The Katy Texas Blog

Veterans Day Parade & Celebration Hosted by City of Houston

The City of Houston will hold its annual  special Veterans day celebration and parade on Tuesday November 11, 2014. The action will begin at 9 AM with all activities occurring in downtown Houston. If traffic cooperates driving into the City of Houston from Katy should take no more than 35-45 minutes.

Above American Flag picture at New York stock exchange taken by and copyrighted by Bob Gilbert with all rights reserved.  

At 11 AM on the 11TH month of the 11 TH day the Veterans Day celebration will hold a moment of silence in memory of the World War 1 armistice signing..  The festivities will begin at Hermann Square with the fifth annual AT&T Veterans Job & Resource Fair starting at 9 AM . In addition, the Fourth annual Walgreens Veterans Health Fair will also begin at 9 AM. A special ceremony will start at 10 AM on the steps of City Hall in downtown Houston. Free parking is available at Theater District entrances #2 and #5 from 9 AM until 12;30 PM.

Above picture of Veterans selling poppies in Katy taken by and copyrighted by Bob Gilbert with all rights reserved.

The days events include:

9AM to 1 PM - AT&T Job Fair

9AM to 1  PM Walgreens Veterans Health Fair.

10 AM to 11 PM Special Ceremony

11:30 PM American Heroes Parade.

Houston Mayor Annise Parker invites everyone to join in the festivities. She has said in the past the City of Houston has held the course every year hosting this celebration while many other cities cancelled these types of activities. Recent times are finding many cities returning to the fold of holding a special celebration for their Veterans. Houston has 300K plus Veterans living in the city and surrounding areas. She asked all folks who work in downtown to come out to thank all of our Veterans for their service.

I think we all need to Thank Veterans all year long and not just on special days. I had several Vets come to my home for the Grand Lakes garage sale a few weeks ago and I thanked each one for their service.  I knew these guys were Vets due to the hats or clothing they were wearing. Each one was almost surprised that I was thanking them and all very grateful! All are really nice guys.

Veterans Day Parade & Celebration Hosted by City of Houston

City of Katy holds Electronic Recycling & Document Shredding

Parking Lot across City Hall

Avenue D at Second Street

Katy TX 77493

281-391-4717

The City of Katy as part of the America Recycles Day and  Keep Katy Beautiful program will hold Electronic Recycling and Document Shredding on Saturday Saturday November 15, 2014. The event will run from 10 AM until 2 PM. The City is asking everyone to clean out or up their closets, garages, clutter, neighborhoods and use this event to eliminate junk or eye sores.

Above image courtesy of Dover Cards

SHRED-IT will be on site to shred documents Super Universal will collect electronic for recycling. Unacceptable materials include flammable items, appliances such as stoves and microwaves, any materials containing freon and anything containing PCP’s.   

Folks who live in the City of Katy  boundaries have a great opportunity to clean up and get rid of unwanted items. I am publishing this early as too many times the news of these events is made available only shortly prior to the actual day. Help the Be Green cause by recycling old electronics and paper shredding.  

City of Katy holds Electronic Recycling & Document Shredding

Almost Wordless Wednesday - Chicago in October

As most of you know, Yolanda loves to travel and earlier in October 2014 she took me from Katy to Chicago as she wanted me to see the how great it is now. I lived in Chicago many years ago and frankly did not have what I would call fond memories of this City. I had been to Chicago just few times since I left back in the late 1970’s but never got to see much of the City. When I lived there we never had much money for fun things or anything else for that matter. I have to say we had a great time and Chicago was fabulous. The people we met we very nice which shocked me as it was not like that back in the day. What’s up with that? The food was tremendous. Of course we stayed in a hotel right off Michigan Avenue so who would not like walking around to enjoy the sights of this beautiful part of town. The downtown area used to be a total dump but is not anymore as it is wonderful. Here are just a few of the pictures I took. I hope you like them.

All above pictures taken by and copyrighted by Bob Gilbert with all rights reserved.

