House Guest

We had our first house guest last week--- Kolby's college friend, Jarrett, came all the way from Illinois to visit us. Kolby has been working like a dog on the house for over a month now, and having one of his best friends in town for several days was a great way celebrate the fact that we finally finished the house! Jarrett was due in on Wednesday so Kolby and I stayed up late on Tuesday night finishing up some painting in the kitchen and tying up some loose ends (like installing a new ceiling fan in the pitch dark with only a faint flashlight to help us, etc.). There are a handful of small things that still need to be done, but for all practical purposes- we're saying the place is complete. And just in time!

Kolby and Jarrett lived the dream... playing catch in the backyard,

going to a Rangers' game, hitting golf balls, talking about life, eating out, staying up late (past 9:30, at least!), and playing lots of Super Nintendo.

Over the weekend, we headed down to my parents' ranch and then on to Austin. The guys rode around on the 4-wheeler and dirt bike, shot guns,
and hooked up an electronic scanner to my dad's nice telescope (star-gazing/astronomy is Kolby's new favorite hobby since the sky is so clear down there).

On Saturday we met Kolby's family at their ranch down in Wimberley and had an eventful evening-- eating BBQ and attending the UT vs Texas Tech game.

Since we were +1 in the car, I got to ride in the backseat with Maya, who come to find out also sleeps with her front paws crossed. She does this all the time while she's awake and laying down looking out the back door etc., but seriously... is it totally necessary while she's asleep? Always a lady, that one.

We had such a great time with Jarrett in town and we are certainly rooting for him to relocate down here once he finishes grad school!

In other news, on our walk to the park tonight Kolby asked me to please hold Maya's leash while he tests out the new slides at the park playground. I may not have mentioned this before, but we moved into the same neighborhood that Kolby grew up in. We live just a few blocks away from the playground that he spent hours upon hours playing at until his family moved when he was 3rd grade. Apparently the City recently renovated the playground and put in two huge slides. So yes, Kolby did in fact slide down both of them tonight.

Kolby started substitute teaching today. And he's getting tons of hours at the SAT prep place he teaches at. And the next term for his graduate program starts on October 1st. Busy kid! I'm still working on getting him to write a post about his time in Santa Fe and his grad program in general. I noticed he started it the other day but I'll remind him to get it finished sometime soon.

Now that the house is put together, I'll take some pictures and post a tour. I haven't decorated anything yet because I can't bring myself to go shopping for decorative stuff and we don't have much from our apartment. But I don't know when I'll get motivated to decorate, so I may just take pictures as is. We'll see.