In classic San Antonio style, the merchants have apparently embraced the reputation and started playing with it.

Yup. That sign says “Get serviced here”. Utterly appropriate and hilarious.

This one weirds me out. “Get Nailed”? What the hell? Is it a nail salon or a piercing parlor? Maybe it’s a massage parlor?

Driving down Main street is a good place to find the fun graffiti. There must be an artist living in the neighborhood because we found several fantastic pieces while living there.

Below is one that made me laugh:

The original piece is the scrunchy faced paper bag, all the other noise came along later. Isn’t he funny? What an idea to paint a scrunchy faced paper bag on a metal box!

“Hug” is great as well. There’s always at least one painted along Main south of the Monte Vista neighborhood and always in the same style.

There’s another artist who does beautiful stencil work. I’ll be sure to post a picture next time one is up.

Heheh are you fascinated yet? San Antonio is bizarre. I moved here from central Arkansas so the idea of 80 degree weather a week out from Thanksgiving isn’t terribly unusual but the consistency of it is!

With the warm temperatures, Chris and I are tempted to make a trip down to the beach for the long weekend. That got me to thinking of our trip down over Labor Day.

I’d never been beach camping before and was a bit concerned about how it would go. Not only had I not been camping for over a decade, I was afraid all that damn sand would make me crazy!

As you can see, it kind of did!

We went camping on Mustang Island and it was just short of perfect. Plenty of fresh running water, reasonable cost, good friends, and lots of sun and water.

We did have to buy a new tent though

There’s Chris getting ready to take it down on the last day.

Word of advice, when you set up a new tent for the first time, make sure you can read the directions and everyone’s sober! We rolled into camp at 9.30 pm to be met by our engineering friend who had gotten into the wine a little too much. New tent combined with no light and a drunk engineer makes for good times…when all you have to do is hold the lantern and watch!

There’s a picture of our creature friend. I have no clue what she is, but she loved to eat our sunflower seeds and bite the boys ankles. That was fantastic-the guys would be eating and suddenly “Squeee!” She kept us endlessly entertained.

Camping on Mustang Island was fantastic. I’m thoroughly addicted to beach camping and have refused to go camping anywhere else. I happily plan to camp down there at least a few times a month next summer!

The beginning of the Horde was relatively small:

But they just kept coming!

There were baby zombies:

And rock god zombies (no, he’s not a zombie Zaphod Beeblebrox. That’s a chicken eater zombie behind him. Pretty clever, eh?):

Zombies milled around for a little bit in front of the Alamo, assembling their zombie brains before moving on to terrify other tourists:

The zombie walk was on October 20, 2008 and was the first ever of its kind in town. From the turnout, I’d say there will be lots of zombie walks to come!

The sheer number and variety of zombies was cool as hell. I think my favorite was the zombie with the blood spraying mohawk.

Ha! Look at the tourists staring at him!

All I can say at this point is, “Meh.”

The restaurant is supposed to be high (ish?) end Italian, and the prices and wine list certainly back that up but the delivery really didn’t do it for me.

The shrimp paesano is what I had and yes, it was very good. The balance of the meal was tipped to the south by the accompaniments though.

Served first was bread, olive oil with seasonings, and a small dish of olives. Good unsurprising choices, but nothing made me rave. The fruit bread got high remarks from my dinner companions, however.

The salad was sad. That’s really all I can say. A white plate of plain greens, dressed with some bland white dressing. I believe the server called it the ‘House Vinaigrette’ but I won’t hold her to it.

Receiving the shrimp paesano was pretty exciting. It is served in a large dish, 5 plump shrimp swimming in a light yellow sauce. The shrimp was lightly breaded which added a nice texture, but the sauce was fun. The first bite wasn’t so great, I got hit in the mouth with lemon and nothing else. The second bite dropped the lemon and gave a feeling of warmth. The following bites combined the lemon and the warm, and I’ll admit that I ate every bit of this dish which rarely happens.

Pasta with marinara sauce was served on the side and well, it was pasta with marinara. Fresh basil sprinkled on top, yes, but otherwise just a decent solid dish.

Overall the meal was merely okay. I don’t believe I’ll crave eating there.

Guys, I’m talking a big, damn, scary, bird.

The article that got me looking into this was published by MySA.com on July 28th. Funnily enough, it was posted under the pets and animals category. I keep envisioning someone keeping a thunderbird as a pet. I wonder if it likes kittens?

*******

Oohh I just figured out why these old stories are being published. After digging through tons of links saying these sightings were either hogwash or surviving prehistoric creatures, I come across ONE blurb about a painted horse sculpture for sale where the artist is quoted as saying the Thunderbird is a harbringer of rain and new life.

Mystery solved. I thought it was strange that the most recent sighting mentioned happened over 30 years ago and that it made news yet again.

Apparently this bizarre rain has gotten more than one person feeling a bit odd. Guys, it rained every day for over THREE WEEKS in July. It has rained weekly since we moved here and that was the first of May.

