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.