Author: Josh

1. Credit protection from Citi: I received a letter from Citi, who we have our credit cards through. It was a very official, important and urgent letter. Apparently there was some activity in my account that seemed fraudulent. I obviously wanted to follow up with this because 1) I don’t want unauthorized transactions on my account and 2) I don’t want to be out and about and have my card declined. I called the toll free number and was able to speak to a customer service agent fairly quickly. He inquired about the charge at a restaurant at which we ate the previous night. He inquired about the gas purchase I made that morning. He inquired about the charge I made at lunch that afternoon. Everything was legit – no fraudulent charges. He then went on to try to sell me on a credit protection program for only $9.95 per month. This would allow me to check my credit rating monthly. I didn’t bother asking if this service would help customers fix their credit scores because I don’t need it, and I told the agent as much.So I was kind of pissed that I was tricked into making a phone call about my account only to be sold to. Smart ploy and I’m sure it’ll work for some people who don’t use credit wisely. Kudos to Citi for getting an extra $120 a year from some customers but now I’ll be leary before calling Citi regarding account specific information on my account.
2. Funeral Home Direct Mailings: The funeral home where we held Dad’s memorial service sends me 9″ x 11″ packets nearly once a month now. The first package was some information on grieving as well as a condolence letter, which was nice, but still a stinging reminder. The next packet they sent me was a survey, which I thought was a good idea because they are a business that renders a service and feedback is always very valuable for the company. I dutifully filled out the survey and sent it back to them in the SASE that they provided. Tonight I had another packet in the mailbox from the funeral home. This was a form that we could fill out to make it easier on my family should Elise or I die. This form asked for information about standard life experiences like where we were born, went to school, military and work experience; things that could be put into a funeral program or announcement. I’d like to think that I’m done with that funeral home. I don’t really want correspondences from a funeral home because I don’t want to think of Elise or me dying and I’m still dealing with losing my Dad in my own way. I don’t want a business contacting me monthly reminding me of that and the logistics involved.  Great funeral home but believe me, I’ll remember everything about when Dad died. I don’t need a business card to remind me that my family was cheated.
3. Steve Jobs: I’m looking around the house, trying to find things to sell and attempting to convince my wife that we need an iPhone.

Instead of watching bowl games on TV New Years Eve, Elise and I were in the master bathroom, pulling wallpaper. There’s only one thing more fun than pulling wallpaper and that’s getting two root canals simultaneously.  By Monday night we had all of the wallpaper removed and surprisingly, my teeth felt fine.

The week flew by and Friday was quickly upon us.  Friday night started with meeting for drinks and dinner at Brentwood Tavern.  Saturday morning Elise and Christine went to our neighbor’s house for scrapbooking which, in my book, is right up there with root canals and pulling wallpaper.  Maly and I spent the better part of the day together playing and getting my iBook set to send to Elise’s parents.

Perhaps I did the Zombie Eater wrong in a previous life because while Elise was away, Maly thought it would be cool to poop every half hour or so.  In case you don’t know me, I DO NOT deal well with miniature human feces.  Or any other feces for that matter.  The advice rendered while Elise was pregnant was, “Oh, if it’s your own kid, you won’t mind poopie diapers.”  To that I say bolshy yarblockos!

Late Saturday afternoon we went to the ol’ HoPot and ordered tile for our two bathrooms.  That night I went to the Apple Bar to meet my friend David and bid him farewell as he’s moving to DC later this month.

This morning we woke up and spent the better part of the day taking down Christmas lights and decorations.  We went for lunch at Madam Mam’s and then home to finish closing out the Christmas season.

I had a dream about my Dad this morning. It was the first dream of my Dad that I remember since he died.

Dad, Mom, Elise, Maly and I were on vacation and having fun on the deck of some unbeknownst-to-me beach house off the Gulf of Mexico; somewhere where Dad had lived before or some place he wished he’d lived in the past.

We all knew that it was our last vacation before Dad was to leave us. We were all having fun despite the eminent. We were all wearing white. It was all too surreal.

I knew these were my last days with Dad. I wanted to take pictures of him so I could capture still images of the man who means the world to me.

My camera wouldn’t take pictures. I would press the shutter button and nothing would happen. I couldn’t take a photo.

I couldn’t take a photo. I wasn’t supposed to take a photo.

The Friday before last I came down with a stomach virus. The following Thursday I came down with a head and chest cold/infection. Last Monday and Tuesday I was in St. Louis where the temperatures were in the 20’s and I still haven’t recovered. I’m sick of being sick. Elise, sick herself, is feeling better than me and surprisingly Maly is doing just fine.

