Rain? Nope, just kidding.

Austin keeps teasing me with these overcast mornings. I swear, it seems like every morning, it's cloudy and looks like it might rain, and POOF! The clouds disappear.

Everybody, hold your breath! It sounds like we're getting a bonus. I know, huh? Now that I've said that... it'll probably be $22.

Last year, I was able to ride (the bike) three or four times a week (occasionally more), around 100 miles every week. My goal for the year was 50 miles in one ride, and I did it after only a few months of riding, with a pretty decent average speed, and with lots and LOTS of climbing. My goal for this year was to be able to ride 100 miles. It's August, and I still haven't even done 50. :( I did come close a couple weekends ago, riding 42 miles, but still. No dice. One thing that's very different from Omaha are the hills. On that 42 mile ride, we finally got some hills that I was accustomed to riding in Omaha. The hills in Austin are shorter, but can get really steep, and I get tired much faster. So even though I've only ridden 15 miles, it feels more like 40. I did the hill route last night, and was more exhausted than I have been in a while. I'm hoping to do a long ride this weekend.

I was thinking last night that last year, unlike this year, I paid close attention to what I ate before a ride, and I worried about whether I had enough sleep or if I drank alcohol the night before. Not anymore. I think not riding horses has made at least a small difference in my lackluster performance. I don't have as much strength in my legs, though I'm still developing more muscles. Does that make sense? No? Hm. Oh well, hopefully I'll be riding (horses) again soon. Between horses and cycling, I never had time for anything else last year.

The new saddle is working out fairly well. I think my problem is with the crappy shorts that I had. I've been trying to buy some more cycling clothes without completely blowing my budget, but when you buy a pair of shorts, you don't really know whether they'll work or not until after you wear them. So, I could easily blow $80 or more on a pair of shorts, and never wear them again. Speaking of, the team kit that I got for the UNMC team that I was going to race under last year looks completely ridiculous on me. $100 down the drain. The shorts are fabulously comfortable, though. I may have to start buying that brand.

Here's another blip of a conversation I had with my team lead, for your entertainment:

team lead:
why are you sooooo sarcastic all the time
You know what Malcom X said about sarcasm? Actually you probably never studied him in Nebraska
which is cool but makes is a bad reference

April:
wasn't he from Nebraska?

team lead:
hmmmmmmmmmmm

April:
yes, he was

Looks like I'll be riding again!

So, I posted on a local Yahoo group, saying I was looking for a horse to ride if anybody needed their horse worked. I've gotten a TON of responses! What's even crazier, is the number of responses from trainers (that have trained under some really impressive clinicians, by the way) looking for full-time working students. These barns must be somewhat hard up for help, because in my experience, this kind of thing is normally something that's picked up on right away by people that already ride with the trainers. I just don't know if I'm willing to take that kind of step. #1 It has nothing to do with technology (which might be kind of nice, actually, but if it didn't work out, that means I've basically been out of work in the eyes of a potential employer). #2 I'm afraid of getting burned out. I've had this kind of job before, and it's back-breaking, HARD work. And it's very easy to get burned out. #3 I'm not entirely sure if that's what I want to do for the rest of my life. #4 Working students don't usually make squat. I don't think I'd have a lot of freedom to do what I want (in most cases, working students live on the farm). Plus, I have Jaiden, and I'm not giving him up. So, who knows. I've sent a couple of e-mails to get some more information just in case. It's just weird... about 9 years ago, when I graduated high school, I wanted nothing more than to work with horses for a living. And now this is sort of fallen into my lap, at a time when I HATE my current job.

I did call a woman who has a couple of horses she needs ridden. I'll probably be going out to her place this weekend. There are a ton of other people that need help, but many of them are too far away.

I just remember when I started taking lessons at Quail Run in Oct '06, I was completely devastated at how much of my "skill" I'd lost. I felt like a beginner! Granted, I hadn't been taking lessons in a long time, but I really do NOT want to lose my riding fitness, and everything that I learned from Melissa, so I'm really eager to get the ball rolling again and start riding. I won't be taking lessons, but at least I'll still be in good riding shape. One woman asked for my riding background, etc., and I checked out her website. It looks like she has Lusitanos!

