RGV Life

I'm going to make my life easier and just post over at Shainemata.net . Yes, it's a vanity site, because I'm vain. I don't know what the future of RGV Life will be. I won't kill it off just yet. There may be a future for this blog.

Austin, Texas is a nice place to live. There are nice parks. There are many outdoor activities. There are fine arts. And on, and on, and on. There is something lacking in Austin that I have back home. There is no short drive anywhere. Every trip to Wal-Mart, HEB, or whatever store takes a long time. Take, for instance, going for groceries. In Mission, where I live, there are two HEBs, one on Business 83 and Conway and up the street on Griffin Pkwy. South of one is a Foys Supermarket, north of the other is a Wal-Mart SuperCenter. In McAllen, there are three HEBs on 10th St. They also have Wal-Marts on Trenton and Nolana. My point is, groceries are not an issue in my part of the RGV. Here in Austin, it's a major battle to make your way to the grocery store. Even with all the advantages of "the big city", there are certain inconveniences that just drive me nuts. I look forward to returning to the Rio Grande Valley. Subscribe in a reader RGV Life Store

Google has made great improvements to its rss feed reader. One improvement implements AJAX so that the reader updates right before your eyes as new feed items become available. The beauty of this is that you don't have to refresh the page to become aware of the updates. Another improvement that the new google reader has made is that you can share stories on your website or blog. If you are into sharing, like me, this is a handy feature. I am saving the best feature about the Google Reader for last. The new reader allows you to read news feeds on your phone. It starts by displaying the most recent news items. You can then navigate by number (1 to read more, 0 to go to the next headline). Google also goes through the trouble of stripping the extra graphics that would make phone viewing almost impossible. This saves a lot of time that you would have spent waiting for a page to download. Finally, the mobile version also allows you to "star" items you find interesting. By doin...

I can feel the pace picking up at the Capitol. Things are starting to get busier, especially with the Committee. I spent yesterday getting stuff to make packets for the upcoming hearing. I spent considerable time getting a badge to allow me to purchase supplies and copies on the committee account. Sensing the increased pace, I realize that some things will fall by the wayside if I don't attend to them now. One of them being visiting my family. I decided to take a gamble and drive home with the noisy wheel bearing. After work, I hit the road without stopping at the apartment. I topped off the tank at Wal-Mart and bought some nuggets to tide me over on the drive. Before leaving Austin, I called my roommate to let him know I'm going home lest he worry I've disappeared. The reason I decided to gamble getting stranded is that I've often held back because of what "might" happen. I figure that if anything is worth the risk, it is seeing my people. I am also concerned...

Mobile audio blog entry by me, Shaine Mata, for RGV Life. Mobile entries are on the go blog entries whenever computer access is not available. MP3 File

Mmmm, caldo , originally uploaded by shainelee . My wife knows that my heart is grafted on to my stomach. Knowing that this is, as KURV's Sergio Sanchez states, "caldito weather", she bought all the ingredients for making chicken caldo. For the non-Spanish types, it's chicken soup. The main ingredients, besides the chicken or soup bones, are carrots, zucchini or squash, cabbage, celery, onion, garlic, potato, and maybe some Knorr consome. While the family was out, I got to making caldo for dinner. Tonight, I pan fried and browned the chicken with herbs in olive oil first before putting it in the pot. Other than that, it's standard caldo. We have limes and Mrs Mata is making "Spanish rice" to complement the soup. I need to check for corn tortillas to top it all off. I could die happy tonight. Subscribe in a reader RGV Life Store

I'm going to surprise my family by arriving home a whole day early. I'll arrive sometime early this evening. I've contacted other family members to let them know in case I have problems on the way. The legislature meets again on Monday, so I'll have to depart on Sunday. It will be nice to be home again for a while.