We arrived home from San Antonio safe and sound last night.  I took tons of pictures with both my HP digital camera and my Canon Rebel 2000.  I’ll be putting some of my digital pics up in the next couple of days — but unfortunately, being a business owner and all, I’ve got some things to do after having been gone so many days.  Then I can do some fun stuff again!

A quick overview of the trip:   Our Jami is the best little traveler, and I am so, so, so blessed that she finds a broad spectrum of things interesting!  Most spring-breakers I spoke with last week were headed to Fiesta Texas and Sea World.  Your basic amusement park destinations.  They were okay when I was younger, but the lines are so long now and the parks are so expensive . . . well, I’m holding out as long as I can to avoid the parks.  Jami hasn’t asked to go and I’m grateful.  Paying roughly $35/head to get in and spend the day standing in line is just not my idea of fun.  My idea of fun is more along the lines of this . . .

We visited FIVE Spanish missions yesterday and Jami loved it.  Yes, she really loved it!  She ran all over the place checking the different buildings out and looking for the answers to questions in the “Junior Park Ranger” book she received at the Mission Espada.  A brilliant little book, I must say!  At each mission, she looked for the answers to questions specific to that mission and then received a “passport” type stamp at the visitor’s center for each mission.  At the major visitor’s center at Mission San Jose, she was “sworn” in as a Junior Park Ranger because she’d been to and completed at least two missions in the book.

The person who came up with that creative little teaching tool needs a big, gold star on the tip of their nose!

Well, I don’t want to tell you all about it right now, because I want to put up my photos, etc.  But I did want to post and let you all know we’re back and we had a great time!  More later!

I think Claritin (or the generic version, since that’s what I bought) is a MIRACLE DRUG.  Yep, I’m still feeling a little icky, but heavens . . . WHAT AN IMPROVEMENT!!!

Finishing up some quotes to mail out to possible clients before we go out of town.  Then I have to figure out what all I need to do for the trip.  I used to be so organized, but I’m not quite sure what happened to the legal secretary who could keep three attorneys and a legal assistant happy while eating lunch, answering the phone, assembling a patent application packet, answering a question from accounting, sending three files back to records management, and not screaming at the computer tech who said, “well . . . have you tried rebooting?” when my computer froze up in the middle of an important document revision all at the same time . . .

Boy.  Has my life changed!

Now it’s four people who want quotes for window treatments NOW, even though their houses are in the early stages of construction and the window sills aren’t even in.  Now it’s the school PTO wanting volunteers for school activities and what’s really the pits is I’m the PTO secretary and I’m the one wanting volunteers, but no one else ever does, except the PTO.  Now it’s the piles of laundry lying on the floor screaming “Wash me!”  Now it’s the dishes in the sink screaming “Wash me!”  Now it’s the sweet Borderdor (Border Collie/Lab mix) that decided to impersonate a beaver by chewing a HUGE hunk out of the arm of the futon.  (Thank goodness AJ is quite the carpenter . . . he can fix it.)

My life hasn’t changed at all!  But now I get to spend a lot more of it with my family, and so it’s all good.

This. Is. Not. Fair.

All three of us are sick.  We are leaving Monday morning to go to San Antonio.  And we are all sick.  Stuffy, runny noses (and how is it possible for a nose to be both things at the same time?), sneezing, 1-ton brick sitting on the old sinuses sick.

I’m hoping we shake it before departure time . . . but as busy as I’ll be the next couple of days, I just don’t see how.

Here’s a fun little “Top 100” list I tripped across.  If you’re a sucker for gadgets, I think you’ll enjoy this.

Well . . .  I went over to measure the windows so I could do my quote.  And the windows aren’t finished.  In my business, precision is everything — you measure to the 1/8 of an inch to get the best possible fit.  And the windows aren’t finished.  No sheetrock, no wood trim, nothing.  I can still see studs around the windows.    So it was a wasted trip. 

I did run by the bank, fill up the truck with gasoline ($30!), and make a quick stop at the library.  So I suppose I redeemed the trip a bit.  (I live 10 miles outside town, so I hate wasted trips.)

I emailed the designer to let her know that I need a leetle more window to work with if they want a quote they can depend on.  Hopefully the construction guys will get it turned around fairly quickly and I can get over there and get the job done.  And hopefully get the job!  This house is 4800 square feet and will be a model home for a couple of years.  Lots of people wandering in and out looking at my shutters and picking up my card (if I get the job).  It’s a high-end home (probably over $500K when it’s all said and done), so the people seeing it will have nice deep pockets when it comes to decorating their own homes. 

Well, I’ve got more chores on my list . . . catch you later!

Just posting long enough to say “hi . . .”  I didn’t want you all to think I’d fallen off the face of the planet.  I’ve got to run go measure some windows for one of the builders in town.  It’s for a model home he’s building and he’s interested in putting custom plantation shutters on the windows.  I was supposed to measure them yesterday, but it was Sunday and I was tired after a busy weekend and church, etc., so I took a nap instead. 

Anyway, I’ll be back as soon as I’ve “done my chores . . .”

Planning a trip . . .

So the little girl says to me, “Mommy, I have to see the Alamo.”

And what’s a red-blooded Texas girl supposed to do?

By golly, get her kid to the Alamo!

