Spring Cleaning

I bought myself a new toy this week.  A Pressure Washer.   Yippeee.   I've already cleaned my sidewalk, driveway, curb, back patio, patio table and chairs, patio swing, lawn mower, and BBQ grill.  

It's truly amazing how filthy something can be, and you never notice it until it's sparkling clean.  Our grill looks brand new and all the patio furniture looks fresh from the store.  I didn't even get the fancy expensive pressure washer.  I got the $159 electric model from Walmart.  Some of the ones at Lowes are as much as $500.  They are gas powered and would probably slice my sidewalk in half.   If you get one, be warned that you will get wet and filthy while using it.  Actually only my legs from the knee down got wet and filthy.  

BONUS POST

Today we has lunch at this great cajun place on Austin Highway called Padnas.  We've been a few times and it's always awesome.   Their shrimp poorboy is fantastic.

Then we went to the library where we checked out a few new books.  Weee.. our life is so exciting.

(Mark in line at the downtown libray)

Japanese Tea Gardens

San Antonio has some beautiful parks, and one of them is the Japanese Tea Garden located in Brackenridge Park.  It's right by the zoo.  It was closed for several months while they renovated portions of it.  Honestly, I don't think they changed anything, they just spruced things up a bit, like new benches and they replanted some of the flower beds.  The huge ponds used to be full of giant Coi, but they were all removed during the renovations and aren't back yet.   I wonder where they took the fish..... hmm...    Anyway, we had a nice time.   While we were there, we also stopped by the zoo.  The lines were HORRENDOUS since it was  Good Friday and also because it's spring break, but luckily we have a membership so we zipped right on through.  They have a new exhibit called Africa Live that's really great.  You can see the Hippo's under water which is really cool.  There are other parts to Africa Live but my favorite is the Hippo's.

Tea Garden Entrance

Large Pavilion

Pavilion again

Gardens

Trails and waterfall

Not the best video of Hippo's, but you get the idea.  It's really cool in person.

Arts Night In San Antonio

Saturday night was the first Luminaria - Arts Night In San Antonio. It was a surprisingly large arts festival.  Many downtown streets were closed down and there were performances ranging from poetry to chamber music.  There were sculpture and painting exhibits at several downtown galleries.  The symphony preformed in front of the Alamo.  

When Mark first said he wanted to go, I was hesitant, but Im glad we went.  We called our friend Jaime who lives downtown and he met us there.  We all had a great time.  I hope they make this an annual event.

Mark and Jaime

Back at Jaime's apartment, he is cleaning up after breaking his Hookah.

Mark on the elevator ride down from Jaime's.  Don't ask me why he looks so sad.

Funny Dogs

We have the weirdest dogs.  For one, Jake likes to carry around this stuffed squirrel, but it's so big he can hardly breathe when it's in his mouth..  And Daisy sleeps in these crazy positions.   As long as they're happy........

Here's Jake with his squirrel.

And here's miss Daisy, just waking up.

Vacation Plans

Mark and I are taking an Alaska cruise this summer.  We depart from Seattle and we'll be out for 7 nights.  We plan to spend the night before and after in Seattle so we can see some of the sights.

We are also taking a long weekend trip to Hope Arkansas to visit Mark's dad.  We're making that trip in late April.  I've never met him before and it's been 8 years since Mark's seen him, so it should be quite a trip.

On another note, my old HP laptop starting giving me trouble so I replaced it with a MacBook.  Do any of our readers have a mac, and if so, are there any cool apps you could recommend that I download.

Have a good one!!!