Stille Nacht...

Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht,
Alles schläft; einsam wacht
Nur das traute hochheilige Paar.
Holder Knabe im lockigen Haar,
Schlaf in himmlischer Ruh!
Schlaf in himmlischer Ruh! 

Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht,

Hirten erst kundgemacht

Durch der Engel Halleluja,

Tönt es laut von fern und nah:

Christ, der Retter ist da!

Christ, der Retter ist da!

Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht,

Gottes Sohn, o wie lacht

Lieb' aus deinem göttlichen Mund,

Da uns schlägt die rettende Stund'.

Christ, in deiner Geburt!

Christ, in deiner Geburt!

 Merry Christmas!!

Not without a few snags...

It's been a crazy, chaotic, stressful few days... but we're in our new condo, more or less. Yes, there are boxes everywhere... yes, there is packing paper strewn all over the floor... yes, we seem to be missing a living room lamp... yes, I believe every available space in my kitchen is now occupied and I still have at least three unopened kitchen boxes... but at least we're HERE. And I have to admit, sleeping in my own pillow-top mattress KING-size bed last night was great. The temporary apartment wasn't horrible (contrary to what Rick will say... :)), but that queen-size bed was just not comfortable at all...

In addition to our missing lamp (which, for all we know, is now in our storage unit down the street), I have no idea where the safety key for my treadmill is hiding. The "safety key" is really just a magnet on a bungee cord that you're supposed to attach to yourself -- so if you trip over your own feet and fall, the treadmill automatically stops. The problem is, the treadmill won't WORK without that stupid magnet attached to it... and the guys who packed up our house apparently removed the magnet and stashed it in a random box. So even though my treadmill was reassembled this morning, I can't use it. Fortunately, mom and dad have the same treadmill, and they're bringing me their own safety key when they fly up tomorrow... (Dad does most of his walking outside, anyway... he can do that because it's been 75 degrees in Austin... :))
 
I knew that the guy who was reassembling the treadmill and unpacking our TV boxes was showing up around 9 this morning, but I figured I could sleep until around 8:30 uninterrupted. However, sometime around 6:45 or 7, I was awoken by a faint, insistent, annoying noise. I heard Rick jump up to check his phone, so I thought maybe the alarm on his phone was going off. But his phone was just sitting idle on the kitchen counter... so for a few seconds, we both sat in silence, attempting to figure out where the noise was coming from. It was definitely an alarm... a constant "beep, beep, beep, beep..." but faint, as if it was located in another apartment. In my groggy state, I wondered why our neighbor wasn't hitting the snooze button already... and then it suddenly dawned on us that the sound WAS coming from our place. In fact, it was right in our bedroom. The annoying, insistent sound was coming from one of the seven unopened boxes piled in the corner of the room. Our alarm clock, which apparently has quite a tenacious battery life, has presumably been going off every single morning at 6:45 a.m. since the things in our house were packed up and sent to storage. And, since the alarm will sound continuously for an hour if no one turns it off, Rick and I had to listen to each box in turn to figure out which one contained the clock, so we could open the box and turn it off. Ah, moving is fun...

And now I believe it's time to collapse into my king-size bed once again... hopefully tonight I will NOT be rudely awakened by noises coming from inside a sealed box... :)

Sunday random thoughts...

Wow... less than a week until Christmas?? That's crazy. Where did 2010 go? By the way, you're gettin' nothin' from me this year... whoever you are, wherever you live -- you're gettin' nothin'. Not because I don't care, and not because I don't like you, and not because I don't have the perfect gift in mind... quite the contrary -- I DO care, and I like you just fine, and I probably know EXACTLY what would make you say, "it's just what I wanted!" But we've had neither the time nor the money to focus on Christmas this year. We're moving AGAIN tomorrow, okay? There's too much going on!! Arrrgggghhhhhhh!!

Speaking of moving tomorrow -- we're a little apprehensive about this move. I keep running through my mental list of all the stuff we have, and I'm trying to figure out how much of it will actually fit into the new apartment. And how much of the rest will fit into storage. We got rid of so much stuff before we left Austin, but even so, I'm still worried we have too much... And when I think about it all in my head, it all seems so BIG -- why is all of our furniture so huge?? It's like we were living in the land of giants. Are we giant people??? I'm pretty short, actually... (so maybe it's not all as big as I'm remembering...) And it doesn't help that the building we're moving into has tiny, strangely shaped elevators, which should also make moving quite a challenge. (Tomorrow is going to be a multiple-visits-to-Starbucks day...)

So I think I'm finally getting over this cold that sidetracked me last week. And by the way, a little tip for everyone: do NOT buy tissues from Whole Foods when you have a cold. I mean, look, I love Whole Foods... and I have no problems with using recycled materials and being environmentally responsible and all that. But there are times when you really, really DON'T want your tissues to resemble the fine sandpaper used to finish a lovely piece of woodwork. Sometimes you really need those soft, squishy, excessive-use-of-paper, tree-killing tissues they sell at Walgreens and regular grocery stores. In fact, I couldn't even bring myself to finish off the box of Whole Foods organic, splinter-filled, made-of-recycled-pencils tissues I bought a few days ago -- I had to buy some Puffs from Walgreens. Puffs. Doesn't that sound nice?? You can just HEAR how soft they're going to be. Pufffffffs...

Totally random thought about Facebook: it's really weird sometimes. And I don't understand people who send out random friend requests to people they obviously don't know. For instance, I just received a "friend" request from a certain Mr. Mustafa. (By the way, my original name for him was "Arabic Name Guy" because his name is in Arabic and I had no idea what the English equivalent was. But it turns out you can translate Arabic in Google... cool...) I was also able to figure out that he lists his employer as "Saudi Arabia," which seems a little odd. So no, Mr. Mustafa who works for Saudi Arabia, I really DON'T want to be your "friend." Besides, we would obviously have this whole Arabic/English language barrier to work through...
 
Guess it's time to start thinking about dinner... and then we'll have to get to bed early so we can be up in plenty of time to get to Starbucks before we go to meet the movers. Wish us luck -- tomorrow should be interesting... :) 

Short post... hungry... need food...

