And It's Good!

Saw this on the way home and it reminded me of football goal posts. I've stayed in only a few motels in my life and I think a Motel 6 was in one of them, either in New Mexico and/or El Paso, maybe both.

Alamo Plaza Christmas Tree

Every year I try to get into downtown right after Thanksgivinig to get a pic of the San Antonio Christmas tree that they put up in Alamo Plaza. There is usually a tree lighting ceremony in conjunction with the Holiday River parade, but I've never made the lighting ceremony and I haven't been to the Holiday River parade for many a year. 

This year I got to the tree not only after Thanksgiving, but after Christmas, but better late than never I always say.

Chalkboard says "I wil not talk in class. I will not...Go Spurs Go!"

Central Arms

This of course for those of you all who have been reading this blog should be a familiar site. It is the Central Library in downtown San Antonio. It's color is known as enchilida red. On this day I liked the look of the two arms that connect the library to the garage. 

People assume that there is a way to get to the garage from the upper floors of the library, but alas no. There is only one way out of the library--the first floor past security. 

Java Nook (soon to be coffee house) Update: Whiteboard says "Final health inspection passed. Opening soon."

Feliz Navidad

Happy Holidays to all out there. It's tradition in our family to take a picture of the Christmas tree each year. I think we've had one every single year that I can remember, even those years that were pretty lean. Most often we've had real trees, which could be bought at almost every street corner (although now you can buy them at HEB, Home Depot, etc). We've also had artificial trees, but except for the mess of the needles, I always prefer the real thing. This tree is flocked and I'm not sure whether I prefer them green or not, although we have been told that getting them flocked prevents them from drying out so quickly and keeps the needles on the tree longer.

My mother used to drench the tree in icicles, but we don't use them much, with the exception of my older brother--whom his wife says must have the tree drenched in icicles, which she could not understand until we told her about my mother and showed her a pic of one of our old trees.

One year we bought a Charlie Brown Christmas tree, that was so small we had to put it on our dining table, but it was so fat and fluffy that we couldn't resist.

Photos with Santa

I think for most people photos with Santa are pretty common. You see Santas at all the malls with long lines of children and their weary parents waiting for their turn. This Santa did a home visit and gave out gifts to all the boys and girls awaiting him.

I don't know about you, but while parents love to get their kids photos taken with Santa, it seems to me that some kids would rather not, as they proclaim at the top of their lungs. I know my nephews have never wanted to take pics with him before.

The Future of Las Lagunas

I've blogged about Las Lagunas before. It's one of my favorite restaurants off of 181. I like their fajita nachos. They closed their original location and will be moving to this location across the street. The owner said they would reopen there after a bit, I think he said two weeks to a month. I'm sure once they are in their new location we will be stopping there again.

Sweet Sixteen

What's your typical Sweet Sixteen? Not this one for sure. For Hispanic families usually they concentrate on a quincenera, when a girl officially becomes a woman. It's not only an excuse for a party, but it involves the family and religion too. Most sweet sixteens seem to revolve more around a party. The theme for this one was pink and black and apprently sneakers with a dress. :D

Foggy Morning Commute

This was my drive to work this morning. It was kind of hard to see much in front of us especially once we got on the highway. The first shot I tried to take I mistakenly left the flash on and that didn't come out to well, beyond it picking up almost every drop of fog. You can barely see the bus stop there on the corner and to the right of that is the gas station that has a Subway restaurant in it.

Christmas Lights

This is a house on the west side of San Antonio. I really liked how they had their decorations, of course the picture doesn't do it justice. There was another house that I would have liked to have gotten a picture of, but I never did a walk by of our neighborhood. The house had a jet hanging off the first floor stoop and a number of other well known structures along with a line of text. All of that was created using rope lights and plastic piping. Every year I see more and more of those inflatable huge yard decorations, which I don't really like much. I've seen a lot of those yard deer made up of white wire. Some of those are lit and some are not. I have noticed that a lot of people are obssessed with ice and snow, maybe because here in San Antonio we rarely see either. I personally like to keep more with our actual weather and such, but I must admit my sister likes snowmen and so our interior decorating, at least during Christmas features snowmen galore.

