We moved into our new apartment yesterday (Thr) and got the cable set up today (Fri), so we have our place and are back on-line. (It’s really nice to have high-speed cable internet again.) This afternoon we’re going out and searching for some antiques…need a kitchen table. I’ll write more later on.

Ev and I went over to the apartment today and signed the lease–all 21 pages of it! We got the keys, so were able to stop at Target and pick up some stuff and start getting the apartment set up. Horray!

We’ll be spending tonight (Wed) at the extended stay, since most of our stuff is still here. Then we pack up in the morning and move in to our new place.

Evelyn has spent the better part of two weeks seaching for apartments. Looking at different areas. Checking on crime. Seeing what’s available. And on an on.

On Thursday night we went driving around a bit to check out places. A bunch of them were in large complexes. While they looked decent, there were just too many people in too small of an area. A lot of them were close to some of the colleges, and the last thing I wanted was to be around a bunch of college kids.

She was really getting burned out from looking at all the listings, but was still going forward. Today she called one place and found that they no longer manage the facility–but they do manage another one. It was in a decent area (accessible to highway, north Austin, close to corporate jobs) so she asked more about it (it wasn’t one that she had researched).

Lo-and-behold, she learned that the complex (about 100 units) is 85% senior citizens. Perfect! I had always half-joked that I wanted to live in a senior living community–peace and quiet! Plus, they had four one bedroom top-floor apartments available. Horray!

So we went out there (planning to check on three complexes in the area) to check it out. It was our first stop, and I’m glad that it was. The people in the office were very friendly (one of them lives there) and helpful. We took a look at the the four apartments and settled on one that we liked. (They were pretty similar, but the one we got was furthest away from the road and had more recent upgrades.)

We had such a positive feeling about the place that we put down a deposit and filled out the credit check forms. If all goes well we should hear back early next week. It will be nice to have our own place again.

Since my job allows me to have four day weeks, we took advantage of the Friday by going to the Austin Zoo. I wanted to make sure to get Evelyn out of the hotel, since she’s been stuck inside all week. (This first week I took the car, but starting next week she might start dropping me off.)

The Zoo is an interesting place, because it only accepts animals without a home. It takes them from other zoos (that don’t have room), shelters, circuses, labs, and so on. A pretty cool concept, I think. They have most of the usual stuff you’d expect in a zoo, except for really big animals (ex. giraffe, elephant).

One of the things I really liked was that there are a lot of “petting zoo” portions. So, you can buy a bag of food and feed goats, pigs, deer, and so on. It’s really a great place for kids since you can get close up to the animals. (We were the only ones there without kids. Lots of “soccer” moms and dads.)

It also has a short (15) minute train ride though some of the grounds. You really don’t see many animals on the ride, but you do get to see some pretty hill country scenery.

It’s a small zoo, but the concept is cool, and the animals seemed to be pretty happy. It is nice to see animals saved from bad homes and/or destruction.

Probably the saddest part of the zoo was the area with the small monkeys (can’t remember their proper name) that were used in labs. The poor things are afraid to climb in trees and they walk around all hunched over. They are over 30 years old and spent the first 25 of those in lab cages. It really makes you think about what we do to animals. On the bright side, they are living their retirement in a nice place with lots of toys. (It looked like a kids playroom.)

I started work at my new job yesterday (Monday) at the water conservation district here in Austin. So far so good. After being on “vacation” for so long it’s a bit hard getting back to full-time work, but it’s a decent place to get back in the swing of things. The downside is that it’s a short-term consulting position (about 2 months), but it pays the bills and gets us down in Austin, which is nice.

Right now we’ve been touring around Austin a bit and looking for an apartment. There are lots of places down here, but it’s always tough finding the “right” place (most important: peaceful and not too bad of a commute). We’ll see what happens. (We don’t want to look at houses until one of us is settled down with a full-time job.)

On Saturday we headed out to the town of Fredericksburg, which is about 70 miles west of Austin, in the hilly part of Hill Country. It’s a really nice weekend destination, as they have a bunch of different stuff in the area.

We first stopped at the National Museum of the Pacific War. It includes a large collection of WWII artifacts, including a Japanese midget submarine, a B25 Bomber, a variety of uniforms, and lots of other stuff. One of the most touching artifacts is a hatch assembly from the USS Arizona (sunk during the attack at Pearl Harbor and now a national memorial). We rushed though in about an hour, though we could have easily spent four hours there.

We were in a rush because we wanted to check out the tour of the Pacific Combat Zone. The PCZ is an outdoor section of the museum, located on a three acre area a couple of blocks away. It houses the collection of large artifacts set in real-life scenes. These include a PT boat, an LVT landing vehicle, a torpedo bomber, and more. It’s really quite impressive.

So why is a museum of the Pacific War located in the middle of Texas? Because Fredericksburg is the home town of Adminal Chester Nimitz, commander of the Pacific Fleet during WWII.

After visiting the museum, we took a walk down Main Street, which has a ton of different stores to visit. Furniture, antiques, cooking, toys, clothing, and more. It’s really quite nice (and pretty long–a five block stretch).

It was late in the day by now, so we headed back to Austin. However, there are a lot of other things to do in the area. You can spend a better part of the day just touring the wineries in the area, plus you are close to the LBJ Ranch and Enchanted Rock State Park. It would be a nice place to spend a relaxing long weekend.

We took Thursday night and Friday pretty slow. On Friday I went over to the consulting company to fill out paperwork. Later in the day we did a little shopping so that I could pick up some new work clothes. Nothing too exiciting. Then we came “home” and just passed out. Exciting stuff!

We made it safe-and-sound in Austin. We’re pretty tired right now, so I’ll write more later on. Trip was uneventful, but long.

Spent the last couple of days helping my Mom & Dad rebuild their front porch. After 90 years of wear and tear, it needed it. Remarkably, the deck portion was still in pretty good shape, though the stairs were shot. There’s nothing more “fun” than building stairs, that’s for sure. In the end, we got everything up again, and it’s all level and true, which is nice. All that’s left is some trim work and some painting, which they’ll be able to handle on their own.

Ev and I are in the process of packing up once again. We’re likely going to be heading down to Austin this Wednesday (9/6). Similar trip to our first one: Drive down to Little Rock, spend the night, and then finish the trip the next day–arriving in Austin on Thursday night. My start date is looking to be Monday the 11th, though I’ll find out for sure tomorrow.

For the short term, we’re going to be in an extended stay place, while Ev looks for an apartment. So, we won’t be bringing too much stuff. Mainly clothes, small electronics, and cooking gear. Once we get an apartment, we’ll be back to Chicago to pick up some more stuff. After a couple months, if we like Austin, we’ll look for a real place (house) and plan for a full-blown move.

Tomorrow (Tue) we’ll be packing, and probably going to our storage units to pull some stuff out (all my cooking gear was in the PR move). Then we’ll be on the road first thing Wednesday morning.