I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving!

Ours was okay. Since we had to work on Thursday, we got together at a co-worker's on Tuesday for some Thanksgiving fajitas. She makes fantastic fajitas. We also got to see her in action with her kids. Dang, she's five years younger than me, and she's already got four kids. Well, to be fair, the last two were twins, but that's a lot of kids. And having four kids under the age of five was exhausting just looking at them.

On Thursday they fed us turkey and the works, but I'm guessing the higher ups forgot that the department grew four times when we moved to Austin, and they ordered the same amount of food as last year. So it was really sad getting in line and getting a meal the size of an elementary school lunch just to make all the food stretch. And it wouldn't have been as bad if we didn't have last year to compare it to, where we had mounds of food and enough for seconds and thirds. The cornbread stuffing was pretty good, though everything else was baseline turkey dinner. Eh, just whining.

We're set to go on our first house showing on Tuesday. Yay! I fully don't expect us to buy a house right away, yet... if somehow we find the perfect house for the perfect price, we may end up moving into a house of our own by the end of the year. But all in all, it's a good time to buy, we here, since winter is not a popular season to be buying and people are getting more antsy to sell. Wish us luck!

Christmas is coming....

There's a bit of drama with my in-laws about gifts this year. They want to make it a no-gift-card rule, but there is no way we're gonna pack a dozen gifts in our luggage and take it on the plane with us unless they can all fit in an envelope... a gift-card-size envelope. I think they'll see it our way, especially if we threaten to get everyone just Magic the Gathering cards or something. Do they play Magic? Hells no. Now that would be hee-lair-ee-yus.

Thanksgiving is coming too. We gotta work again this year, but they always feed us. A co-worker invited us to her house to do a pre-Thanksgiving-Thanksgiving, though not with turkey but with her famous fajitas. It's kinda nice, though. We won't be alone for the holidays! *cry* *sniff*

Not much more news on the "home-front." (har dee har har) But we're looking at maps and listings to see where we would like to live and how much we really want to spend. Whateley's talking about possibly even Leander... which is like living in San Bernardino and commuting to Orange County. It's doable... but land's so plentiful and cheap here, I don't see why we'd have to. The freeways are all messed up though. The I-35 and the 183 are roughly perpendicular (though they point north and then northwest respectively), but there's no freeway connecting the two beyond the point where they intersect in Austin. So the farther we go up either freeway, the cheaper houses get... but then the two suburbs end up far apart from each other, cuz you can't go from one to the other without going back south to Austin.

Lame.

Last weekend Whateley and I talked to our bank to be considered for a home loan. We got approved for a modest amount, and in Southern California, that wouldn't buy us squat. Actually, no, it would let us purchase a manufactured home. What are also called mobile homes. Yeah... not much choice there.

But surprisingly (or not-so-surprisingly), we could get a decent house here in Texas. I'm talking 3-bedroom, 2-bathroom in actual Austin proper (though a bit in the outskirts). We can definitely afford a nice house in Round Rock, which is a suburb just north, where Dell used to be. But it's not like an Los Angeles suburb where it takes 45 minutes to get to the city without traffic. It's only about 25 miles away. That's closer than the commute we used to have for work in SoCal.

So now, I guess we can shop around for mortgages to see if we can get a better deal elsewhere. But there must be stiff competition for mortgages nowadays since we got a really good program from Wells Fargo for first-time home buyers. Well, it helps that we've got pretty good credit. I am so thankful that Whateley and I are not huge spenders (perhaps me more than him... I've been known to keep a Vulcan grip on my wallet). We know too many people got huge credit card debt, especially in college. Whateley had a co-worker once who got a $10k limit credit card and maxed it out in 2 months. Yipes.

Anyway, we also need to contact a real estate agent. At least, I'm sure we have to, right? I don't know what I'm doing, and I don't think Whateley and I can buy a house without professional help. But the problem with that is, there are a bazillion real estate agents. Heck, my sister is one herself. Too bad she doesn't live in Austin. =) But how the heck do you find a good real estate agent? So far no one's come knocking on our door with free notepads, and we hardly ever step inside a bank, so there's no raffle to enter. (I actually won a gift basket that way once. I think the real estate agent was disappointed that the person who won wasn't looking to buy a house then and certainly didn't have a house to sell.)


On a different note, Halloween is coming! We actually have the day off. What will we be doing? Umm... probably playing WoW, giving out candy if any trick-or-treaters actually come, and maybe letting Whateley force me to watch a horror movie. What will you, my devoted readership, be doing?

Okay, I think I finally have a work schedule that will not change for awhile. It's now... 4 pm to 3 am, Thursday through Sunday. Yep, you figured it, we're on the 4-10 schedule. That means four days of work, 10 hours each day. So far, I'm liking it better. Before, we'd lose a day to running errands and such, so you'd feel sad when your only day to play is marred by thoughts of having to return to work the next day. But with three days, we get all or most of our errands done the first day, and then we have two days to do whatever! And inevitably, one of those days involve hanging around the house naked and playing WoW.

Tonight we went back to the gym for the first time in a long time. It was long overdue. We have no stamina, our strength is blah, and I won't even get into my weight. Sigh. Sad to say, my boobs look great right now. But I gotta get rid of flab, so I guess if my boobs get smaller... it's a good thing. Whateley's looking forward to knocking me up someday. I wonder if it's a healthy thing to keep lactating just to keep your boobs bigger.

On a different note, we've been on a crusade to find boba places, and there are a surprising number of Asian places here, and we're finding more and more the deeper we search. Unfortunately, so far only one place offers the barley that Whateley likes. But that's the one closest to the college, so the last time we went, they were packed with college kids. I wonder if that's how the people of Berkeley felt about the students?

Anyway, we've found many small Asian markets all over (including a Korean one) but this weekend we found an actual Asian supermarket! We didn't go in since we were running out of time, but we'll check it out next time. I think it's a Chinese or Vietnamese one, so I'm guessing we won't stop going to the Korean one anytime soon. Where else am I going to get choco-pies and home run balls and soft tofu stew kits?

Gotta go, the rice maker just got done, and we got some bulgogi marinade which we used pork instead of beef. Hopefully it'll be good. :)

It's Brewfest in Azeroth! I swear, that's why I love this game.

Schedule change, yet again. I'll post it once it becomes final.

On another note, we got Christmas off, and we're flying to SoCal to see family and friends! Send me an e-mail if I don't get in touch with you about hanging out!