Almost Wordless Wednesday - Chicago in October

Panchitos Mexican Restaurant San Antonio Great Food

Panchitos in San Antonio TX is one of my personal favorite restaurants and I believe their Mexican food would rival any other comparable restaurants across the country and certainly anyone in Katy or Houston. 

Their chips ans salsa are wonderful and hard to stop eating. Panchitos seves breakfast and all of their breakfast dishes are delicious . My personal favorites are breakfast tacos of any type. In addition, enchilades are wonderful and can be eaten at any time of the day. 

One of many advantages to living in Katy is it not that far from San Antonio, Austin and Bastrop.

I am writing this post with my IPad due to necessity today. I could not get my Panchitos picture to post?

I changed the picture today Novemebr 2, 2014 but had to copy and paste from Google Chrome. Once adain I got  a strange message. 

Panchitos Mexican Restaurant San Antonio Great Food

Blogging Yesterday November 1, 2014 was Difficult at Best

We went to San Antonio to celebrate the life of my Mother-in-Law who passed away on All Saints Day five years ago. We left from Katy on Friday October 31 or Halloween as we wanted to spend time at cemetery on Saturday or All Saints Day which we did. My Father-in Law lives with us and has even before Yolanda's mom went to her next life with the lord. It is always an emotional time when we visit her grave and this trip was no exception. Yolanda wrote a blog in memory of her Mom. We all had a great time and the weather was as perfect as you can get in Texas. I know her Mom was very Happy we were there.

I read when we got back to the hotel late yesterday afternoon about the November 30 blogs in 30 days Challenge. I was not planning to blog yesterday but finding out about the Challenge changed my mind. I did not bring my Laptop and only had my IPad to use. My Laptop is difficult to take on any trip due to size and weight.  I have always had issues with trying to write and use my IPad and yesterday was  no exception. Liking comments made by other members of AR took numerous tries and a lot longer time than normal. I wrote the post directly on ActiveRain and not like I usually do by using Google Chrome and copying to ActiveRain and elsewhere.

I could not get the picture I took at Panchitos Restaurant in San Antonio of the delicious enchiladas I had for lunch to post. I got this strange message about the picture had to have a unique name? I had never used or posted any pictures from Panchitos and I have never seen this message before.I am still confused. Getting the blog completed was difficult at best. Writing comments on other folks blog with the IPad was problematic at best. Several times the first go of trying to post a comment did not work?

All pictures of San Antonio taken by and copyrighted by Bob Gilbert with all rights reserved.

I want to tell everyone I am sorry for the blog yesterday and sorry about comments I left or did not leave due to issues. No worries we are home again and everything is good. My picture for some reason no longer shows up on comments i write on other folks posts and my own comments. I have no idea why?

Blogging Yesterday November 1, 2014 was Difficult at Best

Thirty - Fourth Annual Rice Harvest Festival in Katy

The Katy Rice Harvest Festival has been in the past and will continue into the future a huge and extremely important economic annual event for the City of Katy and a major contributor to local merchant’s economic year. The Festival will be held on Saturday October 11, 2014 from 10:00 AM until midnight and on Sunday October 12, 2014 from noon until 6:00 PM. This marks the 34TH annual Rice Harvest Festival. This event has been named as one of the top 10 festivals in the whole Houston area for several years. Originally this Festival was named a "Sellabration" and was intended to bring the community together for the purpose of educating the populace about the rice industry and let the area farmers show the local citizens what they were doing for the benefit of the general public living in the Katy area. This year as last year it is expected that the Festival will draw 50-60 thousand folks to the downtown Katy area over the course of the weekend. It will be crowded.

Above picture taken by and copyrighted by Bob Gilbert with all rights reserved.

The Festival is held in Historic downtown Katy which is approximately 28 miles west of downtown Houston. The City of Katy is an old city as it was formed after being a train stop along the route going from San Antonio to Houston back in 1895.

