A busy Spring Weekend in Houston with Elvis

Another great weekend in Houston, Texas! We had a busy weekend planned and while we all had a lot to do - homework, spring cleaning, dropping of things at the women's shelter, and ice skating...we took a little time off to have some fun. Joel was not with us this weekend so we had to make do. I will be starting up another blog for the Joel-ster. His time with us is always so limited but we try to pack as much as we can with him. It's a whole weeks worth of fun and family into one tiny weekend. I'm calling it - "Weekends with Dad". Look for a link shortly.

We started off the weekend with ice skating naturally. A big of the skaters were doing to skate in Dallas for that competition so the rink was pretty much ours. We had about 8 kids where we would normally have about 20. The rink mum left Joey and I to do the DJ-ing. Heh, heh. Oh yeah... DJs J and J were spinning up some serious tunes so that the skaters could zoom around the ice and have fun. We spun records like "Jock Jam", "I'm Blue", "Cotton-eye Joe Remix by the RedNix" - we even mixed in a little Van Halen, U2, and Madonna just to keep the party hopping. One of the skaters said that it was the BEST club ice music they have ever had. Well, how about that? Next time, I promised to mix in "Cha-Cha Slide" (right foot 3 times, left foot 2 times, now cha-cha) and of course, "Venga Bus" - made famous by the Six Flags Theme song (the old man in black).

After club ice, we all went to - "we" (actually, Rene and Sally left the rink early to get our place in line) - went the new Cheese Cake Factory in Sugar Land. Oh YUM, YUM, YUM does not even begin to tell the story there. Oh my gosh, we had fun and good food. We even had a new saying, "Ssshhhssshhh" with the fingers and the hand like you are VERY splammed. Ha,ha. It's funny to see and Rene does it so well. Hey, hey, HEY! Sssshhhhhhhh. :)

Saturday, we got the house cleaned up (vacum up the dust bunnies) and loaded up things to the women's shelter. A very, very important charity that we always donate to. They are a very pro-family and very worthwhile organization. If you have one in your community, I strongly urge you to donate - they need the help.

After all that work, we took off to the Houston International Festival. While not as big as in years past and not our favorite Tejano bands were playing, we still went out and supported the music that was there. Sonny Boy Terry put on a heck of a good show with his brand of Zydeco and Mississippi Blues on the harmonica. Shamica Johnson sang very well in her blues.

Gabby had a face painting that was really pretty. Here is a shot of that:


Gabby at the Houston International Festival

We pretty much wrapped up the festival a little early. Crowds and the constant shuffling of feet make us very tired.

The next day Sunday, we have two big things to do: Sally's Father (Mark) had his birthday brunch and we had to get our season passes to Astroworld. We called Joel-ster but he was not feeling well and didn't want to go anywhere. Drat.

Birthday brunch was a La Casona (Big house) in Rosenberg, Texas. Great mexican food and Sally's family was there. It was great food. You know...we always seem to be eating in this family. At least I do because that is what I write about the most! ha,ha.

We finally made our way to Astroworld (I made Sally drive the whole way). THANKS BABE! I was reserved to taking a small nap. I'm getting old you know. After standing in (yet another line) we got our pictures and were on our way to having some park fun.

Here is a shot of all of us climbing into a "log ride/flume ride/water ride" - whatever it's called. Oh, Bamboo Shoot. Oh yea. I remember this ride and I had to call Grandma Nieto because when I was little...I got on this EXACT same ride with her. I sat up front and ducked when we went down the dip at the finale. I was dry and mom was wet. Oh yea! The thing that was the funniest is that mom was heavier back then and she had to get two attendents to help her. They would lift...and she get almost out...and fall back in. After a few tries, they finally got her out. She was laughing and I was laughing and even the attendants. Now, though, because of her heart problems she is a lot healthier and eating better and has lost lots of weight. Good 'ol Grandma - she was always with me at Astroworld. The other thing that she would do... is that my bestfriends and I - Jessie Joe Torres and Jessie "Big J" Gonzales - would go to the park. Mom would get on the steam train and ride it around in circles all day while we had the run of the park. Mom enjoyed riding the train. It reminded her of when she was little. It would blow it's whistle and blow steam out. Whenever we needed mom, we would go to the train station and wait for her - and there she would come. We always met her inside the "Western Junction" because we used to eat the barbecue there.