Morning Ablutions

On the way to work I get to look around and shoot out the window (which is why I'm always washing the windows when we stop for gas.) Usually when we are sitting in traffic it's cause of a jam or something. Today when I looked in front of me, instead of seeing someone on the phone, I saw someone putting on makeup in the review mirror. She put it on as she turned a left and went through the light. Yikes! I do all sorts of stuff on the morning and evening commute, but then I'm only a passenger, and I must say I have put makeup on in the car, but my hand is never as steady as I would like it when I'm still, much less when I'm in a moving car, so I usually wait for us to come to a standstill.

Lunch: Shrimp Penne

Went to lunch today at the Southwest Craft Center. I usually have their Chef Salad or their Chicken Salad Sandwich, but when Shrimp and Pasta is on the menu it's a no brainer. I had my usual friendly chat with the nice staff, ordered my stuff and walked back to lunch at my desk with a coworker for company. I love me shrimp, even if I am convinced that I have a slight allergic reaction to it.

Cactus and Windmill

I like to get a gander of the highway art as we drive. There isn't that much of it, but when I can I get shots of it. They mostly appear on the new or redone highways. This one is on 181. When we traveled to California we saw a lot of it along the way, but I'm not sure what state it was.

Bank Telling

We had to make a last minute payment before the close of the business day and we drove around a bit to find the bank that my sister thought was off of San Pedro. When we got to the bank it was the wrong one, but with a bit more driving we found the correct one and before closing too.

So thank you Chase Bank for keeping those hours that saved our bacon.

Creepy Crawly House

We tried a new Vietamese place on McCullough I think it was. As we left the parking lot I just had to take a pic of this house. I'm not sure about much, don't know if it is lived in or abandoned, but I liked the look and character of it. I much prefer old houses than all those new cookie cutter McMansions.

The Girliest Drink Possible

Some of the guys at work were Jonesin' for some coffee so we made a Starbucks run. I don't go in for coffee, but I always go for strawberry stuff so I ordered the only strawberry thing on the menu--some Strawberry creme thing. Of course it took forever while the two guys I was with were already outside enjoying their coffees. When I walked out with my pink confection they said and I'm paraphrasing here: "That's the girliest drink I've ever seen." and I responded, "Hello! I am a girl."

I remember a bit ago they were talking about how many Starbucks were closing, but that's not what I'm seeing in SA. I am only seeing more of them opening up.

Stringing Up Lights

I get a bit of vertigo when I climb higher than my head, so my little helpers went up to the first floor and put up some lights for me. They were all set to do the second floor too, but my heart couldn't take it. As you can see from the photo, apparently it was a good vantage point for some sniping. :D

Fancy Stockings

We were at Ross today looking for some Christmasy stuff. I've been looking for a good stocking for years, but I have yet to find one that I like. I kind of liked the look of the one in the center (brown, cream and green) but I couldn't imagine having one that was so frou frou. I'm looking for a black one, but no luck so far.

Sky Watch Friday

On the way home this is the sight that meet my eyes. Usually I see an orange, or yellow or even pink/purply/bluey sky, but today it was this gorgeous shade of blue.

Sunset Silhouette

Waiting to get picked up I got a chance to get this shot of one of the best times of day. I like this light where everything looks golden and in silhoutte. In the foreground is the Central Library water feature in the turnabout. Most times of the year it is on and the water runs in silvery streams over the rounded pebbles and collects in a pond at the bottom of the incline. It also comes out of a spout on the side of the fountain. The street in view is Soledad--the parking lot in the background belongs to a Baptist building.

Pushme Pullyou

I got behind this 18-wheeler on the highway not long ago and it freaked me out. Yes, that's the back of the trailer. It reminded me of that two-headed llama from Dr. Doolittle for some reason.

Hitching ring

Here's the Ursuline Academy/SW School of Arts & Crafts wall before they tore it down. If you notice on the left there is a ring to hitch your horses to. I wish they had salvaged the ring and put it back on the new wall. When they started tearing down the old wall, I checked and someone had chipped it out - probably saved the old anillo for a souvenir.

