A Texan-American Way of Life

St. Paul's Cathedral and Wimbledon Tennis Club

2012-01-31T20:28:00.001-06:00

On Thursday Dec. 22nd, we tried to get on the Internet in the morning in our room at the hotel and it was down. It had been wonky since the day we arrived. We had called the front desk several times about it and they did what they could. On this particular morning before leaving for the day Frankie mentioned to the hotel manager that it was out again. The manager apologized, said she would look into it, and gave us vouchers for a free full English breakfast at the hotel restaurant! SA-WEET! It was a 13 pound ($20) value for each of us and it was good!

Sausage, tomato, bacon (although it looked more like ham to us), mushrooms, eggs, juice and coffee!

That got us off our timeline for the day but it was worth it! After eating we went to St. Paul's Cathedral, which we could see from the front door of our hotel.

It was beautiful, expensive and I couldn't take pictures inside. Boo! I don't like being told not to take pictures! There was an audio guide including in the price of the ticket and it was interesting. They had a short prayer every hour and they also offered communion at one point. We decided to climb the 530 stairs to go to the very top.

I took some pictures on the way up! Take that no-pictures-people!

It was worth the climb. It was beautiful! Frankie thought he was going to die but I was very proud of him for doing it and making it! We actually climbed much more than then quoted 530 steps because there were steps to get in the front door, there were steps to climb back up from the crypt and so on. Check out these views of London!

The London Eye from St. Paul's Cathedral

The financial district from St. Paul's Cathedral

Shakespeare's Globe Theater, Tate Modern Museum, and Millennium Bridge from St. Paul's Cathedral

Once we were done with St. Paul's Cathedral we took a taxi, because Frankie wanted to, from there to the Tower of London. The cab driver told us about the Texas Legation. Before Texas became an official state of the United States they had an embassy in Washington DC, Paris, and London. How did we not know about this?? Born and raised Texans, how shameful! He gave us the address to where it was, but we never made it over there. If you would like to see the plaque marking the spot, you can see it at the Texasfirsthand website.

When we got to London Tower we were told that the tour we wanted to go on would take almost 3 hours, but the place was going to close in about 2 hours.

As pretty as it looked we decided to go to Wimbledon Tennis Museum instead and come back to the Tower tomorrow. We got all the way to the Wimbledon Tube stop, then to the right bus stop and waited and waited and waited for the bus. We were starting to get worried that would not have enough time to actually see the museum so we gave up and took a taxi to Wimbledon. Frankie was happy!

Frankie LOVED Wimbledon and he got to see Centre Court. He grew up watching the Wimbledon championship matches and really likes tennis, playing all the way through high school and even coaching it for a few years recently. I enjoyed going there too and I am not that into tennis.

This is Centre Court where the finals are played. There were no lines painted because it was winter.

There was also no worn places in the grass either, they were growing it!

Check out the oldest racquet on the right!

Women's tennis outfits use to weigh almost 11 pounds!

So that is why!!

Rafael Nadal's Signature

Maria Sharapova's Signature

Pete Sampras' Signature

John McEnroe's signature

Frankie found some new friends!

They took me in too! We are all going to Wimbledon together!

I am trying to bite the Champion plate like Nadal does....glass got in the way.

Frankie trying to kiss the Champion cup!

I found out when we were done visiting Wimbledon that I took almost 100 pictures while there for Frankie. You are lucky I narrowed it down to the few I posted! Afterwards, we ate some fish and chips before getting on the tube to come back to the hotel.

We could have had Pukka-Pies, but was not sure what it was! We asked and the guy at the counter said it
was some kind of meat pie. I think I will stick with fish and chips! Especially because I wasn't not
sure if it was puke-a, puck-a, or pook-a pies and none of those words sound appetizing!

When we got back to the hotel we washed clothes in a European washer/dryer. The hotel offered this service for free and it was our first experience with this type of washer/dryer combination. It took us a second or so to figure out which one was the washer (bottom) and which was the dryer (top). Frankie almost ripped the door off the dryer trying to open it when all we had to do was push that little orange button.

We found out after 4 days of being at the hotel that they offered free coffee drinks (lattes, cappuccinos, etc.) in the hotel lounge! That made me look forward to the next couple of days! I hope you are looking forward to them as well! Until then!

British Museum and British Library

2012-01-29T22:02:00.002-06:00

Continuing our adventures from Wednesday the 21st, we left Buckingham Palace and took a taxi to the British Museum. The only reason we took a taxi was because Frankie wanted to. He said that being in London meant that we had to take a ride in one of the black London cabs at least once.

We arrived at the British Museum and headed in. One of the nice things is the fact that it is FREE! I love that! There is so much to see here too. The age of the relics in the British Museum is astounding! It is hard to even wrap my mind around the age of some of the pieces. Let me share some of the things we saw while there.

The entrance to the British Museum is rather plain considering how much stuff it has from all over the world!

Great Court with its glass covered ceiling.

Lion of Knidos (modern day Turkey) from either 170's AD or 390's AD

THE Rosetta Stone- Three different language saying the same thing.
This allowed Egyptian hieroglyphics to be understood for the first time in the modern world.

Statue of Ramesses II - Ruler of Egypt starting in 1279 BC and ruled for 67 years

Giant Egyptian scarab from what is now modern Turkey from around 330 BC

Winged Lions from the North-West Palace of Ashurnasirpal II about 883-859 BC

Ancient Greek or Roman Woman that was beside....

....this other statue. The lady was sketching this one. Want to see what she had drawn?

Er....I don't see it...do you? I stood over this poor lady's shoulder to get this picture. She had no clue I was there!

I have no idea what this one is called. I could look it up or I could tell you my title.
You are getting mine! I call this, "Welcome to the gun show"!

We must have been getting hungry because we started to get silly. Zoom in and you can read the
real description or you can go with Frankie's which was the bloody horse head from the Godfather.

Show down at the British Museum. Yep, hunger had really set in.

I wish I could give you more detail on this besides the fact that I liked it.
The museum is huge and winding and full of articles.
I tried to retrace our steps using the British Museum website,
but with my limited knowledge it was hopeless.

Molossian Hound - The Mastiff is a descendant of this breed.

But really, all I saw was a puppy (all things cute are called puppies in my world)!
Awwwh!! He looks so happy!

Together for eternity....double awh!

Drat! That was the one thing I really wanted to see!
The Gneiss sphinx of Ammenemes IV...didn't you want to see it too?

I took this one because this is the face my cat makes when I scratch him under his chin. So cute!

Very very interesting or very very scary....I can't decide.

It is amazing that this baby rattle has survived as long as it has. I am sure that
babies threw things like they do today back in the 3rd and 2nd century BC!

And then they used it as a neti pot....

The guy with the big butt on the right got a good punch in on the guy on the left. Look at the blood!
I did find out that this was from around 520-510 BC by the Nikosthenes painter from Greece.

Umm...yeah. This one I was able to capture the description...thankfully.

It is Roman statue of an African acrobat on a crocodile from the 1st century BC
or 1st century AD. That time period where it went from BC to AD had to
be a very confusing time...just look at the art it produced!

Remeber the Godfather horse head? You can have your very own replica for only 1650 pounds ($2595)! I think
that is a bargain! Seriously, they had this for sale in the gift shop and I wasn't the only one who took a picture!

After all the excitement and giddiness at the British Museum we left to find something to eat.

I think the London city air did something to my brain. I ate a place called Onion. I HATE onions and avoid them at all cost! But let me tell you what, it was a nice sandwich shop! Not sure why they would call themselves something so disgusting, but they made up for it with some good food and the fact that they served Lavazza coffee (Italy's #1 one brand of coffee)!

Tuna Melt on Ciabatta Bread

Caffe latte made with Lavazza

With our bodies nourished and the giddiness wearing off, we took a bus to the British Library. When the bus pulled up we saw the coolest gate leading into the library's outside courtyard. I want a courtyard at my house like they have at Middle Eastern houses. I love those! Ok, back to the library.

Eduardo Paolozzi's rendition of a print by William Blake titled Newton.
The sculpture and the print illustrate how Isaac Newton's equations changed
our view of the world to being one determined by mathematical laws. I heart Newton!

Seen in the library foyer. It's a book. It's a bench. It's a book bench! Awesome!

I couldn't take very many picture inside the library, at least not of any of the cool stuff that I wanted to take pictures of that is. So let me give you are run down of the magical things we saw.

We saw original works of literature, musical scores, and lyrics written in their own handwriting by George Frideric Handel, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, The Beatles, Jane Austin, Leonardo Di Vinci, Lewis Carroll, Charlotte Bronte, Sylvia Plath and Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbery Tales. If you would like to see some of these online, follow this link to the library's Turning the Pages system. We also saw the original Magna Carta and some of the earliest Bibles. You can see more about the Magna Carta and other artifacts from the library's Treasures in Full link. It was an amazing place!

We saw a lot of history today and not just London history! We called it a day and headed back towards the hotel. I wanted to eat supper at the Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese Pub because of the history of it and it was close to the hotel. Plus, having the word "cheese" in the name didn't hurt!

There had been a pub on this site since 1538! Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese was destroyed in the great fire of 1666, but was rebuilt by the next year.

This is the list of all the Kings and Queens that have ruled since the rebuilding of the pub!

We tried to go in but it was packed. I am not a fan of large crowds so we backed out to find somewhere else. I am glad my husband understands my strangeness and doesn't try to fight me on them!

We went to Itsu- a healthy Asain inspired restaurant instead. I had the superbowl which had spinach, French beans, mushrooms, peppers, bean sprouts, carrots, leeks, tofu, cashew nuts, seedweed, and brown rice, in a fragrant Thai sauce and a cup of cold thai basil lemonade. It was so yummy! AND I even ate it with the chopsticks! That was the first time I was able to do that. I felt so worldly!

Wait, not worldly in the sense of sex, drugs, and rock and roll!! But more like....well...I can't think of the word! So let me do this... I felt so cultured!

Frankie ordered some sushi and prawn potsu (whatever that is) which had prawns (shrimp), seven vegetables, a free range egg, and udon noodles in a broth. He didn't really care for it. I think that it might have been because the noodles where much thicker than we are use to and it turned him off from it.

My yummy meal!

Frankie's sushi. Do you see the tiny little bottle of soy sauce? So cute! He said these were good.

Frankie's Prawn Potsu

Now that we were full of history, culture and food; we called it a day. The next blog post in this series will be our visits to St. Paul's Cathedral and Wimbledon Tennis Museum. Stay tuned! :)

Buckingham Palace's Changing Of The Guards

2012-01-28T23:15:00.001-06:00

On Wednesday, Dec 21st we had plans to go to Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guards. In the winter they have the ceremony every other day and in the summer it is everyday.

We didn't go straight there, we first had to drop of some post cards. Luckily, there was a mail drop box right outside of our hotel. We didn't have to hunt for one!

We didn't find the place that the man we talked to the night before mentioned for breakfast. We did however find a place to eat. I couldn't even tell you the name or really where it was. I know it was near the hotel, but that is about it. It wasn't the best, but then again it wasn't the worst either.

I had a cheese omelet that came with fries. It was a little early in the day for fries for me,
so I just ate the omelet. The color is a little off because Frankie wouldn't let me use the flash!

After eating we walked down Fleet street a little ways to St. Bride's Church. It is believed that the spire on the church is the inspiration for tiered wedding cakes. We couldn't go in because they were preparing for a Christmas song service. But we were able to walk around the small courtyard.

My artistic shot of St. Bride's Church

Continuing on our way to Buckingham Palace, we passed Shoe Lane.

There were other roads with names like, Milk Street, Bread Street, Honey Lane, Poultry and even a Pudding Lane. Back when there were only markets and no grocery stores if you wanted milk or bread you would go to that area to purchase them. I really wanted to get a picture of Pudding Lane (which wasn't where you went to buy pudding and I will leave it at that), but it just never worked out where we were near it. At least I got Shoe Lane!

Seen on our way to Buckingham Palace - Older Red Double Decker Bus

Texas Embassy Restaurant and Red Phone Booth

We knew we were getting closer when we got here. This is the entrance to the road that leads to Buckingham Palace. It looks more like it belongs in Rome than London. This road is called The Mall.

Not far from Buckingham Palace is the residence of Prince Charles called Clarence House. The video above shows one of the guards that stands outside of his gate.

Queen Victoria Monument outside of Buckingham Palace which is in the background.

Buckingham Palace behind the fence.

Gate a Buckingham Palace

Guard at Buckingham Palace seen through the fence. Another artistic shot!

Only a small part of the changing of the guards.

The Queen Victoria Memorial

But what is that on the orb she is holding?

It's a wee little man! Where did he come from??

We didn't stay for the whole changing of the guards ceremony. It was 30 minutes long and we couldn't get close to the fence to see what was going on inside. It was all right that we couldn't because we had other things we wanted to see. The changing of the guard is a lot of pomp and circumstance that was lost on us stupid Americans.

We left Buckingham Palace and headed to British Museum and British Library. I am going to save those for a new post since this one has already gotten so long.

So long! (Get it! I just repeated it for a different meaning....I rolled my eyes too, don't feel bad if you did!)

Westminster to Tower Bridge

2012-01-28T20:55:00.001-06:00

On Tuesday Dec. the 20th, we managed to actually get up by 8 AM! Yay, us! Already off to a good start, we had some breakfast and coffee to help top off the morning. Our plans for the day were to first go to the London Eye and to ride it. We were hesitant to pay about $30 each to go, so we decided that IF the weather was clear we would ride. It was a gorgeous day and I am glad we went. It was nice to see London from high up.

London Eye From Westminster Bridge

London Eye Pod

Palace of Westminster as we were heading to London Eye

Near the top on the London Eye

The ride on the London Eye took about 30 minutes and there were about 15 people in there with us. I think we were the only ones who spoke English as a first language. It was interesting!

After the ride in a big circle we headed towards the Palace of Westminster. We stopped at McDonald's first to get something to drink and all the products showed the calories. I wanted a mint McFlurry so bad but saw it was 400 calories! Seeing the calories really made me think twice about it. I never did get one, even though Frankie so graciously said he would eat half. I would love it if the calories were posted everywhere in America. It would make counting calories so much easier and I think really show us why we are such a fat nation!

Anyways, back to London! We tried to get a picture of ourselves with the Tower of London in the background. I think we were doing OK.

A guy saw us trying to take pictures of ourselves and volunteered to take one for us. We didn't even ask! It was very kind of him.

In case you weren't sure, it was a little windy and colder this day.

Detail of clock face of the Tower of Big Ben. So beautiful!

I love this picture with The London Eye and Tower of Big Ben together!

We were in luck this day. When we got to the Palace of Westminster they said that we could go in and watch the House of Commons members debating! How cool is that? We had to get a picture id taken and wear it around our necks. The picture was awful, if you squinted very hard you could just make out that it was a person. That is security!

Before getting to the House of Commons we walked through Westminster Hall, which is the oldest part of the palace. When they say old, they are not joking. This part of the hall was built in 1097. That is not a typo...1097 AD! This hall is 915 years old and they just let people walk in it!!

Westminster Hall

So many historic events have happened here. They commemorated a lot of them with plaques on the floor.

