Austin, We Love You, But It's Time For Us To Hit the Road!!

We thought our time in Austin would be a month, five weeks at the most.  Then we found out that our good friend Jess would be visiting Texas in late January, so we decided to delay our trip a bit so we could see her.  After all, she did fly all the way down here from Rhode Island to surprise us in June!!

So, we adjusted our departure date to Jan 18.  The plan was to drive to Houston, visit all my family, see Jess, and drive on to Key West.  We'd hang out in Key West for a week with Greg's dad, then head up the Atlantic coast through the Carolinas, into Pennsylvania, up to NYC, Rhode Island, Maine, Canada, etc, etc, etc.  Great plan, right?  

Not so fast.  

We couldn't find a place for Kipper in Key West!  And, some of our tenants gave their notice that they would be moving to California to pursue a job opportunity after their lease is up in March (*sad face* we really like Greg & Heather).  

OK, no problem.  We're nothing if not flexible.  We'll just come back to Austin after the Key West leg of our trip and deal with the open property.  And Scott & Amy offered to take care of Kipper for the few weeks we'd be gone (I have no idea how we're going to repay all their generosity!!!).  We'll drive my little Mazda to Florida and back since it gets better gas mileage.  And, coming back will give us a chance to do our taxes.  So we'll come back to Austin, take care of some stuff, collect the dog and LeTigre, and resume the trip up the Atlantic coast.  Another plus: by delaying the drive up the Atlantic coast, we might avoid some of those nasty winter/spring storms that blow through that area.  So everything's working out, right?

Well, sorta. 

We decided to stick around longer to deal with the property so we (read that: Greg) can relax while we're gone.  Argh.  No offense to Austin....it's been beautiful weather and we've been able to spend lots of great time with all our friends and family, but other than that have Nothing. To. Do.  We have no jobs.  We can't go out that much because we're still on our budget.  I can't shop (*another sad face*).  We can watch only so much Netflix....I'm all caught up on shows I didn't even know existed!  So we're getting a little antsy.

But, things are already looking up, as things have a tendency to do, given enough time.  We've got a couple of good leads on new tenants.  With any luck, that will be dealt with soon and we can head out.  A bit late, but no biggie.

In the meantime, I need a distraction from pacing around the dining room table.  And now I've bored you with a too-long explanation of what's going on.  Enough with the verbose play-by-play of our plans.  Here are some pictures of what we've been up to for the last few weeks!  

Speaking of play-by-play, I don't think this needs one.  Needless to say, "my" team lost. 

Remember this?  Well, I tried to make it .........

 ....with less than stellar results.  It looked and tasted raw, even after twice the amount of time in the oven.

We witnessed the first carrot pulled from the Ryder's garden.

 And hung out with Stacey and Maslow at the park.  Gotta love the expression on Maslow's face.

 We ate at hopdoddy's A LOT.  They have very delicious hamburgers.
This is actually the "Buffalo Bill", a bison burger, yum.

 We took Vince to Sarovar for his birthday.  Ali is appropriately impressed with the Paper Dosa.

 We went to a party at South Congress Athletic Club.  When else can you go to to a gym and drink beer?

 We went to an "art" show where this was one of the "art" pieces.  We weren't impressed.  Am I an art snob?

 Ania's birthday!

 The de Valpines, being cute.

 We had to make some modifications to the Mazda so we could fit camping gear and supplies for a road trip to Florida.  Greg took out the back seat.......

 ......and we did a dry run pack........

 .....and fit everything in my little car!!  Including 2 full-sized bikes, a tent, sleeping bags, full-sized cooler, a small camping grill, kitchen stuff, a food bin, pillows, etc.

LeTigre and the Mazda (does the Mazda need a name?), both called to the line of duty.