I've had a fairly dry-spell when it comes to pictures of goofy things. It isn't that I haven't seen goofy things and it isn't that I haven't whipped out my camera for pictures, but I have to tell you that my wife recently purchased me a new Canon Powershot A2000 IS, and I am having some issues with the power-up, aim and shoot that I was so comfortable with on my previous Canon. In the end, I've taken some pictures that I just didn't feel like posting.
Okay - here is an example of my issue. On Thursday, I was coming up Bandera Road getting ready to turn onto Grissom to head into 78250, when I see this awesome display of coolness walking up the street. How can you not appreciate a rodeo cowboy wearing shorts and chaps? I know. With my old camera, this would have been a shot suitable for People of WalMart (though he was not in WalMart). Anyway, I'll get it together and offer you better quality photos as warranted.
In fact, today, we had lunch with my mother-in-law then decided to hit the HEB Plus on Potranco at 1604 for an abbreviated version of our normal Sunday shopping. As we were heading north/east on 1604 before Potranco, this guy in a Silverado came up fast behind the van in the left lane. I know how I hate to be boxed in by do-gooders her want to go exactly the speed limit, so I can understand how the guy in the truck would be pissed having to go from about 80mph down to 60 or whatever the speed is. But I don't honk my horn and try to be a jerk about it.
This guy, a young kid from what I could see, got up on the mini-van and just blasted his horn. I know exactly what the guy in the mini-van was saying to his wife: I'm doing the speed limit and I can be in any lane I choose (or something equally obnoxious). Even so, the guy in the white truck was a jerk and we laughed when we turned off and saw that he was stuck at the light at Potranco. Slow drivers in the left lane suck, but people who tailgate and honk are just as bad.
We cut through the Kohls parking lot (I know, you can get a ticket for that) and I saw this little gem. Have you noticed people get more and more casual as the temperature gets cooler? For those of you up north, it was a biting cold 62 degrees here in SA. Anyway, the fact that this lady is in her pajamas doesn't bother me. What concerns me is, she seems to be returning pillows to Kohls. Is that even legal? Oh sure, those legal tags are still on there, but now I am concerned that if I were to someday go and purchase new pillows, am I going to be sleeping on something that somebody else returned? I mean, can you return underwear? I just can't imagine walking in to the returns line and saying, "Uh, yea, I got this here pillow that doesn't work. Yea, that's my drool, is that a problem?"
And finally, parked in the lot at the HEB Plus, this fancy paint job. You know, just yesterday I was watching Overhaulin on HD Network and I saw that Foose guy do a makeover on an old VW van. It was pretty awesome. I wonder if Foose had anything to do with this effort?
Do you remember earlier this week when it was just raining cats and dogs? Great Googly-Moogly! It just so happened that the timing was pretty awesome because my wife had tracked down one of those guys that sits on the corner in a truck with a flatbed trailer full of sod. So, she had him bring over a couple of pallets worth to cover the mistake we made when we tilled up the backyard only to make the weeds grow better.
Anyway, with the grass firmly in place, the sky opened up and we had two solid days of rain, and though that left for crappy driving and lots of closed roads, but the grass is starting to take, and I like that. I should have taken a picture to show here, but I didn't think about it until now and it is already dark outside. Sorry.
So anyway, it was during the first day of rain when I didn't fully appreciate that the tiny little break in downpour wasn't the end of it. I had suggested to my wife that we drive about three miles south on Culebra to that Joe's Pizza & Pasta place that I had misled people into believing was open. A drive that would normally take just a few minutes, even during heavy traffic took us almost half an hour. Of course, it is always fun to blame it on crappy drivers, but in fact, the street lights at both Westover Hills Blvd and Old Grissom were out. Not flashing Red or Yellow, just out!
So, we finally get into this Joe's place and get out of the truck in the now, once again pouring rain. We can see the lights on in the place and even can see tables with place settings on them. Sure enough, as I pulled on the door to open it, I could see taped to the inside of the mirrored glass the sign that says they are closed for two weeks.
The worst part of it is, as we were pulling out, another couple was pulling on the same door we had and reading the sign. I told my wife that I sure hoped they hadn't gone to try the place on my lousy information! They looked a lot hungrier than we did. 'Course, I generally look like I just ate a big meal anyway, so that doesn't mean a whole lot.