Sigh... decisions, decisions... can someone turn a light on to the future and tell me what it looks like? :)

Saying ya'll...

Gah! Everybody's counting on me saying ya'll so soon! A co-worker said he gives it three months. In early August, it'll be three months, so I told him he'll probably lose that one.

I do have to admit, though, that I almost said it a few weeks ago. My co-workers were making a lot of noise or griping or something, and I leaned over, and came within a split second of saying something like, "Ya'll need to settle down." I stopped myself before saying it, though, and sort of leaned back, and kind of sat there for a minute, thinking I couldn't believe I almost said it. I made fun of a co-worker once, and he said, "What do you use instead?" He was completely at a loss for another way to say ya'll. I shrugged, and said, "you guys??" like, isn't it obvious?

My redneck friend Rusty lives in Omaha (though he's from southuhn Missouruh... kidding, he isn't that bad), and he says "ya'll" all the time--and isn't at all self-conscious about it. I think that's why I started calling him a redneck. That and the fact that he has no boundaries, and transports fully-assembled play pens in the bed of his truck to campsites, hahaha.

This is really depressing... I realized I haven't ridden a horse in three months. :( :( I haven't even seen a real, live horse in weeks. I mean, I could drive to a random barn and pat a random horse on the neck, but that would just be weird. I was sitting at a stop light, thinking I might call up Melissa (my last trainer) for a lesson the next time I visit Omaha. And then I started thinking about the last time I had a lesson. And literally in the next second, I looked up to see a sticker of a horse head on the back window of the Suburban in front of me. Sigh. I'm going through a really rough patch again... I need an Omaha fix... I really miss you guys... and I need to ride a HORSE...

The new saddle that I got is comfy but was causing some chafing, so I went into the store I bought it from and they said I can change the saddle, try different shorts, or get fitted again (which I probably need anyway). I decided to buy a different pair of shorts... I went on a short ride, and so far so good. I really hate the other pair of shorts that I have.

The power went out in the building I work in at about 2:15 on Tuesday. So we got bored and decided to play T-Rex ball. It's really retarded, but hilarious. At about 3:00, they let everybody go home (though we were expected to work at home, of course--no prob there). So, I went for a bike ride, haha. Though I did work afterwards. Anyway, I did a short hill route, and included Bluegrass in it. I got beeped at a couple of times. I think it was the same car, actually. Bastids. Unless it was a friendly "Hey, nice ass" kinda honk, then honk away! God, it was so freaking hot though. We were supposed to get a high of 103 I think, and I foolishly decided to ride in the hottest part of the day (about 3:30, when the sun hasn't even started setting and is just plain evil) rather than wait. After riding awhile, I got somewhat lost and couldn't remember where to go. I thought I was going to have to ask someone for directions (I was riding in neighborhoods). I was actually getting kind of worried, as I was SO HOT and my mind was getting fuzzy, but I took a guess and found my way home. ;)

Free lunch!

I found an awesome new band - Anberlin. Eric, you'd probably like them! :) Check them out--www.myspace.com/anberlin. I really like Dance, Dance, Chris Paffgen. The Haunting and Unwinding Cable Car are good too. Runaways is actually the song that got me hooked on them, but it's not on their MySpace page... I just found them on Pandora. I love streaming music. No matter what Michael says. :p

So, the company I work for went from managing $800,000 in accounts (and 8 employees in my department) to $1,000,000 and 6 employees. Am I the only one who doesn't see the math adding up in that equation? You know what they're "doing for us" for all this hard work?

They're buying us lunch. Woohoo?

I e-mailed a guy I used to work with because the website we built finally reached the first page for their most competitive term. Hopefully they celebrated... I remember when I first started doing SEO for them, it was such a big deal for us to reach even page 6. And then we reached page 3, and we got all excited. Pretty sad when I think about it now. ;) Anyway, he mentioned he had tried to update one of their blogs, and it got all screwed up, so he asked if I happened to know what to do. I sent him a couple of files (that'll be $100, please drive through), and bam. It works. I'm such a genius.

