trip update!
After the show in Austin on Friday, Tiffany and I packed and went to bed, setting our alarms and deciding to arrive at the conference late so that we could get three and a half hours of sleep.
We arrive at the Hilton unscathed, get our registration items, and go up to the first seminar. All in all, Groomerpalooza wasn't too bad. Some of the seminars were a little elementary (so that's how you use a force dryer? Can I touch it?) but we still picked up a few new things to try. I got a new pair of Geib sisscors that feel like heaven, as well as a ceramic #10 blade, homemade dog treats, shampoos, some stripping knifes, another smock, and some nail polish--and a few more extras. I found a pair of thinning shears there and I nearly cried they felt so nice, but they were $140. Those are going to be going on a certain girl's Christmas list, that's for sure.
The funniest moment of the conference was during a terrier seminar, when the presenter cutting a westie pattern and narrating just picked up the dog's tail and shaved the bottom off with her #7 blade. I thought I was the only one who nearly shrieked, but the woman laughed and said, "I heard you all gasp. It's okay." Um, yeah...you can't really replace that hair, but whatever. This was the same woman who told us it was "just fine" to put dogs like yorkies in the bathtub with mats and just "deal with it after the bath." Apparently she meant two insignifigant tangles, or so I hope, because at this point I was trying to figure out exactly what world this groomer resided on. Best thing seen: a mobile grooming van with John 3:16 painted on the back. Totally random and off the subject, it rocked.
Saturday night Tiffany and I decided to find the Alamo armed with nothing but a crappy San Antonio tourist map. We were scared for about two minutes (Tiffany maybe longer,) and finally just parked and started walking towards what we assumed was the direction of the infamous Riverwalk. After a few minutes, I heard Tiffany say, "Is...that the Alamo?" And there it was. We rock.
The Alamo is very pretty at night time, because it's all lit up. We walked around the square, and then over to a resteraunt that looked good...and then I heard Tiffany say, "What is that down there? It looks pretty." And that's when we found the Riverwalk. Score two points for the girls. We went on a boat tour of the river, and then walked around awhile until we came to Johnny Rocket's. By this time it was about 7:30 or 8, we hadn't eaten since noon, and we were still running on three hours of sleep...but I was nearly bouncing in glee because we had old fashioned shakes while I plugged nickles in the jukebox at our table.
Sunday we finished out the conference and left to tour the Alamo (which was pretty great,) and then we went down on the Riverwalk again not only because it was wonderful (I really did feel like I was on a Pirates of the Caribean ride the entire time, without the yo-ho-hoing,) but also because we wanted to distance ourselves from our scary hotel room. We ate at a place called "Steers and Beers," and were hoping for a true Texas experience. Considering it was Sunday and there was a group of guys watching the NFL game, we certainly got it. The kids' menu featured an item called "mac 'n' cheese wedges," which was deep fried pieces of mac 'n' cheese. I...really cannot even put into words the ambiance of such a place, so I'm not even going to try. It was pretty fantastic. Then we went back to Johnny Rocket's for more shakes and jukebox fun.
Our hotel room was, in general, scary...but we dealt with everything except the bathroom and the "door situation." The bathroom was gross. Not old, cheap hotel-room gross, but dirty gross. Apparently this place hadn't heard of bleach, and there was mildew in the cracks by the tub. We just used towels and skated on them to and from the shower. The "door incident" was basically that we didn't have working locks (deadbolt or chain.) Actually, we did have a semi-working deadbolt that Tiffany had latched, but when we left for the evening on Saturday, I opened the door, Tiffany said, "hold on a--" and the bolt just crumbled off. Very calmly, Tiffany said, "hold on, wait, okay," as she quickly shut the door...and then we just collapsed in laughter for about five minutes.
Pictures to follow, on just about everything. It'll be a much better narrative, since I don't want to type this right now, I want to go eat a muffin and then go swimming in the resident's club here. It's about 86 degrees outside right now. Surreal.
Tomorrow and the next I think I'm going to the San Antonio and Houston Temples. I'm so excited. I love spending time with my family, too. My nephew is the cutest baby ever.
