Not a lot to say here. Sgt Cesar Ruiz was the cousin of my nephew and graduated from Taft High School just down the street from us. He died in Afghanistan last Saturday.
Today I joined over a mile long crowd of military folks taking a few moments of their day to show support for the family of this fallen hero, as they drove in procession along 36th Street, leaving Port San Antonio.
Words simply escape me. As a parent, you don't want to be in one of the cars driving slowly from the terminal to the cemetery. But surely you can imagine the immense bitter-sweet pride they must feel seeing this simple act, acknowledging their loss.
Semper Fi, young Marine.
Thursday, I had need to hit the downtown office and decided to take a few pictures of the water, green as it is, now flowing through the section of new river walk I've been following for a while. The location of my interest is at the McCullough Street Bridge near North St. Marys.
This is a little video of the water in action.
And to see all the pictures from start to finish, be sure to check out the set available on the Flickr Page.
So yesterday my sister got her picture taken with Matt Lauer from NBC's Today Show while they were broadcasting from the University of Tampa (she works nearby).
I'm thinking, while, that is kinda cool - something you can brag about, I can do better!
So today, in an unrelated event, Kim Fischer, (yes; that Kim Fischer) tracked me down through readers of the Blog (thanks Braun Station West), and we helped with a story they are doing on proposed changes to the curfew and how it might help with taggers.
I have to tell you, we probably took more of their time than they expected because we couldn't find anyone who wanted to go on camera. Then, because of Kim's professional and cool handling of us, we all ended up talking and painting and the whole nine yards. They probably had to edit out lots of the things we had to say!
By the way, Cameraman Frank told us they would edit the footage to make us look thin and pretty, so if we all look old and plump, it was poor editing!
UPDATE: News4 put together a really nice story and for the "man on the street" response to the curfew issue, my wife Eva ended up getting all the face time and the speaking role. Several of our A-Team members could be seen painting a fence with Eva in the voice over talking about taggers and such. I thought it all really worked well. You can find the video and people's comments to the story here.
Hey, it happens. Those of you who don't know it, San Antonio is just on the edge of a huge desert and we tend to run into these dry spells from time to time. I don't know the exact level at the time of this post, but we are a couple of glasses of water shy of hitting water restrictions. We could sure use some rain.
On my way to work this morning, I was driving down Culebra and noticed that some fellows at a construction site were cooling themselves off.*
Nice. I guess Sea World Passes are not an option for some. Nothing to see here!
*I know; it wasn't on purpose.
A co-worker asked me last week if I had ever heard of the Rib House. Ever heard of it? I love the Rib House, I just hadn't been there in quite some time, even though my wife taunts me with tales of good eats every time her and her mom stop by for some of their famous ribs. The idea was in my head and by Friday, it was a done deal, we had to get over to the Rib House so I could get some of their catfish.
I know that sounds odd, but having never tried the catfish before, I had this big plan to get some!
This restaurant is located just north of what is now Port San Antonio, formerly Kelly AFB, on Old Highway 90. If for some reason you look at the Google Map and it has the place located in Castroville, just ignore it. The address is 757 Old Hiway 90 just west of 36th Street. If you can't see or feel a big C-5 flying over head, you aren't there.
So we get there right at opening and commence to inspect the menu. I have to confess, I had this sudden unsettling idea that if I had the catfish, I was missing the entire point of going to the Rib House. I mean, they don't call it the Catfish House, right? And this is why I have problems at restaurants. Too many options is a recipe for disaster.
There were three of us in our group and after serving us our tea, it was time to actually place the food orders. I opted to go last hoping that in the remaining few seconds, I could make my mind focus on the benifits of catfish over ribs.
The first guy ordered the two meat lunch - beef ribs and pork ribs and for sides, yams and fried okra.
The second guy went with the brisket (which I have had many times before - delicious) and green beans and Cole slaw.
