Week in review

As I sit here eating a brownie with icing on top....

2/26 3.88 miles

3/2 6.56 (bike)

3/3 3.36

13.8 miles

On 2/28 and 3/1, I took the days off from exercise to paint Luke's room and bathroom. I was so sore after those 2 days that I'm sure there was some exercise value to the activity. :)

10 years

So this morning, as I was sitting around waiting on the kids to get ready for school, I was pondering lots of things in my imaginary mind. I realized that we have been in Texas for 10 years now. I have to word that carefully, because it wasn't 10 years ago that we moved here - it was 10 years 10 months ago. There was that 10 months that we spent in exile in North Carolina, but I don't like to talk about that.

Cass and I had been living in Huntsville, AL for about 18 months. As part of his job there, he went out to California to attend GDC (Game Developers Conference, which ironically he is at right now). While at GDC back in 2000, he met face-to-face some guys that he had been interacting with on OpenGL message boards. One of the guys, John S. was working at Nvidia and mentioned to Cass that they were opening an office in Austin, TX. Cass had wanted to interview with Nvidia for a while, but he wasn't interested in moving out to San Jose, CA to work for them. But as soon as he heard Austin, TX, he jumped at it.

Right after he got home from GDC, he started interviewing for a job in the Austin office. When he went for face-to-face interviews, it was at the California office. So essentially, he took the job with Nvidia without ever having visited Austin. He came out to start work on 5/10/2000. There were 6 employees in Austin.

So we're here 10 years 10 months later. There was a 16 month stint in Dallas, which is still Texas (but most definitely NOT Austin). And that 10 months mentioned above.

We are Texans now.

RNFs

- Soon we will have 2 children in braces. Joy. Logan got hers back in December. We were waiting on Cami's, because she had some adult teeth that needed root development. They x-rayed her yesterday, and she's ready. $$$

- It will be a miracle if we live through Luke's 2nd grade year. I have nearly had. it. I may not be able to wait until the end of the school year to march into the principal's office and give them an earful.

- Why do I always get stuck planning stuff? Somehow I've been put in charge of planning a reunion for my cousins this summer. (I sort of planned the last one in summer 2009.) This one is a little more complicated, since we're trying to do it in North Georgia.

- Austin's population is now 790,390. Travis county (including Austin) is 1,024,271 (I added 5, since we moved after the census), Williamson county is 422,679, Hays county is 157,107, Bastrop county is 74, 171, Burnet county is 42,750, Caldwell county is 38,066. Total Austin Metro Area is 1,759,044. That's an increase of almost 500,000 people since 2000.

Week in review

I'm back in the saddle WRT exercise. I usually start out jogging and change over to a brisk walk when I start having trouble breathing.

2/18 3.37 miles

2/20 3.61

2/21 2.51

2/22 3.40

2/24 2.97

Total 15.86 miles this week.

My chirrens

I've been playing around with my camera. The kids haven't gotten sick of me taking their pictures yet, thank goodness.

This was taken in a part of our subdivision that overlooks the Colorado River. In the background is Mansfield Dam, that creates Lake Travis - a huge recreational lake outside of Austin.

I could have taken a bunch more, but the kids were sitting in some ant beds. Oops.

Yes, I realize that Cami had her eyes closed. It's still my favorite one of the bunch. I need to see if I can't edit some open eyes on her.

I was an American Airlines snob

I signed up for an American Airlines AAdvantage account on 8/29/2001. To date, I have flown 78,009 miles on American. Not a lot compared to some people (like Cass), but not nothing either.

They used to serve their customers. I remember once, I had a flight snafu while trying to get back home to the kids - and American actually put me on a Delta flight, just to make sure I got home to my kids. They actually went above and beyond to serve a customer. That was years ago though. Now American only serves its bottom line.

They don't care. They simply don't care. Not even if you show them loyalty. Screw you.

I recently flew on Southwest for the first time in AGES. I have always marveled at the fact that they actually turn a profit. I flew Southwest years ago, and it wasn't a pleasant experience. Apparently, Southwest decided to listen to and serve its customers. They do air travel like a well-oiled machine. And they do it without stupid charges tacked on.

I reactivated my Southwest Rapid Rewards account when I got back home. Bye, bye American.

Checking in

I'm scared of Marcus, so I'm checking in and posting something on my blog. :)

• My back - I went to physical therapy for 6 weeks. They tried a little bit of everything - traction, electric stimulation, acupuncture. I also went, on my own, to a medical massage therapist. Oh, and I had to switch orthopedists because my original one couldn't seem to keep an appointment. The results are that my back is probably back to about 85-90%. It doesn't hurt most of the time. I've been able to do light exercise as well as most of my normal kind of activities without aggravating it. For now, I'm ok with it like it is. I'll go back to the doctor if it starts to head in the wrong direction again.
• In a couple of weeks, Cass will have his 1 year anniversary back with nVidia. Thank heavens. That is all.
• Cami took the SAT for Duke TIP on Saturday. She chose it over the ACT because the SAT has an essay component. Sounds crazy, but she's a great writer - she wants to major in creative writing.
• Our travel budget has taken a hit due to all the moves and house purchases/sales in recent years, so we don't have any interesting travel planned for this year. Cass is probably going to Barcelona for work in the spring. That would be a great trip to tag along on, but it probably won't happen. Maybe summer 2012, we can do a big family trip to Europe.
• Cami is going on a trip with a school tours group in June. Her best friend Emily is going along too. They're going to Williamsburg, Washington D.C., and New York.
• Logan had oral surgery over Christmas break. She had to have 4 baby teeth and the 3 adult teeth underneath removed - there was some wonkiness, and it was easier to just take them out. She'll have braces for the next 2+ years to close in the space.
• Luke is sort of following in his Dad's footsteps as far as school behavior is concerned. But he's got a lot of things going for him that Cass didn't have as a child, so hopefully we'll get it worked out.
• I got a new Nikon D3100 SLR camera for Christmas, and I hope to find some time to play around with it and learn how to take great photos.
• Cedar season is going to KILL me. I seem to have lost the immunity I had from allergy shots years ago. It's been awful since right after New Year's. I'm considering going back to the allergist. If I don't die first.