A Yankee in Texas

On Sunday Nicole and I will be participating in the Race for the Cure here in Austin to help raise money for breast cancer research. Nicole asked me if I would participate and it was a no brainer, for me, since I am a huge fan of breasts (Sorry, I couldn’t help myself.). Seriously though it’s a great cause and, frankly, I could use the exercise.

I just wanted to thank all our friends and family that have already contributed to our effort. I am about $20 away from reaching $100. If you’d like to donate you can do so at my Race for the Cure page. I will try to remember to bring my camera and I will post some photos of the event.

– Jeremy

well that might be a slight over exaggeration, but I have been playing Guitar Hero 3 most of the day. On easy of course. Unfortunately I missed Ben’s phone call. It would of been fun to have some Guitar Hero 3 battles. Another time perhaps.

Last night Ben and I went to the 101x play-it-before-you-can-buy-it Guitar Hero 3 party at Fast Eddies. It looked like maybe 10 people showed up for the event. We watched a few people play. Ben hadn’t eaten dinner so we ordered some food. It took about an hour to get food. We chatted and before we knew it was past midnight. I looked over and they were packing up the Xbox 360’s. We didn’t even get a chance to play. Doh! They said they would have Guitar Hero 3 for sale at midnight. So I went to ask about buying a copy. It was cash only. Again doh! So we went home sans game and sans any playtime. Oh well… it was cool just hanging out.

– Jeremy

Nicole and I are planning on getting up tomorrow morning and going to the farmers market. I am hoping to pick up some fresh ingredients to make some salsa. I am also planning on making some chili this weekend so hopefully I will find some stuff for that also.

Saturday afternoon I plan on doing some unpacking and hanging some things on the wall. I also hope to get some relaxing in. Michigan is playing Iowa and that is supposed to be televised.

Saturday night Ben and I are planning to go to a Guitar Hero 3 play it before you can buy it party at Fast Eddies in Austin. I think we might be able to buy it at midnight. I hope so. If not I will pick it up on Sunday. I think I will make chili in the crockpot on Sunday.

So far that is the plan for this weekend.

– Jeremy

Nicole, with a little assistance from me, has started the process of unpacking. Last night however it did dawn on us that we plan to move in a year so we might not want to go too crazy decorating and such, but on the other hand you still want it to feel like home. Anyway I am sure we will find a happy balance.

We now have dishes, glasses, a folding table to eat at, and bunch of other stuff we’ve unpacked. It’s starting to feel more like home. I have felt very comfortable in the new place ever since day 1. Hopefully that is a good sign.

– Jeremy

While I haven’t seen it personally, since I am still at work, Nicole assures me it has been delivered and that all boxes have been accounted for. Just in time for Monday night football!

When I get home I plan on getting the TV’s set up and the Tivo’s working properly so our shows will be recorded. The one thing that’s weird about being in the Central time zone is 8pm shows are on at 7 pm and so on. Central time gets no respect. It’s Eastern Time’s bitch. (Sorry Mom… I try to keep the blog as clean as possible, but somethings just need to be said. love you!)

It should be interesting to see the place with furniture because empty it looks huge. I am sure the furniture makes it look a bit smaller, but as long as I can sit at the table to eat, relax on the couch, and sleep in my own bed I don’t really care.

Let the unpacking begin!!!

– Jeremy

Saturday morning I slept in till 9am… It sounds weird to say that I slept in till 9 am, but I have been getting up at 6:15 am so 9 am was sleeping in. We slowly got up and went out to Bed, Bath and Beyond. Nicole had found a bathroom “set” she wanted to show me. I liked it so it was purchased along with a rice maker. We both love rice, especially brown rice, which I plan to make a decent portion of my diet.

So after Bed, Bath, and Beyond we headed to Whole Foods because we had no rice and I can’t very well get a new toy with out playing with it now can I. We bought some organic bulk brown rice and some stuff for dinner. Then we stopped at another Bed, Bath, and Beyond to buy some air tight storage containers for the rice since I plan on buying bulk rice it was a good investment.

After that we headed home to relax. I made rice in the steamer and later we made dinner. It was the best dinner we’ve had in a long time. Parmesan/bread crumb encrusted chicken breasts, green beans with shallots and brown rice with some butter.

This morning we woke up a little late again. Then we took a drive down Spicewood Springs Road. We used to enjoy taking people down that road because it’s beautiful and twisty. There is a driveway for someones house that constantly has water flowing across it. There used to be a limestone “cliff” that water would seep out of, but we think it might have been flattened to make an entrance for development. It’s still a nice drive, but it is a bit more developed back there.

Then I took Nicole to the Alamo Drafthouse. It was her first time. We saw “We own the night” the movie was great, the food was great and we had a great time. Then we went to the Melting Pot for fondue desert. That was also very good! We were making up for our lack of a real anniversary dinner last week. I think we did a good job.

After all that eating we came home to chill out a bit. Then we went to HEB Plus and got food for the week.

And that is how we spent our first weekend in Austin. Tomorrow our stuff comes… thank god it’s the last night on the air mattress.

– Jeremy

So I had a bit of a hectic morning so I thought a second cup of coffee would give me that extra boost I needed to keep up and it did, but at a price. Ever since lunch I have been crashing a bit.

Anyway no time for melt downs I am on a deadline.

– Jeremy

So yesterday I had a better day. It still took me 45 mins to get to work, but at least I got off at the right exit. I got home really quick which was cool. I opted to stay on the service road for a bit before jumping on 183. I got all green lights and sailed on through.

When I got home I was waiting from Nicole because she needed help carrying some things up stairs. While I was waiting the UPS lady called and said she needed help with the package we had sent to ourselves. So I carried that upstairs. Then Nicole got home and I carried more stuff upstairs. My dad called and I talked to him a bit. After I got off the phone we ran to Target to grab a few things. Then home, dinner, nice warm bath and sleep.

That’s it nothing too exciting. I might try to get over to the pool tonight after work, but we’ll see.

– Jeremy

So yesterday was a crazy day. We got the papers signed and found our way to the apartment. Got the cats set up and then we got the car unloaded. We ate lunch and waited for the cable man. Luckily we didn’t have to wait too long. Then we did some shopping for some things we either forgot or couldn’t fit in the car. A little bit later we met up with Ben and Gina at The Dig Pub and had a beer. Then we went over to their house. I got my car and some stuff that was in the car when Ben and I drove down. Then we went grocery shopping and had dinner at home. We ate picnic style on the air mattress watching a TV show I had transferred from the Tivo to the Mac before we left. Then we passed out.

Here is a slide show of the new apartment:

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

– Jeremy