I am quite excited about this particular blog post. Why? Because this post marks the 74th of the year, meaning I will, at last, end a subsequent year with MORE posts than the previous year. I had quite a decline last year, thanks in no small part to the fact that I was working full-time and had neither the time nor energy to devote to blog frivolities. But the last few weeks have brought me more free time (especially in this 600-square-foot apartment -- it takes me, like, 20 minutes to clean the whole thing from top to bottom), so I've been able to afford more frivolity...

So here's some random stuff:

We're on target to begin a Monday-morning move-in at our new place. It's so funny -- now that we have the place, we keep second-guessing details: Is there REALLY room for that huge couch we have? Was the wall in the kitchen still painted red like it was in the listing? If we take the leaf out of our dining room table, will it fit in the apartment? Are we going to have enough room in the storage place we've rented for all the stuff that will be leftover?? Was there a tub or just a shower in the master bathroom??? I keep joking that we'll arrive at the apartment on Monday and it'll be a completely different place than what we remember... and actually, I'm only HALF joking... :)

There's something really weird about the water in this apartment. It seems to be turning all my pots a strange bluish hue. (Although now that I'm thinking about it, it COULD be the pots themselves -- they're not really MY pots, they're the pots that the relocation people left in the cupboards. And I'm pretty sure they're the cheapest pots you can possibly buy. They couldn't have sprung for anything more expensive than what you find in the baking aisle of a grocery store...) There's some kind of bizarre H2O/unknown metal reaction going on here, and I'm not quite sure how much longer it'll be safe for me to cook food in these things... Just another reason why I'm looking forward to the new place -- hopefully I can locate my pots and pans quickly...

Well, I'm a little bit starving right now, since all I had for lunch was soup (hoping this cold will run its course soon...), so I'm off to start dinner. But here's photographic proof that my cats CAN get along when they want to:

Awwwww... (wish they'd be this nice to each other ALL the time... :))

Wake up in the morning feeling like P Diddy...

Actually, I can't vouch for that... I have no idea what P Diddy feels like when he wakes up. And I have no idea how Ke$ha knows, either. (By the way, I find it extremely annoying that "Ke$ha" uses a dollar sign instead of an "S" in her name. Nevertheless, I shall, from this day forward, be known as Li$a...)

And I, Li$a, seem to have caught my first Chicago cold. (So I guess we're to assume that when P Diddy wakes up in the morning, he has a stuffy nose, a foggy head, and random muscle aches... actually, yeah, I think that's pretty much what Ke$ha was going for...)

Usually, when I get a cold, I run through my routine in my head to attempt to figure out where I may have picked up such sneaky germs. Never at home, of course... not when I'm constantly washing my hands to eradicate the threat. So that would leave work and anyplace I may have been running errands, like the grocery store or Walgreens. Here in a big city, however, it seems the culprits are much more extensive. I can no longer assume I'm germ-free here at home (or "temporary home"), since hundreds of other people live within seconds of my own domicile. Just yesterday, in fact, I hit a button in the elevator and it was WET -- why was that button wet?? It wasn't snowing yesterday -- it was quite dry and sunny. So why, oh why, was that elevator button wet? (And do I really WANT to know??)

I can't even count the number of doors in various places that I've pushed or pulled open -- grocery stores, coffee shops, restaurants, movie theaters, other apartment buildings... I've been in cabs, I've patted a few strange dogs (they're extra cute when they're outfitted in little doggie sweaters -- I can't help it), I've used foreign treadmills and tried on millions of coats (okay, maybe not millions)... the point is, I can't even BEGIN to think of where I might have picked up this thing.

Oh well... the fact that this is my view when the sun is setting makes up for SOMEthing... :)

Snow... and success!

We had a nice little snow storm yesterday -- nothing TOO bad... I think we ended up with about three or four inches. But it was also windy, which turned every snowflake into a tiny little face-stinging projectile (I really need to figure out how to keep my face covered up when the weather is cold and windy -- it's the ONE thing that really bothers me when I'm outside in the cold). Still, we ventured out for lunch, groceries and coffee:

I don't look TOO cold, do I? :)

In other Chicago news -- we found a place to rent! I'm excited about it -- I think we made a good choice. It's a great location (except for the fact that it's only about a block away from Eric... ;)), has hardwood floors in the living room, a pretty big bedroom (there was a king-sized bed in there when we saw the place, so we know our bed will fit just fine), an actual office with a door (so Rick can shut himself away and work without distractions), and really awesome floor to ceiling windows with a view of the city skyline (which Rick will love once spring arrives and we get some lightning storms...). The kitchen is a little small, but since we have ROOMS where we can sequester our much-too-curious cat, I can make it work.

The funny thing about us choosing this apartment is that as far as "showing" for potential renters, everything was done WRONG with this place. First, when we arrived, we were told that the occupant was home (our agent was under the impression that it was empty) -- but he told us to come on up anyway. Once we walked into the apartment, it was apparent that this guy had done nothing to even ATTEMPT to tidy up. One of the first things real estate agents tell you when you're getting ready to show your place is to get rid of "clutter" -- well, this place was pretty much covered with clutter. Shoes on the floor, food in the kitchen, an unmade bed... according to Rick there was a pair of boxer shorts somewhere, although thankfully I missed that little detail myself. And, the best part (or worst part?) is that the guy who lived there was, as our agent put it, "stoned out of his gourd." (So THAT'S what that weird smell was...)

Yeah, so you might assume that we'd never, ever want to rent this place after that viewing experience... but I guess it's just a testament to the fact that the apartment itself (nevermind its disturbing slacker occupant) was that much better than any of the other places we checked out. Once it's been cleaned (and I'm expecting some sort of top-to-bottom disinfection... seriously, I want NO memory of creepy stoned guy left in that apartment), I'm confident that it will be a great place...

We're hoping to move within the next couple of weeks, so once the aforementioned disinfection has occurred, I'll be sure to post some pictures. Hope everyone had a good weekend! :)

King, queen, rook, bishop, knight and pawn...

I completed a 5K this morning... okay, it was on a treadmill in the gym in my building, but still -- 5K is 5K. (And 5K is actually not that far -- just 3.1 miles. So "5K" sounds more impressive... :)) I think I've figured out that the best time to go down to the gym is right around 8:30 or 9 -- that's right after all the "before work" exercisers have left, and right before the "close to lunch hour" exercisers show up. In fact, the gym is usually empty when I arrive, and then a few people will start showing up as I get to the middle of my workout. I really prefer to work out alone, lest anyone make fun of the girl (who is clearly not a runner) attempting to run on the treadmill... but I can't be picky right now...

