We're listed!

Here is our place...up for sale...described as an "artist's delight"! No- we did not choose the wording but I do find it kinda humorous. :) Now, hopefully our real estate agents will come through for us - and hopefully an artsy person will be drawn to our loft.

Here is the listing on coldwellbanker.com

Apparently San An is Haunted!

Last week I mentioned the ghost tracks in one of my posts. Well...I found out what they are:

http://paranormal.about.com/library/weekly/aa031201a.htm

And as for the donkey lady bridge:

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/neighbors/southeast/stories/MYSA102506.01H.ne25donkeylady.20bc6ce.html

We Went, We Saw, We Fell in Love!

As some of you know, we visited San Antonio last week and were able to spend four days just checking out our new city. It was FANTASTIC! Needless to say, this could be a long post. :) Here's the day-by-day rundown of our trip:

Thursday, March 22
We dropped the Muggster off to board him for the weekend and headed to Atlanta to catch a mid-afternoon flight to San Antonio. Thankfully, it was an uneventful trip and we made it there in one piece with all our luggage. (I can't say the same for the trip home!)

We picked up our rental car, and much to our alarm it was a purple PT Cruiser! Let me just say that I am not the type of person who enjoys driving around in a vehicle that looks slightly like a mini-hearse and effectively channels Barney. Not my thing. Oh well...at least we had a car I guess.

We checked into our lovely Doubletree hotel and scooted across the freeway to the Texas Land & Cattle Company to meet someone (former director of debate @ Trinity for those who care to know) for dinner. This place is a chain, but a good one...with yummy steaks!

Friday, March 23
Woke up bright and early and headed over to campus to meet with a few people in the speech com. department at Trinity. Before lunchtime, we were able to check out J's new office digs, shop for and purchase nice new office furniture, and take a short campus tour. Jarrod was like a little kid in the candy store when shopping for office furniture. At least I know he'll be happy in his new office!


Next up, a trip to a campus restaurant called the Skyline. This place is like the Mag Room (for all you Wake peoples) and it is very appropriately named since it overlooks the city skyline and has a gorgeous view! This is the place to network with the campus administration and faculty...so of course, I did a little networking of my own, in the quest to obtain new employment.


That afternoon Jarrod got to meet with an architect, a tech gu-ru, and a couple physical plant types to completely re-design the new debate room. We look forward to seeing how that turns out!!!


After meandering around the campus, and then around the city for a little bit, we met two of Jarrod's new colleagues and their wives for very fun dinner at a...wait for it...mexican restaurant! I mean a real, authentic tex-mex establishment that in no way resembles the kind of fake mexican food we seem to find so often on the eastern side of the country. Then we went to a Texas ice house (click here to read about ice houses!) before returning to the hotel and collapsing!

Saturday, March 24
Rise and shine just in time for brunch. And by brunch I mean more mexican food at a different restaurant called Panchito's! (Another plug for authentic tex-mex found in South Texas: when you ask for tortillas, you don't get the flat, bland boring ones that anyone can buy in bulk from Sam's Club. You get fresh, homeade, puffy and warm tortillas that taste like heaven!)


After lunch, we waddled (because we probably gained about 15 pounds in that one sitting) out to Barney and bravely set out to explore the "inner loop" of San Antonio. With map in hand, we drove EVERYWHERE! We found our dream house (for the bargain price of $585 k) and learned a ton about the real estate, the neighborhoods, the architecture, etc. San Antonio is really a fascinating city, and we never knew much about it beyond the alamo, Seaworld, the River Walk, etc. There is a lot more out there where the locals dwell!


After 5 or 6 hours of exploration and a quick trip back to the hotel to freshen up for dinner, we headed out to the gorgeous hill country home of Jarrod's new department chair. There we met everyone in the department and promptly learned that these folks are completely down-to-earth, sincerely nice and genuinely FUN to hang out with! We enjoyed some catered local barbeque (yum! brisket, baked beans, and sausage! yum!) and banana splits, good laughs, and good times before heading back to the hotel just before midnight!


