No news on the home front

 

I did not want to be like some people and NEVER put up a new post, so thought I would inform you all that not much is going on here.  Work is really starting to pick up in preparation for tax season.  Volunteer training starts next week, so I will go into hiding for a couple weeks – coming out right before the holidays and no time to shop.  I have only bought one of my Christmas presents to date!  I have a lot of work to do and no time to do it – sweet!  We are moving offices too.  I have to give up my very nice office to move to a big room that I will share with 7 other people that has no walls or anything.  Ugh!  The sacrifices we make for our jobs.  It has its positives and negatives.  On the negative side – I have to share a giant room with no walls with 7 other people.  The plus side – I will not be in the same building as the main tax center this upcoming year – so I will actually be able to get work done without being interrupted a million times a day by volunteers.  Also we are on the 7^th floor of a building that has one of the best skyline views in town.  I will take a photo and post it later.

Holiday plans – going to the padres tomorrow night after I pick my sister up from the airport – here is hoping her flight is not a million hours late!  She is leaving out of O’Hare the Wednesday before Thanksgiving at like 5 ish….what are the odds it will be on time?  They did open an extra run way there!  We will have the gourmet meal on Thursday – yum – and then head back to Austin for the football game.  Then Friday morning we head BACK to Salado for the Blair family dinner with the usual cooking – mmmmmm broccoli cheese casserole!  Saturday morning is Brooklyn’s “emergency” baptism – you got to love Catholics – hopefully we can throw in some Mexican food on Saturday as well too.  Then Sunday will be the one day with no plans!

            Speaking of Brooklyn – the latest is that she will have surgery on December 26^th to remove the nonfunctioning part of her kidney.  I know the 26^th sounds like a crappy day but their options from the doctor were Dec 24^th, 26^th or 31^st…….nice!  So be thinking about the baby – hopefully she can stay infection free until then.

            That’s all I got going on right now. Happy Thanksgiving to all!  I hope you enjoy your time with your family as much as I will!

A grocery store boo!

Sorry I have been on hiatus for a while.  I was on, what felt like, my death bed last week.  Missed 3 days of work which I was really not happy about because it cut into my vacation time!  But I am back this week and feeling 99%.  Thank God – never been so happy to be at work. 

 

Pet peeve of the month – grocery store on Sunday!  Like most people I do my grocery shopping on Sunday because that is when it makes the most sense.  I am out already attending church and it is just right across the street.  The problem is – I think I totally negate my Mass attending by the massive amounts of anger I feel upon entering, shopping and exiting the grocery store. 

 

I usually do ok until I get through the produce section and then I really start to get annoyed.  Why you ask….because it freaking annoys me that people come to the grocery store with their entire family!  There will be moms and dads there with g-ma and g-pa and their 5 children!  WHY?!  The store is crowded enough on Sunday – why do you feel the need to bring your entire family with you?!  They block the whole isle as they all form a circle around the grocery basket (or 2) and walk like a mob in the already too small isles!  I totally understand if a single parent has to bring the kids to the store – that makes perfect sense.  But if you have more than one adult living in your house why oh why do you have to bring the whole clan to the store with you?!  Leave the kids at home people – please!

 

Ok that is my soap box for the day – moral of the story – I probably should find a different day to do my grocery shopping.  I think yesterday was overly bad because I was kind of not feeling well, I hate grocery shopping and there was a screaming kid in the store the whole time I was there.  All of these things made my blood pressure rise and the anger easily fell right in place. 

I am officially an Austinite!

I have lived back in Austin now for over 4 years and had yet to make a trip downtown for Halloween.  This is like an Austin right of passage.  Halloween being on a Friday this year – I had no excuse.  So Val offered to make our costumes, which I think she later regretted and will never make a costume for me again, but they turned out awesome!  We got lots of complements.

            We went as ketchup and mustard with our dogs being hot dogs, of course.  Yes we are both aware of the fact that this makes us total freaks and we are 100% comfortable with that.  We did not take the dogs downtown, just took photos with them.

            So 6^th street was a total bust!  (I NEVER go to 6^th street mostly because it is stupid, but it was part of the experience of saying I had done this.)  It was so crowded that you could not even see people’s costumes let alone walk.  There were also massive amounts of very creepy guys video taping people as they walked by.  That is weird!  There were also a lot people down there with their kids and babies at 1 o’clock in the morning, what?!  WHY?!  Needless to say we did not spend much time on 6^th street and if I had not had beers before I would have been very annoyed.

            Despite the crazy trek to 6^th street this was one of the most fun nights I have had in Austin.  I wish I could wear a costume out every weekend!  It was great times!  Here are some photos for your enjoyment!  Thanks for a great time kids!  LOTS more photos on Facebook too.

 

Cousin photo

We saw Harry from Sex in the City. He called himself the King of the Jews – it was kinda funny.

Me and B

Val and Sniggle

They are LOVING it

Big bad wolf