Anne in Austin

2010-08-11T22:29:00.000-07:00

The Izmir part of the trip has been non-stop touring until this morning when we have the luxury of nothing to do until check out at noon well, except do yoga, eat breakfast, enjoy the view and pack, but we aren't on a bus very early, so it feels rather vacation-like. It is also nice to have the few relaxed hours before traveling back officially begins.

It seems like we arrived in Izmir ages ago, but really only three days. The first evening Jeff and I walked along the sea wall and had drinks at the first place we saw, then dinner at Efes house which was not so great, we both felt a little sick the next day, but still hard to beat the setting.

Tuesday we went to Pergamon. The tour guide chose this site first because Tuesday is the day all the cruise ships arrive and go to Ephesus. 4 cruise ships and something like 10,000 people pour into the site. We drove for about 1.5 hours through the city, then through some pretty lush farm land. Our guide, Nazim, gave us a thorough account of contemporary life in Izmir. There is less than 4% unemployment in this city, largely due to tourism, farming, and trade. 98 percent education rate. People really do seem happy living here. it might be like the Austin of Turkey. He also emphasized again the importance of Turkey being a secular state, between as he put, it "the deep, dark, Islamic countries" and Europe. Great phrase, worth the trip in and of itself.
We also drove by an environmentally friendly oil refinery. Well as environmentally friendly as possible. Really there was a beautiful beach right by it, compare that to something like Bay Town. Nazim said they spent over 20 million making it where it had as little impact on the environment as possible.

I had the opportunity to see the Altar from the temple of Zeus many years ago when it was travelling from Berlin to NYC but it in no way prepared me for the majesty of this site. There are pictures on facebook, but one thing we did not get a picture of, an owl flying right in front of us as we were looking down on the Temple of Dionysus. The owl flew from the direction of the Athena temple and library and it really felt like we were being blessed by the goddess. Incredible moment.

Things that struck me about the site, how many religions exist over the centuries in any one place. It is so difficult for me to see how anyone can believe one religion has a monopoly on the truth of religious experience. The audacity of taking the Altar to Berlin or Elgin taking the friezes of the Parthenon to England. The fact that people from so many walks of life were allowed in the high part of the city. The massiveness of the library and that it too was a holy site.

However, as great as the Acropolis was, Jeff and I were both even more amazed by the Asclepeion.

Wholistic healing of the ascelipion.

Dreams water, psycholgien

Hygiene and regular medicine as well.

Pine trees,

Feeling of the air similar to one in Greece.

Theatre in both locations,

Ascelpion even more interesting.

Oldest Isis cultt.

Dinner at mezzaluna.

Guides government Turkish citizen other languages.

On the water. People knowing each other, saw dentist owner of the restarunt.

People have difference of opion but not fighting.

15 percent more fundamentalist.

Very Early Tuesday Morning in Izmir

2010-08-09T16:01:00.000-07:00

Well, I've been meaning to write more regularly, but really there is so much to see and not much time to process it. This trip has definitely reawakened my love of travel, just seeing the world. I spend so much time traveling to do yoga and philosophy, travel for the inner life (of the mind, of the soul) if you will, that I forget how amazing it is just to travel with out that as a specific focus. I'm reminded though about Plato's warnings about the dangers of image lovers, there is so so so much to see, one can definitely get lost in it and not see what is most important to see. "What about someone who believes in beautiful things but doesn’t believe in the beautiful itself? (Republic 471e). Now that said, I'm here in Turkey which in many ways is the birthplace of what we now call Western Philosophy, Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes, Heraclitus are all from this region, Pythagoras too started off on Samos. (you can look all these people up on the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy .not to mention this is where the Trojan war, the cause of the Iliad and the Odyssey took place.... The Perseus Project is a great resource on all things greek and roman.

so I'm aware there's not really so much of a separation between inner travel and outer travel if you will, particularly if one is oriented to the inner landscape. For example, our tour guide for the first part of the trip, Murat, is Muslim and he shared much about his faith and how it shapes his experience of reality. He also gave an incredibly clear explanation of the Whirling Dervishes as well.

Turkey definitely puts my love of the Greeks in a broader cultural context. For instances, seeing Hattusa, a bronze age site and comparing that to Mycennae. Turkey is truly the crossroads of world cultures of all sorts, philosophy, religions, trade, I think it would be great to add it to the World Cultures curriculum. It is the world cultural country.

But just to get the details down, some pics are on facebook, at least upto today and the underground city, but if I still can't sleep after blogging maybe that will get up also..

Friday we went to the ancient city of Hattusa. It was once the capital of the Hittites. Incredible stone works, they made wine, performed animal sacrifice, had walled cities, lots of lion images similar in many ways to Greek cities I've seen from other times, but at least the reconstructions of the upper walls is quite different in style.