The stained glass at the end of Westminster Hall showing the coats of arms of the Kings of England and Scotland.

We did make it in to see the members of Parliament debating. There were several people on the house floor and they were all enclosed behind a bullet proof glass. There were three guys that had on the white wigs but I couldn't take pictures. I couldn't even take in my purse. I had to check it with security. We sat and watched for awhile, but it was typical politics and I get bored very quickly with that. So we didn't stay too long.

Back outside we continued our journey by crossing the street to go to Westminster Abbey church. This is where Prince William married Princess Kate in April of 2011. We decided to not go inside. We didn't want to spend $50 for that and we were more interested in seeing St. Paul's Cathedral, which also cost to visit. I did walk around and take some photos of the outside.

Westminster Abbey's front facade.

Gargoyle at Westminster Abbey

Guess who we saw near Westminster Abbey! None other than, the Queen herself!

We thought our next stop should be Wimbledon but we got side tracked, squirrel, and went to the Clink Prison Museum instead. We had never heard of it, but I think Frankie saw a sign for it or something. I have no idea how we came about going there, but it happened. I have heard the expression "to get throw in the clink", and this is where it comes from. It was a nice little museum, but not one that I would go to more than once. I did learn a lot of history though. London was a very bloody place back in the day. Prisoners today have NO idea how good they have it. Oh wait, one man apparently does. I took a bunch of pictures of the information signs and set ups. You can find them and all my pictures from the trip on my Flickr London set.

A prisoner would have to beg for money to buy food or to pay
off the debt that landed them in prison in the first place.

If a person was thrown in a hole like the one above it was basically a death sentence. They were thrown in there and forgotten about. The Thames river would flood with the tide causing raw sewage to swirl around the prisoners legs. All the standing in dirty water would cause sores and after a time their skin would fall from their bones.

Another lovely tidbit I learned at the Clink Prison Museum and also the Tower of London, was the fact that once a person had been executed in what ever brutal fashion was the choice of the day, the dead person's head would be chopped off and put on a pole. The poles were then tied to London bridge. London bridge was the only way of coming in or going out of London at the time, so all would see and be warned. See what I mean! Very bloody!

One of the very cool things that we saw on our way to the Clink Prison Museum and then again heading away from it was Borough Market. Now that was amazing! It is a food market filled with all kinds of food. Now, I love groceries stores. I love seeing all the different products and learning about them so this was wonderful in my eyes! Let me share some pictures with you.

I hear it's good for roast potatoes....

Even I liked the way this picture turned out and I detest onions!

Deer leg, hog leg, other leg? Not sure.

If I can see its eyeballs, I am not going to eat it. Period.

Theses were as large as my hand, not that it is saying much, but for meringue, it is!

Since we were near it we decided to walk to and across the Tower Bridge. We were on the south side of the river Thames and needed to cross anyways to get back to the hotel, so why not cross at the Tower Bridge?

I really liked the bridge. I think it was one of my favorite attractions in London. On the other side of the river we walked past a street vendor selling caramel roasted peanuts. Oh they smelled so good, so we bought some. They were as good as they smelled! Continuing on to the hotel we walked past the London Tower. We have plans to come back and see it another day since we already bought tickets online before leaving home.

When we travel we have times of definite plans to see things and then there are the times when we go where the wind blows us. In walking back to the hotel we suddenly (there was a sign) decided to take a boat tour of the River Thames (pronounced Tims) which took us from London Tower to the London Eye. At the London Eye we hopped on the tube to head back to the hotel. It was around 5 PM and we decided to not go as late tonight as we did last night and give ourselves a little break and rest.

The tube was crazy crowded. I was standing and since I am short, I pretty much had my face in a couple of peoples armpits. Lovely. As crowded as it was I thought we were in New Delhi or something! Strangest thing was that there were so many people reading the same newspaper while on the train. It was the free London evening paper which they hand out everyday, but it was still strange to see so many of them at the same time. We missed our stop because we just simply could not fight the crowd to get off the train when we needed to. We managed to get off at the next stop and just walked to the other side of the tracks for the train going the other way. This one was not as crowded and we made it to our stop.

We ate supper at the hotel at the Côte Restaurant which is French food. We planned on breaking out of our American shells and trying Indian and Japanese this trip. But for now, this was our second try with French food and it was very tasty!

While we ate we talked with a guy sitting at the next table who was from London. He gave us some tips on where to get a full English breakfast in the morning. Bellies full of good food and heads swimming with the thought of future good food we drifted to our room and to sleep.

The blog posts are taking forever to write up for each day, but I will continue on! So fear not, there is more to come! :)

Other Parts Of The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea

2012-01-23T17:33:00.000-06:00

Continuing Monday's saga....

We finished up with Hyde Park and walked down the street to the Science Museum. I had looked online at it before leaving to see what was there. You are not going to believe this, but they had a whole section dedicated to MATHEMATICS! (2nd floor, center, so that you know where it is for your trip!) Oh, I was sooo excited to go there! But before the 2nd floor there is of course the 1st floor to explore.

See Through Mini Cooper

Three Wheeled Car

A Sweater Made From the Wool of the Clone Sheep Dolly on Top of a DNA Analyzer

And then, and then....oh my oh my! The 2nd floor in the center...The History of Mathematics! (Now, I do understand that not everyone shares my love of math, sad sad people, so I limited the math related photos in this post to four.)

Most Beautiful Sign Ever!

Slide Rule-These things are amazing! They can do all kinds of math like multiply, divide, trig, roots, logarithms,
but not really used for adding or subtracting. This is actually the first time I have ever seen one!

Now this is art! I love spirals!

A dodecahedron (12 sided figure). I want this for my house!

Sadly, we had to leave the 2nd floor but before leaving completely we wandered up to a few other floors.

Ew, but COOL!

I swear, they would wrap anything! Silly Egyptians!

After some refreshments from ONE of the cafes in the Science Museum we went across the street to the Victoria and Albert Museum. I wanted to go there to see one thing, some little pencil stubs with the alphabet carved in the lead tips. Before we got to them we had to pass through several rooms.

Renaissance Statues

Glass Chandelier Art in Grand Entrance

The picture above shows the pencils that I wanted to see. They were tiny! I have no idea how the artist did that! I wasn't able to take a picture and they had no postcards of this so, I ripped it right off the V and A website. I am sorry. Please forgive me, V and A, Internet Big Brother, friends, and family.

After getting home and looking a little longer at the V and A website, I wish we had spend more time there. But we had walked quite a bit already through Hyde Park and the Science Museum, so we were tired, hungry and getting cranky. (When I say we, I am really mainly meaning my husband.) Teehee.

We decided to hold off eating until we got to Harrod's department store. I knew there were several restaurants there and was looking forward to the experience.

We went to the coat check first and then headed inside. It was CRAZY crowded! I do understand that it was the week of Christmas, but oh my goodness it was crowded! We saw only a small fraction of the store. There are 32 restaurants and 330 departments on seven stories with over 1,000,000 (yes, that is one million) square feet of shopping! They have a dress code and a motto! (Omnia Omnibus Ubique—All Things for All People, Everywhere).

We didn't stay long, just long enough to get jostled and take a few pictures.

I am just happy that at least the birds had their feathers plucked. Seen in the Food Hall.

Egyptian Escalator

The man who owns Harrod's is Egyptian and this is part of his tribute to this fact. The owner's son was the man who was dating and died in the car wreck with Princess Diana. There were memorials to both of them in the department store. This is one of them.

We didn't stay long because of the crowds and we never found any place to eat because it was just too crowded to try to find our way around. So we spent 4 pounds ($6.00!) in Harrod's to check the coats and umbrellas for 30 minutes and that is the extent of our time at Harrod's.

We were really really hungry by this time. We finally found a place to eat (read that agreed on a place) after a little more walking. We decided on a French restaurant called Cafe Rouge. It was really good! Frankie declared it his favorite meal of the entire trip.

Frankie had the Baguette Rouge: Char-grilled rump steak baguette with Dijon mustard and oregano mayonnaise, French fries and a salad garnish

I had a combination of four small plates: (starting at back left to right then front left to right) Houmous-Moroccan dip served with crisped flatbread, Olives-Gold medal winning Petit Lucques green olives, Merguez-Spicy beef & lamb sausage with harissa mayonnaise, and Fromage Bleu-Blue cheese, walnuts and French bread. Yum!

After dining sufficiently, we decided to see what Piccadilly Circus was all about. We knew it was like the Times Square of New York, but that was about it. That is about all we understand it be even to this day. There were lots of souvenirs and people. Heard the f-word about 25 times and that was from only three different people!

One very interesting thing we stumbled upon was the M&M's World! As we found out, there are only 4 in the world, 3 in the USA and this one in London. Well, of course we had to go in!!

Now over stimulated, we got on the tube to go back to the hotel. In the Piccadilly Circus tube station they made an announce to watch your belongings because pickpocketers (I think that is a word) worked this station! Well isn't just nice to know, as I grip my purse even tighter and give a quick glance to the people standing near me...were they one of them??

We really were going to head back to the hotel, but when the tube announcements keep saying the next stop is the one to Big Bend, well you just have to go see it! We got off the tube and climbed the stairs out of the station. The first thing to greet us was the mighty Big Ben Tower! Wow! It was breath taking to see it for the very first time at night!

Then once fully up the stairs, all you have to do is look left and Boom!, there is the London Eye. Beautiful!

While we were admiring the view, the clock chimed the hour and the lights on what we later found out to be, County Hall, started changing colors. It was lovely!

We finally decided that was all we could handle for the day and actually returned to the hotel. Would you believe were out until 11pm! Wahoo! Wild people!!

Stay tuned for more, this was only Monday and we were in London for a whole other week!

The Journey To And Through Hyde Park In London

2012-01-16T17:09:00.001-06:00

Monday, December 19th, we had all intention to get up at 7 AM to get a good early start to the day, but then 7 AM came around and the alarm went off. Then the alarm got reset to 9 AM. I don't know how that happened!

We finally got up, got ready and left the hotel. Before getting to the tube station we saw some Bobbies. They are named after Sir Robert (Bobby) Peel, who founded the London Metropolitan Police. I politely asked if I could take their picture. They were very friendly about it. I would like to apologize to the man, I caught him in a eyes half close pose and didn't want to bother them for another picture. Sorry sir!

It was not a long walk to the tube stop, but even so there are always things to see and take pictures of! For instance...

I LOVE Mexican food being from Texas, but finding it in places so far from Mexico, cracks me up.

Finally on the tube and our first stop was Marble Arch which is near one of entrances to Hyde Park. The marker for the Marble Arch tube stop was one of the prettiest ones.

The real Marble Arch with me standing in the middle arch. That thing is massive!

I read somewhere that this is the spot where they use to have public executions. Lovely. London was a very bloody place back in the day! And can you believe this arch use to be in front of Buckingham Palace but was moved in 1851 to this spot. I would love to know how that moved such a contraption back then! We continued on our way into Hyde Park. The first thing we came across was Speaker's Corner.

There wasn't anyone speaking on the day we were there, which was a Monday. There are usually people there on Sunday's and I read that Sunday afternoon is the best time to catch some "good" speeches. It was also a rainy day, nothing too bad, but constant rain most of the day.

There were several places in Hyde Park that I wanted to see. The Peter Pan statue, the Princess Diana Memorial, and the Prince Albert Memorial. We started walking to try to find the Peter Pan statue. We had a map, but wasn't sure where we were on the map so we asked some locals walking around and they were not sure where it was. I showed them the map and where the statue was on the map and they were able to point us in the right direction. Frankie was worried that this was going to turn into the time in Rome when we walked, he swears, all over Rome looking for a big toe. We did figure out where Peter Pan was but this park is HUGE and we were not that close. I decided to let Peter Pan slip away. I guess I just have to live with the pictures found through Google.

On our way to the Princess Diana Memorial we saw several other things we weren't looking for.

Now you really do need to see what this says...so next is a close up.

Thank you so much your help.....here's a rock.

The Serpentine River that is really a lake that runs through the center of Hyde Park.

We were not sure what to expect for the Princess Diana Memorial but we sure were not expecting a circle like shape of running water on the ground and that is it. It was nice and calming. Here you can read about why they designed it that way.

This is only one side of the fountain.

The last item we saw in Hyde Park was the Prince Albert Memorial. I loved it! It was so beautiful to me and it was massive. When Prince Albert died of typhoon in 1861 his wife Queen Victoria commissioned the memorial to be built in his honor. She mourned his death by wearing black, not just for the typical few years but for 40 years! Queen Victoria also had all the fence post around London that were painted in many different colors to be repainted all black, as they are still today.

Do you see the people standing by the fence line? This memorial is enormous!

The fence surrounding the memorial was so beautiful. I love spirals and curly-q's!

At the four corners of the fence there were tributes to the major Continents of the world.
This was North America's! Look! A buffalo! Awesome!

We tackled all of this in Hyde Park before lunch! I will have to split this day up into a few post because we packed so much into this one day! So I end this one here. Until later!

From the London Airport Go West

2012-01-15T22:55:00.001-06:00

In my last post I talked about getting to London from Texas. I said we got there saw the sights then we went home. Then I finished by talking about the trip home. Now for the details in the middle...the good stuff!

We managed to get through customs (not that we had any reason not to!) and were free to explore London. We had a few options to get into town. I, of course, choice the cheapest (8 pounds for both of us!), the Tube! We bought tickets for the Tube in the airport and found the right train that would go into city.

We were sure it was the right one because a man's voice came on over a speaker and says, "People on the platform, this the train you want. It is the only one." Why, thank you very much, kind British sir! We got on and away we went!

Frankie on the Tube from the airport to the hotel.

We had to switch lines in order to get to our hotel. We were doing so well! I was really proud of our handle of the underground train...scary thing...that I never saw anything like it until I was in college and went to New York...system. Then that all crashed to the ground.

We had to only go two stops to get to the one closest to the hotel. I got on the tube and the doors closed. Frankie did not get on! I repeat, FRANKIE DID NOT GET ON! He didn't have enough time. The doors closed without my husband on the Tube with me!! All I could do was say, "No!" in a slightly panicked whispered voice.

As the doors closed I heard Frankie say that he would stay there. I violently shook my head no through the now closed doors. That would mean I would have to get off, figure out a way to get to the other side of the tracks (which is actually very easy in London), then get back on a train to get to him. Maybe, that is if the underground system was that easy to navigate. Having no way of getting in contact with him, I rode to the next stop and hopped off really quickly to see if I could walk back to the last station. Nope.

I decided to just get back on and go to the next stop which was St. Paul's, the one we needed. I was thinking the whole time, "Please Frankie, get on the tube and go to St. Paul's. Please go to St. Paul's. Please go to St. Paul's."

I got off the train and stood on the platform, waiting. I would have waited there all night for him. It would had been better for me to stay still and let him find me! But after only a few long agonizing minutes the train came and he stepped off. I ran to him and hugged him. It wasn't as bad as when I thought I lost him at the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican City, but still stressful!

