January Happenings

Fernando has been in Costa Rica since Jan. 12.  The weekend he came home, we had Leo overnight and then stayed with him at their house Sunday evening while Eva went to pick Fernando up from the airport.  

We have passed a new Leon Creek greenway trailhead very close to our house multiple times every week, always looking over in that direction but never stopping to actually check it out.  Well, this past week, we decided to drive over to it to see how easy it was to access and if there was a decent place to park.  We found it had both, so on Sunday, we decided to go there with Leo.  The weather was very nice and we enjoyed the walk a lot.  We probably walked a mile total.  There were actually big rocks along this trail where Leo had fun scrambling around.

On Monday, we celebrated Kathy's birthday at Lighthouse Seafood.  It was a very nice get-together.

Mike, Rosie (although she's not in this picture), Myra, Linda, Vicki, Guillermo, Flynn, Kathy, Carlos and Chris.

Christmas 2022 And New Year 2023

 

We had a really nice Christmas Day with Fernando, Eva and Leo. 

After opening presents, we had a good Christmas dinner with Honey-Baked Ham.  

I just love our tree.  We bought it in 2020 when the pandemic was going pretty strong.  It's one of the best purchases ever.  So nice to not have to worry about watering it or it drying out.  And every year it just looks so pretty when it is decorated.  The picture here doesn't do it justice.  I just can't seem to get the colors and lighting to show exactly how pretty it all looks in person.

Eva left for Sweden on December 29th to be with her family.

Rebeca, Jason and Scotty arrived January 1!  

This is our traditional Christmas picture.  I will never forget the first picture that was taken like this (back in 2015) with these two boys.  Scotty was 2 years old and Leo was 7 months old.  Now they are 9 and 7!

Our second Christmas, this time with Rebeca and family, on January 2nd.

Having a night snack

What a disaster trying to make the gingerbread houses on January 3rd.  We gave up trying to get the walls to stand up and the roof to stay put.  So we decided to just lay them down and decorate them that way.  Then we just threw them away.  It was fun decorating anyway.

In the evening on January 3rd we picked up food from Taco Cabana to take over to Mom's house for a small Christmas gathering.

Ophelia, Mom, Scotty, Leo and Oliver

It's been a while since I've been able to upload videos on Blogspot.  I'm not sure why this site hasn't been allowing videos. I could do it on my own if I looked up the HTML on how to do it, but I haven't had time to do that.  Anyway, above is a picture where we are all singing Christmas carols.  There's a good video of it, so maybe some day.  Mom was so happy to sing Christmas songs..

After the gathering at Mom's house, Guillermo and I went with Rebeca and family and Fernando and Leo to the Riverwalk.  

After walking around, we stopped at the Rainforest Cafe and sat outside and had something to drink.

The next day, January 4th, we went to a German restaurant - "Little Gretel" - in Boerne.  

After that good lunch, then we walked along the river that was across the street from the restaurant and walked into town a little bit to get an ice cream.

My last fling with Jury Duty and "oh yeah? well what about this knife?"

 I got a summons a few months ago to report for jury duty.  I just could not believe that - almost one year before the age of 70 - I actually get called for jury duty again.  It's fitting because the first time I got called  I was 18, and then many many times between 18 and now.  So Of COURSE I'd be summoned in my last year of mandatory reporting.  They scheduled me to report on a date when we'd be in Tucson but I was able to set a new date in which to do it, which was November 10.  

On November 10, I had to be on the computer at 8 for the Zoom meeting of all the potential jurists.  I think there were around 300 of us.  That meeting lasted until about 2pm, which was when I was assigned, along with 75 other people, to appear in person at the 175th court on Monday, Nov. 14 at 11am.  

It was a cold and rainy Monday morning on the 14th.  Of course.  Parking at the courthouse garage was terrible - circled all the way to the top without finding a spot, but fortunately they had opened an additional section of the garage.  I circled all the way up to the top of that additional section of the garage also and finally found a spot.  

