I'm in Austin now. Pretty eventless move, but here are some interesting notes:

• its much better here than at our old apartment security/sound wise. i havent heard a single noise from other apartments so far and it just feels about 200% safer than the last place we lived
• traffic is pretty bad. we're near just about any store you can think of, but it takes us like.. 15 minutes to drive 2 or 3 miles. interstate isnt bad, but its definitely busy.
• we're on the third floor.. its hell to bring stuff up here, but the view is nice, the security is nice and the noise is very minimal.. definitely worth walking up some stairs
• mr cat likes to go into the empty rooms and squeak a lot to hear his echo
• going to try to take the train back sometime so we can get our bikes. train tickets are about $100 cheaper than plane to get back to springfield AND they let you carry 3 50lb boxes as checked baggage and 2 carryons.. and you can have any of your checked bags be bikes too.. they charge like.. $5-10 extra per bike they said.
• its hot as hell here. i guess i underestimated the heat.. i swear we sweat everytime we go outside.. even at night its hot. i know it gets a lot nicer in the fall and winter, but this is HOT. i kinda like it though.. its much better than being cold and the heat is actually more comfortable to be in than the humidity-driven heat back in illinois.
• our celling is about a foot taller than our old one here so even after spending hours trying to find part of kitty's cat tree, it would've been useless anyway, so i ended up constructing a new piece out of pvc pipe and some furniture protector things... they're like the bottoms of canes.
• cell reception is actually good here. i probably wont miss anymore calls on my phone and i wont have to go outside just to hear people