Kylie and I went to the Plano Balloon Festival last night with our friends Amy & Daniel.  Maybe I'm just gettin' old and cranky, but festivals don't seem to have quite the nostalgic allure I remember as a kid.  And about 1 every year or two is all I can tolerate.  I dunno, maybe it's the big, stinky crowds.  Maybe it's the terrible, overpriced food.  Actually, lemme qualify that... some of the food in all it's fried glory is good, but it's terrible for you, like so bad that it makes a Big Mac and it's 2 all "beef" patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickle, onion on a sesame seed bun seem like a healthy alternative.  Everything is is such excess... the crowds, the lines, the calories, the prices, the glutony, the smell of port-a-potty's baking in 95 degree sun...  It's kinda like someone said, 'Hey, let's take everything that's ugly about America and make an event out of it, and we'll charge people admission to see it.'  Maybe I just have this disillusion in my head that there still exists those nostalgic, cool hometown feel festivals that are more about the experience and less about the capitalism... like in Sweet Home Alabama, Sleeping with the Enemy, and Elizabethtown.  You know, the festivals like those in chick flicks.  Maybe I want a chick flick festival.  Please chime in with a comment if you know of any such festivals, 'cause I wanna put 'em on my list of places to see. Wow, look at me bein' all negative.  Okay, sorry... I'm over it. And hey, the balloon launch was, after all, kinda cool.

And so was the balloon glow.