Charlie's Rants & Raves

Here are some pictures from my visit to the Natural Bridge Caverns. It was interesting...very humid though. And don't use google maps to find this place...that map was screwy.

Day 6 of the vacation was the last one. We decided to head up to Burnet, which is about 20-25 miles from where we were. The drive wasn't too bad, however, the Bluebonnets did not sprout out as much as I would have hoped. I'm sure in the next month the place we went to will be covered in those things.

After that we went back to my sister's place and cleaned up while the kids played on the trampoline. Then we left. We went to Rudy's to eat. It wasn't bad. I almost ate an entire rack of ribs (and made for a long trip home).

That was it...that's how I ended my vacation with the family. It was fun and a bit expensive, but I hope the kids had a good time.

Marisa and Sean!!!!!

Today was a busy day...

1) Woke up real early (7:00 AM)
2) Got everyone else up to get ready to go to San Antonio
3) Had a light breakfast (a banana and a South Beach Diet Bar)
4) Took out the trash and recyclables
5) Left for San Antonio
6) Stopped at Jack in the Box for breakfast to go (I had the ciabatta breakfast sandwich)
7) Arrived at San Antonio and parked at a garage close to the Riverwalk
8) Walked around the Riverwalk to find the boat tour for the Riverwalk. The guide was pretty funny and I learned a few things (like the end of Ghostbusters was filmed at one of the buildings next to the Riverwalk)
9) Walked around the Riverwalk some more to the mall. Walked the mall.
10) Had lunch at Cafe Ole on the Riverwalk. I had the chicken fajitas and a margarita. They had a 60 oz. margarita, but I wasn't going to touch that one. The place was good, but a bit pricey.
11) Walked around the Riverwalk some more and made our way to the Alamo
12) Walked around the Alamo and read up on some of the history. Didn't actually go into the Alamo because the line was very long. It was good to see that people were interested in Texas history.
13) Got some snow cones from a street vendor
14) Went to the Alamo Quarry Market. Went to Old Navy and Gameworks. The kids had fun in there spending tokens to play a Spongebob Squarepants game
15) Had McDonald's before driving back
16) Stopped at the Tanger Outlet Mall in San Marcos. Went to the Old Navy and KB Toys outlet stores there. There are actually 2 outlet malls there...the Tanger Outlet Mall and the Prime Outlets (maybe about 200 stores between the 2 of them).
17) Came home

See a full day...too bad the vacation is almost over...*sigh*

Well, day 4 of my vacation. Seems like I like waking up around 10:00 AM. Wonder if that will affect my normal wake up schedule when I get back to work???

Here's what we did...
1) Woke up
2) Had brunch (I had a South Beach Diet Pepperoni Pizza)
3) Headed out to Toy Joy
4) Headed out to the Duck Boat tour (got lost and found out that it was sold out for the day)
5) Went to Mount Bonnell
6) Headed back to Leander, but turned back around to drive around Austin
7) Drove in downtown Austin, next to the Capitol building and the UT football stadium
8) Drove around some more near the lake
***8.5) Forgot to mention that we went to Subway. Funny story here. I was asking Ana "which kid she thought would be the most adven". Before I could finish it, Kai said "ugly". Then he said raise your hand if you're ugly. Nobody raised the hand, but i took a sip of my coke. Then he pointed at everyone and said you are all ugly, so you need to raise your hand. I bust out laughing...remember, i took a sip of coke. So i spit coke on Ale, Kai, and Ana. I thought I would never get away with spitting on them and having them laugh about it...in any other situation, they would have been mad...but in this one, not so much.
9) Went to Zilker park and walked around a bit
10) Headed back to Leander and bought gas (for $2.35 a gallon...later found another place for $2.29)
11) Played on the trampoline with the kids
12) Did a light workout
13) Ate cheese quesadillas
14) Planned our trip for San Antonio tomorrow.
15) Here I am...need to go to bed soon to wake up early tomorrow.

Well, we finally made it to Austin early, early this morning...around 2 AM. There was hellacious weather in Houston that made us leave later then expected. Luckily we left when we did because I hear there was some nasty weather at home today.

Here's how the day pretty much went...