I definitely needed to get in a workout this morning, because I spent the evening at Eric's place last night making Christmas cookies... although to my credit, I did not sample one single cookie while I was baking. I didn't even eat one after I'd whipped up some buttercream frosting and started the all-important Christmas-cookie-decorating process. I had amazing restraint, if you ask me. Because I make some GOOD Christmas cookies. (I did, however, accidentally eat one for breakfast. Hey, it was only one! And then I went right downstairs and worked it off on the treadmill! :))

So tomorrow we're checking out a few condos for rent, in the hopes that we can ditch this tiny little apartment and move to a place with a little breathing room. This apartment really isn't that bad, but we seem to have a couple issues -- one is the fact that Rick works from home now, and this "home" doesn't have anything even slightly resembling an office. We don't even have a table. We do have a coffee table, but it's really not conducive to work -- it's too low... you'd have to sit on the floor. This is something I discovered myself this week, as I was attempting to complete some freelance proofreading work -- I'm used to having a big desk or table where I can scatter paper in a rather haphazard (yet completely logical) fashion while I work. Here, I had to juggle everything on the couch (at one point accidentally dropping all 100 pages on the floor by the end table), and it felt a bit disorganized... Rick has the same problem... plus, as I've already mentioned, I can't use any of our insanely loud appliances while Rick is on the phone...

The other issue is our adorable little fuzzball Riff. I really DO think he's adorable, but this cat is driving me crazy. If I make any sort of move toward the kitchen, that cat is immediately up on the counter to investigate. Cooking is nearly impossible unless Rick corrals Riff and keeps him out of the kitchen. I never had this problem in our old house, so I have to assume that Riff is really, really bored because there's not a lot to keep him occupied here... so he likes to expend energy by jumping up on the kitchen counters... (And my counter space here, by the way, is about the size of a chess board... I have a chess-board sized space in which to work, and that cat is constantly yelling, "checkmate!!")

So we'll see what we find tomorrow -- hopefully I'll be posting another photo tour in the not-too-distant future... 

Sunday random thoughts...

Hmmm... our snowfall was a bit disappointing. We only got about two inches, and most of it melted pretty quickly. But it was still nice to watch it falling for a while. Besides, I have a feeling that won't be the only snow we see this winter...

The ABC Family channel has been having a Harry Potter movie marathon the last couple days. They started with the very first movie and have shown each subsequent movie in a row... the first couple of films were making me laugh -- all the main characters look SO young compared to the movie that's in the theater right now. (Of course, NOW they all look much too old to be supposed 17-year-olds... it's like they've all already been through Wizard College and are, in fact, halfway through Wizard Graduate School... Harry is going for a doctorate in Writing Books That Sell a Zillion Copies and Ensure Billions of Dollars for Their Authors...)

Rick and I ventured out into the bitter cold (I believe my nose was about two minutes away from falling off by the time we got back home) and visited the Verizon store, where Rick's intent was to buy an extended-life battery for his phone. And yet somehow we walked out with two new phones (one of which has a nifty purple silicone case... I'll let you guess whose phone that is...).

Eric and I have an appointment to make Christmas cookies this week. I'm all stocked up on flour, sugar, butter and eggs. Rick, for some strange reason, doesn't like frosted sugar cookies. Rick is insane. But that's okay, because that means more cookies for Eric and Rachel and me and whoever else wants any...

ABC Family also keeps showing commercials for Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, which is one of two "children's classics" that totally terrify me. The other is the Wizard of Oz. Both of those movies freak me out... in the case of the former, it's the Oompa Loompas that do it -- I mean, seriously, who in the name of chocolate-coated nightmares thought THOSE things up? Little orange men with green hair who sing creepy songs and "dispose" of children after they've been naughty?? And in the case of the latter, well, there's just SO MUCH that's wrong with the Wizard of Oz -- witches, flying monkeys, talking scarecrows, some kind of opium trip in a field of poppies... oh, and the whole time, Dorothy could've just clicked her ugly shoes together and been back home, but did anyone bother to MENTION that to her? If I want witches, I'll go back to the Harry Potter movies...

Okay, it's about time to start thinking about making dinner in my tiny little kitchen whilst fending off nosy cats... Hope everyone had a great weekend! 

Glad I don't have to shovel...

So I have to say, the best thing about being in Chicago so far has been having the opportunity to hang out with this guy:

Um, yeah, don't ask... it's a really long story... (suffice it to say, my head was buried in my arms on the table because I was laughing so hard... wish I could explain, but really, you had to be there... :))

I am also excited by the weather forecast today, which is calling for a 90 percent chance of snow. I think we're supposed to get three or four inches overnight... and then maybe more tomorrow. (And now I'm wishing I had a decent pair of winter boots... I'll have to put that on my Christmas list...)

I'm getting more used to my tiny little apartment, although we may not be here much longer -- we really didn't consider the distractions that might ensue when one person is trying to work from home, and "home" is a 600-square-foot box. I can't watch TV, run the dishwasher or do laundry for much of the day (too distracting/loud for Rick to make calls, etc.), and I have to time my microwave usage and dish washing in the sink for whenever Rick happens to NOT be on the phone (he seems to be on the phone a lot...). So we're considering some other options (read: more square footage) for January... we'll see what happens...

I've been making use of the fitness center in the building, which is actually quite nice. But I wish I could figure out when the "slow" time is... Every time I go down there, it seems to get busy. And I've never been one to enjoy working out with an audience. But I suppose I should expect that -- in a building with 52 floors and only about eight treadmills, I should be happy to find an empty one at ANY time...

And I am quite happy to report that I think I've already lost my "work" weight -- the few extra pounds that crept up on me over the year and a half that I was sitting in a chair for eight hours a day. I was feeling extremely frustrated with that -- even when I started taking a pedometer to work with me and forcing myself to get up every hour (sometimes even pacing back and forth in my office, just to get in SOME kind of activity), I couldn't seem to drop anything. It may have had something to do with the fact that I tend to eat mindlessly when I get really stressed out... and for a few months there, I was REALLY stressed out. (But now, for some reason, when Rick is traveling, I forget to eat... weird... :))

But speaking of eating, I think we may be heading out into the cold to seek food soon... we'd better get out there before the snow slows us down... :)

My gigantic apartment...

