Austin

Happy Anniversary to us! One year ago this weekend, Emil got a bona fide job offer (he won the race between us!), and we found out we were moving to Austin! Just a few days later, we had an apartment. Just a few days after that, we moved half our 3/2.5/2/2 household to our new 2/2 place. It was a very busy and exciting time for us.

Now, a year later, we know we made the best decision. It’s so much nicer to live in a city of a real size. More importantly, this is a far better fit to our personalities, lifestyle, and beliefs about humanity.

Happy Anniversary, Austin Luzas!

Catering company looks forward to the Brown-Dick wedding.

During South by Southwest, one particular person was a complete jerk to a friend of mine.

After Twitter users “verbified” his Twitter handle (which is most of his online persona), someone saw fit to add it to the Urban Dictionary.

“When someone who thinks they’re a celebrity treats you like crap. In actuality that person is probably just a douche with a blog or twitter account. Gets its name from @skydiver on Twitter, who infamously tweeted at SxSW 2010:

My CroKnit friend, Stephanie, blogs about food. She gets her veggies from Greenling and has been asked to blog her use of their produce “box” for them.

Go read her first article on the Greenling blog!

CONGRATULATIONS, Stephanie. What a nice way to share your love of cooking.

Last week’s #ATXplanecrash hit close to home, literally. It occurred just a couple of “highway” blocks south of where we live. I was home, never heard a boom, and didn’t see any smoke.

Twitter was our source for information. I learned of it first, there (just like I did of Michael Jackson’s death) and Re-Tweeted significant information so that our friends would see it, too.

It was a bit surreal and resurrected tragedies in my life—the Paris tornado (1982), Hurricane Andrew (1992), Aggie Bonfire (1999), and yes, the 9/11/01 terrorist attacks—only on a much smaller scale. The day’s news blurbs via Twitter and local network streaming were even a little reminiscent of the Columbine tragedy.

Tomorrow night, our friends—@kimhollenshead, @laniar, and @bennrosales—are hosing a Candlelight Vigil in memory and honor of those affected. True to the open-minded and welcoming style of Austin, it’s a secular not-quite-”Kumbaya”-but-with-that-spirit event that is designed only to bring the community together in the aftermath of a tragedy. If you are in Austin, please join us:

#ATXplanecrash site
Candlelight Vigil
25-Feb-2010
6:15pm
BYO candles
across 183 in the Gateway Lawn

Wow. What a week it has been! And it’s just Thursday.

1. Tuesday was our (mine and Beth’s) little Taste of Dream Dinners party. As You Wish provided updated headshots/avatars to those in attendance. Another friend, Victoria sold her necklaces. It was small, but valuable for each of us involved. I have been too slow at getting those images processed.
2. Wednesday, I was “it” at my monthly Brainstormers group. I presented a problem: how to market to school-age kids, Tweens, and teens and their parents. Through a process that adheres to the rules of Brainstorming, I was literally bouncing up and down at all the fabulous ideas. I can’t wait to implement some of them. I was also happy to see that my brainstorming topic was one that could apply to a lot of the members of the group.
3. Thursday morning I had an interview for a great job—-I’ve kept my job search a bit on the down-low, I’ve had enough bad bosses/jobs thankyouverymuch —-as an Education Coordinator…but as it turns out, it has a 75% travel time. I could easily be gone Monday-Friday for three weeks of every month. If I get an offer from them, we will have to consider it very carefully.
4. Thursday all day, As You Wish was the Groupon.com deal of the day for Austin. As of this writing, I have 90 portrait sessions from new clients for the Austin area! And, my business name has been in front of 44,000+ Austin members today. In addition, I also got a new Senior Ambassador, and I sold a Womb-to-Bloom portrait series that includes a maternity session, newborn session, 3-6-9 month sessions, and a first birthday session complete with balloons and CAKE! (Maybe #3 isn’t so important, after all…?). Whew! Late in the day, I learned that a potential bride and a close friend were on the list of those who purchased Groupons. Thank you, both. You “warm the cockles of my cockles”. Ack! I just checked again and it’s up to 95!!

