San Antonio - Some things I missed

A couple of more thoughts about San Antonio.

I wanted to add a picture or two also. Cely and I really enjoyed San Antonio even though we really didn't get to explore very much. I think we will go back again sometime. I would have liked to spend more time at the Alamo and Cely wanted to explore around the Villita.

But also important was that we found a fun restaurant,
Mi Tierra Cafe and Panaderia. The food was really pretty good and we had a great waiter the first night we went there. He helped make sure my meal was vegetarian. They are open 24 hours a day and have a good selection of pan dulces that are very fresh and tasty. They use a painting of Zapata as part of their decoration for t-shirts and other gifts in their gift shop. Cely and I picked up aprons for Emil, Alexis, and Adrienne. We started by buying one for Emil since he is so into cooking Mexican food and Emiliano is his tocayo. All of them are becoming good cooks. Its good to know that they are keeping up the tradition of good cooks. I sent the aprons off to the three today.

Since Cely couldn't get around much we ended up going to see a movie on the last day we were there, waiting until we had to catch our plane. There was a cinema pretty close so we went to see Last Holiday with Queen Latiffa. It was very predictable but also very enjoyable. I like movies like that, light, funny, and a little romantic.

Speaking of movies, we saw two good ones this weekend. Friday night we saw Woody Allen's newest movie, Match Point. It was pretty good. Cely liked it more than I did. We both thought it was well put together and the story was engrossing. Today we saw Syriana which was very complex but riveting. It took a lot of work to follow all that was going on. It left me feeling a little depressed about the world situation and what we in the US do to help mess it up.

Well that's it for now.

San Antonio

Cely and I are in San Antonio for the American Library Association Midwinter meeting. The weather was fine when we got here but it quickly turned cold, windy, and rainy. I have been visiting with old friends and trying to learn things. We have seen Steve Ostrem around most. I haven't seen him much since leaving Iowa. It was nice to catch up. His wife Mary has had rotator cuff surgery and is layed up for about 6 weeks. We met up with Sue O'Dell and Jonathan Miller also. I was able to meet up with Barb Allen for a drink. Yesterday we took a little boat trip on the river through the riverwalk area. It was really nice. The boat driver had a funny rap but also had some interesting history of San Antonio. These tours in cities are always a good way to see the city and learn something you would have missed on your own.

I have been noticing the "old" San Antonio architecture more than I have noticed the old part of other cities. Maybe it is because it has a southern look that is different from the northern cities I am more familiar with. One of the aspects of the older buildings are the overhangs along the first level that protect people on the sidewalk from the rain. I benefitted from that yesterday when I went out without an umbrella. The overhangs also reminded me of the streets of Guayaquil so I think they must serve as a way to keep the shop cooler. Maybe I am noticing this more because I am trying to link back to when I was here as a kid. In that way I can still get an impression of how it looked in the late 50's. There are plenty of places that still remain from that time. It probably helps because we are staying in a hotel that must have been one of the premier hotels in that time, the St. Anthony. The hotel is fine but Cely and I are looking for more of the modern amenities.

Lexie and Adrienne

We took Lexie to Seattle to fly back to the Midwest. We drove up on Friday night and it looks like we average making the trip in 4 hours. So we ended up just sleeping in the hotel and getting up at 4:30 to make the departure time. The US Airways flight was full so we were nervous about her catching the flight. The guy at the counter was extremely helpful. He listed us so that Cely and I could to to the gate and wait with Lex. Fortunately, she got on the flight and actually the trip went perfectly. After we dropped her off we left and headed home. Cely and I decided that we could relive our midwest roots and eat breakfast at the Village Inn around Portland. There are not too many Village Inns out here so we ended up driving for two hours before breakfast. And of course, there is a Ritz Cinema in the shopping center by the VI. We went over and saw that Cassanova was playing. So we just popped in and caught the 11:00 am showing. It was great fun! The movie was very intertaining. Heath Ledger was a good Cassanova. I enjoy those period based adventure, romantic comedies.

I guess it was a Heath Ledger weekend because last night we watched Broke Back Mountain. It lived up to the hype. The story was really well done and the acting was moving. I think it captured the complexity of the relationship and how many times people get trapped into there circumstances by the society around them. It is just too bad that they could not live the life that would have brought them happiness.

Adrienne is going to begin training for United soon. I hope that it will be a better situation for her. It looks that way. It sure will be nice for us. We will be able to continue to fly easily to Moline! We will just have to be grounded for a month or so. Waahhh!

Lexie's Visit

This weekend Cely and I went to Seattle to pick up Alexis at the airport. She is in town for a week. It is the first time she has been out here since we moved here. Then we didn't have any beds or furniture. On the way back we took a drive out to Astoria. Lex was happy to see where Goonies was filmed. There are a couple of websites dedicated to the Goonies and Astoria .
We stopped at Cannon Beach and looked at Haystack Rock. We drove down the coast so that Lex could see some of it since she won't be here that long. We are just hanging out now, watching tv and stuff. Pretty dull stuff right now. I have to find the cable to download pictures from my camera and I can make this a little more interesting. All for now.

I am experimenting with this blog so I am learning how to put pictures in my blog. This is the only picture I have on my little notebook computer. So this is me. 

Starting out

This is my first post on the Blog I set up for Cely and me. We are just sitting around tonight because tomorrow will be a big day. We are going to drive up to Seattle to pick up Lexie. She is going to try to fly here on Adrienne's benefit. Cely and I are very excited to have her here with us for a while. Adrienne was just out here for a couple of days. But both she and Cely were sick.

We watched a netflix selection tonight. It was the Scarlet Pimpernel, an A&E series. This one was pretty good. It has a pretty well-known English actor but I can't think of his name. The wife is Elizabeth McGovern. We have gotten hooked on watching old series through Netflix. Angel is the other show that really has got us hooked. The show is fun to watch. I should have more details on the show but I can't remember the names of the people and don't really want to look them up. So I guess this won't be that interesting to people.

We are watching this new series the Book of Daniel. It is stirring up some controversy for some reason. But mostly it is pretty dull. Everyone has all these problems and no one deals with them with any style. It seems like one of those Dawson Creek type things. Not that I ever watched Dawson's Creek.