Happy 54th Birthday -- North Dakota C A 3 -- A Devonian Well Drilled Back in 1966 -- January 28, 2020

Happy Birthday:

• 3983, 234, Cobra Oil & Gas/Enduro Operating, North Dakota C A 3, a Devonian well, vertical, 320-acre spacing, t1/66, cum 1.404564 million bbls; 11/19; celebrated its 54th anniversary, January, 2020; still producing about 500 bbls/month, 6/17; up to 700 bbs/month, 11/19;

Monterey, Eric Burdon & The Animals

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The Lego Page

I don't recall if I enjoyed Lego bricks and mini-figures prior to having our second daughter. I honestly don't recall if I enjoyed Lego sets while growing up. I don't think so. I think my introduction to Lego was when I was about thirty years old when we were transferred to Germany and our second daughter was six months old. We set aside one room in our house for Lego and Laura and I grew up together with Lego, from the time she was six months old. She's still a huge Lego fan, and I'm embarrassed to say I would rather "invest" in Lego than in silver bullion. LOL.

It's been awhile since I'm paid a lot of attention to Lego. But I've become interested again: Sophia, age five years old, absolutely loves the "Friends" line of Lego. I was completely unaware of this line of Lego.

I was introduced to Lego Friends this past week. When I went to pick up Sophia, age 5.5 years, from Tutor Time she was so excited to show me the Lego sets, "Friends." It turns out that a group of girls, ages 4 to 7 gather round the table every afternoon at Tutor Time and play with this line-up. I can see why they like the sets: think Polly Pocket meets bricks. 

I find it incredible I completely missed the "Friends" line. Lego introduced the line-up in 2011, and the sets were first available in Lego stores after Christmas, 2011. See this article in Wired.com back in early December, 2011. See also this article in adweek, February 25, 2013, "LEGO hits jackpot with 'controversial' line for girls." [It's interesting that the first article linked is in Wired, and the second article linked is in the "Digital" section of adweek.]

Apparently there's a lot of discussion over on social media whether "Friends" was needed. I don't know. But now that I know they exist, I'm eager to visit our local "Bricks & Minifigs" store to talk to the proprietor there to see what she thinks. I'm curious to find out whether "Friends" is a big hit among girls. By the way, if you are a Lego fan and haven't visited a "Bricks & Minifigs" store you are really missing a huge experience. I prefer "Bricks & Minifigs" to the company's Lego retail stores.

On another note, this is purely coincidental, a bit of serendipity. There are five main characters in the "Friends" line:

There are five main characters, most unfortunately following typical girlie stereotypes: animal-lover Mia, beautician Emma, pop star Andrea and "social-girl" Stephanie. Lego does toss a proto-geek in there with Olivia – her set (shown above) is an awesome she-garage complete with a microscope, a little robot, math equations and purple tools! Somebody please help me.

Our middle granddaughter -- some might describe her as a proto-geek -- just so happens to be named Olivia. From wiki, In 2019, Lego revamped the minidolls and gave them new looks.

I never knew. I have to get out more. LOL.

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The "Other" Frisco

Re-posting from the other day:

Wow, I'm in a good mood. Just dropped off Olivia at evening soccer practice. Pitch black outside, Texas starting to shut down for the night, but still see hard-working Americans working hard. Perhaps the best thing that ever happened to me ... the years I spent overseas, especially in Turkey and Africa to get a better perspective on America. America simply gets things done. No, one step forward, two steps back. Can-do attitude. On the way home, two new hotels have just opened up about a mile from where we live. So much construction, hard to believe. On the north side of DFW airport.

I was reminded of that earlier today after dropping off Sophia at Tutor Time and driving over to McDonald's for breakfast. The radio station I was listening to happened to have a special segment on Frisco, a "town" north of Dallas which is growing by leaps and bounds. Right, wrong, or indifferent, I think of three "cities" north of Dallas that are quite incredible: Plano, McKinney, and Frisco.

The comment was made that people are moving into Frisco, TX, from all over the country. Obviously hyperbole, but the real estate folks say more folks in NYC are talking about Frisco, than folks in Frisco talking about NYC. Or something like that. But apparently Frisco's a pretty big deal.

In 2018 -- that would be less than two years ago -- Money magazine ranked Frisco, TX, as the #1 city in the US in which to live.

But growth alone is not what makes Frisco the best place to live in America. Rather, it’s the way the city has translated its growth into a higher quality of life.

“The mentality here is, Let’s build the place we all want to have fun in and live in,” says Pitchford. While the company considered going as far as Quebec, “by every metric we had, Frisco came out on top,” Pitchford says.

One of those metrics: Frisco’s outstanding public schools. With more than 70 campuses, the Frisco Independent School District has the highest graduation rate of all the cities and towns MONEY evaluated this year.

“I can afford private, but the public school system here is so great,” Pitchford says, citing the district’s career training center, which offers high school students the opportunity to gain real-world experience in specialized programs from hospitality to health science.

Like many Frisco institutions, the schools have benefited from a city focus on public-private partnerships — arrangements that bring high-level sports, art and technology to the Texas town.

Take the Ford Center at The Star, an indoor athletic facility where the Dallas Cowboys have practiced since 2016. It was built as a partnership between the team, city government and the Frisco schools — so when the Cowboys aren’t using the indoor field, high school teams get it for practice and games. It’s a model that began in 2003, when the city partnered with two business groups to build Dr. Pepper Ballpark, now home to the Frisco RoughRiders baseball team.

Seventy campuses in one city. Wow.