It doesn't end there though. We decided that heading back up Culebra with all the jacked-up traffic mess was not the way to go, so we decided to go west on Potranco toward Highway 151 in hopes of finding some vittles. And as we were driving, of course the traffic people come on the radio and tell us that there is a huge wreck at Potranco and 151. That would explain the back-up.
So we cut through Richland Hills, over to Wiseman Road and picked up 151 just before 1604. It occurs to me that readers unfamiliar with San Antonio have no idea what I am even talking about here. Suffice it to say, we took a big huge circle and another half an hour to get through the rain and traffic to end up at the new Pizza Hut on Grissom and Timber Path, not a quarter mile from Silver Creek 78250!
You'll recall we ate at this Pizza Hut before. This time, we decided to skip the pizza itself and split one of those special Supremo sandwiches. Do not, I repeat, DO NOT waste your time on the Supremo. I've had bologna sandwiches that were better. But we do love that cheese bread they serve. As we were sitting there waiting for our food, I looked across the street and could see Mr. Cod through the rain. I casually mentioned to my wife that we should give them another try, now that they have been in business for several months without closing down.
I guess that was the hint my wife needed because when I walked in the door this afternoon, she was ready for a fish sandwich. Instead of taking a long circuitous route around San Antonio, we drove straight from the house to Mr. Cod and both ordered the #5 which is a fish sandwich, fries and a drink.
I have to tell you, while it was a bit of a wait (they don't cook your stuff 'til you order it), it was a welcome surprise. The fish sandwich is huge and served on very fresh bread like a submarine sandwich or something. And it was fully cooked!
As usual, the place is remarkably clean and the owner recognized my wife from our first visits back when they opened.
The fries are different now. These are not what I recall as the "chips" they served originally. I guess that just didn't go over well. But they were hot, not over cooked, and good, especially with malt vinegar on them. Of course, as they say on the Internet, your mileage may vary.
Hey, I don't want to make a big deal of this and I'm only even posting it because I found the whole thing to be kind of odd - even strange.
I was on my way home from Home Depot (which I'll tell you about in a minute) and I was driving down Timber Path through Emerald Valley, The Commons, and Ridge Creek on my way to Silver Creek. Anyway, I saw several of these bandit signs dotting the landscape. Besides the fact that these signs are against San Antonio city code and against our HOA deed restrictions, I wasn't ready to pull over and start tossing them into my truck for later disposal.
But when I was at the stoplight at Tezel and Timber Path, I got a close enough view to read the sign. Apparently, this Origin Church is setting up shop at Fernandez Elementary School. Even then, I thought perhaps it was just some sort of rummage sale or something like that, but I went to the web page and sure enough, according to their own web page, Fernandez Elementary is their new home.
Now don't attempt to paint me as one of those separation of church and state people. It's crap like that that makes our students come home saying things like Winter Festival instead of Christmas or Fall Celebration instead of Thanksgiving. But are you serious? Has the North side Independent School District gotten so short of cash that we are now renting out the school as a church on weekends? WTF?
Oh, I had to stop into Home Depot today to grab some sheetrock for a project I'm working on. I always save time when I leave by driving back behind Home Depot and HEB and Party City so I can avoid all the traffic of people darting out into the parking lot and such.
There is this little patch of trees where I occasionally see panhandlers taking a break and sipping a quart before they had back out to the Alamo Ranch intersection at 1604 and Culebra to relieve you charitable types (fools) of your hard earned change. (I'm just kidding; I pass out five dollar bills to the unfortunate vagrants all the time.)*
Anyway, I spotted this TV parked up on that little clearing and thought to myself, I wonder where they plug it in. Strange.
*I was kidding the second time. Don't give money to these people, they really drive Cadillacs and drink better beer than I do.
I found these on my camera while moving some pictures around, and even though they are old - already several days which means it can't qualify for "late breaking" - I still found them humorous.
We were sitting at the stoplight at 1604 & Culebra waiting to go into the Best Buy at Alamo Ranch when my wife noticed this SUV attempting to somehow increase their gas mileage by reducing the overall weight of the vehicle. Somehow, I'm thinking it ain't gonna work.
