Class of 1965

I was crusing the internet the other day and ran into a nice Brownsville website with some nostaligic pictures of days gone bye. To my surprise I found a couple of pictures of family and people that personally know.

by steven saul king

The Historic Neale House

The Brownsville Art League is located right outside the University of Texas at Brownsville outer limits. This facility was actually built by William Neale (a brownsville founder) in 1834 and is considered to be one of the first and oldest homes in Brownsville. It has survived many raids (from Brownsville's old Wild Wild West times), hurricanes and a move to it's present location in 1950.

This house will move once more this year to a new location on Linear Park besides a new facility. Unfortunately, William Neale's place in Brownsville's history isn't widely known. For those who are interested in learning more about one of brownsville's first founders check out Boom and Bust by Dr. Anthony Knopp.

If anyone is interested in the muesum. the art exhibits on display are open to the public Monday - Friday, from 9:30am - to 3pm. Art classes are available for those people who are interested in expanding their horizon.


photo by steven saul king

UTB Business & Education Building

Every time I pass by this building I can't help but remember the time I had the chance to speak to Senator Lucio on a plane flight to Austin, TX. I was headed up to have a meeting with the UT Chancellor and he had legislative business to attend. Back then, this building was just a dream, a thought back in 2001... In fact, he was so passionate about getting an education building and it's technologies and top facilities to breed great teachers.

Although I supported his enthusiaum for a Education Building I was stressing the need for a good business infrastructure for the students and the city. I was crazy business student and advocate back then, trying to do research analysis on student housing at a local university, teachers and administrators would laugh. Why wouldn't international business students from both sides of the border not want to study at a school that could potentially be sitting on a strong international business program? We have the resources... Someone just needs to conduct the orchestra.

Anyway. He agreed. and No, they didn't build it because of me.

Racing Emily Home

I left the TV on all night and I ended up waking up to this sight. I actually didn't think that we were going to be able to catch a flight back home in a few hours. Amazingly enough, all flights were clear and on time. The check-in staff was shocked.

These are a few shots from the airplane. As you can see, at first the clouds looked pretty bad and as we came closer to the ground the skies cleared up.

One last look

Ok so I lied, I went downstairs for a walk to take a good look at where i was the last couple of days and took a couple of shots to remember.

Circus de Soliel and Finale

All good things must come to an end sometime. Our visit ended with a show from Circus de Soliel. They were all really good and really funny. I wish Miriam would have had the opportunity to have seen them live.

We had an all you can drink and eat place reserved. a good view of the show and mickey & cast joined us for the rest of the evening. Yes, I finally met Mickey.


The show went on pretty late in the night but I didn't stay THAT late. Actually I had other things on my mind. With Emily racing to the valley, my concerns were with my fiance' , family and my store. Miriam was staying at her mom's for the night with the puppies and on Monday I started to plans to evaculate all the pets from my store. I stayed in my room, packed and got ready to catch a flight back home... if anyone was flying down there. I watched the weather channel until i feel asleep.

A day in Disney World

I found out that if you are going to make much of anything at a Disney park you have to get there early. We were early birds and made it through the ticket counter without much of a line. Behind us you start seeing the line piling up. The first things you see when you come into EPCOT is of course the famous Sphere that dominates the skyline. I've always wanted to see that sphere ever since I was little.

So we got on all the new and popular rides, which were fun. then we visited all the countries... I had a pretzel in germany, tortilla soup in mexico, and sweet bread in france. I bought a lot of soulviners and things all over the place. I could have spent sooo much more money. I don't know how I resisted to tell you the truth. A lot of neat stuff at Disney.

At 9pm everyone gathers around the lake's edge to see the firework display. It was the best firework I had ever seen. I am so use to seeing them put something simple down here.I would imagine this has been engineered by some of the best people out there.

In the Japan store they had all the different japanese dressings..even a kamono (sp?) shop. I wanted to surprise miriam with one of those... but, maybe that was just crazy. they had samuri swords which were VERY expensive... Everything HELLO KITTY and POKEMON of course.

Hehe. Oh yeah, can't forget Circle Vision in China. a 360 degree film...

Awards Ceremony & Banquet

Sunday morning we spent it in and out of seminar and meetings... Between seminars we were feed sandwiches. They were alright.. as long as they didn't disappoint at the banquet that night. i'm cool.

I skipped the last seminar to sneak up to my hotel room and take a nap. The Banquet and Awards Cermony was at 6pm..

