Trek to Austin

Austin was pretty good - mostly work and very busy, but beautiful weather and improving relationships with the Austin office folks. I'm going back again Nov 5 - 7 and Nov 11 - 16, so am planning to do a bit more than just hotel to office to hotel next time. I've started using Priceline and am getting some great hotels for tiny prices, too. Oakville Grocery opened a satelite store in the fancy new mall just across the street from the Austin office, so I walked over there for lunch several times and had broccolini salad and chipotle chicken and such.
I'm again giving serious thought to moving there. I'd abandoned the idea when I was feeling uncertain about work, but things have improved quite a bit. Boss keeps backing me up and increasing my role and visibility, he walks his talk, and my one-on-one with our CEO also gave me a positive read. It's also exciting to be on the brink of going public. When I'm out there, I get so much more done - amazing the difference it makes to be at HQ in person. I am in my lease at my current place through January, so wouldn't probably make a move until after then. Austin truly is a fun, creative, dog-friendly, artist-friendly, affordable place to be, so why fight it? I do loathe the packing and hauling part of the whole moving thing though, ugh.
Right now, I'm house and dogsitting for P, sitting on her humungous couch with a dog snuggled up to me on either side (and snoring!) - very cozy and lovely. My painting class starts at 9 am at College of Marin, but it's so cold that I'm not sure I want to stick the dogs in the backyard to go paint. Argh. I wish I could leave Lulu inside, but she still chews things up when she gets bored, which is pretty quickly.
Laura's mom is still hanging on, but barely. She's been moved to a nursing home but is not expected to live more than a few days - although that's been the prognosis for weeks. Luckily, Laura was able to get her on Medical (or Medicaid or something) so some of the financial burden is relieved.