The first mile of my daily 4 and a half is through the new neighborhood. What I used to think was a dull and dreary area, is actually filled with all kinds of surprises. My favorite is a 60s ranch house (really, they're all 60s ranch houses), stripped down to a minimalistic look without losing its original architectural profile. The house is painted a dark sage green,with light sage and beige trim. The updated windows with dark screens give it a modern look and complement black house numbers. There's no landscaping, just St Augustine grass on a small flat front yard. Trees are in the back yard and one large pink-flowering rose bush is placed at one end of the house. The minimalistic look is very effectic. Very zen-like.

The street still has its trashy looking homes with knee-deep weeds. Thank god for Bill-yard-of-the-month. He's my 79 year-old neighbor who's spent the last 25 years working on his yard. It keeps the standards high amongst those of us close to him. He's pretty old-fashioned with is spray jug of insecticide and over-water sprinkler schedule, but he's given me some pretty good advise about the grass.

My grass had a pretty tough summer last year due to ownership changes. I started early on a spot in the front and got a good repair job on a trouble spot. I also did a full seaweed spray as well as commercial fertilizer. The back yard is huge and contains every type of weed you could imagine. I've been hand pulling them all spring and determined its the most effective. Both sides have big patches of St Augustine and I need to get that to spread and meet in the middle.

We got our first tear-down on my street and I'm very excited. As the new frame goes up, I'm optimistic it's not going to be a snout house. It's definitely not at hummer house. At first I thought it might be a modern, flat roof, mini-warehouse - type remodel, but in a few days a pitched rood began to develop. So, now it remains to be seen how tacky, or not, the re-build ends up being.

Since I moved into my house, I had to find a new 4 and a half mile walk. The street I live on has a sidewalk on one side of the street. From my house down to one end is about 3/4 of a mile. There's a park at that end, with 2 elementary schools--one public and one affiliated with a Lutheran church.

The beginning of the new 4 and a half mile walk is down to the Lutheran school. There's a major thorough fare, which is a pain during evening traffic. 100 feet down the major street and across the railroad tracks leads to the next neighborhood street, with a good sidewalk. This street is the northern end of my former 4 and a half mile route. So, by walking south about 2 miles I overlap the old route.

Not too bad of a route. Sometimes, Chili Beanie and I make over the railroad tracks right before a train, which is odd, because we've never had to wait on one. Must be our timing, we're always on the side where we need to be in order to continue walking and still enjoy the train.

There's a guy who lives in a duplex not far from the major thoroughfare who parks his SUV on his lawn. It drives me nuts. First, it's just plain trailer trash(y). Second, the city sent notices 6 months ago stating a new ordinace forbids parking on lawns. Lastly, the guy is a first class jerk. One night, Chili B and I were on the sidewalk when the guy gets in his SUV, whips into reverse and just about hits us, ON THE SIDEWAY! I mean, what's with that?

I guess Chili was pretty hot, because the next night she decided to drop a very large, greasy poop on the guy's walkway to his front door. I normally pick up her poop, but decided to leave that one to whoever may find it.

MLK Day weekend is always a nice little treat. So, now it may turn into house arrest. The high-drama weather guys are billing it as the biggest ice storm Central Texas has seen in a century. It started Saturday morning with cold rain, 5 inches of it. Flash flooding and enough to talk about for weeks. Weather events are not stopping there. It drizzled on and off all day Sunday, then turned to freezing rain Monday. Forecast is for worst precipitation Monday night, all day Tuesday, another cold blast and on into Wednesday.

Agh! I'm going to start running out of food. I imagine most people will. I'm also going a bit stir crazy. The big event of the day has been taking the puppy out. Major victory is when she poops (yeah! won't have to do this again for a few hours.)

Thanksgiving I spent a long weekend in my new house. I've been here since August. Both Chili B and I love the place. I'll be spending Christmas at home as well. My neighbor reminded me yesterday about the holiday decoration thing. I had not planned on putting them up this year, or maybe simply a wreath. I did get an amaryllis a week ago.

This weekend is the All Austin Sale at the History Center and I'll be down there volunteering. It's a good opportunity to get back into the swing of it, as I've been a slug this year. The move was more than I could handle and everything else took a back seat.

The day after I closed on my house, I drove to Arlington. The Yankees were playing a 3 game series against the Rangers. At that point in the season, the Yankees were coming out of a slump, though ARod never did get out of his personal slump. I had great seats for both games.

The first game was lots of fun. Everyone around me was excited, and ther were many Yankee fans. The second game was awful. A group of KKK members sat next to me, and did nothing but derail the Yankees. Wich wasn't the worst of it. Everyone else was a Yankees fan, based on the hats. The KKKers went on about the coloreds, Jews, you name it. They got into an argument with the guy behind us, and his wife finally intervened, noting there were children present.

I was so disgusted I left early. The Yankees came from behind with a major rally after I left. Jeez.

Closing on my new house is still a go for Monday.

Buying a house is nerve racking. Each small step is a deal killer. I love to project the worst so the entire process sets me up for a nervous fit. My deal is actually going quite well, and I still go into a tizzy when I start thinking about it.

The Yankees are playing the Rangers the day I'm due to close, and the next day and the next. So I have 2 tickets and a hotel room for the second and third games. That all means if we don't close as scheduled, it gets postponed to the end of the week or later. The seller is going to stay in the house for an extra 3 weeks, so concerning myself with moving is not an issue.

My niece Ann stood me up for a dinner date yesterday. She sent me a note and said she'd be in Austin for the weekend and would I like to have dinner Sunday. I never heard from her. About 2pm Monday I sent her a note. Where were you? Got a snippy note back, oh gee, my phone broke and I missed 3 "ppls" messages"! Yeah, right. She had something better to do and just never showed.

Ann's turned into her Aunt Leslie.

I bought a house. As I usually do, I thought about this for a long time. I found a house the first night out looking. Actually, I found the house in the MLS listing and when I sent it to the agent, I knew it was the one. Once I saw it, it was a matter of deciding the location was something I could live with. It's not located quite where I wanted to be. The area I wanted to live in is just too expensive. This home is about 3/4 mile north and is just up and coming.

The way the market in Austin is, though, the market value should do nothing but increase. The big advantage is, as Brad would say, "it's inside the loop". It's still eclectic, but so are the current trendy places. My new neighborhood will take a couple of years.

The other good part is the lot is big. I'm buying a big piece of dirt. The house sits on a slight hill and the back yard is one big rectacle. Great lawn and little or no landscaping. Just a blank slate.

I live in apartments that are converting to condos. My unit is priced $30K more that what I paid for the new house. Take that and bite me.