Solo ride

So, I've put myself in a position where I'm too dependent on Michael. I bet a lot of you never thought that would happen. I've always been so independent, almost to a fault. It always exasperated my dad anyway. :) I was eager to be able to rely on someone else for a change, but I guess I need to find my own "place" in Austin and start doing things on my own. I've been relying on Michael for bike rides and social plans (I think I'm okay with everything else--finding my way around, etc.). I sometimes wonder where I would be if I was still in Omaha. Probably at a new job, since the one at Medical Solutions was starting to go downhill... I probably would have started up again with the last guy I dated, and we'd probably be broken up by now, haha... I'd have more money, that's for damn sure... probably be the proud new owner of a Kuota Kebel (a bike)... and, of course, I'd still be unwilling to let go of my independence. I'm having a really hard time finding a happy-medium there. If I had moved to a city where I didn't know anybody, the only thing different is that I would be a little lonelier than I am now, though there are times here that I feel very alone and isolated. But I'd probably have no trouble finding places to ride and groups to ride with.

So I went on a solo bike ride, and I had fun. I went maybe 22 miles on a stretch of road that, for the most part, I love to ride. I rode very well, and ran into a lot of other cyclists. My average speed was probably around 17 for the most part. I'm going to try to do this ride alone once a week, on the weekends. I have to do it early, though, for two reasons: the weather and the traffic.

I've been walking Jaiden a lot, and the diet has been okay. I didn't do so well today, hehe...

I got an e-mail from Meghan, the girl that I used to work with who quit. Meghan is really the only friend I have here in Austin, so my social life is not what I want it to be. I'm happy staying in alone sometimes, but not all the time. I'm just not the kind of person that can go out and meet people. I have a few really close friends rather than a lot of "good" friends. Anyway, Meghan invited me to some music show tonight. For some reason, I don't really want to go (I'm not a big music show kind of person), but I guess if I'm going to go out and do things, I might as well jump on it now while the fire's hot. Or something. So I called her and left a message.

I finally got my dishwasher replaced. I had been having problems with the older one. It made loud sounds, and leaked all over the kitchen floor. No damage, but it was a pain. The new one has an odd, kind of moldy smell to it. Yuck. I'm hoping that'll go away in a few weeks.

I pre-ordered the fourth book in the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer, along with another one of her books. My sister-in-law was kind enough to get me hooked. :) She gave me the first book for my birthday, and I was so busy with the move that I didn't get a chance to read it until about a month ago. I did pick it up about a month prior to that, read the first few lines, and thought, "Hm, that sounds like it might be a good read." Little did I know... It's an obsession, I tell ya.

I got my grandparents' clock back, and it stopped working, so I took it back. Silly me, it just needed to be rewound. So I set it again this afternoon. And it stopped working 20 minutes later. Arrrgh...

Lies, lies, lies

I keep having the same argument over and over with my 'team lead'. The gist of it is, if we work hard (aka, more than 40 hours a week), we bonus. Which is total BS. The only way we bonus is if a client raises his/her budget or if they've been with us for 6 months. Both of these are very hard to achieve for someone with a technical, non-sales background, which is nearly all of my department. BUT, if a client leaves, it's counted against our bonus. Understandable. But if they don't pay their bill, the loss in revenue is ALSO counted against us. Um. What?

'team lead':
IF we work HARDER
THEN we GET BIGGER ACCOUNTS
AND that MEANS MORE MOOLAH!!!!!!

April
BUT IT'S NOT GUARANTEED!!!
that's what really freaking irks me

'team lead':
I don't know how to explain it any clearer

April
a client can decide to pause their account AT ANY TIME FOR ANY REASON and WE are the ones to blame
always.
so we get punished for a client not paying his/her bill
it's BS
I'm tired of seeing everybody bend over backwards to keep upper management happy.