So here it is, the opulent luxury in which I've been living -- try not to be TOO jealous:

The kitchen -- there's no pantry, and not a lot of cupboard space, which is why I have a pile of food in the corner and a bunch of spices and olive oil sitting next to the stove... (By the way, every appliance in this apartment is ridiculously loud -- the microwave, the dishwasher, the washer and dryer... even the refrigerator makes weird buzzing noises...)

Standing in the kitchen, looking into the living room (Rick's computer is occupying what I think is supposed to be the "dining room" -- just a little bar area with a couple chairs...)

Standing in the living room (or dining room??) looking toward the bedroom... (if you look closely, you can see Riff's head poking out of the suitcase... I was packing for Rick's overnight trip to Kansas City...)

Standing in the bedroom looking into the living room...

The bedroom (that fake tree on the balcony was next to the bed when we first got to the apartment -- the first night, when we were trying to sleep, Riff decided the tree would be fun to climb... over and over and over again... We finally had enough and put the tree outside. It was either the tree or Riff. I think we made the right decision... :))

Standing in entry hallway looking into bedroom/living room...

The largest amount of empty space in the whole apartment -- the entry hallway, with a small closet next to the door, the bathroom, and another small closet across from the bathroom. Those closets are pretty much stuffed full... of stuff...

The view (it's nicer when it's sunny, but we've had a few cloudy days in a row now... :)). The Trump building is on the left (with the spire on top), and the Sears Tower (I'm sorry, I just can't bring myself to call it the "Willis Tower") is that black building in the distance on the right. It looks even cooler at night right now -- lots of buildings have red and green lights for Christmas...

And here's Riff, ready to jet off to Kansas City... :)

What I've learned so far...

1) The sound of sirens in the middle of the night can be like a soothing sort of white noise.

2) Taking the train to the airport is actually really easy, as long as your bags are reasonably sized.

3) Rick is about a thousand times better at parallel parking than I could ever hope to be. And this is not some stereotypical "girls can't parallel park" thing... but I really can't parallel park... the fact that I'm a girl has nothing to do with it...

4) It's quite a challenge to cook in a tiny kitchen with two curious cats underfoot... and on the counter... and in the sink... and on the stove...

5) Starbucks Via coffee is awesome...

6) But walking to Starbucks or Argo Tea is even MORE awesome.

7) The 40-degree weather we had yesterday was "actually pretty nice," according to the guy who took our order at Argo. This leads me to believe that I was perfectly justified in buying a second winter coat at North Face -- apparently "real" winter hasn't even started yet...

8) The smaller the residence, the louder the dishwasher. Seriously, that thing is crazy loud. I'm in a chair ten feet away from the TV, and I can't even hear what's going on.

9) It's very convenient to have a grocery store downstairs, especially when you lug home four bags of groceries and immediately remember five items you forgot to buy...

10) You don't realize how often you use a garbage disposal until you have a kitchen without one.

11) I really, really, really can't wait to have a bigger place so I can get the cats' litter box out of my bathroom... :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Is everyone ready to eat way too much and then sit in front of a TV for hours?? Good! :)

Stuff I am thankful for:


*Family and friends -- this year, I'm especially thankful for my second-favorite-possibly-adopted brother Eric and my beautiful new sister-in-law.

*A move that went about as smoothly as possible, even with: only a week to pack for three different destinations (Vegas, a temporary apartment, and a storage facility); an awesome wedding to attend; a car that was packed too full and had to be completely reorganized and resulted in a few things being left behind; days of too little sleep and too much coffee (what?!? There's no such thing! :)); and a mom who was in the ER and at the hospital for tests the day before the cats were scheduled to be flown up to Chicago.

*And I'm thankful that mom made it to Chicago with the cats and is feeling better! (And hopefully will KEEP feeling better over the next few weeks!) And she made pie today!! :)

*Coffee, chocolate, and gelato (it seems like I've been eating a lot of gelato lately...)

*An almost absolute assurance of snow this year, with a definite possibility of a white Christmas.

*The excitement of a new city and new places to explore.

*Road trips, purple sweaters, online shopping, giant coffee mugs, lip balm, the sound of the ocean (especially when lying on a beach in Hawaii), multi-colored pens, sugarless gum, cool hotels, music, spicy food (and Cholula hot sauce to make previously un-spicy food spicy), sleeping in, hot chocolate with marshmallows, and lists of random thoughts...

*And finally, I'm thankful that no REAL Muppets were harmed in the creation of the pillow that was on our hotel room bed in Las Vegas:

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!!

Back in Austin... with random pictures!

It seems like every time I'm at my parents' house, I end up finding pictures I'd forgotten were taken. Which means, of course, that some of them are bound to find their way onto the blog. In lieu of pictures of Steve and Faisal dancing together at Eric's wedding (which I am sooooo tempted to post... but I won't, because at least half of that couple would like to maintain his professional image... :)), I present some other random (less embarassing) stuff:

A rather blurry picture of me, Eric and Bob at the wedding (but I think I look better blurry, anyway... :))

My cousins Kevin and Steve, and their wives Kristina and Jess (who happens to be my coffee doppleganger ;))...

My cousins Dan, Zac and Luke... (did anyone notice that all my cousins are guys? And I have two brothers? And when I was growing up I was the only girl? I think this may have scarred me for life... :))

Eric and Rachel looking all cute...

At Giordano's pizza in Chicago with Eric and Debbie -- I think this was sometime over the summer...

I'm not sure what was going on in this picture, but Rick, Eric and I look really silly for some reason...

At Stanley's, home of life-changing fried chicken AND the Longhorns! (Nevermind the fact that the Longhorns are horrible this season... it's just good to know we have a place to watch games with other Longhorn fans...)

Eric, Bob and me having breakfast at the Penninsula Hotel (they have great French toast)...