Beautiful sunset on our way to the banquet

We were not really looking to come home with any prizes tonight. A mention would have been a good gesture. Deep down though, I knew my store could compete with the best in the company. We didnt leave this night with a store of the year award, but we managed to salvage an award for the commitment we have to our community. The feeling of walking away without the top award was awful... These are probably the moments that make us stronger to fight the next time around because damn if i'm walking away like this in Disney next year.

Oh damm. Our company president announced he's bringing the party to San Antonio Texas next year.

Founder of the Company, his name is Ed (he's funny) &
thats Frank (President) annoucing next yrs show in San Antonio.

I didn't stay for the awards cermony after-party. Instead I went back to my room and took some advil for a spliting headache I got from the plane flights. Needless to say I couldn't go to the after-party parties because of the medication... No need going if I wasn't going to have a couple of drinks.

ANYWAYS.. I had to get some rest for Monday.. We were skipping the trade show and going to EPCOT. Aside from that I spent the night watching the weather channel for any information on Emily.

A Trip to Pleasure Island

After we checked into our room, we regrouped at the lobby for a trip to pleasure island. Since we had been on a diet of peanuts and water all day (airline diet) the first stop we were going to was a restruarant. We decided to eat at Bongo's which is a cuban restruarant owned by Gloria Estefan. The food was great and the salsa and merengue music and dancing was too...

We visited the Virgin MegaStore and a couple of small shops before we headed out to Pleasure Island were all the after hour action is in Disney. Pleasure Island is like a small park filled with all different kinds of clubs, each with their own experience.

The bus system is pretty confusing so we caught our bus in the same spot and time the driver told us too. The huge crowds can sometimes be overwhelming, especially when they try to cram as many passengers into the buses as humanly possible.

We got back to our rooms, freshened up a little bit and then hit the Boardwalk. The Boardwalk has a couple of more shops and clubs. One in particular was Jellyrolls, a dueling piano bar, that was pretty much the place to be...

to be continued...

by steven saul king

Getting to Disney

So... Getting to Orlando, Florida wasn't as easy as we initially thought, especially with hurricane Emily looming days away from Brownsville/Harlingen. Our flights were delayed a few minutes while early disturbances started to rain on our parade.

We still ended up getting to Houston in time to catch our connecting flight but as you can see the weather didn't really change very much. In fact it was worse, then again, when isn't Houston not raining.

The trip through Orlando, and into Disney was breath taking. Disney has gotten so large that they have most of their own resources like a fire deptment, expressway system, etc... We stayed at the Yacht Club Resort which of course was bueatiful.

How do you think that the view from my room looked like? take a look for yourself...

To be continued...

Emily On the Move

I think it's too soon to really know where this storm is really headed but since I will not be here, today was really the day we had to make some decisions. We went to the grocery store this evening and it was crazy. Water, toliet paper, canned corn, and hot dog buns were just some of the items they were out. We amazingly got the last of each item. Very patiently I might add.

I hope everyone takes care. This is my last post until I come back into town. I'll have a complete re-cap of my time at the magical kingdom when I return.

by steven saul king

A Nice Article to Mention

A Brownsville Herald reporter stopped by the store the other day... We had a little chat about what's new in the pet industry. Check out the Article...

Hurricane Planning

Since I will be leaving on a business trip very soon, my boss asked me to have a plan of action done for the store (in an event of a hurricane) before I left for the day. I didn't even know there was a hurricane headed this way! Needless to say there is, and I've planned for it already.

As I mentioned, I will be leaving to Orlando, Florida for about 5 days. I won't have anyway to update while I am gone so I guess everyone that reads me (which I think is about one person , thanks babe) will have to wait until I come back on Wednesday. Hopefully I'll still have a place, computer and fiance when I come back.

by steven saul king

Boca Chica Beach

Boca Chica Beach Sand Dunes

We decided to go to Brownsville's Boca Chica Beach today after I got out of work. It was of course a beautiful scene as you can see for yourself. Even though it's been scorching hot in the city, condition out on Boca Chica Beach were completely different. Every beeze of fresh air was cool but not cold...

Once you leave the last gas station on Boca Chica Blvd. you'll see a long stretch of road with mostly catcus, palm trees, shrubs, and sand. Every now and then you'll see pockets of people in small nieghborhoods... Don't be surprised because they are few and far between. I think in a later entry i'll talk about this area's history and what it is today.