The Rice Festival will cover Avenues B, C plus, 2nd and 3RD streets which are about 1 mile north of I-10. Ticket prices for admission are $8.00 per person per day. Children that are ages 10 and under are admitted free of charge. This is really a cheap price for a great function and that is loaded with fun. Events include all day entertainment on two stages being Katy and rice stages, arts and crafts with over 300 booths, numerous food booths, rice cooking contest, and a carnival. Pets on a leash are allowed inside the festival. No exotic pets are allowed.

Parking is free of charge at the Katy Mills Mall. A free shuttle service will be provided to and from the parking area. Please click here for a map of where to park.

The Rice Festival is a family oriented event and bad behavior will not be tolerated . Proceeds from the festival will be used by the City of Katy for fireworks display and will benefit various local schools.

Make your plans to attend as you and your family will have a lot of fun while munching on great food from a wide variety of available items  while being entertained. If you want more information go to their web site. The Rice Festival is another excellent Katy area fall event to attend. Enjoy fall here in Katy

Thirty - Fourth Annual Rice Harvest Festival in Katy

Pink Himalayan Sea Salt Contains Numerous Natural Minerals

.

( Image courtesy of Bing free to share, modify and use pictures.)

Pink Himalayan Sea Salt believe it or not is mined with a pickaxe from man-made caves in the Himalaya Mountains. The salt origin comes oceans naturally forming the salt deposits about 250 Million years ago even though today it is mined from these mountains. Many experts believe this sea salt is the purest as it was naturally formed before man had polluted the seas. The pink color is due to the fact this Sea Salt contains numerous natural minerals. Since this is *** Cancer Awareness month, I thought a post about Pink Sea Salt was appropriate!

Several health organizations have widely reported the human body needs a low amount of sodium or salt on a daily basis. Our bodies need the salt to conduct nerve impulses, relaxing and constricting muscles and assist with maintaining a balance between water and minerals in our bodies.

Pink Himalayan Sea Salt contains 84 natural minerals which I think is a huge number.

Now before anyone rushes out to but this sea salt all should know a small amount of sodium in our bodies on a daily basis goes a long way. My uneducated medical opinion is that if you work out and sweat a lot you might need additional amounts of sodium but check with your doctor. Numerous studies have shown high levels of salt in anyone's diet can lead to severe health issues such as high blood pressure, stroke and heart disease.

The Centers for Disease Control and and Prevention recommends having no more than 1,500 milligrams of sodium a day. I believe this is a very low number and actually very hard to attain. Check food labels carefully and you will be amazed as to the sodium levels in household staples such as canned soup. look for the organic soups and still check sodium levels.

I have been following what I term as calorie management program since Feb 1, 2014 and I now read the labels of everything I buy and eat. I had previously attended a nutrition class at a Katy local library several months ago and asked about sea salt. The instructor’s opinion is all salt is  bad for you. Obviously Pink Himalayan Sea Salt has all these minerals and in small amounts might be beneficial in addition to adding taste. Once again all individuals need to check with their respective doctors before they make any rash dietary decisions.

I did purchase this Pink Sea Salt recently and used a small amount on some foods. It does add a fantastic flavor. I am not concerned at this point in time with my sodium levels as my blood work came out just fine when recently tested.  

Pink Himalayan Sea Salt Contains Numerous Natural Minerals

Annual 2014 Scarecrow Festival in Cross Creek Ranch Fulshear Texas

Cross Creek Ranch in Fulshear Texas is hosting the 5TH annual Scarecrow Festival on Saturday October 18, 2014 starting at 11 AM and lasting till 4 PM. The festival is being held at the hill in Cross Creek Ranch which is located behind the recreational facility in the front of the subdivision. Cross Creek Ranch is physically located off of FM 1093 just west of FM 1463 in Fulshear which is right next door to Katy,Texas. A large section of Cross Creek Ranch is zoned to Katy ISD.

