Well, hello

After an absence of nearly three months, I feel like my first post back should be really exciting and full of lots of fascinating tales about my life over the past quarter year. (Really? A quarter year?? That makes it sound much longer than it felt...) Really, I've just been busy with normal life stuff and a fair amount of travel, visitors, and summer celebrations. Between the intense heat (which ends up driving me inside for summer hibernation) and J's absence, I thought the summer would drag by But, actually, it didn't.

J and I had a second visit in July, and then I finished out the month with a weekend in Portland for my sister's wedding shower. Ah, blissful 80 degree weather... I remember taking a run at about 11:30am on a Saturday morning (a time at which no living creature ventures outside in Texas during late July), and it was just heaven. Crisp, air. Gentle sunshine. Fragrant flowers. Cue the homesickness.

August took me back to Portland two weeks later for my sister's wedding, which was fabulous-- beautiful bride and groom, touching ceremony, and fantastic party.

A week later, three of my best friends from my San Francisco days visited. We're now all spread out around the country, but there's nothing like catching up with old friends who've known you for years and remind you what your fresh-out-of-college self was like. The years have passed quickly, but we're able to pick up where left off-- as if we just met for brunch last weekend. We indulged in barbecue and swanky Mexican at La Condessa, lounged by the pool, and took stand-up paddle board lessons on Town Lake.


J finally came home from Charlotte, just in time to celebrate my birthday two days later (yay!) His second year of business school started, and then we kicked off September with separate guys and girls trips over Labor Day weekend. He went to New York and I went to Seattle, where I got to catch up with all my Seattle girls. Everything I said above about my San Francisco girls -- ditto here for my Seattle ladies. Quality girl time is something that I value very highly, and being far away from the people who have known me the longest really makes me appreciate my friendships even more. We had some exciting news that weekend--Aja announced that she is expecting and due in April. She's the first of our group, but I have a feeling a few more will be following soon!


September also brought our second anniversary, and we celebrated with a weekend trip to Dallas. I have to say... we've heard a lot of "less than enthusiastic" reviews of Dallas, but we were both pleasantly surprised. We stayed downtown in the historic Adolphus Hotel, enjoyed two fabulous dinners at Rise Souffle and Local, and lost ourselves completely at The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza, site of JFK's assassination. This museum is fascinating-- we're all familiar with the story of the events that transpired on November 22, 1963, but they've never come to life quite they way they did for me at this museum. It made me much more emotional than I expected, and I can see now what it must have been like to live through that gruesome day for millions of Americans across the country.

Finally, we closed out September with a visit from my sis and new brother in law, Mike. We took them on our usual visitor circuit, including a trip to the Salt Lick and copious amounts of Mexican food, threw in a Bob Schneider show at Threadgill's for good measure, and concluded the weekend with the UT vs. UCLA game. We shall not discuss the outcome of this game-- instead, we'll focus on the great time we had tailgating beforehand, and how excited Mike was to partake in what he termed "big boy college football." The game itself was a disaster, and we all sweat through our shirts in the blazing stadium heat, but I think Mike can now successfully add a check mark to his bucket list.

And here we are in early October... the fall should be not nearly as eventful, but I'm sure it will fly by nonetheless. For those of you who still check in, I promise to be a more faithful blog contributor. Stay tuned for some exciting Texas adventures (including a trip to the State Fair... fried beer, anyone?), some great recipes, and more photos.

A year of blogging & spring in Austin

In all the craziness of the past few weeks, I totally forgot that my one year anniversary of blogging came and went on May 29th. What an action packed year the last one has been... from quitting our jobs, packing up and spending 8 days in the car driving through some of the most scenic parts of the United States between Seattle and Austin... to getting settled in here, making friends, and becoming part of the Longhorn tradition (I know I'm a real fan now because I'm already excited for football season to start.) From surviving J's gall bladder surgery and tough first semester of classes-- to trips home to visit family and friends, as well as trips to Boston and New York, and numerous visits here from some of the same family members and friends. And, now we're off on our biggest adventure of the year-- our trip to South Africa!

But, before we leave, I want to post some pictures from earlier this spring-- visits from my best college girlfriends, both sets of our parents, and the beauty of the Texas wildflowers in bloom. Enjoy!

One of my best college gal pals, Camille and sweet baby Elise.

Look at that cutie in the Texas blue bonnets!

With Anne (also a college bestie) at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.

Dinner al fresco with Anne and Diana at Botticelli's. I love all 3 of these girls (including Camille above) and seeing as we're scattered across the country, we don't get together near enough. I'm already looking forward to our next reunion in 2011!