Sunday, March 25
Earlybird gets the taco! We were up and moving at 8:00 a.m. to go to the Taco Taco Cafe for breakfast. Yes, for breakfast. For a breakfast that puts IHOP, Waffle House, and whatever your local favorite ma and pa pancake joint is to absolute shame! If you visit us in San Antonio, YOU WILL eat at the Taco Taco Cafe at least once and YOU WILL LOVE IT!

Trusty Barney took us around the city some more, and we looked at more houses before heading over to the airport. Once on the plane we sat back and realized that we are going to be SO HAPPY in SA!

The evening got a little hairy when we showed up in Atlanta and discovered our luggage didn't make it, and then didn't get home to Athens til mid-night, but hey - that wasn't enough to taint our trip. We can't wait to go back!

A few of my favorite highlights before I shut up about this and get back to work: driving past local bars/clubs featuring flamenco or salsa dancing, eyeing all the adorable boutique shops, learning that SA holds an annual festival event in April called Fiesta that apparently rivals Mardi Gras, finding out that we can own an old home from the early 1900's just like we've always wanted, driving past about a thousand mexican restaurants/steak joints/bbq places and knowing that we will never have bad food!

Thanks for reading...sorry to ramble! Next task: Must sell loft so that we can buy a new home - FUN!

Ghost Tracks? Donkey Lady Bridge?

Just stumbled upon this earlier today and thought it was interesting/enlightening/horrifying/etc.

You Know You're From San Antonio When...



You know exactly how to get to the "Ghost Tracks" from anywhere in town.

You think "pro-choice" means flour or corn tortillas.

You've never been to the Alamo. Oops - too late! Been there, done that...

You think a health drink is a Margarita without salt. It isn't? I love me some margs!

You think being able to read the Taco Cabana menu makes you bilingual. Well no, but it can't hurt - my spanish teachers always said "the more exposure to the language, the easier it gets!"

You used to live in a neighborhood you wouldn't even drive through now.

There has been a road crew on your street since before the Alamodome was built.

You've been to Midget Mansion. Midget what huh?!?

You know all about the "Dancing Diablo" and the "Donkey Lady" bridge.

Your subwoofer has twice the value of your car. Shoot me if this statement is ever applicable to anyone in the Atchison household!

You're an expert with the brake pedal, but you have no idea what a blinker is. I think this adequately describes the average Georgian as well...

You think the last supper was at Mi Tierra restaurant.

You have a "Selena Lives" bumper sticker on your car. I remember those from Houston circa 1990something!

A formal occasion is getting a glass with your longneck.

You believe Tacos, barbecue, tequilla, and beer are the four basic food groups.

Your White mother learned how to make Tamales & Menudo from your neighbors.

You know the "real" definition of FIESTA is "stay home if at all possible".

You have ordered Mexican food at a Chinese restaurant. Whoever wrote this is CLEARLY an idiot, because anyone born and raised in Texas should know that an action like this is a cardinal sin.

You had breakfast tacos at Taco Cabana on Christmas morning.

San Antonio Here We Come!

Hello Dear Family and Friends,

Welcome to my blog about moving to San Antonio. That is....moving back to Texas! YAY!!! Tune in for stories of all kinds as I chronicle our moving process. Hopefully by the time we reach the month of September, quite a few things will have happened:

1. We will have sold our loft (this is a MUST!)
2. We will have bought a dream house, rented a pre-dream house apartment, or otherwise secured slightly less-than-dream house living conditions S.A. (ok - this is a "must" too - but seriously, we NEED to sell our loft)
3. Jarrod will have survived his dissertation defense
4. I will have survived Jarrod's dissertation defense
5. Muggsy will have survived missing his daddy during the time leading up to Jarrod's dissertation defense
6. We will have moved all our stuff (because we all know there is just SO much of it - ha) to Texas
7. Jarrod will have started his new job
8. I will have started...or found...or at least started to find a new job
9. and Muggsy will have adjusted to a life outside of Georgia...which will hopefully include a backyard for running sans leash, a stairway to run up and down on ad nauseum (without getting stuck at the top and yelping for help!), and a carpet that does not entice him to pee on it because it in no way resembles the natural earth.

Woo hoo - we're in for an adventure. Alamo city, here we come...we'll be there on Thursday for our first visit!