GENE WENT TO THE ALAMOBOWL.

His friend Frank invited him and treated him to a ticket and a night at the Marriott Hotel on the riverwalk. Their seats were in the 5th row on the 25 yard line. They had a great time!

MERRY CHRISTMAS 2011.

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LOOK WHAT WE JUST MADE!!!!

The picture on the box was lame. We bought lots of extra kinds of candy.

The icing is like cement and made it easy to assemble the house.

This was a FUN way to spend the afternoon.

The only inedible thing is the weird pink thingie that was our tree...it's a wine stopper.

DONE!! We're already planning next year's...

A LITTLE BIT OF CHRISTMAS....

Stocking done!!! I like it alot and plan to make another one or two to match it...someday.

Where is this? It's a secret.

It's a secret where I've been.

HERE'S WHAT I'VE BEEN DOING....

Mary's Cozumel sandals...finished. I've been wearing them pretty non stop for 6 months and they are worn out already. The sole is too thin. But I was bored...so painted them anyways.

These are the beginnings of Kay's boots. My 1st pair of boots!! I'm waiting for some new paints to arrive by mail.

I started this last year and MIGHT finish it this year. I cut the stocking out of a placemat and am sewing on beads and using my darling Aunt Anna's hand crocheted "snowflakes".

Ugh...I don't care if I ever see another bottlecap snake. These are for a guy at Gene's work and for a friend in Midland who sent us a box of Jim Dandy bottlecaps. Everyday I look at them...and everyday I ignore them. I GOTTA finish them this weekend.

RANDOMNESS IN DEL RIO.

2 sleepy boys. Mr. Poole after a day of teaching knuckleheads and Bennie after a day of doing nothing. Actually Gene likes his knuckleheads.

Toby and Gene load up the canoe Thanksgiving weekend. George and Gene finally got her into Lake Amistad. Toby's suburban in the background.

George is a good supervisor.

They're off to see the wizard. The reason I had been reluctant to take it out to the lake is that I was worried about the transport...but this set up worked fine.

Thanksgiving turkey, green beans, squash, mashed potatoes and dressing on my Gran's/Mother's Noritake china.

This Cementerio Loma De La Cruz. A local woman donated 4 acres of land in 1884 because there was no official Mexican cemetery. The last burial was in 1933. Three former U.S. Army Indian Scouts are buried there and the cemetery has an Italian section too. It has been in terrible disrepair but about 2 years ago a volunteer group formed and got historical designation and have been working hard to fix it up and preserve it.

You can see how barren this place is. And it's in a remote area of town. I hope folks will leave it alone!!! FYI- This is not "my" cemetery. The one I am documenting is called San Felipe Cemetery. I have recorded over 1,000 graves and might finish in about 5 or 6 more years. I'm getting pretty emotionally attached to it. San Felipe is still being used.

Oops...that's not Del Rio. That would be Diego & Jamey in NYC.

Miletus' Shoes.

My friend sent me these shoes from Martindale. Was kinda nervous because they are brand new and very nice.

She asked for a night sky and something zodiac...she is a Gemini. I painted this box for her as an added bonus. I learned that I don't know how to paint a night sky...this is my interpretation.

JUST ANOTHER DAY IN DEL RIO.

I'm having a hard time finding a life jacket his size.

This stand off went on for a long time. Neither one would give up.

Final NYC Post. C.J. & Mary-Part #5. Oct. 2011.

We saw two shows. This picture is from "Book of Mormon" which is a pretty hot and popular show on Broadway. My first real Broadway show! We always do off (or off-off) Broadway because of the prices. C.J. really wanted to see this. Jamey had a connection and C.J.'s husband Kevin surprised us with 4th row center tickets. It's about a mismatched pair of Mormon elders that end up in Uganda. Great bawdy humor with excellent singing and dancing.

Then we went and saw "Arias With A Twist"....that was my choice. It's sorta impossible to describe but I'll try: the only actor is drag queen Joey Arias who sings and the moving sets are incredible with master puppetry by Basil Twist. It was the night before their closing after a 2 year run. Lots more bawdy fun.

We took a quick turn thru Chelsea Market before our big lunch at Spice Market. I could've stayed there all day.  It used to be the The National Biscuit Factory (where the Oreo cookie was invented) and is 22 buildings over 2 square blocks.

The industrial-ness of Chelsea Market is very cool. They had a BIG bakery, clothes stores, fantastic florists, restaurant equipment, and all kinds of specialty food stores and restaurants. Upstairs there are offices and TV production facilities...Food Network is one of them....................................................................................................I could blog forever about NYC because after all...It's NEWYORKCITY! I didn't really take so very many pictures considering all we saw and did. I was too busy just taking it all in ya know? It's fun to watch people walking their dogs...New Yorkers love their dogs. We saw every kind of dog you can think of...and there was only 1 ugly one. It was also kinda neat to find yourself on different streets that specialized in a certain product...one we were on had only stores of fabrics....and another block that was nothing but lighting and lamp stores. Of course everything in the windows was BEAUTIFUL!! C.J. and I wish NYC had more bathrooms. Thanks for checking my vacation blog. We sure had the best time ever. Thanks to Jamey!!!! Also thanks to Diego, David, Kevin, Chrissie, Michelle, Tracey and Seth.

