Cuban food, antiques, Mercer & salsa
Straight to the re-cap…
Friday night: My friend Jennifer and I start the night off strong by joining Kenny and friends for some pool but by the time we were done with our yummy Cuban meal, we were too tired to go out so we went our separate ways and headed home. Aren’t we losers?
Saturday: I had a list of errands to do so I left Kenny in bed while I ran through the beginning of my list – post office (mailing off items I sold on eBay), bank, tailor and drycleaners. Did all this in less than hour because everything is so close to home and then went back to get Kenny up so he could join me for the rest of the day. Together we dropped off some clothes at Goodwill, dropped off some recycling, had buffalo burgers at Bubba’s, spent some money at the camera store on accessories (thanks Hon), got some bubble tea, visited an antiques dealer (more on that in a minute), went to Target and ended the long day at Mambo’s for dinner.
Back to the antiques dealer – I collect vintage artist-signed silver jewelry from Taxco, Mexico. In going through my collection, I have decided to sell a large ice bucket I have that is from one of the artist. It is highly collectible and I wanted an expert to tell me what it is currently worth. This lady was recommended to me by Christine so we headed over to her antiques dealership with my ice bucket. The woman was so friendly that the conversation turned into an almost 2 hour session where we talked about all sort of topics. To make a long story short, she has taken my ice bucket under consignment so we’ll see if it sells!
Sunday: Another busy day! This time it was all about me though! I left the house at 10 AM and left Kenny in bed. I drove up North to Humble where I met Hanna for some breakfast at the Humble City Café. After catching up over breakfast we headed over to Mercer Arboretum to take pictures for this month’s Assignment Houston. It was muggy and hot but not unbearable and we both really enjoyed running around the gardens with our cameras. I had never been out here and it was worth the trip. We only saw a small part of the arboretum and I would like to come back and see the rest some day.
We finished a little earlier than I thought so we headed to Hanna’s parents’ house where I changed out of my sweaty clothes into clean clothes that I had brought (since I knew I was going to be out all day). I then started the drive down to Pearland (South Houston) where I was substitute teaching a couple of salsa classes. I met my instructor and my classmate who I would be working with, went over what we were to review with the students and waited for the students. We actually had a lot of fun and I must admit the Beginner Level II’s were a little easier to teach than the Level I’s (who were only on their 2nd class). Still, everyone was really nice and patient with us and it seemed to me like everyone actually walked out having learned something. I really emphasized the importance of keeping a strong, firm frame and it noticeably helped. I look forward to teaching more classes!
Sunday night: Finally headed home at 6:30 PM after a long day! Rested my butt on the couch, had some spaghetti and watched a movie…
As you can see, I had a busy weekend and hardly any of it was spent at home! Now I am counting the days down to the next one! LOL
Hobbies becoming more serious…
So I’ve got some fun, exciting news that is centered around my extracurricular activities – salsa and photography!
First of all, as you know, I have been taking salsa for 2 1/2 years and I have really been enjoying it. I took a short break from it for a few months but got right back into it. Well, my work has paid off and for whatever reason, my teacher thinks I am one of his better students and has asked me to be one of his teachers. He is expanding his business and asked some of his students to help teach the new classes. We are getting trained at the end of this month but he has already asked me and a classmate to sub for him this Sunday!! We will be teaching a beginner and an intermediate class! Yikes! I am a bit anxious because I know I am technically good but feel that my artistic form is lacking. I am working on it and he keeps encouraging me so maybe I am being too critical! Either way, I am very excited about this opportunity and will enjoy the extra income!
Second of all, and more importantly, I have decided to pursue photography a little more seriously. Since getting my new camera and becoming active on the local Flickr scene, I have received so many positive comments on my photography and I have really been enjoying my regular photo excursions into the city. At the same time, fellow blogger and friend, Christine, has been wanting to do more with her photography as well.
As chance would have it I read on a local blog about a small neighborhood art fair that occurs every month. That gave me and idea! Why don’t I partner up with Christine and sell our matted prints at shows like these? We checked out the festival earlier this month and decided we could definitely do it! There is tons of work to do to prepare but we will be at that art fair November 4th, right before the holidays! We have registered for a booth, gone though our photos and picked our favorites and asked friends to pick out favorites. We are currently researching on-line printing sites and material suppliers, working to get a website up and all the other fun stuff that comes with setting up a business like this.
I am really, really excited about this and look forward to partnering with Christine. We have different yet similar styles and even shoot with essentially the same camera so together we offer a wonderful variety of photographs that will look beautiful in anyone’s home. We complement each other too when it comes to the business side of things. I manage the spreadsheets and money, the small details while she handles the marketing side of things like the website and as she says “the bigger picture” (ha, ha, no pun intended).
Anyhoo, this latter project is consuming my brain right now and as I make lists, create new spreadsheets, calculate costs and prices. We’ve got about 6 weeks to get ready and I can’t wait!! I’ll post the details as we get closer to the date so that you can stop by if you live in Houston!
Oh, and TGIF! Have a great weekend!!
