Tonight, I went to my first Austin knitting group. I’d been meaning to go to this one for a while. It meets at The Dig Pub, an archeology-themed bar with great food, and doesn’t conflict with the many other events that are all held on Thursdays. Finally, tonight, I could get there.

Before I left the apartment, I told myself that I’d probably like-but-not-love the members. I didn’t want to get hooked/sucked into a group that met on a weekly basis. I was prepared to like them in a once-a-month kind of way. [1]

The organizer was near the front at a high-top, not in the back on the couches like I had expected. Her name is Stephanie. (Vuja De, anyone?) Call me nervous.

As each member arrived, I instantly felt like I had a lot in common with the whole group. Two are writers in marketing/communications. One is a daughter of a teacher; the organizer is married to a teacher. We all seemed to have the same philosophy and ideals. Stephanie is from a small (backwoods) town like me and even has a funky last name.

And, for our single friends: Jen is gorgeous, from one of the Cy- towns west of Houston, and is single.

So, like I need something ELSE to “do”. But, as long as our family and friend keep making babies, I still need to make them nice blankets (and I’m woefully behind on that task and would like to get back on track). I think knitters at Dig might be another standing-unless-something-really-important-comes-up group for me.

Texas Aggies Will Yell for Miami Hurricanes to Win

Got this in email today (from Rivals.com). You Aggie readers should want Miami to beat FSU next Monday.

History that Correlates

Since 1997, there has been a direct correlation between the winner of the Miami/FSU game and the Texas/OU game.

1997
FSU 47 – Miami 0
Texas 27 OU 24

1998
FSU 26 – Miami 14
Texas 34 – OU 3

1999
FSU 31 – Miami 21
Texas 38 – OU 2

2000
Miami 27- FSU 24
OU 63 – Texas 14

2001
Miami 49 – FSU 27
OU 14 – Texas 3

2002
Miami 28 – FSU 27
OU 35 – Texas 24

2003
Miami 22 – FSU 14
OU 65 – Texas 13

2004
Miami 16 – FSU 10
OU 12 – Texas 0

2005
FSU 10 – Miami 7
Texas 45 – OU 12

2006
FSU 13 – Miami 10
Texas 28 – OU 10

2007
Miami 37 – FSU 29
OU 28 – Texas 21

2008
FSU 41 – Miami 39
Texas 45 – OU 35

Game

Monday, September 7, 2009
7pm CDT (8pm Eastern)
Doak Campbell Stadium, Tallahassee, FL
ESPN

In hopes of getting rid of a bunch of stuff, we held a moving sale in mid-August. We wanted to sell some furniture and, in the proess of packing, had found more “junque” (that’s a fancy word for junk) we didn’t want.

Since the For Sale sign was still in the yard, we got a lot of questions and just general interest; we explained that we had moved. What was more perplexing, however, was the vast number of people who asked “Who’s house is that?” Our house was unique, with cedar exterior and adetached garage that matched; we think it’s obvious. When we would explain that it was our house, they would point to Jes’ house and ask, “Then who lives there?” “Um, our neighbor.”

About mid-morning of our sale we hit a lull except for one Hispanic family. While the wife shopped and kids played, the husband just kept eyeing our house. I suggested to Emil that he take him in to see it. During the tour the guy asked who bought it and Emil told him about Jesus. They were gone for about twenty minutes when the wife asked me, “Have you seen my husband.” I told her I thought he was inside looking at the house. She was satisfied with that answer and kept browsing our junque.

Inside the house, the guy kept asking Emil, “So a _Mexican_ bought this house?” a single guy?” “So a Mexican bought _this_ house?” Yes, Mr. Hispanic Garage Sale Friend, a single Mexican man bought our Colorado-inspired post-and-beam-foundation, cedar-exeterior, bachelor pad.” And we know he’ll love it as much as we did!

The funny guys at xkcd bring us this Tech Support Cheat Sheet.

At the Summer Sendoff for Austin area students who will be attending the University of Miami this fall, they gave the current enrollment numbers: applications received, students accepted, students in attendance, average GPA/SAT/ACT scores. I just laughed and said, “none of us could get in, now, huh?” While some of the numbers of today are inflated [1], it’s also clear that Miami is attracting more and more academically minded students with each year. This is really no surprise. These colleges/programs are all quite recognized: pre-med & medicine, architecture, law, engineering, psychology, music, & communications. Business and education (my degrees) have both grown tremendously in the last few years, too.

So, it’s fun to see Miami in the Top Tier list that everyone uses as a measure. While I’m glad The U made the list, I certainly don’t think it’s the be-all-and-end-all list of good universities. Still, I’m glad Miami can get good press from this.

UM Cracks Top Tier of U.S. News & World Report’s Best College Rankings

The University of Miami Alumni Association would like to thank you, our alumni, for your ongoing commitment to your alma mater. It is only with your support that we are able to be included among the top 50 of the U.S. News & World Report Best Colleges rankings. We could not have reached this level of greatness without you, and we anticipate continued progress in the years ahead.

University of Miami students returning to campus for the new academic year will have another source of pride as ’Canes—their university has cracked the top tier of what is annually one of the most anticipated college ranking lists in the nation.

UM has been ranked No. 50 in U.S. News & World Report’s 2010 edition of “America’s Best Colleges,” which hits newsstands on Monday. It rose from No. 51 last year and has moved up 17 slots in the past eight years, making it one of the fastest-rising institutions in the ranking of national universities.

