During our 7 weeks in San Angelo we . . .
upped our bird count to 41 birds
used up 1.9 punch cards at our favorite frozen yogurt place
ate at our favorite tex mex restaurant Armenta's 4 times
consumed 12 blizzards
went to 2 San Angelo Colts baseball games (and got 1 free ticket!)
stayed in 5 hotels
bought 10 skeins of yarn and learned to crochet
sat through 1 hail storm
went to the pool 3 times
watched 3 seasons of The Big Bang Theory
celebrated 27 years of Paul's life
read 7 books
watched over 5 inches of rain fall (that's a ton compared to last year!)
saw 1 lunar eclipse
spent 10 dollars on a trip to the Abilene zoo
checked out 9 DVDs from the library and never watched them
Also . . .
our car thermometer registered a temperature of 122 degrees
I went from my 23rd to my 30th week of pregnancy
It wasn't a bad 7 weeks but we are definitely glad to be home! When we got home our lawn was overgrown, but all of our stuff was here and there was only 1 cockroach in our house . . .
well, only 1 living cockroach . . . yuck!
Showing posts with label Texas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Texas. Show all posts
6.26.2012
5.08.2012
SA State Park Birds
So Paul and I might have a new favorite hobby. Ever since we bought a bird book in the Smoky Mountains we've been trying to spot and identify birds. During the day we'll sit out and watch for them. Just outside our hotel and around the base we've seen a blue jay (we named him Jay; clever, no?), white-winged doves, mockingbirds, western kingbirds, house sparrows, and grackles. A few weeks ago the Kindle daily deal was The Audobon Bird Guide app for freeee so that helps us identify them. We also got a Birds of Texas book from the library last week and that helps too. AND Paul bought binoculars with some of his birthday money so now we're basically pros. Turns out bird watching can be really fun.
On Saturday we went to San Angelo State Park to birdwatch. It was about 100 degrees out. We brought all of our gear, but forgot the camera. Here are some of the cooler-looking birds we saw.
We also saw Turkey Vultures, a Red-winged Blackbird, Brown-headed Cowbirds, and a few others that we failed to identify. AND we saw a jack rabbit, a huge wild pig, bison, a Texas long-horn herd, and prairie dogs, which were all awesome too.
Our life list now has 27 birds on it, only counting the ones we've seen since our hobby began. Next weekend we plan on birding at the lake and we'll probably go every other weekend too. It's nice to spend some time outside but since you don't have to do much to watch birds we're able to stay cool in this desert weather.
On Saturday we went to San Angelo State Park to birdwatch. It was about 100 degrees out. We brought all of our gear, but forgot the camera. Here are some of the cooler-looking birds we saw.
We also saw Turkey Vultures, a Red-winged Blackbird, Brown-headed Cowbirds, and a few others that we failed to identify. AND we saw a jack rabbit, a huge wild pig, bison, a Texas long-horn herd, and prairie dogs, which were all awesome too.
Our life list now has 27 birds on it, only counting the ones we've seen since our hobby began. Next weekend we plan on birding at the lake and we'll probably go every other weekend too. It's nice to spend some time outside but since you don't have to do much to watch birds we're able to stay cool in this desert weather.
8.05.2011
Last Month
It has been a long and exciting month for the Carpenters. Observe:
Paul graduated from Intelligence school.
We moved out of our house.
We drove to Arkansas. We went to Tennessee. We saw Graceland. We liked Knoxville.
We drove to DC. We spent 5 awesome and sweaty days touring with Spencer.
We drove to Sumter. We stayed in 3 different hotels in Sumter.
We looked for houses to rent. We found a house to rent.
We looked for cars to buy. We bought a car.
Paul started work. Abby had a birthday.
We moved into our new house.
We are still unpacking and getting settled, but I think we're are going to like it here!
Paul graduated from Intelligence school.
We moved out of our house.
We drove to Arkansas. We went to Tennessee. We saw Graceland. We liked Knoxville.
We drove to DC. We spent 5 awesome and sweaty days touring with Spencer.
We drove to Sumter. We stayed in 3 different hotels in Sumter.
We looked for houses to rent. We found a house to rent.
We looked for cars to buy. We bought a car.
Paul started work. Abby had a birthday.
We moved into our new house.
We are still unpacking and getting settled, but I think we're are going to like it here!
7.06.2011
Fredericksburg, TX
How to have an awesome weekend:
Day 1: Thankfully get out the door before 7:00 pm and get on the road after a stop at the library and gas station. Split up the driving and fall asleep during a really exciting part of Catching Fire (book on CD). Arrive at this creaky, little place and sleep very well:
Day 2: Wake up at 8:30 and go out into the kitchen where a few Hispanic ladies are cooking up a storm. Go into the dining room and enjoy the free breakfast spread alone. Fresh fruit, eggs, biscuits, hash browns, sausage, bacon. Go back in the room and debate whether or not to just stay at the B&B all day long and watch Wimbledon. Decide against it and drive to Sea World. On the way, stop at Dick's to look for suncreen, hats, and towels and leave less than half-successful. Arrive at Sea World and get a good parking spot. Love the sea lion show and the baby sea lions. Watch them forever. Spend most of the day at the water park getting dried up and burned. Love it. Buy overpriced but delicious grub and take obligatory self-portrait on the way out.
