer this constant feedback and ways to be connected with others and it can make you feel like you are involved or somehow in a “community”. It’s great that they exists, but it’s sad that we have to look to virtual friends instead of the interaction we use to have with friends back in the days. It’s better than nothing of course and some regional forums are useful since you “might” actually find real face to face interaction with people you meet in these forums.

The other reason for the popularity of forums, at least for Dallas Forums, is that more and more people are interested in knowing more about Dallas. After visiting one of the Dallas related forums, I realized how many people are asking about Dallas because they are relocating here or are thinking or moving here. To my surprise (or maybe not too surprising) is the amount of people from California in these forums. So my hope is that more and more people will move here from California and bring all the good food, culture and weather (or lack of). Then I can convince my family and friends to move here and I’ll be all set and happy.

National Night Out 2007 is coming up on August 7th, 2007. The purpose for this event is to:

Heighten crime and drug prevention awareness;
Generate support for, and participation in, local anticrime programs;
Strengthen neighborhood spirit and police-community partnerships; and
Send a message to criminals letting them know that neighborhoods are organized and fighting back.

Check with your neighborhood to see if anything is planned for this event. Usually neighborhoods may plan bloack parties, cookouts, flashlight walks and etc.

Here are some selected things to do around Dallas metroplex for 4th of July celebration. The addison one is on the 3rd… Usually these events are pretty crowded, so you should plan ahead or be early!

This is an early one for the weekend: July 1st, 2007 Sunday
Dallas Booms!
Free Parking, Free Admission,
Free Museums - The Fair Park museums will offer free admission from 4:00 -7:00 p.m.
The Dallas Symphony Orchestra will be performing to synchronized fireworks.

Addison Kaboom Town Fireworks
When: Tuesday, July 3 - 4:30 p.m. to Midnight
Where: Addison Circle Park – Bud Light Main Stage, 4970 Addison Circle Drive
Addison, TX
Tickets: This is a FREE event.

Lake Cities 4th of July Celebration (9 am - 10 pm)

Plano Independence Day Parade
July 4th at 9:30am

Richardson’s Family 4th of July Celebration
Event hours are 6:00 p.m. to 10:15 p.m.
Attractions include Uncle Sam, strolling balloon artists, bounce houses, and a climbing wall for the kids!

Frisco Freedom Fest
Hmmm and Clay Aiken in Concert?
Clay Aiken with The Philharmonic Orchestra
Wednesday, July 4, 2007
8:00 - 9:30 p.m.
Pizza Hut Park

Actually I didn’t know this was happening, but Mark Cuban had hip replacement (left hip) surgery on Friday June, 29th. He is expected to recover just fine. The funny thing is I just found this out because people had been searching for Mark Cuban’s hip replacement, so I looked into this and found out this had just happened. Told you he’s not just big in dallas. People just seem to want to know everything he does.

You can read the press release here and maybe he’ll soon post something on his blog maverick site once he gets better?!

All the best and hope for a fast recovery to him from Dallas!

UPDATE: Since Mark Cuban will be on Dancing With the Stars, I’m sure he’s recovered super well…

ANOTHER UPDATE: You can read about Mark Cuban’s experience on Dancing With the Stars and vote for him. If you’ve missed the first show, you can watch it on abc.com. It even shows his scar from the surgery - OUCH!