Our hotel was a stone's throw (well, if I threw it, it would probably take 3 or 4 tosses, but still) from St Paul's Cathedral where Prince Charles and Princess Diana were married in 1981. It was also near the London Stock Exchange and because of this everyday we had to pass by the Occupy London Stock Exchange tents and people.

The very first time we saw all of the tents and such, one person passed by us and was covered so you couldn't see their face or any defining features. That was a little unnerving because people who do that can't be up to any good. Plus, London had been under riot attacks only 4 months earlier by people dressed just like that! Hello! Yes, there are cameras all over the city of London, but behave and you don't have to worry about being caught by Big Brother!

We checked in at the hotel called Club Quarters, and planned on taking a nap but we decided to just suck it up and stay up.

We crossed the Millennium Bridge, which was built in 2000 to celebrate the millennium. When the first people went across the bridge was found to be very wobbly. The contractors took an extra more two years and had to spend millions of more pounds (had to keep reminding myself to not say dollars) to fix that little issue. On the north side of the bridge you can see St. Paul's Cathedral and on the south side you can see the Tate Modern Museum. It is a lovely pedestrian only bridge.

Facing the Tate Modern

Underneath looking towards St. Paul's

The steel construction jutting out to the side to allow for beautiful views

We decided to go the the Tate Modern Museum and to Shakespeare's Globe Theater. We went to the Globe first and took the tour. This is not the original theater but it is only 750 feet away from where the real one was originally built in 1599, burned down in 1613, rebuilt in 1614, and then finally demolished in 1644. The builders of the new Globe tried to keep as close to the original design and materials used as they could. So there were no power tools used and the place is even held together with wooden nails! The new Globe is a working theater and they have plays there in the summer. It is open air so the winter is just too cold for plays.

There was one point where we sat down to listen to the guide talk and I almost fell asleep. It wasn't just a nod off sleep quite of deal. If I had actually fallen asleep I would have fallen over in the person next to me's lap and not even noticed. Luckily, the sitting down part didn't last long. During one part of the tour somehow the Queen of England was brought up and the guide said the phrase, "God save the Queen." It was awesome! We finished up the tour, downed an espresso, and went to the Tate Modern. Here are some pictures from the Globe.

Globe Theater from Millennium Bridge

Open roof construction


The stage

Wooden Nails

One of the animals on the fence leading into Globe Theater

Another animal on the fence

Afterwards, we walked the short distance to the Tate Modern Museum where we ate lunch. In just about every museum we went to there was a place to eat! Very convenient, but can be pricey. The Tate Modern wasn't too bad.

I could read all the words and I am pretty sure they were in English
but I couldn't for the life of me tell you what some of this stuff was!

Best Jasmine Tea I have ever had and the caffeine didn't hurt either.

The big olives, called Gordal, tasted like none other I have ever had and they were wonderful! The small green ones were Manzanilla and the black ones are called Aragón.

This is the very first thing on the menu above. Frankie said it was good, but still not sure what it was.

Very interesting and tasty

Once we were done eating, which helped us to feel a little more awake, we when on to explore the Tate Modern Museum of Art. I have to say that I don't think modern art is something I can really appreciate. There were things in the Tate that were neat to see, but then there were some things that I don't even understand how it could be called art. So, because of my literal mindedness, I have to say that I was rather disappointed with the Tate Modern.

Here are some of the pieces that I did like.

Yes, it is strange, BUT, it by Picasso! You just don't see a painting by Picasso everyday!
(unless you work at the Tate that is...)

A pile of sunflower seeds....stupid, right? But wait.....

Each one of those sunflowers seeds were made out of porcelain and hand painted by ONE person!

Orange staircase made out of a very light material. Check out the railing at the top!

At first, I was thought this was stupid, but every time I see it, it keeps drawing me in. I have no idea why.

Monet's Water Lilies

My favorite piece of art by far!!

Here are some of the pieces I didn't care for.

It is literally pebbles in circles. Geometrically, I like it. Art....no.

I call this one...Melting Elephant...Its real name...no clue...don't care.

I was really getting mad at the "art" by this time. It is paper glued to a wall. Geometrically, great! Art...NO WAY!

Frankie thought my reactions were hilarious. He would go stand by a piece that he knew would rile me up with this grin on his face just waiting. And then there was this. It is a video of a video they were calling art. It is trash blowing on a street. I repeat, TRASH. BLOWING. ON. A. STREET. UUGGGHHH! This is NOT art!! It is trash on the street!

After that, I was so worked up that we had to leave. So we hopped on a red double decker bus to Tafalger Square, which is simply a public space. There were a lot of people around. There was a group there singing Christmas carols. There were people gathered to raise awareness of the plight of people in Syria.

There were, of course, some people just looking around like us. Here is one of the beautiful things that we all saw. The fountain in Trafalgar Square has LED lights in it that change color. I took stills of the different colors. Pretty!

We walked around some more and found a place to eat supper called the Coal Hole. It was very delicious! Several people and trip advisory websites said that pub food was getting much better in London and we were not disappointed. Plus, pub food is cheaper than regular restaurants. (Did someone say cheaper? Head whipping around to find it!)

Traditional Fish and Chips

Grilled chicken sandwich with what they kept calling bacon but we would call ham.

The up for 30 hours was really starting to wear on us by this time. Plus, we sat down to eat and our bodies were thinking, "Well this is as close as we are apparently (they are so dramatic when they are tired!) going to get to laying down, so let's go to sleep sitting up." Somewhere between getting off the plane and this point we had gotten a second wind but it was running very low. So we headed back to hotel, planned a little bit on the itinerary for the next day and then crashed with our bellies full of good food and our heads full of exciting new things in a foreign land.

Stay tuned...we were in London for 8 days so there is much more to come!

London Is Far Far Away

2012-01-01T22:31:00.001-06:00

My mom knitted us
scarves for our trip!

My husband, Frankie, and I had the opportunity to travel to London England for Christmas this year. We are hoping to be able to make traveling a Christmas tradition for us. This is the fifth year in a row we have gone somewhere. First year we drove from Texas to Connecticut to see family. Second year we drove to Alpine, Texas, a place we both love. Third year we went to Rome Italy, fulfilling a dream of mine. And last year we went to Dublin Ireland with a dear friend, to help fulfill one of her dreams and because, let's face it, we will go just about anywhere. As long as we can afford to and have our health we want to keep traveling. There is so much to see in this beautiful world that God created! (Believe me, we don't loose sight of who is blessing us with our being able to travel!)

People always ask us if we have family or at least know people in the places we are going. They seem to have a hard time understanding that there are so many more reasons to go somewhere besides to see family and friends. Maybe Frankie and I are just freaks like that, but we can't do much about it at this point! Why did we choice London? I honestly couldn't give just a few reasons. We just talk about with each other and both agree on a place. That is all there is to it. Then we start researching to see what there is in that location beyond what we might already know and go from there. (Have I ever mentioned how much I love the Internet? If not, the let me tell you. I LOVE THE INTERNET!)

So London was our choice this year. London is NOT close to Texas, at all! (Like you didn't know that, but really, it is FAR FAR away!)

We left our house around 8:30 AM CST on Saturday, December the 17th.

When we went to Rome and Dublin it was about $300 cheaper to drive 4 hours to Houston and leave from the airport there. This year we were happy to pay about $100 extra to have to only drive the one hour to leave from the San Antonio airport. Of course, it has never been a direct flight to our destination. That would just be unthinkable. So we were starting with a 3 hour flight to Detroit.

Upon checking in at San Antonio, Frankie realized he didn't have his phone and he couldn't remember if he had left it ON TOP of the car or IN the car. I offered to go back and get it but they said they were going to start boarding the plane in 15 minutes. What to do!? What to do!? We rationalized that if he had grabbed it from the car that he would have immediately put it in his pocket. And we further tried to quell our fears by saying that he DID have insurance on it if it was going to be ~~stolen~~, ~~stolened~~, ~~stole,~~ ~~stealed~~ (stinking English language!)....gone when we got back. Later I used an app on my phone to trace it and the app showed his phone was still at the airport in San Antonio. (Fingers crossed that it stayed there!)

When we arrived in in Detroit it was snowing lightly. Now, the last time I saw snow was we went to Dublin last Christmas. So I was a little overexcited, to say the least. In fact, I think I might have embarrassed Frankie ever so slightly. But you have to understand the snow flakes that were sticking to the window looked just like the snowflakes that you can cut out of paper! I have never seen that before in my entire life! I don't know if the snow flakes of my past were just too big, or too small, or too dry, or too wet or what. But it was amazing! I tried to get a picture but my camera would not focus on those little bitty perfectly formed snowflakes.

It was a good thing that we had a stop and a 2 hour layover in Detroit because they have an awesome airport! My husband had been worried over somethings beyond his phone and then we passed through this hall in the airport. It was so calming and peaceful that by the time the moving sidewalk came to an end we were both relaxed and ready for the next, longest leg of our journey. I took two videos of this hallway because photos alone couldn't do it justice.

Inside the airport there was even a automatic train that ran back and forth, almost silently, between terminals. And when I say inside, I mean, BOOM, right there next to you, inside!

Loved it! Before boarding Frankie asked if there were any upgrades and guess what, there were! We were upgraded FOR FREE to Economy Comfort which has a whooping 4 extra inches of space. You might snicker, but with an 8 hour flight to London it was 4 extra inches of heaven! The flight over was pretty much a blur with only a little nap thrown in there.

We arrived in London around 1 AM CST Sunday on December 18th. London time around 7 AM, Sunday on December 18th. (A mere 17 hour journey.)

You know you are in a foreign country when signs and objects look different from what you are use to. Take for example these three photos. (I would like to state here that I am not normally fascinated with public restrooms, but I did seem to take a lot of photos of things revolving around a bathroom theme this trip. Please don't hold it against me. I cannot explain, except to say, that I am an American. That seems to explain away many weird things when you are in a foreign country.)

Why are her hips soooo big??

The toilets in the London airport always catch me off guard the first time I see them. They are so tiny!
(And they expect those big hipped gals to sit on them??)

We aren't in Idaho anymore! (Or where ever American potato chips come from...)

As we got in line to go through customs....which took an hour!....right behind us was a couple from none other than San Antonio, Texas! They were not even on the same flight as us! What are the odds of that happening?? (Wait, I am a math teacher, shouldn't I be able to figure that out?) Anyhow, after proving to the authorities that we were indeed sweet Texas people and getting our passports stamped we were free to roam the city of London!

My favorite pages of my passport. It has all three places we have been in one place.
(Except Mexico's, where they didn't stamp anything or even really
ask us any questions. And we wonder why there are border issues!)

We explored London and then we went home.

(I really will come back and fill in more here. It will be in new blog posts though and it will be AFTER I finish organizing the over 1,000 photos I took!)

Going home was an even longer process than getting there. Here is what I wrote in my notes so that I could remember it for the blog. It was a boring as it sounds:

"Monday December 26th - Boxing Day in London (and other parts of the world), meaningless to us two Americans.

Left hotel at 7 AM London time which is 1 AM Texas time. Had to take a taxi for 50 pounds ($75) because of the tube strike. If we had taken the tube it would have been only 8 pounds ($12)! We got a whole middle section to ourselves on the plane, which is three seats together. It was nice to spread out on that very long flight. I actually watched 3 movies! We got to Boston around 1 PM Texas time. Left Boston around 3 PM Texas time. Got the exit seats which have a little more leg room Arrived in Memphis at 7 PM, they run on Texas time already. Left for San Antonio by 8 PM. Slept most of the way. Arrived there around 10 PM. Drove the 1 hour home. Total hours from start to end 22. Shew! Frankie's phone was in car (thank goodness!) with 5% battery left. Not sure where the battery level started way back on the 17th though."

The highlights of coming home were hearing the Boston accents and getting pizza and ice cream on the plane. Sad I know, but hey, it's the little things in life. Right?

Again, I will fill in the "we explored London" part with more details very soon. I just wanted to get started on these post. After all, the real world hits back tomorrow with work and deadlines and students.

So until then, as Rick Steves says,"Happy Traveling!". Wait, does he really say that or am I just making things up???

Ah well.....c'est la vie! (I am already practicing for our next trip!) (hint hint wink wink)

South Congress-Austin, Texas

2011-12-04T08:00:00.000-06:00

Frankie and I took a weekend trip recently to Austin to see the sights on South Congress Avenue. We have been wanting to do that for some time now, but every time we talked about it, it was 100 plus degrees outside and just plain miserable. It was still 80 something in the middle of November, but that is okay, we are used to it.

I would like to share some of the sights along South Congress. It is a very interesting place!

And finally, my personal favorite. Look at all that cheese!!

James Kiehl River Bend Park - Comfort, TX

2011-12-03T13:31:00.001-06:00

Driving home after the Thanksgiving meal from my parent's house, Frankie and I decided to take one of the back roads home. We saw a sign pointing towards James Kiehl River Bend Park, which is on part of the Guadalupe River. We recognized the name and decided to drive to it. The address is: 118 River Bend Rd. Comfort TX 78013, if you would like to visit or look it up on a map.

James Kiehl was a solider who died in 2003 while in action in Iraq and was buried in the small town we use to live in. I wrote a blog about the cemetery and you can read about it here. If you ever got an email about a Texas style funeral for a solider, that was about James Kiehl and it is a true account.

The park is a very beautiful place, of course, it didn't hurt that we were there in the fall season and the leaves had not all turned brown and fallen off yet. I would like to share some pictures from our side tour. I hope you enjoy them!

The signs:

The river:

The plants:

My favorites:

How My Husband Remembers Our Honeymoon

2011-11-06T20:41:00.000-06:00

My husband, Frankie, teaches High School Special Education English. For one of his test he created a short story and the topic he picked was our honeymoon (11 years ago!) Awh! Do I have a keeper or what?

Here is his version. He said he simplified a few things to fit what his students could handle, but all in all it is true story.

"In July of 2000 a man and a woman married in front of all their family and friends. It was a wonderful day that would be followed by many wonderful years.

The wedding was a great event and everyone shouted with excitement and happiness as the married couple left the church. On the next day the married couple jumped on an airplane heading towards the beach where they would spend their honeymoon. The plane landed and the couple was excited to start their new life together.

They spent the next two days playing in the sun and in the water, but on the third day something bad happened! The man ordered a pizza that had bad cheese on it and the couple became very sick. The couple had food poisoning and chunked all over the place.

The woman got mad at the man for making her sick. He felt really bad for ordering a pizza from a man on the street. The woman was only mad because she was sick and quickly forgave the man. Soon they got well and flew back home.

The man was never allowed to order pizza again."

I Made "Sushi Rolls"

2011-10-20T20:10:00.000-05:00

The other day I was at World Market (I L.O.V.E. that place, especially the food section!) and I found some roasted seaweed used to make sushi rolls. I got this grand idea of buying some to make some sushi rolls at home. Note: I have never made them before but I thought to myself...how hard can it truly be??

Then I started looking at websites the afternoon I wanted to make them. Nothing like waiting until the last minute! :)

They called for Japanese short grain rice....I didn't have any and had been looking for some but couldn't find any.

They called for rice vinegar...I didn't have any.

They called for imitation crab or smoked salmon....I didn't have any of that either!