'team lead':
Not like job = Not necessarily work hard
Not work hard = No BIG accounts
No BIG accounts = No BIG $
So positivity pays

April
I'm sorry [team lead]... you can scream all that as much as you want, but I'm still not seeing any kind of incentive to work harder.

'team lead':
;< ;@>

April
I have no idea wat those are supposed to look like

'team lead':
8;(
that's my frustrated face

April
I'm as frustrated as you

'team lead':
REALLY

April
[Team lead], I'm just BARELY making it [I somewhat stretched the truth there]... and I'm not going to work more than 40 hours/week on the "chance" that we'll bonus. So I have to look ELSEWHERE to make more money.

So, we stopped talking about that and went into another "argument" where I TOTALLY caught him red-handed in a blatant lie.

'team lead':
I could always call [our client] and say, "So Apes can do your web work for $_____ and I'll do your PPC/SEO on the side for $_____
:)

April
HAHA

'team lead':
then we BOTH win :)

April
do you even know how to do SEO?
I bet I'm better than you :)

'team lead':
not even close punk

April
look up travel nursing jobs in google

'team lead':
travel nursing jobs

April
1,000,000 results and the company I worked for is on the first page
medicalsolutions.com
That's why I should be doing SEO for this place

'team lead':
wow
I'm very impressed
drenched in sarcasm

April
okay... where's your proof that you can do that?

'team lead':
Have you ever heard of a little company called
vitamin water
I did ALL of their SEO 6 years ago

April
I thought you had said when you got hired, you had no online marketing experience

'team lead':
now they are the TOP listing/ first page
for the following terms
[he never did give me any terms]

April
six years? you can't count what you did six years for the performance today

'team lead':
who said I didn't have experience
no did it for 6 years

April
you did
you said that's the reason you took this job

'team lead':
I did?
Oh yeah
I did
ok you may be better at SEO
:)
how many reports you got left?

Ugh. I'm starting to think the guy is a compulsive liar...

Oh, and by the way, I looked up "vitamin water" in Google, and vitaminwater.com didn't even come up as #1. On top of that, anybody who knows anything about SEO would know to change the title of the first page, not have the entire site in Flash, and change the description of the website. So if he was even doing SEO for them, he really sucked at it.

Bugs, Bugs... UGH.

So apparently the hurricane or tropical storm or whatever that's in the Gulf of Mexico is coming inland and somewhat affecting us. It's odd to be living in an area that's affected by hurricanes. All we've had is a bit of rain and one little piece of thunder. Hoping for more...!

Diet and jogging is going okay... I sort of pulled a muscle in my right calf though yesterday. Sigh.

Michael's on track to do 14,000 cycling miles for the year! He's crazy. A lot of that is commuting to work. I've entertained the idea, but the thought of cycling in rush hour... gah! I went to a bike shop to get a new saddle, since mine is just not very comfortable on long rides. I had heard about an Ass-o-meter (not the technical term, but I can't remember what it's called) that measures your seat bone width to determine what size saddle you need. I asked if I could get "measured", and the employee had me sit on this gel-like thing. I felt odd, to say the least. He measured me at 130 or so, but said I'd probably need a 143. I'm not entirely sure why he thought that, and should have asked, but oh well. So I zoned in on a Specialized Jett saddle that has a deep cutout made specifically for women, bought it, got home, and had immediate buyer's remorse. The damn thing is white!! How I didn't think of that when I actually bought it is beyond me. It doesn't look bad, but... I don't know. It's just different. I'll have to just see how my arse feels after a long ride. I'm allowed 30 days to bring it back if it doesn't work, which is nice.