Yup, Texans are crazy and apparently eternal optimists. Hrm. Or eternal pessimists. The Thunderbird is a harbringer of rain and new life. The question is, is that new life good or bad?

Let’s make it good, ‘k Kids?

Hopefully my readers will come back to me and bring new ones with them.

The blackout began when I got a new job. Actually having to be somewhere and pay attention to something else will really derail the best of plans at first!

I’m officially a secretary. A pretty dubious honor when what I really want is to be a CEO, but hey, we all start out somewhere huh? I’ll be the secretary for someone else’s company, and CEO of my own, till I pass it on to someone and just rake in the checks instead. Sound like a plan?

Or maybe the blackout began when we start hanging out with the Meetin crew? Chris and I found Meetin when we first moved here, but have become really active with the group lately. I’ve been asked to act as a member of the Welcome Wagon committee which means that I am responsible for welcoming new members and explaining what it’s all about.

I am so flattered that I’ve been asked to participate in the group in this manner. I really believe in it, and love the role that it plays in our lives. Chris and I moved to Texas with lots of dreams in mind, one of those being a move into a more active social life. I’m really grateful that meetin has been such a fun and effective means to accomplish that goal.

If your city has a meetin group, I highly recommend checking them out. There are no membership dues, and everyone is there to have a good time.

That’s some of the magic of it. The only thing the members have in common is the desire to meet new people and have a good time. What a radical reason for people to meet in this day of corporate life ownership.

Tickets go on sale August 6, and the show is October 11. Plenty of time to buy your tickets and make your plans. Tickets are available online at this link.

I know we’re planning to go with all of our friends and I’ve sweet talked my dad into coming from Arkansas for the show. Say “Hi” if you see me! I’ll make sure to get lots of groupie pics if I can. I’ve never been to the venue, so I don’t know if they let fans meet the performers or not.

Getting to see Willie Nelson is one of the reasons we moved to Texas. Cities like New Orleans and Memphis have always overshadowed Texas for me in regards to music, but I’m beginning to learn and respect the Texas music scene.

With performers like Willie Nelson and Bob Schneider in our back yard (literally, our house faces south :D) I’m still excited to be here!

Photo is courtesy of a google image search for Willie Nelson. Isnt it beautiful? Thank you, photographer!

Los Angeles-Lydia of CovertEffect ‘took’ us to Saints and Sinners lounge to start our evening. Her post gave a fantastic description of a neat bar so it became the imaginary setting for our party.

Over drinks and over good music, everyone was kind of mingling but you could tell no one had ever met before. There were lots of people, but conversation was stilted and quiet. Something needed to be done soon or the entire night would consist of people just sitting and drinking and this needed to be a party!

Washington, DC-Jon of The DC Traveler saw the situation and stood up. He pulled out his Zippo-clicked it open-and started telling us about the building of a better lighter.

With the ice broken the conversation picked up a bit in tempo-

San Diego-Carole from the San Diego Beat showed us a video of of surfer and other beach goers.

Dubai-Grace from Sandier Pastures started telling her neighbor Ant about the problems Dubai is experiencing with government finances and the road toll experiment that is in the works.

Orlando, Florida-Ant of The Beef Jerky Blog shook his head in sympathy with Grace’s comments and then began sharing with her the story of his trip to Disney World and his first day with Mickey.

Seattle-Mary Jo of The Seattle Traveler moved the conversation from Mickey to Movie by letting everyone know about the Midnight Movies that are being shown at the Egyptian Theater in her city.

New York-Madeleine of Mad Kane’s Humor Blog really got the party started when she started telling the story of a woman who won a civil rights lawsuit against New York city when the city said she wasn’t allowed to go topless in public.

After the uproar died down more of the international attendees began to speak:

Delhi-Down near the end of the table, Kalyan of Kalyan Speaketh began the conversation anew with a well defined case for visiting the museums of a city.

Buenos Aries-at the middle of the table Alan of Buenos Tours began a fascinating description of the Feria de Mataderos. He told of dancing and shopping and delicious street food.

Amsterdam- Mark of Hot Strategies gave an overview of all the neat things to see and do and places to stay in Amsterdam.

Gozo-Martin of Total Dismay joined in with a description of his oasis in his city.

Overall the party was a huge success! Everyone posting recognizably about cities got to speak their piece and everyone had a good time!

Big thanks to Home Turf Media for creating the Carnival of Cities. Make sure you submit a an article about your favorite city sometime.

Next week’s carnival will be hosted by Jul at This Non American Life. Make sure you check it out!

What are you in love with about your city? What’s going on in your large to semi large town?

What do you want the world to know about the city you love?

Submit your post to this link by 2pm Eastern time on Sunday, July 1st so that I can help you share it with the world on July 2. If you miss the deadline use the same link, but Jul of This Non American Life will have the honor of posting it instead.

The Carnival will go live at 9am Eastern time July 2. Come read and enjoy!