Our Thanksgiving

We left home on Thanksgiving morning, headed for Comfort, TX. We planned on staying at a Bed and Breakfast there, but we just couldn't find it. So, we decided to drive towards Blanco, which was what we had also planned on doing anyway. We wanted to drive by the places that hold special memories for us, see the beautiful countryside (which was VERY dry) and maybe have a nice Thanksgiving meal at a Cracker Barrel somewhere (on Rebeca's suggestion). We got to Blanco and drove to Tejas Trails, where we used to spend a lot of time 32 years ago. We took a few pictures, reminisced about so long ago, and enjoyed some tuna and crackers in the car. The place, of course, is a lot different now, it's all fenced off and there are more structures nearby.

From there, we drove to Wimberley and enjoyed the beautiful scenery along River Road. We didn't see any places to stay there in Wimberley, so we figured we'd head on to San Marcos, eat at Cracker Barrel and then head back to San Antonio. As we were headed out of Wimberley, we passed Mountain View Lodge and on a whim, turned around to see if they had any vacancies. Amazingly enough, they had two rooms left so we took one! The view was beautiful from our room, and after checking in, we promptly took a walk on their nature trail, which was very interesting - it even had dinosaur tracks!

The lodge where we stayed in Wimberly

 Walking along the trail

After walking the trail we drove to San Marcos, had a great Thanksgiving meal and then headed back to the lodge and took it easy the rest of the evening.
The next morning we had breakfast at the Wimberley Cafe, and there was a place close to the Wimberley Cafe where they were selling those wooden/metal animal sculptures. I could not BELIEVE they had a platypus there and wanted to, but didn't dare look at the price. Some of the other smaller things were over $600 so...... But they were all so precious.

We had a wonderful and very memorable Thanksgiving.

With John and Elaine

Over big plates of Greek food, we enjoyed a very pleasant evening with John and Elaine. Afterwards, we all came back to our house and looked at a few pictures of the South America trip and had a wonderful Pear Tart accompanied by rum-laced eggnog. Delicious!!

Thank goodness for Skype

Whew, it's been a busy week. As luck would have it, I WAS able to work 3 more days at Elrod, so this past week ended up being a 5-day work week for both of us.

When we got home last night, we talked with Fernando on Skype. The time difference between us is 15 hours. So, he was just starting his day as ours was winding down. He is doing fine, spending long hours at the lab, and looking forward to his trip to Borneo. He says he has enjoyed the food there in Japan well enough, but is looking forward to some new food in Borneo. From what I've read of the place, Borneo is, among many other great things, a food-lover's paradise.

First freeze

Every plant we could move is now back in the greenhouse, so our yard looks really bare. It has its "winter look" again. Guillermo put the last of the plants in yesterday afternoon and just in time, because we got our first hard freeze last night. The Cannas and Firebush are all brown, the bananas that we couldn't move into the greenhouse because they're in the ground are all brown, and the Lantanas, Brazilian Sky Flower and Coral Vine look badly singed. Probably next weekend we'll have to spend time cutting away all that dead stuff.

Last Friday, I got to work at my old school! In my old job! How good is that??? It was really good being back there. Pulling up into the parking lot, parking in the same slot that I always used to park in, walking the hallways that I walked for 15 years - all of it was great. So many kids would say to me, "You look so familiar!", or, "Do I know you from somewhere??" Of course, these kids were in kinder when I worked with them, and now they're in second grade. It was something to see how much they had changed. It was a lot of fun, also, catching up with the people I had worked with on a daily basis. The day was a wonderful change of pace from working in Accounts Payable, and I hope I get more calls to go back to that school! I had forgotten how much I enjoyed working with kids!

All of our plants safe inside from the cold.

I'm actually surprised that Guillermo got all our plants to fit in both greenhouses. There are more plants in our smaller greenhouse.

Quote: Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand and for a talk beside the fire: it is the time for home. ~Edith Sitwell

Really nice weekend

This is such a beautiful time of year. The trees are starting to turn colors and lose their leaves. The air is cooler and the days are just so pretty! Looking towards our Ash tree this afternoon, it was lovely watching the wind blow through the branches, causing the leaves to fall. It made it appear as if it was raining leaves! Fall is a beautiful season!

Bougainvillas seem to love this weather.

When the leaves start falling, our driveway gets covered with a beautiful blanket of brown and yellow. It hasn't gotten cold enough to make all the leaves fall, yet, but the driveway is starting to disappear.

Of course, with all these leaves falling, quite a few manage to end up in our gutters. Guillermo decided to go up on the roof today, since they are forecasting rain in our area the next two days. Here's hoping they're right.


Dumping the leaves out.

Quote:
Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower. ~Albert Camus

Texting

Yesterday, I did something that most people already take for granted. I sent and received a text message on our cell phone. A friend at work helped me with this, because I had no idea how to begin, or even what a text message would look like when it came in. After trying and being unsuccessful, a quick call to Sprint revealed that we had texting blocked. So, they unblocked it and my friend sent me a text and I responded!! Really, it's the little things.
When we were in Buenos Aires, everytime we rode the subway, we would see people all around us with their cells, texting to other people. While they spent the time traveling in those dark tunnels communicating with people in other places, I thought it was quite amusing, because suddenly you'd see them chuckle or look really focused and then start right away on their answer to whoever. It seemed as good a way as any to pass the time in the "subte".
What got this "texting" thing going here was that Fernando wrote us that Eva might send us a text message from Africa. See, she also had trouble with her plane tickets to Japan. Hers actually got canceled by her credit card company because the charge made in Africa seemed "suspicious". The card company tried to contact her parents to verify the charge but could not, so they rejected and canceled her purchase of the ticket to Japan. This meant she had to go into Kumasi at her next earliest convenience to attempt to buy those tickets again. Since it might have been too late for her to get to an internet cafe to write Fernando to let him know how it went, and it would be a week before she'd be able to contact him again, they were thinking she would just text us the info from the field site using the phone.
BUT, things work out. Having to repurchase the tickets allowed Eva to get the same new return date as Fernando, so at least now they will both be leaving Tokyo on the same day. Eva will be returning to Ghana, and Fernando will be coming through here on his way back to Calgary.
Oh, and Guillermo and I got our flu shots today, finally.


Quote:
Lo! Men have become the tools of their tools. ~Henry David Thoreau

The video is on!

We've spent the past few days working, and trying to get Fernando's return ticket from Japan changed. Originally, he was scheduled to come back on Dec. 15, but it turns out that Eva IS able to visit him in Japan during the Christmas holidays after all. So, she'll be arriving there some time after Dec. 15. After a few hassles, we were able to get Fernando's return ticket changed to a date that was real close to the date that Eva will be returning from Japan back to Africa. We are so happy that Eva is going to be joining Fernando in Japan for the Christmas holidays. Fernando will be back here in January, and at that time, he'll pack up his stuff and drive up to Calgary.

Before Fernando gets back, we have a visitor arriving!!! Right after New Year's, Martina (Andrew's wife) will be arriving from Switzerland to stay with us for about 3 months. During that time, she will be attending a local college, where she will study English as a Second Language. As luck would have it, Guillermo will probably be teaching some flex-course ESL classes at that time, so it's possible he may have her in one of his classes! Anyway, we look forward to her arrival, and having her stay with us for a little while.

I have FINALLY uploaded my first video to YouTube. The music is A-La-Ke by a group called Sacred Spirits and that music is basically set to a series of pictures of flowers.


Quote:

Why pay money to have your family tree traced; go into politics and your opponents will do it for you. ~Author Unknown