Another realization I had today is that going much out of the way for a better price on gas isn’t always a great idea. I’ve checked houstongasprices.com lately before I know I need to fill up to see which station on my way home has the best price. The best price on the route home was $3.76, but I saw on the map a price of $3.73 at a Kroger not too far from the office. I can save an additional 3 cents with my Kroger card so that would be $3.70 a gallon. Six cents seems like a pretty good savings and not bad for this weeks price. Unfortunately, as prices go up those few cents savings have less and less of an impact. But, I went out of my way to fill up anyway. I didn’t realize exactly how far. It didn’t seem that far but ended up being 6 miles round trip. I figured out that at $3.70 a gallon it cost 20 cents a mile to drive the truck, so that means my trip cost me $1.20 and I only saved 89 cents on the fill up :( Luckily I was pretty happy about my 20+ mpg economy but I won’t be going out of my way for cheaper gas anymore.

It is a little hard to explain exactly what happened in the same way that a video can, so I had Lindsey video everything (she wasn’t supposed to get the last part, but we’re glad she did!)

Enjoy :)

On January 12 I closed on my house! What a blessing it has been. I’m loving the house and the location is great. Mom came and stayed with me for a week in February and really helped to make everything look more like home. Fifty of my friends and I broke in the house on my birthday, March 24 for Mark-a-Palooza. It was a blast! Thanks to everyone that helped me celebrate.

The house hasn’t been all fun and games. As any new home owner will tell you, there’s always something that goes wrong. About two weeks ago I started hearing noises on my roof and I found a hole in my chimney siding. Raccoons invaded my house!

Getting rid of them was quite an ordeal. The coons weren’t in an area that was accessible from my attic and tracking exactly where they were wasn’t easy. I called an animal trapper who set traps on my roof and in my attic, but those didn’t work. I finally pinpointed where they were and we removed four babies on Monday night and another one Tuesday night. So there were five babies born and a mama raccoon living in my house for over a week! Crazy! I think the mama is gone now but I’ll find out for sure tonight.

I’ve been riding my bike a few times a week on the bike trails that are all over The Woodlands. I even rode to the grocery one day when I only needed a few things. I also like riding out to Northshore Park on Lake Woodlands. It’s a nice 25 min ride each way. My neighbor also rides so we’re going to hit some off road trails soon.

I’ve added several new albums to my Scene Me gallery. Go take a look at my pics from Austin for Thanksgiving, Sugar Bowl, Costume Party, Dallas in February, Mark-a-Palooza, Dallas in April, and Waterway Art Festival.

I’m hoping it won’t be as long before my next post!

Since the wedding is in April I was planning to move in March or April, but that all changed Thanksgiving week. I knew the area I wanted to move and I even had my eye on a few streets with houses I liked. To get a feel for the market and the area, I checked the web every few weeks to see what was available. I wasn’t really seeing too much I was excited about in my price range and figured I may go the renovation route. Then a house came on the market that looked really good and was a great price. I figured I should go look at it since I hadn’t seen anything else I really liked even for 15-20% more. So I went to see the house on a Sunday. I really liked it. Open floor plan, lots of trees (very important!), great location and great condition. Now what do I do? Everything happened so fast! I felt like this was a blessing so I decided to go for it and put in an offer on Tuesday before Thanksgiving. The seller countered and I accepted!

Enough with the details, how about some pictures! See more in the Scene Me album

Location: The Woodlands, TX
2 Bedrooms, Study, 2.5 Bath, 1500 sq ft

See more in the Scene Me album

Saturday night about 20 of us went to hang out at sports bar. I think the place would have been pretty dead if we’d not been there. We watched football, had a few drinks and took over the dance floor. Oh and we seemed to run into some really interesting locals everywhere we went. At this place there was this guy that was totally gone by 9:30, wore his key chain lanyard on his head and walked everywhere with his upper body tilted sideways. Oh and I almost forgot his green “You looked better on My Space shirt.” (pic) Then there were the old, groping people on the dance floor. Gross! After I left apparently there was some pretty good karaoke too.

Sunday was the wedding. It was at a really nice place called Chateau Elan about 45 minutes northeast of Atlanta. The ceremony was in a large, several story atrium with a glass roof. Heather made a dramatic entrance down a large double staircase and looked stunning! After the ceremony, we enjoyed cocktails, few selections from the winery and cheese before a lunch buffet. The reception was very nice and the couple was sent off in a clydesdale-drawn carriage!

The wedding certainly didn’t end the weekend. Sunday night we went to one of Atlanta’s finest, The Northside Tavern. To be fair, Jon Beam did tell us that it was a white trash bar, so we should have known what to expect, but I’m not sure anyone could have expected this place. I don’t know if I can capture the charm in words. It’s just the kind of place (and the people) you have to see to believe. The Fat City Wildcats were the entertainment for the night. They ended up being a pretty good blues band. I was skeptical at first after seeing a chicken crate, jaw bones, antlers and ram horns are part of the percussion. The band was certainly a sight to see, but the real show was this lady only known as the “zebra lady”. I’m not sure if she forgot her pants or if she was just wearing a dress she shouldn’t have (pic). And that wasn’t the only thing… she danced too. Have you seen the Seinfeld where Elaine dances at the office party? Well this lady was at least that bad. Spastic, freak dancing. Oh and yes there is a video :-)

So yeah, I’m still laughing over that. She really went crazy on the faster stuff! We also saw Joe Dirt there and a few of his friends. Then around 12:30 the strangest thing happened. The place blew up! People started pouring in from I don’t know where. And they didn’t exactly fit the white trash crowd. So the palce was getting really packed, so we decided to head back to Jon’s apartment to hang out. I had a morning flight, so we made it back to the hotel by 3.

Sandy, Jared, Kurt and I rode to the airport and were actually on time. Pretty good after a packed weekend with little sleep. Sandy and I were on the same flight, so it was nice to travel with her, although I was pretty much in a daze most of Monday.

Such an awesome weekend and one that I really needed since life’s been mostly work for me lately. It was great to catch up with old friends and make some new ones! I’m so happy for Tony and Heather and wish them the best!

Pictures! Thanks to Ben, Tarah and Sandy!

Peter Gabriel - Sledgehammer

Mahna Mahna

Swedish Chef Collection

Beaker sings “Feelings”

Pepe and Rizzo Personal Ad

Weezer - Keep Fishin’

Buddy Rich and Animal Drum Battle