I am SICK of BUGS!!!! I thought Omaha was bad. Texas has these teeny tiny little light brown invisible bastards that crawl on your skin and bite you. They're everywhere. A couple weeks ago, I went outside to play with the dogs, and was out there for maybe 5 minutes and went back inside with about 10 mosquito bites. I've murdered probably two dozen tiny black ants at work with a pencil eraser, and my skin is constantly crawling whenever I'm at my desk. And today, I was walking Jaiden, and felt something odd in between my toes, like a leaf or something. I look down, and saw this brown stuff all over. I thought it was just vegetation stuff, but on closer inspection, I noticed I had literally hundreds of tiny brown ants crawling on my sandals and feet!!! UGH! I had to wash my sandals AND MY FEET in the sink! And now I'm sitting here positively itching all over in paranoia.

Goin' joggin'

So, I swear I feel like I'm gaining weight. Either way, I'm going to try to shed a few pounds over the next couple of months. I've been riding the bike more, but I've been riding for about a year, and other than changes to muscle tone (my legs look a lot better than they did a year ago!), I haven't lost a single pound, and I think I've gained some. SO. On the days that I don't ride the bike, the puppy and I are going jogging! I'll take one day off a week (probably Fridays). When I lost weight a few years ago, I rode horses three times a week (sigh, can't do that, so I'm cycling instead which is admittedly harder) and walked/jogged on the treadmill twice a week. I did drastically cut down my calories to 900/day, but I've tried doing that again, and it's really just too hard. I'm going to try to watch what I eat a little more, but not be obsessive about it. When I obsess, I get burned out, and jump off the bandwagon. Wish me luck. :)

Yesterday I was good until dinner. We worked until 7:30, so they brought pizza in, and I had a couple of slices. Jaiden and I went walking/jogging after I got home. Tonight I'll either go on a ride or jog. I feel kinda bad for Jaiden, though. He gets really thirsty and tired while we're out, but it's a pain in the ass to bring a water bottle. Hopefully he acclimates to the hot weather--I try to go later at night. The other day, we went on a fairly long walk, and I wanted to get the mail, so we passed the apartment. After going a little ways, Jaiden stopped IN HIS TRACKS and looked at me, like, "What the hell, Mom? I'M TIRED!" Either that, or he thought I was lost. ;)

I'm still working on the website for that lady. I did get a deposit and finished it for her; now we're just working on finding a web host. Once we get that going, I'll get the rest of the $$$ before transferring the site. I'm really going to try to get more and more of these side projects.

Work is blah, but I haven't been looking like I should be. A lot of other stuff going on. That's all for now!

Excellent Ride!

Michael and I went for a ride on Wednesday night. It was definitely the best ride I've had since I got here. I was able to maintain 18-20MPH the entire ride, even up some hills and into a small headwind. At one point, Michael pointed off to the right, talking about stree names in the neighborhood we were passing. I noticed a cyclist behind us, so I got in behind Michael to let him/her pass. He pointed off to the right again, and I assumed he was still talking about street names, but I couldn't hear him, so I scooted up onto his right side. He suddenly started turning to the right, into me, onto a street we were passing, and it occurred to me then that he had actually been signalling a right-hand turn. I didn't have anywhere to go and my fingers couldn't reach the brakes in time (damn these bikes designed for large hands), so I yelled "Mike. MIKE!" as he couldn't see that he was turning into me. He swerved a bit, and took the turn wide. I'm just glad he didn't crash, and that there wasn't a car coming at us in the opposite direction--we were going downhill at a good speed. I apologized, saying I hadn't heard what he was saying.

On the way back, we ran into a traffic jam. There was some sort of pro soccer game going on, and cars were everywhere, including on the shoulder where Michael and I were riding. It was a pain, but once they finally got off the shoulder, it was fun to be able to pass cars instead of them passing us. ;)

We also ran into a group of women riding. I've been wanting to ride with a group of women, so Michael said we could turn around to talk to them. We did, and it turns out it's a ride organized by a local shop. The bad thing is, they only ride twice a month (odd), but hopefully I can at least meet some women to ride with.

We went to see Dark Knight on Saturday. It was awesome. Heath Ledger stole the show, in my opinion. His acting was phenomenal.

