To Be a Freshman Again...

School officially starts tomorrow morning. 9:30 am. We are officially living like students once again. Granted, this place is WAY nicer than anywhere I lived as an undergrad! I know, I know... I need to post some pictures!

Sunday afternoon we were invited to a get together for "older students" at a local coffee shop. This would have been much more enjoyable had the meeting space been indoors and/or a wee bit bigger. It was pretty much like being in a sauna with 40 people you've just met. We did meet some great folks though, including a couple that lives in our apartment complex. Oddly enough, we didn't meet anyone else that was in Greg's section - bum deal. The class of 2010 is divided into 4 sections aptly named A, B, C and D. Within each section are two "Societies" -- Greg's is called Cardena. Within each society are two mentor groups. Whew. The mentor group is composed of approximately 27 students, and Greg will have every class with these guys for the entire first year. His mentor, Christina, is a 3L and she's only 24 years old. Hmmmm, I was 23 when I graduated undergrad! But I digress... I enjoyed meeting some of the classmates at the coffee shop. Then, yesterday afternoon, after the first day of orientation, there was a BBQ where we were able to meet up again and chat a bit more. We traded phone numbers with several other couples and now I'll be in the hotseat to make sure that we stay connected since Greg won't have classes with all the great people we've met so far. Not to say that some of his mentor group won't turn out to be cool too.... but I somehow feel more connected to the "older" students. Go figure, right?

In UT football news - it appears we will be unable to use our tickets for the TX v. OU game at the Cottonbowl this year. Greg's friend from highschool, Tony Borton, is getting married out in LA. We'll be selling the tickets for what we paid (I have no clue right now what that is) but thought I'd throw it out there if anyone was interested. Can you believe they just signed Mack Brown to another 10 year contract for ridiculous sums of money? Ugh. Makes me sick actually. $3M a year could be better spent on a LOT of things... say helping feed starving children, improving our education system -- the actual part where kids go to school to learn, etc. Sigh... seriously people, he's a football coach.

To Trade or Not to Trade

Do we sell the Infiniti and the Expedition and get something that requires no car payments for the next three years? I don't feel like I've driven it enough to sell it. :-( But, the thought of no car payment is pretty compelling...

So, we went test driving today. At the top of the potential list is the Mazda 3 wagon. Greg spoke to a guy that posts regularly on the Miata boards and told us who to see in Austin. We show up and the guy actually looked around, said, yeah... we're kinda busy, can you come back later? Ummmm, do you want to sell us a car or not? So, we left. Just up the road is the brand new spanking Infinit dealership and we stopped in to inquire about replacing the center caps that some jackass stole off our car. The guy tell us that the parts guys are only there Monday through Friday. Bummer. We were just chatting and he asked us where we bought our car, and we said Dallas. His reply, oh at Sewell .... No, at Crest from a guy named Chad. Chad May he replies? Yeah, that's the guy. He says the name a little bit louder and out from the other room pops Chad! one and the same. What a small freaking world, huh? He and his family just moved down here at the beginning of summer. He's not selling anymore - just working numbers in Finance. He's going to see what he can come up with for us... In the meantime, the sales guy did give us the keys to a brand new FX and let us take it out for a bit. Sigh... ummm, yeah - that would NOT be downsizing, but what a NICE car. It's like the wagon version of the G. :-)

Also drove the Saturn Vue (eh), the Hyundai Sonata (eh) and the Hyundai Tucson (eh). Of course, it felt like it was 112 degrees and by the end of the day, I was tired of looking at cars. I like my G. I think that's my conclusion. Car payments suck, yes... but I like my car. I'm not done with it yet. I just have to convince Greg of that fact... And somehow find a way to pay for my nice car that I love. Dang... thought I had a picture of the new car on the other computer, but I can't find it at the moment...

Sigh... what to do?

We've Been Here How Long?

Holy moly batman! We've been in Austin for almost a month already! Where does the time go? It has been an eventful week. Last Monday, Greg and I had dinner at Ming's and caught some jazz tunes. Very nice - I mean seriously, where else can you go for Chinese food and get a chick singing smokey jazz accompanied by piano, drums, sax, et al? Tuesday was our very first attempt at cooking at home. I know, shocking - but we didn't burn down the house. The rice was a bit burnt, but otherwise, not bad for first attempt. :-) Wednesday, we met Greg's coworker from Prodika and his wife for dinner at Chuys (yummm). Thursday was a rockstar day. Dinner with Brandon and Goat, then stopped by Sherlock's to hear some music - where my old friend Patrick Donahue was playing. He's got a new band these days Rusttones. Then, it gets even better...we all went to the midnight showing of Superbad at the Alamo Drafthouse. What a great day, huh? Good food, drinks, friends, music, movies... sigh, it was fabu! Friday night Greg and I drove up to Georgetown and we took my grandparents to dinner. They are just too cute - we spent hours listening to old stories of when they first met, their parents, and how it used to be. It was good to catch up and just listen.



And now, poof - here it is again Monday night. The house is almost all unpacked, just don't ask us to get anything out of the closet in the office. When you open the door, it's obvious that we both grew up on Tetris... let's just leave it at that! We never did find our teacups though -- I hope we're able to get our claim processed and get the cups replaced soon. I know - we probably don't need the cups, but our china set will look funny with saucers and no cups!



Allrighty, well - I'm off to read or do something productive for a bit.

One box, two box, three box, four!

What does one do when one has boxes piled to the ceiling? Buy more stuff. :-) Perhaps I should clarify... Greg and I spent an exciting hour and a half yesterday at Ikea. We are now the proud owners of several new book cases on which we will store all the things in our boxes. That's the plan anyways. Since we no longer have an attic or a garage to store things -- they have to be unpacked or left in boxes piled in the corner. Neither of us feel the fung shei of the room will be improved with a stack of mismatched boxes in the corner... so we've opted to unpack. Now we have to spend tomorrow getting everything out of the office/spare room so that we can build the bookcases then haul it all back into the room.

The best part of yesterday however, was stopping to visit my grandparents after Ikea. Grandpa Mike had eyelid surgery last week, and Grandma Jeanne is having a really tough time with her knees. So - we gave them a call and of course they welcomed us over for an hour's visit. Grandpa said the drugs have finally worn off from the surgery, so he's feeling MUCH better! And his eyes look great - the procedure really opened up his vision. That good because I know Grandma Jeanne was a bit worried. I hope the knee doctor next week has some good news. I'll have to do some research on knee replacement, because I'm pretty sure that will be the recommended next step. It's nice living close to them again.