Drive back to Fredericksburg and then, after changing into appropriate attire, walk a block to this little place. Enjoy some of the best food and service ever had (steak! chicken! cobbler!) and even leave a 19% tip! Return to B&B and fall asleep.
Day 3: Wake up a little late and walk into the dining room where 4 other couples are already enjoying breakfast and making small talk that you gratefully avoid by taking the only empty seats which are in the parlor room next door. Commence gorging. Then, pack up your things and drive a little way down the street to where the shopping is.
Elbow other tourists while sampling jams, salsa, honey, and butters before purchasing your favorites. Enter every store and peruse the collections of furniture, do-dads, and junk. Buy a nice leather wallet for Paul, a beautiful scarf for Abby! Amuse yourselves in the Christmas stores, western stores, artwork stores, kitchen stores, and once again pay for overpriced, but delicious, food. Become exhausted by the heat and the walking and the spending-of-the-moneys. Find the car, turn on the Catching Fire CD, rewind the CD because you fell asleep and missed the exciting part, and drive home.
Day 1: Thankfully get out the door before 7:00 pm and get on the road after a stop at the library and gas station. Split up the driving and fall asleep during a really exciting part of Catching Fire (book on CD). Arrive at this creaky, little place and sleep very well:
Day 2: Wake up at 8:30 and go out into the kitchen where a few Hispanic ladies are cooking up a storm. Go into the dining room and enjoy the free breakfast spread alone. Fresh fruit, eggs, biscuits, hash browns, sausage, bacon. Go back in the room and debate whether or not to just stay at the B&B all day long and watch Wimbledon. Decide against it and drive to Sea World. On the way, stop at Dick's to look for suncreen, hats, and towels and leave less than half-successful. Arrive at Sea World and get a good parking spot. Love the sea lion show and the baby sea lions. Watch them forever. Spend most of the day at the water park getting dried up and burned. Love it. Buy overpriced but delicious grub and take obligatory self-portrait on the way out.
Drive back to Fredericksburg and then, after changing into appropriate attire, walk a block to this little place. Enjoy some of the best food and service ever had (steak! chicken! cobbler!) and even leave a 19% tip! Return to B&B and fall asleep.
Day 3: Wake up a little late and walk into the dining room where 4 other couples are already enjoying breakfast and making small talk that you gratefully avoid by taking the only empty seats which are in the parlor room next door. Commence gorging. Then, pack up your things and drive a little way down the street to where the shopping is.
Elbow other tourists while sampling jams, salsa, honey, and butters before purchasing your favorites. Enter every store and peruse the collections of furniture, do-dads, and junk. Buy a nice leather wallet for Paul, a beautiful scarf for Abby! Amuse yourselves in the Christmas stores, western stores, artwork stores, kitchen stores, and once again pay for overpriced, but delicious, food. Become exhausted by the heat and the walking and the spending-of-the-moneys. Find the car, turn on the Catching Fire CD, rewind the CD because you fell asleep and missed the exciting part, and drive home.
6.24.2011
Baseball
Paul and I went to a San Angelo Colts game last week.
The Colts killed their opponent. Go San Angelo! We got to see a home run, followed by the hitter walking around the net with his hat out collecting dollar bills. I guess these players get payed so little they need a little extra incentive. This happened last time we went too. Last time we also got to watch a couple get themselves completely drunk (it was dollar Thursday or something). This time I mostly watched the super chubby kid in the row in front of us, and tried to stay cool.
It was about 100 degrees out (at 8:00) so we treated ourselves to some shaved iced.
And to prove we were there, some amusing self-portraits:
The Colts killed their opponent. Go San Angelo! We got to see a home run, followed by the hitter walking around the net with his hat out collecting dollar bills. I guess these players get payed so little they need a little extra incentive. This happened last time we went too. Last time we also got to watch a couple get themselves completely drunk (it was dollar Thursday or something). This time I mostly watched the super chubby kid in the row in front of us, and tried to stay cool.
It was about 100 degrees out (at 8:00) so we treated ourselves to some shaved iced.
And to prove we were there, some amusing self-portraits:
6.01.2011
2011 Summer City Hit List
Our 26-hr drive/move to Sumter, SC this July is going to look like this:
Fun, huh! I hope the van makes it! I also hope that we are able to see a little bit, or a lot bit, of these cities:
 |
Little Rock, AR
Memphis, TN
Nashville, TN
Knoxville, TN
Washington DC
(and surrounding area!)
Charlotte, NC
Columbia, SC
Sumter, SC
Charleston, SC
Myrtle Beach, SC
Savannah, GA
and more!!
5.10.2011
Dates
May 10th - today! Paul's Birthday!