Saturday we headed off to Cappadocia. Before that we went to the Museum of Anatolia culture in Ankara. Amazing museum. Not too huge but really gives a sense of the rich history of this part of the world and the building itself is stunning. Ankara is a huge city and it was nice to get out to see the countryside in Hattusa but that in no way prepared me for the stunning beauty of Cappadocia. Cappadocia was formed by a volcanic eruption many many years ago and the best way I can describe it is like the grand canyon with the most amazing rock sculptures scattered through out. sort of like Sedona and the grand canon combined, but I'm not doing it justice.
We stopped by an enormous salt lake on the way there, saw several panoramic views

Sunday morning started early with the balloon ride at dawn over the landscape. The whole process of the balloon flight itself is fascinating. I had no idea it took a whole team of people to get one up, up and away and safely down. Then a day long tour of various rock formations, Avanos where they make lovely pottery, a carpet collective run by the Turkish government and then the cave churches where very early Christians practiced. Actually, Christians in the Byzantine period as well. As a western mainline protestant Christian, it is important to be reminded of the vast diversity within Christian spiritual history. On the Cappadocian fathers see this site, Sunday evening we walked to the top of the castle fortress and had a great dinner.

Monday morning we went to an underground city founded in Hittite times, about 550 people lived in it and there are apparently over 300 such structures. Complete with stables, kitchen, bedrooms, winery, ventilation shafts. Never seen anything like it. Then our driver took us to Kayseri to catch the flight to Izmir. Izmir is much larger than I expected and after the calm natural setting of Cappadocia, I am finding it more than a little jarring. I'm looking forward to seeing Ephesus and Pergamon in the next two days.

Anyway, I definitely want to come back there's so so much here to see and learn. Istanbul Nemrut, Troy Miletus....

and the food is fantastic.

I would totally come back to Cappadocia and just stay there for a long time. In fact, it was very hard to leave. The beauty of the place is stunning, and has a very calming, relaxing effect on the psyche.

So that's a summary of my life at the moment, maybe I can sleep now.

Thursday Morning in Ankara

2010-08-05T03:01:00.000-07:00

Well, jet lag is hitting both of us pretty hard. Some of it has to do with starting off the trip a bit sick. Lots of people at Feathered Pipe came down with very similar cough, congestion sorts of conditions. Then travel and then it seems pretty smoggy. I've been using turbo blaster instead of the neti pot. But anyway, I digress. Luckily, I am starting to feel better.

Yesterday, we did manage to make it over to Anit Kabir I am pictured at it. According to Wikipedia, "it is a mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the leader of the Turkish War of Independence and the founder and first president of the Republic of Turkey." It was really hot yesterday and even hotter with all that marble reflecting the sunlight. Last night, we ventured out of our immediate neighborhood and went to a lovely Greek place called Laterna. All the waiters wore t-shirts "OUZO- connecting people." The drink of choice in Turkey, however is not OUZO, is a similar beverage called Raki. It also seems to connect people. Out of about 20 tables, Jeff and I were the only table who did not order a bottle of Raki. Anyway, the food was great. Jeff had shrimp saganaki and I had a meze platter.

Today, there is a bit of cloud cover and so we walked around a bit this morning (pictures posted on facebook) and will probably go to the pool and sun deck and are hoping to be fully recovered by tomorrow. The driver will pick us up very early and take us to Hattusa, then Saturday morning we leave for Cappadocia

Settling In

2010-08-04T01:59:00.000-07:00

Let's see. First of all, it is very hot and very hilly in the little area we are staying in. We are staying in the banking district lots of fancy shops and embassies. In fact, we are right near the Iranian embassy which is sort of a strange entity to walk right by. Yesterday, we took a cab across town to Cankaya University where I gave my paper. The paper went well, though there were not many in attendance. The workshop I am a part of is run by Ann Ward. She and her husband Lee were students of my colleague at Baylor Mary Nichols. So small world there.

After that, Jeff and I walked around a bit, and got out of the heat for awhile. It is really so hot that it is difficult to stay outside for very long until the sun goes down. For dinner we went to a yummy mediterrean place near the hotel. The tabouleh was particularly amazing, think the opposite proportions of grain and herb than in the normal tabouleh you have in the US. Also a nice turkish wine. Then I went swimming in the Sheraton pool which was totally fabulous.

We may try to brave the heat and go over to the Ataturk masoleum. There's more of the conference to take in as well and jet lag to continue getting over.

Friday I've arranged for a car to take us to a Hittite town not far from here and then our tour of Cappadocia and Izmir begins on Saturday.

I've posted the pictures so far on Facebook. They are easier to upload there than on the blog. but here is one

Well, we made it

2010-08-03T02:11:00.000-07:00

28 hours in transit. We started off in the Austin airport, a brief layover in Dallas, then a 8 hour flight to Frankfurt. We had a really long lay over there. And then a three hour flight to Ankara. A long and winding shuttle ride to our very swank accommodations. Not that we can afford to eat or drink much in said accommodations, except for the amazing breakfast buffet which luckily is included in the price.