Sunday, Michael and I went on a 42-mile ride. I really needed a long ride--it's been a long time since I've ridden that long. Maybe it'll help improve my other crappy rides? :)

No news on the job front. I haven't exactly been applying much, so I'm not too surprised. It's funny how much free time I found to apply for jobs when I was up in Omaha, but now that I'm down here, I can't seem to find the time to apply. ;)

So, if your boss invites you to lunch... isn't it good form for him/her to pay?! I guess technically, he didn't invite me--a coworker did--and then proceeded to come with us to lunch. Also, we didn't talk about work while we were there... but still. Just seemed kinda cheap to me. Oh well.

A Strike?!

I've been busy lately, so I haven't written too much.

I'm really getting sick and tired of work. It seems like nearly every day I walk in, something gets worse. One of my coworkers quit (this is the second one in the last two weeks), and they don't have any intentions yet of hiring someone else... and yet our workloads are increasing. I have seven accounts that I work on, and today four--whoops, nope, make that five--more were added. This is fucking ridiculous.

I got an IM from a coworker... I'm definitely NOT the only one who's getting fed up:


coworker:
hey April

April:
hey

coworker:
[Everybody in our department has] been talking about getting together for a meeting to um...air some greivances
is that somethign you'd want to be involved with?

April:
haha, sure

coworker:
yeah, I don't think that anyone is happy here at this point, so something's about to happen. I'll keep you posted.

April
sweet, a strike?!
:)
kidding

coworker:
we'll see :)

So yeah. Things are just really bad here. I knew my coworker above was mad, but I didn't realize everybody else was, too. And my team lead is doing pretty much nothing to help us out. I got really pissed at him yesterday, lol. He was being really patronizing, and I called him out on it. I think he actually took it to heart, but it won't change his "managing" style. He did have a meeting with his boss (from whom I got another "thank you" email the other day), and they're apprently going to let us leave at 4:15PM Friday so we can go to Dark Knight. I haven't decided if I'm going or not. I sent my coworker an IM saying movie tickets weren't going to make up for it, and he goes, "Yeah, I'm going to pay my rent in Batman tickets." LOL

I e-mailed the Texas DMV to see what I need to get a new driver's license and plates. Ugh. It's going to be a pain in the ass, I can already tell.

I did get a web design client. She has an e-commerce site that reeeeeally sucks right now. She's very excited to be working with me, and I'll be getting a fairly large chunk of change to do her site, although it'll all go towards paying credit card bills that I've managed to rack up (partially due to putting my truck on a 0% interest card, which I'll never do again--0% interest is just too tempting, even for good-girl-credit me).

So what else... oh yeah. I got really sunburned on Sunday. Michael and I went for a 30-mile bike ride in the middle of the day, and I forgot sunscreen. So I have this totally ridiculous looking tan line all over. I have a line on my wrist because of my gloves... one on my upper arms because of my jersey... and one on my thighs because of my shorts. Oh yes, I look fabulous.

Sigh. Bad Ride.

I had a really bad ride last night. Actually, it probably wasn't any worse than my other bad rides down here, but I felt really defeated last night. I'm so so so tired of getting dropped on every.single.ride. In Omaha, I rode with a few other women when I just started out. I was slower than them when I began riding, but in a couple of short months, I was already faster, and they kept saying stuff like, "Wow, you should really race", and they'd give me names of racing groups that I should join, etc. It was really encouraging. But I've joined groups down here that I can't keep up with, and while I realize this is good, I'm starting to feel like the racehorse that never wins, and I'm losing all my motivation. I mean, it isn't even close! I got dropped on the first hill and never saw the rest of the group again. Last night, it even crossed my mind that I should quit, although I doubt that'll happen--I was just really not enjoying myself. I'm always struggling to keep up, and riding my bike has gotten to a point where it isn't fun anymore. At least when I'm horseback riding, I'm constantly improving, and riding with trainers that can tell me what I'm doing right and wrong, and even when I have bad rides, it gives me something to work on. I really wish I could start horseback riding again, but this %*&$^%$ job doesn't pay enough :( Though the one really good thing about this crappy job is it's giving me the motivation to really consider starting a company... Anyway, I think I need to start riding alone, or at the very least, find a slower group. I do ride with groups to improve, but I also love the social aspect, and if I'm always getting dropped, there IS no socializing on the ride. As bad as this sounds, I really need to ride every now and then with people that I can drop. I'm a sick person. :)

