San Antonio's Rockstar Turned Realtor®

Video released.

Now that Takara and her calf have had some time to rest, it looks like they're ready to enjoy their time at Sea World San Antonio.  Like most animals bonding with their mothers, the new calf has a lot to learn and it looks like Takara is ready for the task.  I can't wait to get over to San Antonio and see the latest addition to Sea World.

To the new calf: I welcome you to San Antonio and hope you have a wonderful time in our city.  Although you won't be able to stroll the Riverwalk (and if you could it would be kind of freaky), we've got a great city full of fun - and you're now part of it!

photo courtesy of jeku arce

Sea World San Antonio has a new Shamu.

Look out Shamu, you've got competition!  Sea World San Antonio announced the birth of a new killer whale calf by Takara, an 18 year old Orca.  My wife can't get enough of Sea World (map), but I have yet to visit (for some reason, I've been out of town every time we've had visitors that she went there with), but with an announcement like this, I feel a certain pride in San Antonio and the Sea World staff.  Breeding any large animal in captivity is typically not an easy feat, but Sea World has been rather successful in their efforts with killer whales, which are truly magnificent to watch (I've seen them in San Diego).  Amazing intelligence, agility, and understanding of their surroundings, it should be interesting to watch the new calf grow up through the years.

This is my grill.

I love to grill.  One of my favorite family stories is about a cold winter snowstorm in Pennsylvania.  A friend of my sister's lived nearby and had gone to the store, braving the icy conditions.  When she returned home, she called my sister to say hello and tell her about the "idiot in the parka out on his balcony grilling in this weather."  That idiot was my Dad.

Both my brother and I received the grilling torch from my father and both of us have become quite skilled over the years.  If I could, I would grill every day for dinner.  I never grow tired of the smoky taste and tenderness you get from grilling, whether through smoking with woods like Mesquite and Hickory or just the good old taste of charcoal.  I don't use a gas grill much (I currently don't own one), but they are great if you're in a hurry.

Since moving to Texas, I really got into the smoking side of BBQ.  I do live in the land of brisket after all.  Smoking takes forever, but when you cut into the meat and see the smoke rings on the outside - that's a reward I love to have.

You can have your snowstorms and below freezing temperatures.

I'm not interested in the cold.  Yes, it does get cold in San Antonio, but not nearly as much and not nearly as severe.  Today, the high is expected to be around 75.  It's November 22nd.  I'll be out there all day; checking my fire, making sure the meat is moist, and enjoying time with my friends.

This is why I live in Texas.  The long hot summer, the short cool winter.  The ability to BBQ anytime I want (not that a little rain or snow has ever stopped me).  Give me a meat or vegetable and I'll slap it on the grill: hamburgers, turkey burgers, hot dogs, Italian sausage, Kielbasa, smoked sausages, Bratwurst, Knockwust, brisket, steak, chicken, fish, shrimp, mussels, lobster, Boston Butt roasts, turkey, beef ribs, pork ribs, baby back ribs, riblets, pork chops, lamb chops, leg of lamb, fajitas, corn on the cob, zucchini, mushrooms, peppers, onions, squash, tomatoes, garlic, potatoes...are you starting to get the picture yet?

Today's menu will be brisket, Boston Butt (pulled pork), and beef and pork riblets.  My wife will make her famous potato salad, our friend who is a pastry chef at a local Inn will make her out of this world deserts, we'll drink some beer and enjoy the day.  That's what BBQ is all about.  Good friends and a whole lot of doing nothing.

I may not be a true Texan, but I will always be a member of the Texas BBQ lovers.

My friend Luke hanging out with "Das Schnitzel" at Wurstfest 2009.

No, I didn't fly to Germany this weekend.

I've spent a lot of time in Germany in the course of my life.  I was there before the Wall came down and have spent months at a time roaming from town to town while I was still a musician.  I actually had designs on being a German teacher at one point in my life.  I still speak and understand some of the language - enough to get me where I need to go.

I have a certain love for all things German.  I guess it just rubbed off on me during my time over there.  Some cities are so familiar to me I can point you in the right direction of my favorite restaurants, hotels, and venues.  My love for all things German especially extends to two things: beer and sausage (or Wurst as they are called in German).

Wurstfest 2009 - New Braunfels, Texas

I didn't realize how much German influence there was in this part of the country until I moved here.  New Braunfels, Texas is the home of Wurstfest, "A Salute To Sausage," billed as Oktoberfest - Texas Style.  With tons of different vendors selling all sorts of different sausage, beers from Späten to Warsteiner (as well as local German-inspired favorite, Shiner), gifts (steins, lederhosen, hats, and more), and a typical round up of small town festival foods.  Music continues throughout the day and night in several locations throughout the Landa Park grounds.  No matter what, you'll have a good time.

This year seemed very packed compared to previous years I've gone and I wonder if the festival isn't growing too much for the size of it's location.  Located along the banks of the Comal River in Landa Park, the Wustfest grounds may need expanding once again if attendance continues to climb.  Started in 1961 (1967 was the first year it was held in Landa Park at the Wursthalle), the festival continues to attract people from around the world as well as locals and nearby residents.  You can see the pride on people's faces as they walk through the festival grounds.  It's a Texas thing that's deeply rooted in the beer halls of München (Munich).

Next year, come on down.  Trink ein bisschen Bier and viel Spass machen.  (Drink a little beer and have a lot of fun.)  Wilkommen.  We're glad you came.

photo courtesy of pokpok313

Are we there yet?

After quite a bit of rain over the last few weeks, San Antonio has had it's Stage Two Water Restrictions lifted.  In order for SAWS to remove the Stage Two Restrictions, the Edwards Aquifer levels had to remain about 650 feet for at least 30 days (as measured at the J-17 monitoring station).  We achieved these levels back on September 11 (650.1 feet) and have remained above 650 since then.

