A Very Merry Unbirthday To You

Today is Susie's birthday. Since she had to work, she decided to make it a fun day for her and for all. For her Sat. morning story time, she had an "Unbirthday Party" reminiscent of Alice and Wonderland's unbirthday party. It was a great success!!!!

Today was a cold, blustery day so decorating the library with birthday balloons really made it a cheerful, fun place to be.

Susie put out a lot of birthday books for kids who came today. They could check out books about birthdays since it was the theme for the day.

She read several birthday books to the kids. Then she showed a video clip of Disney's Alice and Wonderland's unbirthday party. Not the new version!!!!

Then they all played musical chairs. A lot of them had never played musical chairs so we had to teach them. They caught on pretty well.

Down to the last two players.

As each player was eliminated, they got to go play pin the tail on the donkey with Bob. Then he gave each of them a little toy prize for playing both games.

Then they got to color and decorate a picture of a cupcake. The parents were very helpful.

When they left they each got a balloon and an unbirthday cupcake.

Everyone had a great unbirthday, and Susie had a great birthday. Happy Birthday, Susie.

"Beatlemania" and the San Antonio Symphony

To celebrate Susie's birthday, a little early, we attended a pops concert presented by the San Antonio Symphony featuring some of the cast of the Broadway show, "Beatlemania" It was as if we were attending a Beatles concert with the SA Symphony accompanying them. Of course we weren't allowed to take pictures, but at the end, for their encore, they sang "Hey, Jude," and instead of waving matches, candles, or cigarette lighters, we waved our cell phones. They were all off during the regular concert, but I guess everyone was moved to turn them on during the singing of "Hey, Jude" (with audience participation.) It was so much fun and a little nostalgic.

The Beatles program was presented by the Classical Mystery Tour group. The program Bob is holding up was the cover of the SA Symphony program.

Erin Comes Home and We Visit James in Austin

This weekend Erin came home from college in Lubbock. One of her agendas was spending time with her mom for her birthday, but I think her main agenda was coming home to do her laundry.

James was in Austin attending SXSW, an event that lasts about 10 days for those gifted with talents, especially in music. So we all drove up to Austin to have lunch with James and to hang out in the shops in the area. Here we are at a great Mexican food restaurant that James suggested for us. And it was great food as well as great company.

Susie and Erin trying on hats. Aren't they cute?

James was eyeing this hat. He already had his own hat so he didn't need one.

What are these? Who knows?

One mask. Two faces behind the masks. Who are they?

Number 1:

Number 2:

Sounded like a great shop. It was.

At the bar.

Happy Hour!

Just looking.

How do I look in these "retro" glasses? Cool man.

We were wondering if Gallery was related to James. Were they separated at birth? All we know is that they're both Halls.

Smile. Be Happy!!

Anyone remember the song, "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds?"

We had a great time hanging out with Susie, James and Erin.

Making Cake Can Be a Lot of Fun

OK. You think making a chocolate sheet cake would be an easy task for most, but not necessarily for Susie and Lucy. Susie had promised to make a dessert for her fellow librarians at work so she decided to make her favorite recipe for a chocolate sheet cake. It all went well until it was time for the frosting. The first batch was very runny so she discarded that to make a new batch. Lucy decided to keep the first batch to experiment with it. Well the Susie's second batch of frosting turned out just as runny, but Susie decided to pour it all over the cake any way. "Maybe it'll harden after it's on the cake." Well it didn't. Meanwhile, Lucy experimented with the first batch by boiling it more. "Maybe it would thicken up a little." After that didn't work, Lucy decided to add more powdered sugar. As she did this, the texture of the frosting greatly improved. As it turned out the recipe called for a pound of powdered sugar. How many cups is a pound of sugar? One cup is 8 oz. so two cups must be 16 oz. and that's a pound. Right? Wrong!!! Actually a pound of powdered sugar is 4 cups. Susie had only put in 2 cups so when Lucy added the extra 2 cups, the frosting was a lot better. Then the problem was how to take off the runny frosting and put on the good frosting.

First you eat a row of the cake.

Then you scrape off the runny frosting into the empty area of the cake pan.

Then you pour out the runny frosting into another container using paper towels to clean out the cake pan as much as possible.

Then using a straw, you suck out any remaining runny frosting.

Leave all the dirty dishes till later.

Finally you spread on the nice smooth expertly made frosting onto the existing cake. Voila!! You'd never know the difference, would you? By the way, it turned out delicious even though the librarians really didn't eat too much of it. They ate too much pizza. More for us here at home. MMMmmmmm good!!!!!!!!!!!

Magic Show and Dinner

One of Bob's magician friends here in San Antonio performs once a month at a restaurant called Spaghetti Warehouse. We made reservations for the performance this month. We had a great dinner while Doug, the magician, went around doing table magic. Then he gave a 45 minute performance. He did some amazing tricks.

Susie and Bob having dinner.

Susie and Doug after the performance.

Susie and I with Fran, Doug's wife and assisstant (after the performance.)

Time to Clean Up and Organize

Susie has a very nice den, but right now it's a storage area. But we bought some storage containers, and she's started to do some sorting and organizing. It's a tough job, but it's got to be done. Hopefully there'll be a picture later to show the finished product. Here she is getting started. Good luck, Susie.

Famous People

Bob and I are now very famous people. Our picture appeared in the San Antonio Express News Star section of the Sunday paper on March 7, 2010. We attended an Earthwise Living Days event, and a photographer from the newspaper asked us if he could take a picture of us. He takes pictures of people who attend various events in the area. I guess we were in the right place at the right time. If anyone wants autographs, just let us know.