Theme Day: Circles/Spheres

This was taken way back in January but I couldn't resist. If you are wondering what it is, you can visit the Central Library in downtown and see for yourself. As you walk into the library, you will be in the Blue Room, whose walls and ceiling are painted blue, while this is the floor. What you see here is the reflection of the neon blue circles reflected on the fairly mirror-like floors. Here's a different view of the picture.

Peter Piper Christmas

We were at Peter Piper's for another birthday celebration and they had this little area set up for the kiddies to take photos. My older nieces who should have known better were all for going over and taking pictures with this purple Barney like creature. I said, oh just let me take a pic and I'll photoshop you in.

My Turkey Day Plate

Our Thanksgiving Day started early with the cooking of the turkey. My sister is in charge of that. My oldest sister cooked the ham. I am in charge of the deviled eggs and usually the mashed potatoes, but my time was too taken up so my older sister did those too. She also made some Greenbean casserole by request. We had two kinds of stuffing: Stove Top (because my sisters husband likes it) and the more homemade handmade one, which my oldest sister cooks the best. We also had these dinner rolls and the flaky kind too, a couple of kinds of cookies, some pies and a strawberry dessert. (all by me) The plate above is what I finally served myself after being on my feet for hours. As you can tell by my description I do the easy stuff, although sometimes it doesn't go as quick as I'd like it. We had family over, we ate, we watched some tv, napped then ate some more.

Dome in SA

We've passed this dome shaped building a number of times, but I'm not sure what it is. I like the shape of it, I just wonder what it was or what it was used for. Not quite sure of the location. I think it might be somewhere near Leon Valley.

B-Balling

Watched a basketball game between two local catholic schools today: St. Leo vs St. John. The St. Leo boys seemed just a smidge bigger than the St. John ones and they were pretty good, but the St. John boys didn't give up. They kept going til the final bell/whistle.

Sky Watch Friday

I love taking pics of the sky, especially at day break and end of day. I like the colors that you see then. This one made it seem like we were heading into a fire.

Arm in Arm

With all the waiting and walking abouting that I do I get to do quite a bit of people watching. Every once in a while I get to capture on camera what I see with my eye. This is one of those moments. Too often I miss the moment.

On the Lookout

On my walk back from lunch I noticed some police officers walking about on the third level of the Central Library parking garage. I have no idea what they were doing, but it looked like they were looking at or for something.

Vidorra

This is one of those high rise construction projects that is going on in and around downtown San Antonio right now. My nephew worked for these people a bit ago. I heard they are going to be luxury condo's with killer views.

Java Nook Update

A little closer to completion. We were able to see behind the paper today as it was down a bit and there was actually people around. I think I saw them hanging up their shingle. For those people who are asking when it will be open--I'll keep y'all up to date at least once a month until it opens.

Checking Myself Out at the Library

I totally love the new self check at the library. You can now pick up your holds in the media area and check yourself out at three stations they have in there or three that they have at the circulation desk.

Cattleman's Square

One of the local night spots right off of downtown. I've never been there myself, but I have heard others talking of it.

550 KTSA

Saw these two news vehicles as I was heading to breakfast. 550 KTSA was the first one I spotted, but then to the right of that I also spotted Channel 41. I'm guessing there was some kind of request for coverage.

The Early Bird

Was at my doctor's early this morning and waiting for an answer to a question when I looked out the window. This bird was eating another bird. It was so freaky to watch. It's head would go up and down and every time it went down you would see downy white feathers fly off of the meal bird. Another person in the doctors office was watching it also, as fascinated as I was. I also got some video of it, but neither this photo or the video is as good as I would like it, since I was shooting through some not so clear windows.

A big thank you to my older and little brother, my primos--and all those other Veterans out there.

Funeral Home

This is the Rodriguez Funeral Home right out of downtown on Frio St. If I'm not mistaken these are the people that handled my mother's funeral back in the day. It's really changed. It used to be this little white building. I've noticed the changes just fairly recently.

Happy b-day DeeJ!