This past weekend has pretty much consisted of me falling asleep on the couch at 8 or 9, Elise waking me up to go to bed at midnight and then me waking up at 4 a.m. and sleeping like shit for the rest of the morning because of a hacking cough and headache.

On Saturday we got the majority of our Christmas shopping done. It doesn’t take me much more than a minute after stepping foot into a big box before I’m reminded of how figgy pudding fun it is to be among the Christmas shopping masses.

We took our sleep deprived daughter to “Luminations” at the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center to see all of the luminarias on display for the Christmas season.  It was cold outside and Maly was really tired because she didn’t get her afternoon nap so she was really fussy.  She cried as we scurried through the wildflower center long enough to where we could no longer convince ourselves that we were having a fun family outing.

Today we woke up, played with Maly and went for an early lunch at Nuevo Leon at Escarpment Village. So far I’m not impressed with any of the restaurants at Escarpment Village – too plain, cookie cutter and in serious lack of any form of character. Nuevo Leon looks like it was designed by someone who has never been outside of New York and was told to design a “Tex-Mex” restaurant. Mangieri’s Pizza has the same lack of charm. The newest Waterloo Icehouse, an Austin landmark opened its doors in Escarpment Village this weekend. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that when patronize that joint, we don’t feel like we’re in IKEA.

We went to the nursery this afternoon and picked out our Christmas tree. This is Maly’s first Christmas and I want it to be special for her. I know she won’t remember her first Christmas, but I want this time of year to mean something – I want her to have fond memories of being with the people she loves.

It’s 8:06 p.m. as I write this.  We’re both exhausted and almost too tired to eat dinner.

We’re watching the Planning Commission meeting on zoning and city noise ordinances on Austin’s public access television.

And for some reason TiVo is recording this meeting.

I need some fiber.

Other than the two full weeks when I worked for that start up dot com, I’ve been unemployed since September 8th. I’ve had 10 weeks to spend with friends and family.

I accepted a new job offer this past Tuesday. The last two weeks I made it a point to hang out with my two girls and do some fun things around Austin.

Last Wednesday we went for a late lunch at Sholtz’s Beer Garden. It was a gorgeous day outside at the restaurant where, just the night before, Kinky Friedman had his post-election party. We had grilled bratwurst, jagerschnitzel and bocktoberfest beer.

On Friday my Mom came to our house as her last stop on her west coast trip. For dinner I bought us all muffalettas from Cypress Grill. On Saturday we all drove out to Johnson City for Cyndi’s Mom’s birthday party. On Sunday we went to Fry’s and then back home to hang around the house for the day. Mom left late that afternoon and then Elise and I went clothes shopping at Kohl’s.

On Tuesday of this week we went to the local park and let Maly play in the gravel. She also ate chicken for the first time on Tuesday.

On Wednesday we went to Doc’s Motorworks for tampiquena steak and South Congress eggrolls on the patio.
On Thursday we went out for crab bisque at the Nordstrom Cafe Bistro and then clothing shopping for Maly.

On Friday we had lunch with Christine at Ranch 616. The girls had fancy salads and I had the quail. We went back to the mall to have Maly’s photo taken with Santa.
Yesterday we went for kolaches at the Big Kolache for breakfast then to Target, WalMart and the grocery store. Last night we went over to Marc & Cyndi’s house were I grilled coriander and chipotle dusted pork loin stuffed with garlic, rosemary, mustard seeds and green peppercorns and ancho bock mashed potatoes. The girls made a great salad with feta, almonds, purple onions and Elise made a balsamic vinaigrette.

Today we went to Zilker Park to fly a kite. Just like the last time we went to Zilker Park to fly a kite, there wasn’t enough wind. We went to Zen north of campus for a late (and horrible) lunch.

Tonight I’m just going to hang out with my girls. I start my new job tomorrow and sure am going to miss all the time I’ve had with Elise and Maly recently.

Not a whole lot has been going on in the unemployed life of your humble narrator.

A couple weeks ago we went to Scott & Jamie’s wedding in Brenham.  The reception was held at Welcome Hall.  The atmosphere and food were fantastic.  We left Maly with my Mom so Elise and I could imbibe.  I’m not going to name any names here but my wife had a few too many to the point where she stopped in mid-sentence while talking to Scott’s best man because she actually forgot what she was talking about.  Elise has maybe had a glass of wine or two in seven months.  I guess she tried to make up for lost time by having two cocktails and an entire bottle of wine to herself.

We headed back to Austin Sunday evening because I had to start my second week of that dot-com job on Monday.  My Mom headed out on Monday for the trip that she and Dad had set out on six weeks ago.  My Mom sent us home with her three cats to babysit while she’s away for two weeks.  Ordinarily we would have just stayed at her house, but I had a job to return to.