Anyway, Now we are off to find the conference venue so I can give my paper, titled "Sing, Muse: Socrates, Self-Mastery, and the Critique of Homer."

Pictures to follow.

Anne in Turkey

2010-07-31T20:21:00.000-07:00

Well, this blog has been dormant for a while, but I thought I'd reactivate it while Jeff and I are traveling in Turkey. I am giving a paper at the International Society for the Study of European Ideas. The conference is in Ankara Turkey

Then we will travel to Cappadocia

and Izmir

2010

2010-01-05T09:15:00.001-08:00

Well 2010 is off to a good start. I'm having a productive time writing this week, I've been back on weight watchers for a while now and have lost about five pounds. I'm excited about teaching Greek Philosophy for the first time in three years. Having tons of fun playing with Milo and hanging out with Jeff. Recent highlights include a trip to Houston for Boxing Day, a lovely bottle of wine New Year's Eve and a great dinner at Asti last weekend.

I also had six people in my Satuday morning class on inversions. Since I'm traveling a good bit for yoga and philosophy this semester, I decided to run my ongoing class with specific themes for the weeks that I'm there. So the first four weeks in January - Inversions,

Then I'll be gone doing yoga or philosophy or the studio has a workshop until Feb 26 then I'll do six weeks of backward bending. Then more travel/ workshops and I'll do a two week learn the ropes focus April 30 and May 7

and then a three week Forward Bends and Twists the last two weeks of May first week of June, that's about as far in advance as I can plan.

Christmas Eve Eve

2009-12-23T10:26:00.000-08:00

Well, here it is Christmas Eve Eve. I taught for Gillian early this morning, wrote a bit in the Castle Hill Cafe, Took CT's yoga class. Now I'm at home, working and paying bills and doing laundry. I'm getting ready to brave the crowds at the grocery store, then I'm going to pick Milo up from Puppy School and take him for a walk on the green belt. Then I'll come home, shower, go to CT's yoga class and then out to dinner with Jeff.

Fun day all in all. Here are some pictures of Milo's trip to the Greenbelt yesterday. Yesterday, was the first day he fetched two sticks at the same time. He had one of them and swam to shore then swam back out to get the other one. Pretty impressive. You can see he's quite proud of the sticks in the first picture. The pictures are in reverse order of action.

Thanksgiving Week

2009-11-25T12:34:00.000-08:00

This year marks my fifteen year anniversary of my yoga practice. Mom and Dad were visiting me in Waco for Thanksgiving and mom spotted a sign at the mall about yoga classes and she said, "Anne, I think you would really like yoga." She was right!

I went to my first class the first Saturday after Thanksgiving. How nice that Walter did not cancel his classes for Thanksgiving.

Anyway, the John Schumacher workshop was fabulous. The only downside of the trip is that Milo got kennel cough while he was being boarded so he's had to take medicine and be on a low activity regime for the past week. He is better now. He has completely stopped coughing! Yippee.

Last weekend, Jeff and I went to Fino for a lovely brunch and then to Mayfield park to look at the peacocks. It was a truly lovely day.

I had a busy Tuesday up in Waco and am spending most of today getting ready to go visit Jeff's family in Houston for Thanksgiving. We are going to see Carolyn Wonderland tonight at Antone's. that should be fun.

Off to Dallas

2009-11-12T06:15:00.000-08:00

Hello Blog world,

I'm sitting in my house, drinking a cherry, grape, blackberry smoothie. I'm getting ready to head up to Waco to teach my class and meet with a few students. Then Jeff and I are going to Dallas. I've got a philosophy conference and as luck would have it, there's also a John Schumacher workshop the same weekend. I'm looking forward to it a great deal.

We'll also get to take a class with Randy and George Purvis. Yippee!

The weather has been totally fabulous lately. Milo and I have gone on two walks every day for the past week or so. Above is a picture of three poodles we encountered yesterday

and here's a picture of the rest area on the way to Waco. Jeff pointed out that it looks sort of like the Death Star

Then there was October

2009-11-02T11:47:00.000-08:00

Wow, It has been awhile since I updated this blog. October was a whirl of activity.

This past weekend Jeff and I went out to Becker Vineyards for a Cabernet tasting. It was a truly gorgeous day and we had a fabulous time. The wines were great. The weather sparkly and bright. Then we had dinner with Mom and Dad and I used the lovely serving tray that Gabrielle and Tony gave us for an engagement gift. It was nice to spend some time with them this weekend. We also all went to the doggie park on saturday and tonight we are all going for Mexican Food at Matt's El Rancho.

Thursday and Friday I spent up in Waco. Highlights there: Amy defended her dissertation. Yippe.

