Local Office Depot

Today we had a gorgeous day though a bit on the nippy side. Check out our gorgeous blue sky! We had a lovely lunch with wonderful friends at a Mexican restaurant I had not tried before, Casa del Sol (very good chicken flautas, great service and clean environment). Afterwards, we stopped by the office supply store in town to pick up some organization tools - hanging folders, folder bins and a label maker! Isn't it cute?



Technology and the convenience it affords us these days continues to amaze me on a daily basis. This gadget was pretty affordable, compact and required no special software to be loaded on your computer. Very nice. I don't like bogging down computer performance with a ton of applications on the hard-drive. Anyway, it was so easy to use! You plug it into the USB port and it pops up a window and you start typing your labels. Though not a fancy model, you can still edit with simple graphics and font styling. Amazing. We are now organizing like crazy. Well, Mark is. :-)

I SHOULD be organizing. Instead, I am making soup! One of my favorites that I have not made in a while - lima bean and pork riblets soup. I'll let you know how it goes. I posted about it in January 2008 on La China blog if you would like to see what the soup looks like.

A Friendly Friday Face

Happy Friday everyone!! :-) I was a bit under earlier this week but thankfully it was just a 24 hour bug and not that yucky stomach virus going around (knock on virtual wood). Yikes. That one sounds bad though a friend of mine said he lost six pounds and used it as a launching pad for his purge and the beginning of hardcore dieting. What a great way to look at a stomach virus, right? lol

Here's a sweet new friend I made while I was photographing Mark out at the bee yard at My Father's Farm. I've seen this horse from afar but last week he actually came over and let me say hi and pet him a bit. He seems very calm and peaceful and he comes over to check us out now and then when we are looking at the bees.

This is one of the wonderful things about living in a small town like Seguin and being very near "the country." You can drive a few minutes and see some great landscape and all sorts of farm animals. And wild ones here and there. It's very peaceful and I enjoy it despite missing San Antonio and other cities of my past. But I only miss them occasionally. :-)

The Shrimp Barn

I've been meaning to post about this restaurant for about a month now! My friend Hope had told me about it and raved about the delicious food so I went with some girlfriends for a Christmas lunch and gift exchange. We loved it!



This is the plate I got. I can't recall the number or name but I believe it's the seafood combination, which includes shrimp and crabcake. It was yummy though I still feel no one has matched my mom's crab cakes. Still, this was a great lunch. The salad bar includes gumbo, which is awesome. Just the right amount of okra - it's always disappointing when you get gumbo and there's only two pieces in there.



And these rolls are baked fresh everyday we were told! The restaurant is SMALL so when you go, go early, late or plan to wait. It's worth it, however. The facility was very clean and the staff was super nice! It's the kind of restaurant that makes our small town awesome and welcoming. Go try it out!

Welcome Back!

To us, that is! Hi everyone. I wanted to get a quick post in before I head to bed. It's been a busy week and an even busier day as we spent most of it tending to the bees at the farm location. That was a lot of fun. I had not seen any of the bees in over a month since Mark checks on them during the week typically and I'm at work those days.

We've been traveling quite a bit lately to get supplies and equipment ready for this year's beekeeping activities. This last trip took us to Georgia but we took a detour to visit my side of the family in Florida. It was wonderful to see them even if it was just for an evening and the next morning. This is a shot from my parents' front yard and in the shadows, you can make out Lake Louisa. Very pretty. So yea, I know it's not Seguin. But since I wasn't in Seguin this week, I've got to share this one with you.

I hope you all have had wonderful weeks and that your weekend will be even better! :-)

A cold, cold January

It's been a while and I realized I had not written since the first of the year! Sorry folks! It's just been busy I guess and time got away from me. I hope everyone's year is getting off to a GREAT start! Our year is wonderful so far and we can't complain.

The weather's actually been rather exciting this winter. For one thing, it's actually COLD. I've been here almost fifteen years now and my body feels it more than when I first got here. It's okay, though, because I love cold weather since that means I get can all layered up and wear my favorite hat and scarves. This week was mild but before this we actually were in the 30s quite a bit with several nights in the 20s. Wind chill lower than that. Cold for south Texas for sure.

The second thing about the weather is that we've been getting plenty of rain! Woo hoo! You know what that means after a brutally hot, dry summer. WILDFLOWERS this year! Last year I was so sad that we had barely a wildflower in the area due to the drought. :-( So let's hope this year will be gloriously lush with blooms! Some of the trees and plants seem to have been hit a little hard by the freezing temperatures while others seem okay. I planted some potted plants recently and luckily they seem to be holding up just fine.

Welcome 2010!

Hope everyone had a wonderful day on this first day of 2010! Did you party hard last night? :-) Hope today found you safe and sound and happy for a fresh new start.

Now don't get too excited...Apple's not in Seguin (unfortunately!). I'd be happy if we could start with getting Target here in town. Who knows, maybe with Caterpillar and its affiliates coming to town, we MIGHT be able to finally get more high end retail in town. We'll see.

Anyway, we rolled into the new year by having an absolutely marvelous day together on a gorgeous day! The sky was blue as can be and the temperature was wonderful in the 50s. Mark's sister came and hung out for a while and brought a wonderful lintyl soup for us all and then we ran into SA to celebrate a very early birthday for my love. This has been an Apple sort of holiday season for us both. We both now have either an iTouch or an iPhone and LOVE them. Technology can be so darn cool, it is totally amazing! I love it. And the service is pretty darn impressive at the Apple Store. That's just so hard to find these days so it's refreshing.