Family Reunion in Houston

We went to Houston the weekend of  March 13 thru 15. We stayed at Travis' house and Courtney and Cindy and their family came from Fort Polk.

Friday was Grandparent day at Katlin's day care class and so we were able to go and read stories to the children in her class.

Saturday we were joined by Court's family and all had lunch Gloden Corral. Then in the evening we had dinner at Travis' and Jessica's home and all stayed up really late playing wii and eating pizza. Cindy's daughter, Caralee, had so much fun playing with playing with Katlin and Nathan. Katlin was so thrilled with he new little cousin. She now conciders Caralee her little sister.

Patience just fell asleep.

Valentine and Asian Snacks

We got a Valentine from Tiffany and Jarrod. Thanks. We taped it to our door.

There wasn't a whole lot of exciting things to write about this week. I did get the truck window fixed on Monday. Safelite came right to work and fixed it in the parking lot. What a great job they did! The technician, Michael, was very friendly and professional. He took extra care to be sure that every piece of glass was vacuumed from the inside of the door. He made sure that there was no glass in the window tracks and ran the window up and down several times, running a tool down the tracks each time until there were no squeaks  from bits of glass.
I was really pleased with the quality of the replacement window. There were no waves in the glass like I got in my windshield which I had replaced last July by Technaglass.

The rest of the week was just work, work, work. Friday was my day off, but in spite of the longer weekend we didn't go anywhere or do anything. I think I might have been a little gun shy of leaving my truck in a parking lot again. Post Traumatic Parking Syndrome (PTPS).

We went to a Chinese Restaurant on Saturday that was in a strip mall next to an Asian super market. After lunch we went to the market just to look. Of course we left with lots of goodies like sesame crackers and almond cookies. I also bought a jar of pickled mango slices. Pickled green (unripe) mango has a bite to it that can't quite be described in words. Eating one by itself is an experience. I decided that I would chop one up and add it to some fire roasted red salsa. Now that was good. 

Eventfull Week

Well I know that we had an eventfull week which included a visit to a to a Japanese steak house on Thrusday, but the events of Saturday pretty much overshadow everything else.

Saturday was the annual Asian Festival at the Institute of Texan Cultures. It is a kind of mini folklife festival that focuses of Asian cultures. There was lots of traditional dancing and music as well as food and merchandise vendors. The institute also houses many exhibits of the cultures and ethnnic groups that make up the population of Texas (very diverse).

I dropped Trish off at the festival and started looking for cheap parking like I usually do. I ended up parking at a lot I've used once before on the north west part of town a few blocks from the Alamo. It was about a mile from where the festival was. I locked the car, paid for the parking and hoofed it to where Trish was waiting. Along the way I crossed the Riverwalk twice, went past some very interesting buildings and finally got to the festival venue.

The first thing we did at the festival was to eat some Chinese noodles and chicken and shrimp. It was served outdoors and was just barely warm but it was still ok. We walked over to another booth that was selling Thai bubble drinks. I ordered a mango flavored one and we shared it.Neither one of us had ever had a bubble drink before and we were supprised to find out that the "bubbles" are large tapioca which you have to chew before swallowing (there is even a disclamer on the lid about not swallowing the tapioca whole).

After the festival we wandered back to the car in the late afternoon, through the Hemisfare Park (site of a previous worlds fair, I think). We both thought it was pretty rundown and could use some re-development to restore the old buildings some of which were homes dating back to the 1830's. We had toured some old homes in Charleston SC which were 100 years older which had been beautifully restored, some privately and some by historical societies. San Antonio is spending a lot of money to maintain and expand the riverwalk. They ought to spend some money on restoring these older buildings.

As we passed through downtown  and over the riverwalk we encountered a piper who was busking. He was quite good actually.

We stopped at the downtown McDonnalds. It is in an old building and has an upper level dinning area much like the one in downtown Seattle.

We finally got to our car just as it was getting really dark. As I walked around to the passenger side to open the door for Trish, she said to be carefull of the glass on the ground. I was thinking that I didn't remember there being broken glass when I parked here. Then I looked up to the passanger window and realized that it was MY glass. My GPS was stollen as well as a new pocket knife and about $4 in quarters and dimes in a coin holder. I thinik that the thief also got my sunglasses which had belonged to my father. Rx drugs and papers in the glove box including a $20 bill were untouched. The thief didn't look in the center arm rest or he would found my spare keys and been able to take the truck. Now I have to deal with insurance. Well that's life. I am really going to rethink how and where I leave things in my vehicles.

Drum Circle and Vandal attack

Jon went to a drum circle this week. It was a moderated drum circle in which many of the participants had disabilities. It was held at a community center for people with traumatic brain injury so a lot of the focus was therapeutic. Jon had brought one of his home made hand drums (the small ceramic frame w/goatskin head) but it sounded so lame due to the humidity loosening the head tension,  he played the djembe brought by the moderator for most of the session. It was a lot of fun.

