La Cucaracaha

...And not in that cute, funny way, where you're all "hey, I'm sipping a margarita and singing about cockroaches in Spanish! How funny!" No, I'm talking about a real cockroach-- an ugly, hairy little guy that was a good inch and a half long. Ew. It gives me the shivers just writing it.

I had grand aspirations for this morning. I've been on a real house keeping kick, deep cleaning and getting everything organized (since I have an empty house and lots of time on my hands), and last night after giving the shower a preliminary spray to loosen up any grime, I set my alarm to get up early and give it a good scrub before work. (I also wanted to get a blog post up, but now I'm sitting at my desk at work and typing furiously before my 9:30am status meeting.)

So my alarm goes off, and I (begrudgingly) get up and head into the bathroom. I start the shower water and hop in. I start to move the non-slip bathmat we have in the shower and then I detect a little movement. Before I can even get out of the way, a cockroach leaps up and on to my leg and foot. Ew!! I am not naturally someone who screams or shrieks. In fact, before this morning, I'm not even sure I knew what I would sound like if I screamed out of sheer terror. But now I do.

I leaped out of the shower and sprinted back into my room. But then I just stood there trying to figure out what to do. I actually called J in a moment of panic. Fortunately he didn't pick up because I'm not sure what I would have said. "Um, can you come back from Charlotte and kill the cockroach in the tub?" Probably not. So I did what any self respecting woman would do. I put on a pair of shorts and a t-shirt, drove up to HEB at dawn, and bought some Raid to kill it myself. On the way to the store, a bird flew directly into my windshield. I have no idea if it died on the side of the road (I hope not), but I am just thankful that it didn't leave any blood, because I think I would have seriously freaked out at that point.

When I got home, I thoroughly fumigated the bathroom and then shut the door to let the Raid work it's magic while I brewed some coffee and tried to enjoy my Kashi Go Lean with strawberries. I gave it a good 20 minutes and then peeked inside the shower again. The roach appeared to be dead, but I gave him another little spray just to be sure.

Then I spent 10 minutes contemplating how to get him out of the shower. I most definitely was not going to touch it, nor did I want any of my household tools to touch the roach. So finally I covered my broom securely with a plastic bag, then I swept him into a dust pan (which in hindsight I should have also covered with plastic) and dumped him over the edge of our balcony. I had no idea if leaving him in the garbage might encourage his family members to come check him out for some reason.

At this point it was now about 8am, so I had to jump in the shower and get ready and I didn't have time to even clean out the Raid, let alone the deep clean I had planned. I just let the hot water run for a little while to wash away as much of the chemicals as possible. Finally, I got in and got my day started. Let's just say, it was not the way I had planned my morning... I guess it's a good reminder that I'm not really in control. Now I'm sipping my coffee at my desk, and hoping the rest of the day goes a little smoother!

Charlotte and Charleston

Last weekend, I flew back east to visit J in Charlotte. He'd only been gone a week, but since we had a 3 day weekend (and the office closed early on Friday), it just worked better to schedule a visit when I could take advantage of that extra time for travel.

Friday night we had dinner at a surprisingly good Indian restaurant, Maharani. When I think of North Carolina, really authentic Indian food isn't the first thing that comes to mind. But it was delicious... definitely one of the top 10 Indian places I've ever been to. Then J showed me around the town a little bit and we hit the hay early.

Saturday we got up and started our weekend adventure down to Charleston, South Carolina. Neither J or I has spent much time in the Southeast, and it turns out that Charlotte is perfectly situated to drive to many of the top destinations in both of the Carolinas and Georgia in 4 hours or less. Because it was only 3 hours away, we picked Charleston for our first little road trip, and off we went!

We stopped for lunch in Columbia, SC, to try out some South Carolina "Midlands" style barbecue. South Carolina barbeque's unique element is that its sauce is made from a mustard base instead of the traditional tomato base. It was interesting... not amazing, but since we seem to be getting a pretty thorough education in regional BBQ styles, I was glad I tried it. But, it was a buffet style restaurant, and the best item by far was the fried chicken. Mmmm.

We arrived in Charleston on Saturday afternoon, got settled in, and then took a carriage ride to get oriented to the city. What amazing architecture and history! It was one stunning mansion after another, all with gorgeous secret gardens and courtyards peeking out in between. Such a romantic city. It reminded me a little of Venice... the water, the huge mansions, and the ancient patina on everything. Charleston has a rule that nothing over 70 years old can be fixed or updated. It can be restored to its original look or it has to be left as is, so lots of buildings look like they're kind of decaying a little bit, but in a very charming way. We capped off Saturday evening with an awesome dinner at High Cotton, where I had my very first shrimp and grits experience.

On Sunday we woke up and decided to walk down to the South of Broad neighborhood that we had toured by carriage so that we could get a better look at everything. We also toured the Calhoun House, which is a huge mansion, restored to its full 1870s glory. It is said that the original owner of the house was a Civil War blockade runner and the inspiration for the character of Rhett Butler in Gone With The Wind.

