Texas 46

Saturday afternoon while touring the surroundings we stopped to have lunch in a nearby restaurant. The Texas 46 cafe is a great place to have a good hamburger, beer and listen to country and western music. We were happy and entertained although the canines did not think the same, as per attached picture.

Visitors - Second Wave

Ange, Fernando, Madelaine and Marcel came to visit us this past Wednesday. They were on their spring brak vacation and took advantage to spend a few nights with us and visit Texas Sea World. We had a great time while they were here, Sue, Simon and Beemer made sure to take the Aguirre's for a tour around the neighborhood several times during their visit. Madelaine and Marcel requested the famous Maccaroni and Cheese from their Tia Peggy, while Fernando and Ange enjoyed the typical pico de gallo made by Tio Tato.

The Sansone's

Our first family visitors arrived yesterday, Nan and Jim came in about 4 PM. They had a nice drive from Dallas. So far they seem to be enjoying the hill country. The dogs were in charge of walking them around the neighborhood about 6 PM. Jim and I then went flying for about 45 minutes. We flew to Frederiksburg, the sunset was magnificent, Jim enjoyed flying Clotilde. We then had a nice dinner at the back porch. This morning Jim has gone for a run around the subdivision. The weather is turning out very nice, 40 F, a little fog but it should dissipate by about 11 AM. Note for the Ecuadorians, we are now at the same time with Ecuador, we have changed to Daylight Savings Time.

Invisible Fence

We had an Invisible Fence installed around the perimeter of our lot his past Monday. Inmediately after the installation the training started for the dogs and yours truly. It consists of taking one dog at the time fitting it with a collar that has a sensor. When the dog walks to the perimeter of the lot a high pitch sound goes off and calls the dog's atention, at the same time the owner retrieves the dog inside the lot and praises him. I do this training twice a day for about 15 minutes for each dog. Sue, and Beemer have not problem with the sound. Simon is a little deaf and in addition to the sound we had to start him with a bit of shocking current. It is not bad on Simon, it just helps him know that he has reached the perimeter of the lot. The trtaining will take about 4 weeks and by that time they should know their boundary. We are spending a lot of time and having lots of fun together.

Back in Texas

It is Sunday March 4, we arrived just one hour ago after 22 1/2 hours and 1271 miles of driving from Minneapolis. Other than been a bit tired the trip went well. We were slowed down from Minneapolis to Des Moines, Iowa where we average about 50 mph. We counted 135 cars in ditches do to the snow storm. Our dog did well, Peggy is sleeping right now and I am the only one still awake.

We had a great experience with our kids in Minneapolis. Diego Rudy is settling in and getting used to his new life full of noise, light and everyone trying to pick him up. It must be a difficult change from being in nice warm place all on your own for nine months.

We give thanks to God for having taking care of all us.

Stuck in Minneapolis

We are stuck in Minneapolis, the road conditions are bad, I35 is closed through most of the state of Iowa. This morning it has stopped snowing and we are hoping that it will continue on improving. We will look at the conditions this afternoon and make a decision to start our return to Texas otherwise it will be sometime tomorrow.

Snow Storm in Minneapolis

Well, Diego is a week old and he is certainly a true Minnesotan. He is getting a lot of experience on snow storms. Take a look at the pictures located on the link at the right side of the blog under Gus's pictures. We have had over a foot of snow since last night. Rudy, Peggy and I have cleaned the front sidewalk and driveway twice today. All the dogs with exception of Luke, the Tibetan Spaniel, want to be inside. You can see Luke in one of the pictures. Diego is settling in nicely. Both Rudy and Christine were able to get a little more sleep last night. We are fine given the weather conditions. We have plenty of food, wine and beer. As a matter of fact we had a terrific Sangiovesse, Rubizzo, from Tuscany accompanied with egg pasta and a pesto dressing. The wine was very smooth, a ruby color with lots of berries taste. Ok, enough of this.... I'll let you see the pictures.

Gus

Tuesday

Diego is 5 days old, and as you can see from the picturehe looks very much of a nice peaceful boy. Don't believe it. He kept all of us awake last night. i believe he has found out the need for attention and that he can get it anytime that he wants. Oh well, we'll spoil him as long as we are here.

The weather has been nice, cold but not more snow. We are expecting more this Thursday and Friday.