It was suddenly go time for me. I had the sides down for sure. I was going with the green beans and potato salad. As soon as I was about to say catfish, my mind made some sort of left turn at Albuquerque and my mouth announced, "two meats, beef and pork", all on its own. As the guy left, I almost felt like I was having an out of body experience because I really had catfish on my mind. Really.
But I was not disappointed at all. First, I am a huge fan of Bill Millers green beans. I love them and would eat them daily. The green beans at the Rib House do not have the same pica-factor (they aren't spicy hot), but they have a great home made flavor that I truly enjoy. Order them and you will agree. The potato salad is good - I wouldn't turn it away and I surely licked my plate clean. The ribs are simply to die for and I don't mean maybe. I like the beef and the pork. One of our group said that he liked the beef a little more than the pork but followed that with, "It was like the difference between an A and an A+". Hard to go wrong with that.
No offense to the fine people at Tony Roma's (I haven't been in years), but the Rib House puts them to shame. Shame, as in give me back the hundreds and hundreds of dollars I spent there over the years thinking I was eating "The Best".
Now, before you gather up the entire family reunion or want to take your seventy nearest neighbors over for a little feast, you have to understand that there are some limitations. First, there is no parking to speak of. Second, the restaurant itself is not very big. I don't know how many they can hold, but it can't be more than 30 at a time. Having said that though, you can get it to go.
But if you have a small group of 4 to 10, I'd say they would be able to hook you up, just get there early.
So as soon as I got back to work, I whined over and over to my friends that I should have gotten the catfish. I'm guessing there is going to be another trip in the near future.
Bottom line: Tasty Treats. If you even think you like ribs and you don't try this place, you are missing out. Say Howdy to Miss Taylor - she'll be there waiting for you.
Today I joined over a mile long crowd of military folks taking a few moments of their day to show support for the family of this fallen hero, as they drove in procession along 36th Street, leaving Port San Antonio.
I'm thinking, while, that is kinda cool - something you can brag about, I can do better!
So today, in an unrelated event, Kim Fischer, (yes; that Kim Fischer) tracked me down through readers of the Blog (thanks Braun Station West), and we helped with a story they are doing on proposed changes to the curfew and how it might help with taggers.
I have to tell you, we probably took more of their time than they expected because we couldn't find anyone who wanted to go on camera. Then, because of Kim's professional and cool handling of us, we all ended up talking and painting and the whole nine yards. They probably had to edit out lots of the things we had to say!
On my way to work this morning, I was driving down Culebra and noticed that some fellows at a construction site were cooling themselves off.* 
A co-worker asked me last week if I had ever heard of the Rib House. Ever heard of it? I love the Rib House, I just hadn't been there in quite some time, even though my wife taunts me with tales of good eats every time her and her mom stop by for some of their famous ribs. The idea was in my head and by Friday, it was a done deal, we had to get over to the Rib House so I could get some of their catfish.
The first guy ordered the two meat lunch - beef ribs and pork ribs and for sides, yams and fried okra.
The second guy went with the brisket (which I have had many times before - delicious) and green beans and Cole slaw.
But I was not disappointed at all. First, I am a huge fan of Bill Millers green beans. I love them and would eat them daily. The green beans at the Rib House do not have the same pica-factor (they aren't spicy hot), but they have a great home made flavor that I truly enjoy. Order them and you will agree. The potato salad is good - I wouldn't turn it away and I surely licked my plate clean. The ribs are simply to die for and I don't mean maybe. I like the beef and the pork. One of our group said that he liked the beef a little more than the pork but followed that with, "It was like the difference between an A and an A+". Hard to go wrong with that.
Now, before you gather up the entire family reunion or want to take your seventy nearest neighbors over for a little feast, you have to understand that there are some limitations. First, there is no parking to speak of. Second, the restaurant itself is not very big. I don't know how many they can hold, but it can't be more than 30 at a time. Having said that though, you can get it to go.
But if you have a small group of 4 to 10, I'd say they would be able to hook you up, just get there early.
Bottom line: Tasty Treats. If you even think you like ribs and you don't try this place, you are missing out. Say Howdy to Miss Taylor - she'll be there waiting for you.
