Scary Story for Halloween

I've posted on here a couple of times before about the possum that comes up to our landing and eats the cat food. Well, there is also a raccoon and he is a lot scarier than the possum. We have started bringing Stinky's food in overnight to discourage the local critters from eating it all. The first night I did that, Mr. Raccoon noticed a change in his routine and, I think, could smell the food inside. He began pawing and scratching at the door. It was intense and loud- I almost thought it was a person- I finally poked the broom out the door and hit it loudly against the concrete. The raccoon then sat there waiting to see if I was serious, got up on his hind legs for a minute and glared at me, then went down the stairs. He was back last night, banging on the door and then hissing through the crack when Austin tried to scare him away. I hope he learns soon that the Lunderoys don't like food thieves.

Keepin' On

Not much new here but just wanted to post to keep the blog alive. Work is busy, school is busy, but we're happy and enjoying the city. Our neighbor gave us a container garden since he is moving and I was happy with that because I enjoyed having one back in 'sconi. It's even better here since I get to have it year round.

No big plans for this weekend. I'm a little bit bummed since I absolutely love Halloween and I really enjoy dressing up. At least back in EC, we got trick-or-treaters but even that is doubtful this year. In fact, if we do get any, I have no idea what we'd give them. We're just going to lay low, maybe do some cooking, and I'll be studying, of course.

Economic Downturn & You

We ran to the grocery store tonight to grab one item and ended up with the most shameful list ever:

-5 gallons drinking water (the one item on our list, technically free but we don't like the taste from the tap).

-IPA Beer (Austin's been running low so we grab some microbrew bottles).

-Ben and Jerry's Peanut Butter Cup Ice Cream (Austin asks for ice cream daily so we thought it was time to grab a pint of it).

-Milky Way Dark candybar (Austin's been craving these since the Halloween candy has been out; we decide one bar is better than a bag of "fun size" bars).

-Fall flowers (I love fresh flowers and they were only $4...).

That's it, that's our shameful shopping list with nary a necessary item nor a pantry must-have. Us and grocery shopping during hard economic times = FAIL.

Are You Bored Yet?

All I have to say is that it's been another busy week for both of us. Random tidbits: there's early voting in our state and the lines are going out the doors! I literally swept a 'possum off our doorstep with a broom. Austin made really awesome chili this week when the temperatures dipped into the 50's. We wouldn't know we were in a red state if we only paid attention to local propaganda. I turned in my first big paper on Tuesday.

Maker Faire 2008

The weather yesterday couldn't have been more perfect; upper 70's, blue skies, sunshine. We got to the the Faire and first saw all the crazy cars. One was covered entirely in fake turf- outside and inside. My favorite was covered in singing fish and lobsters that would break out in song from time to time.



We moved on to the Bizarre Bazaar where I discovered lots of gorgeous clothes and jewelry. Later in the day, I returned and procured a shirt and necklace. We ogled blown glass, metal sculptures, fiber arts... We also toured the techie section where Austin saw some of his favorite vendors and got to check out more products. At random times during our shopping, a robot would swing around in the ceiling and talk and explosions could be heard. There was also a silver armadillo golf cart that cruised by.



We attended a demo of the Life Size Mousetrap- think Rube Goldberg- and saw bicycles modified to look like butterflies and long dragons. We went to see battling robots at the end and they did not disappoint.

With all this going on, you can imagine that the people watching was outstanding! Austin and I went home tired from all that we took in and a day in the sun; we had a great time.

TGIF

Whew, it's been another long and busy week here. Austin had lots of stuff going on at work and I'm now in that point of the semester where I have lots to do. As has become our tradition, we are having a Friday night in kind of doing our own thing. We made really good tacos for dinner (gotta love the Penzey's bold taco seasoning; we get it from WI to make tacos down here in the southwest :-)

Anyway, I've been doing some school stuff and Austin has been clearing his mind with a good, old fashioned WoW raid (online gaming). We've got the windows wide open and are enjoying a fall breeze.

We're gearing up for a good day tomorrow at the Maker Faire and hope to have pictures up by Sunday afternoon.

Thursday is Breathing Room Day

As I've mentioned before, Monday through Wednesday is my really busy, class-heavy, fully scheduled days and Thursday is the first day in the week I even have time to blog. Thursdays are still quite busy with studying, catching up, administrative tasks, etc. but I have a lot more flexibility. Anyway, just making the point that most blogging will occur Thursday-Sunday if you haven't noticed.

So it's been another busy work week for us but we're looking forward to the Maker Faire this weekend, expect lots of good pictures from that!


We're also closer to being cat owners since our neighbor will be moving at the end of the month and is letting us keep Stinky The food dishes have moved over to our door. Stinky is an outside kitteh which works for us but he's so cute, we've been letting him come in in the evenings. He just curls up under one of our chairs and lays there, enjoying the carpet since he spends most of the day lying on the sidewalk. Who ever thought the LundeRoys would have a cat?

Random Crap x 3

I finally won my first Bag of Crap from Woot!

1 x Yanni in Words
1 x Curious George Bath Set
1 x Kensington PCKey LE
1 x Mossimo Gift Set
2 x Targus Memory Card Case

Weekend

It's been another nice weekend here. On Friday, we had pizza and Austin watched a movie while I read or played on the laptop. The work week had been a little more stressful than usual so it was a great night to veg.

