• I got to meet the fabulous Ken & Denise Hawk for the first time. They were just as much of a joy in real life as they are on facebook. They are the kind of friends that make you want to be more like them so you can be a better person. Inspiring is not a big enough word.
• We got to hang out with Dave & Debbie. I worked with Dave in the MSC and have known him longer than I’ve known Emil. Debbie went to St. Joseph Elementary with Emil and has known him almost their whole lives. Dave & Debbie met ~8 years ago and have been inseparable ever since. Dave & I had a blast swapping war stories about the people we hated working with. Kevin P. J. & David “P” C., I’m talking about you, you bastards.
• We got to reconnect with Tommy & Lisa. They live here in Austin and we haven’t made any plans to see them in the 14 months we’ve been here. Shame on us! But, now the plans are ready to take some kind of form and shape. yay!

It’s fun to go to Emil’s reunion and hang with people I consider to be my own friends, too.

At lunch on Friday, from across the room, we saw who we thought might be another friend (who used to live in Austin). He works undercover in Houston, now. If it was him, the disguise is working. Funny that we’d almost run into him in College Station.

Then, today, at Dream Dinners, I kept staring at one of the women there. I looked at her name tag on her freezer shelf and it started to come back. By the time I put it all together, I was in the car and on my way home. I doubt she’d have remembered me, anyway. I was friends with her Advisor when I worked in Student Activities. The funny thing, I remember how much grief she caused, not the good she did. Maybe it’s best that I didn’t introduce myself!

Paris Texas Chamber of Commerce - Google Error

Google returns the correct map and address for the the Paris, Texas, Chamber, but lists the website as http://www.barnesville.org , which is the site for the city of Barnesville in Lamar County, Georgia. (Paris is in Lamar County, Texas).

So, it seems some database at Google has Lamar County in Texas mixed up with Lamar County in Georgia.

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

I’ll give you three guesses and the first two don’t count.

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!)

Getting To The Root Of The Problem

What? Did I read that right? Toy JOY? TOY Joy?

Did he just say that out loud? Does his mom read his Tweets?

Now, if you had the same dirty reaction I did. You are hereby compelled to let me know. It’s only fair to the humor of this all.

I totally thought he was publicly announcing that he was shopping at a sex store.

So, after two of these tweets (http://twitter.com/whurley/status/6132442015 and http://twitter.com/whurley/status/6124920084), I was really perplexed…until I remembered the store he’s talking about.

It really is a toy store that adults also like. Many of the games and toys are vintage. Some are educational-worthy. Others are simply geared for grown ups. But it’s not a sex shop. It’s a really cool only-in-Austin game and toy store. Toy Joy website.

So, thanks for the laugh, Whurley! (and let me know if you happen to stumble across this little anecdote of my silly life).

“Fiddle-dee-dee. War, war, war; this war talk’s spoiling all the fun at every party…”
-Scarlett O’Hara, Gone With the Wind

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!