May 17th - fly to Portland to spend time with Annie before her big day.
May 21st - WEDDING DAY!
May 22nd - fly to SA. my class is over!
June - hmm, what am I supposed to do in June? ideas welcome.
July 8th - actually I think it's ...
July 12th - Paul's GRADUATION from Intel school! followed by leave (hopefully!), meaning vacation time!
July 25th - Happy Birthday to me!
August 11th - Report at SHAW!
!!
4.12.2011
Sonora Caverns
On Saturday Paul and I decided to take a trip to Sonora to see the caverns. Sonora is about 70 miles south of San Angelo and the drive is pretty low-key. We finally fixed the AC in the van, and we listened to The Hunger Games on CD, so it turned out to be a rather pleasant drive.
I can't tell you too much about the caves except that they are acid-formed and were discovered in the 1920's. Inside it is about 70 degrees with about 98 percent humidity. They are home to stalactites, soda straws, helictites, and a bunch of other cool formations that I don't remember! :)
That green part is actually water. And apparently the pool is about 5 feet deep!
Our guide called this flat stuff "applesauce":
And these hanging things are referred to as "draperies":
That triangular thing in the middle of the picture is a "fishtail". A fishtail is a pretty rare helictite (formations that ignore gravity):
Can you see the knot in the skinny pillar on the left? The column on the right is a stalactite that has grown together:
This stalactite is called "the kissing columns" because the top and bottom portion are only separated by one drop of water. Apparently it has been like that for 50 years:
This last one of the caves is called "the crystal butterfly" because it kind of looks like a butterfly! The guide's flashlight is on it though, so it is hard to see in this picture. Although none of these pictures really do the cave justice!
Our tour was about 1.5 hours and we went down 155 feet. After the tour we hung out a little at the visitor's center. This floating pipe was outside of the visitor's center. Trippy!
We bought some of their homemade fudge and sat outside eating it and enjoying the weather.
On our way home we stopped at a small diner in El Dorado and watched the Master's. It was a fun trip!
I can't tell you too much about the caves except that they are acid-formed and were discovered in the 1920's. Inside it is about 70 degrees with about 98 percent humidity. They are home to stalactites, soda straws, helictites, and a bunch of other cool formations that I don't remember! :)
That green part is actually water. And apparently the pool is about 5 feet deep!
Our guide called this flat stuff "applesauce":
And these hanging things are referred to as "draperies":
That triangular thing in the middle of the picture is a "fishtail". A fishtail is a pretty rare helictite (formations that ignore gravity):
Can you see the knot in the skinny pillar on the left? The column on the right is a stalactite that has grown together:
This stalactite is called "the kissing columns" because the top and bottom portion are only separated by one drop of water. Apparently it has been like that for 50 years:
This last one of the caves is called "the crystal butterfly" because it kind of looks like a butterfly! The guide's flashlight is on it though, so it is hard to see in this picture. Although none of these pictures really do the cave justice!
Our tour was about 1.5 hours and we went down 155 feet. After the tour we hung out a little at the visitor's center. This floating pipe was outside of the visitor's center. Trippy!
We bought some of their homemade fudge and sat outside eating it and enjoying the weather.
On our way home we stopped at a small diner in El Dorado and watched the Master's. It was a fun trip!
4.11.2011
The Job Drop
At work a couple weeks ago, Paul got the list of job openings for intelligence officers. There wasn't a lot of variety and we are okay with moving pretty much anywhere. We ranked the jobs. We considered Paul's job preferences first, and location second. We knew we would be happy anywhere except if Paul had to go to Korea (without me).
The job-drop was on Friday at a park near our house. It was a beautiful night. They planned a big party with pizza and drinks (mostly alcoholic), a DJ, balloons, and some games. Here's Paul and I at the beginning of the night, waiting patiently until they announce the jobs.
The two classes played a couple innings of "drunk" kick-ball (notice the red cups).
Then I guess the leaders decided that it wasn't fun enough so they lined the students up and threw dodgeballs at them. Who knows why!? Paul's on the very right:
Then they finally got around to announcing the jobs! Someone decided that it would be funny to write the jobs on a piece of paper, laminate the paper, stick it in a pie pan, and then cover it with pudding, cookies, sprinkles, and whatever else they could find, and then make everyone use their faces to get the piece of paper out. I still don't understand why they couldn't just stick the piece of paper in a envelope and hand it to us, or just write it on the board in class or something. Oh well!
Paul was in the last group. By this time all the jobs we didn't really want had been assigned. Here they are waiting again:
Here they are with their faces in the pudding:
And there's Paul. He couldn't see what it said because he didn't have his glasses on and the paper was covered in pudding! I looked at it for him though!
Turns out that we are going to Shaw Air Force Base in Sumter, South Carolina! That was our first pick! We were pretty surprised, but happy!
We're excited to be close to some family and to experience a new place! We're not sure when we leave yet, but class ends mid-July, so hopefully we'll be moving by August! :)
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