Parties!!

I have lots of anticipation for the Saturday parties! Mom and Elroy have nicely decorated the back porch for the shower and the lights are so fun at night too!

Lunch Box Laboratory

After suit shopping and collecting Kelsey from the airport, we got some tasty burgers for lunch!

Marriage license

... Is picked up!! CHECK!!

Suit shopping

Tracie and Jordan have joined us in Seattle and we went to look at attire for the groom and groomsmen. Everyone stayed on task through the whole ordeal.

Blessing ceremony discussing with Fr. A

Kyle and I met with Fr. Angelovic to discuss the blessing ceremony. We always have a wonderful time chatting together and this was no exception!

Beer tasting

Lazy Boy brewery, which is owned by nicholas' neighbor, had a tasting at a small bar near my moms house in Seattle so we went with Nicholas and Chris! It was a beautiful and enjoyable evening followed by food at Elliott's brewery across the street.

Headed to Seattle!!

For pre-wedding festivities!!

County Line BBQ on the hill

Kyle and I tried a BBQ place that is on a hill overlooking some of the hill country, since we had my rental car for the evening! It was neat to catch the end of sunset, though the mosquitos found me in the process. I never see them but I definitely feel them afterward! Sneaky Texan bugs. The food doesn't look great in the pictures, but the turkey I got was particularly excellent.

Trip to College Station

I rented a car (in the process of buying one!) and headed to College Station, where Texas A&M is, to do some paperwork. It was an easy enough day though I can't say that the nearly 2 hour drive each way was very fun. It reinforced my desire to get an apartment in college station to stay at a few times a week.

Also note that a lot of things here are named after Kyle. He's really hit it off with the texans in the last year!

Some like it hot

... And some don't! Wow, over 100 everyday. Can't say I am sad to miss it! We'll be in Seattle Tuesday evening for pre-wedding festivities!

Blue Hole is Wimberley

Today Kyle and I went about an hour away from Austin with friends Alec and Hadar to a swimming hole to hang out for part of the day. It was a nice place! Apparently this is what texans do in the heat of summer: embrace the heat and swim in chilly creek-fed swimming holes. I'm not much of a swimmer but I still got in the water a few times to escape the heat. Fun times were had by all!

Also, on the way home we had food at the flagship Whole Foods, which has TONS of amazing prepared foods, which one can purchase and then eating in the bar area, and even get a pint or glass of wine! Tasty end to the activity.

Whip In restaurant

Friends Rebecca and victor (with baby Finn) kindly picked us up and we went over to the Whip In restaurant, a rather strange but very Austin place of Indian-inspired southern cuisine that was also a little grocery store sort of (see pictures). Many places in Austin are BYOB so it only makes sense to also sell wine at your place! We also met friends Kristina and Dave there, and hung out at their beautiful house afterward.

YUM!!

Kyle made an AMAZING dinner tonight of copper river salmon (cooked perfectly), broccolini (a favorite veggie of ours, since we had it first at the Kalaloch restaurant), and little potatoes cooked in part with a Asian honey vinegar we picked up last weekend downtown at Con'Olio, a vinegar and olive oil tasting store. Master Chef Kyle does it again!

More work = more coffee

Fun weekday things!

My glass is bigger!

Kyle and I put Ina long day of writing and research and decided to stop by Hopfields on the way home for dinner (also a good way to cool down mid-walk).

Later that night we went out for a drink at Clive with friends from Seattle who live here now (though we have only known them in Austin). It was a neat place southeast of downtown at a house in a random-seeming neighborhood.

It is supposed to be 108 or 109 on Tuesday. I'll let you know if I melt.

Setting up the apartment

Part of getting settled into the apartment has involved ordering things online to get set up. I can never find the right floss in stores so I finally ordered some online. Made in Ireland and distributed in Kentucky. So exciting!

Doctoral degree and duckies!

Little Texan duckies on their way through the mostly dry stream bed to the little lake next to our apartment complex. I think that when they built the complex, they brought Shoal Creek back up and made it a nice part of the complex, kind of like what was done with Thornton creek near Northgate Mall in Seattle.

Also, doctoral degree for Kristen!!!!

Workingworkingworking

We're keeping ourselves caffeinated and busy!

Sometimes it sucks not having a car

Some gifts have been coming in in anticipation of the wedding, which is very exciting! We got a special mail box for this at a local UPS Store so that we don't have to worry about packages being left outside anywhere. The downside to this is getting the packages from the UPS store to our apartment. Now, there is a UPS store several blocks away from the apartment, but we weren't able to get a box there. So, today we walked with boxes 1.5 miles to our apartment in the hot sun! We stopped and took a couple of pictures for everyone's enjoyment!

Wandering around Austin today

Today Kyle and I went out about around the city a bit. We did some shopping throughout the day, including Title IX, REI, and Anthopologie. REI and Anthropologie are in the same lot in Austin, so I always visit both in the same trip! We had lunch at a favorite place, the Counter Cafe. I love their ground chicken curry burgers, with goat cheese added, so I ordered that (and it was amazing, as always).

Curried ground chicken burger with goat cheese added, Counter Cafe

 Kyle was willing to try something new, so at the nice waitress's suggestion, he had the pimiento grilled cheese sandwich, which he very much enjoyed.

Pimiento grilled cheese, Counter Cafe

We wandered around downtown Austin a bit, looking around.

This building looked see-through due to its cloud reflection.

It was pretty hot out, so we didn't wander for too long before we found an establishment to stop by. We went to Malaga Tapas and Bar, which had happy hour for Sunday evening. We had some drinks and appetizers there: a Malajito (aka mojito, which was amazing), their sangria (also tasty), olives, and Spanish roasted potatoes (very good).

Malajito and Sangria

We wandered around a little more after that, and went to the Sunday evening happy hour at Trulucks. This place was very fancy and even had a guy playing the piano and singing lounge-y music. It was a nice atmosphere and tasty. It is a seafood restaurant and as such they were pulling a crab out of the tank to cook it and the crab was difficult for them to wrestle out of the tank. We tried a few drinks and snacks, and had a nice time! After that, we headed home on the bus. A storm is coming in so it was actually getting a little more comfortable out in the evening.

Mexican martini (martini made of tequila with olive juice) and Red Door (vodka, St. Germain, raspberry... really good!)

Goat cheese plate, also good!

The Healer (gin, St. Germain, cucumber. Refreshing!)

Shrimp, fried with sauces.