We spent the rest of the afternoon browsing shops on King Street, followed by a nice long nap. For dinner, we ventured out to Hank's Seafood Restaurant, which J's boss had recommended. I had an amazing roasted flounder on a bed of sweet corn, shrimp, and lobster risotto. Delicious. After that we rolled ourselves over to a nearby bar where we sipped drinks on a rooftop deck until the big fireworks show over Charleston's harbor.

On our final day, Monday, we got up early and headed about 30 minutes outside of Charleston to tour the Boone Hall Plantation-- as a total history dork (who was obsessed with both the book and film versions of Gone With The Wind from ages 12-16), this was my favorite activity of the weekend. Boone Hall is the oldest working plantation in the United States. It was founded in the late 1600s, and they still grow numerous crops, including pecans, berries, pumpkins, onions, etc. They drove us all around the property recounting its history, and then we were free to tour the old slave cabins, which now house numerous interactive exhibits on African American history. Finally, we toured the plantation house-- the exterior of which was used as Allie's parents' home in The Notebook. (The interior of the Calhoun House I mentioned earlier was also filmed as part of Allie's parents' house.)

Finally, we drove back to Charlotte and had some real North Carolina barbecue at Mac's Speed Shop. North Carolina barbecue with its more traditional sauce and mouth watering pulled pork is definitely more my taste that its mustardy cousin in South Carolina, but it was fun to try both out. (I have to say though, I'm becoming more and more of a Texas girl everyday and would still pick Texas BBQ over anything in the Carolinas. You just can't beat the Salt Lick!)

Our last stop was the airport, where Jason dropped me off for my trip back to Austin. It was a fantastic weekend, and a very memorable fourth of July. I'm hoping I'll be able to make another trip out there in a few weeks to explore a little more of the Southeast. I hope you all had a fantastic 4th as well!

Settling back in

We're back! South Africa was amazing... Truly one the most beautiful, unique places I've ever been, and I would highly, highly recommend it as an awesome vacation destination for just about anyone. Of course getting there isn't super easy... over 40 hours each way. Painful. But it was more than worth it! I will be back later this week with a full recap and pictures. I need to go through start organizing and editing our hundreds of shots.

These past few days we've just been busy getting adjusted back to normal life... lots of laundry, grocery shopping, trying to get our bodies used to this time zone, and of course work (yuck.) On Saturday, J moved to Charlotte, NC, for the rest of the summer, where he'll be doing his MBA internship. I've known since we started school that we'd likely be apart for the summer, and I'm really happy and thankful that he found a great internship that will give him more experience in his field of interest (plus the additional income will be kinda nice...), but I was definitely a little sad to drop him off at the airport. The house has been so quiet this weekend, and I'm not used to spending so much alone-- particularly after two weeks of togetherness during out trip.

But I know that two months apart (with a handful of visits in there) is absolutely nothing compared to what military families and so many other couples deal with. So I'm thinking positive and getting excited for all the things I can do with my new found free time... I'm hoping to spend a lot of time with friends, work on my writing, and be super productive around the house so I can wrap up some projects that have been lingering on my to-do list for months.

First up? Crashing in front of The Bachelorette tonight with no judgement. ; )

Back in a bit

I'll back on the 24th of June. In the meantime, we'll be cheering on a little of this:

...enjoying some of this:

...and checking out some of this... from a distance!

Catch you on the flip side!

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!

South Africa!

In just 5 days we'll be boarding a plane for a long voyage to South Africa! Sounds cool, but why South Africa you ask? The short story is that my soccer obsessed husband wore me down after months of begging, pleading, and cajoling discussions, and convinced me that we should travel to the bottom of the southern hemisphere to catch the World Cup live. Finally, I caved. Actually, Uncle Sam helped in the form of a nice tax return, and then I had to agree: two weeks of soccer + wine tasting + wild animal viewing sounded pretty good.

So here we are, just 5 days from departure, and I am frantically trying to cram about 2 weeks of work into the 2.5 remaining work days until we leave. Oh, yeah, and kick butt at my triathlon on Sunday. Plus do laundry, pack, clean, and take care of all that stuff you suddenly find yourself needing to take care of before you leave the country for 16 days. Can you say multi-tasking? But, really, I know I can't complain. I'm getting pretty darn excited.

I'll be back to post pictures of our adventures in late June, but here's a quick overview of our itinerary:

June 8-10: Travel to Johannesburg. Yes, it takes two days. And believe it or not, only 7 hours of that 2 days is due to the time change. We just have two really, really long flights, with a 12 hour layover in Dubai. But that's cool. We plan to leave the airport for a few hours to see if Dubai lives up to all the hype.

June 10-12: Spend some time in and around Johannesburg and Pretoria, including touring a game park and attending the USA vs. England soccer match on the 12th. Go USA!


June 13-17: Travel down south to Cape Town where we'll get our fill of amazing food, see the sights (including Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela was incarcerated, and the Cape of Good Hope), and attend the Italy vs. Paraguay match.

June 18-19: Two words: Wine Country. Lots and lots of good food and wine in a beautiful setting. (My reward for sitting through all the soccer matches I'll undoubtedly be watching at cafes and bars for the first week of the trip.)

June 20-22: We'll travel down to the Whale Coast, for whale and great white shark viewing. No cage diving for us, but we plan to take a boat tour to watch them from a safe distance.

Can't wait for it all to begin!