Month: December 2025

While I have taken a bit of a holiday from blogging, Bob and I have been keeping busy while doing three housesits around Austin — central, south, and west.

The last time I blogged we were in central Austin. Before we left there, I had a great happy hour meet up with three friends in a hotel restaurant overlooking Town Lake and my beloved hike and bike trail, upon which I trained for a number of marathons, triathlons, and even an ultra-marathon.

Also while we were still at the apartment in central Austin, we walked to the UT campus to check out the current exhibit at the Harry Ransom Center. The Harry Ransom Center is a humanities research center, library, and museum that collects and preserves literary and cultural artifacts. We go every chance we get, as they have been the recipient of personal collections from a number of famous artists, writers, etc. The current exhibit was a fun presentation of materials left to them in 2024 from Lorne Michaels, the creator and long-time director/producer of “Saturday Night Live.”

It was a great exhibit. We could have stayed all afternoon, especially since there was an area that was running some of the most famous skits on a loop.

In South Austin, I sat for two cats for friends, while Bob started our housesit west of Austin. I always enjoy time with these two purring companions and will be back with them again on New Years Day.

Our current housesit, another repeat, is in the hills west of Austin near the town of Bee Caves. There appears to be a very peaceful coexistence here between the home owners and their pets and the deer population.

A quick update on some of our activities in Austin. Last Tuesday, Bob walked from the apartment to downtown Austin for a late night meet-up with our nephew who was in town for work. Unfortunately, Bob didn’t get any photos of their visit at a downtown restaurant/bar, but he snapped a photo on his walk.

The next evening Bob and I walked a few blocks to a pizza restaurant. We ate off the happy hour menu and scored a coupon for another free pizza there as they screwed up our order. Afterwards, we walked down 37th Street (between where we are staying and the restaurant), where the block of houses was getting prepped for their annual walk-through Christmas decorations.

On Thursday, we walked around the Hyde Park neighborhood (where the apartment is located) to check out a few local sites and shop for some food to bring to our friends’ house that night.

On Friday, Bob and I walked to the UT campus to watch the Longhorn Volleyball Team compete in the NCAA tournament. Our current homeowner only has the Prime streaming service with no local tv and the tickets were sold out, so we went to the Student Activity Center next door to the gym to watch the game.

Tonight, my graduate school Alma mater (Texas) plays my home state (Wisconsin) tonight to advance to the Final Four. Texas has won the national championship two of the last three years, but Wisconsin is playing strong and Nebraska is the top ranked team this year. Bob and I will likely be tuning in and out online as we get a bit too stressed when it gets to this level.

Bob and I finished our first Austin housesit yesterday and went almost right to our second one. We did have a couple of hours in between. Surprisingly, we are doing our current housesit at the same apartment complex (not the same building or unit) that I lived in my last year in graduate school. Bob also lived here for a short time after graduation and before we found another apartment to move to. Small world and a bit of a full circle moment.

Happily, while the complex looks much the same, the area around it has vastly improved, so lots of places to walk to for grocery, restaurants, and shopping.

We had a nice visit and short walkthrough with our young homeowner yesterday before she left on a trip to LA and then Thailand, where hopefully she won’t get caught up in the Thailand/Cambodia hostilities.

We will be caring for Darcy the dog, specifically an 18 year old Dachshund, and Taco the tortoise. Darcy has Cushing’s Disease and wears a diaper overnight. That’s a first for us. Otherwise, she’s a very happy, spry old lady who makes some interesting grunting noises to get your attention.

Today, we walked across the street to the Triangle Development (retail/restaurants/grocery/muti-unit housing) to check out a pond that the homeowner told us about and pick up some groceries for a roasted tomato and pepper gnocchi recipe that Bob is making tonight.

Bob and I had a brief farewell meeting with our St. Petersburg homeowner to catch up on his travels and talk about our love of St. Pete, his condo, and the sweet Lulu. It was definitely a memorable sit. The great weather didn’t hurt and the lack of hurricanes at the end of the hurricane season was a blessing as well.

We left for a “short” four hour drive to start heading towards Austin, Texas, and our next four housesits. We realized too late that we were getting into post Thanksgiving traffic, so the four hour drive took a bit over 5.5. The GPS arrival estimate seemed to get later every time we looked at it. However, other than a slow pace, the weather was good, and we didn’t have any other travel issues. We did, however, arrive to find our hotel’s elevator was broken, so we had a few trips up a couple flights of stairs with what at the time seemed like a lot of stuff (3 suitcases, food bag, and a dirty clothes bag). We travel with more when we go by car as we have all of our worldly possessions with us (mostly some clothes for different seasons that we pick and choose from when we fly).

Monday we left Florida and the Eastern Time Zone to drive through Alabama, Mississippi, and part of Louisiana. We hit a small amount of rain, but the drive was easy in terms of traffic flow. We spent the night in Baton Rouge.

The route wasn’t that scenic, but I need to take photos every once in a while to help pass the time. As you’ll see, I focus on bridges and bodies of water and state lines.

Tuesday, we had a 6.5 hour drive to Austin, Texas, at least 3 of which was in Texas and much of that seemed to be spent getting through Houston.

We’re grateful for no car troubles along the way and the ability to catch up with friends. We’re sitting for a friend now, who left early this morning to fly to Central Florida (small world) for a family wedding. We were able to catch up with her yesterday and meet Sammy or Cowboy Sammy soon to be just Cowboy.

There likely won’t be a lot of blogs while we’re in Austin as we focus on catching up with friends rather than sight seeing.