The weekend before last, Lenore and Henry had a lovely engagement party for us up in Waco. Henry's toast was just perfect. He noted that Jeff and I both believe in transformational activities. wine and beer making, yoga, philosophy and that they were happy to welcome jeff into the family, that everyone there considers me family even though I've run away to Austin. It really captured the moment and the overall situation so well.

The week before that Jeff and I went to New York City for the Society of Ancient Greek Philosophy. We had a great time. My paper went well and I got some good feedback about how to restructure a small part of the Republic chapter which is what I'm procrastinating doing right now. It was fun to see Natalie and James. The weather was less than stellar, but it is just great to hang out in that city, regardless.

The week before that I had another conference in Alabama. I went a day early so I could meet George's wife and baby girl. George is the brother of my best friend from high school. We had a really nice time ate thai food and talked about academia. I also got to spend some time with my good friends Rasma and Gunnars. They seem to have settled into Alabama quite well and Gunnar defended his dissertation a couple days after that visit. Gabrielle came along on that trip right after her own dissertation defense. This has definitely been the month for people I know to finish their dissertations.

Bi Weekly Update

2009-09-30T13:26:00.000-07:00

Well let's see, it has been an eventful past couple weeks.

Last weekend, I took Jeff to Chapel Hill for my 25th year high school reunion. I really love Chapel Hill and was excited that Jeff got a chance to see it and to meet some of my very oldest friends. Friday night we started the dining extravaganza at A Southern Season.
We drove by my old house which has a very modernistic renovation and looks fabulous. My house edged up on the North Carolina Botanical Gardens. Then we had dinner at Lantern with Susan and Laura, then went to Tyler's Taproom for reunion event # 1. Tyler's is owned by a former classmate of mine.
Our excellent limo driver dropped us off at Time Out and Jeff survived his first Time Out experience.

Saturday we went to the reunion picnic for a little while, toured the high school (Jeff is not actually smoking in this picture, but he is paying homage to the Wall.

and the site of the giant column of rain, More on that another time...

went to Carolina Brewery

and University Mall to buy an umbrella, then Crooks Corner for dinner with Susan, Laura, Treeby, Molly, (pictured above) and Lisa Johnson, and assorted significant others (not pictured). Most people got Shrimp and Grits.

Then the final reunion event at a nightclub downtown. The place was decorated with all sorts of memorabililia from high school, musicals, sports events. Very cool. Anyway, it was a great experience all in all. It rained all weekend, but that was actually a nice change from the ongoing Texas sun. I was struck by how much things look exactly the same in the midst of a lot of change and growth.

The weekend before that Jeff and I had an engagement party. (If you are on Flickr, Ari Stiles took some lovely photo's of the event. It was really a lot of fun. Jeff's parents offered to do a great deal of the cooking and they really made it super easy to have a party. My parents arrived a few days before the party, purchased a house about a mile up the road and in general got a nice preview of their life in texas. Perhaps they will start their own blog, AP1 and AP2 in Austin.

The weekend before that Jeff and I went to the Desiree Rumbaugh workshop. Lots of fun there.

In the professional domain, I'm really enjoying teaching Social World. We just finished up the Republic and will turn next to Aristotle's Ethics. Also, I continue to find the TR schedule much more conducive to writing. I've had two good writing days in a row this week.

Tomorrow, I'm heading upto Waco. I've got a busy day Thursday. I invited several of my female friends over for a ladies night potluck. I'm looking forward to that. Then I'm guest teaching a class on the topic of yoga in America tomorrow morning. That should be fun as well.

In all, life is good. Off to reorganize a bookshelf, take a shower and go to Christina's yoga class.

An update of Life in Austin

2009-09-14T16:59:00.000-07:00

Hello Gentle Readers,

I've really been more in the mode of living life than blogging about it. I guess I'm in a more Nietzschean mode than a Socratic one of late. Above is a photo of the painting I bought from Caroline Wright and a picture of my feet on the way to the dog park.

School started back. I'm teaching Social World on Tuesdays and Thursdays. This week and last week, I've just driven there and back each day. It is a bit tiring, but the upside, is falling asleep very easily. I've never really been a Tuesday Thursday person. I didn't like TR as a student and taught MWF for most of my teaching career, once I got off of a 4/4 load... I have to say I'm enjoying the new pace of it. Each class is a bit more intense... more on that on the teaching blog and on teaching Plato in an interdisciplinary context.

Mostly life in Austin is hanging out with Jeff, playing with Milo and Q, going to yoga classes, practicing, writing and enjoying all the fun that Austin has to offer.

This weekend, we went to the Desiree Rumbaugh workshop, so we didn't do much else. We did go to BJ's brewhouse with CT and Kelly Sunday night and took Milo to the doggie park Sunday afternoon. The weather has just been glorious.

