Fine Dining in Valera, Texas

No. That is not an oxymoron.

Rancho Loma is upscale dining in what owner Robert Williamson says "could be in France, Italy, California - that's how this place makes you feel. It's like taking a little vacation."

If you are so inclined to visit, you will need to make reservations on their website. They are only open Friday and Saturday. People often travel 200 miles to have dinner there. But bring your own wine.

If that doesn't appeal to you, there is always Coleman's Dairy Queen.

Me? I'm gonna be at Eola School.

Mountain Trail

F Minus Strip

Stolen from here.

Finally

I got my Linux computer only a few days before leaving for Vail. I didn't have enough time to figure out all the workings of the computer. I took some DVDs to watch while I was in my hotel room, only to learn that Linux doesn't do DVDs well. Most DVDs are encrypted, and the producers make a lot of money licensing the encryption, and Linux, as a rule, doesn't pay for that sort of stuff.

I tried a lot of programs, finally finding VLC. It seems to be the only thing that lets Linux play DVDs with menus.

If only I'd had a couple more days before leaving for Vail, I could have figured all this out in advance, rather than figuring it out when I came home. Of course, that begs the question, why didn't I figure it out on the road?

Oh yeah! I also figured out how to connect to the wireless network!

View from my room

I could live here in the summer. Saturday night they mentioned the "S" word: there was a chance for snow at the peaks. That would get me out of here until the thaw. At 6 am, it's 40° and the high will be in the 70s. Tomorrow, we will leave Vail about noon and drive to the airport in Denver, turn in the rental car, and leave Denver about 5 pm. United expects the plane to land about 8 pm, and I should be home about 10 pm tomorrow night. Then I have to go to work at 7 am on Thursday to open. And the up side, It's my long weekend, and I won't go back to work till Wednesday.

Aidan and Greatgrandpa

Cael

Sean and Joanne brought the boys over for lunch on Sunday. New photos!

The new toy

Dell shipped my laptop on the 30th. It arrived on the 31st. So far, I'm impressed. The wireless card works perfectly, it just won't connect to the network at home. I don't know why. I might need expert help. It sees the network, it just won't connect. I'm currently configuring everything, which takes some time.

So I take back every evil thought I have had about Dell.