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?

Halloween Decorations

I love Halloween. Every year I look at all the decorations to see what I will buy and decorate with. I don't have as much decorations for Halloween as I do for Christmas, but I'm getting there. This year we found these skeleton spiders at Big Lots and the excorcise looking witch there too. We had spider web hanging off every available space and small and big spiders. We also had glo-in-the-dark skeletons hanging off the trees and porch and of course some bats. I liked the way it came out, but next year will be bigger and better. The scary thing about the witch sitting on the porch is that when the wind blew it looked like she was waving at you.

Olmos Park Fountain

While this construction was going on I had no idea what they were building, but this is what came about on that turn-about. This fountain is in Olmos Park. It looks like it has lights, but since I have yet to pass it by at night I can't say for sure. It must look purty though with the light shining up into the water droplets.

Guenther House Millstone

Went to the Guenther House for breakfast. I've been there a few times before, but I don't think I've seen this stone before. This is what the label on the stone says

Original millstone used for grinding wheat from 1859-1893. Millstone was imported from France. It arrived in Indianola, Texas by ship, then moved by oxen wagon to San Antonio.

Wondering what I ate? Pancakes. The time to go to the Guenther House is during the holidays. They put up a gingerbread house and decorate the 2nd floor at least from what I can remember.

Mirror, Mirror

Don't know about you but I love going to Big Lots. I don't ever really need anything from there, but I always want a whole bunch of stuff. I like to look at all the other bargain (and not so) stores too, like Factory 2 U, Family Dollar, Wal-Mart and Target too. I can always be found in the home section of whatever store I am in, and the craft section and the book section and the DVD section.

Matsuri @ the Library

For the past couple of years every October the Library celebrates Matsuri. I've missed it every year but not this one. I didn't get to see everything like I would like since I dragged three kids around, but I was able to get a few shot...although I let my 5 year old nephew take most of the shots. There was all sorts of demonstrations, performances, crafs, sales, etc. I got myself some gold origami crane earrings. I heard there was a sumo wrestler in the Youth Services too.

Getting Together

This group gathers together in some form or another pretty much monthly. For the past couple of times it has been hosted at Big Kahuna's. The food, staff and service are great. This shot was taken by one of the staff so everyone could be in the shot. Food is partaken off, lots of talk and every once in a while some crafting is even done. On this night two people were knitting and as you can see in the foreground some artistic drawing was being done too. You can't see it here, but she ended up drawing a pumpkin. She's an artiste extraordinaire.

Busy Day for SAFD

I was alerted to this scene by a co-worker who was coming back from lunch. Everyone knows I'm always looking for a photo op so she called me from her cell and we walked just a but down the street to get this shot. I didn't get too close since I didn't want to get in the way. I'm not quite sure what was going on, but there was people across the street checking out the action and we could see that the ladder was extended to the roof and we could see some firemen walking about up there. On this day there was more action just a street or two back. They evacuated the Greyhound station because of a suspicious package or some such. I found out about that one when I got a call not to go to Bill Miller (which is right across the street) because of the evacuation. I was so tempted to go get a photo op but I didn't get a chance.

Under Construction

Back in April I mentioned the Java Nook. It was just a name on the window then--now you can see there's been quite a bit of work done. The white sheet has been put up to provide some privacy to the workers I guess and I like to think so that when the grand opening occurs it will be a surprise to everyone. Everyone is waiting with bated breath for doors these doors to open...it's like that old Mervyn's commercial where the shoppers were drumming their fingers on the door saying "Open, Open Open".

Painted Car

Saw this car as we were heading home. It was painted all over, but the only thing I could really read was Vote Obama. Two of the bumper stickers I saw that I liked on it Craftivism and My Other Car is a Sewing Machine. Love it! You see all sort of advertising on cars and other vehicles but those are all slick, what I like about this is its homemade appeal.

An Apple a Day

Saw this as we were heading to breakfast. I liked the way it looked just sitting there as if it had just been set down. I like apples, with a little bit of salt sprinkled on it, or some of that fruit seasoning you see all over at H.E.B., back in the day we just called it Lucas.