I miss everyone.
We arrive at the Hilton unscathed, get our registration items, and go up to the first seminar. All in all, Groomerpalooza wasn't too bad. Some of the seminars were a little elementary (so that's how you use a force dryer? Can I touch it?) but we still picked up a few new things to try. I got a new pair of Geib sisscors that feel like heaven, as well as a ceramic #10 blade, homemade dog treats, shampoos, some stripping knifes, another smock, and some nail polish--and a few more extras. I found a pair of thinning shears there and I nearly cried they felt so nice, but they were $140. Those are going to be going on a certain girl's Christmas list, that's for sure.
The funniest moment of the conference was during a terrier seminar, when the presenter cutting a westie pattern and narrating just picked up the dog's tail and shaved the bottom off with her #7 blade. I thought I was the only one who nearly shrieked, but the woman laughed and said, "I heard you all gasp. It's okay." Um, yeah...you can't really replace that hair, but whatever. This was the same woman who told us it was "just fine" to put dogs like yorkies in the bathtub with mats and just "deal with it after the bath." Apparently she meant two insignifigant tangles, or so I hope, because at this point I was trying to figure out exactly what world this groomer resided on. Best thing seen: a mobile grooming van with John 3:16 painted on the back. Totally random and off the subject, it rocked.
Saturday night Tiffany and I decided to find the Alamo armed with nothing but a crappy San Antonio tourist map. We were scared for about two minutes (Tiffany maybe longer,) and finally just parked and started walking towards what we assumed was the direction of the infamous Riverwalk. After a few minutes, I heard Tiffany say, "Is...that the Alamo?" And there it was. We rock.
The Alamo is very pretty at night time, because it's all lit up. We walked around the square, and then over to a resteraunt that looked good...and then I heard Tiffany say, "What is that down there? It looks pretty." And that's when we found the Riverwalk. Score two points for the girls. We went on a boat tour of the river, and then walked around awhile until we came to Johnny Rocket's. By this time it was about 7:30 or 8, we hadn't eaten since noon, and we were still running on three hours of sleep...but I was nearly bouncing in glee because we had old fashioned shakes while I plugged nickles in the jukebox at our table.
Sunday we finished out the conference and left to tour the Alamo (which was pretty great,) and then we went down on the Riverwalk again not only because it was wonderful (I really did feel like I was on a Pirates of the Caribean ride the entire time, without the yo-ho-hoing,) but also because we wanted to distance ourselves from our scary hotel room. We ate at a place called "Steers and Beers," and were hoping for a true Texas experience. Considering it was Sunday and there was a group of guys watching the NFL game, we certainly got it. The kids' menu featured an item called "mac 'n' cheese wedges," which was deep fried pieces of mac 'n' cheese. I...really cannot even put into words the ambiance of such a place, so I'm not even going to try. It was pretty fantastic. Then we went back to Johnny Rocket's for more shakes and jukebox fun.
Our hotel room was, in general, scary...but we dealt with everything except the bathroom and the "door situation." The bathroom was gross. Not old, cheap hotel-room gross, but dirty gross. Apparently this place hadn't heard of bleach, and there was mildew in the cracks by the tub. We just used towels and skated on them to and from the shower. The "door incident" was basically that we didn't have working locks (deadbolt or chain.) Actually, we did have a semi-working deadbolt that Tiffany had latched, but when we left for the evening on Saturday, I opened the door, Tiffany said, "hold on a--" and the bolt just crumbled off. Very calmly, Tiffany said, "hold on, wait, okay," as she quickly shut the door...and then we just collapsed in laughter for about five minutes.
Pictures to follow, on just about everything. It'll be a much better narrative, since I don't want to type this right now, I want to go eat a muffin and then go swimming in the resident's club here. It's about 86 degrees outside right now. Surreal.
Tomorrow and the next I think I'm going to the San Antonio and Houston Temples. I'm so excited. I love spending time with my family, too. My nephew is the cutest baby ever.
I miss everyone.