But for now, I am so tired OMG.

My best friends were having a party for their little girl (my "niece") who just turned 2. However, the party was in Austin. Mom, Sis, and I hemmed and hawed over whether or not we should make the drive from Houston for the day. We had all decided that it was too long a drive when we went to bed last night. Today, I was blissfully sleeping in, and Sis came and woke me at Noon. Scared the living shit out of me. After a decent discussion, she finally convinced me to go. She went downstairs to take a quick shower while I got ready myself. A few minutes later I get a call from Mom: "I was woken out of a dead sleep, and was informed that you all are going to AUSTIN. What changed?" So I had to explain to grumpy!Mom that Sis had convinced me that it would be good to go. (Part of Sis's reasoning was that she wanted to show everyone that she's now in recovery and stable, and healthy goddammit. Which I totally understood.) We finally left at 2 or so. Got to Austin at around 4 and got to the park where the party was by about 4:20. It was beautiful outside but windy as all FUCK. Like, 20-30mph sustained with gusts to 45. But there were bluebonnets and indian paintbrushes on either side of the highway all the way there. BEAUTIFUL. After about the third patch, Sis said, "You don't have to point out every patch of bluebonnets, Em." I was like a little kid again. "BLUEBONNETS!! (pause) MORE BLUEBONNETS!!" There were some really amazing patches just west of the city, though. I will have to stop sometime and take pictures. Anyway, it was great to see my friends and their families. Basically, my extended family. I've known Ina since 6th grade, and her husband since freshman year. They are my favorite people on the planet after Mom and Sis. And there are not enough words to express how gorgeous their children are. I love them so much. I'm glad we went, even though it meant almost 6 hours in the car today. Totally worth it. It was good for my soul to be around other people I love, who love me back unconditionally. We're planning on going back sometime this summer to visit, when Ina's on her summer vacation from teaching. I can't wait.

I miss Austin, but I didn't realize how much until we were back. I haven't been back in over a year, but once I got into town, it was almost like I had never left. I still instinctively knew where everything was. And the air... you can't taste it! It was a horrible idea to some of the people at the party that I now live in a place where the air has a taste/smell. But that's what I get for living in one of the big petroleum cities in the US. I could also tell the altitude difference. We live about 60 miles or so from the coast here, so we're close to sea level (152ft above, to be precise). Austin is the start of the Texas Hill Country, so its western airport is at roughly 900ft above sea level. BIG DIFFERENCE. And my sinuses/brain fluid can tell, it seems. Had a headache (thanks, cold front!) when I left Houston this morning, it went away by the time we got there, and came back as were were about halfway home. Gee? I wonder if moving to Houston is part of my problem? Great. I get all settled in here and my internal pressure gages tell me I need to move back home. Well, not gonna happen, so I just gotta figure out how to live with the pressure, it seems. Why didn't I ever think of that before?*GibbsSlap* DUH.

So, anyway. I'm tired, I"m sore from driving so much. But so fulfilled emotionally. Good trade-off I think. And now, to collapse and sleep for a long time.

I changed my layout... It seems someone else loves Austin as much as I do. The sky line - with the UT Tower lit up like it is when we win a championship and BATS! - is now located at the top. So awesome. Reminds me of home.

All of that torrential rain we've been having? That you've seen on TV, or read on CNN.com, that's right on top of Austin. Everyone's fine. But it's CRAZY. It's just been raining and raining and raining and raining and raining and raining. I think today was the first day that there was some actual sunlight for a while. This is a very very bad thing. See, Austin is situated across the banks of the Colorado River (not the one that created the Grand Canyon - that one flows westward into the Gulf of California, this one flows east to the Gulf of Mexico). Up and down the river, it is dammed to create "lakes" to help control flooding. (Click for map.) Normally, they seem kind of useless as there are occasions where they aren't even used to generate hydroelectric power. Now is one of those times where they seem absolutely necessary and I'm SO GLAD we have them. Marble Falls, a town northwest of Austin by about an hour, got hit with 19 1/2 inches of rain yesterday. They're having their 500-year flood. There's a creek there that is normally 2-3 feet across. You can normally hop across it. Now? More than 100 feet wide. Scary right? The weather pattern has been basically like sitting under a hurricane/tropical storm that's winding down over land. There's a low that's been sitting over us and spinning and spinning and dumping huge amounts of rain. When your weather forecasts at least an inch or two every day, and you don't live right on the coast, that's not cool.

Let me get boring for a sec. Mansfield Dam lets water out of Lake Travis in the west part of the county into Lake Austin that runs through until close to downtown. (See link for pictures that make more sense.)Then there's another dam, Tom Miller, that forms what we call Town Lake that runs past downtown and on out of the city. Tonight, Mansfield has four floodgates open, Miller has three. You may know Miller Dam, but not realize you do. Remember about 2 years ago when that guy and his boat got sucked through a dam? And the boat was crushed but he survived? That was Tom Miller Dam. They now close boating WAY farther upstream than they did in those days when there are floodgates open. Lakes are closed because of all of the crap floating in them. Hopefully this will clear up before the 4th.... Heather's family owns a dock on Lake Austin that they always go to for swimming and eating festivities. If it's closed... dunno what we'll do. Maybe go see Transformers like the rest of the world.

We will probably be going back tomorrow to take daytime pictures of Mansfield Dam. There were news crews all over tonight trying to catch a shot that doesn't happen very often. Fortunately, Heather's a good shot and got some really good ones herself. When she puts up the pictures, I'll post them. Here's a picture from when one gate was open. Take that one flow and add three more... lots more white water. If you go here you can watch a little video shot from a plane or chopper of the dam floodgates. It's really cool. And here's a lovely shot of the sunset above flooded Lake Travis taken tonight. That island of trees is usually a peninsula. That's how flooded it is. The average elevation for Travis is 681 ft. above sea level. It's expected to rise to 699 ft. overnight. Mansfield Dam is 714 ft at the spillway. That's only a little more flooding before our GIANT DAM is overflowing. That's just damn nuts. Or should I say "dam" nuts?