Oh, and just in case you need a reason to purchase a new convertible, show this to your wife. I'm sure they have the kids stowed safely in the trunk.
Strange.
My wife has been anxiously awaiting the opening of the International House of Pancakes (IHOP) at the 1604 and Culebra location, and when it opened last week, she was ready to go. But of course, I preferred to wait until the weekend so we could hit it for breakfast as opposed to something like early evening BLT's.
So this morning, with little or no fanfare, we made our way in to no lines, no wait for a table, just in the door and ready for coffee. Since I don't do Denny's, my only good comparison is with the new Jim's that is located just up the road on the other side of 1604 in Alamo Ranch. We have been to that Jim's several times and have had to wait up to thirty minutes for a table, so honestly, walking right in to IHOP was totally unexpected.
Something I wish Jim's would adopt is this idea of putting a carafe of coffee at your table. IHOP seems to recognize that when they serve coffee in a 6 ounce cup, you'll be wanting a refill, and you won't want to be looking around for some waitress when you could just as easily pour it yourself. Kudos.
Speaking of waitresses, there was an army of waitstaff on duty. I kid you not, it was as if it was some sort of ride-along program for waiters. My wife noted at one table, they had two waitresses handing a customer a single plate of food and a third waitress delivering a straw for a cup of OJ. Thanks, but I hope y'all don't mind splitting the tip.
We both ordered up the Sampler platter. Not because we were so enormously hungry, but because when inspecting the menu, it was obvious that for the same price (I think it was a steep $7.99) you got about twice the meat product as if you just ordered pancakes, eggs and bacon.
With the Sampler package, they bring you some hash browns, eggs, bacon, sausage, ham or Canadian bacon - I'm not sure what it was, some sort of green leafy thing, and two fluffy pancakes.
It is a lot of food to eat, but call me a complainer when I tell you that the pancakes should be bigger. They were very light and fluffy - I may have mentioned that already - and they were good but in my mind I was comparing them to what you get in the same size order at Jim's.
The rest of it was all good and our service was certainly fine. We also got about four or five people handing us our food when it was served, so we know they cared.
At the end of the day though, I have to tell you that given a choice, I'd prefer Jim's. My wife is more the fan of IHOP. I was just glad it opened so it could relieve some of the pressure off Jim's, easing the wait time for a table. But as we drove by, we noticed that in fact, Jim's was still packed. I guess not everyone fell for my little ploy.
Have you tried the new IHOP? Are you and Jim's person over IHOP or do you still put up with Denny's? Tell me about it, or leave a comment here. Need more pictures? See the Flickr Page.
Well, you may call it Chick-Fil-A, but my wife had a little girl in her class who would always call it Chick-a-lay, so that is what we call it.
And though I did not camp out for several days in advance to wait for the big opening, my wife was eager to give the new Alamo Ranch Chick-a-lay a try, so we slipped in this afternoon to get the feel of the new place.
I don't know if you have noticed, but the place has been packed non-stop (well, except for Sunday) since the opening. The good news is, if you need to catch-up on your religious studies during lunch, they serve reading materials right along with the condiments.
This Chick-fil-A (like others I have been to) strives for outstanding, friendly customer service. It is like going back into a time machine to when the people at McDonald's actually gave a crap about whether or not you enjoy your visit or plan to come back based upon your experience. I tend to shy away from overly friendly people at restaurants because usually it means they have seen me with my camera and are trying to figure out why I keep taking pictures of my food and such, but in the case of these people, it is genuine interest in making the customer happy.
The restaurant staff was non-stop cleaning, asking people if they needed anything, smiling, offering to carry our tray, and more smiling. Very cult-like, but in a good way. I swear, the owners of Chick-a-lay ought to make videos and sell them to places like 'Donald's, Taco Bell and the other people who hire today's youth but fell to properly motivate them into being good service providers.
The food is simple. We ordered up some chicken sandwiches (mine on wheat), those waffle fries and an order of nuggets. I'm always concerned about the sandwiches because when you look at it, it is nothing more than a piece of chicken on a bun with a few pickles. The first thing I instinctively think is DRY! So of course, I have to slather on some mayonnaise. Worry not; I have never, ever gotten a piece of chicken from any Chick-a-lay that was not seriously juicy.