Dinner with J's parents at our favorite guests-in-town grub fest, The Salt Lick.

More wildflowers...

Jason and I en route to the UT McCombs b-school "prom."

Mom and I sporting our boots!

And back at The Salt Lick with mom, dad, and J.

Mom and I in front of the Capitol on Mother's Day.

We did it!

40 minutes of icing (knees and shins), a huge tex mex lunch, and a two hour nap later, and I'm feeling almost 100% recovered from the triathlon this morning. My friend Anne and I competed together, and, if I don't say so myself, we both kind of kicked some you-know-what.

I was a little daunted when we left the house at 5:45am and it was already 81 degrees and sticky hot (yet still dark), but as the sun rose, we found that we had full cloud cover and it lasted just about the whole race. So, despite the humidity, it was not nearly as searing as I had expected.

Overall, the race was great. The worst part was just waiting around for our heat (dead last) to start!

The swim was awesome. As I expected, it was my strongest leg, and I was super psyched to find out that I placed 75th out of over 1500 people with my swim time (15:42 for a half mile). I also gave it all I had in the bike race and am pretty happy about that time, especially because the bike race was the biggest wild card for me. I thought I'd get somewhere between 45-60 minutes, and I wound up with a time of 46:35 for just under 12 miles, so I felt great about that.

The last leg was the run and, no surprises here, it was definitely the most challenging for me. I walked 40-50 yards at the beginning and then walked the water stations, and I felt like my pace was just crawling. But after my initial little walk, I told myself I'd jog it in if it killed me (minus those water stations) and I did. I managed to keep putting one foot in front of the other up the huge hill at the end, and then did my best to sprint the straight-away, finishing with a 5K time of 34:39. With my transition times between races added in, my official finishing time was 1:50:01-- killing my goal of coming in under 2 hours.

After today, I just might be a triathlete! It was such a fun race, and I genuinely enjoyed 2/3 of it (the swimming and biking.) The run was painful, but if at least part of the race didn't require me to really dig down and push through some pain, I would have felt disappointed that I could have done better. I really think I might have to try an Olympic distance triathlon (about twice the distance that we did today) one of these days!

Here are some pics of our day:

Our heat starting the swim

Anne finishing the swim strong!

Me, wrapping up the bike leg

Me, super excited to see J and trying to muster the energy to spring the last few hundred yards

Jumping in to finish the last stretch with Anne-- she's looking fantastic in this final stretch!

Bachelorette Weekend

I'm back after my long hiatus and vowing to get back to posting more regularly... let's say at least twice a week. First up, my sister's bachelorette party last weekend in Vancouver, B.C. It was so much fun, and so great to spend 4 days with her after not having seen her since Christmas, but let's just say I am really happy she is getting married at 26 because if she had waited another few years, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have had the stamina to host the bachelorette party and make it through the weekend!

There were a grand total of 17 girls, and between making sure everyone got to where we needed to be over the course of 48 hours (across the border, to the hotel, to all the restaurants and bars, etc.), doing head counts over and over (um, cruise director anyone?), making sure the bride to be didn't get into too much trouble, and of course partaking in the merriment and late nights to celebrate the end of her singlehood, I think it took me about 4 days to recover and return to my usual energy level. Well worth it, however, well worth it... A few snapshots of the weekend:

L & I getting ready to head out on the town Friday night. Yes, we look just a little bit alike.

Drinks out on Friday night... most of the bridesmaids pictured here.

L with her ribbon bouquet after the lingerie shower. Let's just say she is now more than equipped for the honeymoon!

All of the bride's and groom's sisters and sisters-in-law before heading out on Saturday night.

All in all, I think it was a success, and I'm feeling good that I can check off this maid of honor duty. Next up, showers and general encouragement through the final stretch. Can't wait 'til August!

SXSW Girls' Weekend

I'm baaaaack! And I've got pictures. Lots of 'em. Around the time I last wrote, we were in the midst of South by Southwest, a huge music / film / interactive festival and tradeshow that takes over the entire city of Austin each March for 10 days, and three of my best girlfriends from Seattle were about to arrive for an epic Austin girls' weekend. Austin did not disappoint.

A few highlights: avocado margs and pollo con mole at Curra's, strolling up and down South Congress perusing the boutiques and vintage stores (I finally found a sweet pair of vintage, totally broken-in cowboy boots), lots of sun and a little pool time, 4 consecutive nights of live music, drinks by the pool at the Hotel San Jose, a drive through the Beverage Barn to pick up beer (it's literally a drive through liquor store-- gotta love Texas) en route to The Salt Lick where we enjoyed finger lickin' good barbecue (and where BYOB is mandatory, hence the trip to the Beverage Barn), and, finally, gospel brunch at Threadgill's. Doesn't get more Austin than that.

