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.