I did have cucumbers, carrots, avocado, and the seaweed! Yay, half of the ingredients!

I used Jasmine rice, but didn't rinse it and cooked it until it was soft. It was sticky, I don't know how sticky sticky rice is suppose to be, but it wouldn't flick off my fingers! I consider that pretty sticky!

I used balsamic vinegar. It gave the rice a nice brown tint to it.

I left out the meat.

The first roll was a fatty!! My husband got to eat that one....with a fork....but still edible! By the time I got to the fourth roll things were much more normal looking. Here are the photo results and I must say that they tasted pretty stinking good! I might try again one of these days.

Left one still needed to be rolled. Right one was the fat one!

This were from the smaller, normal rolls. I think they look good if you ignore the brown tint from the balsamic vinegar.

Fun Times With the Senior Class

2011-09-30T22:29:00.000-05:00

We have a period of time at our school called x-period. It is in the morning between 2nd and 3rd period and it is the time when clubs and other things have meetings and such what. The other math teacher and I are the sponsors for the Senior class which consist of 22 students. (Yes, the school is that small!) They really are a great group and they are fun to be around.

They were coming into my room during x-period, but the other math teacher and I decided it would be better if they went into her room. To let the students know, I taped a sign on my door. They decided to tape a response. I had to respond back to that, and so it went. Here are the pictures in order. I find it hilarious.

Texas Drought 2011

2011-09-25T17:10:00.001-05:00

Every morning when I wake up I check the forecast for the next ten days. I check with the hope that there will be rain in the forecast. I have been disappointed for about a year now. I check with hope that the temperature will be way below 100 degrees. I have been disappointed for over 150 days.

The worst part is when the forecast shows that we have a 60% chance of rain for an upcoming day and so I keep checking several times a day. Then it happens, that 60% chance simply disappears. We have had a few rain storms roll through, but nothing worth writing home about, if you know what I mean. The month of September has given us a whopping 0.32 inches of rain. That was the total from three different days of rain.

We have no grass, not even really dead grass. It is just mostly dirt. My poor baby trees are not growing because the last three summers in a row have been hot and dry for our area. This year it is affecting the entire state not just south Texas. I water my trees once a week, but it is just too hot for them and I can water very little because of drought restrictions.

I am scared to death there will be a fire near us and we will lose our house. My aunt was in that scary situation near Houston. She was blessed and didn't lose anything, although one road over the houses were destroyed. I don't even want to pull over on the side of the road for any reason, just in case, somehow, someway, the vehicle causes a spark and starts a fire.

It is now almost October and we still can't get temperatures below 90. It is very depressing. NOAA didn't help with this little graphic:

The Inches Rain Needed to End the Drought in Six Months Time

We live right around where the light green, dark green, and yellow meet. I am not completely sure since there is nothing to go by! Either way, it is not good and I don't see the drought breaking if things continue as they have.

Right now at 5 PM on September 25th it is 103 degree and dry. We do have a 30% chance of rain on September 29th, and 50% on the 30th, but that is for right now. It has already changed from yesterday which showed more chances, which was changed from the day before which showed even more chances.

I don't know which I would like to see more, the lower temperatures or rain....no, I know....RAIN!

I have and will continue to pray for rain. Please join me and pray that Texas will break from having the worst drought in the history of our state.

Galveston Texas

2011-07-30T09:04:00.002-05:00

Frankie and I celebrated our 11th wedding anniversary by traveling to Galveston, Texas and just enjoying some time together away from home.

We started off by going to the beach. There are several to choose from but we choose to go to the Galveston Island State Park. There was a lot of damage to Galveston due to Hurricane Ike in 2008 but the city has really tried very hard to recover. While there is still evidence of damage there is also much more evidence of recovery.

Despite the warning below, we still ventured out onto the beach. Frankie was more leery of the snakes than anything, but I told he just had to stay out of the dunes and it would be fine. (Welcome to Texas beaches where there are still poisonous snakes!)

Frankie did his thing of sitting in a chair in the ocean and I did my thing of sitting in a chair on the beach taking picture. We were both completely content.

One of the benefits of going to the state park as opposed to the more public beaches is the lack of people. We don't mind paying extra for the that benefit. We did enjoy going to the beach in Galveston, but it wasn't really any different from the ones in Corpus Christi, Texas. I did like the smaller town of Galveston compared to Corpus Christi, but that is just a personal preference.

We finished out our beach time and headed back to the hotel to sleep and prepare for seeing Galveston the next day. Parting picture.

We started off the next day with a tour of Galveston via DUCK tours.

Is it a land vehicle? Is it a boat? Why yes, yes it is! It is both! We took a land tour of Galveston and a boat tour of the Offats Bayou.

It was really cool. It was about an hour tour. There was another tour we were thinking of taking that was longer and just stayed on land. It would have probably been more informative of the history of Galveston, but we decided to take the other one just because it went in the water. This one did talk about the history of Galveston and we saw some great things. I would recommend it to others and I would like to share some pictures from the tour.

This was our Capitan. He knew the history, made it interesting, and even cracked some jokes.

A friend suggested we rent one of these, we laughed. It wouldn't be too bad, but I think I would be the one doing all the pedaling! These people had the right idea by having all four seats filled. The little girl in the front basket does crack me up though.

This was put in place to memorialize the people who lost their lives and those who did survive the Great Storm of 1900, the deadliest hurricane in US history.

Galveston use to be a huge producer, processor, and shipper of cotton. It still does some but not near as much as it use to. This is one of the cotton compressors that is still in use today.

Heroes of Texas Monument: This is just the statue part on top of a tall column. There is also pictures of the men it honors further down the column. It was erected in honor of the men who helped win Texas' independence from Mexico at the Battle of San Jacinto. The woman points towards where the battle occurred.

The last pictures I want to share from the tour is some of the historic house. There are some very beautiful and unique houses in Galveston.

After our DUCK tour we did more touring on our own. We first went to Murdoch's which was originally a bathhouse but is now a gift shop.

This is the view from their deck. I want this view, but that would require a move into a gift shop and I think they would frown upon that.

Most people buy the souvenirs, but not me! I just take a picture of them!

And besides, there is no way I would pay $600 for a shell! I don't care how big it is!

For lunch we asked one of the workers at Murdoch's what they suggested. She said that Miller's Seawall Grill was good and close by. We took her suggestion and check out the view we had while I ate some of the BEST Gulf of Mexico shrimp ever!

We decided to go to one museum and our choice was the Offshore Energy Center's Ocean Star Offshore Drilling Rig Museum and Education Center, yeah, say that five times fast!

Frankie and I both grew up in oil rich west Texas so seeing the offshore oil aspects was interesting to us. There were many things to see with interesting angles to take pictures of.

The museum used mannequins in some places but it really just made things creepy.

Especially when they seemed to be having issues...

Overall the museum was decent. I don't think I would go back again though. It is great if you are really into oil stuff and know what you are looking at without having to read the plaques.

In between the gift shop and the drilling rig there were so many pelicans and other birds. I was able to get a picture with three different birds in it. (At least I think I have identified them correctly. I don't know ocean birds that well seeing how I was raised in a desert!)

There is so much to see just in the area where the museum was located. We saw ships from far away places.

This one is from Monrovia, a city in the West African country of Liberia. And we saw ships that would be going to far away places.

I never realized how big cruise ships were! We also saw an old ship from 1877!

This is the Tall Ship Elissa, which is one of the oldest ships still sailing today.

One of the interesting thing about Galveston has to do with the Great Storm of 1900. After the devastation that occurred, Galveston decided to built a seawall and to raise the entire city 3 to 6 feet by bringing in sand. They dug canals in order to bring in the sand and once they were done they paved those streets and named them 1/2 streets.

Most buildings they somehow raised and other structures they just buried. This fence at Ashton Villa use to be six feet tall and now it is only three!

Here is a close up of the fence at ground level.

After Hurricane Ike in 2008 there was also significant damage. The storms destroyed several of the city's old oak trees. Instead of leaving them as stumps several people decided to hire an artist to turn them into something beautiful. Here is a link to more of them but this one turned out to be my favorite of the ones we saw.

It is called "Angel with Bunnies". Awh! There were many more and we drove around looking for them. Here is the link to a map showing where all of the statues are. As we were driving around we had to stop and wait for a Segway gang to pass. We didn't want to get tangled up in that mess! Vicious!

Along with everything else we saw we noticed how many cemeteries there were. Galveston is a very diverse city! We saw a Catholic cemetery,

a Jewish cemetery,

a Greek cemetery,

and there was even another one that we didn't get a chance to see. There was even an Islamic Center! It was amazing to see all of this in such a small city (less than 60,000 people)!

The car demanded a rest after all this driving around so we stopped at La King's Confectionery shop in the Strand shopping district.

Let me tell you what....no let me show you what!

OMGosh! Can you say yum? Oh yes, you can! White chocolate covered cherries!

We finished out our day by taking an hour long cruise on the Colonel Paddlewheel Boat at Moody Gardens.

The boat goes in a big circle in Offats Bayou. It wasn't something I would really recommend to anyone unless you just want to pay about $10 to sit and enjoy the view. In that case, take the latest one offered. Then you will have some fabulous sunset views!

Over all we had an amazing trip and look forward to returning one day. I will leave you with one last photo but if you are interested in seeing all my pictures from the trip here is the link for that on Flickr.

Mustafa Asian & Middle Eastern Grocery Store-San Antonio, TX

2011-07-23T15:24:00.005-05:00

Groupons had a deal recently where for $10 you could get $20 worth of groceries (excluding meat and alcohol) at Mustafa Asian and Middle Eastern Grocery Store in San Antonio, TX. My husband knows my love of foreign grocery stores so he bought it for me. We went and we were the only ones there who could ONLY speak English (Stupid Americans and their one language barrier!)

Below is a picture of everything that we bought followed by my thoughts about each item.

I am still not completely sure what to do with the Poha Thick (or flattened rice). I have never seen this product before, but it looked interesting and it was only $1.99.

I have looked at recipes online but they all call for a bunch of other ingredients that I do not have. I think I am going to just have to wing it and make something based on one of them. You never know, I might just stumble onto something we really like! I did find this one recipe called Poha Recipe North India Style that I think I will try with a few minor adjustments.

We were very excited about the stuffed grape leaves. In restaurants they are normally around $5 for 4 of them. These were $8.49 for 65 of them! We had some last night and they were good. I rinsed the sunflower oil off them and put them in the refrigerator. I think that will make them even tastier.

The Mixed Berry Soda did not make it all the way home. Frankie bought it cold to drink immediately. It was $1.99. It had a kick to it, but was good.

I saw the Rose Water and the Orange Blossom Water and thought they sounded good. They were $1.99 each. As with most of the items we bought, it was, "Hmm...not sure what this is, but it doesn't cost much so let's buy it!"

I asked the lady checking us out if the flower waters were for drinking. She said no but she wasn't really sure what they were used for. That wasn't a lot of help but I figured I could find something online about them. Frankie thought it was funny that I was going to drink them straight. I looked up the website on the bottles and found out it was added to drinks or food in order to give them the aroma and flavor of the flowers.

One of the recipes was to mix a small amount of the flower water with plain water, sugar, and ice for a refreshing summer drink. I tried that one and it was very good! It taste just like you would image rose water to taste and it smells so wonderful.

The tandoori naan is India flat bread. It, again, was one of those things that I have never had before but it was there, only $1.99 (seemed to be a running theme for prices), and really how bad could it possibly be? I have had other kinds of flat breads: tortillas and pitas, and I like those, a lot. I will have to see what I can do with those beside just eat them plain with a meal. I really just like what they are called, it sounds so exotic!

Our final purchase was the Mango Chutney Potato Grills. You guessed it, $1.99. They are like American style potato chips (think Pringles) but a smaller chip. The flavor of mango chutney is really good. I don't know how to describe it though. It is sweet and tangy all at once.

It was fun going to the store and seeing all the things that I have never seen before and seeing things that I still don't know what they are. The little town we live in and the "bigger" ones that are near by don't have a lot of foreign foods so it is good to be able to go out and expand my horizons.

I can't wait until our next horizon expanding expedition!

Mona Lisa, You're Falling To Pieces

2011-07-10T16:15:00.003-05:00

I had this idea.

To take these materials:

And turn them into this piece of art:

It was a good idea.

Silly English Language

2011-06-24T08:29:00.004-05:00

Why don't these words rhyme??

monkey and donkey

teen and been

laughter and slaughter

sword and word

pint and mint

water and later

howling and bowling

comb and tomb

gone, done, and bone

blew and sew

prove and love

sword and word

Silly English language and all its nuances!!

Also, does anyone know what it is called when this happens? One of my word nerd students told me once (love ya Danny girl) but now I can't remember.

I want to add to this list, so if you know or discover any let me know! :)

And Summer Begins

2011-06-03T13:34:00.005-05:00

One of the very nice perks of being a public school teacher is having two and half months off in the summer. Frankie and I took advantage of this fact and planned a short trip to Corpus Christi. It actually had a two part purpose as most of our trips now do:

1) look for books to sell

2) go to places to go to places to see the sights along the way

Here are some of the sights we saw on our way to Corpus.

Who needs just one leaning tower like Pisa has, when you can have a whole row of leaning telephone poles? Take that Italy! (No, no, Italy I am just kidding! I love you. Please don't be mad.)

This is, hands down, the largest squirrel I have seen, fake OR real!

While this sounds gross it is no where near as gross as one thing we did see when we actually got to Corpus. There was a man sitting at a bus stop. He was picking at the back of his head and then proceeded to eat whatever it was he picked off. In one fleeting moment as we drove by we went from hungry for lunch to never wanting to eat again!

Moving on...please!

As we got near the town of Taft we started to see all of these wind turbines. It wasn't just a few either, I am talking 50 to 60 and that was just what we could see from the road. I don't know if you have ever seen one of the blades being transported by a big rig on the highway, but these things are massive!

Look at just the blade compared to...well anything else in that picture that is normal size! I looked it up and the blade alone is 153 feet long! The entire turbine is 415 feet tall!

Look at that a wind farm on a real farm!

I think they are beautiful. We pulled off the road to get a better look at them. This is the closest I have been to one. They made very little noise and were peaceful to watch. Now, I want one. I will talk to Frankie about it. ;)

****Warning: Math coming up next!****

I mean, how awesome is this? I love finding math references in the most unlikely places. This is in Corpus Christi at the corner of South Padre Island Drive & Kostoryz.

After three hours of travel and even more hours of book looking we finally made it to the beach.

No, really, that is us!

See! (This is assuming you knew what we looked like to begin with! Ha!)

Going to the beach in the middle of the week in the evening is nice! There were hardly any people there. It wasn't as hot. The sun setting is beautiful and there seemed to be more wildlife around as well.

Speaking of wildlife, we saw this sign which cracked me up.

I mean who carries around those things?? What do you do if the Visitor Center is closed and you don't have those items? They need to expand the sign, because I know I wouldn't have a clue. I don't think that sitting down and crying would help either...