Another big part of the problem right now is riding in traffic. It just completely frazzles my brain for some reason. When I have a shoulder or bike lane to ride on, it's not nearly as bad, but last night we went up a short, hilly street, and there was a car behind me that couldn't pass because the driver couldn't see beyond the top of the hill. So he/she had to wait while I went 7 MPH up this hill. In Omaha, a huge part of the reason that I improved is because of the Keystone Trail. It was 25 miles of paved trail, and I could go whenever I want and concentrate on nothing but ME and improving. I could take it slow or I could go fast and do intervals. And I improved FAST. I just don't even want to ride with this group anymore.

I remember last Oct/Nov, I rode with a friend of mine that races. I couldn't keep up with him (obviously), and he dropped me really easily on the hills. I was pedaling for all I was worth, and felt like I was going nowhere, and got really pissy. He told me that if I was just going to get mad, then maybe cycling wasn't for me. (I remember those words specifically... "Maybe cycling isn't for you.") I thought about it later on that day, got pissed, and told him if he ever told me that again, I'd hack off his balls. Hah.

Sigh... okay, I'm done bitching. At least about that. Michael and I might be going to the Alamo Drafthouse (a movie theater that serves food, beer, drinks, etc.) so I have that to look forward to. Plus it's FRIDAY!! :)

4th of July

For the 4th of July, Michael and I rode our bikes downtown and met his friends, Steve and his new girlfriend Shannon. I guess they'd been dating for a couple of months, but I swear Michael had told me like two weeks ago that he had just broken up with this other girl he'd been dating for a while. So, whatever, I figured it would be fun.


We got down there after getting a bit lost, and met up with Steve and Shannon. The four of us rode the rest of the way downtown, and found a spot to sit and watch the fireworks. Shannon and I got to talk a bit, and she's pretty cool and easy to talk to. I guess she started getting into riding bikes, which is how she met Steve--he's a bike shop mechanic.


Michael and I rode to a bridge that was completely closed off to car traffic (that was awesome), and watched that bats fly out of the bridge that they sleep under--the bridge opposite of where we were at. They all flew out at once, and it was just an endless stream of blackness. It was cool, but they flew in the opposite direction, so we didn't really get to see much. After riding to a convenient store to grab some beer, we rode back to the spot we were at, and that's when Steve and Shannon announced they were getting married (!). I actually thought they were kidding, so I didn't say anything... and once I realized they weren't kidding, I seriously couldn't make my mouth move. Michael recovered much faster than I did, and offered his congrats. He left to go take pictures, and at that point my mouth finally became unfrozen, and I started asking questions about it (when's the date, etc.). They were all lovey-dovey.

The fireworks show was great. We rode home in the dark again, and got caught in the Austin downtown traffic. :shudder: I hate riding in traffic that thick. Once we got out of the downtown area, we didn't run into much traffic at all, and it was a great night!

I found out yesterday that they're switching me to another team at work. Someone quit (surprise!), so rather than hiring someone else, they're just spreading the work around. Just great.

And my apartment

Pictures!!

My living room (no furniture yet... I'm planning on getting a couple of bar stools for the bar thing, and maybe a love seat for the living room--plus I'll have my grandparents' rocker/recliner).


Jaiden's favorite place to stalk people. Currently, the mountain bike's resting place is on the fireplace, haha. I may move it outside to the porch.


Awww... he always rests his head on the window sill.


View from the living room to the kitchen.


My kitchen... small but I still like it. The chip clips on the fridge door handle is Michael's excellent work.


Bedroom! I finally got that dolphin painting hung up--it sat in my house for a good year and a half.




View of the porch thing (what the heck are they called... oh, balcony I guess).


Bathroom (and those spots on the mirror are the bubbles on the towels).