Incarnate Word High School

We pass this school by everyday as we drop the kids off. The way we approach it, it's right off the highway. Right after our turn we hit the school zone pretty quick. Because of it's location apparently it's hard for people to get out of the parking lot so they have security who hold off the traffic while people exit. I tell you it always seems to happen when we are running late, and then of course we usually hit the railway crossing just as the railraod arms are coming down. :D My sisters language gets worse as we hit more and more of these barriers--I can usually chill since I'm just a passenger, and my wireless laptop lets me keep busy as long as my battery holds out.

Lunch at Luby's

We go to lunch at Luby's every once in a while. I remember back in the we used to go out there and the prices were very reasonable. The prices have gone up lately and you really can't eat for less than $10.00--granted the servings have gone up in size too, but still. On this day I ordered the chicken pot pie with mac and cheese and mashed potatoes. I miss the cubed cheese, huge olives and pickles they used to have that you could pick up. I always picked up one of each and paid extra for them cause I liked them. 

Waiting to Vote

I was right behind the lady with the black purse. It was the first time that I've voted since I was registered when I was 17. I had to go to my old precint (Gus Garcia) since I hadn't had the chance to update my address. I waited about an hour and a half and it really wasn't a problem for me, but my sister and my niece waited for me in the parking lot for that long. Luckily I had my laptop in the car so my sister could amuse herself, at least until the batter went out.

I had many questions about the process but I armed myself before I got here. I made sure I called the Voters registration people and got my voter ID since I didn't have the paper thing they give you. That was a little problematic--their automatic telephone system couldn't find me, but the online system did. When I spoke to a human they found me no problem. 

Once I got here it was pretty smooth. The only problems were a few people complaining about a man cutting line and some restless kids that had to wait with their parents until they were able to vote. 

The woman sitting in the chair was a nice little thing that happened. She and her husband (wearing a military uniform) were one ahead of me. The female of a couple that was waiting ahead of them with their son was concerned about the lady having to stand the whole time. She got her husband to get a chair for the woman. She was also nice enough to save the space for the lady and her husband until they got closer to the front of the line and so she had her husband place the chair where you see it. 

As we got closer to the front of the line she told the woman that when it was their turn to go up she and her husband could go ahead of them. The elderly couple were slow to accept until they ascertained that it was really okay, and they thanked them effusively for their consideration.

When the woman was finished voting she came up to me and asked if I was a former classmate. She had looked very familiar to me and I found out we graduated from the same high school.

I was a bit afraid there would be a problem with my voting when I got up there since a few people had already been turned away as they were in the wrong voting place, and especially after a lady ahead of us had trouble being located in the database, they were confusing her with someone else with her same last name, but when I got up there really wasn't a problem beyond me having to explain that my id address did not match my records because I had just recently moved.

I got up to the machine and got through everything pretty easily. I really was only concerned for voting for the national election since I really didn't know much about the local ones, especially since I haven't lived in the precint since high school. I did vote for the names that were familiar to me and didn't vote for the ones that I didn't recognize. (My sister told me later that when she didn't know who to vote for she voted for females.)

As I was leaving I heard someone calling me back. I was afraid that I was in trouble for taking the three photos that I was able to take. Instead it turned out to be another old acquaintance. She asked me if I was of my grandfathers family and I said that's my grandfather. She asked about my little brother whom her boys went to school with. We got caught up and that was the end of my voting experience.

I got my sticker to say that I voted and promptly misplaced it so no free stuff for me, although that was a big topic of conversation in the line. People were talking about free stuff Sonic's, Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts. I have no idea if anything was true since I didn't partake.

Sorry for the long post but this was a milestone for me...I might even do it again someday.

Birds on Wires

Every time I see a scene like this there are two things that immediately go through my mind.

1. Birds on a Wire
2. The Birds

There are various theories about why birds like to hang on the wires, in fact I read about a few of them a while back but I don't think anyone has figured out why they do what they do.