I didn't see any jellyfish, thankfully, because I didn't have any meat tenderizer or vinegar! I did see crabs. Lots and lots of crabs. I have never seen so many crabs in my life! There were sand crabs of all sizes:

And there were hundreds water crabs. We think there is a difference between the sand and water crabs but we really have no idea. They looked different. The water ones were smaller and had blue claws. They were also more aggressive. This guy was in fight or flight mode and he chose fight. Little turkey!

They were not scary to us because of how small they were, but they thought they could take on the world. Well at least they thought they could take on Frankie.

This crab is the same one in both pictures. :) He really was upset with us! Maybe he remembered the following from his childhood or had heard stories from our 2007 trip to Corpus and it was a relative of his.

(Yes, my husband grosses me out! That thing was DEAD already and he did that!)

I had an symbolic moment while at the beach...trust me, it doesn't happen often...I am like the seagulls and Frankie is like the pelicans.

I like to stand at the water's edge and look around, taking pictures. If the waves get too much I back out. I am perfectly content with this.

Frankie is like the pelican because he likes to get out there in the waves. The pelicans bob on the water looking around and just enjoy the waves.

Occasionally, the the seagull will go out where the pelican is and will bother him. Squawking and carrying on about this or that. The pelican just sort of takes it and then goes back to his floating when the seagull leaves. Yep, that is us.

It was a beautiful evening and this is my favorite shot of the entire trip. (The crab vs. Frankie is a close second though!)

Next trip is a book looking trip tied in with a Braves game in Houston. I can't wait!

Until then, happy travels!

Crossing The Curriculum

2011-05-31T16:46:00.004-05:00

I decided to branch out of my mathematics box and put a bonus on all the finals for all my classes as this:

"Write a haiku about math. A haiku is a form of Japanese poetry that has three lines. The first line contains five syllables, the second contains seven syllables and the third contains five syllables. You can earn 5 bonus points for writing a haiku and 10 points for writing an outstanding one. I am the judge of outstanding."

Out of about 50 kids who took one of my finals (7th grade - 12th grade) there were nine who tried and did it correctly. Correctly just means followed the above instructions. I was somewhat disappointed there were not more, but I think the kids were just ready to get out of there!

Before I share the haiku poetry, here were two responses that I wasn't expecting:

High School Unexpected Response

I don't know what syllables are. :(

Jr. High Student Unexpected Response

I would do this but I have learned in ELA this year that poetry is NOT my thing!

Now on with the poetry! (Which by the way, aren't my thing either, but I thought this would be fun.)

High School Responses

Math is really GREAT

With all of its crazy shapes
And numbers so high!

Math might be stupid
But it is still very fun
That is all I have

Mathematics is
Really fun when you answer
Questions easily

Math is really hard
But it can also be fun
Math is fun? Yeah right!

Jr. High School Responses

Math is really cool
I love math it is the best
You make math awesome

Math is very cool
It is my favorite subject
I think math is fun

Numbers here and there
So many answers to write
My brain is busy

My oh my it's math
It's taking me in its wrath
But I still like math

The last one I am going to share is the only one I judged to be worth 10 points. It was different from the run of the mill and turned out to be my favorite. It is from a Jr. High student.

Math is like summer
You add the sums of numbers
Gentle as flowers

Nature Over Runs The School

2011-05-19T20:26:00.005-05:00

Six more days of school!!! Oh wait, that is not what I was going to talk about.

Today I looked out my window at school to see a member of administration standing there staring seemingly at nothing. I stuck my head out the door (most of our doors open towards the outside since we have no hallways) to ask him what he was doing.

He said there was a swarm of bees on the tree. I had to see it so I just walked out the classroom and left my high schoolers working on a review for the final. (I wouldn't have done that if I didn't trust them!) I did go back to my room and after the bell rang, I went back out during my conference to take pictures.

It was amazing and massive! I had never seen anything like it! The administrator has a depth of knowledge of nature things. He said that was all bees, nothing else. They were all covering the queen. They were not going to be there permanently, and could be gone overnight or in a few minutes.

The administrator and head of maintenance sat out there for over an hour watching it to see what would happen. They had to since there were students around and one of them could get stung and be allergic. It was a safety issue. I will have to see if they are there tomorrow.

As I was going back to my room, I saw a birds nest. Nothing really special about except for the location.

That is right by the bell! I can tell you from multiple experiences that the bell is not a soft one. The birds have to be deaf! There is no way that is a hospitable environment to raise babies! I am going to report it to the BBPS (Baby Bird Protection Service).

And if those two things were not enough, as I was walking out my door to go to the office there was bat heading straight for me! The administrator and head of maintenance were still out there and thought that was the funniest thing to hear me squeal and hustle to shut my door!

Meanies!

The bat finally flew off after the head of maintenance started chasing it around with two sticks.

Country living at its best! :)

Call 911!

2011-05-06T22:11:00.003-05:00

Frankie and I were coming home from San Antonio after dark tonight when suddenly Frankie said, "What is that?"

He slammed on the brakes and swerved to miss a car that had been mangled in a wreck and was still in the road. Our tires squealed and he almost side swiped a car coming up behind us. He saw some lights in the road and thought it was teenagers goofing around and then as we came up to the wreck way too fast all he could do was swerve.

I looked up when he said, "What is that?" and all I could see was a car that was now in the shape of a ball. Frankie pulled over immediately and we took a second to process what had just happened then he got out and told me to call 911. It was a strange feeling actually dialing that number. This is the second time I have had to call it. The first time a car drove through our front yard and amazingly missed two trees, a water meter, and was fine.

This time I dialed it and it took what felt like an eternity to start ringing although it was probably only a minute or two. I am sure my phone was trying to figure out where I was so that it could call the local emergency station.

Finally it started ringing and a lady answered and said, "County 911. Are you calling about a roll over?"

I told her yes and she said thank you and hung up. I wasn't even sure if it was a roll over, the car didn't look upside down, it looked like a ball! A minute or so later many police cars and ambulances started showing up. By this time I was crying and praying. I stayed calm while I was calling 911, but after that I started thinking about all that happened.

I cried and prayed for the people in the possible fatal wreck. I cried and prayed that no one would hit the car in the road and be in a possible fatal wreck. I cried and prayed because if Frankie had not been paying attention we would have been in a possible fatal wreck. I cried and prayed that Frankie would be safe while he was out there rendering aid.

I calmed down then I saw Frankie heading back to the car and it made me start crying all over again. It was very intense and I can't imagine what the people who actually were involved in the wreck were going through. I am still praying for them.

Frankie said that there was a truck in the ditch upside down, the balled up car in the road and possible another car on the other side of the road. He wasn't sure there was too much commotion. We were one of the firsts one at the scene. There were other people there, but we are still not sure where they came from. Frankie had gone to the truck that was upside down praying it wasn't someone he knew and that it wasn't too bad. He used to be an EMT so he does know some things. He knows more than me about things like this, that is for sure.

The truck had one lady in it and she had somehow come halfway through the back windshield facing the ground. She was talking/crying and moving her head around. Frankie checked the scene around the truck to make sure it was safe and that the truck wasn't going to move anymore. He crawled halfway under the upside truck bed and talked to her trying to calm her down. She was begging him to pull her out, but even I know not to do that! When the EMT arrived he came back to the car. He did an amazing job with keeping us safe when driving and trying to help others. I am so proud of him!

With nothing left for us to do we continued on our way home. Shaken, but safe.

Please my friends, be careful out there! Accidents happen in the blink of an eye!

Adventures in Wal-Mart

2011-04-18T20:59:00.006-05:00

The dogs were down to eating cat food and I was afraid we would be next if I didn't go to the grocery store. So after work today I headed to town to the local Wal-Mart.

I first stopped and ate at the Subway located in the Wal-Mart. A couple walked in with three kids and one of them was around three. I heard him before I saw him. He was bouncing all over the place loudly saying that he wanted everything he laid his eyes on. The adults with him did not look at him.

He walked outside the Subway and into Wal-Mart just wandering. The adults with him did not look at him.

They proceeded to order. The kid figured out a way to grab a cup from the counter and went to the slushy machine. He couldn't reach so he started yelling that he wanted it. The adults with him did not look at him.

He got a chair and pushed it over the slushy machine and pulled the lever to put slushy in his cup. Drank some, jumped down, and then jumped back up to get more. The adults with him did not look at him.

Finally, the woman looked at him and started griping at him for doing something he wasn't suppose to be doing. Simply amazing.... Thankfully, they got their food to go!

After eating I was off to buy groceries. I had to get dog food and we have two larger dogs so I have to get the biggest bag. 48 pounds of dog food that is! Which I can lift and put in the basket by myself, thank you very much! This super large bag of dog food comes into play later.

Do you know where the tartar sauce is at Wal-Mart? I thought I did and when I went to get it, I couldn't find it for nothing. I even ask some random lady in the same aisle as me if she knew. We both thought it was in the area where we were, but we couldn't find it. Finally, I saw one brand of one kind of tartar sauce that was pushed back on the top shelf. I am only 5 foot 1 inch and I couldn't reach it. The lady was maybe an inch or two taller than me and she tried to reach it for me but couldn't get it. Another lady turned onto the aisle and I asked her. She was an inch or two taller than the other woman. She stretched and was barely able to get it, but she did! By the way, the tartar sauce is in with the ketchup and such.

Everything was moving along smoothly until I reached the vegetable/fruit area. I managed to push my basket right into a display of seasonings. They all fell to the floor, but thankfully they were all plastic bottles. Shew! I picked them up and a lady was standing near by. I thought she was coming over to help, but no. She just got her potatoes and left. Oh well, it wasn't too bad to pick up and luckily there were not that many people around.

After getting all my groceries some how into one basket (I really don't know how I did it!), I went to check out. I had most of the items out when all of the sudden I felt something wet and sticky all over the things in my basket. YUCK!

I found out the liquid laundry detergent had leaked. I had detergent under my basket and on several items in my basket. I asked my cashier if she had any paper towels and she did. She called someone over to clean it off the floor. Someone else also went and got me another bottle of the detergent when I asked since I had no idea how much had spilled out. I probably left a trail of detergent drippings up and down every aisle!

The cashier is ringing up my groceries and asks if I want two baskets. The first one was getting full. Remember the dog food? Yeah, that was half of the silly basket! I didn't really want two since I have enough trouble steering one, but they said some one would help me if I got another one. So I relented. That was the first time that had happened, but at least I know I will not have to go back for awhile!

From driving to the store and then returning home and putting everything up it took me a whopping 3 and a half hours to do everything! But it is done and now I can go to bed knowing there will be food to eat. God has blessed me. :)

Copy Machine Prank

2011-04-06T21:42:00.003-05:00

Saw this today at work on the copy machine as I was frantically trying to get papers run off for 1st period before the bell rang!

I knew it had to be a prank because for that type of new feature to be installed we would have had to get a new copier. The technology would just be too advanced for what we have.

I did find it funny, but would have felt bad if I saw someone trying to use the "new" feature. So I showed to the people I saw. So, sorry if I ruined your joke. It was a good one and reminds me of one that I did at a different job.

I put a piece of paper on the copier that said, "Do Not Remove This Paper!" It stayed there for a few days. Someone finally threw it away as they proclaimed that it was silly for it to be there. It was a nice little private joke. :)

I wish I could take credit for the voice activated printer prank, but at least I can say that I didn't fall for it! It does make me want to try something. Nothing bad, but something. I will have to see what I can come up with. They always say to watch out for the quiet ones...

*evil grin*

Toy Joy - Austin, Texas

2011-03-15T20:11:00.002-05:00

My husband (the debate coach), me (the UIL coordinator), the two students of the debate team, and one of their mothers (that is five people just in case you lost count) journeyed to Austin recently to attend the 2011 UIL State Debate Tournament. The team didn't make it to the finals, but I am very proud of the accomplishments they did achieve!

But this blog is not about them. ;)

The first night there we ate at a very good Italian/Greek place called Milto's Mediterranean Cafe. Frankie and I had eaten there before and really enjoyed it so we forced..err... convinced the others to give it a try. I think they enjoyed it as well. After eating we went across the street to a super fun store called Toy Joy. It is a shop full of the unusual, the one of a kind, the most unique items of any store I have ever seen. I, of course, snapped some pictures and I would like to share them with you now. (Excuse the quality of the photos. I was using my cell phone camera and trying to not be obvious, although I am sure they are use to it!)

They had memories from my childhood: Fraggle Rock, Smurfs, tiny naked babies, and big naked babies. (Yes, it WAS a normal childhood!)

They had food related items and other things you might need after eating. (Note: the Irish Accent spray is really breath spray and the Holy Water was a metal water bottle.)

They definitely had some strange things like finger hooks and sword shaped umbrellas.

There were creepy things like clowns in the ceiling and vampires chasing little kids.

They had mustaches for fingers, girls, and there were others that I didn't capture in a photo.

And finally my favorite, they had things for nerds like me! (I bought some of those dice for my math classes. I even found some with fractions!)

This was only a small sample of all the items they had in this store. I plan on going back sometime in the future when we have more time.

Frankie, love, prepare yourself! ;)

Word Scramble

2011-03-06T21:13:00.005-06:00

I mix words all the time, just ask my students!

Every time I talk about probability with my classes the topic of spinners comes up.

I talk about spinning the spinners, but for the life of me when I talk about a spinner being spun it comes out like this:

"You have spun the spunner, what is the probability of..."

Spunner!? I don't even realize I do it! The kids catch me every time and think it is hilarious. I do find it funny too.

Today at church this passage was read: Philippians 2:3

"Don't do anything only to get ahead. Don't do it because you are proud. Instead, be free of pride. Think of others as better than yourselves."

Think of other as better than yourselves....

I think too many people have mixed the words on this one. We see it more like this, "Think of yourself as better than others."

This is one area where I really need to not get the words mixed up. I do tend to be guilty of this, but I have prayed that God will help me to realize when I am doing it and to help me be more humble.

So, no more spunners being spun and no more thinking of myself as better than others!

No more word scrambles unless I am playing Boggle!

The Look

2011-02-13T21:28:00.006-06:00

People look at other people for many reasons. Today I was reflecting on what Jesus went through before his death on the cross for forgiveness of our sins and it brought to mind a passage about Jesus looking at one of the apostles.

The verse I am thinking of is Luke 22:61 - "The Lord turned and looked straight at Peter."

There was a reason for this. Jesus said to Peter at the last supper that Peter would deny his relationship with Christ three times before a rooster crowed. Peter was shocked by this and told Jesus that he would rather die with him than deny him. What Peter said is not recorded in Luke, but it is in Matthew 26:35 and Mark 14:31.

The painting is by Carl Bloch, a Danish artist from the late 1800's. It is titled "Peter's Betrayal".

Luke 22:54-62 gives the rest of the account of Peter's denying Jesus.

Then seizing him, they led him away and took him into the house of the high priest. Peter followed at a distance. And when some there had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and had sat down together, Peter sat down with them.

A servant girl saw him seated there in the firelight. She looked closely at him and said, “This man was with him.”

But he denied it. “Woman, I don’t know him,” he said.

A little later someone else saw him and said, “You also are one of them.”

“Man, I am not!” Peter replied.

About an hour later another asserted, “Certainly this fellow was with him, for he is a Galilean.”

