Ab and one of her friends went down to the SXSW ‘volunteer call’ last week. They thought it would be fun to volunteer a bit, get the legit inside-scoop on all the bands, and just generally seem cool for a weekend. They showed up at the Hilton, stood in line for MAYBE 2 minutes, read over the introductory volunteer fliers, and promptly bailed. The minimum required commitment is 50 hours of volunteering…in 4 days. That leaves approximately not one single second to actually see any of the bands. Amazingly, the line to volunteer snaked all throughout the Hilton. What are these people doing!? Just volunteering for the sake of giving back to the community? Are we missing something?

In Court-related news: We lost her keys (her only set) last Friday. We searched for an hour…no dice. So Ab called a friend and we all headed to the VW dealer. ..because  Ab assumed that they have some “master pile” of keys for all the VW’s in Austin. Yeeeeaaaah. That is NOT how that works. (our friend was sweet enough to assume that we knew something he didn’t and that we had already confirmed that the dealer could help. He clearly doesn’t know us well enough). We got about ½ a mile from the dealer and Ab goes “hmm. Now that I’ve thought about it more, I’m not 100% sure that they’ll have keys for every single VW they’ve ever sold”. Thank god we have REALLY patient friends.

For my out-of-town readers: it snowed in Austin a few days ago. It was my first time playing in any significant amount of snow. Ab handled it like a complete spaz and took at least 600 pictures of me. I have yet to grasp the concept of standing still for more than a fleeting second…so every picture is of some portion of my midsection…with snow in the background.

We didn’t really run much over the past week due to the snow and cold weather, so I’ve been extra hyper lately. I accompanied Ab on all her dog visits today to try to release some energy. One of our clients is a white boxer (I’ve mentioned him before…his name is Augie) that lives in the high-rise condo complex, ‘5^th on Sabine’ (or something like that…too lazy to google it at the moment). I’ve been to visit Augie many, many times and I normally recognize his floor (the 6^th). However, today I got confused and got out on the mezzanine level when the elevator opened…and ran into a huge conference room with about a hundred people. It was some sort of business luncheon.  Ab had to run in and retrieve me. That went over well. From now on, we will be hitting ‘5^th on Sabine’ in disguise.

(insert your own segue here)

We’re in the process of adopting a bus stop!!!!!!! CapMetro Austin has put each of the bus stops up for “adoption” (seriously, so adorable)…and we’re taking one! We’ll be in charge of decorating it, planting flowers around it, keeping it neat, etc. In return, CapMetro will put up a little sign at the stop displaying our name (or perhaps “Abby Loves Dogs”…that would probably be the business-savvy thing to do. We’ll see…).  Ab’s hoping this helps ease her mother’s grandbaby cravings. It’s not QUITE the same as adopting a child…but at least it’s something! A sweet little bus stop. We’re a family now.

2 other quick updates:

1. We tried Somnio’s for the 1^st time a week or so ago. All locally-produced food (simple, veggie-based dishes), bring your own booze, awesome low-key, outdoor patio. For most people, the Somnio’s experience would be basically like staying home. For us, it’s incredible. We may go every day.
2. We bought tickets to the Yonder Mountain String Band concert at Stubbs. We’re counting down the seconds. We may not even invite a companion as Ab will surely dance to every song…and her dancing is terrifying. It’s not safe for the naked eye.

 side note: we googled “naked eye” after typing that and one of the top google results is titled “Is it true that the naked eye can distinguish 500 shades of gray?”. I can answer that: Who the hell cares.

 Some people have too much time on their hands. They should do something useful…start a dog blog or something.

 Later pups,

Piggy