Tropical Sno: The plot thickens

On Thursday, I was wondering why someone was picketing about the Tropical Sno stand at the corner of Far West and Wood Hollow. People were speculating in the comments, and then commenter Rachel told us she'd just driven by the intersection that afternoon. The picketing was still going on, but the shaved-ice stand was open too. She noted that Tropical Sno was being operated by someone in a Kneaded Pleasures apron.

I had to see this for myself, so I drove over to the intersection. This was around 7:15 pm and the picketer or picketers were gone. However, I did manage to snap the above photo of the Tropical Sno stand. The stand was closed, but a couple of people were cleaning it up in the back ... wearing Kneaded Pleasures aprons and hats. I didn't want to take their photos because that seemed intrusive, so you'll just have to take my word and Rachel's.

So the stand is open now, and being operated by Kneaded Pleasures, while the former owner pickets the place? Wow. How did that happen? Either commenter/photographer Brad is right and the Austin Chronicle will reveal it all to us soon, or else I'll have to go back there and ask about it. It's the picketers I'd like to hear from, at this point. I'm getting awfully nosy about a snowcone stand I never visit, but curiosity can be fickle that way.

The mystery of Tropical Sno

I was headed to the HEB near Far West after work yesterday, and saw something unusual -- a woman at the corner of Far West and Wood Hollow, holding up some handmade signs. I slowed down just enough to catch a glimpse: "Kneaded Pleasures stole my Tropical Sno business and customers of 20 years" and wondered. What the hell? Fortunately, I found a Flickr photo today (shown above) to provide concrete proof of what I saw.

The woman was still out there when I left the store, this time talking to a couple of passersby while waving her signs. I then remembered the Tropical Sno stand that had been at that corner for years, every summer, with lines and lines of people waiting to get a sno cone. I hadn't ever been there, because I grew up in New Orleans and I crave snowballs instead (from Casey's on Airport, which is a whole other story). But the place seemed quite popular. It's not there now, and I don't know how long it's been gone.

Today, I ran a web search and found a Statesman article from 2005 about "ice stands" in Austin. I realized that the woman who was waving signs was the original owner of that Tropical Sno stand, Linda Stone, and she has in fact been running the stand in one location or another for 20 years.

Kneaded Pleasures is a combination bakery/gelato cafe that has been in same the Far West strip mall as Tropical Sno since, what, 2003 or so? I've been there a few times, mostly for work-related lunches at a previous job, and haven't been especially impressed. But what would have happened in the past year to make the Tropical Sno owner so angry that she would be outside waving signs? If it was simply local customers preferring gelato over shaved ice, that seems excessive. On the other hand, the snowcone business can be cutthroat ... remember that whole Sno-Beach/P. Terry's thing from a couple of years ago?

Does anyone know what happened? Feel free to post info in the comments. I'm weirdly intrigued.

[Follow-up entry is here.]

Photo credit: Empire Primitive on Flickr. Used with permission (thanks!).

The Sally Edwards of Holidailies

That's my joke this year: I'm the Sally Edwards of Holidailies, as though I decided intentionally to post only 15 entries in the month. Those of you who have ever participated in or cheered on a Danskin Triathlon know about Sally Edwards: she is employed by the Danskin Triathlon organizers to encourage any woman who is interested to participate in the triathlon. Sally Edwards takes part in every single Danskin event and she intentionally finishes last, so Danskin participants don't have to worry that they'll be the last one finishing and somehow hold up the race. At the end of every Danskin Triathlon, you always see this group of very happy women all encouraging each other and having a good time and finishing the event, and Sally Edwards is always there. (It looks like much more fun than finishing at the middle of pack ... makes me wish I'd tried to finish last when I did the triathlon back in 2000 and 2001.)

I think I have only ever posted 30 or 31 entries for Holidailies once, and that was because I was posting entries every 6 or 8 hours for the last few days of the month in an effort to meet the goal for once. Usually I strive for 20, and I don't often hit that goal either. And that's fine with me, even though my husband is "above the line" this year and is teasing me a little about it. I posted to this site more in December than I did for the entire rest of 2007, and hopefully I brought this site back to life and will post to it more often in 2008.

Holidailies Charity Project: First Book

As you can see from Chip's entry, today is the Day of Giving for Holidailies Charity Project. We decided to pick First Book as our charity this year. I could go on and on about how highly the organization was rated on Charity Navigator, and how well it suited the requirements for Holidailies, but I can't improve on Chip's description (so go read it).

Me, I just like the idea of helping kids receive their first new books. This is the part of the entry where I should tell you about my first new book ... but I can't. I can't remember not having books. I learned to read at a very early age -- my mom credits Sesame Street with this, but I know she used to read books aloud to me a lot and I bet that helped too. I can remember some of the books only because they were passed down to my brothers and sister, and I ended up reading them to my youngest brother some 13 years later. (There was one very old one about Dickie and his mom and the milkman, and I'm sorry to say that when I read it to my baby brother, I found all sorts of potential double-entendres that I may have hyped a bit, but that happens when you're in your early teens.) Those books were worn to pieces after four kids read them, and chewed on them, and generally abused them.

An update: the Vegas house

In this earlier entry, I talked about a house in our neighborhood that we dubbed "the Vegas house" a few years ago. It is still our favorite house for Christmas decorations (they do some great Halloween decorating too). They don't throw strings of lights randomly in the tree branches anymore, but they do have the disco ball of lights and loads of other decorations. Snowmen are everywhere. We walked by the house the other night and I managed to snap the above photo. Happy holidays.

Christmas in commute-icut

I haven't been able to see the Capital of Texas Highway trees this year -- this photo is from 2006. Maybe this week we'll take a drive down the highway (aka Loop 360) at a time during the day when there's no traffic, to have a look, see how many trees are decorated this year. I know they're there because I've had to drive down the highway at night a couple of times and I can see hints of ribbons and bows in the dark. (I wish I'd thought of our doing this yesterday instead of the other Christmas-y thing we decided to do, which was a disaster, but I'll talk about that later if I can get past the trauma.)

The above photo was taken from my car, probably during rush hour. My current digital camera has turned out to be sucky for its intended job -- taking low-light photos in movie theaters -- but it performed an unexpected job last year that saved my sanity. The camera lives in my purse, and it's easy to take out and use at any time.