We are now the proud owners of 2 homes

On Sunday Jason and I returned to San Antonio to close on our house. We stayed one night in a hotel, and on Monday we closed and got the keys. We spent 2 nights in our empty home, and now are in Peoria for Thanksgiving. After spending 3 days in a completely empty home, I have a whole new appreciation for furniture. Jason went to work during the day while I ran errands, met with the guys to get the necessary utilities and services set up. I also took measurements and ordered furniture. On Wednesday I met with the Dish Network guy, the Pool Guy, and the ADT security system guy. We discovered some new things about our home. There is a train that goes through San Antonio, and I'm told I will get used to the intermittent horn tooting. All of our lights have a dimmer switch. The previous owner left us a tv in the bathroom. It is difficult to figure out which of the 15 keys goes with which of the 15 locks. You will lock yourself out of the home if you close the door behind you and don't have the keys. Jason can unlock windows with a piece of wire. It is very cold if you go to bed on an air mattress in late November in San Antonio, and don't turn on the heat. When you are very cold at night, cuddling with your spouse helps. It is very nice to fly with your technically sound husband, because he plays movies on his laptop for you during the flight. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

The House of Perpetual Immaculate Cleanliness

Well, Jason arrived safely back in St. Louis this evening. And I'm off to Chicago tomorrow. It was nice to see him in passing, though. I've spent the past week extremely busy getting our St. Louis home ready to sell. This has involved several all day kamikaze cleaning sessions, meetings with realtors, and endless amounts of running errands. I'm on alert because now that the house is listed, I could get a call giving me only a 2-3 hour warning that I need to leave the house, with the dog, and have it be ready to be viewed by strangers. After walking through the house and looking at it through the eyes of a person looking at it for the first time, I realized that we have some strange things... like a cat scratching post in the middle of the hallway. Some might find it gross to keep you cat food bowl up on the kitchen counter (in order to keep the dog from constantly eating the cat's food). I've moved the cat food bowl down to the basement, and Tweed is not happy about it.

I'm off to Chicago to visit 2 of my dearest friends from High School-Jenny P and Liz. Jenny is the first of the bunch to be turning 30. I need to go watch Jenny turn 30 to see how to handle this situation (the turning 30 situation, that is) because it will be my turn soon. I decided when I was 26 that 26 was the perfect age, and if given the choice, that was the age I would like to remain always. Liz said that same thought occurred to her when she was 27. Yet, somehow 3 more years have gone by since I was the perfect age of 26. I can't wait to take a break from my ever-growing, endless to-do lists and just enjoy some time with my friends.

We have found our Texas Home

Hi everyone, Jason and I will soon be moving from our home in St. Louis, MO to San Antonio, TX. So, I wanted to start this blog as a way to keep in touch with everyone and give updates on Jason and Amanda's Texas Adventure. In October, Jason's company, Slicehost, was acquired by another webhosting company, Rackspace. We often compared Slicehost to a baby because when it was born in summer of 2006, it often woke Jason up in the middle of the night, many times a night. At first, the Slicehost pager would wake me up, not Jason, and then I woke him up. After a while, I began to sleep through the pages, and Jason would jump up, put on his cape, and run to the office to see what was going on. Often times, he would have to drive downtown in the middle of the night in order to fix the problem. In the past year, Slicehost had gotten much better at sleeping through the night, mainly because new employees were hired to watch it during those hours. Well, now Jason sold his baby, and we are looking forward to nights of uninterrupted sleep.

A couple of weeks ago Jason and were down in San Antonio, with the express purpose of finding a house. I told Jason I would fly down to meet him on a Wednesday, and fly back on a Friday, IF he promised me that he would NOT WORK at all on Thursday so we could spend the day house-hunting. He agreed. Several people from Rackspace did vie for his time, and he told them no. After looking online, we had our eye on a particular house, which we began to refer to as "The house on French." That Wednesday evening I arrived in Texas, and after a few beers on an empty stomach, I told Jason that I thought the house on French was "the one". Well, it turns out the house on French is it. Jason is back in Texas this week for work, and to go through the house with the inspector. He's going to take more pictures of it this time. But for now, all I have to show is the pool. But, that's the only part that really matters anyway. If everything goes well, this will be our house. And, if you visit us in the house on French, bring someone you like, because you have to French in the house on French.