The nuggets are the same thing, just smaller and no buns. But we did get some honey mustard dipping sauce that was adequate for the occasion.
Can someone explain to me the process for making these waffle fries? I mean, they are clearly potatoes, not some made-up substance that appears to be a potato. I just don't know if they have a guy in the back with a little waffle press or what? Anyone?
The atmosphere was friendly, the place was clean, the food was as good as we knew it would be, and the service was fast in spite of the large crowd. I suppose it is like any opening where they have all the supervisor types hanging around, so maybe the workers are a little more enthusiastic. Time will tell. But for a tasty chicken sandwich and a good first experience, the AR Chick-Fil-A gets the Tasty Treat.
What the hell! Apparently, for some inexplicable reason, everyone decided to go to HEB Plus at the same time my wife and I have historically attended each and every Sunday for the past year or so since it opened on Potranco and 1604. 
What a bunch of inconsiderate copy cats.
And don't even get me started on how freakin' freezing cold it is out there. On our way to the store, the radio guy said that we had already reached the high temperature of 46 degrees, and that was it; nothing but down hill from there. Hello? It isn't even winter yet, or is it? Anyway, thankfully we are supposed to be back up to 70 or so on Christmas Eve, so at least we won't have to keep the heater on. Two words: Brrrr!
Oh, I should mention that I am horribly ill and yesterday morning, I think the record should clearly show, my wife attempted to kill me by giving me a little something that she promised would make my throat feel better. I'm pretty sure that's what the hangman said as he tightened the noose around the neck of some poor guy on death row.
I have this really terrible scratchy and dry throat that really makes me want to throw-up after one or two good coughs. So my wife says, Here, take this little pill and suck on it for a little while before swallowing it. Then, she leaves the room and if my ears hadn't been ringing so bad, I might have been able to hear her giggling as she left. So, I begin to swirl this little thing called Tessalon or something equally evil sounding, on my tongue and really, it had no taste until about thirty seconds later it sort of exploded in my throat with a really, really horrid taste. Then I swallowed it and my throat began to tighten. I grabbed for a water but I think my throat was too numb and too tight to even swallow.
That was when I began to hyperventilate. Hey, choking is not for the feint of heart. I jumped up to the bathroom to see if I might projectile vomit the stuff from my throat but then it really hit me that I could not breath well enough to give myself the Heimlich maneuver, so I should just relax and try not to breath so hard. After a few minutes, I was able to brush my teeth and strangely enough, my throat felt pretty good.
So this morning when I woke up even sicker than I was yesterday, my wife wanted me to try the same little pill and I rejected the offer completely. Instead, I got up, had some coffee then promptly fell asleep on the recliner watching DVR'd episodes of Monk until about noon.
It was only later that I was able to make our scheduled appointment at HEB Plus, and even, I was forced to do something I never do, and that is open up stuff before I purchase it. But my throat was so dry and sore I had to break into the bag of Ricola cough drops and a box of Kleenex.
What was my wife doing during all this? Samples. I rest my case.
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Did I mention it was cold?
This freak decides to put on some sort of snow suit and walk around the store yelling about how Co Co Cooold it is. Look at the little kid just staring at the guy.
Now, the freak sees me with my camera and he gives me a look like he would prefer if I were to pay the nice lady with the Official Camera for pictures. Meanwhile, the little kid is still looking at him like he is a freak of nature.
And speaking of strange. Can someone explain just what is going on here? I get the mattress. And I even get the mattress with the Santa hat on it. But what exactly is being advertised when you have some Ninja bumping and grinding on the Santa Mattress at the intersection of 1604 & Culebra?
After what seemed to be years, I mean, really, years from the time they purchased the land at the now booming intersection of 1604 and FM 471 or Culebra Road if you prefer, the Jim's restaurant finally opened this week and this morning, my wife and I got some!
If you live anywhere within the vicinity of the greater Alamo Ranch area, you are no doubt giddy with excitement over all the new stores and restaurants we have. But the wider selection did not stop the crowds eager for a breakfast fix, and we waded through soccer teams, churchgoers and people with hangovers to get what is really the equivalent of Denny's but with much better service. (Of course, I don't do Denny's anymore, so how could I know?).
