From Hawkeyes to Longhorns: It was a dark and graklely night...

Today it rained and rained and rained, all day long. Apparently that scheduled northern Austin for a Live Action version of Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds" tonight. In this area there is this black bird called a Grackle, and when we were out running errands after dinner, they were everywhere in the shopping area we were at. I wish I could have gotten better pictures of them, but they filled trees and covered roadways and lined building rooftops and power lines and blanketed some cars. It was strange and erie. Pictures below the post.

The 2nd week completed at my new job, and it will be the challenge I was hoping for, that I was assured of by the sheer number of open source projects (loosely translates into applications for those not of a technical bend) to put the service together that I work on. I am familiar with some of them, but completely in the dark on some of them or have to become well versed in things I had only read about and personally I want to do it in short order. As always wanting to learn more and more and quickly, get the knowledge in so I can be productive and prove I'm worth keeping around and promoting.

After a lot of research and contemplation, Colleen and I finally decided on a French Door style refrigerator we liked. As many of you know, if I can eek it into the budget I go big, with something that is known to be reliable and worth every bit of money spent on it, oh and I never pay MSRP on big ticket items, except for Apple products, and even then I usually find a discount, and then sell the previous one to cover most of the cost of the upgrade. I'm off topic, anyway. Thanks to Mom and Dad Ryan's gift of fridge assistance, and the relocation bonus my new employer was gracious enough to give us, we are getting a huge LG LFX31925ST Refrigerator. Best features, low energy cost to operate, as I mentioned huge capacity that I am not sure we will ever put to use unless we're about to host a party.

Anyway, it's 11:30 and I have to be out of the house at 7:30 to get to the dealership at 8 for an appointment for my car, brakes started making noise just after I passed the state safety inspection to get the car registered. Which it is registered in Texas, I just got my Texas drivers license in the mail a couple days ago, plates are on the car and the TexasTag (Toll road easy pay system) is going up on the window this weekend. Colleens car was registered today too. So I'm an official Texas resident now. I did get my Iowa Native magnets last week for the new fridge, just to show some Iowa pride. G'night folks.