Major league baseball

I attended my first major league baseball game last Friday. It was the season opener between the Houston Astros and the Colorado Rockies. Americans sure take their baseball seriously. The entire stadium was filled, parking and traffic were horrendous.

I learnt a lot about baseball that day. There are nine innings in a match. Points are scored when a team makes a complete run around the bases. After 3 hitters are taken out, the teams switches turns from being batters to catchers. While it was interesting for a first time, I found the whole process rather arduous and somewhat boring by the end.

The best part about the game was the fireworks at the end.

Visitor for Easter

Jonny came to visit us this weekend. He arrived on Friday night and will be here till after Easter. We have some activities planned for him while he is here. So, to kick it off, we drove to San Antonio yesterday.

We stayed at the St. Anthony Wyndham Hotel on East Travis Street. The room had two double beds and the best part about it was that it had two bathrooms. We did the valet parking at the Wyndham, and totally loved the convenience of it.

We visited the Natural Bridge Caverns and took the Hidden Passages tour. We went there previously with Ben and took the Discovery tour. In comparison, the Discovery tour is longer and more interesting, however, the Hidden Passages tour is less strenuous.

After checking in at the hotel, we walked to the Alamo and saw a stunning wedding party taking pictures in front of the shrine.

We managed to sit through a short video at the Alamo which totally explained the significance of the historic site in a vivid and memorable manner. It was very enlightening.

After the Alamo closed for the evening, we proceeded to the riverwalk. We went to Saltgrass and had some coronaritas. They were very refreshing on a warm sunny day. We had dinner there, and later had drinks at Ibiza, also along the riverwalk. We also had the opportunity to visit the Coyote Ugly Saloon which, true to its reputation, had girls dancing on the bar while being gawked by the mainly male patrons.

This morning, we had breakfast at a Mexican restaurant called Mi Tierra at the market square in downtown San Antonio. The restaurant had a plethora of shiny gaudy decoration, which looks pretty trippy and happy!

All in all, it was a great trip, and we had amazing sunny and warm weather throughout.

Strange things people do

Today, we saw something strange. My husband and I were sitting outside Starbucks enjoying our frappucinos and reading the New York Times. Some guy, with a hard-boiled egg in his hand, walked up to almost the front door of the Starbucks. He stopped on the sidewalk and started peeling the shell off the egg, tossing the shell on the parking lot between some parked cars. He proceeded to split the egg apart, separating the yolk from the white. He then tossed the egg yolk on the ground between the parked cars. He did all this while everyone on the patio of the Starbucks could see what he was doing. All of it, while a trash can is about 5 steps away!

Crash

J had a crash on his bike yesterday. Poor guy. He hurt his left shoulder and knees pretty badly. It happened during the Education Expedition bike ride. It was a nice warm clear day in Missouri City, TX where the ride was held.

I had the most wonderful 80 km bike ride on the country roads surrounding the area. The ride was really well organized, and there were many, many rest stops filled with energetic and helpful volunteers. They were well stocked with water, gatorade, bananas and other goodies. My definition of a successful ride is always no crash and no flats. J was not so lucky - he had both! He still completed his 121 km bike ride which is an amazing feat!

Dinner at Abdalla's

Last night, we had the pleasure of trying out a Lebanese restaurant on Hillcroft Avenue called Abdalla's. We had read several reviews of the place and they were highly favorable comments. We were to meet some friends there at 7:30 pm, however, true to Houston traffic, everyone was running late, and they finally showed up at around 8:10 pm.

Unfortunately, we discovered that the kitchen closes at 8:30 pm and they have stopped making fresh food at the time. We had limited choices that had been sitting out on the counter for some time. Unwilling to make a fuss, we ordered some chicken shawarma platters with rice, dolmades and tabouleh. Our server placed the rice and dolmades on plates and then microwaved them. It definitely felt rustic.

Regardless, we got our food, hung out with friends and had a great time. The food tasted really delicious too. After brief conversations (the restaurant closes at 9 pm), we bid each other adieu. We just managed to take a picture of all of us in the restaurant prior to the lights being switched off in the building.

An online journal of life moments

Just the other day, I was thinking to myself how time flies as you grow older. Some say that it's because as you gain more experiences, your brain filters recurring events such that the daily grind seems to pass by in the blink of an eye. Others argue that as you grow older, time intervals become smaller fractions of the total time that you've been living. Hence, the perception that time passes sooner.

The faster that time passes, the harder it is to remember our life experiences. Consequently, I thought it might be worthwhile attempting to keep a journal of life moments. An online record of events and feelings for future memories.