And finally, I have to include some pictures of sweet little Kiko, who went to kitty heaven to visit Allegro last week -- in fact, it sounded like Kiko was suffering from the same recurring strokes that afflicted Allegro in her last year of life. So they'll have plenty to talk about in between heaven-mouse chases and feasts of tuna and naps on fluffy cloud pillows...

Settling in...

It has been a crazy few weeks -- packing, movers, more packing, Eric's wedding, more packing, driving a thousand miles, unloading the car at our new place, UNpacking, trying to get settled... and in a couple days we'll be flying back to Austin for Thanksgiving. Yup. I am officially wiped out...

Moving in was a bit easier than I expected -- we took care of parking in about two minutes, got the keys to our place without much trouble, and borrowed a luggage cart to haul our stuff from the car up to the 20th floor. It only took three trips to unload everything, and once we had, it was painfully obvious how small our new apartment was. I mean, all we brought was what could fit into a CAR, and yet it still took up tons of space in the apartment. But after a couple days of unpacking and rearranging and creatively using random empty areas, I seem to be managing the clutter rather effectively. For now. We still have a few boxes of clothing and bathroom items back at mom and dad's house, and we're hoping to mail them up here when we're in Austin next week. The problem, of course, is that just about every available space in this apartment is already occupied with something... so I'm afraid the "uncluttered" look won't last very long...

Riff and Piva are adjusting, as well -- actually, Riff is doing great and is acting like his usual mischievous self... Piva is taking a bit longer to get back to "normal." She hides under the bed quite a bit (although I suppose I shouldn't assume she's hiding -- maybe she just really likes sleeping under the bed...). And even though I can't read cat minds, I'm fairly certain they're both wondering what happened to the rest of the house... in fact, I think they may be suspicious that we've shut them inside a large bedroom, and just outside that doorway at the end of the hall is a many-roomed abode with plenty of space to run. The first night we were here, I had our empty suitcases sitting in the hall across from a large hanging mirror. Riff jumped up onto the suitcases, looked over at the mirror, apparently thought something along the lines of "oh, THERE'S the rest of this place," and proceeded to lunge at the reflection... needless to say, I moved the suitcases...

My one complaint so far is that someone nearby in this building is a smoker, and the smoke travels through the air ducts and gets into our nice, smoke-free apartment. It's especially bad in the bathroom, from about 7 o'clock until midnight or so... whoever it is must get home from work and immediately light up, then chain smoke until bed... yuuuuuuuuck... But hopefully we won't be here for TOO long...

I do, however, love the fact that I can get to Whole Foods without even leaving my building, and today I found a Starbucks just down the block. I happen to know we're also within walking distance of Argo Tea, several Walgreens drugstores, Ghirardelli, and all the shops on Michigan Avenue. Ghirardelli is the most important, of course... :) I need to explore the neighborhood more, because I'm sure there are plenty of other shops and restaurants that I don't know about...

We're about to head out to meet my parents for dinner, but hopefully I'll be able to post a few pictures soon. I mean, I'm sure everyone wants the grand tour of my 600-square-feet of magnificent opulence...

Home sweet, uh, soon-to-be not home...

We're back in Austin for another, oh, 8 hours or so. I'm doing a quick load of laundry, and then heading straight to bed (it really FEELS like midnight right now, even though it's only 10 back in Vegas -- I think traveling by plane really saps my energy for some reason. But I guess that's good... I'm already reacclimated to the central time zone... :)). We'll hopefully be out of here by 7:30 or 7:45 tomorrow morning, and we'll see how far we get by tomorrow night...

I'm actually a little nervous about moving into the temporary apartment -- we haven't even SEEN the place yet, so I'm hoping it's okay. I mean, sure, it's only temporary... but I'd still like to be relatively comfortable in my temporarity (yes, I just made that word up). Temporarity comfortability. That's what I'm looking for...

And since the dryer just buzzed to inform me that my clothes are dry, I must go fold, pack, and get some sleep. I doubt I'll have a chance to post anything tomorrow, so -- see you in Chicago!!

Wedding pics!

I can't believe my little brother is married!! :) It was a great weekend with lots of family (my cousin Luke even flew in all the way from Switzerland!) and friends -- it was so nice to have everyone in the same place at the same time to celebrate with Eric and Rachel. We're about to head out to dinner, but here are a few pictures from last night:

Tomorrow we'll be flying back to Austin, and then bright and early Tuesday morning we'll be on the road (in a car that is packed as full of stuff as it can possibly be) to Chicago. If all goes well, we'll be pulling into our new home city sometime Wednesday afternoon, and attempting to get settled into our downsized apartment... this should be interesting... :) 

My day in haiku...

Packers are here now

Discombobulation reigns

I wish I could sleep...

Tired... sooooooo tired...

This week has FLOWN by -- I can't believe how quickly time passes when you have five million things to do and a finite amount of time to do them. I feel like I've accomplished a lot this week, but somehow I think I should feel more prepared for the next few weeks... as it is, I feel totally UNprepared. I still have things to pack, I still have laundry to do, I still have things to throw away... we still have furniture that, thankfully, some friends are taking off our hands tomorrow (although there's more where that came from... furniture? Anyone??).

But I definitely have figured out the pancake thing... in fact, I think it's safe to say that I've got mad pancake-making skillz...

So, if anyone wants a really great pancake breakfast, feel free to come visit me in Chicago. Because if I've learned one thing this week, it's how to make super good pancakes (and I managed to use up all our eggs and most of the bottle of syrup I had in the fridge... that was really my main motivation...).

My plans for tomorrow include more packing, more laundry, and drinking lots and lots of coffee. (But no pancakes, because, as I mentioned, I am now completely out of eggs.) But for now, I'm off to bed... hope everyone has a good weekend! :)

Aaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh!! Part 3...

Been running around like crazy the last few days, but I'll take a quick break and jot down some random stuff:

Aaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh!!!! (Oh, wait -- I already said that... well, it's probably worth repeating... :)) It's starting to really hit me that I have less than a week until people are coming to pack up all our stuff and move it into storage, and I still have soooooooooo much to do. For some reason, I thought it would be easier to pack for a temporary apartment... I have managed to buy some new sheets and a blanket for the bed in the apartment (it's a queen and we have a king, so I didn't have any suitable bedding), which are now all washed and folded and ready to go... and I've packed some towels and a bunch of sweaters... and I've done about fifteen thousand loads of laundry... and I've started getting some stuff together in the kitchen and in the bathroom... but I've still got quite a lot of work to do before we're ready to go...

