Quick Update

L'shana tova. (Happy New Year for all my non-Jewish readers.) May you have a year of peace, health and happiness.

Just a quick hello to fill you in on the latest goings-on. I just returned from a wonderful "girls" weekend at Heaven Leigh Escape. It's so nice to get away for a few days, see old friends, scrapbook and just relax. Tammy the owner even hung out with us for most of the time working on her own things. It was a great time.

I was also able to pick up my new laptop before I left the office in Dallas. Hallelujah. Now, I just have to get the migration to work, and we're golden. Granted, I've been on the phone with the help desk no less than 6 times already, but FINALLY, it seems to be working. I really really hope it works.

Tonight was Greg's first flag football game, and they won! Amazing since their first team meeting was an hour before the game! All in good fun. I sat with Cary, whose husband was the quarterback for the opposing team. Good thing we're all friends! Since the games are co-ed, I'm not too worried about them clobbering each other...

The rest of the week will keep us busy - bowling night, Nolan Ryan talk at the Union, old boss in town on Friday, home game on Saturday... whew. I thought life was supposed to be slower in Austin? Eh, we're having fun.

More soon!

Here's a picture Greg and I took of ourselves on our way to dinner at the Melting Pot. :)

Still Seething...

I had written a very nice LONG post about all the exciting things that happened to us over the past week. Alas, this version I fear shall be shorter because it's getting late, I still want to get some knitting in tonight and I'm still pissed. Ugh.

Last week was pretty busy. The weekend started on Thursday with the first "Thursday Law School Happy Hour". Apparently there's one every Thursday at 10 pm. That's late for a school night! (Am I showing my age? :-)) It was also the first night of college football, so Greg and I headed to 6th street to catch some football at a sports bar before heading over to Little Woodrow's. Once at the bar, we waited to get in -- apparently there were enough law students there to put the place over capacity -- then we picked up our ticket for a free drink and squished our way inside. We stayed for a bit, talked to a few folks, laughed at the partner's from the sponsoring firm who all looked like they just stepped off a sailboat (collared shirt with the cuffs rolled, khaki shorts and flip flops), then headed up the street to MoMo's. I was psyched to see the name Matt Powell up on the billboard, but once inside we learned that he cancelled last minute. Bum news. We got our $$ back and headed home... he'll be there again later this month.

Saturday was game day. The first UT home game. I was in a good mood because earlier that morning I met up with a group of knitters at a coffee shop and got help on a project that's been stashed away for a year or so. We headed to campus for a late lunch at our weekend ritual, Kerbey Lane. Yum. I do love that place.... then we wandered campus eventually ending up at the Alumni Center. Being a Texas Ex has advantages - the biggest you ask? Air conditioned buildings right next to the stadium! And the mini pep rally by the UT cheerleaders was kinda cool too. And... they gave us handy dandy fans on a stick to use at the game. Bonus! Of course as kickoff grew closer, we wandered our way over to the student section of the stadium (the section in the sun). We sidestepped a million and one crickets (yuck) and found ourselves with pretty good seats. If you look at the map, we're in section 26! Other than the melting sun - it was good fun. I will admit however that I look forward to being able to sit on the alumni side of the stadium -- where all the old people actually sit on their stadium seat on the bench as opposed to the student side where they all stand on the bleachers. We did skip the law school "kegger" that was to take place on the rooftop of the parking garage in our complex. I doubt we missed much.

Sunday, we debated where to go for our anniversary. Wink has gotten great reviews everywhere, but I wasn't sure my palatte was sophisticated enough for the place. We ended up at Melting Pot, where we knew we would enjoy every bite. Fondue is so good. There's a brand new location downtown where we had our own little booth that closed off via a sliding opaque glass door. Very cool. We were also able to have a bottle of wine that we'd had before but couldn't remember the name of. It's called Jewel - and it's a fabu everyday summer wine.

Hard to believe that the wedding was a year ago. Here's to many more! I have to say, for a first year of marriage, I think it went very smoothly. :-) It was an adventure, but our lives have always been an adventure. We are very lucky. Since the wedding we traveled to St. Kitts and Nevis, Deshler, OH, Puerta Vallarta, Mexico and Vegas! I'm not sure if this coming year will have as much travel, but you never know -- we're not known for sitting still for long. We've already got a weekend in Los Angeles coming up for Tony's wedding, and the chance for another mystery trip this December. (It may be postponed - but we don't know yet).

Life is good.

I'm going to cry.

I just pushed the wrong button and deleted my entire LONG post.

Ugh.

I'm off to make dinner then I'll try to recreate it.... so freaking frustrating!

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.