Monday, April 23, 2007

Moving Across the Country

I have completed my move across the United States to the krazy land of Kalyfornia (whose postal code is not KY -- that's still reserved for Kentucky and other things). It was not very eventful, so I'll give you the ultra-short version of the move. Drove, sat in traffic, drove, Vegas, slept on the floor for 5 days.

Now, if that hasn't made you want to read more about my trip, then I don't know what's wrong with you, but you better stop reading this post now.

Really -- go back to your regularly scheduled blogs that are not about driving west in a Mini Cooper.

Really? Still here? Well, I guess you really are a masochist.

I started my "vacation" on a Wednesday. But, really, the trip started the day before. The car decided to have its power steering go out, and needed an emergency trip to the shop. This made picking up the husband at the airport that night a bit troublesome, but some friends came through on that one. Then, we spent the entire day on Wednesday watching the movers load our stuff into the truck, and then unload it and repack it, and repack it again, and again. It got old and tiresome, but it was fine that it took all day to load the truck, because the car wasn't ready at the shop until too late to leave on Wednesday as previously planned. Instead, we left on Thursday morning with a goal of getting out of Texas. We drove 13 hours that first day, and it was a workout. Beaten down tired, we spent the night in Silver City, New Mexico -- we actually made it out of Texas! On Friday, we decided we really wanted to see the Hoover Dam, so we headed there, and got there just in time to sit in two hours of traffic waiting to cross the dam, and only just barely made the very last tour of the day. Impressive little chunk of concrete that is. When we finished with the dam tour (hee hee), it was 7pm. Since we were close, we decided to spend the evening and the night in Las Vegas. Silly us, especially since I wouldn't consider us "Vegas" people, whatever that means. We wandered up and down the strip, seeing all the excessive tackiness that is everywhere. We did ride the roller coaster on top of one of the casinos, though, and that was pretty cool (even with my general fear of heights). Saturday morning we got up and meandered the last few hours into Santa Barbara. We got the key to the place, and "moved in". This means we brought in the suitcase and unrolled the sleeping bags. We lived that way until the moving truck showed up on the following Thursday. That experience of sleeping on the floor reminded me that I'm older than I like to think I am. We then had three days to unpack and get settled. We got most of it unpacked in that amount of time, and it's starting to feel settled. Then it was time to get to new and old jobs -- me back at my "old" job, and my husband off to a new one.

That has been its own adventure, and will be better covered in its very own post. Now I bet you're kicking yourself that you didn't just walk away after the short version. Well, don't say I didn't warn you.

Animal, Apparently

Sometimes one does silly things, like take a muppet quiz.

You Are Animal

A complete lunatic, you're operating on 100% animal instincts.
You thrive on uncontrolled energy, and you're downright scary.
But you sure can beat a good drum.
"Kill! Kill!"


Not sure why I came up this way today, but you should all take this test, as well, and let me know which muppet you are. :)

Sunday, April 01, 2007

The Last Hurrah

Today, the company client conference starts. There are sessions, sure -- I'm giving one of them -- but mostly the next few days are about wining and dining the customers. This is the reason I've stayed in town, even though my house has sold, and it should be a blast. I'll be incongnito for a while, and when I come back, I won't be living in Austin anymore.

See you on the flip side!