So who's excited to see the holiday drinks back at Starbucks?? I loooooove peppermint mochas and gingerbread lattes. Although I have to admit it seems a little too early to be reintroducing them -- if I'm remembering correctly, they waited until the week before Thanksgiving last year. That seems more appropriate... but I'm not going to complain, since I do love a decent peppermint mocha...

Why does it seem like all your stuff multiplies when you're about to move? I mean, really, how did I accumulate so many pens and unread magazines and random bottles of perfume? (Should I throw it all away? Or will I be doing a lot of writing and have plenty of time for light reading and need to constantly smell good once I'm in Chicago??)

I have been using my suddenly free weekday mornings to perfect my pancake recipe. I found a couple pancake recipes online a few weeks ago (including one on a food blog, whose author proclaimed the recipe to be "the best pancake recipe ever!!"), and tried them out one weekend -- they were HORRIBLE. The "best pancake recipe ever," in particular, was an eggy, chewy, culinary disaster, and I couldn't figure out why anyone would make it more than once (and I DID follow the recipe correctly, in case you're wondering... :)). So I've been experimenting with my OWN recipes -- each day they've been tasting better and better, and I think today's was ALMOST perfect. I added a few dashes of cinnamon to the batter, and it really made them quite tasty. I'm just hoping I can remember the proper amounts of ingredients I used -- I tend to not write down recipes... I'm one of those "I'll try a little of this and a little more of that" kind of cooks. Which, surprisingly, works out pretty well most of the time...

Okay, I should get back to work, lest I forget to do something important... By the way, I had a dream the other night that when we arrived at our temporary apartment in Chicago, I opened the refrigerator, and it was full of jars of olives. Like fifteen jars of olives. Nothing but olives. What does that mean??? (That means you have really weird dreams, Lisa... :)) Back to packing... 

And one more makes nine...

I just realized that if I threw in one more post this month, I'd be up to NINE posts for the month -- a record for this year! (That's pretty sad... :)) So here ya go:

Happy Halloween!!

And that's pretty much all I've got for now. But hey, I made it all fancy for ya and everything... I mean, it must've taken me 50 whole seconds to color every other letter of that phrase orange. I spare no effort for you guys. ;)

See you in November!

Some random stuff...

Happy Monday, everyone! Normally I wouldn't be quite so chipper on a Monday, but this is my LAST WEEK of work!! (Oh my gosh, I just realized that in a week, I'll be able to sleep past 5:30 on Monday morning... I. Can. Not. Wait. :)) And then we will commence with the mad dash to pack up and move... the next few weeks are going to be veeeeery interesting...

Craziness abounds at the moment, so here are some random thoughts that I plucked from my discombobulated mind:

Hey, look at that -- I managed to post 8 times in a month again! Who's impressed? Anyone?? Anyone at all?? No? Just me, then? Okay...

So is it silly that since Rachel mentioned the Trader Joe's near our temporary apartment, that I'm even MORE excited to live there for a little while? 600 square feet? Ha! Bring it on... :) Seriously, I've wanted to visit a Trader Joe's for the longest time -- I read a bunch of healthy living/food blogs and people are constantly mentioning the various items they've bought at Trader Joe's. And I'm always like, "why can't we get one of those HERE??" What, because Whole Foods started in Austin, they've got a monopoly on the market market? (Yes, I DID say the "market market"...) By the way, a quick internet search for "Trader Joe's Austin" brought up a "petition to bring Trader Joe's to Austin." So I'm not the only person who wishes there was one in this city...

I just realized that I have yet to tell the harrowing tale of the Ugly Naked Tourist: When we were in Chicago last week, we stayed in a hotel with a view of the hotel across the street. The morning that we left, I noticed there was a meeting room on the third or fourth floor of the hotel, and a bunch of people were gathered around a conference table (looking rather bored, if you ask me). We went to breakfast, came back, and they were still there... an hour later, STILL there. I was starting to feel really sorry for these people stuck in the seemingly endless meeting. So right before we checked out, I decided to look out my window once more and see if they were still in the meeting. The rest went something like this:

Now where was that conference room? The fourth floor? I think it's somewhere near that guy with the towel... wait... what is he doing with that towel? Wait, wait WAIT -- what's underneath the towel??? Is he... is that guy... no, don't move the towel! Don't move the towel!! Oh nononononononono... 

Me: Nooooooo...

Rick: What's the matter? 

Me: Uhh, is that guy standing in the window across the street naked??? 

Rick (after a cursory glance): Yup.

Me (Running from window and covering my eyes): EEEEEEEWWWW... EWEWEWEWEWEWEW!!! 

Rick thought perhaps the guy was under the impression that his window was tinted, but when I told Eric about it, he said it was probably some weirdo exhibitionist. Which, I think, makes it even worse, because apparently he was standing there HOPING some unsuspecting girl in the hotel across the street would notice him. Ughhh... ick...

And oh yeah, those people were STILL stuck in that meeting... :)

Aaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh! Part 2...

(Random thought: I don't know WHAT is out in the Austin air today, but I am feeling extremely allergic to something right now... And a frantic search through my bag has turned up nothing but benadryl, which I can't take during the day because I'll fall asleep... Although if this keeps up for much longer, I may have to make an exception...)

Anyway, back to the subject that is taking up the majority of my brain space at the moment: moving to Chicago!! So far, it looks like the plan (what there IS of one) is to commence with the moving process right after Eric's wedding, which is going to make for an extremely busy couple of weeks. (Sheesh, Eric, couldn't you have gotten married at a time that was more convenient for me?? ;)) We've already signed a lease on a temporary apartment downtown, where we'll stay while we continue to condo-hunt and wait for our house here to sell. I'm reeeeaaaaallly hoping it will sell quickly. And I'm not just saying that because I'm anxious to get settled into a permanent residence (although I am), but also because our temporary apartment is about 600 square feet...