On Tuesday we went over to John & Christine’s and took the kids trick or treating in the neighborhood.

I quit my job at 10 a.m. on Friday.  That was a relief on many levels.  One being that I will no longer have to sit in traffic traveling from one side of town to another.  I drove downtown and met John for lunch.

After lunch I headed to the house where I packed, kissed Elise and Maly goodbye and headed to Mom’s house for opening weekend of deer season.  I got to the house around 10 p.m. on a chilly Friday night.

There’s a large buck that hangs around in the back of the pasture.  And I need to kill something.
I woke up at 6 a.m. and headed to the deer stand.  Oddly the temperature outside raised significantly over night.  I sat in the stand for a couple hours and only saw a few does and two fawns.

On Saturday evening I met John in Brenham so we could take one car to the A&M and OU game in College Station.  Just before we got to the stadium, we pulled over in the center turning lane to help a college kid jump start his stalled truck.  After our good samaritan deed, we were back on our way to the game.  Just as soon as we left helping the college kid, we get pulled over by a DPS officer.  I’m not going to name names but the other person in the car was pulled over for having expired tags.  And upon running this person’s license number, it was then found out that this person’s license had been suspended because of some unpaid citations that were mailed to the wrong address because this person neglected to update the address on his driver’s license.  The officer requested that this person exit the vehicle and step to the rear of the car.  This person tossed me his wallet and said, “Come get me out of jail.”

Thankfully this person made away with only a warning.  We went on to watch A&M lose by a point and some very bad coaching decisions, but otherwise going to the game was a lot of fun.

We walked north of campus to the Dry Bean for drinks and to meet up with some of John’s friends.  The game ended around 10:30 p.m., we got to the bar at 11 p.m. and before either one of us looked at a clock, it was 1:30 a.m.  We said our goodbyes and headed out to Brenham at 2 a.m.  We got to Brenham by 3:30 a.m. and then to my Mom’s house at 4 a.m.  John quickly found the guest bed and conked out.  I tried to sleep but couldn’t.  I stared at the ceiling for an hour and then decided to get up and go out to the deer stand.  A few does and a couple fawns.  No buck.

I walked back to the house and fixed the water hose that I apparently drove over when I got to my Mom’s house on Friday night.  John woke up and left for Austin at 9 a.m.  I then drove Dad’s truck out to the deer feeder in the back pasture and added corn and double checked the timer.

I watched football most of the afternoon.  I cooked a huge ribeye that I pulled from the freezer on Saturday morning on Dad’s grill for a late lunch.  Before starting the coals, I took the old coals and ashes that were left over from the last meal that Dad cooked for us the Sunday before he and Mom left for their trip to the west coast.  Dad cooked us all steaks.  I’ll always remember that meal.  I took those ashes and coals and put them in a jar.  I’m going to keep them and sprinkle them on coals anytime that I cook.

It turned into a pretty emotional ordeal.  There were a lot of ashes left over so I sprinkled some over the graves of family pets that had long since passed and were buried in the yard.  I had my Sunday service alone on the land that Dad worked so hard for and made so beautiful.

Needless to say, I was pretty delirious as I’d had no sleep in a while.  I hunted that evening and didn’t see anything.  I walked back to the house, ready to head back to Austin.  My bags were packed; all I needed to do is load up the truck and leave.  I called Elise and she suggested that I spend another night instead of trying to rush home at night on no sleep.  I concurred and fell asleep on the couch shortly thereafter.

I didn’t sleep well that night.  I woke up at 5, 5:30 and 6 a.m.  I decided I wasn’t going to hunt again.  I heard it raining at one point and that solidified my decision.

I left Mom’s house at 10 a.m. and got home in time for lunch.

Tuesday morning we went for breakfast at Cisco’s and back home so I could wash vehicles.  Later that evening we drove over to Kiker Elementary to vote.
On Wednesday I had a phone interview and then we went for lunch at Sholtz’s Garten and then to Whole Foods, the HoPot and WalMart.

On Thursday I replaced a lost lug nut on one of the Jeep’s wheels.  I replaced the burner on the barbecue grill and  attempted to replace the ignitor before having to leave for Tae Kwon Do.
Today I finished replacing the ignitor on the grill.  I got the Jeep inspected and my haircut.  Mom called this afternoon and is a couple hundred miles from San Antonio.  She is going to come here tonight and leave sometime this weekend to go back to her house with her cats.

So, a lot of busy stuff going on… just life.  The best part has been being able to hang out with Elise and watch Maly grow every day.  It’s going to be hard to go back to a job and miss out on Maly.