Break out the sprinklers!

Wait, not just yet.  As Stage Two Water Restrictions are lifted, Stage One Water Restrictions become the enforced policy.  To learn more about what this means, read "Every Drop Counts – Stage 1 Water Restrictions Begin" over at RErockstar.com.  It will take 30 days of water levels in the Edwards Aquifer to remain above 660 feet in order to have Stage One Restrictions removed at which point we will be back to normal conditions with no restrictions in place.

Of course, with all this wet weather we've been having, there is little need for your sprinklers right now anyway.  The ground is very moist and with the cooler weather is staying moist as well.  It's a good idea to not over-saturate your lawns and plants (this can actually cause many diseases and rot), so check soil conditions before deciding to draw more water out of the aquifer.

photo courtesy me and my iPhone

Fall arrives in San Antonio.

After one of the hottest Summers on record here in San Antonio (59 days of 100 degrees or more weather - with 5 of them hitting 104 degrees) and a drought that has looked like it will never end, I awoke to this as the scene in my backyard this morning.  It's not pouring and it's certainly not the kind of Fall I grew up with back in Philadelphia, but today is most certainly not Summer.  Today is the first day of Fall and the weather wanted to be sure we knew it here in San Antonio.

My good friends at KSAT News warned me it was coming and I knew it would eventually, but to wake up to 69 degrees, light drizzle, and an expected high of 79 degrees just proved it to me.  While some of you from parts further north might laugh at 79 degrees signaling the end of Summer, it certainly does here in San Antonio.  Fall has arrived and although I won't get the beautiful leaves of Pennsylvania and the Northeast, if you look close I do have tiny leaves all over my deck.  I've never been quite sure, but they seem like they might be seed pods.  I'm not very good at being an arborist, so I'll just have to accept that I'm not sure of much, except they stick to your feet and get all over the house (which drives my wife nuts).

Of course, here in San Antonio, we still have plenty of great weather ahead of us.  When I first moved here, I was wearing shorts well into November.  Looks like this week will be some rain, but as anyone who lives here can tell you...we could use every drop we can find.

If you're looking for quick and easy weather maps, temperatures, radar, aquifer levels (very important to us in San Antonio), and the ever-amusing "Haircast" - look no further than KSAT News' JustWeather.com.

photo courtesy of jepoirrier

The internet is always rife with scams.

I've heard of the craigslist rental scam before, but up until this week, I hadn't heard it specifically spoken of in San Antonio circles.  The scam is pretty simple, you go on craigslist and there's the perfect rental for you.  You inquire about the property and soon you are having a discussion with someone who is in another country for one reason or another and they're renting their home (or helping friends do the same).  They ask for an application and the application seems safe enough (no credit card numbers or social security numbers).  You fill it out, and they ask you to send either the first month/security deposit or the entire payment for the year and they will send you the keys and all the paperwork you'll need.

Of course, if you send that first monthly payment, you'll never see keys.  Why?  The scammer doesn't own the home in San Antonio.  In fact, the home might be occupied and not even for rent.  I know a couple moving to San Antonio who recently went through the process, but didn't send the money.  Lucky for them, the alarms starting going off and they did the research on the rental.

RErockstar.com shows you the emails and gives you tips on spotting the scam.

Although all scammers don't use the same exact methods, they are typically very similar.  Over at RErockstar.com, I wrote a post about the scam and included several of the scam emails as well as some tips on how to avoid these rental scams on craigslist.

RErockstar.com - "San Antonio Renters Beware: Craigslist Rental Scam Comes To Town"

New Neighborhoods Launched On RErockstar.com

In the quest to provide San Antonio buyers and sellers the best neighborhood information, RErockstar.com has recently expanded it's covered neighborhoods.

With the recent rains, it was hard to get out and do photos of new San Antonio neighborhoods, so I took advantage of the time and added some of the backlog of neighborhoods I had been building up.

New neighborhoods include:

Coral Springs - San Antonio TX 78250

Parklands - San Antonio TX 78250

Retama Springs - Selma TX 78154

Stonefield - San Antonio TX 78254

click any of the links to see all neighborhoods covered

New features too!

In an effort to bring the most information possible on each of the neighborhoods covered in San Antonio, I have begun adding market data to the "info" tab.  You can see a sample of the market data provided on the info tab below (I used zip code 78250 as an example):

As the site continues to grow, I will begin to add market data to the outlying areas of San Antonio that I cover in the Neighborhoods section as well (currently Garden Ridge, New Braunfels, and Selma).

You can help!

Have a San Antonio neighborhood you'd like to see covered?  Just send me an email or give me a call and tell me what you would like to see covered and I will get it up there!  Or click the "Call Me" button below to connect right now!

photo courtesy of me and my iPhone

Trapped in a welcome pattern.

Here in San Antonio, we've been crying for rain for sometime now.  This summer was blistering hot and Death Valley dry.  The past few days have seen showers and thunderstorms pass through town and you can see the relief on San Antonio residents' faces.  Yesterday on RErockstar.com, I posted "San Antonio Camera Phone: Here Comes The Rain Again."  If you jump over there, you'll see the looming clouds that soon brought rain.

I took the photo on my way home from RE/MAX Access in Garden Ridge, heading westbound on the 1604.  A few minutes after the photo, the skies opened up.  Of course, I had to stop by the grocery store (you always need to when it's raining it seems).  Heading through the HEB at 7951 Guilbeau Road (map) and grabbing a few items to complete my dinner for the night, I was convinced that tornadoes would be swirling around when I left the store.  Instead, I was greeted by the view in the image above.  Not only did we get rain, but we even had a rainbow to go with it.  A welcome site here in San Antonio.