The editors of U.S. News & World Report have ranked the nation’s top universities and colleges for the past 26 years.

“I am delighted with this recognition,” said UM President Donna E. Shalala, who added that she is proud of the University’s significant accomplishments as measured in student achievement, retention, and graduation rates as well as the caliber of faculty and facilities and the living and learning environment the institution provides.

UM continued to improve in four key variables, showing marked increases in the average SAT score of its incoming freshmen (this year’s average score of 1285 is a 10 point increase from last year and a 110 point rise since 2001), the percentage of freshmen who were in the top 10 percent of their high school graduation class, six-year graduation rate, and freshman retention rate, which now stands at 90 percent.

Since 2001, when Shalala became president, UM has steadily improved in those four areas, which make up more than 33 percent of the formula used by the magazine to rank universities.

In addition, the rankings also revealed that the percentage of classes at UM with fewer than 20 students rose to 52 percent, a 5 percent increase over last year, while the University’s student/faculty ratio also improved. The alumni giving rate is 19 percent, up from 12 percent in 2001.

“While the changes from one year to the next in the U.S. News ranking tend to be relatively minor, the improvement in ranking for the University of Miami over the past eight years has been truly remarkable,” said Executive Vice President and Provost Thomas J. LeBlanc. “More than anything else, the ranking reflects UM’s continuous improvement in admissions, retention, and graduation rates.”

UM’s top-tier ranking comes on the heels of the institution’s record-breaking Momentum campaign, which concluded at the end of 2007 and raised more than $1.4 billion for endowed chairs and professorships, scholarships, facilities, academic and medical programs, and other initiatives.

Click here to view UM President Donna E. Shalala’s comments on the top-tier ranking in U.S. News and World Report

Go ‘Canes!!!

OMG, I totally saw this woman at the library, today. She had pasty-white foundation with not-for-her vibrant red lips. It was terrible.

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Back in May, we moved the stuff we needed to live in a 2-2 apartment. Coming from a 3-2.5-2 house, this left a lot behind. A couple of weekends ago, we had a big moving sale to get rid of furniture we couldn’t use and some of the stuff we didn’t need. However, since we had not yet considered packing the entire house, that still left a lot.

Thursday, I drove over to Bryan to pack as much as I could. Of the 7 rooms to do, I got 3.5 done and felt good about it. Friday, I only made it through ~2 rooms, though. Emil joined me on Friday night in a U-Haul truck and we attempted to dig through the rest of our stuff. By Saturday afternoon, we were finally loading the truck. At about 2pm, I had a mini-panic, I could see a lot more stuff than we had truck. I could see a lot more stuff than we had time. I was frustrated that we had already had four garage sales in 2 years, had given/sold a ton of stuff, had planned this move to Austin for a year and had known about it for ~four months. HOW could we still have so much stuff we don’t need? I had to keep reminding myself that we weren’t just moving a household; we were also moving a business.

Between Saturday and Sunday, the following people were super-helpful and we wish to thank them:

• Charile: took some Hallowe’en decor they will use for their party; loaned us a jack so we could replace yet another tire on my truck; helped us move a credenza.
• Casey: helped us move Daddy’s (very heavy, large, solid) desk and later helped us clear out a bunch of stuff from the garage.
• Jes: helped us clear out stuff, took a bunch of half-filled containers of cleaners and yard chemicals (that we didn’t want to put into storage) off our hands.
• Mr. R: purchased several pieces of equipment from us; helped schlep stuff to the curb for the neighbors to pilfer, and will be making trash runs for us  by refilling our curb-side dumpster and refilling and placing it where it will be picked up tw0 times on trash day (“that” side of the street early am, and again on “this” side of the street later in the day when the truck makes another pass).
• Mom L: housed us for Thur-Sat nights, made cinnamon rolls, and helped me load stuff on Sunday morning (she didn’t lift, she manned the door!) when I was in a huge hurry to grab what I could and then catch up to Emil who was already on the road.
• Neighborhood “elves”: several neighbors we know from HOA events stopped by and pilfered our “junk” for their own uses. We are grateful that they found purpose for the items and kept them out of the landfill.

We resigned ourselves to staying over one more day and made a very detailed plan for Sunday. We accounted for every 15-minute time slot and planned to get the truck returned on time.

We buzzed through cleaning and packing the rest of the house as best we could. At ~9:15, Emil told me it was 10am, so we cranked things up a notch. We decided against trying to get the stuff at his mom’s. He got on the road and I went back to Mom’s to get our clothes. While there, I took 9 boxes I could fit into the pickup. During the drive to our storage unit in Austin, I caught up to him within about five minutes. We went to work on loading stuff into the storage unit, went without breaks, drove to the apartment, loaded the rest of the things that were to go there without a moment to spare, and went to U-Haul to return the truck. The truck was supposed to be back at 5:30. U-Haul had closed at 5pm, so we had to use the drop-slot. I was frustrated that we really pushed to be on time and could have easily taken more, but also relieved that it was almost all done. We had fabulous burgers at MooYa and then came back home to rest.

We have at least one truckload left at Mom’s, but we’ll be back in two weeks for closing. Whatever we don’t get then, we’ll make a weekend run for at another time. This whole move to Austin has been a long time coming (a year of planning and wishing) and seems like a longer time to process (May-August moving). We are grateful for the light at the end of the lo-o-o-o-o-ong tunnel.