We're still here!

A NEW BLOG!!!!

I pretty much start every blog with the promise that I’ll post more, but after 5 months of no blogging I’ve failed badly on that guarantee. Madelyn and I have gotten really terrible about taking pictures… which is somewhat the basis of the blog. I’m going rogue; I’m blogging even though we don't have many new pictures to share with the world/family/5 people who read this blog.

What have we been up to? Well, on the surface I would say “not much”, but the more I think about it… a lot.

A hot Austin summer means Barton Springs as much as possible. I can't explain in words how incredible this place is, you need to come to Austin and experience it for yourself. Just ask Madelyn's mom, on her last visit she took a dip into the 68 degree water! Compared to last year (the hottest summer on record) this summer was nothing, but it was still hot.

Living here means Texas shaped block of cheese at the grocery store...

... and Texas sized amounts of ground beef. Ew.

I'm not sure if you know, but in Austin we're considered celebrities. This is the photo the Austin Newspaper took of us at an "elite" party downtown.

We've been looking for a new office chair and hit the jackpot at the local vintage store. This is a 1965 chair by some famous designer! Score! We paid less that we would have paid at IKEA! It looks pretty awesome in our house... and it was totally Mad Men inspired.

I took this picture at the store... what this picture is missing is the witch cackle Madelyn was making.

If you come to Austin we'll take you to Gourdough's, which makes fresh donuts with all sorts of crazy toppings and fillings! You like donuts with bacon? What about a doughnut filled with peanut butter and jelly?Amazing! Served out of a trailer like all Austin cuisine. Why? Because we like to keep things weird around here.

The biggest news is that Madelyn no longer works for the tobacco chewin’, sexist, racist, rude, jerk, idiots that ripped off customers and didn’t know how to run a business. Was that a good enough description? Now she has a much better job doing the same accountant type work for a prestigious interior designer in downtown Austin. She upgraded to an old historic house downtown, gets to work with creative people, has staff meetings at nice restaurants, and gets to see amazing design everyday. It’s the perfect situation, she gets to crunch numbers and be creative. She’s getting a left and right brain workout! Her new boss also likes to send notes, or tell her on the phone, letting her know what a job she’s doing. It sounds simple, but for the past three years she hasn’t heard any words of encouragement from her employer! Yuck. She’s a trooper for putting up with all that B.S.!

The best part of quitting a job and starting a new one is the nice gap in between. Madelyn made the best of this by taking a trip to Utah for nearly 2 weeks.

Madelyn and her sister not only look alike, but they both like green and smile down.

Madelyn and her newish nephew Miles.

We’ve hung up our gloves after a year of playing softball. Lots of bruises, a broken nose, tons of strikes, and missed catches… we are pausing our career as terrible softball players. We’re going for a career in bowling which we start in a couple weeks with our newly formed bowling league. I also joined a kickball league here in Austin and discovered that kickball is a lot harder than I remembered. I wasn’t any good at kickball as a kid, and found out I’m even worse as an adult. I had a great time, and the best part is I played with all the waiters and waitresses from our favorite restaurant… free drinks and queso from here on out!

I know you’re all on the edge of your seat for a dog update… Rocky and Sugar are doing great. They’ve been accompanying me on my runs, they can make it about 4 miles before they look like they’re going to die. Sugar has suddenly become obsessed with paper. She never chewed anything in her life, but if she finds paper, and we’re not home, she’s going after it. Since she’s 103 pounds and tall enough to pull things off the tables it’s become an interesting game.

This is the paper culprit... she's trouble, but she is also adorable.

Rocky is the best dog in the world... and he's so handsome!

This is a statue of Stevie Ray Vaughn here is Austin, when we walked past it with our dogs they both barked a growled. Everyone was laughing, but I think the dogs were just trying to let us know, "Hey! Look at that big guy! Watch out!"

We took a short trip to Salt Lake City for Madelyn’s dad's birthday. We got to spend some much needed quality time with our families and enjoyed the nice weather. What I’ve noticed since moving to Austin is that Salt Lake is not hot. I shouldn't have ever complained about the heat in SLC! I was spoiled! I took a much needed run with Madelyn’s brother up in the mountains… which I miss about living in SLC. Austin is beautiful in many ways, but the mountains in SLC are special.

For the last family picture we were all in suits and dresses, this one we took outside of Chuck-a-Rama. Classy.

They may not all look a like...but they sure do dress a like.

I watched my brother at basketball practice, he also gave me a pair of shoes he didn't like... yeah, that's right, my 11 year old brother wears the same size shoe as me.

Other than that we’ve filled our evenings with friends… happy hours, Rockband parties, Karaoke, going to dinner, brunch, etc. We’ve lived in Austin for 3 years and we have the best group of friends. It’s fun every weekend! We are living it up Austin style!

Happy hour with friends...

Karaoke parties!

And Rockband... with fully decorated living room action.

A+ for showmanship.

Yes, we own a tambourine for the sole purpose of Rockband.

We love it here! This is South Congress toward downtown outside of Home Slice Pizza... the best pizza ever.

I invited a friend over for video game night, two TVs, two XBOXs, pizza... heaven.

I also made the most idiot move of my life two weeks ago. I went out in the garage to started loading the car, I went back inside to get something and decided it would be easier to load the car in the driveway. I hopped in the driver seat, put the car in reverse, and made contact with the garage with the open hatch. Kaboom! Glass went everywhere! When Madelyn came out to see what happened, I was still seated in the driver seat, she said “what happened?!”…. my response was a simple one word answer…“bad.”

That pretty much gets you caught up on our goings on. I'll try and post more...