Alice Por Vida

Due to some technical difficulties on the side of the county, I'm not leaving tomorrow at lunch as was scheduled. The fact of the matter is, I'll probably be here until the end of the day on Friday at least... Well, at least I have home cooking and familiar faces to come back to. I'll enjoy this time with my family. Commuting to Alice each morning isn't a great thrill though. On the way there this morning I remember one thing I didn't like about this place (other than the mosquito population) and that is the fog. Heavy fog slowed traffic to below 50 on the highway this morning. Made a long, boring morning commute even longer...

Other things that made the day awkward included: 1. Chris having the great idea of bringing Pigs in Blankets to the clients for breakfast. (Better read as: Chris bringing the Catholics meat for breakfast on Ash Wednesday). 2. Having the county judge start a conversation with me from a stall in the bathroom. 3. Telling the IT guy "Nice to meet you," and him replying, "Hey, we went to Calallen, I already know you." My bad on all 3 counts.

Around Texas

I've been cruisin all over the place. The next month doesn't show any signs of slowing that pace down. A few notes from my journeys:

1. The new Drury in San Antonio is gonna be awesome. We got a tour a few weeks ago before it was open and it is top notch. The rooftop pool overlooking downtown SA is definately the coolest amenity. It's in the old Alamo Bank building and promises to be the nicest hotel on the Riverwalk.

2. Boerne's a pretty happening place. The Hungry Horse Grill is excellent. Best Chicken Fried Steak I've had and fresh veggies. This happened the day I got there, pretty funny story. There are some cute little shops downtown including a Native American store that sells "Herbal Smokes" which are an "Alternative, non-tobacco smoking mix." Peyote? This shop was next door:














Which was good because whenever I go shopping for old stuff, I always crave a pickle. Way to go shopkeeper.


3. West Columbia is all I thought it would be. No worse, no better. It was good to go home with Penny this weekend because a. I got to spend all weekend with her. b. I'd never been to her hometown and she's been to CC like 45 times.

4. I love our BBall team, the Aggies are tearing it up so far in all the Spring Sports.

5. I'll be going to Corpus tomorrow, have a few days of work to do in Alice. That means Annabelle will get to accompany me on her first business trip because we're staying in the Wilson Inn. And even though I havent left for Corpus yet, I'll already know what hotspots I'll hit. Bring on the Fermins.

Secret Agent Man

On my Google homepage, a random webcam from somewhere on the Globe is displayed. Every 15 seconds, this camera changes. One day, I noticed a camera marked "Bryan, TX" on the homepage. The link is: http://128.194.244.10/top/liveapplet.html.

The mission was to find where in Bryan this place was and what it was used for. Surveillance was done by the CWSquared Agency. It was learned that these people worked 12 hour days and were most likely a terrorist organization. After a few weeks and a couple of leads, the camera's location was determined and the Agents were deployed a few weeks later. Their mission was to infiltrate the facility and let them know we are watching them. The mission began at 12:30 AM and was captured on camera:

The agents meet and converge on the target. They are notified from homebase that one enemy remains in the facility.













The agents enter the building through the strategic entrance located on the same wall as the present enemy's office.















The webcam catches the 4 entering the facility. They cautiously step in, making sure the enemy down the hall doesn't hear them.
















They proceed down the hall with stealth, stopping to make sure their entrance wasn't noticed.

















Sign (Warning) 1 of 3 is posted just down the hall from the office in which the enemy was working.













2 Agents proceed to the upstairs deck to post another warning and to survey the situation.
















The other 2 agents remain grounded on the main floor. Just down the hall, the light from the enemy's office may be seen. Soon after this picture is taken, the agents on the floor rushed out and hid beside the building as the enemy emerged from his office. The 2 located upstairs dropped to the floor and hid behind the flags as the man made his rounds, turned off the lights, and locked the building up.
















The 2 agents inside were notified that the coast was clear and returned to the main floor to let the other 2 back into the now-vacant building.
















They then climbed the ladder to the walkway that extends around half of the building and the 3rd sign was deployed. It can be seen near the top of the screen in the middle. You can see it zoomed in below.
















The sign features a picture taken weeks earlier by the web cam of one of the enemies picking his nose. It includes the reminder "Hey new guy - Employees must wash hands."















The agents then proceeded back down the ladder and out the back exit.















The heads of CWSquared and brains behind the operation mount the facility's sign for a victory picture. Mission Accomplished.