And honestly, I'm not sure I've EVER lived in a 600 square foot apartment. My first apartment was about 1000 sf, I think -- although it was a two-bedroom and I had a roommate. And when Rick and I were first married, I think our apartment was about 800 sf? Maybe 900? Anyway, this extreme, immediate downsizing should be interesting... The bedroom doesn't even have a door... which, I just realized, means I can't throw Riff out when he's being annoying in the middle of the night. Oh boy... this is going to be veeeeeery interesting...

The good thing is that this apartment is in a great location that we're already pretty familiar with, so I have my Argo Tea/Starbucks locations mapped out already. AND there's a Whole Foods in the building, so grocery shopping will be easy. And really, if you have groceries and coffee, what more do you need?? (Maybe a winter coat... yes, definitely a winter coat...)

I'm going between panic and excitement right now -- I mean, in less than a month, most of our stuff will be in storage, we'll be living in a tiny little downtown Chicago apartment, and a REAL winter will be unleashing its freezing cold fury upon us... and while I'm slightly freaking out over the planning that still needs to be done, I'm actually more excited than anything else. This is going to be a huge change for us, and I'm looking forward to seeing how it all unfolds...

That is, if anything CAN unfold in a 600 square foot apartment... :) 

Comfortability, revisited...

So Faisal, the Master Aficionado of Comfortability Extraordinaire (aka MACE... and yes, I DID spend several minutes coming up with an acronym), sent me a message last night to inform me of the fact that a baseball commentator had used the made-up word "comfortability" on the air, thus, apparently lending credence to its so-called "right" to be a real word. Much like Pinocchio wished to be a real boy, comfortability wishes to be a real word. (Shut up, Singing Cricket... you can wish upon all the stars you want... it won't change anything...)

Just a few weeks ago, my friend Nick posted something on his Facebook wall about how he'd heard a sports commentator use the made-up word "physicaling." It was used in the sentence, "Right now, South Carolina is just out physicaling Georgia." (Perhaps that should be hyphenated? Out-physicaling?) I only mention this to illustrate the fact that many sports commentators aren't exactly English-language experts. (Perhaps a few are, who knows. But they're certainly not the ones using "comfortability" and "physicaling." ;))

I, being a nerdy kinda girl, have many language pet peeves that probably roll right off the backs (or off the ears... or eyes, depending on the medium...) of most English-language speakers. Comfortability and physicaling aside, there are quite a few words that are commonly misused that tend to drive me crazy. (I suppose I shouldn't let such things bother me... :)) There are the easy-to-miss-one-letter-on-the-keyboard words like choose and chose and lose and loose (although I've seen them interchanged so frequently that I have to assume some people don't realize they're different words...); and then there are the "you should know which ones to use by now" words like then and than, your and you're, and there, their and they're. (Really, you should KNOW which ones to use by now...).

And then there's the Me vs. I Conundrum, which I've become even more acutely aware of since joining Facebook. People love to post pictures of themselves with their friends/family/dogs/whoever... and it is very rare that I see a correctly captioned photo. Almost everyone -- even people who are decent writers -- will caption a photo with something like, "my dog and I," or "Joe, John, Jimmy and I." It seems that, after years of hearing the "so-and-so and I" format (who didn't have an English teacher who drilled that into their head??), we've become too scared to use "so-and-so and ME," even when "me" is the proper word. You wouldn't say, "here's a picture of I..." You'd say, "here's a picture of me." In the same way, the proper way to caption a photo would be, "my dog and me" or "Joe, John, Jimmy and me." This is ME. Not, "this is I."

Okay, I'm getting too nerdy even for my own taste... I want to push myself into a locker and call myself "teacher's pet." I should obviously shut up now. Right after I let the MACE know how wrong he is... (And, by the way, I am hoping I didn't make any mistakes in this post... because no doubt someone... SOMEone... will feel compelled to point them out to me... :))

I'm off to post some Facebook pictures of my cat... and me...

Soon to return...

We're leaving Chicago this afternoon, after a much-too-quick condo-searching expedition. We also had the chance to hang out with Dave and Faisal this weekend -- I hadn't seen either one of them in... years? I think? A really, really long time, anyway. And I'm still amazed by how much food Dave manages to eat... I think he may have four stomachs... like a cow. Yeah. Dave MIGHT be part cow. Just sayin'... :) And we got a chance to see Faisal's new place in the city (getting to it was quite the adventure -- perhaps when I have more time I can describe our journey in detail), which has an AWESOME view and tons of light. As someone whose mood is directly affected by sunlight, I was impressed by the amount of luminosity. However, I didn't spend enough time there to comment on the comfortability... maybe another time...

We found a few condos we're very interested in, so now we have millions of little details to work out so we can figure out when/what to put an offer on. It seems to be complicated, judging from the phone calls Rick has been making this morning... but hopefully in another month or so, we'll have a solid plan in place...

I'm always sad to leave Chicago, but perhaps this time it'll be sliiiiightly easier to get on that plane back to Austin, since I know that the moment I get back home I'll be hard at work getting ready to move. (Cleaning... so much cleaning... so... much... cleaning...)

See you back in Austin....

Aaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh!!

That would be the sound my brain is making right now, as it attempts to wrap itself around the inevitability of the busyness that abounds. We've got an impromptu condo-searching trip to Chicago planned for this weekend, which means I have to pack tonight... but we also have two realtors and possibly a mover (? I can't remember) coming by on Tuesday, Wednesday and possibly Thursday next week. Which means I also need to clean the house at the same time I'm packing, because I obviously can't clean it this weekend, and I won't have time on Tuesday before the realtor shows up. Fortunately, the house doesn't need to be immaculate at this point -- we're not actually showing it to people yet -- but it still needs to be presentable. I'd hate for a realtor to go into my closet and see the dozens of shoes thrown haphazardly on the floor, or to see all the junk mail that has piled up on my kitchen counter...

Our awesome Chicago realtor has some places lined up for us to see on Saturday. (By the way, if anyone is in the market for a place in Chicago, I HAVE to refer you to our realtor. She's like a Chicago Real Estate Superhero... she tromps through foot-high snowdrifts in boots with four-inch stiletto heels and maneuvers her SUV through the streets like an Indy driver... and then she double-parks and doesn't care who sees. She also finds EXACTLY the kinds of things you're looking for, so you don't waste any time seeing places you'd never think of buying. Oh, and I think she's a triathlete or something... because even though she's shorter than I am, I wouldn't want to make her mad if I met her in a dark alley...)