Lora, me, Ellen, and Sarah in front of the Driskill hotel, on our way into to see a SXSW show.

And later that night, we ran into a random troupe of hula hoopers. They let us hula for a minute.

Walking home one night... this, um, iconic neon sign graces our neighborhood every evening after dark. J was a good sport and hung with the girls a few of the evenings.

And, a trip to Austin isn't complete without enjoying a frosty beverage at the swanky Hotel San Jose's poolside bar. Sporting my new boots here!

A fantastic weekend. Makes me miss my girls. Can't wait to do it again... and lucky me, we have 3 more sets of guests coming this spring, so we'll get to show off our city a few more times.

Catching up...

A little behind with my weekend update... I can't believe it's already Wednesday (although I'm definitely not complaining!) A few highlights from last weekend:

• Group dinner at our friends' Alle and Dan's house with a few other friends. I love getting together and socializing with friends over a dinner party at someone's home. It's so comfortable and laid back, and yet feels so grown up! Plus it's fun to check out someone else's cooking/decorating/hostessing style. Alle pulled out all the stops with juicy grilled steaks, cheddar polenta, amazing brussel sprouts sauteed with onions, carrots, and feta, and an arugula salad with grilled pears. Mmmm.
• The 'Horns BARELY making it to the National Championships. They gave us all a little scare, but came through with a field goal with 1 second left in the game. So now I get to cheer on two of my favorite teams in Pasadena.
• The marquee in front of Docs, which read "Prime Longhorns vs. Canned Corn." Love that place.
• Christmas shopping! I'm by no means finished, but have made a good start and am well ahead of my typical December 23rd shopping habits.

Highlights for this week:

• Girls dinner at Cassie's. A group of 6 of us (all wives/girlfriends of b-school students) get together every few weeks for dinner at someone's house. It's always a fun night of good food, good company, and lots of vino.
• T-29 hours until Jason is done with finals for this semester! Can't wait to celebrate on Friday night!
• Christmas date next weekend. Instead of exchanging big gifts this year, we've decided to get creative (and budget-friendly) and do a stocking for each other. It's actually been really fun to plan out and purchase all of J's stocking stuffers. Thinking up several small gifts has definitely required more creativity and I think he's going to really enjoy opening it up! We're doing our stockings this weekend because he is heading back to Seattle next week (since he'll be done with school) a few days before me. So we're going to cook a Christmas feast, open up our stockings in front of the fire (and my lovely bedecked mantle... pictures coming tomorrow), and then head out on the town for dessert and drinks somewhere festive.

What do you have planned for the week? Any fun holiday celebrations?

Weekend update

Exciting weekend around these parts! After much scheming and secretive discussions with several family members on both sides (moi included), my sister's boyfriend proposed! We all love Mike, so we're super excited to have him join the family as a new bro/son-in-law. And hats off to him... Mike managed to totally surprise my sister with an incredibly elaborate proposal that included a walk to a park where he feigned setting up the camera timer to take a "scenic fall picture" of the two of them under a canopy of fall foliage, followed by a surprise stay at a nice hotel downtown, which he had spent the morning decorating with rose petals and supplying with cheese, homemade chocolate covered strawberries, and champagne-- and then, as though that wasn't enough, dinner at Seattle's fanciest restaurant, Canlis. Laura is a lucky girl and we can't wait to toast them in person when we head home for the holidays!

Meanwhile, J happened to be in Seattle for one of his good friend's (and groomsman's) wedding, so I took the opportunity to travel down to San Antonio to visit my good friend Anne. We only live about an hour and 15 minutes apart, but don't manage to see each other enough, so it was fun to head down there and indulge in 24 hours of girl time. We visited a huge outdoor shopping center called The Shops at La Cantera, where I managed to walk away with two necklaces and a purse for only $35 (courtesy of Forever 21... love that place.) Later we had dinner at a delicious French bistro called La Frite. I truly think that Saturday night might have been only the second or third time in the two and a half months that I've been here that a meal out hasn't been Mexican food. Don't get me wrong-- I love me some Tex Mex-- but with Mexican restaurants on every street corner here, it's easy to forget that there is a whole wide world of different cuisines out there. I had a delicious tomato crab bisque, followed by moules frites (big pot of steamed muscles basted in a tasty white wine, garlic broth and lots of Belgian style fries for dipping.) Mmmmm....