Peter replied, “Man, I don’t know what you’re talking about!”

Just as he was speaking, the rooster crowed. The Lord turned and looked straight at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word the Lord had spoken to him: “Before the rooster crows today, you will disown me three times.” And he went outside and wept bitterly.

I cannot imagine the feeling of pure dread that Peter had when he felt the eyes of Jesus on him when that rooster crowed. It is a horrible feeling to get caught doing something you know is wrong, but this was so much more than just a mistake. It is scary how easily a lie can come out of our lips no matter our best intentions.

Despite our sin filled selves there is good news! We don't have to live with the lies, the guilt, nor the ugliness that we create. As much as it saddens me that it had to happen this way, Jesus did die on the cross. As it was prophesied, he died on the cross for our sins. He was the ultimate sacrifice. His blood was spilled so we could have forgiveness.

He died, was buried, and he rose again all for us! Praise Jesus! Praise God's sacrifice of his Son for us! We are so unworthy of this gift, but God gives it freely anyways. Who does that? Someone who loves us. That is who!

I find it simply amazing that I am loved like that and my friends, that is the hope that I have in me. It is what gets me through my day. It makes me smile. It makes me sing. It makes me love others in return.

The Unicorn Tractor

2011-02-05T20:15:00.003-06:00

Disclaimer: I know this tractor is a hay spear and is used to pick up large round hay bales as seen in one of the pictures, but my husband mentioned that it looked like a unicorn tractor and I had to roll with it!

So may I present, the most unique tractor of them all, the unicorn tractor!

See its rugged large tires? The better to roll through the fields!

Species: John Deere

Here she is in all her glory and in her element.

The artistic shot. Because you can't have a photo shoot without at least one!

The Giants Among Us

2011-02-05T19:55:00.003-06:00

For years I have wanted to take pictures of the giant boots at the North Star Mall in San Antonio, Texas. We live 45 minutes away and drive past them all the time, but we are usually on the Interstate going 70 miles per hour. Impossible picture taking conditions! We finally went there recently, (we are not mall people) and as we drove by I rolled down the window on the car and got my pictures. I LOVE these boots!

Fruity Brown Sauce Recipe

2011-01-31T20:01:00.004-06:00

When my husband and I went to Dublin, I found and fell in love with a condiment. It is sad, but true. Here is a picture of my new foreign love.

When we got back home I dreamed of this condiment. OK, not literally, but you understand. I had to have more. I knew it could not be found in a grocery store near me so to the Internet I went!

I found a recipe on brownsauce.org (yeah, I was surprised there was a website dedicated to it as well, but on second thought, I can understand the love that drives a person to blog about condiments...). It was a recipe that I could easily understand and I had most of the ingredients already on hand.

I scaled it down by a fourth so here is my scaled down version.

Start with the following three ingredients:

Apples – 1 lb, peeled, cored and sliced

Prunes – 4 oz. stoned and sliced

Onions – 1/2 large, peeled and diced

Put the apples, prunes and onions in a pot and cover with water. Cook until tender.

Next put the fruit, onions, and remaining water in a blender or food processor and blend until liquidized.

Now add the remaining ingredients.

Malt vinegar – 12 fl oz

Ground ginger – 1/2 tsp

Grated nutmeg – 1/4 tsp

Ground allspice – 1/4tsp

Cayenne pepper – 1/4 tsp

Salt – 2 tbsp

Sugar – 1/2 lb (roughly 1 cup)

Once all ingredients are in the pot, cook on low heat until the sauce is reduced and thickened.

I had to cook it for about 2 hours. The house smelled for about 2 to 3 days because of the malt vinegar, but it was worth it! Since I scaled it down, it ended up making just over 24 ounces of delicious fruity brown sauce!

I asked while in Dublin, what it was used for and they said it was a meat sauce. It taste a lot like a steak sauce, but fruitier. It was really good on chicken!

I hope I have inspired you to try a new recipe, maybe even my new love, fruity brown sauce! :)

Dublin Ireland - Malahide Castle and Going Home

2011-01-26T18:57:00.003-06:00

December 27th - Our last day in Dublin and we had enough time for one more attraction. Our plane didn't leave until that evening so we had a trip planned to the northern suburb of Dublin, called Malahide, to see the Malahide Castle.

We didn't see much of Malahide. I wish we had more time, it was very pretty the little part we did see.

It is a small trek to get to the castle, but it is a pretty walk through the woods.

As we were walking along we came across the coolest park ever.

It had very interesting swings.

There was an amazing slide.

And the best thing ever was the fact that this park had a ZIPLINE!!

How cool is that?? We keep walking deeper into the woods, when all of the sudden we see this.

"What is that?", you say? Why, let me tell you! It is exercise equipment!! You heard me right, exercise equipment in the middle of the forest! (No wonder the Irish were all so stinking slim!)

Suddenly, the forest cleared and since the snow had been melting we finally saw the green that Ireland is famous for. They don't call it the Emerald Isle for nothing!

Through the forest, pass the most awesome playground ever, beyond the random exercise equipment, and on the green, we finally reach Malahide Castle. It was beautiful! Just what you would expect a castle to look like.

Here is Angie at the castle.

Here are Frankie and me at the castle.

The castle was really very cool. We got to take a short tour through parts of it that explained things about the castle and about the things in it. There were a lot of things in it.

There were long hallways.

There were cool things on the ceiling.

Cool things on the walls.

Cool things on the floor.

Even cool little doors in the corner of a room.

Now that little door in the Grand Hall has an interesting story to go with it. It was Puck's door. According to the Malahide Historical Society:

"Puck, at one time, was the resident caretaker. He was four foot tall and bearded, and his main function was to keep watch and sound the alarm in case of attack He lived in a turret of the Castle, now known as Puck's Staircase, where he carried out his duties as watchman in the most dedicated manner. Indeed, he was the most orderly of individuals and always kept his turret very clean and tidy.

He was somewhat of a recluse and his food used to be left outside his door each night at sundown. Every morning the empty trays and plates, spotlessly clean, would be in the same spot awaiting collection. Then, out of the blue, for some unknown reason he hanged himself from the Minstrel's Gallery, overlooking the Great Hall.

But that wasn't the end of Puck His ghost has appeared on many occasions since. His dwarfish figure has appeared in photographs taken in the Great Hall. Even in external photographs of the Castle, his wrinkled impish face has appeared through the ivy covering of his turret. Many a Talbot family letter makes reference to his ghostly return. Some of the latter Talbots believed that he was still doing his duties as a sentry, centuries after his unfortunate departure.

About thirty years ago, before the Castle was open to the public, an occasional guided tour used to take place. On nearing the area of Puck’s Staircase, the lady guide used to always ask her visitors to “please, stand aside, make way for Puck”. After a moment of silence, the tour would continue, but in a subdued fashion.

Puck’s last appearance was in 1976. A member of Sotheby’s staff was sitting in the Great Hall, itemizing material for the pending auction, when he swears that Puck appeared on his staircase. Without any prior knowledge he described Puck as he had been known to generations of Talbots."

I am really glad we go to go to the castle. Even if we didn't get to see many of the other attractions in Dublin, at least we did get to see this one. Once we were done with the tour we stopped at the tearoom on the premises for something to drink. Frankie also got something sweet. We were surprise by one dessert that they had.

It looks like a chocolate pie of some sort, but the name they had on it was "Mississippi Mud Pie". I thought that was so funny. Here we are thousands of miles away from the southern part of the good old U.S. of A and we were still able to get some Mississippi Mud Pie. Not that it looked like any Mississippi Mud Pie that I have ever seen, but really you can't go wrong with chocolate. It makes me wonder what people from other countries thought of that name!

After all our sight seeing at Malahide Castle had ended, we went back to the hotel to get our bags. We got there and got our bags just as the bus was pulling up to take us to the airport. Talk about cutting it close!

At the airport, we stood in line for some time to find out that they had overbooked the flight and since we were some of the last ones to show up, we got bumped. Now most people would be distraught, outraged even that this happened to them. Not us! If you get bumped there are usually good things coming your way.

All three of us each got about $400, a free room in Dublin, free supper and breakfast, and we got put on a different flight that got us home at about the same time we were going to get home anyways. On top of that, we got to fly on British Airways instead of Air France. Air France wasn't bad, but British Airways have individual television screen on the back of every seat to watch shows and movies for the duration of the trip. For an 11 hour trip that is a very very good thing to have.

If I look at just our time zone at home then I can say we left at 12:40 AM on the 27th of December and arrived home by 10:30 PM that same day. That is a lot of miles covered in a seeming long, but not really, time. Keep in mind that this also includes a 4 hour drive from the Houston airport back to our house. Poor Angie had to drive one more hour to get from our house to hers and she had to go to work the next day at 6:30 AM! I don't know how she survived.

The long airplane rides are awful, but the experience of seeing a foreign country really outweighs them. People have been asking us where we are going next. If all goes well, we are thinking a London/Paris combination trip!

I had better start learning French! Au revior for now, y'all!

Dublin Ireland - St. Stephen's Day

2011-01-23T19:53:00.002-06:00

In Ireland the day after Christmas is called Saint Stephen's Day. The buses run, but not the DART. Most shops are open, but not other businesses, plus it fell on Sunday, so that limited things that were open anyways.

Before we left America, I looked to see if there was a church of Chirst in Dublin that we could attend while there. I did find one in the Knocklyon area and I emailed to ask how to get there by public transportation. The preacher, Steve Kearney, emailed me back and told me that he would just come pick us up. How great is that?! It was a good thing too since the buses run later on Sunday and we would not have been able to get there on time. He had given me his phone number and I called him the day before to work out the minor details.

He came and picked us up and took us to the church building. Despite the snow and the cold they still had about 30 to 40 people there, which normally they have over 50. They were the FRIENDLIEST bunch of people I have encountered. It was very uplifting to be in a foreign country surrounded by Christian brothers and sisters where we felt the love. It was one of the most blessed things of the entire trip and one memory that will not fade over time.

I love the Irish accent. I like that they don't pronounce "th" in some words. So three comes out tree. Through comes out true. We were singing a song in church and the word throne was in the song. The entire congregation, except us three Americans, all said trone. I had to hold in my laughter. I just loved it!

It got worst though, during prayer, they used the word father often, and oh my goodness, it came out farter. EVERY TIME! I tried, honestly I did, to pay attention to the prayer and not focus on that one word that kept being said over and over and over. I was so happy to hear amen just because I knew the man would stop saying farter!

We got to talk to many of the members and it was amazing to see that there were people there from all over the world. China, Spain, Africa, Russian etc. We actually found that to be true all over Dublin. We talked to more foreign people than Irish people, I think!

After church, the Mr. Kearney so kindly drove us to the city center. From there we headed to Stephen's Green Shopping Center and as we found out, a mall is a mall. After a very short time we left there and headed out to find something to eat. We found a great Italian food restaurant in the Temple Bar area where Frankie ordered a most interesting calzone.

It was only in the shape of a fish, there were no actual fish involved. There was however an egg inside, which was different. Frankie said it was really good.

Since I went to one at this restaurant, I want to take a moment to talk about the bathrooms in Dublin. When there are stalls, they are not like stalls in America where you can see through gaps in the doors.

The stalls in Dublin, and we found this to be true in Rome, were individual little rooms. If you have ever been to Buc-ee's in Texas then know it was like those bathrooms. Some of them even let you know when a stall was:

Or if they were:

After our meal, we walked around. Again, most attractions were closed so we just took the opportunity to see Dublin and its people. We did see another street performer in the exact same spot as we saw the band called The Riptide Movement. This guy was dancing though.

It started raining around 5 PM so we decided to call it a day and head back to the hotel. We had to ride the bus the entire trip, which all the way out to Don Laoghaire took awhile. All the buses are double decker buses like in London.

This was on the upper deck. We made it to our stop, the last stop before the bus turns around and went to the hotel.

Stay tuned to this blog for our last day in Dublin, where we squeeze in a trip to Malahide castle before going to the airport for a LONG trip home.

Dublin Ireland - Christmas Day

2011-01-23T19:44:00.007-06:00

Since all public transportation stops running on Christmas day, we used the day to catch up on sleep and to just BE in Ireland. We slept late. We ate the groceries bought from the store a few days earlier. Later that afternoon, Angie and I took a walk around Dun Laoghaire, a suburb of Dublin where our hotel was. Frankie stayed at the hotel and napped/watched TV.

It was a very pretty day despite the cold. Dun Laoghaire is one of the main seaports of Ireland and there are two long piers (about a mile long each).

We walked along the East Pier and the colors were AMAZING as the sun set. Let me share the pictures with you.

Christ the King sculptor by Andrew O'Connor.

More Shamrocks!

Looking south towards the suburb of Sandycove.

Dun Laoghaire church towers in the setting sun.

We made it to the end where the lighthouse is.

Angie and Me. We had a great walk!

After our walk we went back to the hotel. We had been gone about an hour and Frankie was getting a little worried. He said he was going to drink a latte first, he was really worried, and then go out to look for us.

We ate some sandwiches from the hotel for supper as we set in the lobby and played cards. That rounded out our Christmas day and I found it an enjoyable one.

Dublin Ireland - Christmas Eve

2011-01-17T19:30:00.004-06:00

Most attractions were closed today, but we had a few options, so we headed to the city center. I wanted to see the Oscar Wilde statue and it was on the way to the Natural History museum, so that was our first mission. I wanted to see this statue because it was not like any statue I had seen before. See for yourself.

Besides the snow, which is unusual for Dublin, how many statue have you seen lounging on a rock? I love it! Also along our way to the museum, we saw the famous Georgian doors of Dublin. The colors were amazing! My personal favorite was the yellow one, naturally, since that is my favorite color.

Had that been a nine (my favorite number) on the door instead of a fourteen, I would have taken that door off its hinges and taken it right on home with me. Yes, I would have! I mean, the door handle is even in the middle of the door!! Come on! It doesn't get better than that! There were other doors and it was just so cool to see them all with their bright colors.

Continuing on we made it to the Natural History museum and had a whole 15 minutes to look around until closing, because they close early on Christmas Eve, you see. Ugh! The guy working there was nice enough to tell us that the best stuff was on the second floor. We walked up the stairs, opened the door, and saw a room FULL of taxidermy animals. It was neat, I wish we could have seen more. Here is a quick preview of one of the animals. Enjoy!

Ha! Ha! I just made you look at an elephant's behind!

Back outside I got a closer look at the fence surrounding the museum. There were shamrocks embedded throughout the architecture of Dublin. The fence was no exception.

After the museum we walked down Grafton street which is a pedestrian only shopping area. On Christmas Eve it was very crowded and there were many people buying bouquets of flowers. I guess that is what you do on Christmas Eve in Dublin. *shrug*

Grafton street is also the place to see bunkers (street musicians). We saw the band The Riptide Movement playing on the street and ended up buying a CD from them. It was their latest album called, "Hot Tramp". Um, yeah. There were a few good songs, and a few bad songs. I burned the ones I liked for my iPhone and the CD will go in the travel memory box.

It was after this that we saw THE icon of Ireland! A leprechaun!! It was very exciting. So exciting that I even paid one whole Euro to get my picture taken with him.

