Oops!

Whoopsies! Got caught up in real life and forgot about my poor little blog! Now that it's the new year, I think it's time for some new posts. Maybe some pictures of Texas in "winter"? Will update soon with a look back on this cute town during the holidays.

Pumpkins!

So, there's a pumpkin patch in town hosted by one of the local churches - happens to be the one where Lindsay's mom works. And as everyone knows, pumpkin patches = fun and pretty, so here are some photographs.

There are lots of pumpkins at the pumpkin patch, as one would expect. There are also various pumpkin people tacked to trees - this sounds gruesome, but is in actuality cute. :)

There are normal pumpkins at the patch...

...and knobbly pumpkins.

So, obviously, I had to get one. My pumpkin was cute and round and I drew a face on him. And then Lindsay and I carved him.

Step 1: Stab your pumpkin in the head.

Step 2: Pumpkin guts!

Step 3: Carve tiny bits out of your pumpkin until you get a face.

Step 4: Yay pumpkin! :)

Happy Halloween!

El Mercado

Today, I went with Linds and her mom to El Mercado, a huge market area in downtown San Antonio. So, of course, pictures followed. :)

First, we stopped and had lunch at Mi Tierra, a long-time, very popular Mexican restaurant (it was super-nummy, btw). The inside was very pinata chic.

There were also lots of these neat metallic napkiny cut-out thingies hanging from the ceiling. I used to know what they were called, and then Stephens cut the Spanish department and I forgot the word for them. Yeah, that's how that works.

After eating, we went to the market section, which was indoors and filled with lots of little stalls full of touristy fun things, such as fake fruit hanging from ropes:

And pink cowboy hats with plastic tiaras glued to the front.

There was a wall full of pictures of Frida Kahlo portraits, pictures of Jesus, and some optical illusions (people made of fruit, two mariachi singers that could also be viewed as the profiles of an old man and woman, etc). There was also this picture of the Mona Lisa, made from animals. If you look closely, you'll see her neck is a cat.

Then, of course, there were typical market things, such as colorful baskets and paper streamers:

One of my favorite stands was in a little corner, and it was chock full of overtly gaudy religious icons and suns and moons and basically anything that they could take a Bedazzler to.

There were also tons of Dia de los Muertos figurines in the market, all of which were creepy but cool.

And these spoons:

Also, in the same corner with all the bedazzled fun stuff, there was this little shrine. To.. these people. :)

I hear there's also a farmer's market down there on certain days of the month - I think I'll have to check this out sometime.

Oh, and btw...

Those of you who watch Gilmore GIrls will get this: this place is totally the Star's Hollow of Texas. Soon I will post pictures to prove my point. ;)

Hmm.

New development: the cat is afraid of the new apartment.

Seriously, he hides all the time during the day. For the past three weeks, he's been in one of three places: 1) in the raised window in my bathroom, which is tucked away and hidden from the rest of the apartment; 2) under Lindsay's bed; or 3) hiding in my shower. Only in the past two days has he started sleeping on my bed throughout the afternoon.

It also took me AGES to figure out what he's frightened of--the automatic gate out front that secures the apartment complex. When you drive up, you enter a code or press a button on a remote given to you by the landlord, and the gate slides open - when you leave, there's an automatic sensor on the inside that triggers the gate and, again, it slides open.

The other day, the cat was in my bedroom window in the evening when it was open, and the gate was closing. He started growling like crazy, so being a nice pet owner, I tried to pet and comfort him. This worked for a bit, and then another car arrived and the gate slid open again. Pippin FREAKED OUT: biting, scratching, growling, hissing, the whole nine yards, and finally flew over my shoulder and disappeared to some unknown hiding place for a good four hours.

My cat is neurotic.

I'm back!

Got a little waylaid by the sudden death of my laptop, which I have had since.. 2004, I think. Poor thing. Anyway, the situation is remedied, so new posts will be up soon. :)

Settling In

Okay, so it's been a couple weeks since moving into the new apartment, and it's about 90% unpacked. The rest of it is waiting on a few new pieces of furniture that will have to wait until jobs are found, like a dresser in my closet, a desk in Lindsay's room, an end table by the couch, etc. I'm thinking tomorrow might be a good time to go comb the pricier neighborhoods in the area for garage sales or even just discarded furniture. After all, that's how I found the table and chairs I had on my back porch in CoMo.

A few notable things about the new apartment, or townhouse as it's called in the lease:

1. The kitchen is SO MUCH NICER. It's big, it's open, there's a massive amount of storage, and there's even a pantry. AND it came with a wall-mounted microwave. And brand new appliances. And lots of happy things.

2. Storage everywhere! I have a walk-in closet! Yes, there did happen to be a ginormous cockroach that crawled on the closet door the other day, but that seems to have been a fluke - wondering if it hitched a ride inside, or if it was inadvertently brought along from CoMo.

3. No brown recluses! There is not much more to say to this than YAY.

4. Internet is great and super-fast and super-cheap. Time Warner = awesome. Cable TV will come soon. Again, needs to wait until a job is found.

As for jobs, I've applied for a few, so now I just have to find more that are appealing and play the waiting game on the ones I've already submitted applications for. Would love to work for a publishing company or textbook company in the area. None of the schools are hiring right now, and a few people have been really discouraging about the chances of getting teaching jobs in the current economy with alternative certification instead of a Bachelor's in Education. Oh well. I'll figure things out. If the teaching doesn't work, then something else will. More on the jobs later. Right now, it's bed time.