San Antonio International Airport

I've only been to this airport one time (or at the most a few more times) and it was probably picking up or dropping off my Marine brother. They've done quite a bit of work on the exterior and the highways and such. I've heard the airport offers wifi too, to all those weary travelers. That would definetely come in handy for me since my laptop is never far from my side--much like my camera. I've never flown and I am not too keen on it especially since all those security restrictions were put into place. I like the thing that looks like a red/orange barn in the left upper back. 

Theme: Books

The theme for this month is books. I found this page of images in an old book, Library Workers edited by Alice V. Keliher. I liked the images and a librarian friend of mine commented that she bet there was still libraries doing it the same way.

Happy Halloweenie Everyone!

We stayed home to give out candy, the first year at the new house. We weren't sure how much trick-or-treaters to expect but we got a good crowd of them. We didn't run out of candy but only because we started holding back about halfway through the night. We started out with candy bags, and then went to a handful of candy. My nieces went out to the neighborhood to get candy and I asked them to report on how we were doing against the competition and we held up pretty well. According to my niece it's all good as long as you got some chocolate and we had that. :D I didn't get to take as much pictures as I was busy giving out the candy, but I thought these girls did good. We also had an old man show up that was pretty good.

Jack-o-Lantern

The day before Halloween and my nephew was sent a pumpkin home from school. My brother-in-law sat outside and carved it. Here it is on the porch with the lights off and a tea light inside. My niece thought it looked fairly scary, but then she's only 4. I've seen a few pumpkins out and about, but I also saw some foam/crafty ones, I guess people don't have to worry about those rotting out on you.

Java Nook Sneak Peek

The guy in charge of the Java Nook was nice enough to give me a tour when I told him everyone was looking forward to it opening. He asked me if I had been inside and when I said no, he invited me in. I like the colors of the place and the furnishing and such. He told me a bit about it:

Grand Opening is planned for December 3 I think (don't quite me on it) but that he was hoping to open it up a week or two before. I asked if I could get a pic and he said sure no problem. After I got this pic one of the guys asked me if I had asked about the menu and I didn't but part of it is viewable in this photo. I have seen from the window that they plan on offering frosty's (what that means I don't know, but it sounds good to me), also the scuttle-butt is that they will also be serving pastries and such...I'm keeping my fingers crossed for lunchables/breakfast...but I'll take what I can get. I don't do coffee, but they'll get my business regardless if for nothing else but that the owner is a nice guy.

Trolley Seats

I like the ease of using the downtown trolleys. I take the Blue Route to River Center mall, especially during the holidays when I want to get some shopping done, or if I want to grab somem lunch, or back in the day when they had Brentano's Books I used to jaunt down there all the time. I don't go down there as often now, since my vice of books is no longer available to me, but on this day I went down there on the hunt for some jeans for my niece, with no luck, but at least I got this pic. In full color these seats are a bright red, but I went for the b&w instead.

Rock Wall

Here's another pic of the construction being done on the wall of the Southwest Art and Craft Center. I'll miss all that mickey mouse-ish graffiti and all the aging that has given the wall such character, but I must admit they did a good job with the section they finished further down by the River Walk.



My nephew asked me why it was taking so long to get the work done on August Street and I told him, they aren't working on Augusta, they are working on the wall. :D

PicNic in the Park

My sisters work had some kind of picnic at the park and I sent my guest photographer, my 5 year old nephew with the camera. Their picnic was at Brack (Brackenridge Park). I haven't been in there in quite a while, unless you count when I pass it by on the zoo train. It's a nice wooded area, that was recently worked on I think. If I'm not mistaken this was the park that used to have the skyride. I never rode on it, but my sister did.

Roller Coaster Curves

This is a close up view of what I usually see on my way home. I think it's also another side of it. These things looks crazy. I can't believe I actually got on one of these once. I always think about the came Roller Coaster Tycoon and how I couldn't design a coaster to save my life of the lives of the riders. I killed many a rider with my designs, they all went flying off, and as I sat in my coaster seat that one and only time I imagined fate giving me my come-uppance and me flying off my seat also.

Home Cooked Dinner

I'm posting this for my brother--since this used to be one of his favorite meals to eat. He can't be home, but he can drool over what we are eating. What did you eat tonight?