Margaritas, new friends, old friends
Well, the weekend was full of hanging out with friends, both old and new. Friday I remembered how low my alcohol tolerance had gone too. LOL. Here is my recap…
Friday: A co-worker and I have wanted to hang out after hours for a while now and we finally got a chance to this weekend. Jen and I had a great time. We met up with Kenny and his friends at the pool hall and afterward headed into town for some overly expensive Mexican food and margaritas. The place had been recommended to me by another co-worker but damn, the food was way overpriced!
We had a good time though, especially since by the end of the night I had had 2 Smirnoff Ice, 2 margaritas and a chocolate martini!
Saturday: Woke up with the faint hint of a hangover but nothing too bad. In the late afternoon we headed out to the Meyerland Plaza area, had lunch, picked up a gift for a couples wedding shower that evening and hung out till it was time to head down to the shower itself!
Sunday: More plans with friends! We met them for lunch at 1 PM and had a lovely time catching up! She is yet another friend who is expecting (and she is younger than me). At this point, I am one of the only women in my social group not with kids, expecting a kid or planning to have a kid. *sigh*
Sunday night: Christine and I are working a scheme together so we needed to get together to well, scheme of course! We made some progress on our project but aren’t ready to share the details – we still have so much more work to do on it!! It’s very exciting though! I will of course keep you posted as I things develop and I can reveal more information…
Now it’s an overcast Tuesday and the cooler weather we experienced last week has gone away. Hope it comes soon! Autumn is my favorite season of the year and I am anxioulsy waiting for it!
I *finally* finished Book #8!
It took me forever to finish my latest book, Cuba and the Night by Pico Iyer. Being Cuban-American, I always gravitate toward fictional stories based in or about Cuba. This was no exception. It was set in the 80’s, during the days of the Cold War and Reagan. The story is mostly narrated from the viewpoint of a journalistic photographer who travels the world following political issues and wars and whatnot. As you can predict, the formula is tried and true: the typical, can’t-settle-down American photographer falls in love with the pretty Cuban girl.
The author actually weaves the story well but it just drags on… My husband told me to just give up on it but I actually was compelled to finish it, I just wasn’t compelled to finish it quickly. It didn’t help that the book really doesn’t have chapters but rather long sections so it is hard to get to a good stopping point.
The book itself is not that big but for whatever reason, it took me several months to get through. I guess the reading just got tedious, not because of the language but because the main character just re-hashes his emotions and rationalizes everything. It gets old after a while. One more complaint – I never feel like I get to know any of the characters despite all the pages written focusing on them. Maybe that is the point… I don’t know. I am just so middle of the road on whether or not I’d recommend this book so there you go… I guess I’m ambivalent.
Weekend Recap on a Wednesday!
I have not had a chance to rest when I get home because I have had somewhere to be practically every night for the past several weeks thus the blog gets neglected. I postdated some entries though so there should be something new here for the next few days. Now on to the late weekend recap…
Friday: Met Christine, Mike & Kathy (who was in town form Dallas) at my house and headed down to Clear Lake for the annual NASA/JSC Ballunar Festival. We made it in time to see the balloon glow at dusk and I am very happy with how my photos turned out. Below are a couple of my favorites but it was hard to choose – click here to see the whole set.
We met up with some fellow Houston area Flickrites and had coffee afterward, chatting and getting to know Laurie and Ian a little more. I also met a couple more at the event itself (Steve & Sara) but they were unable to join us afterward. After coffee the four of us grabbed a late dinner and headed back into town.
Saturday: I was able to sleep in late but I still never manage to catch up on sleep. I left Kenny at home and headed out to The Mucky Duck for a WordPress meet-up. I really need to get the H-Town Blogs site redone and Sketkar is working on it. Some progress was made on it so that is good. I also enjoyed seeing John again and meeting Bill for the first time.
Afterward I headed home and crashed on the couch. I really can’t remember what else I did – maybe worked on processing some photos from the night before?
Sunday: Met up around lunchtime w/ our dear friends CJ & Susan and headed down to Galveston after an early lunch at IHOP. Our goal was to geocache and just spend a day on the island. We did find a couple of interesting geocaches but the heat and mosquitoes were so bad so we soon headed to The Strand. Had a great time walking around and especially enjoyed grabbing some ice cream at La King’s Ice Cream Parlour. Headed home and grabbed dinner at Dragon Bowl. It was another great day of photography for me as well as great day with friends. I still need to upload a few more shots but here is the Galveston set so far…
I am still tired though from all the running around and my house is a pigsty because of it. I am hoping I can stay home long enough to tidy up over the long Labor Day weekend – we don’t have any plans. Do you?
Weekend Recap coming…
In the meantime, I am posting daily over at my photoblog: Captured (except for Sundays it seems) and I am staying active over at Flickr so if you are bored click on over there…
You Know You Grew Up In The 80’s or Early 90’s if…
Oh… mah… gawd! Like… gag me… this is like… so true! 🙂 Read on and bring back some good (and bad) memories! This is long to click on
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