Sunday we slept in and chatted a bit over a breakfast of coffee and scones before I headed home. I spent much of the rest of the day on the phone chatting again with my sis about the proposal and then discussing it in depth with half of my family. We're all very excited! Good thing I kept all my wedding planning materials and vendor info-- I have a feeling it will come in handy!

Tuesday Tidbits

Tuesday afternoon and lots of random stuff going through my brain... First of all, giving notice at the restaurant went about as well as it could have and they were very gracious about it. The manager even offered me an opportunity to take on some dinner shifts at the restaurant while at my new job, but I think I need to see how my "real" job goes before I even consider that. If it's like most agencies I've worked at, there is no set or predictable start or end time each day. You roll in anywhere from 7:30 to 9:30am depending on what the day has in store for you, and you work until you're done, or are at least done with that day's pressing deadlines. Occasionally that's 5pm, but more often than not it's 6, 6:30, or later. So adding a dinner shift on top would be pretty difficult to juggle. But keeping my options open is never a bad thing...

We're headed back to Seattle on Thursday for J's sister's wedding, which I am super excited about. Not only do we get to celebrate with the lovely Kristin and her dashing fiance, Dan, as well as spend time with J's parents and the rest of the S clan, but my parents will also be attending, so I'm very excited to see them too. I'm also getting together with my Seattle ladies on Thursday night at our favorite wine bar that we used to frequent all the time back in our wild and crazy ("wild and crazy" being two glasses of syrah on a school night) single days. Not everyone is paired up now, but somehow it seems like each year we all take on more and more responsibilities that make those fancy free weeknight evenings of our early to mid-20s exceedingly rare. So this will be a fun blast from the past.

This evening I'm headed out to see "Julie and Julia" with some of the other wives / fiances / girlfriends of students in J's program. I'm starting to get to know a few of them a bit better, which is nice. It's amazing how long it really takes to build real friendships though... the kind where you can randomly call up your pal on a Sunday morning and meet for coffee, un-showered and/or in your workout clothes, and just have a blast talking about everything from US Weekly's latest cover story to intimate details about your family or relationship. Outside of college, where the hyper speed bonding of freshman year enables everyone to find their BFF before the end of orientation week, I think it takes 1-2 years to develop that kind of friendship with someone. I'm grateful to be getting to know smart, funny, intelligent women here, but it also makes me miss my best friends from way back who are scattered all across the U.S., from Seattle to Miami, and even in Africa (shout out to you, Diana!)

Lastly, but definitely not least, tomorrow is my birthday! Weeeeeeeeeee!! After working my final shift at the restaurant tomorrow, I've got a taxing schedule of a mani/pedi at a swanky Austin nail establishment, Polish, followed by appetizers and perhaps some presents at home, followed by dinner with J at a location to be revealed. I love my birthday!

Getting settled and girlfriends...

This week I've been busy with a bunch of settling in activities. I got my car registered, have done some more unpacking and organizing, have continued to apply for jobs, and attended an orientation at the university for spouses and significant others of students in the MBA program. I met a few really cool women there (all wives of students), and today we had lunch at a cute little central Austin cafe. It's great to meet some people who are also new to town, know no one, and are trying to get this whole business school spouse thing figured out. I also had the pleasure of meeting Amelia in person and getting to know her over a glass of wine poolside at the Hotel San Jose. She was so gracious and welcoming, and just as energetic and fun as she seems on her blog. It was about a million degrees outside, and I think we both sweat through our shirts (or at least I did... classy... and just the kind of first impression every girl hopes to make), but I had a great time hearing all about Austin from a local. I've only been blogging for a couple months, but it's amazing to know that there is this whole community of cool women out there, and even more amazing when you realize they're all real people that you could potentially meet and befriend in real life.

This weekend, I'm heading out to LA to visit one of my best friends, Laurie, and meet her baby daughter, Camille, for the first time. Laurie and I met at our very first job right out of college when we both moved to San Francisco, and were assigned to work on the same team. We only worked together for about a year and a half, but have stayed in close contact all these years through numerous life adventures-- moving to Paris (me), law school (her), both of our weddings where we each served as bridesmaids, and now parenthood (her... and hopefully eventually me.) Our close friend, Kristin (who also worked at our first job with us), is also making the trip down to LA from San Francisco, so I'm looking forward to a bona fide girls weekend. With J gone most nights this week due to orientation activities, it will be so nice to be around people all weekend-- especially girlfriends that I've known for years and can't wait to catch up with.