Central Texas is beautiful this time of year. The ground is exploding with wildflowers, and the trees are taking a time-out from their usual subdued dark green to briefly explore a more vibrant shade. To top it all off, the weather makes you want to go outside and skip and the bugs haven’t come out yet. All over town, windows are thrown open and ceiling fans are put to work. I know that soon it will be breathtakingly hot, but Austin is a lovely place to be at the moment.

Franklin still loves his job, and his job still loves him. He’s picking up the pace with the goal of producing 10 ukuleles a week. His department only has two and a half employees at present, and their hoping to get it down to two. Franklin’s perfectionism can be a challenge to his speed, but I have faith in his abilities. This type of stretching is the reason that he wanted to work for a high quality outlet like Collings in the first place.

I received my first paycheck since 2000 last week - yippee! Due to stringent non-disclosure agreements I can’t say much about my job but I can say that I adore the people that I’m working with. The company has cultivated a nice, relaxed atmosphere and I’m happy to go to work every day (especially when that paycheck thing happens). This job is only available until the end of May, so I’m still trying to decide what to do with my life. In the mean time, I am applying for grad school (GRE scores be damned!).

Though we love being in Austin, there is ONE thing that drives me nuts. People here simply don’t obey leash laws. A few weeks ago Franklin and Chole and I were out hiking and geocaching (it’s fun!) when a couple with two unleashed labs jogged by. One of the labs peeled off, ran straight for Chloe and bit her soundly on the butt. The owners were mortified (”He’s never done anything like this before!”) and in a truly dumb move I shooed them off because I couldn’t deal with them AND an injured dog. Though Chloe was bleeding pretty profusely, she walked the kilometer back to the car under her own power. At the emergency vet clinic ($200 that I would love to have the other couple pay if I could ever locate them again) we heard that this happens all the time. Now we’re a bit afraid to have Chloe out even in areas where the leash law is clearly posted. Anyway, Chloe has recovered well, though it has taken a few more trips to the vet to get her back on track.

In happier news, we sold our Jerusalem house! Wait. That’s not exactly happier news, is it? We miss our place and our Israel friends daily. But we are certainly glad to have a bit of money headed our way. I suppose the Austin house hunt will begin soonish.

General | 6 Comments »

News! News! We have so much news for you folks!

First of all, Austin is all kinds of amazing. We are on the brink of surviving our very first SXSW, also known as “The Festival That Ate An Entire City.” We had the awesome privilege of hosting The New Familiars - a Charlotte based band performing at the festival. There were six of them, and things were very exciting around our 1000 sq.ft. apartment for a few days. (We adore our apartment, by the way. It’s just on the edge of the city, so we get quick access to downtown while still being surrounded by rolling hills and acres of trees.) We’re a long way from being either Austinites or Texans, but we’re on our way (assuming the two aren’t mutually exclusive).

Franklin is happy as a clam at Collings. He’s building ukuleles. Stop it! Stop laughing right now! Ukuleles have a rich tradition and they’re totally fun instruments. Now that you’ve calmed down, let me explain that it’s actually a great place for Franklin because the department is new and small, so he gets to work on several different aspects of the instrument. If he were working acoustic guitars, for example, he’d be stuck doing necks all day every day. Or kerfing all day every day. Or side bending all day every day. You get the idea.

In other news, I got a job! Looking back on the ramp-up to the move, I was SO NAIVE about getting a job here (why didn’t you tell me?). I remember saying something along the lines of: “I’m not going to get just any job, I’m going to get a job that I love. I want to work with books (librarian, quirky small retail shop, editing for a publisher) or animals (zoo keeper, vet tech, stable hand).” After a few weeks of getting turned down by literally hundreds of employers I was practically standing on the street corner flinging my resume at passing cars. At a particularly low moment I submitted an application to a “hemp friendly retail store” looking for someone to “help us figure out how to pay the bills, man.” Then I drove across town for an open house, took a test, had an interview, and got hired. I’ll be grading the free answer section of state administered standardized tests. It sounds boring, but we’ll see. I’m actually rather fond of standardized tests, and the pay is A-OK.

Speaking of standardized tests, I took the GRE this morning. I did very well in verbal (750) but not well at all in quantitative (720). It’s not enough to really recommend me to the grad program I wanted (Math at Texas State), so I’m not sure where I’m headed with that. I think I could improve my quant score, but I’m not paying another $120 to find out.

After the test, Franklin and I went out and bought a car. For the first time in our married lives we are a two car family. We got a 2008 Hyundai Sonata, and it’s a beaut. I’ll be driving it up and down Mopac for my daily commute, and I’m sadly excited about that.

OK, that’s all for now. I start work Tuesday so I’ll have more to say about that later. We love and miss you all, thanks for you patience with our extremely erratic blogging schedule.

General, the Austin years | No Comments »

Here is the story:

We left Israel so that Franklin could further his guitar building skills with which he would go back to Israel and build guitars. But then this thing happened where the State of Israel said, “No thanks. We’d rather you just stayed in America.” We argued for a while, and lost. So we returned to the States and began hunting for worthwhile guitar building jobs.

