dalthauser

Monday I went to the San Antonio Botanical Gardens with Marcel, my friend Bea, and my niece Jerrica.  Long day, and we got a little too much sun - but a good time was had by all.  Marcel and I went to the Gardens together before when we were dating, but Bea and Jerrrica had never been before.

Map of the Garden                                                  Marcel & I under the Wisteria Arbor



Bea and Jerrica having a little fun in the giant chairs


( Behind Cut: Pictures of Plants I Want To Remember )

* Terrible night sleeping.  I tossed and turned - nose stuffed up - too hot - too cold - etc. etc.  Glad this happens rarely.  Today I will be groggy for sure.  Maybe I'll stop somewhere for a Monster just in case.

*  I got my Greenfield college transcripts as well as my high school transcript in the mail.  These schools I attended 30+ years ago.  My grades were okay, but it wasn't until I got to California that I started taking school seriously.  I am ready to visit the college next week though since I have all the things I need now.

*  I received the book and workbook of Anatomy & Physiology for Dummies.  Since I'm taking this online in the fall I want to be ready.  I am going to love this class - I can already tell.

* Met up with Alexis yesterday for lunch at Freebirds in San Antonio.  Good food and not too expensive.  Alexis is looking much better - back to her fiesty self.  Hope she continues to get better. 

*  Yesterday we also had some ice cream at Brindles in San Antonio.  Wow - great stuff.  I had passionfruit and Italian Berries  Marcel has Coconut and Tangerine.  We'll be back when we're in the neighborhood.  We also picked up a couple of good foodie books at Half Price Books next door.

* Cucumbers are in full production mode.  We especially like the Armenian Cucumbers, and we hope they will survive further into the summer.  We'll have ripe figs in about a week - we ate one yesterday.  The Sunflowers should be ready to harvest in a few weeks.  By August I will be ready to put the garden to bed for a couple of months.

* Today my "must do no matter what" goal was to get my back porch cleaned up. The chickens like to hang out there part of the day, and they've made (more of) a mess of it.  I rigged a skirt to put around it from extra fabric - it looks ghetto, but it'll keep it somewhat clean.  I scrubbed the concrete and got all the dirt off, but it still looks not so good (stains etc.). 



*  I got a message from my singles site from someone who wants to live out in the country - somewhere he can walk out his back porch naked and shoot doves without neighbors around to protest.  He wanted to know if I hunted doves, and what I did for kicks if I didn't drink.  Several days later he wrote again and wondered why I didn't reply.

* Bea and I ended up going to Market Square instead of Riverwalk last night.  Extremely last minute decision "hey, quick....turn here!!"  We walked the square and enjoyed the tourist shops with their colorful Mexican souveineers.  We got our name on the list to eat and Mi Tierra Cafe which was excellent in every way.  We waited over 30 minutes for a table, but we bought bakery goods while we hung out.  It was a nice night out. 


The pinatas and Mexican versions of Tibetan prayer flags that hang from the ceiling in the entry way of Mi Tierra Cafe. 



This was not our waiter.  It was some poor employee Bea drug into the picture; he was a good sport.




I'm facinated with Day of the Dead stuff.  These ladies were delightfully chilling

Today I'd planned to spend the day cleaning house and doing other random chores. 

Instead I ended up driving to North Austin to pick up an antique sewing machine my mother agreed to buy on Austin Craigslist (my mom lives in Hawaii..... I'm not sure why she cruises the Austin Craigslist).  I'm too tired to take a picture of it, I'll put it in another post.  It's a Singer from the 1940's built into a table.  Very nice - in great shape with all the original attachments and the manual. I'm sure it's worth over $80, but my mom wants it for sentimental reasons.

All was not lost as I stopped at a couple of my favorite places on the way there and back

First Stop Fiesta grocery store off I35 in Austin.  Shopping here is like going on a food safari.  There's random food from just about everywhere - including Africa.  It's very un-hip, so you don't see the yuppies here; however, it's as fun as shopping in Whole Foods.



The produce department is awesome


I also went to Hong Kong Super Market off Research Blvd.  I love that they have every asian ingredient you could possibly want (and several I can't believe anyone would want).  The only negative thing about this place is the smell.  Kind of like old fish blood.  I find it nauseating.  Also, they don't price a lot of the stuff - which I find annoyjng.  They have Lychee Jelly cups though which is a huge plus.  If you go, just rub some vicks inside your nostrils before entering.

Here is an aisle with all noodles and wrappers - on both sides!


Then, on the way home I stopped by Cabelas.  Believe it or not - this is a tourist destination.  It's really for hunters and fishermen.  I go to Cabelas for the hiking and camping gear.  I stopped in to price backpacking equipment - including a good internal frame backpack for long hikes.  They didn't have much of a selection sadly.  Their online store is better.  A scary Deliverance-looking guy talked me up in the shoe department - I think it was my camouflage print tank top that got his attention.....

I did pick up a "survival in a can" kit which is about the size of a tin of sardines and has a bunch of random essentials like waterproof matches, hook & line, razor blade, etc.  It's for the glove compartment of my truck. I also got a emergency whistle/compass/thermometer all on with a hook to go on my keychain

Today was the day I went to donate platelets in San Antonio.  I'd planned to finally visit the Green vegetarian restaurant there for lunch - then over to Whole Foods to pick up a few things on the way home.  I did donate......

Please forgive the whining......

It all started when I was up the road a few miles and realized I forgot my digital camera.  It goes everywhere with me, and it wasn't in my purse.  Bad omen. 

I got to the South Texas Blood & Tissue Center on time (after having to double back because I missed it).  The screening took a long time, and I didn't get into the donation room until 9am. 

Then the tech insisted on using my right arm to take the initial platlet test -  now I have three really dark blue bruises where she jabbed me and jabbed me and moved the needle around looking for a vein.  So, they find out I have PLENTY of platelets (they said like a man - - I think that was meant as a compliment). 

They hooked me up to the machine and put on a DVD (Juno - loved it) and they finally started the procedure at 9:30am.  It finally finished at 11:15 am, and I was a little annoyed since I wanted to be at lunch by 11am.  I left the building finally at 11:30am and hit the road to find Green.

After the first three attempts to find it (backtracking to where I knew where I was each time and starting over0 I was beginning to think it was not meant to be.  On the fifth (yes, I'm persistent) try I ran into a sign pointing the way to I-35 North (the way home) and I took it as a sign....... (by this time it was 12:55pm)

On the way back North I saw the sign for Eisenhauer road and thought "ok, this doesn't have to be a total loss - I'll stop at the big Goodwill "everything for a dollar" supercenter.  I got off and turned down the wrong road in major traffic, backtracked and got to the right road 20 minutes later and pulled into the parking lot...... it's not there anymore!  Jeez!!!!  LoL  I swear I just laughed. 

Now I'm home - and I'm putting primer on hallway trim and installing chicken nest boxes (I'll post on this later).

Whew!

Pet Chickens of Texas May party group picture.