C.J. & Mary Do New York. Part 4. Oct. 2011

New York City has fun art, serious art and everything in between. There is a group of ladies who crochet coverings for all kinds of stuff...like this shopping cart. I've also seen pictures of covered lamp posts, fire hydrants, statues...Jamey said they even did "the cube"! (Which is a huge famous street sculpture in the village.) I think there's a group of folks who do this in San Francisco too. Some local govts. call it "graffitti"...oh COME ON....don't be such a Republican!

We quickly went thru 2 galleries as we were on a time schedule on Saturday. This is the art of Nick Cave. This stick guy looks kinda like Big Foot, No?

I liked Nick Cave's art alot! Is it whacky? Sure. Does everybody "get it"? No. But it sure made EVERYBODY smile. I'm jealous and want to make one of these figures.

More art.

This was a big tapestry type thing on the wall that had ALOT of beads etc. on it.

C.J. disappearing into the art of Richard Serra.

Some art is to look at and some art is to walk into. I find it all very beautiful...this stuff was rather calming.

Jamey drove us about 30 minutes out of the city to this wonderful park called WAVE HILL. This is the estate house. We couldn't see it because there was a big wooden fence around it. (I stole this pic off the internet.) It'll reopen in 2 years after renovations. It was built in 1843! Ya'll should Google Wave Hill to read all about it.

Wave hill is absolutely lovely. It is on 28 acres right on the Hudson River so it has great views.

Every where you look is a photo op. The park has performances, workshops, art exhibits, weddings etc.

The park is broken up into different kinds of gardens. You can see the Hudson in the background.

This is near the entrance and has all kinds of hot house plants inside. The plants inside and out change throughout the year. I bet in Springtime Wave Hill is quite spectacular. We loved it.

I like everything about this picture: the plants, the stonework and the little wooden bench way back in there.

A wall of succulents inside the glass hot house.

A pretty arbor that looks out on the river. We didn't have as much time as we would've liked as they were closing soon. We made them kick us out. There were families walking the wooded trails, kids playing on the lawns and some folks just sit and relax in the lawn chairs.

Doesn't think look ODD????? Reminds me of the movie "Little Shop Horrors". I think it's beautiful! You can see a smaller, younger green one just like it in the upper right...it's kinda hidin' back there.

We decided that THIS is what the bud in the previous picture looks like when it blooms. It's odd too...but beautiful.

This is yet another oddity. It's a big, heavy gourd...and that's all I can tell ya about it...even though a nice lady overheard us exclaiming over it and she stopped and told us all about it.

C.J. and Mary Do New York. Part 3. Oct. 2011.

C.J. and I had both been to Grand Central Station before but it's SO big and has alot of history and there's so much to see. I could spend hours there. This is a really cool European style market in GCS that has the best looking food...good thing we weren't hungry. They have separate "stores" with flowers, cheese, chocolates, bakeries, fresh fish, ready made entrees etc. etc. ETC!! The cut flowers for sale in New York City are just gorgeous and they have big pots of pretty plants on all the streets. People were hurrying to buy food and catch their trains.

I took very few of the photos on this blog. The internet ones are so much better. This is Grand Central's main entrance.

Aren't these lights beautiful? When they were restored they were so dirty they thought they were brass and were amazed to find they are gold. As we walked around I read historical trivia to C.J. from an internet print out about the stuff we were looking at. The story of the building's history & restoration etc. is amazing.

It's hard to find a good picture of the ceiling. It has the zodiac and stars and all kinds of beautiful stuff painted on it. It also has fiber optic lights to light up the 2500 stars up there.

This is not a very good photo that I took of this "tree" hanging from the ceiling right inside one of the side entrances that leads to the market..it was covered with crystals. It doesn't look sparkly here...but it WAS sparkly. GCS also has other stores and restaurants.

The famous clock in the center of the grand lobby in Grand Central Station...you see it in movies and stuff. It's a famous meeting place. You tell your friends "Meet me at the clock".

This is right beside our hotel and the view across the river is Queens, NY. We kept trying to get a good shot of this neon Pepsi sign but just couldn't zoom in well enough. There's a Pepsi bottle just to the right that you can't see very well.

The gang having silly fun. Left to right: C.J., Jamey, Patrick, David and Tracy. We had just had some very good Italian food. David works at a really top notch, famous and up and coming hair salon in the village and Jamey got David to cut my hair. The salon had a cute French Bulldog named Sophia and we drank Mimosas while I had my hair done. Tracy works at an art gallery and I had just met Patrick so don't know what he does...but they ALL make me laugh alot. All of Jamey's pals seemed so happy to meet us. I'm sorry we didn't get out to Brooklyn to meet some of her other friends.

This is the restaurant...Spice Market...where Jamey's boyfriend Diego works and we had the most wonderful meal for my birthday lunch there. It's very Indian/Morocco/Marrakesh like. Loved the food, loved the decor and the employees were extra nice to us.

We spent THREE hours at Spice Market and shared 4 appetizers, 4 entrees and they brought the nicest array of 4 desserts with "Happy Birthday" written on the plate in chocolate. Google it and check out their website and menu. This is downstairs. The building is an old slaughter house in the Meat Packing District. They have lovely private rooms down there for VIP celebrities and such.

Diego bought us all lunch and he's a very sweet and kind and sneaky guy! The food was SO good. We sat in this area.

C.J. on "the couch"...looking cute...like she always does. I sure love that clock! We made a quick stop at Andrew Moore Studios to meet Jamey's boss and to see where she works. Very cool space and Andrew is very nice. Jamey drove us some places in "Little Red"...the car we gave her a few years ago. She drives like a real New Yorker...as she should...with lots of confidence and her hand on the horn...and she can parallel park like nobody's business.