One of the many features of this festival is the collection of full sized scarecrows which are created and built by local residents. All attendees will get to vote for the BEST or your favorite scarecrow and the winner will receive a prize of $1,000, $500 and $250. Judging is based on creativity and originality. I went to see these creations two years ago and it was really neat and interesting to experience. Below are just two of the scarecrow entries during 2012 for this contest. This years theme is “Rock N Roll” and should be a lot of fun.

Above pictures taken by and copyrighted by Bob Gilbert with all rights reserved

Anyone wanting to enter can register at www.crosscreektexas.com. the Committee will reimbursement each team entry $100 for materials.

Activities will be going on through the entire day and include:  

- Scarecrow Voting

- Carnival with all day tickets costing $5 each

-Pumpkin decorating

-Face Painting

-Live Music from students at Huggins Elementary, Randolph      Elementary and Simonton Christian Academy

-All kinds of food to purchase from Food Trucks

-Living Scarecrows

Admission is my personal favorite of FREE except for the Carnival. This is definitely a family event to celebrate the fall and halloween season.

Annual 2014 Scarecrow Festival in Cross Creek Ranch Fulshear Texas

“Positively Pink” Special *** Health Event at Katy Hospital

Houston Methodist West Hospital

18500 Katy freeway

Houston, TX 77094

832-522-5522

On Saturday October 18, 2014 as part of the month of October *** Cancer Awareness month, Houston Methodist West Hospital will be hosting its special program titled “Positively Pink”. Organizers are telling Mothers, daughters, sisters, the whole family and friends to team up and attend. The affair is being held at Houston Methodist West hospital which is located at the address shown above and is right next door to Katy, Texas.

The activities begin at 10 AM and last until 3 PM. Free parking is available in the hospital parking garage.

There will be food, live music, activities for children, shopping to raise funds to benefit local cancer patients with non-medical assistance when needed.

Attendees will get to visit and tour the *** Center and speak with *** cancer team physicians.

Ladies will get to fill a pink bag with goodies and information on nutrition, stress reduction, cancer prevention and al lot more.

You will be able  learn all about *** Cancer prevention and management of risks if you have a family history.

Reservations are suggested and the event is free of charge plus open to the public. Registration can be done via phone at 832-522-5522  or online.

Ladies what an excellent opportunity this is to learn more about your most important asset being your health.

“Positively Pink” Special *** Health Event at Katy Hospital

At Dentist and I am Very Nervous Today

I bit bit into a small green apple about 3-4 weeks ago and I had instant pain. My tooth which had a root canal over 30 years ago started hurting immediately and I made absolutely no progress with this stubborn apple. Last week the issue here in Katy became worse and I think this tooth is loose!

Above picture is not me and is from Bing free to share, modify and use pictures.

I am am in waiting room trying to write this post with my IPad and that in itself is always an adventure as I always struggle using this device!

I am not sure what solution the Dentist will have but in my mind all the alternatives are not very good. I have had to change how I eat these days trying to stay away from this tooth. Problem is it is located in bottom front of my mouth.

Well the bad news is much worse than I imagined. The tooth is broken and very loose  below the gun line as well as being infected. The procedure to fix takes 2.5 hrs. plus and pulls the tooth. The two teeth next to this one on each side get capped and a false tooth is attached between these two. Very costly procedure and we do have insurance. The big day is Oct. 15, 2014. I can hardly wait (right) but I do now have antibiotics to take to get rid of the infection.

Lesson learned is never try to bite into any apple let alone agreen one. Cut it into slices!

For some unknown reason I cannot post this blog from Draft of Final on AR?

At Dentist and I am Very Nervous Today

October is Non-Genetically Modified Organisms Awareness Month

This is annual effort during October to raise the public's awareness of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO's) which are now found in many different types of food items and groups. GMO’s are found all across the US in supermarkets and restaurants.  These scientifically engineered super crops have been linked to numerous health hazards and corresponding major health issues. 