There have been several other happy moments this week: I was selected to serve on two committees for the Nuptial Essentials Association of Wedding Professionals; I’m going to be working with great folks on both of those! And, my new friend, Hilarie, gave me some excellent feedback on a challenging aspect of my website, which I took to heart and applied fully. Just a few days later, I was able to return the favor to her in the form of reviewing her “audition” piece for a graphic design job. She was pleased with the feedback and genuinely considered my thoughts. She and I are on to something, here… There were others, too. It’s been a week of amazing moments.

When will my world stop spinning? I can only handle this adrenaline rush for a little while longer. At the same time, it sure is a spinning a web of happiness; a web that I know will catch me when I fall.

“If my friends could see me, now!” Oh wait; you can! You just did!

Oh, and BTW, adrenaline and/or sheer excitement is an easy fix for a caffeine dependency. I’ve barely had any today and have hardly noticed. How do I get THAT side effect more often

Happy Weekend, everyone!

His name is Ben Lerman and he plays the ukulele.

Because I listen to Keith and the Girl, I knew of Ben Lerman and his melodic-with-a-ukulele genius. Ben has some great stories that he has turned into song. He also does the occasional cover song that fits his shtick. His material is NSFW (not safe for work), but this post on our blog is.

We arrived early and had a drink (and I worked on a couple of Christmas gifts); that was the best decision of the night. We took the best seat in the house, the couch. A few minutes later, another couple arrived and when they rounded the corner, said, “oh, someone is already sitting on the couch.” So, we made room and invited them join us. That was the second best decision of the night! Fositi, Shane, (and later their friend Chris who joined us) were hilarious and kept us in stitches until Ben’s show. They were all there to see the band that Ben was opening for.

When they asked me about Ben, I didn’t really know how to describe him except that he’s a great comic and his tag line: “My name is Ben Lerman and I play the ukulele.” I hoped that they wouldn’t be disappointed.

Before Ben took the stage a couple of tiny acts did a couple of numbers each. One even played the ukulele. I thought it was a little like stealing Ben’s thunder, but he took it all in stride and thanked all the performers by name when it came his turn….and then he blew them all out of the water!

His first song, “My name is Ben Lerman and I play the ukulele,” made us all giggle. But just one song in and our laughter was boisterous. If Ben is going to be near you on his tour (Texas, California, Colorado, New York), you simply must make an effort to see his show. He has some great stories and songs and is a genuinely nice guy who wants to meet his fans. I promise you’ll have a great time.

The super-best part is that we made new friends in the process.

TwitPic
please forgive the poor quality phone camera

http://benlerman.net/
@BenLerman on Twitter

Ever since we moved here, I’ve been wondering why Thursdays are so popular for events. We can have our calendars ~wide open for Monday and Tuesday evenings. Wednesdays have a few things every other week or so. But Thursdays tend to 1-2 events every week and sometimes 3 events on the same night/time seeking the exact same niche within their audience. Even in a city where there are plenty of people to go around, this has caused tension within that group. Frankly, when that happens, I usually end up going to nothing. Just looking at the calendar makes me tired. ha!

This past week, however, some holiday something was being discussed. I didn’t pay much attention. I was making a polite excuse to miss and commented that “everything” in this town happens on Wednesday and Thursday. Another woman in our conversation circle summed it up better than I’ve been able to so far. It went a little something like this:

“In Austin, Wednesday evening is like Friday night. So, Thursday is Saturday night. And, then, Friday is Friday, again, and Saturday is Saturday.”

So, every week has two weekends!

Double The Pleasure; Double The Fun

At around 12noon today, we had snow in Austin! I was at our Dream Dinners session making our meals for December and early January. It was perfect timing when “Let It Snow” came on the Muzak. And then, the sun came out while it was still snowing. That was an interesting thing to witness/

By the time I left our session, it was sunny and warming up. It’s supposed to be a hard freeze (26 degrees, last I heard).

If you want to see some pictures, KXAN is gathering images from their audience.

If you want to read people’s reactions, search the #AustinSnow tags on Twitter.

(And no, it wasn’t nearly as nice as the snow we had in Bryan last year. ..but it’s early in the season!)