Dad, Gabby and Mom on the Log Ride/Flume Ride (whatever it's called we got wet)

One of the last thing we did at Astroworld was to watch the "Elvis" impersonator do his thing. It had been a long time since we caught a show like that. It was in the same theater as the fellow who did the "Hypnothisis" during Halloween where he had people all over the stage doing crazy and funny things. I probably wrote about it here back in October of last year. Anyway, I digress.
This "Elvis" wasn't too bad. He was actually pretty good. I remember when I was little I used to see another Elvis guy - his name (I dont' know why I remember) is Ron Furr. I used to go watch him at Astroworld in the bigger hall - the Showcase Theater. This guy had a bigger show and live band. He was REALLY good. I had to wonder what he was doing these days. So naturally, I looked it up on the wonderous World-Wide-Web and did the Google thing and lo and behold...I found him. Here is what his website said about him:

In 1977 after Elvis's death, Ron thought his career was over, but his popularity grew. Ron performed at Astroworld in Houston labor day weekend in 1977. His band was backing up Chuck Berry & the Coasters. When Chuck Berry's flight was delayed, Ron had to perform in front of his audience. They were so enthusiastic about his performance, while reaching to shake hands with fans, they pulled him off of stage. Luckily, security was there to handle the situation. They kept a close eye on him from then on.

Ron performed a total of 12 months in Six Flag Parks over the next 3 years. His show was so popular in one of the parks that they canceled the circus act and moved Ron's show to the 6000 seat arena.The employees at that park used to call Ron's show "the Elvis ride" because it had a drawing power and effect equal to all the other rides.

How about that!!! And, yes, the show was called "A Touch of Elvis". Okay, I digress YET AGAIN, but I saw Elvis at the Houston Livestock Show and that's when, yeah, I began and Elvis fan...uh-huh-huh, yeah, baby. And then after him came Sonny and Cher...but I better leave that part out.

Okay, BACK to our story. The show...oh wait...did I tell you that Sally and I saw another Elvis back when we were dating? Yep - she got us some tickets and we saw him at Dulles Auditorium right here in Sugar Land. Gosh, that was back in 1980 something. Sally EVEN went up and got a scarf from around the guy's neck. Oh yeah! That guy was named Ron Short. He is still alive and kicking and can be found here. Ha,ha... you can find just about anybody these days.

Okay, NOW, can I finish? Thank you. Okay, sooo...this guy was pretty good. His name is Terry Price and he is from Dallas. His website is here. Funny thing about Dallas. There are like a ba-zillion Elvis guys. Here is a link if you GOTTA have an Elvis guy do your wedding.

Taped music but - oh well. It was a good show. Mom was trying to coax Gabby to go get the scarf from Elvis...but she wasn't going to do it until he wiped some sweat on it. (Okay, like Ewww), but some other lady went up and go it first.

Here is a picture of Gabby with Elvis...kinda.


Gabby and Elvis! Where's Elvis? He has left the building!

The day at Astroworld ended with Gabby and I squeezing 5 consecutive rides on the Greased Lightening roller coaster. Gee that thing is fast. It goes from 0-70 in 5 seconds and puts you back in your seat and then does the loop thing. Gabby just had a blast and since it was the end of the day - they let us stay on the ride until I was about to get sick. :)

All in All... a great weekend with a little Elvis mixed in for that nice touch.

Skating, Bike Riding, and Dr. Seus

Hello everyone!

Yet again another great weekend around the ol' homestead. Where to start? Hmm...skating is the logical one. Gabby has been skating quite a bit this week. She let me that they are doing "The Hill" during off-ice conditioning. This is the part where they run up and down this Hill near the football field. This is really tough but it does build up stamina. Up and down they go, fast, fast, faster - up the hill with Kathyrn blowing the whistle. Sounds like bootcamp!

Other fun things we did? Well, for starters the weather was just beautiful. I took the bikes down from the garage for all of us. We rode the bikes around the neighborhood and stretched out the old legs. It was a great workout - taking it in stride.

Joey and Sarah Bloom joined us for a musical at the Miller Outdoor Theater. The HITS theater troup from The Heights put on a wonderful show. The Cat was there, as was Horton, and other characters. It was little chilly but the food was great. We all bought Subway sandwiches, grapes, snacks, etc. It was great. All that was missing was Rene. Yes, Rene was out of town in Baltimore on business. She was sad that she was missing out but we gave her a phone call and cheered her up. At least tried to; I'm not sure were were successful but at least she was in our thoughts. The hill was nice except for some people that continued to sit in their lawnchairs in the "non-lawnchair" zone. ha,ha. It was okay, the girls found a way to have a good time anyway. They always do. Me? I was shivering because the temperature dropped and the ground was a little damp.

Oh - almost forgot! Congratulations to the Guptons on their new home. Woohoo! Katelyn and Sarah are going to have LOTS of fun -- not to mention plenty of places for the cats to play. I love the house and the location is *right there* - close to everything.

Let's see what else? Hmm...I mentioned bike riding? Oh yes, well, we got to ride them again on Sunday. This time we treated ourselves and rode our bikes to Panera Breads and had bagels and coffee. Gabby had an apple danish. It was yummy! The ride was very nice as we rode alongside the lakes and fountains to the bakery. Gabby looked so big as we rode down the trails and sidewalks. She is really getting used to the bike.

What else? Hmm...I grilled some steaks on our mini-grill. It was a little tricky on the minigrill but they came out pretty good! Dad - the grill-miester.

Y'all have a great weekend!