Frankie saw the leprechaun and BEGGED me to take a picture with it. Before we left to go to Dublin, Frankie's big joke was that they may not let me leave Ireland since I would be considered a national treasure, meaning because I am short, like a leprechaun, I couldn't leave the country. He told everyone this joke. I finally asked him to stop, and he did, because he is a good guy after all. Sadly, even the leprechaun was taller than me, after all.

Right behind the leprechaun was the statue of Molly Malone. This was one of the other statues I wanted to make sure to see while in Dublin.

There is a song called Molly Malone and it became one of the songs of Dublin. She was a fictional fishmonger (a fish seller) who died of a fever. The lyrics are here and below is the song sung by the Dubliners. I personally like to hear it a little more peppy, but that is true of just about any song.

Since we knew attractions were closed we just walked around the city center to finish out our day. Today was the first day of NO snow and the sun shined all day...well until about 4:15 when it sets in the winter. Here are a few of things we saw.

I had been waiting the entire trip for the snow to melt so that I could see the "Look Left" on the road. They drive on the left side of the road and to make sure that tourist don't get run over they have this on the roads. It didn't help me though. I never knew which direction the cars were coming from. I just waited for others to start going.

As we were walking by Trinity College I stopped and took this picture. If you look closely at the picture above you can see that college is college no matter what country you are in.

Where is the craic at? While we didn't hear anybody actually say it we did see a sign for it.

After wondering around we went back to Dun Laoghaire where the hotel was. We finished our day with the worst meal ever at Miami Cafe. I ordered the special chicken, and let me tell you what, it was special for all the wrong reasons. It was a previous frozen breaded piece of chicken on a hamburger bun with cheese that they didn't even bother to heat up enough to melt it. Frankie got the fish and chips and after having really good fish and chips at Beshoff it would be hard to call any other good. But it was definitely not hard to call the fish and chips at Miami Cafe bad!

I guess it had to happen sometime, that we had a bad meal on our trip, but I was hoping we would avoid it. Oh well, we made up for the next day, but that is another post for another day.

Dublin Ireland - Going to the Grocery Store

2011-01-15T13:04:00.006-06:00

Since everything, and I do mean everything (even the public transportation), closes on Christmas day we made a trip to the grocery store a priority on the 23rd! Things close early on the 24th too. Angie and I went while Frankie swam at the hotel. I still feel slightly awkward taking pictures in a grocery store, but no one has every said anything to me, so I click away!

We found out that we can buy Lavazza coffee at stores in Dublin. We love that coffee ever since we went to Rome. We can't buy it in stores in America, but we can buy it on Amazon.com. We were super excited about being able to get some cheaper to take home. Guess what....we forget to get it! Such is life.

Back to the store and the things we saw. There wasn't anything special about this grocery store, but I did see something there that I have never ever ever seen in my life!

This my friends, is not an escalator, it is not a moving sidewalk, oh no! It is a travelator! How cool is that? Angie and I rode it up and then down, just to say we had been on a travelator. They had a parking garage with access on the second floor so you could take your grocery cart up there to your car and not have to try to drag all your groceries up to your car by hand.

Fishmonger! I had to look this up just to make sure what it meant..it means a person who sell fish, like the legendary Molly Malone who I will talk about in a later post.

I LOVE going to the grocery store in foreign cities. I like see what is the same and what is oh so different from America. I like to think about how if I lived there would I be able to survive on what is available. The big question is, are there supplies available to make Mexican food. I don't want to live any place where I cannot have access to at least tortillas! I am too addicted!

There was a small, and I do mean small section of "Mexican" food.

Although, I have never seen nachos in a box...it would do in a crisis, I suppose. :)

I mentioned in my first post about our trip how the Irish love their potato chips. At this store they had one and half aisle dedicated to them! We did see a few Doritos, but for the most part it was all potato chips...er....excuse me....crisps!

One of the interesting things was the fact that all the chips were in individual packages inside the bigger bag. The other interesting fact were the flavors, there were some VERY different ones. Here are some of the different brands and flavors we saw.

Tay-To's - Buy them, they're Irish!

Walker's Prawn(Shrimp) Cocktail flavor crisps.

Pringles' Pigs in Blankets anyone?

We did see other products that had nothing to do with potatoes. Not that I wanted any of them.

Um...no thanks...

An even bigger NO!

Now on to the condiments.

Have you heard of powered mustard? I tried the original English mustard at a restaurant and did not like it. It had a spicy kick to it. I don't like hot mustard and when you are expecting regular (read that American) mustard and get the other kind it really tends to turn you away from it.

I found a new condiment that I just fell in love with! Fruity Brown Sauce!

I liked it so much that I found a recipe online and made a small batch once we got back home. It uses malt vinegar and made the whole house smell for almost a week, but it tasted oh so good!

We can't talk about food in a foreign country without wondering about the sweets. There were many products that are available in America and many that aren't, but I am not sure where this one fits in.

Here are some that I have never seen.

I have seen gummy worms, bears, bugs, LifeSavers, etc., but never babies! Here is what they looked like out of the package.

Seeing them was even more disturbing, but man they were good. They were softer than the gummy candies we can get here, which is probably why they were covered in powered sugar to keep them from sticking together.

I have saved the best for last. I will just explain what is on there and you come up with your own conclusions about it.

The ones with the puppies say, "Puppies on a roll". The ones with the kittens say, "Softer than ever". Then beside both of them on the right are lint rollers (aka pet hair removers). : /

You just never know what you are going to find at grocery store! Stay tuned for more of our trip to Dublin.

Dublin Ireland - I Guess We Shall See Dublin

2011-01-10T21:39:00.008-06:00

After disappointments the day before we pressed on. We got up early on the 23rd so that we could get to the tourist center. From there we were going to get on the bus that would take us through the Irish country side and through the Wicklow mountains.

We rode the DART into the city center in a car filled with people. It was the quietest subway ride EVER! It was a really strange feeling. Everyone just sat there very politely and said NOTHING. I am talking prayer during church quiet (teehee, well my church anyways)! Really really creepy for a subway.

We had time to eat breakfast before the tourist center opened and we found a place that served real Irish breakfasts. The menu consisted of things called rashers and black and white pudding. We soon found out these were also know as cured ham (they called it bacon when we asked) and blood sausage (The round discs...ew).

I became really leery of anything called "pie" or "pudding" after this meal. I began to wonder what other good things they turned into a meat based product!

After breakfast we got to the tourist center to find that the tour we had booked stopped running on December the 20th for the season. This was the 23rd of December. We booked this in October. You would think that Hotwire.com would have known about this! We were able to get a refund, but it took several phone calls after we got home. This was more upsetting that anything the day before. But to find the silver lining, this did give us the chance to see some of the attractions that were going to be closed the next day and beyond.

We got to walk around Dublin castle. We could have gone in but we chose to not take the tour and save the time to see other sights. I did get some pictures of a few things around the castle and a few inside.

Dublin Castle

A door handle that is in the middle of the door at Dublin castle.

Ball of locks piece of artwork.

Inside the ball of locks were keys. *Love this picture!*

Iron work on a window.

We did go to the Chester Beatty Library which is on the grounds of the castle. They had, among other things, some ancient manuscript fragments from the Bible from the 900's. It was very interesting to see those artifacts.

After the castle we went to the bus stop to go to the Guinness Storehouse. We asked some people, also standing there, which one we would need and again the Irish friendliness was amazing, even if his alcohol breath almost knocked us over. We watched several buses go by that we didn't need. Then finally the one we wanted started coming toward us. We were ready and watching as it just drove right by. Um....

We were at a bus stop, shouldn't the bus stop? There was a non-drunk man still there and I asked him why the bus didn't stop. With a slight smile, surely reserved for stupid tourist, he said that you have to stick your hand out to let the driver know you wanted him to stop. Hmmm....

The other times we took the bus there were other people around and they must have stuck out their hand. None of us ever noticed! We had been standing there for close to 30 minutes, did I mention it was cold? I mean really cold, like 30 degrees Fahrenheit cold! We decided that we should just take a taxi so we could get to the storehouse before it closed. We found out that taxis just don't just stop anywhere, there are taxi stops that you have to go to. Public transportation was killing us! ;)

Luckily, the stop was just down the road and around a corner and we were able to get in a taxi. The cab driver was HILARIOUS! He was cracking jokes the whole way. It was very entertaining! We made it to the brewery and took the tour.

The interesting part about it was the fact that the founder, Arthur Guinness, in 1759 signed a 9,000 year lease. 9,000 years! They had the actual lease encased in the floor when you first start on the tour.

That is amazing! The tour overall was all right but the highlight was the very top floor called the Gravity Bar which has a 360 degree view of Dublin.

We sat up there awhile just enjoying the view and the warmth. With our tickets we got a complimentary glass of Guinness. Angie and I got sodas instead, while Frankie got the Guinness. Angie and I did taste the Guinness, though. Angie tried it first and made a face. Frankie tried it and made a face. I didn't want to try it because of all the foam. So, to Frankie's great delight, I asked for a straw. I tasted it with a straw and made a face. Frankie just kept laughing at me for using a straw, but hey, what can I say. :)

As we were up there it started to snow. It was so peaceful and relaxing watching the snow fall and hearing the Christmas music. (If you ignore the background talking, you might be able to get the vibe of it.)

Some of the flakes where huge! Especially to us south Texans!

Walking to the bus stop I was able to capture this picture. I love the effect of the snow.

Also on the walk back to the bus stop we saw this:

What in the world?! Creepy!

We learn quickly, and was able to get on a bus back to the city center. We ate at a restaurant that I cannot tell you the name of because I don't know it. But I have a good story from there. Angie wanted ranch dressing to go with her meal. She asked the waiter and he had no clue. Tell me, how do you explain ranch dressing to someone who has never had it? We were like, um...it is white and has green flakes of something in it....

The chef was standing there and he claimed he did know what it was and would get her some. This is what came to the table. (The orange-ish stuff in the middle.)

We all had a taste and we all can say without a doubt that it was NOT ranch dressing. What he made, from what we could tell, was a mix of salsa and mayo. While it was good, it was not ranch. Later, when we went to the grocery store, we did see one type of ranch; it was a small bottle of Newman's Own Ranch Dressing.

Before going back to the hotel we went to Carroll's to buy souvenirs. Apparently, this is the only place a person can buy souvenirs in Dublin. There were Carroll's stores all over Dublin, but I was really surprised that there were not more individuals selling things on the streets. Where was the cheap stuff?? ;)

Back at the hotel Frankie went swimming in the indoor pool while Angie and I went grocery shopping for food for Christmas day since everything will be closed and the hotel is charging 135 Euros per plate for Christmas lunch. To the store we go! The food at the store deserves a post all its own. So I will save that for next time.

Dublin Ireland - The Big Disappointments

2011-01-04T20:19:00.005-06:00

After some much needed sleep on the 21st we were up and ready to go out on the town. The sun was shining and it was a beautiful but cold day!

We stopped at the Harbor Bar and Grill in Dun Laoghaire for lunch before getting on the DART to go to the city center. This was our first experience with "real" Irish food.

Frankie ordered cottage pie, also known as Sheppard's pie. It was a mix of hamburger meat with spices and vegetables with a layer of mashed potatoes and then a layer of cheese. It was okay, but I didn't know it had mash potatoes, so when Frankie let me try some the texture was really strange for hamburger meat. It threw me off and I couldn't get past that to say it was great.

After lunch we headed to the city center to go to the main tourist center in Dublin. It is a converted church and it is really very neat. You can get tons of information from there and even buy souvenirs.

Once we got there though we were told that many of the sights we wanted to see were going to be closed due to the Christmas season and they would not reopen until the 28th (the day we get home). Not only do the attraction close on Christmas but EVERYTHING closes. Even public transportation! We would not be leaving Dun Laoghaire Christmas day. We were going to have to go grocery shopping. Oh darn! Are you kidding me? I LOVE to go to foreign grocery stores! They fascinate me! Not only was everything closing on Christmas day, but most things would also be closed (except shopping stores) the next day which is another holiday in Ireland called St. Stephen's Day (Boxing Day in the UK). Well, pooh....

Due to time issues we decided to take a cab to St. Patrick's Cathedral. We took two cab rides during this trip and the cab drivers were some of the nicest people we met. Which says a lot since every person we talked to in Dublin was super friendly! We would ask a simple yes or no question and they would go above and beyond to answer it. It was wonderful and more than made up for the sites being closed!

The first cab driver took us to St. Patrick's Cathedral where there was a note on the gate saying it was closed due to weather. He apologized several times as if he were the one to make the decision to close it! He then suggested that we try the Guinness Brewery and drove us over there. It was closed due to weather. Did I mention it snowed in Dublin? *eyes rolling* Everyone we talked to about the weather said they had not seen snow like this in 25 years! TWENTY-FIVE years!! The cab driver apologizing again took us back to city center and discounted our fare for all our trouble. How sweet was that?

We were really disappointed because we had a bus tour to take the next day, which we were excited about, but then all the sights would be closed for the following days and we wouldn't get to see them.

After our disappointing day we decided to finish it off by walking around the city center and just absorbing the culture. You have to make the best of things, you know. We still got to see interesting things. For instance, did you know the Irish have a great sense of humor?

We saw some historic things. This is the statue of Daniel O'Connell. He was a political leader for Ireland in the early 19th century.

We finally crossed the Liffey river to the north side of Dublin. There are several bridges, but I wanted to cross a very specific one. It is unofficially called the Ha'Penny bridge. It use to cost 1/2 a penny to cross. They say that it is the only thing that through inflation has actually gotten cheaper! (Note that it is snowing again!)

We ate! Always a good thing. We made sure to have fish and chips. The cab driver suggested Beshoff and so we went there. It was good!

We made our way back across the river and went to the Temple Bar area of Dublin. In this area is The Temple Bar Pub. We stopped in to hear some of the Irish music, we were not disappointed.

Can you believe how foolish we are to think that the Alamo a mere hour away from us in San Antonio is the only Alamo! Case in point:

Although, I have to say, the one in San Antonio is much prettier! That wrapped up our day and we headed back to the hotel.

When we got there Frankie called the bus company for the tour the next day to make sure it wasn't canceled. The number he called said for international calls use this certain phone number. We did not realize it was an American number. It was stupid on our part but it started with 001 and that threw us off. The call ended up costing us €22!!! Ugh! It was actually higher but Frankie went and "talked" to the front desk and they lowered it from €39. We found out that even local calls cost €2 per minute. Ridiculous!! (After all that we still were not sure about the tour being canceled or not!)

I do want to end on a good note. We found out that could buy Lavazza coffee at grocery stores in Dublin!! We have been buying it from Amazon for not very cheap. We planned on filling the suitcases with it!

We forgot. There goes my happy ending for this blog, and really it is more fitting this way.

Ok, no really I can't end this way. It is just too pessimistic! So here you just have to smile when you see this! I do every time!

What a little sweetie! :) See...you can't help but smile! More later!

Dublin Ireland - Getting There

2011-01-02T16:18:00.005-06:00

My husband, our friend (whose name is Angie), and I traveled to Dublin Ireland for Christmas. We had a great time despite some disappointments. I would like to document our trip for my own purposes and for whoever else would like to read it. So with that, here we go!