This morning we went to check out a wedding venue, the Allan House. I worked out, came home and wrote for a while, checked out some caterers, took a shower and went to Peggy's class. A pretty typical Monday.

Here is Milo and a doggie toy.

Last Day of Summer

2009-08-24T12:28:00.000-07:00

I'm teaching a Tuesday Thursday schedule this year for the first time ever, so even though today is the first day of school for Baylor, it is not the first day of school for me. I've spent most of the day writing and organizing various Baylor related things, inviting guest speakers to campus, arrange social life plans for while I'm in Waco.

I've really hit a good grove in writing these past three weeks. Hopefully, it will make it easier to continue the momentum into the school year. I now have a good draft of the first half of the last chapter and I'm moving onto section 3 tomorrow. I have an okay draft of the whole of the last chapter.

Good draft to mean means one more revision and I'll be happy with it. Okay draft means it needs at least two more revisions, but I'm closing in.

In the yoga domain, I taught the chair yoga workshop this saturday and subbed Patti's class, so Saturday was pretty much all about yoga. I've really enjoyed going to so many classes this summer. My practice has really gotten a lot stronger over the past few months, even making progress in the twists. Now that school is starting back, I'll be doing more of my practice as home practice, which has its own set of benefits.

In the personal domain, Jeff and I had a fun weekend. We took in part of the Hatch Chili Festival at Central Market and looked at various wedding venue options. Places we are currently considering are Barr Mansion, Mercury Hall, Allen House, and Green Pastures. We still don't have a date set, but we are working on it.

Above are some pictures of Q and Milo helping with the venue selection.

Exciting News

2009-08-13T10:05:00.000-07:00

Jeff asked me to marry him last Sunday. I said yes! So we are now engaged!! It's very exciting. Milo and Q were both very excited by the news. They are looking forward to being step-dogs.

We haven't set an official date yet, but we'll probably get married next fall (2010). We'll have an engagement party next month.

In more mundane news, I'm having a productive day writing and I'm happy to report that the AC in the house is now working and my car AC should be fixed sometime in the next hour or two. Then I hope to have time to workout before going to Christina's class at Castle Hill.

I've got a busy day up in Waco tomorrow and Saturday I will be attending the graduation hooding ceremony for Lewis Pearson who finished his dissertation this summer. Lewis is the second student I've had the pleasure of directing, but this is my first hooding ceremony. I was out of town when Taryn Whittington graduated and I did not go to my own hooding ceremony.

Milo is finally back in action

2009-08-02T15:27:00.000-07:00

Well, Milo got to go back to puppy school this week. Wednesday was his first day back, then he went on Friday

and today was his first day swimming at Red Bud Island, he does seem to have gained a bit of weight during his month long home stay.

Right now, he's crashed out right next to me after the big day.

Pretty mellow weekend. Jeff and I ate Mexican food for dinner Friday and went out Saturday to Shady Grove to celebrate the birthday of a friend of mine from college. Was a little bummed that no one showed up to my class on Saturday as I had a great sequence planned, but it is the dog days of summer. It was just me and Gillian at practice on Friday.

I've been subbing classes for Devon this week. That's been a really nice experience. Have been to a bunch of yoga classes, Peggy's, Christina's, got some writing done, feeling pretty good about the first section of the last chapter and did some reorganization work with the overall structure of the chapter that is helpful.

Also, been dealing with various car issues, oil change, fluid changes, air conditioner compressor issues. once my house sells in Waco, I'm buying a new car, the BMW I've always wanted.

Right now, I'm packing for my trip to Tucson. Jeff and I are both going to Christina's immersion that she's teaching with Darren Rhodes.

Milo Update

2009-07-22T15:03:00.000-07:00

Milo's convalescence is going okay. He goes to the vet tomorrow to get the tubes taken out of the lump on his chest. It has been pretty difficult to watch him be less than his normal exuberant self. he whimpers a lot and he has to keep his Elizabethan collar on all the time, so he really looks a bit pathetic. Here he is with Q on the couch and out in the yard.

In other news, I've had a decent week writing so far, Christina and I practiced on Monday, Tuesday I went to her class and then subbed for Gillian. Today I subbed for Gillian at AYS, but no one came so I went to CT's focus on form, worked out, and then went to the instructor practice at Castle Hill, decided 4 hours of yoga was enough and didn't go to Iyengar land tonight.

Mostly, I've been writing, working out, doing yoga and watching Milo. That's what's new.

The Dog Days of Summer

2009-07-20T15:56:00.000-07:00

I have not been a very diligent blogger of late. I was surprised to see it has been 13 days since my last posting. Life in Austin is fun filled, though exceedingly hot of late (as evidenced by resting dogs above).