1) Woke up around 9:30 AM
2) Watched some satellite TV
3) Went to Wal Mart to get some groceries
4) Had lunch (me, eggs and fish sticks...I'm not making that mistake again)
5) Went to the Austin Nature & Science Center. It was fun. The weather could have been nicer but oh well...no pictures to post either. I took plenty, but I left my USB cable for the camera at home...dang.
5A) Looked at the indoor exhibits they had...bees, snake skin, snake rattle, bugs, spiders, etc.
5B) Went to the Dino Pit...dug up some dinosaurs...then re-buried them
5C) Looked at the wild animals that can't be released in the wild
5D) Looked at more animals...birds this time, that can't be released in the wild
5E) Went on the trails they had...pretty nice
6) Went to Wienerschnitzel. Not really German food, but I've never had it
7) Took a nap because I felt a bit ill
8) Went to the mall
9) Watched Lost (this Tivo stuff is great...rewind, fast forward...pretty sweet)
10) Here I am

Weather for tomorrow looks about the same. Mostly cloudy, high of around 83. We'll just wake up and see what there is to do.

Until then....I'm out.

Yup...more of the same...sigh. Well at least my "real" vacation (I hope) will start tonight when we head out to Austin.

1) Woke up at 9:00 AM
2) Went to Best Buy and used my gift card and reward zone coupon to buy Casino Royale, Reality Bites (don't know why I like that movie), some batteries for the camera, and some blank DVDs
3) Vacuumed the 1st floor and staircase
4) Mopped the tile at the back door and in the hall bathroom
5) Cleaned toilets
6) Hand scrubbed the tiles at the back door and in the hall bathroom
7) Worked out
8) Here I am...

We probably won't head out to Austin until later this evening (around 8:00 PM so traffic can die down). Then when we get there...who knows...we'll have to see what we want to do and how the weather is.

This is what I did for the first day of my vacation
1) Wake up at 9 AM
2) Take the car in to make sure it was road ready
3) Go to the bank
4) Buy some pizza for lunch
5) Get a haircut
6) Take the kids to the mall to go play...where Mia would subsequently have so much fun she crapped herself
7) Came home
8) Worked out
9) Took a walk around the neighborhood and checked out the other houses that are being built (so many more cool options are available now, then when I bought the house...dammit!)
10) Have dinner (had to thaw out chicken)
11) Watch 24
12) Now here I am...

Exciting, huh?

So it's spring...it's a nice 71 degrees outside...but it feels much warmer if you are actually working outside.

Today I planted a dwarf papaya tree and two mango trees. The labor wasn't too hard because I planted them where some of the free oak trees I got from the Arbor Day Foundation were planted. They didn't fare to well so they were removed.

Tons o' fun today...now I'm off to go vacuum.

I'm on vacation all next week...we're going to Austin and do some of the local stuff up there. My sister was nice enough to let us crash at her place while she is off getting married in Thailand. Now to figure out what to do when we're up there. That's for later...right now I'm bored.

Let's anagram my name using 3 words...
Radical Wham Issue
Mariachi Lead Wuss
Dual Wise Charisma
Casual Swim Haired
Airhead Music Laws
Musical Warhead Is
Airmailed Was Such
Salaried Haw Music
Musical Hi Seaward
Admiral Sauce Wish
Saucier Whim Salad
Sushi Malice Award
Seismic Hula Award
Musical Dish Aware
Acid Misrule Awash
Sauced Whir Salami
Iced Samurai Shawl
Wash Alarm Suicide
Warmish Clause Aid
Whimsical Sad Urea
Musical Aid Washer
Residual Mica Haws

See...bored...

We went to the Forbidden Gardens exhibit today. It's located in Katy, TX of all places, which is fine by me since I live close by. Not too bad...it was $10 for adults. The kids were free...which was good since they were more interested in feeding the fish than the exhibits.

I ran into Will, a co-worker of mine and his wife. Overall, it was pretty neat. It was a real nice day. A bit cold, and really windy. Here are some (well a lot) of pictures from the exhibit.

Guardian of the house
This is what the kids enjoyed...feeding the fish and turtles. They sold a cup of fish food for 50 cents. Next time, I'll just take them to feed the fish.
Terracotta warriors...






Ain't they so cute???
Forbidden city...





Royal chair used for weddings.
Mia!!!! What are you doing?!?!?!?!?