The European Union banned GMO’s way back in 1999 but lifted this moratorium in 2004 when very strict labeling laws and requirements went into effect. This is not the case in the US where labeling or disclosures is not required. Monsanto is the biggest GMO team player with sales reported at $13.5 billion last year.

Above picture courtesy of Bing free to share, modify and use pictures.

The main fear among many health experts is GMO’s are rapidly increasing food allergies and promoting many other gut-based illnesses. There is a long list of bad health issues all pointing back to GMO’s.  

If you eat corn, corn chips, cook with canola oil, drink soy milk or eat muffins made with baking powder then you are probably eating GMO’s.

Experts state we all need to look for “Organic” or “Non-GMO labels. October is the perfect month to start your own personal Non-GMO’s campaign here in Katy TX and elsewhere.

If you want learn a lot more about GMO’s check out this article.

October is Non-Genetically Modified Organisms Awareness Month

The Ten Friendliest Cities in USA - Who is Number 1?

Above picture of Austin TX. taken by and copyrighted by Bob Gilbert with all rights reserved.

I came across a list of the friendliest cities in the United States in Men’s Health this month. I have subscribed for many years  and it is a wonderful publication. No New York City, Chicago and LA are on the top 10 list. Everyone is shocked to read these three are not shown! Maybe they would make the unfriendliest list! ::))). I have lived in Chicago and I know exactly what it is like!

The friendliest city is Minneapolis MN and I know my friends who live in the area already knew or suspected as much. However, that area is not done as St. Paul MN. is number 4. It is said that living Minneapolis finds no one living more than 6 blocks from a park and these fantastic parks become meeting grounds for folks to make friends and connect the whole community. My guess is St. Paul is probably very similar.

Many years ago the local meeting places in Chicago and surrounding areas tended to be a local tavern. I do not know about now in Chic town but there is a huge difference between a bar and a park being the meeting and hanging out location.

Austin TX is number 2 on the list and this does not surprise me. Austin and San Antonio plus surrounding areas have numerous friendly folks and contain some of our own personal favorite places to go to and have fun. That whole area is wonderful.

Here is the complete list:

1. Minneapolis, MN

2. Austin, TX.

3. San Diego, CA ( no surprise here)

4. St. Paul , MN.

5. Milwaukee, WI.

6. Kansas City, MO.

7. New Orleans, LA

8. Washington, DC ( All our DC friends are cheering right now)

9. Boston, MA

10. Columbus, OH

Katy TX and Houston TX did not make the top 10 and that is absolutely no surprise to me. Some folks in Katy have an extremely high opinions of themselves and are very self centered. Truth sometimes can hurt.

If you want the complete list go to here.

The Ten Friendliest Cities in USA - Who is Number 1?

Having Trouble getting a Realtor in Katy to contact you? Contact Me!

Yesterday, I received notice that a new potential client had visited my web site and his family is relocating to the Katy area. The husband’s company will be opening a new Texas office for his company. My new contact is moving here as he has the most knowledge of his company and was hand selected to assist with the opening of this facility and develop the business here in Texas.

I called my new potential client late yesterday afternoon. This turned out to be fortunate as I caught him with some available time to talk as he was out with his friends. He told me he was surprised that I called him back so soon as it was the afternoon of the day he visited my web site. He told me his CEO could not get anyone from Katy to contact him  back as he guessed everyone is TOO BUSY to call or Email back to a potential client. I am never TOO BUSY!  

This is at least the second time I have had someone tell me other agents in Katy ignored as this specific prospect as he guessed the family price point budget was TOO LOW for these other agents.

I told my potential new client  yesterday I always get back to potential clients and clients via cell, landline, Email or even text on a prompt basis. I will tell him I will be more than happy to not only assist his family but also the  CEO’s family!

Anyone who has been having trouble getting communications from agents or Realtors in Katy contact me. I am always busy but I find a way and time to contact folks who want or need assistance.

Above picture taken by and copyrighted by Bob Gilbert.

Having Trouble getting a Realtor in Katy to contact you? Contact Me!