This was easier than one might think in this economy because (I’m sure you don’t find this hard to believe) Franklin is fantastic at building guitars. Our first big opportunity was in Montreal Canada with a super-premier luthier. It was the chance of a lifetime - seriously, this guy is the creme of the crop - but he doesn’t pay his apprentices. And Canada is no more excited about giving me a work visa than Israel was, so we would have been a zero income family. We like food and shelter, so we decided to keep looking.

We considered opening up a repair / building shop here in Charlotte. We have friends, family, and a supportive church here. The idea had its attractions, but we weren’t sure that we could pull it off. Franklin was also concerned that his development as a luthier would be slowed by working in solitude.

And then we heard from a company in Austin, Texas. Franklin’s instructor from Michigan had called them and suggested that if they were looking for builders, they should snatch him up. And they did. And we’re leaving tomorrow for Austin.

I won’t promise that I’ll be better about blogging (you’ve heard it before), but we’re looking forward to adventures in the capital of the Republic of Texas, and I think those adventures should be shared. Austin is an amazing city, and we want you all to come and visit us there.

General, the Austin years | 4 Comments »

It may dip back into winter in the upcoming weeks, but for now spring has sprung in western Michigan. We’re getting to know our yard now that it isn’t buried in snow, the birds are singing, and the deer are getting harder to spot (except for the ones that were killed by the snowplows in the snowy season - they’re reappearing after wintering in the banks of snow along the side of the road).

We’ve settled into our house - the leaks are fixed, the bed is propped up, and it turns out that the guest bathroom isn’t scary at all when it’s clean. The stinky hot water was from the re-chlorination of the well, and it’s gone now. All in all it’s a cute little home and I look forward to hosting many of you here. The neighborhood is beautiful and we’ve enjoyed our time out on the frozen lakes. We haven’t done any ice-fishing, so when I say “our time out on the frozen lakes”, picture us just standing out there listening to the subsonic groaning and cracking and daring ourselves to stay put. Now that the weather has taken a turn for the warmer, we’ll have to give up our lake walking, but I’m sure we’ll find many outdoor exploits to replace it with.

Franklin is (of course) enjoying the guitar school. We’re impressed with the level of professionalism of the course and the staff. Franklin says he is learning a lot, and of course he loves having people around with whom he can talk guitar.

I’m keeping busy by joining every club Canadian Lakes has to offer. I understand that things really pick up here in April when the snowbirds return, but I’m already walking with the Fitness Walkers, going to the weekly Bible study (I’m the only protestant!), and meeting with the writer’s club (shhhh! They don’t know what an amateur I am!).

We still have occasional flashes of homesickness, and we sure do miss our family and friends, but we’re excited about this phase in our lives, and we look forward to the future.

General, the michigan years | 4 Comments »

We moved into our new home in Canadian Lakes, Michigan yesterday.

First of all, let me tell you about Michigan in February. There’s about 3 inches of snow on the ground, and 22 inches of ice on the lakes. The roads are clear of snow and ice - though maybe I shouldn’t say “road” because they’re more pothole than pavement. On our way to the grocery store yesterday afternoon we narrowly avoided being hit by a gang of mammoth shaggy does, and judging from the variety of dead animals on the side of the road, fauna abound in this area. It is amazingly cold, and apparently this is a warm spell. I wish you all could have seen us getting into the car this morning - I thought I would never be warm again.

Our house is in a resort area where, according to the neighborhood schedule, there are book groups, euchre, poker, and bridge games, daily winter hiking clubs, Bible studies, singing groups, sewing circles, square dancing, aquasize (indoor, thankfully), fishing clubs, cross-country skiing groups, and a planned event for any other type of outdoor or indoor activity that can be engaged in corporately. I intend to take part in all most of them. The house itself is cute - if you overlook the various leaks, the saggy bed, the stinky hot water (temporary, they assure us), the non-functioning fridge (though we saved the freezer goods by putting them outside overnight), and the rental house smell. And I’m a little bit afraid of our guest bathroom. But seriously, we’ve unpacked and nested, and once we fix our “punch list,” I think we’re really going to love it.

The people here are amazingly friendly. We met a couple at WalMart last night (the only grocery store we’ve located thus far, sadly) who told us the best place in town to eat (Sharon’s - just down the road - open 24 hours over the weekend) and welcomed us warmly to the area. Our real estate agent has been a doll, and we look forward to going in on the first of every month to hand her our check. This morning we met Jamie, who works for our landlord and will be fixing things up for us. He’s super nice, a Jehovah’s Witness, and plays hockey on one of the lakes regularly. He told us that the owner left 2 kayaks which he’ll bring over when the ice melts - yay!

So, despite the occasional flashes of “oh my soul! what were we thinking? what are we doing here?”, we’re settling in nicely, and we’re excited about the future. We have this week to get everything in order - and me may even sneak off to Crystal Mountain for some downhill skiing. See pictures of the new place in our gallery. We miss everyone tons.

General, the michigan years | 2 Comments »