At the courthouse, everyone has to go through security.  I placed my purse and lunch bag in the bin and walked through the scanner.  They stopped me on the other side, telling me they saw two spoons in my lunch bag and that I needed to take them out because those spoons aren't allowed.  I knew I had plastic spoons in there but they said no, those spoons are metal.  I rummaged around in the side pocket of my lunch bag looking for the spoons and that's when I saw that I also had a knife.  I couldn't believe it.  They were going on about spoons, and here I have an actual knife.  So I pushed the knife to the bottom of the pocket and got out one spoon and gave it to the guy.  I kept looking for the second spoon but just could not find it.  I told the guy I can only find one spoon and he said well, it showed two, so go ahead and take everything out and let me help you look.  That's when I knew I had to tell him about the knife.  So I told him there's also a knife in here.  He was shocked.  He took my knife and went to the guy doing the scanner and told him that I also had a knife in there!!!  Crazy.  We then continued looking for the other spoon and the guy finally found it wrapped up well in several paper towels.  He then holds up my two spoons and the knife and asked me what I wanted to do since these can't go in.   I noticed the time - I had 6 minutes to report to jury duty.  The spoons I would've reluctantly given up, but the knife is from Switzerland and I didn't want for them to just throw that in the trash (or keep it).  So, I just decided to be late.  I took the three items and left the courthouse and walked ALL the way back to the garage and went all the way back up to the top floor to put those three things in the trunk.  When I finally got back to where I was supposed to report for duty, the guy had already been calling out names and putting everyone in order.  He had already called my name but it was ok.  When he was done calling everyone's names, I gave him my name and he put me in my correct spot.  No big deal.  And I felt glad knowing those three items hadn't been thrown away.  It's crazy to think that if I could have JUST found that second spoon right away, then I would have quickly been on my way and I would have entered the courthouse with a knife. BUT, at least I wouldn't have had spoons on me!

Being on a panel where they decide which 14 people out of the 75 they will pick for the jury is very boring.  I did not get picked and did not get to leave there until almost 5pm. 

Taking care of the boy for a while

 So, Fernando has a pretty amazing job offer in Leipzig, Germany.  It is a research position, which is what he'd rather do more than teach.  There is a possibility that Eva would be offered a position there also.  This would be at the Max Planck Institute.  The only catch - the position is only guaranteed for 5 years but they said the chances were good it would be extended 5 more years.  There are as many cons as there are pros to taking a position over there.  So, we'll see what happens. 

The Max Planck invited Fernando and Eva to fly to Leipzig to check everything out over there before making a decision.  Fernando and Eva decided to take them up on the offer, and on Tuesday, October 4, we went over to Fernando's house to take them to the airport.  After dropping them off at the airport, we went back to Fernando's house and set up our stuff as we'll be living in their house for several days.  We picked up Leo from school that Tuesday, brought him home and then got him ready for his soccer practice that evening.   

After practice, we stopped at Inferno's Pizza for dinner and that was nice sitting outside enjoying good pizza - well, it would've been excellent if it hadn't been for all the flies!

We took him to school the next morning and picked him up that afternoon and then it was the beginning of his school's fall break.

On Thursday morning, we took a trip with Leo to New Braunfels to visit the Children's Museum there.  What a drive that was!  Going from Fernando's house down I-10 to Loop 1604 was fine but things went downhill once we got to Loop 1604.  We must have crawled through traffic pretty much the entire way on 1604, and then of course on I-35, until we practically were in New Braunfels.  Leo had fun in the Children's Museum but we found that there really is very little there for kids who are older than 4 or 5.  Fortunately, there were 3 places in the museum that he enjoyed very much so it was all worth it.

He loved chasing the balls as they were launched out.  His other favorite place was a water play place and then a place where you could feel like you were in outer space.  It was SO dark in there.  I even bumped into a wall in there.  If you didn't keep your hand along the railing, it was so easy to get disoriented.  It's a little unnerving inside there, but it's also very exciting and really does give you the feeling of floating in space.

After the museum, we drove to the Alpine Haus to have lunch.  We had a very nice German lunch there and Leo thoroughly enjoyed eating in a "fancy" restaurant that was inside a house!  

After lunch, we walked to Naeglins Bakery and Leo was thrilled to see so many delicious pastries, doughnuts, cakes and pies on display and all in one area.  We bought him a special doughnut and then we walked back to our car and we let him have two bites of his doughnut and then we said we'd wait till we got home to have the rest.  The drive home was so much better.  Then we all enjoyed tea time back at the house.  

That evening was another soccer practice.

On Friday, we took Leo to Andretti Indoor Karting and Games.  We thought that'd be a lot of fun for him to drive the go-karts but it was a little too intimidating for him.  The helmet was huge, and the track, there was no way to tell how long it was.  Thankfully he was the only one on the track at the time he went, but he did one loop and decided he was done so we got him out.  After that, we played a few of the games in there and then he took his accumulated tickets and got some little prize.

Saturday, Leo had a soccer game which we thoroughly enjoyed watching.  They lost the game but even so, it was a very intense game.