So tonight we're ordering pizza, throwing some stuff into suitcases, Windexing the bathroom mirrors and vacuuming the house. I should probably also throw out the junk mail and try to organize my shoes. And then some time between trying to remember to pack dental floss and showing my ID at the airport check-in counter, I have to sleep, make oatmeal and work for a few hours. But, if I emerge with my sanity intact, I shall be rewarded with Chicago rush-hour traffic on the way to the hotel... wait... that doesn't sound like a reward. Okay, if I survive THAT with my sanity intact, I shall be rewarded with Starbucks coffee in the shop next door to the hotel. Yeah, that sounds much more rewarding... :)

And can somebody tell me why I'm still writing when I have so much to do?? :)

And THIS time, we mean it...

If you're one of the three or four people who've been reading my blog for a few years, you will recall that back in 2008, we were waiting anxiously to hear about a job in Chicago. And it was taking a long time. Like a REALLY long time. In fact, I wrote a day-by-day recap of the whole ordeal. Everything was held up in human resources, apparently... and I, being curious, delved deep into the jungles of Costa Rica to search for the person in charge of this slow-as-molasses department:

Just as I suspected. A tree sloth...

Well, recently, Rick and I got to experience round two of the Great Chicago Unknown. I kept it off the blog this time, since I know there are a few people where I work who read the blog now and then. And I believe it's generally frowned upon, when you're employed, to talk about how you hope to be leaving your job soon to move across the country.

But the cat's out of the bag and the dog's out of the grocery cart and the coffee has been poured out of the carafe (yeah, I have no idea where "the cat's out of the bag" came from -- why was the cat IN the bag to begin with???), so I can finally say this:

WE'RE MOVING TO CHICAGO!!!!!!

I shall return with more details soon... :)

Crazy cat lady...

I told Eric I was going to blog about this to make him jealous, so here we go: I made butternut squash soup for dinner. Yuuuum. Although Eric should be happy to hear that it was NOT Basil Leaf butternut squash soup (which I think is more of a pear-sweetened soup with hints of cinnamon), but rather a savory, curried butternut squash soup, with black beans and garbanzos thrown in for good measure. I was surprised by how good it turned out, actually -- I didn't have a recipe, so I just kind of guessed at what might taste good. Fortunately, I made some good guesses. Even Rick (who gave me a, "did you put curry in this? I don't like curry..." when I gave him his bowl of soup) ate every last bit. (So I guess the curry wasn't THAT bad?? ;))

And on another topic entirely -- apparently I am the crazy cat lady. No, I haven't brought another cat home -- still only two little furballs in my house -- but I DO seem to keep taking pictures of them. But c'mon -- they're so photogenic:

Yes, I went for the black-and-white setting on my camera... the mood was not unlike that time I was arrested in Albania and had to pose for the mugshot:

Yeah, don't ask about THAT night... (No, really, don't ask, because I have no idea why Albania was the first country that popped into my head, OR why I'm having delusions of being arrested there... and can I just ask -- WHAT is going on with my hair??) Sigh... I seriously need some focus in my life so I can write about something coherent for a post or two... Although I'm definitely living up to my "random tangents" moniker. So I'll just take what I can get for now. :)

Brrrr... sort of...

I am loving the weather here today -- sunny, not a cloud in the sky, and the high was only about 75 degrees. In fact, when Rick and I headed out to the Domain around 11 this morning for brunch, it was almost (ALMOST) cold... it was definitely a bit chilly. I mean, maybe not like Montana "coat-and-scarf" chilly:

  

And definitely not Chicago "coat-scarf-hat-gloves-I-wish-I-had-something-to-cover-my-face" chilly:

(Chicago "I-wish-I-had-something-to-cover-my-face-I-guess-I'll-use-my-scarf" chilly:)

No, it was not THAT chilly here today... but it WAS close to long-sleeved shirt weather. In fact, for a few minutes this morning, as we walked around the Domain to waste some time before our table at the Steeping Room was ready, I was actually wishing I'd brought a sweater. (This wish dissipated once we'd walked a mile-long lap around the shopping center... I warmed up pretty quickly...)

The weather inspired me to buy some fall-scented candles on the way home, which are now lit and filling the air with waxy pumpkin pie/apple cider smells. I love when there's finally a detectable "change" in the seasons here...

Now I wonder what the odds are of a white Christmas this year? Hmmmm... I can hope... ;)

Success... more or less...

It's September 30, which means: I need one more blog post to hit my goal of eight posts for the month! So here we go...

Um, apparently I overestimated my ability to extract worthy blog material from thin air... hold on just a second...

Yep, just as I suspected -- I'm gonna have to resort to my blog topic fall back: random thoughts... really SHORT random thoughts... (sorry, it's the best I can do right now... :))

1) Is tomorrow seriously October?? This year is going by too quickly...

2) We had a fire drill at work yesterday. It felt like being in grade school again. Except for the eardrum-poppingly loud alarm in the building. Like RIDICULOUSLY loud. I guess it's to make sure no one will even ATTEMPT to stay inside the building in the case of a real fire...

3) I actually saw a commercial today for Kmart layaway -- for Christmas. Sheesh -- you could at LEAST wait until Halloween. Who starts their Christmas shopping this early, anyway?? (And if you happen to be one of those people -- just shut up. I don't want to hear about how you have everything bought and wrapped by Halloween. ;))

4) Rick and I have discovered a way to keep the cats away from the blinds at night when we're trying to sleep -- a can of compressed air. They HATE the sound it makes -- in fact, ever since we figured out how much they hate the sound of hissing air, they've barely touched the blinds. We keep the can nearby as a deterrent... they dare not anger the Threatening Overlord of Pressurized Air...

5) Hey, tomorrow is Friday!!

6) Is anyone else disturbed by the Old Navy commercials with the mannequins? There's just something really weird about totally immobile "spokespeople"...

Okay, I know it wasn't much, but I DID manage to post eight times this month. Yay me. Sort of... :) Hope everyone has a good weekend!

Very random pictures...

Random Riff!

 Random Piva!
 

 Random blurry Lisa!

 Random chocolate (this stuff is so good)!

Random fall-colored bowls!

Hmmm... I guess there wasn't much to talk about today? :)