Frito Friday

I tell you lunch is sometimes such a surprise. You just never know what they are going to be serving when you walk into the Baptist cafeteria. Sometimes you can tell by the smell, especially on pasta Tuesday, or Mexican Wednesday, but like I said not all the time. When I walked in this day I didn't know what I was in for until I got up to the order line. I know this isn't healthy but how could I resist. I love the simplicity of a Frito pie. You take a bag of fritos, rip them open and pour in some warm chili--after that all you need is a spoon/fork/spork. These had cheese added and I also ended up getting some Chili Cheese Fritos to add to the haul, but they were Um....Um good. I remember eating these when I was a kid and I don't run into them too often anymore but I did hear that Luther's a local burger joint serves some. My sister was also asking if our local ice cream man sells some. I'm not sure, but next time I'll ask him.

This post is dedicated to my nephew, Happy 22nd.

In Training

Learning to ride his bike. The training wheels make it way easier but I was still surprised at how often he lost his balance. He actually only fell once and scraped himself up a bit, but he was still excited about riding. He made it all the way to the park, but on the way back he got tired and didn't want to ride anymore. I thought for a minute of riding the bike back and I would have, but for the training wheels...that was a bit much for me.

I remember when I learned to ride a bike, there was no one around to teach me, or at least who had the patience so I just got on the bike in the backyard and rode it until I crashed into the back fence time and time again. I never learned to do all those fancy tricks that were around at the time, but I did learn to ride, now if only learning to drive were that simple, but somewhere I don't think crashing into the back fence would work as well in a car. :D

Speaking of biking I wish San Antonio had more bike lanes. We see more people biking but usually people are all upset with them for taking up the road, so if I ever do get around to biking more, if only for my sake I hope there are more bike lanes around by then.

China Sea

Went out with some co-workers to China Sea. One of the guys I work with goes there quite often--I don't think I've ever been there and if I have been I don't remember. I had a little bit of everything and liked most everything too. They had some really good jalapeno shrimp (which I could only eat because it didn't pica that much.)

National Night Out 2008

We went to National Night Out at my sister's apartment complex. She always goes all out. They were giving out door prizes, had music, food, bags for the kids and as you can see in this picture Mix 96.1 a local radio station was there. I have no idea how she gets all those people to show up all those companies to give them give aways but she does. Our neighborhood association also had a national night out but we didn't get around to that one. They congregated in the little neighborhood park and showed movies and had food and drinks.

chalk it up

This is an advertisement for chalk it up. An event held on Houston Street where artists create masterpieces in chalk. I haven't had a chance to check out the event, but this is the second year that I can recall that an advertisement for the event was chalked at the Central Library. That must be some kind of chalk because it lasted for days and days.

Church Festivals

The church's and catholic schools around here have festivals almost year round it seems like sometimes. This festival boasted a popular band, the Desperados, but we didn't stick around with the kids that long. This ride was really popular with the kids they never left it alone. They kept climbing up and then sliding down and sometimes congregating at the top as the man who was watching over the ride kept telling them not to group together up there since it could tip over I guess.

Alamo Drafthouse Cinema

Grabbed this shot from the parking lot of this shopping center that contains Acadiana's, a comic book store, the cinema and a few other places. I've been wanting to check out this theatre but I haven't had a chance to go yet. It's one of those places where you can eat as well as watch a movie, like the Bijou at Crossroads Mall. They host movies for adults only and there are even days where they have baby days--where parents can take their kids and not worry about having to take them out. They host other kinds of movies and events...I know they hosted something around The Boondock Saints and they have had a few evens around Buffy and such.

Royalty Walking

Not sure what was going on this day, but when I walked to Baptist for breakfast I saw these kids getting prepped in what I can only assume are costumes. I know some kids like to dress up all the time, but I saw their handler adding finishing touches in the car and then they walked into the hospital one way, came out, and then walked this way. I just barely got this shot, but I was wondering all day what they were up to.

Theme Day: Lines

The theme for this month is lines. I took this picture in front of the San Antonio Children's Museum. What is a lot line? Well I asked myself the same question. I googled it and this is what I found: A line bounding a lot as described in a property survey.