The Running of the Wiener Dogs in Buda, Texas

by Celia Hayes

Let me say up front that we're still a little unsure of how to pronounce 'Buda' – although most of the people that we met there last weekend pronounced it 'B-yu-dah', which is fair enough. For those unfamiliar with the geography of South Texas, it is a once fairly independent and separate little community about an hour's drive north of San Antonio on IH-35, and close enough to Austin that it and the similar little community of Kyle are more or less bedroom slippers to Austin, as Boerne and Bulverde are now bedroom slippers to San Antonio.

We decided to go to support a friend who has a dachshund and who had a vendor booth for his bird feeders and ornamental lanterns, and because the…

PRESS RELEASE: VLB now offering $417,000 for home purchases, $100,000 for land

Benefits for Texas veterans continue to grow with unanimous vote by board

VLB now offering $417,000 for home purchases, $100,000 for land

Benefits for Texas veterans continue to grow with unanimous vote by board
 
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE April 26, 2012 AUSTIN - Texas veterans can now take advantage of the VLB's low-interest rate loans to borrow as much as $417,000 to buy a home and $100,000 to buy land.

The Texas Veterans Land Board voted unanimously today to increase the home and land loan limits in the latest expansion of benefits under the leadership of Chairman Jerry Patterson.

"Texas veterans have more than earned this increased VLB benefit," Patterson…

Ben Curtis Wins Texas Valero Open

On Sunday, Ben Curtis finishes victorious in the San Antonio golf world. This Texas Valero Open champion is rewarded with $1,116,000 from this PGA Tour and moves him to 28th in the FedExCup standings.

This was Curtis first start at the Texas Valero Open.

From pgatour.com Daily Wrap: "Holding off Matt Every and John Huh in a tense back-nine finish, Curtis finished with flourish by holing a 12-footer for birdie on the par-5 18th, sealing a two-stroke victory and his fourth PGA TOUR title. His even-par 72 put him at 9 under and triggered a wave of emotions that Curtis said he didn't know were in him."

#area-golf-courses#

One-Pan Wurst Supper

by Celia Hayes

One of my oldest and most favorite cookbooks – and the tattered and spotted condition of my copy certainly proves the age and status – is Barbara Swain's Cookery for 1 or 2. I may have bought it before I moved out of the women's barracks as a young Air Force sergeant. I was always cooking my own meals then, since the hours I worked were not compatible with the dining hall, and the barracks did have a primitive but functional kitchen.  I definitely possessed this copy by the time I settled into a teeny studio apartment, as I clearly recall cooking many of the entrees and brunch dishes on the propane gas stove there. The marvelous thing about this particular cookbook is that every recipe in it was scaled…

San Antonio Board of REALTORS  January 2012 Sales Statistics

A five percent increase in sales shows the steadiness of the San Antonio market,” said Angela Shields, President and Chief Executive Officer of SABOR.

January 2012’s average sales price for single-family residential homes registered at $174,789 while the month’s median price was $141,200.

“This month, we saw a slight decrease in both the average and median sales price, but nothing to be alarmed about,” said Liza Reyes, SABOR’s 2012 Chairman of the Board. “Slight fluctuations are very common to the San Antonio market. San Antonio is known for being a healthy market and any healthy market will reflect little ups and downs, it is very natural.”

According to recent…

 Best of Texas - Newsweek Says Texas Cities Can-Do

Five Texas cities “have it going on” even in the face of economic worries, according to a 2011 Newsweek comparison of the 200 largest U.S. cities.

El Paso leads the pack with strong scores for business development; transportation and infrastructure; sustainability; and livability. Assigning each of those categories a point value, Newsweek ranked its list of “Can-Do Capitals” while considering emissions, education levels and unemployment.

Texas Best Can-Do US Cities

Source: Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts

San Antonio Airport International Passenger Numbers Soar

by Randy Watson

The San Antonio International Airport;s (SAT) International boarding passenger count had a major increase in 2011, reaching 182,031, or a 33.1 percent increase over 2010.

Domestic passengers continued to rise in 2011, totaling 7,898,793, up 1.2 percent over the previous calendar year. Total enplaned and deplaned passengers reached 8,171,824 in 2011, a 1.7 percent increase over 2010.

The large international passenger increase was primarily due to added seats in the market.

Source: San Antonio Airport System

Cold-Weather Supper – Chili and Cornbread

On those few days in South Texas when the weather is cold, dank and rainy, our thoughts for what to have for supper turn to something solid and warming: chili, which goes with cornbread like chocolate and peanut butter, like popcorn with the movies, and like salsa and corn chips. Over the years, we've experimented with various chili recipes – there was one from the Sunset Favorite Recipe books which called for angostura bitters and beer, another rather good but strictly vegetarian one which featured kidney beans, fresh corn and zucchini squash – but the absolute best chili recipe we have discovered was taken from Ree Drummond's Pioneer Woman, which…

TEXAS' EXISTING HOME SALES UP 4 PERCENT

 COLLEGE STATION (Real Estate Center) – Sales of existing single-family Texas homes in December were up 4 percent from a year ago, according to the most recent Multiple Listing Services (MLS) data compiled by the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University.

More than 16,500 homes were sold, data showed. The median home price was $150,700, about the same as a year ago, and the state's overall inventory was at six months.

December 2011 MLS data for many Texas cities are available on the Center's website. Here is a sampling (data current as of Jan. 30, 2012):

Checkout the Online Services of the State of Texas Website

by Randy Watson

I drove by the DPS Licensing office yesterday and there was a line out the door and around the building. Luckily, I didn't have to get my driver's license renewed, but what if I did? Could I renew my license on line? Hopefully, so... I wouldn't want to wait in line at the Driver's License Bureau if I didn't have to.

So, I did a quick check online to find out what all can be done.  This is just a sampling of what you can do online at the Official Website of the State of Texas ... but, here is some of the more popular tasks you can do on the Official State of Texas Website. Need to renew your Texas CHL or Concealed Handgun License, renew your Physicians license, renew your…