Yesterday, we watched the UT-OU football game, a huge rivalry, and saw the Longhorns win it after much excitement and back-and-forth. Then we went out for some art supplies for various projects and got some really good ice cream. After that, Austin tinkered around on art projects and I did some reading and caught up with a few friends. We went out to dinner last night too and sat on the patio, enjoying the nice breeze and mild weather, something we never did in October up north!

Today Austin looks like a snake that swallowed a sheep :-) He is full of bbq and some beer and is watching football; he is very content and relaxed. We've got a Target run coming up, a few other errands, and then I'll be hitting the books.

Almost the Weekend

Today I don't have class but did some studying and went to campus to participate in a dissertation study, mostly to get a little good karma on my side for when it's my turn. I am sworn to secrecy, but the gist is that I listened to speech samples and gave my impressions on fluency, grammar, comprehensibility, etc. It was enjoyable and I was happy to help.

I also took care of some housekeeping, both literally and figuratively, and got a lot done overall. We have no weekend plans but I'll have plenty to occupy me in terms of schoolwork and Austin has a number of techie projects at any given moment. I think the city will be crazy because UT is playing their big rival, Oklahoma University, in football on Saturday. At any given moment that we go out, at least half the population is wearing the school colors, but this weekend the ratio will probably higher and nuttier. Perhaps I should keep track and do some kind of statistical analysis since I'm so skilled in that field. :-)

Also, a little teaser, Austin may be doing his first post soon with an update on the loot he won from Woot on the crap sales (grab bags). There is one item that is just spectacular.

Sunday

Today we had an errand to run at Whole Foods Market, the one downtown which is also the corporate headquarters. We were after tickets to this awesome event that we'll be attending in two weeks. Anyway, we've been to the WFM right by our house and the ones in Minneapolis and St. Paul. The corporate one was quite the amazing experience, however, and we spent a lot of time checking it out and selecting some choice items. Here are some pictures I took before I was asked to kindly knock it off (you should be able to see more if you click on any pic).

Gorgeous Produce:



Not sure what these limes are:



Austin right at home on Beer Alley:



My view while not strolling down Beer Alley:



Mosaic on Candy Island:

Beautiful Saturday

Austin and I had a really nice Saturday. We ran a few errands and then Austin wanted to go to the Apple store to browse and show me a TV thing. We found a shopping center that turned out to be very high end- sculptures all over, fountains, ambient music, and stores from Barney's to Tiffany's to Louis Vuitton. We walked along and did lots of window shopping (or in my case, much "lache-vitrine," the French expression that literally means window licking).

We were considering getting a glass of wine from Cru, the wine bar, and sitting and people watching but decided to have our own picnic. We went wine shopping at one of our favorite liquor marts and browsed wines from all over the world. We got a Sauvignon Blanc for our picnic and some Malbec. We also went to their amazing deli and got a wedge of quiche- smoked salmon, cream cheese, and asparagus. Austin got an antipasta salad for lunch today and we also sampled the macaroni and cheese (made with a bechamel sauce, smoked gouda, homemade breadcrumbs... comfort food!). The deli chef told us about upcoming fall foods and we decided we may just have to visit every weekend. The prices are very reasonable and we may be inspired to recreate the dishes on our own.

Anyway, we took our loot home and hauled some chairs and a little table outside on the balcony to set up our picnic. Fall here (at least as far as we can tell so far) means that the temp was in the low 80's, there was no humidity, some leaves were turning bright yellow, and the sky was brilliant blue. Below us, a neighbor had spelled out "I *heart* U" in rocks at the edge of the lawn.



We enjoyed our picnic and then spent the rest of the afternoon doing our thing, then ordered in a pizza and watched a movie. It was really relaxing and a perfect day overall.

Friday Night

It's been another busy week and Austin and I kicked off the weekend with my department potluck. Unfortunately, traffic was bad so we made it for the last hour and then went out for a drink with one of my friends in the program. It was busy everywhere but we ended up at a Mexican restaurant shaped sort of like a giant hut with decor circa 1977. We enjoyed some watery margaritas and good chips and salsa and conversation.

We don't have much planned for the weekend since I have a lot of school work to do. We'll probably do the usual errand running and maybe go out for dinner tomorrow night. We're also starting to look at options for housing after our lease runs out here early next spring. We're definitely going to be on the move again, I mean, it's just so fun to move (/sarcasm). But it is fun to consider what our more permanent digs in the area will be.

Same Old, Same Old

Not too much is going on here. Monday through Wednesday is always a blur for me with my class schedule. On Tuesday night, we had the added fun of a car alarm that wouldn't quit. We had seen the car in question before with a tow notice on it because it hadn't moved in weeks. Then someone moved it to a new parking lot and left it again so there was no one in the area to address the car alarm.

Finally, I called the non-emergency police line (which connected me to 911, eek!) and they sent an officer over. Unfortunately, it seemed the vehicle couldn't be towed without the apartment complex manager's consent and guess who was unavailable. At some point late that night, it miraculously stopped (dead battery?!) and the car was still there in the morning. In fact, it had a banana peel thrown right in the middle of the windshield, I can only assume it was the act of a disgruntled neighbor.

Anyway, Austin and I were slow-moving yesterday with all the excitement and sleep deprivation but we're feeling much better today. He's been particularly busy with work this week and I have lots of reading to catch up on today. We also have a few errands to run to get our home office in better working shape.

As of yet, we don't have any weekend plans though I have a paper due on Tuesday that will require some attention. I think we'll just enjoy an autumn weekend in Austin- that is, 80 degree weather, sun, and no humidity. I do miss fall "up north" but the trade offs will come this winter :-)