After the game, we packed up all of our stuff and took Leo over to our house so he could spend the last two nights there before Fernando and Eva get back.  

On Sunday, we went to a really nice Food Truck park near Boerne and had an early dinner.  It was so nice sitting at the table outside in the really nice atmosphere of that Food Truck park. 

Then we went to pick up Fernando's car from his house and then we went in two cars to leave Fernando's car at the airport.  Fernando and Eva would be coming home later that evening.  Too late for all of us to meet them at the airport.

On Monday, we took Leo home after lunch.  So we had Leo for almost a week and were very grateful to be able to spend so much time with him.  

Fernando brought Leo over to our house again on Friday evening,  The 14th.  He is taking Eva to the airport again on Saturday morning.  She has a job interview in Sweden, in the same town near where her sister lives.  She will return on the 18th.  

On Saturday, October 15th, we went with Fernando and Leo to a San Antonio FC soccer game!  That was something we just decided to do on Friday, and sometimes those last minute spontaneous things are so much fun.  We had a great time at the game.  We found parking, had a not too bad walk to the stadium and then waited in line to go through security.  I thought they'd take my backpack from me, or make me put it back in the car, because there was a sign saying which items were acceptable to bring in, and a backpack wasn't one of them.  But no, I put my backpack in the bowl and they just tagged it and we were on our way.  We had great seats for the game and Leo just absolutely loved all the excitement.  We are so glad we did this last minute thing.  The exciting game, (score ended 2-2), watching the intense action and skilled footwork on the field, the fireworks when our team scored a goal, the thrill of being in the crowd, doing the waves, stomping the bleacher floor, getting concession food, and the massive fireworks display when the game was over, all of it was so interesting to him.  We plan on going to the very next game.

Back from Tucson

 Before we went to Tucson, the hognose butterflies were coming through and Leo just had to get his net.  Since there were so many of them, he had no trouble at all catching one.

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On Grandparents Day, we went to have lunch with Leo at his school.  There were so many grandparents there!  The school did a wonderful job of making this event go so smoothly.  We are sitting here on a wall away from the big crowds.  After he ate, Leo and his friends ran around these walls and it was fun watching them.

I finally, finally, finally found a picture of my old mustang.  A few years ago, I told Leo I once had a green mustang and I tried and tried to find a picture of it to show him.   He seemed so intrigued with the thought that I once had a green mustang.   He  DID tell me that he's mad at me that I sold that mustang.  Well, I'm mad too. 

At the end of September, we went to Tucson.  We took Scotty to Costco again to have lunch.  We have done that every year since he was a small baby.  But because of the pandemic, we hadn't done that in two years!  So we all enjoyed being back there again!

 

We went to OctoberFest on Mount Lemmon the one weekend we were there.  The weather was great and Scotty and I enjoyed doing the Chicken Dance with other people while the band played that song.

They are coming back from a walk in the forest.

Scotty still loves playing with playdough.  I made a few batches for him and his friend Gunnar.

Best part of our day was picking up this boy from school!

Very nice surprise

 We had a nice visit with Rebeca and Jason and Scotty these last 3 days.  They were only going to be in town two nights but a light came on in the car - something about a low battery in their remote key - so they thought it'd be best to get that taken care of.  The bonus for us is that they stayed an extra day!

The first evening, they met me at Mom's house.  Because the covid cases are high and going up, we thought it'd be best to just say hello at the door.  They did slip just inside the door to get a picture or two in.

The next day, they had breakfast with us - and lunch - and then they left to spend sometime at Aquatica, which is the water park section of Sea World.  Unfortunately, some storms came up after they had been there only a couple of hours so they had to take shelter and then the park was closed.

The day after that was the bonus day.  They decided to try Aquatica again, after getting the battery in their key remote replaced.  Same thing happened at Aquatica.  Storms came up.  But this time, they were able to resume their activities.

So, it's their last day here and we are back home after saying bye to them.  The house always seem so extra quiet and sad after either one of those boys go home.

Moonlight Sonata

 Just posting that I finished learning how to play Moonlight Sonata again.  I actually finished learning the whole thing back in April.  Using a tutorial on Youtube made it easy.  But it really made me aware of how much patience my friend had to have had back in 1972 or 1973 to sit with me everyday and teach me just a little more of the piece.  I see now that was obviously not an easy thing to do.  But I still remember sitting with her at the piano in the Catholic Student Center at SAC and we actually both had a lot of fun.  I guess being younger made it a lot easier to pick up.