Okay, the last two days have been slightly, very slightly cooler, but more humid, so it is a toss up really. Mostly, my week day mornings are filled up with meditation and pranayama, walking Milo, writing, various errands, working out and the afternoons and evenings are filled with going to yoga classes, mostly with Christina, but I get to Devon's classes once a week or so. Here are some pictures of us working with a stick strapped to our backs to learn about our postural tendencies, only in iyengar-land.

and the occasional class with Mandy. Weekends are mostly filled with hanging out with Jeff and enjoying the various fun things to do in Austin.

This weekend, we spent a lot of time doing yoga, my class, the chair workshop, Mandy's class, went swimming at the Lifetime Fitness, went to the Wine Bar at Central Market and cooked some great meals together. Last weekend, similar. We checked out a couple of places on Broadie and Stassney, Brick Oven, Maudie's, looked at the menu for Galaxy Cafe and Tino's greek place. Very authentic looking. (side bar) I spent a semester in Greece in graduate school and I ate in a lot, a lot, a lot of Greek Tavernas. sometimes I really get in the Greek Food mode and crave it. It is funny , though after living there for 4 months, I was really tired of the food. I developed an intense salt addiction, that was amazingly difficult to break when I got home... I started missing spicy heat in the food and salt was about the best I could do. Believe me there's a big difference between tzatiziki and salsa over a four month span of time. At the time, I was still really into having ice in my drinks and I could not wait to have ice either. Now, that would not be a problem, but I'd still miss the salsa.

While we were in Georgia, another dog attacked Milo at puppy boarding school and he had to get stiches in his paw, when I went to get the stiches out, the vet tech saw a lump on his chest which came from the other dog separating his skin from his sternum bone and it was filled with fluid. They tried to drain it, but it filled back up in a day or two, so today he had to have surgery and has drainage tubes in. It is really pretty icky, but he's okay. Now he's sacked out on the towel and plastic covered dog bed. .

Various Recent Events

2009-07-07T13:17:00.000-07:00

As usual, I've been busy enjoying life in Austin and travelling away and returning to Austin, and just have not sat down to write much of anything about all the fun and excitement.

A few weeks ago, Jeff and I went to Stonewall in search of peaches and also stopped by the Becker Vineyards. Then we drove up to look around Fredericksburg. We had a really fun day, then came back and had a nice dinner with Christina and Kelly.

A couple weekends later, we went down to visit Jeff's parents at their lovely new house in Houston. It is just blocks from the Museum district. We went to Rothko Chapel, saw the Menil Collection, went to a nice pub called the Black Labrador . I was thinking they could open a chain of pubs, each one named after a different dog. We also went to a great class that Joyce taught at the Iyengar Institute there, also minutes from their house.

We had a fun day in Austin, celebrating Jeff's birthday with a nice yoga practice at Clear Spring

and then a fun evening downtown. We went to Malaga, walked up to the Capitol and checked out the the Cloak Room and the Brown Bar. All very fun.

For July 4th weekend, we went to visit my parents in the great metropolis of Lavonia Georgia. We saw the historical enactment play Land of Spirits, hung out on the lake, went to a festive gathering at Marie's lakehouse, went to Gumlog Barbeque and fish lodge and toured around the county, drove out to Hartwell Dam and stopped by a really cool lily farm on the way back.

One of my favorite things about living in Austin is coming back to such a great place after travelling somewhere, there's no post trip let down. I'm just happy to be back. My friend Marie said, "well, that's what makes a home a home."

while we were away, Milo got injured at puppy school and so he is at home convalesing today. I had a nice lunch with Ari and her very charming sons, Julian and Gabriel, and got a bit of writing done and also a morning workout and dealt with the ever annoying Time Warner cable and a pesky roofing issue with my insurance company.

Anyway, off to double dip at CT's classes.

here are some photos.

Weekend Update

2009-06-21T06:22:00.000-07:00

I find myself really enjoying my weekends. It is just great hanging out with Jeff, and Milo, and Q. Spending time organizing the house, doing yoga, doing various fun things that Austin has to offer.
last night, Jeff and I went to see the Star Trek movie again. It was just as good the second time around.

Here are some recent pictures of the increasingly organized house, note new art on loan from Kelly and Christina. And a couple of Milo. His new favorite thing is the giant stick he is holding in his mouth.

In Waco

2009-06-17T14:29:00.000-07:00

I'm in Waco most of this week running the Micro Teaching component of the Summer Faculty Institute (More on what Micro Teaching is on the Teaching Yoga and Philosophy blog). Though I miss being in Austin, I'm having a nice time catching up with friends and colleagues and am also enjoying the experience of leading the Micro Teaching.

Tonight I'm going to Ninfa's with Lenore and Henry. Yummy!

