Today was Whateley's first day of training for his new position at work. He's going to a different department, which will look good on his resume when he tries for the higher positions later on. Our department's growing like mad, and they didn't get enough supervisors to come over from SoCal, so it seemed like a lot of people were getting promoted in a much quicker time. So Whateley's got a good chance once he proves himself in the new department.

His training was at 8 am, which is about two hours after we normally go to bed. We tried resetting his clock a bit by waking up at noon the day before (which meant we would've gotten about 5 hrs sleep). So we were tired and cranky all day, but at least we were tired when it came time for Whateley's new bedtime. Last night I woke up after 4 hours and I couldn't go back to sleep. So I ended up hanging out in our living room, finishing up a Star Wars novel that I got from the library. (I've pretty much have given up on Star Wars novels, but this was one by Timothy Zahn, who, other than Michael Stackpole, is the only Star Wars novelist that I don't expect to frak up the franchise.) I finished the book just as Whateley's alarm clock rang to get him up at 7 am.

After he left, I crashed and woke up 7 hours later. Erg. When my body wants sleep, it will take it! I went to Costco by myself, the first time I had done so since we got to Austin, and it took me a little longer than we usually do cuz I got lost a few times trying to get on the freeway. It's annoying.

After Whateley came back from work, we got some boba, went to the comic book store, walked around University of Texas (ahhh... reminds me of Berkeley, except Berkeley was never this hot and humid), then got pizza from this popular college pizza place called Mellow Mushroom. They have some pretty good pizza. We entered the trivia contest, which that night was about Family Guy. Apparently, Whateley's lack of sleep smothered his expanse of useless Family Guy trivia and we got 7/10 correct. Here's one question for you: How many times has Peter and the Giant Chicken fought?



Answer: 4 times. They fought in 3 episodes (and almost came to blows in a 4th) but in one episode, they fought, made up, went out to dinner, argued about who'd get the check, and then started fighting again. So that makes 4. Apparently.

Anyway, on a different note, our company's trying to boost morale by offering more incentives and recognition. The bad part? It was all happening in SoCal, so we weren't eligible for them. Finally they decided throw us a bone by giving all the SoCal-transplants a party tomorrow afternoon. So that means I better get up early so I can get there in time.

So back to Whateley's promotion (which is more of a lateral move, but it's still considered a promotion since you can't directly enter that department from the outside) means that we won't have the same hours anymore, though he lucked out and got the same days off. And I'm trying to get promoted, so our schedule may not mesh together for awhile. It's kinda sad that Whateley and I can't carpool together anymore, nor take our breaks together, or even have lunch together. Can you believe that since mid-November of last year, we were together 24/7? The only times we were apart was when one was sick while the other was not. I don't know if that makes a healthy marriage or not, but I'd rather we spend too much time together than not enough.

Oh well, we'll always have Azeroth.

I admit it, we got our Harry Potter books from Walmart. Where else are we going to get them at 1 in the morning without a pre-order?

Not much to report right now, just trying to get all the things we need to do done. Erg.

More later... I swear!

Ergh. I'm not sure how costs compare when paying a mortgage versus rent, but at least when we have our own place, we will have our own washer and dryer, and we won't keep losing money to machines that will suck up our money but not work! Argh!

Vegas was great, btw. Sigh. I'll make a bigger post about it later. But in 13 hrs, we gotta go back to work again... and we won't be able to take any more time off until the holidays... if we're lucky. Sigh. Back to the grindstone.

Oh, and I was watching Victoria Beckham: Coming to America, and dang, I don't know if her ditzy-ness is an act or if it's real, but damn, she is a complete airhead!

Wow, as of yesterday, Whateley and I have been married for one year. How time flies.

And we're headed off to Vegas to celebrate tomorrow! Wish us luck in Megabucks!

Our couch from IKEA broke. Luckily, we can still return it. But we realized that one of the "load-bearing" parts of the couch is actually made up of pieces of wood glued together, and that's not enough support, it seems. It actually split along one of these seams.

Anyone know of a good furniture store in Austin? I've never bought furniture before except from IKEA, and personally, if all of their couches are made from this type of glued-together wood, I'd rather spend a bit more money and get a quality couch that will last us 10 years.