While we waited, in the spacious and comfortable holding pen, many people chatted with fellow patrons regarding all the new stores and restaurants; those already open like Olive Garden, Mama Margie's and of course the Starbucks, and those planned, such as Red Robin, Chick-a-lay (as we call it) and of course the new IHOP under construction. I suspect that once the initial thrill of having a Jim's (and eventually an IHOP) close by where people don't have to make the torturous trip up the bottleneck at Braun and 1604 to get to another suitable place to eat, the crowds will die down, but for now it was jam-packed and they kept the wait very reasonable.
After the promised 15 minute wait, we were seated and commenced to look at the menu for something suitable to eat. Although it was already close to noon, we had nothing but breakfast on our minds. Our waitress was lickity split with the menus and off to grab waters and coffee. Considering that there was never a single table, booth or bar stool open for longer than it took to clean off dirty plates and seat the next hungry crowd, I'd say the staff (probably many of them new to the Jim's system) were firing on all cylinders. My wife did a quick count of just the visible staff and she saw 25 folks. That means many more in the kitchen pumping out eggs, bacon and pancakes and lots of folks to serve them up to eager aspiring triple-bypass cases.
My wife ordered the Southern Pecan Pancakes, eggs (over easy) and bacon. She also got a side of hash browns which we shared. Oh, who am I kidding, I ate her eggs as well as mine because the pecan pancakes overwhelmed her.
She started on the pancakes and simply could not stop eating them to even try the bacon, eggs or hash browns. She didn't eat a third of the cakes before commencing the Happy Dance and declaring them superior to Magnolia Pancake Haus (I know, those are strong words.)
I had the Texas Two-Step Breakfast which is buttermilk cakes with eggs over-easy, bacon, and juice. I'll put Jim's buttermilk pancakes up against any one's. My eggs were a little harder than "over easy" and the bacon seemed a little jacked-up in my mind, but that didn't stop me from dipping it in egg yolk and tossing it down my gullet a piece at a time. I have to be honest; if we had been at home, I would have picked up the plate and licked it, but that sort of thing really pisses off my wife.
I can't describe the issue with the bacon. It looked great, tasted fairly normal and my wife had no complaints with hers. Maybe it was all the syrup and orange juice that caused some sort of taste bud situation. Who knows?
At the end of the day, let's not lose perspective here; it was breakfast at a diner. Reasonable price, great service especially given the crowd, and outstanding pancakes. The new Jim's in Alamo Ranch gets the Tasty Treat in their first week, and you can't beat that.
We'll keep an eye on them to see if they go all Denny's on us. Tell me how your visit to Jim's went.
Okay - here is an example of my issue. On Thursday, I was coming up Bandera Road getting ready to turn onto Grissom to head into 78250, when I see this awesome display of coolness walking up the street. How can you not appreciate a rodeo cowboy wearing shorts and chaps? I know. With my old camera, this would have been a shot suitable for People of WalMart (though he was not in WalMart). Anyway, I'll get it together and offer you better quality photos as warranted.
This guy, a young kid from what I could see, got up on the mini-van and just blasted his horn. I know exactly what the guy in the mini-van was saying to his wife: I'm doing the speed limit and I can be in any lane I choose (or something equally obnoxious). Even so, the guy in the white truck was a jerk and we laughed when we turned off and saw that he was stuck at the light at Potranco. Slow drivers in the left lane suck, but people who tailgate and honk are just as bad.
We cut through the Kohls parking lot (I know, you can get a ticket for that) and I saw this little gem. Have you noticed people get more and more casual as the temperature gets cooler? For those of you up north, it was a biting cold 62 degrees here in SA. Anyway, the fact that this lady is in her pajamas doesn't bother me. What concerns me is, she seems to be returning pillows to Kohls. Is that even legal? Oh sure, those legal tags are still on there, but now I am concerned that if I were to someday go and purchase new pillows, am I going to be sleeping on something that somebody else returned? I mean, can you return underwear? I just can't imagine walking in to the returns line and saying, "Uh, yea, I got this here pillow that doesn't work. Yea, that's my drool, is that a problem?"
And finally, parked in the lot at the HEB Plus, this fancy paint job. You know, just yesterday I was watching Overhaulin on HD Network and I saw that Foose guy do a makeover on an old VW van. It was pretty awesome. I wonder if Foose had anything to do with this effort?