We ate Carino's (Italian) on Monday. We discovered that Monday is half off day for their family dinners so we got a 15 layer lasagna for three people for half price. Jon had the leftovers for lunch on Wednesday.

Jon didn't work Friday so we traveled to Houston (in the rain again) to see our grandchildren. Friday we went to Ikea and got some more organizing stuff for our small studio motel room. on the way to Ikea we stopped for lunch at a Mexican restaurant, the best we have been to so far. We are hoping that we can find one as good in San Antonio. Of course we also went to the big antique  mall that is by the Ikea store. There was a lot of traffic going back to Cypress but we still made it back in time to pick up the grandkids from preschool. When we got home, Jessica was fixing dinner.

Friday night the mailbox outside Travis' house was attacked by vandals. We were awakened by the crack of baseball bat vs. steel and the squeal of the getaway tires. At least one other neighbor was attacked also. Of course the boxes on wooden posts were targeted. Most of the neighborhood has brick and concrete box enclosures.

The Alamo

Today we went to the Alamo.  It was very interesting because on the first Saturday of the month there are special activities. Today there were rein-actors in costumes of both the Mexican and Texan forces giving demonstrations of authentic weapons. 
The young men pictured here are in the uniform of Santa Anna's Army and are carrying muskets of the 1830's era which England sold to Mexico and other Latin American countries.

At the gift shop Trish bought a necklace for herself and a mug for me. The mug has an image of the Alamo on one side and on the other the following quote:

  "You may all go to hell and I will go to Texas"---Davy Crockett

About the Frogs

Trish loves frogs (not live ones, decorative ones). At out home in Loa UT we had an entire bathroom decorated with frogs. It was known as the Faddis Family Fantasy Frog Facility. Our grand daughter, Kaitlin, picked out these frogs you see in the picture to the left, so we could have frogs in San Antonio. Thanks Kaitlin.

Third Week

Last Saturday  we started out to go to the San Antonio temple (LDS) but got a late start and arrived after closing. We subsequently found out that not only does the temple close at noon on Saturday, it is only open by appointment. I am not sure why this is but I suspect it is for most optimal use of time and resources. Anyway, we then went to downtown San Antonio and started out to find the Alamo but we got detoured by an antique store and spent the rest of the afternoon looking and buying. We got some old carved wooden salt and pepper dispensers.

Monday we went to Ci Ci's Pizza. It was ok but not as good as I remembered it. Our favorite restaurant so far is a small Chinese place in a local strip mall called Happy Guy. Trish hates the name but loves the food. All the food is prepared from scratch. No frozen egg rolls. All homemade from FRESH ingredients. I talked to the owner and found out that they have been at that same location for 17 years.

Tuesday we met with the bishop of our new ward. Bishop Andrews of the Timber Ridge Ward, extended to us callings as Ward Missionaries. We will be helping to fellowship new members and reach out to the less active.

Two Weeks In

I have been working for two weeks at Boeing's San Antonio facility located at Port San Antonio (formerly known as Kelly USA or Kelly Air Force Base). It is relatively easy work and I get better at it each day as I get used to using new planning systems and document requirements. It is remarkable to me that an air craft like the KC-135 (707 air frame) is still such a vital weapon in the air force arsenal. It is a testament to The Boeing Company that these planes have flown so long and are still fulfilling such a vital mission for the air force and air national guard units all over the country.

The original KC-135's and 707's used Pratt and Whitney engines, model JT8D I think, but most of the KC-135's were re-engined with GE/SNECMA CFM-56 engines. When I started working for Boeing back in 1978, my first assignment was doing the manufacturing engineering and planning on the last commercial 707 which was used as a test bed for the CFM-56 engines. The scheme of re-fitting the 707 with CFM-56 engines was never sold to the commercial airlines (I believe there were some DC-8's) but the air force went for it in a big way. It kept Boeing building 707 airframes for several more years. The 707 airframe is the base for KC-135 tankers, navy E6's and E-3 AWAC. So here I am, close to the end of my aerospace career, working with the same airplane and engine as when I started.

Our first week

We arrived in San Antonio about 3 O Clock on Saturday January 16. It Rained all the way from Houston. It had been cold, hard freeze in most of Texas including Houston for a couple of nights. I had driven my truch from Eagle Mountain UT to Houston the week before and hadn't encountered above freezing temperatures until I got well south of Dallas. Trish who dosn't like to travel by automobile, had flown to Houston and spent some time with our grandchildren while waiting for me.

We are staying at one of those motel places that have extended stay rates. It is slightly more expensive than the monthly apartment rent would be, but it is less expensive than having to break a lease. We really got burned last year when we had to break a year lease after only four months due to the Global Aeronautica lay off.

Our most immediate task (and no easy feat) was to establish housekeeping in a small motel size room. It takes some very creative storage schemes. We are using some plastic dressers from Walmart and some storage things from Ikea .

The job that brought us here is a manufacturing planning position with Boeing. I am supporting modifications of the KC-135 refueling tanker. This assignment is supposed to last through April.