An Unexpected Weekend in Austin

2009-06-12T14:19:00.000-07:00

I woke up quite early this morning to head out to the airport. Stood in line to use the kiosk, Kiosk said see and agent. Agent said go to this line. Once I made it to the front of that line, the agent said, she can't help me because my ticket is Northwest (not Delta). She takes me and several other poor souls, to another line where they said our flight was locked out because of time....and that we would have to call Delta to rebook. I called Delta and they can't rebook because it was originally an American ticket.

At this point, I gave up, returned home, slept for a good long while and then had a very productive day of yoga, working out, and even writing. Good way to end the week. I'm going to practice the sequence I plan to teach in class tomorrow.

An Unexpected Day in Austin

2009-06-11T12:57:00.000-07:00

I was supposed to leave on a 9:05 flight to Dallas this morning and then meet up with the Baylor group heading up to the Diversity Conference in Columbia. I got to the airport and sensed something was wrong as the lines were just huge. I decided to go out to the check curbside and they informed me that all flights before noon to Dallas were canceled. Jeff battled some traffic to come pick me up while the very efficient Laura Hendrix in the president's office sorted out what to do. One option the travel agent later suggested, that I drive to Waco, take a flight to Dallas wait to be stand by on the flight that the Baylor Group was supposed to be on... I"m like no way.. that is travel hell in the making. Of course, I did not say that in my out loud voice...

Anyway, I'm leaving tomorrow morning instead, so I went to the club while Delora cleaned and am doing a few computer tasks before driving up for CT's classes.

Here are some pictures of the house.

Meditation room/ study

Office part of the living room.

New Breville Blender
Dining room with rug I got from Devon.

Yoga room with ramp and two benches. Great Backward bending props.

Up in Waco for the Day

2009-06-10T08:26:00.000-07:00

I got up early this morning to do my morning practices (and to make sure I got upside down a bit) before heading up the highway to Waco. I had a meeting with the Provost, Dean, and various money people about some new positions for BIC. I was a little nervous, something about seeing calculators and three ring binders in front of me, but it went well. Hopefully, we'll get the positions.

Next on the docket, I'm helping with BIC recruiting and then coffee with Gabrielle and lunch with Andy and then I hope to make it back to Austin in time for CT's 4:30 class.

Tomorrow, I'm off to a Diversity conference in Columbia Missouri.

Also, Happy Anniversary to Mom and Dad. They've been married 49 years. Pretty impressive.

Milo with the water sprinkler

2009-06-09T10:30:00.000-07:00

As an enthusiastic new home owner, I decided to water the lawn. It was looking pretty parched. Milo very much enjoyed the fun times.

I had a good day yesterday and today is off to a good start as well. I got a ton of papers cleared off my desk, in fact, my desk is completely clean in the first time since I can remember. I've done some editing, and a lot of laundry with my brand new whirpool high efficiency washer dryer, and I walked Milo this morning.

I'm getting ready to go to the club and then to Christina's yoga classes. Fun, Fun, Fun.

Anne in Austin, Indeed.

2009-06-08T05:19:00.000-07:00

It has been ages since I've written. I've been totally swamped with moving from the Westrock house into my lovely new home in the 45. Everything about the house is really perfect. Last week, I spent most of my time unpacking boxes and organizing a room a day. There's still more organization to do, but things are pretty much in place now and Delora came to clean and somehow that made it feel like I really live here now!

I've allowed my writing time to get squeezed out with all the domestic organization, but I'm recommitting to do as of today. I have about 8 weeks until Jeff and I go out to the Darren and Christina workshop and my goal is to have the book sent to the press editor for review by then.

As part of the writing plan, I'm also blogging. Again,

Anyway, here's the plan du jour. I have to send a conference paper off, organize all my notes I made about finishing the book over the past few weeks that I've not been writing, start revising the final chapter.

Also on the docket, morning practices... drop milo off at puppy school, go to CT's class, workout, return a defective dog bed, go to Devon's class.

A couple fun photos

2009-05-19T09:57:00.000-07:00

I've been pretty swamped with various logistics of moving so I haven't been writing much of anything lately. My step daughter, Christa, got married this weekend at the Scarborough Faire Reinaissance Festival. It was a festive event, more pictures at some future juncture. (You can check out their wedding website at chrisandchrista.org. Here are a couple pictures of me and Jeff in our festival attire.

Back in Austin

2009-05-04T11:55:00.000-07:00

I've been away a while. First, I went to the Ancient Philosophy Society Conference in Baltimore, then I flew from there to New Orleans for a week long yoga retreat with Patricia Walden. That was a fantastic experience. I learned so much both from her and from 37 other yoginis. It was really a powerful phenomenon seeing so many people with long term yoga practices and how it helps people on so many different levels. It was also fascinating seeing women ranging in age from early thirties to almost 80 and the love of yoga as what brought everyone together.

I got back Friday afternoon, had a really fun weekend hanging out with Jeff, Milo, and Q. Today, I'm back working on things, mostly feeling overwhelmed by my lengthy to do list, but I'm taking Anne Lamott's advice and just handling the list "bird by bird."

