Thursday, May 31, 2012

Back in Time: Craft Fair Weekend

Two weekends ago (May 18th to 20th), Amanda came to Austin for the Renegade Craft Fair. No, she didn't drive all the way from Iowa just to shop at a craft fair, she had a booth and sold her lovely pottery on Saturday and Sunday. And Amanda didn't drive here on her own either, her friend Calee went on the road trip to Texas with her. On Friday night we went and had sushi at How Do You Roll because I had been torturing Amanda for long enough with my delicious sushi photos every time I've eaten here :)

CherryBerry

We also checked out a new frozen yogurt place where I had pretzel carmel flavored yogurt with chocolate rocks on it.

Amanda and Calee

Saturday the ladies went and sold art at the craft fair and Josh and I washed his car and went swimming. I ended up taking a multiple hour nap that afternoon. Wore my beanself out. For dinner we went to Baby A's and introduced Amanda to the drink that is known as Purple. Purple! Doesn't Calee look adorable here?

Goooooglie

On Sunday, the ladies once again went to sell stuff to Austinites. I went to the fair later in the day and one of the first things I saw was this addition to the water fountains in the convention center :) There was a TON of really cool items at the fair and I met a bunch of local crafty ladies. There are a few different groups that are promoting women working together to make crafts (yes!) and another place I can learn to use a plasma laser to make crafts (double yes!)

Tot

I bought myself a few small things and got a gift for the cats - Catnip Fish. Tater lovessssssss this fish. Lovesssssss it. And Neo drools on it. Goofs.

BBQ Amanda

We couldn't let Amanda and Calee leave Texas without having BBQ, so we took them to Rudy's which is my favorite BBQ place in the state. Amanda made a BBQ sandwich and there may be a picture out there somewhere of Calee enjoying herself BBQing too. I think she went into BBQ raptures :) Thanks for visiting us Ladies and I hope ya'll visit again. Maybe then we can dunk you in our pool *hee*

Thursday, May 24, 2012

A little taste of what my employer is like...



I wanted to share with our readership a little bit of what it is like at the company we uprooted from Iowa and moved to a state I never thought I would ever live in. Here is a news story a local station from San Antonio did on the company and its headquarters located there. The Rookie-O (Orientation) class that is featured is the one I was in. Yes three months after starting I finally got to get the full orientation.


If you don't see a video above here's a link to the news site with the same video. Is the best place to work in the world, in San Antonio?

Noted my office in Austin is not in a converted mall, but it is full of Racker spirit. I am still very excited to be a part of this company and helping it grow a portfolio of next generation internet products. In english, making the internet better my making it easier to do awesome things with it.

That being said, I was extremely lucky and found myself in the right place at the right time to join the current program to earn the top Red Hat Linux certification. I passed the fourth out of five extended Red Hat Linux certifications exams, and added RHCDS to the letter salad I can put on my resume, that's a Red Hat Certified Datacenter Specialist. And in just a week or so here I am in the class that goes over the materials for the fifth and final exam I need to pass to get my RHCA (Red Hat Certified Architect) certification. The test I believe is later in the month. When I pass that exam, I'll definitely be updating the blog, and going to celebrate in a major way. At that level of certification there are only a couple thousand in the world. Now that's not to say there aren't millions of people smart enough to get the certification, there are, I deal with people smarter than I am every day. But it's still impressive none the less.

After that exam I will have a little more free time as I am spending most of my time studying for that exam now so I can pass it. But I am hoping to go exploring different activities, afterward like take a beer brewing class as I have wanted to start doing that for some time now. We have a bee farm, beekeepery, whatever you call it pretty close, I would like to learn more about that and they offer tours and education. Also Archery, re-up my handgun safety (since shooting is a popular activity down here - at ranges, not at people), sushi making class at a local kitchen store. This plays into something that Rackspace made me do before my start date, was they made me take the Clifton Strengths Finder click the link for more info. And one of my strengths was Input, which basically means I crave input, I thrive on it and it helps me refine my own ideas. I like to learn lots of things, so that's what I am going to do, I've always enjoyed the process of learning and I am going to capitalize on that. That's all for now.

Friday, May 18, 2012

We raised over $400!

A million tiny meowing thanks from the kittens at the Austin Pets Alive bottle baby nursery! I have already delivered $70 of food earlier this month and tonight will bring in another food delivery :)

The facility is moving at the end of May and after we settle in at the new location I will bring in the rest of the food and all the cats will nom and nom and nom!

This 2 week old cutie named Q-Tip is happy because of you!

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Well Hello There

I got done working 14 days in a row of work!

Things I Hope To Do Now other than work sleep work sleep work sleep

1. Take tons of recycling to the recycling center

2. Swim in our neighborhood pool a bunch. Be a wee mermaid.

3. Feed kittens! I am going there tonight yay!

4. Visit with my friend Amanda who is coming to town this weekend to sell cool pottery in a craft fair

5. Hug some bees

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Wee Doodlebug

Doodlebug

I'm a sleepy little one week old kitten named after Bean's sister! My name is Doodlebug :) Here I am really tired and sleepy because I just ate 6 cc's of kitten formula. I'm napping on a heating pad covered in a really soft flannel blanket.

Doodlebug

Here I am really excited because I want more kitten formula. I'm all spunky and awake but I'm so tiny my eyes aren't open yet so I just meow really loud and flail around til someone pays attention to me.

Doodlebug

Now....well now I'm not sure what I'm doing here. I don't have teeth yet so I don't think I'm chewing on the carrier door. I'm smooshing my face here and wiggling around because that nice lady is RIGHT THERE doing something other than feeding me or petting my belly. HEY LADY! HEY!

Also, a few days after I came to APA, the nice lady found out I was a boy....Doodlebug is a nice masculine name right?

Sunday, May 6, 2012

A special Saweet treat

Saweet Cupcake


Josh was in San Antonio most of last week for business and he stayed at a hotel down there. I missed him. I'm glad he came home Friday night and I was extra glad when he walked in the door with cupcakes from the Saweet Cupcakes food truck.

I had a vanilla one with sprinkles that I was too excited to eat to photograph. We shared this double chocolate one after I got off work yesterday :)

Thursday, May 3, 2012

Hurrah!

I am in process of sending out Thank You emails for all who have donated for the Bottle Baby Fundraiser for Austin Pets Alive. I have 2 more checks still coming in the mail and then I can announce the total raised!

Baby Cat Kitten Food

I already went out and got some canned and dry cat food thanks to my Dad who was our first donator. The baby kittens like the chicken and liver flavor the best when they are transitioning from bottles to wet food. Ew! Stinky! *heh*

What is this?

Also, I picked up my first set of 1 week old kittens from the animal shelter and transferred them to APA tonight - look here is one of them. Who might you be little munchkin? Because I transported them and gave them their first feeding, I get the privilege of deciding on their names. A bunch of adorable baby kitten pictures and their names are coming your way tomorrow!