Category: BlahBlahBabble

House closing today at 1:00. I’m in quite a freaked out state of mind right now. Just in case you wondered.

Good news – originally they had until Wednesday to be out of the house, as a courtesy so they could overlap closings. However, we got the call yesterday that they are already out. We got to wander around last night, take measurements, and dream about what colors the rooms will be painted when we are done and where all the furniture will be placed.

Bad news – we didn’t find this out until Sunday afternoon. The light company needs 3 business days to turn on power. Our appointment was set for Thursday, but the earliest they could move it to was Wednesday. Cable won’t be on until Tuesday afternoon. Rescheduling with the phone company now.

Within hours, I’ll have a new address and a new phone number. How terrifying exciting is that?

Yesterday, when we arrived in Austin, we heard that Robert Duvall was at the Omni. Pretty cool, maybe I could see a star in person, right?

Well, today I saw someone that I personally found much more exciting. I believe my geek quotient went up a few points today too. Because not only did I get to meet Eric Meyer, I also got to take a Picture Yourself style photo with him (which I quickly dedicated to Kristine with a K for all of her amazing CSS powers and being my inspiration), he autographed my CSS handbook full of knowledge for me, and to top it all off – I brought up last year’s “CSS makes my eyes bleed” comment and we discussed it further. He kindly pointed out that not only does my CSS book have a glossy cover, the pages have a smooth sheen. According to him, that makes it easy “to clean the blood off – but be careful, otherwise you will smudge the text if you rub too hard.”

I was giddy for the rest of the afternoon. Forget about Robert Duvall – I had an actual conversation with Eric Meyer! And I have a phototgraph!

I am completely inspired, and as soon as I have time to sit and study, I will devour my CSS book. I will understand CSS once and for all, no matter what it takes! Who knows, maybe after I finish Eric Meyer on CSS, I might just pick up a copy of O’Reilly’s Definitive Guide and the latest CSS 2.0 guide!

It seemed strange not to be registered for SXSW this year. The past two years have been a lot of fun, combined with learning a lot of new things and saying classic things like “CSS makes my eyes bleed” to Tantek. But the house closing is on Monday, and we have a lot to do before the move itself later in the week.

Then we received an invitation to dinner from Kevin to the second annual roast at Castle Hill. We debated about it, but finally gave in – we weren’t going to be doing anything house related last night, and Austin is just 2 and a half hours away from Houston.

I’m so glad we decided to head over here. Really, really glad. Dinner was fantastic, and the chance to catch up with Moose Mike, Robert, Beta Mike, Jessa, Nikolai, James and Josh. Discussions about penii soaps seemed to never end, and I have some great ideas for my new business. As an added bonus, we discussed business throughout the meal, turning it in to a focus group for me, which makes it a company expense, right? We were definitely the cool table to be at!

I had a chance to catch up later with Jay (everyone’s MT Blacklist hero!), Brad (who I adored before, but do so even more now), Kristin, Min Jung, Sooz, Leia (with the awesome stickers!), Griff Mike (now you see why all the Mikes get nicknames?), and Kevin. I also got to see Matt (I’m still waiting for an answer to my question, Matt…), Jish, Rannie, and Jay. I just saw them last week, so we didn’t really have any catching up to do.

It’s nice to be in Austin, and it’s good to see all the familiar faces. I still really want to try to see Ste before we head home, and seeing Pete would truly be an added bonus.

As we discussed at dinner last night, most noticeable are the people that are not here this year. Some very familiar faces are missing. If you are one of them (Ernie, Heather…) – we are missing you.

Of course, they will be missing me soon too … we have a walk-thru for the house later today and so we are heading for home in just a little bit. *le sigh*

As part of buying a house, we also get to buy a fridge, washer & dryer. Where did you buy yours? What features do you find essential? What could you live without? What do you wish you had? What about the store – who has the best deals? What about the best service?

We’re going to do some shopping around, but I thought it would be smart to get feedback from other people to guide us too!

I’m watching “Match Game” right now on the Game Show Network – an episode from 1978. The host just asked one of the female contestants:

What do you do Bonnie, if anything?

Oh yeah, that’s definitely something you would NOT hear on today’s game shows! I’m too amused.