So I’ve been planning our trip all evening.  We’ll be going Monday – Wednesday of Spring Break.  Leaving early Monday and coming home late Wednesday.  I booked our hotel.  What a scary experience!  Not really, but you never know if the website is reflecting the true ambience of the hotel.  I finally decided that I couldn’t tell diddly squat from the different websites and decided to take my chances with Priceline. 

If you’ve never used Priceline, it’s a little on the scary side for a quasi-control freak like me.  Okay, okay, an honest-to-goodness control freak like me.  You fill in all this info regarding what part of town you want to stay in, what level of establishment you want (4-star, 3-star, 2 1/2-star, etc.), the price you’re willing to pay, and your credit/debit card information.  Here’s the scary part:  Priceline doesn’t give you a list of hotels to choose from that will accept that price.  No.  Whichever hotel accepts your price is it.  Meaning, they charge your card and there’s no getting out of it.  You’re committed!

So I filled everything in except for clicking on that final button of no return . . . and then I clicked.  And closed my eyes.  And waited.  Well, of course there were no 4-star hotels that accepted my $60/night offer.    There weren’t any 3-star hotels that accepted it, either. 

But the 2 1/2-star Holiday Inn said, “Come on down!” when I upped it to $65/night.  So we have a reservation for two nights in a very nice, very well-located Holiday Inn and we saved about $40 over what it would have been booking it through another entity.

I tell you, though, it was SCARY, knowing that we were committed before we even knew which hotel it was for certain!

Now I’m planning our itinerary.  There’s so much to see and do in San Antonio and two days really isn’t enough.  But the longer one stays, the more one spends, so we have to draw the line somewhere.

At first I was going to book us on one of those tour things that takes you around to all the sights, but I discovered that several of the places on the tour package don’t even charge an admission fee.  The tour company was going to charge us $130 for all three of us.  With coupons I found on the net and careful planning, we can see everything we would have seen with them for less than $50.  Gee, I think that may leave us some money for a nice lunch somewhere!!! 

So we’re planning on seeing the following:  The Alamo, Mission Concepcio’n, Mission San Jose’, The Spanish Governor’s Palace, the IMAX film “Alamo – The Price of Freedom,” The San Antonio Zoo and Japanese Tea Gardens, and El Mercado (Market Square).  We also plan to eat at Schilo’s Deli (a German delicatessen) and Mi Tierra Cafe & Panaderia (a Mexican bakery that is open 24 hours).  It sounds like a lot, but God is so good.  The hotel that Priceline threw out to us is literally less than five miles from nine of the ten places listed above.  So I don’t think we’ll have any problems accomplishing our goals!

This is the famous “Rose Window” from the Mission San Jose’.  If you’ve ever seen the movie “Still Breathing” with Brendan Fraser, this is the window he shows JoAnna Going.  I loved this movie and I can’t wait to see the actual window when we’re in San Antonio.

It’s still a couple of weeks before we go, but I love planning trips and having everything all figured out.  I’ve researched all the places we want to see, printed out maps, figured out the order we should see things to best utilize our time . . . AJ prefers to just hop in the car and let the wind take him where it will!  We’re a perfect match, because I figure it all out, keep it to myself, and he’s none the wiser and perfectly content.  He has said many times that the planning is half the fun for me and it’s true.

I will be taking lots of photos and will be posting them here since I figured out I can upload them to my Blogspot page and then copy them over here.  Yes! 

It’s late — goodnight!

OUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

AJ and I installed some window treatments earlier this evening (that would be Thursday).  We’d almost finished with the job and had all our installation paraphenalia by the front door on the very hard tile floor ready to be loaded into the truck.  You can only imagine how embarrassed I was when I caught my toe on our folded ladder  and fell flat out.  Not only that, but with eagle’s eye accuracy, in trying to catch myself I

(a) jammed my right ring finger between the ladder handle and tray, and

(b) landed on the ladder,

(c) firmly pinching said finger between ladder handle and tray.

Ohmygosh, it hurt.  I have a little bluish-black spot under my nail — very small, so I’m thinking I won’t lose my nail.  But it did hurt so very much!  And to compound the humiliation, I think my client saw it all happen . . . he said, “Are you okay?” so I’m not sure if he saw me fall or just saw the aftermath.

Just call me “Grace.” 

I am so depressed right now.  It’s not anything that serious, but it is very upsetting to me.  When Jami was born, my sister crocheted a beautiful baby afgham for her — the one I wrapped her in to bring her home from the hospital.  My sister is very, very talented when it comes to tying knots in yarn and this afghan had a beautiful design. 

For years I’ve kept it hanging on a quilt rack in Jami’s room, and occasionally Jami would use it when she was chilly.  Recently I put it in the laundry room hamper so I could wash it.  Last night it was on top of the pile in the hamper, next in line.

This morning AJ apparently discovered it on the floor and threw it back in the hamper.  When I went out to switch out a load of wash, I discovered that the dogs had chewed three holes in it.

I am just sick.

I know it’s just an afghan, but I’m a very sentimental person and it makes me so sad.  I’m hoping my sister can patch it so we will at least have part of the original afghan.  They’re not really big holes so maybe she can patch them.  I hope so. 

What literary classic are you?

Umberto Eco: The Name of the Rose. You are a mystery novel dealing with theology, especially with catholic vs liberal issues. You search wisdom and knowledge endlessly, feeling that learning is essential in life.