The surf was a bit rough on this day but the water was nice and warm. I wish I could've gotten out of work a little earlier; we could've stayed longer.

It's not a visit to the beach without building at least one sand castle. As you can see, even I contributed a little... AND needless to say we still need to work on our sand-castle-building skills.

Yummy hot dogs and one last walk by the beach's shore... You have to leave just before the tide comes in and the sun comes down. If you leave any later your car will get stuck in the soft sand or you wont be able to see the exit back to the street. We left at 8:30pm.

by steven saul king

Toy Yorkshire Terrier

The most wanted and requested puppy around just arrived at the store...

...and it's a toy breed. hehe.

Yeah. It was a slow morning... and I was really bored.

Highway Construction

Highway Construction

It's very hard not to notice that traffic in Brownsville has been absolutely terrible now that construction on the expressway is getting deeper and deeper into the heart of Brownsville. With all the frustrations that come along with traffic jams it's hard to notice the detail and changes that are actually occuring right besides us. If you notice carefully, the freeway has been designed with carved details of our city's history and landscape.

Local History Project

I was recently surfing the Internet and I found a webpage that I was a part of in graduate school. This was a project we decided to put together amongst us all in the class. The class, if I remember correctly, was called Brownsville & Matamoros History. I recommend if you have the time, and you are able to take this class, to do so. I learned so much from my experience in it and from my professor, Dr. Knoop. You can check out the website at History of Brownsville & Matamoros.

The picture was taken in the South Hall Conference room over looking the Fort Brown Resaca.

My New Chair is not Mine

Since my parents moved and bought new furniture for the new house they had a couple of pieces left over. They decided to pass on this nice reclining chair to me. Of course the first couple of thoughts that ran threw my mind were of me watching the Astros with the remote on one had and a beer on the other.

Needless to say (a picture says a thousand words), I have yet to use it. The inhabitant kitties seem to take turns napping on it the entire day. not one minute goes by that the chair is kitty-less.

Terrorist Attack London

I woke up this morning, turned on the TV while I was getting dressed, the remote slipped out of my hands as saw the disaster and confusion taking place in London, England.

I think it's about time we stop playing around, get these guys, and get there crap over with NOW. You know he was right, so let him do his job and lead this war and this country. 'nough said.

The Cheat is Not Dead

We took Nutters to the vet after we saw little improvement in his condition. Actually the swelling had gotten worse. The vet ran some blood work and found that there was no infection to any of his organs. This was good news considering I thought that whatever was causing the swelling might be a build up of something potentially very toxic to his blood stream. He gave him another steroid shot and sent us on our way.

As of tonight, Nutter is at 90 percent back to NORMAL and he is very happy! I am relieved that my little buddy is getting back to normal and I can't wait to take him out and spoil him with whatever toy, treat, collar he wants.

Thanks to the patience of our Vet, Dr. Fletcher. Thank you.

Sickly nutters... Update

Peanut still hadn’t gotten any better since last night. In fact, his condition worsen so I decided to step out of the store, pick Miriam up and rush him to the Brownsville Veterinary Clinic with Dr. Fletcher. The visit took forever; it lasted a total of 2 and a half hours. The urgency to get Peanut back to at least a shadow of what he once was tugged at our patience as the time slipped by so slowly. Finally we got him home with all the medicines they prescribed to him…

Miriam is going to give him his medication early tomorrow morning before she heads on to work; my job is to come by every so often and check up on him. He also gets another dose of medication around 11am.

If his condition continues to worsen I’ll have to call Dr. Fletcher tomorrow…

Independence Day

I closed the store early today so that all the employees would have the evening off to spend with their family. It was pretty much futile to try to get a good day's sale out of this kind of holiday anyway. If you could imagine, the traffic on the streets was non-existent... Oh, and if by any chance you had forgotten to buy your fajitas by Saturday... The long crazy lines were waiting for you at the grocery store. There was a parade scheduled down the Charros Day Parade Route and a firework show by the new ITEC building at 9:15pm.


Is there anything better to watch on Independence Day then Independence Day?

Lawn chairs, barbecue pits, the smell of fajita in the air. It's almost a staple smell every weekend around Brownsville. (Yummy, yummy burgers)


Water gun fights, Slip and Slides....


Miriam spending a couple of minutes loading up some ammo for the water balloon fight.

No better seat in town then a couple of lawn chairs out on the porch... The streets were filled with neighbor's that decided to celebrate with their own firework display.





by steven saul king