One more day!

John and I close on the house tomorrow!
I am so elated. We close at noon.

I talked to Paola this morning. She is John's brother Henry's wife. So, she's my sister in law. I only have one sister in law. Since I only have one, I'm glad I have her!

She has quite the story to tell about coming from Mexico to the U.S. yesterday. She was in north Mexico taking care of some things. She wasn't able to go back to Mexico City to get any of her stuff because of swine flu. She walked across the border, then boarded a plane in El Paso. She flew to Dallas then to Fort Lauderdale. She was so excited to be back! And, Henry was very excited for her to be back. I tried to convince her to come to Austin for a visit. What's new? I always try to get people to come to Austin to visit. :)

House!

So, we close on our house on 4.30. I realized that I need to get a lot better about taking pictures and also sharing about our house. Inquiring minds want to know!

The house is not very pretty. It isn't very pretty at all. It is in a great neighborhood though. And, I love the floor plan. I say it isn't very pretty because it hasn't been updated since the 70s. I was recently introduced to a new term: sweat equity. John and I will put a LOT of sweat equity into the house.

The first thing we are going to do is scrap the popcorn ceilings. Then, we'll pull the carpet. Finally, we will have new floors installed. We are thinking Brazilian Rosewood or Brazilian Cherry. We are trying to decide if we have enough resources (aka money) to do the kitchen. It needs backsplash, painted cabinents, and new counter tops. Oh yeah, and a new floor.

The dining room is pretty awesome. We want to do a banquette of sorts. A long bench on one wall then a table and some chairs on the other side.

Carpet for the bedrooms. New paint. Ugh! We are going to be hemorrhaging money!

Running, bad journalism and barbecue

I ran 6 miles on Sunday. The longest I have ever run is 9 miles so it blows me away that I am so close to that amount. The 9 miles almost killed me. The 6 miles wasn't too horrible. We are doing Jeff Galloway's training so it is run for 4 minutes and walk for 1. It makes it totally doable. And, I'm not obsessed with how much further I have to go before I'm done. I'm only obsessed with getting 2 more minutes in before I get to walk. It is a much better mind game to play.

We went to see OSU play in College Station against Texas A&M on Saturday. Travis Ford, OSU's coach, got a technical foul. I have not seen any mention of the technical foul on the Tulsa World Web site. I easily could have missed the reference but I don't think I did. To me, the fact that a coach got a technical, is the lead! Coaches don't get technicals often. I think that other OSU fans would find that fact very interesting. In other media outlets they have discussed the technical so that's good. I'm disappointed with the World. I think that the newspaper has decided to play very nice so they can still get interviews with Ford. I think that's ridiculous. It is a newspaper for heaven's sake not an extension of the University's public relations athletic division.

On Saturday we also ate at Snow's barbecue. It was, once again, heavenly. I have decided that I am only going to eat Snow's sausage in my life.

Bust!

I woke up last night to sleet on the windows. I was so excited. I thought for sure I wouldn't have to go to work today. And, here I sit. At KUT. I love my job - that's not why I wanted to stay away. I just really wanted a day off. Don't we all every know and again? The Austin weather forecasters were cracking me up last night. It was like the end of the world was coming because Austin might get some ice. They were doing hour by hour announcements. And, then it was a bust. No bad weather at all.

I did not get up to go running this morning. John did. I stayed in my warm cozy bed. I didn't feel like fighting against myself this morning. I had all ready pretty much convinced myself that I didn't want to go so I decided not to. I am going to have to find a place to run today. I think I might try out the UT Rec Sports. I cannot go tonight because I have Spanish class. It will definitely have to be at lunch. I can get it done though. And, the wonderful thing is that I actually do want to get it done. I think I'll have a better run because I do want to get it done. This morning I would have had a horrible run because I didn't want to get it done. That's my rationale anyway!

A whole lot of thoughts

OSU lost last night to OU in basketball. Oklahoma got covered in ice. Austin is supposed to get cold by noon today. Unfortunate because I only have a light jacket. It was 60 when I left my house this morning!

I always have a lot of things I want to write about until I sit down at the computer. Then I draw a blank. I realized yesterday why I had been having decent hair days. There was no moisture in Austin. Yesterday it was misty and rainy all day and my hair felt the effects. John and I ran 5 miles on Sunday. It wasn't too hard. John told me that he was surprised I ran the whole way. I was like, what? Of course I ran the whole way. I was supposed to. Yesterday I ran for 30 minutes. It was hard which was discouraging.

On Saturday John and I went to Snow's Barbecue in Lexington, Texas. The drive was really pretty. Snow's was ranked No. 1 by Texas Monthly for having the best barbecue in the state. I don't normally like sausage but this sausage was delectable. The brisket was really moist and tender. The barbecue is fantastic. Absolutely unbelievable. While we were at Snow's I bought my first box of Girl Scout cookies. They were yummy. Thin Mints!

We bought one of those fancy schmancy scales that tell you your bone mass, body fat percentage and muscle percentage. Oh yeah, it tells you your weight as well. I have no clue if I am in the normal range on the other things (body fat, muscle percentage) but my weight is right where it normally is. Apparently working out every single day doesn't really make much difference. I do feel better though. My knees don't hurt as much. I don't feel sick to my stomach after eating - I did when I was in Oklahoma because we were eating such rich foods. So, I'm not going to change anything and I'm going to try to not be discouraged.

Bush girls

It is going to be a busy day today. I have meetings all day. Thursday is sort of my unofficial meeting day. I can handle it.

So, there is a letter that the Bush twins wrote to the Obama girls. It was so moving and touching. The Bush girls are a few years younger than me, I believe. And, they went to school at UT Austin and lived here for quite some time. So, they talked about learning that your dad is your dad not some sketch of him. I was really impressed by the Bush twins. They also talked about how if you were travelling on Halloween - dress up and trick or treat down the plane aisles. They talked about playing house in the White House. It was very down-to-earth and candid. I respect that. The article, if you are interested, is on CNN.com.

Not too energetic today

I watched the inauguration yesterday in the Austin City Limits studio. It was awesome. I felt like I was in the middle of history - both political and musical. A pretty cool feeling.

I was grumpy yesterday. I think it was because I was super tired. Yesterday we got up to do some cross training. This morning we ran for 40 minutes - running 4 walking 1. It was okay. I almost didn't make it out of bed but then I thought about going to tell John I wasn't going and it just seemed easier to put on my running clothes and go. Its not that he would have given me grief - its that I would have been disappointed in myself. He actually would have been super nice and then he would have went to the gym and I would have felt like a lazy fool.

I have been missing my family quite a bit recently. I saw some adorable pictures of Heather's kids. I miss them.

I am tired today as well. I just hope I'm not as grumpy. I need some caffeinated tea!