Our trip started out on Dec. 20, 2010 at 5:45 AM CDT as we left the house bound for Houston. It is cheaper for us to drive the 4.5 hours to Houston for international flights than to drive 45 minutes to San Antonio. A lot cheaper, so to Houston we go. We had a layover in Atlanta, which kept getting longer and longer due to the weather. This is the time when Europe was having one of the worst snow storms in recent history. We finally get on our way and arrived in Dublin at 2:10 AM CDT the 21st of Dec. The time in Dublin 9:10 AM the 21st of Dec. This is not really a good time to arrive somewhere with a 6 hour time difference! But we decided to take a nap and then just suffer some the rest of the day, as long as the day was short!

The first thing we see after getting off the plane was that all the signs are both in Gaelic and English.

This was very cool! We were talking to a local woman on the subway one of the days there and she told us that the children have to learn Gaelic in school, but that there is only a very small percent of Ireland who speak it as a primary language. Gaelic was EVERYWHERE! It was neat until a scrolling information sign was in the middle of Gaelic and we needed to know what it was saying in English.

While waiting for the luggage we saw a brand of potato chips that was new to us and one we found quite humorous. Side note: The Irish LOVE their potato chips!

When we finally got out of the airport we saw that it was snowing! This was very exciting for all three of us. In our parts of Texas it doesn't snow often. For Frankie and I even less than where Angie lives. These were huge flakes too, not just sleet that we normally see if we even see anything!

We got tickets for the Aircoach bus that would take us right to the front door of our hotel. It was much cheaper than a taxi and it made it easier for us since we had no clue where or what we needed to do. From the bus, which had Wi-Fi (yipee!), I was able to capture a few shots of snowy Dublin, like the one above, and I captured a picture of The Dublin Wheel.

We wished we had been able to go on it, but time slipped away before we could. Plus, the way things went it probably wasn't open, but more on that later.

The Aircoach bus usually goes right to the door of the Royal Marine Hotel in Dun Laoghaire (a southern suburb of Dublin) where we were staying, but with the snow he wasn't sure if he could get turned around where he normally did, so he dropped us off just down the street. It wasn't too bad, but it was snowing, we had our luggage and it was all uphill. I know it sounds like that joke, "When I was your age, I had to get to school by walking five miles, uphill, in the snow, and barefoot.", but in our case this time it was true! We found out later that the airport shut down just a few hours after we got there due to the snow. This was the worst snow storm Dublin had seen in 25 years! Lucky us! :)

Since we had gotten there later than we originally thought we would, we were just going to try to stay up, but we had to wait for our rooms. We waited in the lobby in some very comfortable chairs where all three of us fell quickly asleep. When the rooms were ready we decided that we would take a two hour nap and then force ourselves to get up and go out. We did it too!

Once we woke up, we took our first trip on the DART, which is the Dublin subway, to the city center to see what we could see. It gets dark at 4:30 in Dublin in the winter. That wasn't good for picture taking, and the snow didn't help either. But there were a few things of interest of which to take pictures.

For example the James Joyce statue.

And lights strung across the street, which I love! This says Merry Christmas in Gaelic.

We three exhausted people made our way back to the hotel after a quick meal at a small pizza place run by a guy from Iran and went to bed. More to the travel story in the next post! Bye for now!

One Man's Trash

2010-12-04T20:54:00.004-06:00

You have heard the saying, "One man's trash is another man's treasure." Well this is especially true when you can turn it into some fun art decorations!

At a thrift store several several months back, I found nine small plastic frames for a quarter each. They were hideous (I forgot to take a before picture) and had needle point (at least I think that is what it is called) in them that I just wouldn't have a place for in my house.

Case in point....

I had plans to paint the frames and figure out a way to write the names of cities we have gone to or want to go to in them. We are slowly converting our bedroom to display travel decor. I set the frames aside and sort of forgot about them.

Several months ago at another thrift store, I found a hiking backpack that someone must have taken on a trip through Europe. It had ten patches from different countries sewn onto it. I thought that it was cool and it was only $4. So I bought it. I didn't know what I was going to do with those patches, but I knew I wanted to do something with them. They were too awesome!

I have a picture of the backpack minus the patches, again, forgot to take a before picture.

The other day, when hiding in the other room while Frankie took care of a little rodent issue, I finally got around to taking the patches off the backpack. That is when I found out that those little patches fit perfectly into those little frames! A project is born!

I bought some black spray paint, which brought this entire project to a whooping $7.25 and painted the frames. I then cut out some cardboard to fit into the frames and onto which I could glue the patches. Viola! Here are the finished results.

I find it really neat that there is one from Yugoslavia. Last time those were available was 2003! The one in the top right corner that is hard to read is Belgium and there was one that I didn't have a frame for, that was Luxembourg. Since I can't point to that country on a map and to be honest didn't even know it was a country (did you know that a lot of Americans are really really bad at geography?), I decided to leave that on out.

I really liked the way one man's trash turned into my treasure!

Forget Tigers and Lions and Bears

2010-11-23T19:44:00.004-06:00

Awh, Texas country living! There is nothing like it. No, really, there can't be!

This summer was so dry and hot, but that my friends does not kill the ticks. So we had tick problems. Last year it was fleas. I don't know which is worse. We finally get them all eradicated and then....

...we start having mice issues. Since my last post, I would say that we have killed over 50 mice. I hate killing them! Well, let's get real, I have nothing to do with it. My husband takes care of it all. Thank you, Frankie! I have a phobia of touching them, no matter how cute they really are!

We have filled every little nook and cranny we can find with Great Stuff and steel wool. We have put moth balls under the house. We have these electric sound makers that are suppose to keep them away. We have all the floor vents covered with books. We have set trap after trap after trap and still they are coming in somewhere! We haven't figured it out, but now we are having another problem, it seems.

For the last two evenings in a row we have had a skunk prowling around and even coming up on the front porch! We first saw it when the cat ran to the window and started acting even more goofy than normal. So we looked and there he was just poking around looking for food. Our house became the quietest house EVER! We were so scared we would scare it! I do NOT want to smell that mess for days on end even if he is a cutie patootie! (Cuter than the mice, even!)

If you have never smelled a skunk's spray it is not something I recommend. It is the foulest smell and it lingers for DAYS and travels for MILES! I feel so sorry for anyone who hits one with their car. Ugh! Just passing them dead on the road is bad enough!

Come to find out though, it takes a little more that a small fright to make them spray. Not that I plan on seeing just how far a skunk can be pushed to it is spray limit! I also found out that they are not just herbivores. They eat mice! So now I have a dilemma. Encourage the skunk to stick around to help with the mice or deal with the mice and figure out how to make the skunk go!

I have no fear of tigers and lions and bears, my issues are ticks and mice and skunks. Oh my! Why can't the armadillo that was here a few months ago just come back? He is cute in his own special way and harmless!

Like I said, Texas country living at its best!

Mice Mice Everywhere

2010-10-29T17:53:00.012-05:00

This week started off with the cat catching a mouse in the house. He is doing his job and that part is fine. The part that doesn't work for me are the facts that he doesn't kill them and he brings them to me! It is our own fault that he does this. We have a cat that loves to play fetch and we only encourage this behavior since it is so darn cute! Since he doesn't kill the mice and he brings them to me, it freaks me out! I fear, not the actual mouse, but the fact that it might touch me! It might crawl on me! I don't know if that more irrational or not, but ugh!

So he caught the mouse and starts to bring it to me. Thank goodness Frankie was home. (There was one time he wasn't. That time I was walking out the door on my way to work when a cat, who has since passed away, caught the mouse and was in the process of killing it. I cried half the way to work because I let myself get so frenzied over it.) I go into the bedroom to get away from the cat with the mouse in his mouth. Pan, the cat, starts to come in there with me! I just start screaming at him over and over to get out! He knows what the means and didn't come in, but then he dropped the mouse and it ran under the couch. Frankie looked for it, but couldn't find it. I worried all night that Pan would get it again and bring it to me in bed in the middle of the night. *Shudder* I truly think my heart would have stopped completely. Then a couple of nights ago the cat re-caught the mouse (at least I hope it was the same one and there are not two). It was 2:30 in the morning and what woke me up was hearing the cat moving around beside the bed on my side and the squeaking of the mouse. Blah! I quickly woke Frankie up and turned on the light. I hustled into the kitchen and stood on a chair in the dark, while Frankie took care of the problem. There is at least one less mouse in the house and I am really hoping that means there are NONE!

Next! Today after the pep rally (joy and happiness),the junior high students come in my classroom and we get ready to start the lesson when all of the sudden one of them screams that there is a mouse! Before I know it there is massive chaos! Girls are standing on the desktops, boys are scrambling to get to where the mouse was to see it, I have my feet pulled off the floor, and everyone is LOUD! I let them sit on the desktops if they wanted and I got them semi-settled when the mouse stuck his head back out causing more screams and loud excitement. One girl even left the room temporarily. They are such a good group of kids, that I was able to get them slightly calmed down and we tried to learn about functions and graphs. That mouse would not stay under the bookcase! He kept jumping from the bottom shelf which is covered with material to hide all my manipulatives (fancy word for math toys) to the floor and back again. It was funny and frustrating all at the same time. I told the kids they I just had to get a picture of them all sitting on the desktops. It was priceless. I doubt they learned a thing today, but I tried!

As you can see I have three brave souls who kept their feet on the floor! I am proud of myself because I stood on the floor the entire class. (Mainly so I could move fast if I needed to!) It was an interesting class period, to say the least. I texted the maintenance man and told him there was a mouse. He came by after school and put down sticky traps. I begged him to please check them before I got to school on Monday, because if I walked in my room and saw a mouse stuck on that trap I would scream and then cry. I hate those sticky traps! A dead mouse is bad, a live mouse squeaking and crying trying to get loose or dying is horrifying! He promised he would and I trust him. Our school is surrounded by fields so we always have a mouse problem. He said he would add it to all the others he checks in the morning.

Finally, at least I hope, this evening at home, the cat was looking out the window when he suddenly started flicking his tail back and forth very quickly. That usually means he has seen another animal outside. I was thinking it was a cat, because I had just seen one chasing a rabbit, (have I mentioned we live in the country?) but no it was ANOTHER mouse!! A big fat one! It was probably pregnant....Ack!

This country life is going to kill me, with my heart stopping so often! Now when the cat starts running around playing with something, I am scared it is a mouse. When I hear a little scratching noise, I am scared it is a mouse. When I see the cat just staring at something, I am scared it is a mouse.

I have a feeling it is going to take several consecutive mouse free days to calm down!

Jewelry For Math Nerds

2010-10-21T19:04:00.005-05:00

I love jewelry made for math nerds, aka, me! A friend sent me a link to anamazing pi necklace from the Robert Christopher Company. It was gorgeous!

And then I saw the prices.

Sterling Siver - $345

18K Yellow Gold - $1725

18K Rose Gold - $1794

Platinum - $3898.50

Granted these are precious metals, but still! I can't afford that! Nor would I spend that much money on jewelry ever! So that lead to one conclusion, I should make my own version!

Here it is!

I didn't want the numbers to go all the way around. Using less beads make the numbers stay front and centered and it helped keep the cost reasonable. All together including shipping charges the necklace cost me under $15 to make. I can handle that number!

I found the number beads and the silver ball that is acting like a decimal on the Art Beads website, the pi bead on the Brightlings Beads website, and the plain necklace in the craft/jewelry section of Wal-Mart.

I love how it turned out and plan on wearing it often!

Royalty? I Think Not!

2010-10-19T21:13:00.006-05:00

Plans are finalized and it is official. We are going to Dublin, Ireland for Christmas! But I am afraid there is a problem...

Ten years ago, when we were newlyweds and living in far west Texas, we decided to take a trip to the great east. We went all the way to San Antonio, Texas! Hey, for a couple of kids from west Texas, that was pretty exotic! I got on the dial-up Internet and book a hotel room for our stay. At church a few days later we were telling people about our upcoming trip and how I had so cleverly already booked a hotel for us ONLINE...oohhh ahhhh! One of the church members told us that there were much cheaper hotels to be found easily in San Antonio when we got there. She being older and wiser than my 24 year old self, took her advice and unbook our hotel room.

We get to San Antonio and find that there are several convictions going on with many hotels booked solid plus it was Spring break. This was pre-GPS, pre-internet capable phones, pre-anything useful. So we drove around asking where some cheaper hotels were. We managed to find one that fit our budget. It wasn't in a good neighborhood and there was a mirror on the ceiling. There were so many other little things that should have tipped us off to the fact that we shouldn't stay there. Like the guy at the bus stop who was trying to get out of gang life and offered me some of his 40. Nice guy! He told us how sometimes he reads the Bible, but he didn't want anyone else to know since it might ruin his reputation. I even discussed his tattoos with him to Frankie's horror. Like I said, signs, but we were young, naive, and from small towns. What did we know??

Now, I can sleep anywhere, anytime. Let my head hit a pillow and I am out! Frankie on the other hand doesn't sleep well in his own bed in his own house, so he was up most of the night. Come morning he wakes me up and tells me that he heard gunfire and we were not staying another night. We didn't. The name of the hotel...Royal Inn Motel.

Several years later we are driving back home from visiting family. It is late and we are tired and still hours from home. We told each other that the next hotel we saw we were stopping. We find one and get a room for the night. It isn't the best hotel, but it was clean-ish and we were tired. Frankie goes into the bathroom around midnight and sees used drug needles in the broken light fixture in the ceiling. We call the police and the front desk. The hotel returns our money, the cops come and take the drug paraphernalia away and we leave. The name of the hotel...Royal Inn.

After that we avoided all things Royal, especially hotels. So, here is the problem that we didn't realize until too late. The name of the hotel that we are staying at in Ireland...Royal Marina.

This has potential for disaster. ;)

I Am Feeling Symbolic Today

2010-10-15T20:52:00.004-05:00

It has been awhile since I have posted anything. Need to clean the dust and cobwebs off the blog and write something!

I was able to take some pictures around our property today and they inspired me to creatively write. This is not something I do or really like to do. I am all about the cold hard facts. None of that wishy-washy symbolic stuff for me! But today some of the photos I capture awoke that little place inside of me that can and is willing to see the world as more than just black and white. So with no further ado, let's begin.

This is the photo that started the thinking process. I call it, "Determination". It is the middle of October, winter's approach is near and the earth is dry and cracking, but this plant is determined to grow. He will defeat the odds!

Next, there was this photo. I call it, "The Death". The queen holds her head high while others bow their head in mourning at the death of summer.

Coming back into my normal realm of thinking, I call this one, "The Sun(flower)set". No symbolic story to tell, I just thought it was delightful to look at!

And finally, completely back into my realm of no gray areas, I found my dogs sleeping in a perpendicular setup. I thought it was completely hilarious and plan on showing it to my math kids the next time we talk about perpendicular lines. (A refresher, just in case you need it: Perpendicular lines intersect to form 90 degree angles.)

Yeap, this little blog ran out all my creative writing possibilities for now. Hope you enjoy!