No, really. You might get a prize, you never know.
It's that time of year again. This Sunday, March 2, is the 80th Annual Zilker Park Kite Festival, a festival that's been going on in Zilker Park in Austin, Texas, for far longer than I've been alive.
I was going to write about it, and then it occurred to me that kite flying is not something that can be truly expressed or described in words (unless, perhaps, you're Andrew Lenza). But, surely, there must be a way to share this wondrous event with you. So, I betook myself off to youtube, and there I found them - videos that will share with you the sheer joy of going out on a beautiful March day, taking advantage of the wind, and being a child again, just flying a kite. (Sometimes after months of design, test, discard, design, test, discard - after all, it's a pretty fun way to spend a winter, right?)
Anyway, here's my favorite of the videos I found. Enjoy! And go fly a kite!
Texas is a land of oddly consistent inconsistency. As the weatherman once said, during a weather report, "Drought. Flood. Drought. Flood. Drought. Flood. In other words, normal Texas weather."
Way back when I started as a new agent, I was determined to Do It Right! Coming from a variety of business backgrounds, I was sure that there was One Right Way to do things, and I was going to find it! I kept asking my Sales Manager for checklists and things of that ilk so that I'd KNOW that I was doing it right. She kept, very patiently, telling me that every deal was unique and that no checklist would fit them all, and trying to get me to relax and go with that flow. 
So,if you're stressed out because you're not doing it just like someone else, or, worse, stressed out because someone else isn't doing it exactly like you are, and your way is Right, Darn It!, relax. As long as you're behaving ethically and with the client's best interests right at the front of your mind, you're doing fine. Remember, just as no two works of art are alike, each created with the same tools by different artists in different conditions, "No two deals are the same!" 
Today was back to school day for me - Independence Title, one of our local title companies, was putting on their Fab 15 days, two days of courses approved for MCE credit in Texas, and I needed just one tiny little credit hour before renewing my license, so off to school I went. The course I signed up for was one that I'd been very much wanting to take (I'd already been to the presentation for the consumer, but this one was for agents) - Wildlife Management Valuation. 
Anyone who's not been hiding under a rock for the past several years knows that there's a great debate over global warming - does it exist, or doesn't it? There's so much propaganda flying around, and so much information to find, never mind process, that it boggles the mind. Add to that the current trend of "greenwashing" (putting a coat of "green" on whatever you have to sell rather than truly doing the things to conserve energy and leave the smallest footprint), and confusion reigns. 
Late winter/early spring is rodeo time in Texas. We go see the events, listen to live music, look at the animals being judged for the livestock show and horse show, eat way more than is good for us, and generally have a good old time. 
One of the sure signs of spring is the annual Bull Hunt. That's when you go out to feed, as I did this morning, and discover that in spite of your best attempts at confinement, your bull has followed the honored bull tradition of walkabout in search of nubile wenches. (You thought Australians invented that, right? Nope, they just gave it a cool name!)