Had a nice break at LifeTime Fitness. I rode the exercise bike, and swam some laps, hot tub, sauna, pool, and feel decidedly less stressed. I'm going to Peggy's advanced class at 3:45.

In Darkest Baltimore

2009-04-23T09:36:00.000-07:00

I managed to leave DFW successfully this week. Last week, I tried to get up to a conference in Memphis, but my flight was cancelled and I would have missed my paper, so I just turned around and came back to Austin (though as Patricia Walden says, there's no just... that took several hours because of the weather first in Austin, then in route and then in Dallas). However, Jeff and I had a fabulous weekend which more than made up for the rather bizarre round of travel hell.

This time around, I was more sensible in my travel planning. I actually got in the night before my paper (actually I didn't have a choice, because I couldn't get into Baltimore and out to the conference in time for my session). After I got in the BWI, I took the light rail out to Timonium Business Park and then walked to the hotel. It was only supposed to be a block away, but let's just say it was a very long block.. I went out with Jessy and Jamie (more on that on the Teaching Blog) and really had a fabulous time. They really like Baltimore and the place the selected, The Brewer's Art, was a great experience.

This morning I've had a really productive time in the hotel, despite the fact that this is one of the noisiest hotels I've stayed at in a long time. I work incredibly well in hotels, always have. Something about being cut off from everything, that and people bring yummy treats to eat to keep you going.. I got a nice practice in as well, which is always especially welcome while travelling.

So I've got a big afternoon of conferencing ahead and then dinner with Silvia, a friend from grad school

Milo in the Water Hose

2009-04-20T12:01:00.000-07:00

another longer video of milo

Milo plays with the volleyball

2009-04-15T14:10:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures of my new house in Austin

2009-04-15T14:02:00.000-07:00

Here's the front door. You can't see it, but it is a really pretty wooden and glass door.
Here is the living room which you walk directly into.

Here's an alcove of the living room, kitchen is through the arched window.
Yoga room.
Bedroom.
Kitchen.

Back porch.

backyard, giant tree.

Its in 78745, a little further south than Christina.
Closing is early May,
Housewarming party in June!

Great Day

2009-04-09T16:40:00.000-07:00

Christina and I had a really fun day in Austin today. We practiced at her club and soaked in the hot tub and steamed. Then I went and got acupuncture with craig, home to check on Milo (and the status of the plumbing leak in the kitchen). Then we met up for mani pedis. I went home and wrote for a while and I think we are going to meet at A-22 in a bit.

Also exciting today, there's be a bit of an issue with the contract on my new house, the sellers wanted not to sell after they had signed the contract, so that went on for a bit, but I'm now officially super excited about moving in. Exactly a month from today, what fun. Tomorrow, I'll take pictures of the house, so plenty to look forward to there.

Exciting times

2009-04-03T09:49:00.000-07:00

Its a beautiful spring day here in Austin. Hard day to sit inside writing but that is what I'm doing. The most exciting news of late: I have a contract on a house here in Austin. It is about 2 miles from Christina and Kelly's house, is perfectly renovated, very much in accord with my own taste. It has a great fenced backyard for Milo, a covered patio area and very nice trees and also hardwood floors throughout the house, which is really important to me! So I'm super excited about that.

Other big news. As of the end of this month, actually after next weekend, I won't be teaching at YogaYoga anymore. YogaYoga decided to drastically reduce the amount they were paying their teachers and I decided I didn't want to teach for them under the new pay structure. I hope to start teaching a couple classes at Clear Spring but I don't have anything worked out yet. It actually felt quite liberating to quit and it was nice to have the freedom to which enabled me to do so.

Milo's doing great, I don't have any pictures due to a major computer crash on my laptop and somehow the pictures that were on my desktop didn't get copied over.

A beautiful Saturday Afternoon

2009-03-21T13:41:00.001-07:00

I just finished teaching my Saturday classes and then went to CM. It is such a glorious day that I am going to sit outside and read a novel for a while. I'm starting in on American Wife. I've also just started American Pastoral. Perhaps I'm subconsciously reflecting on American identity...

Let's this week I had a fabulous Plato seminar, really the best all semester. Everyone seems really bonded now. Gabrielle and I went out Monday night to 135 Prime and had a great time, catching up on life, the universe, and everything. Tuesday I had meetings at work and then came down for CT's classes. Am getting really close to getting my foot in Eka Pada rajakapotasana with out help. Wednesday I wrote and looked at houses, ditto Thursday. Made an offer on one, everyone keep their collective good house buying wishes going in my direction. Friday, I had meetings back up in Waco and Milo also had his appointment to get neutered. I had no idea how difficult it would be to take him in to have it done. He came through the operation just fine. He is currently wearing an Elizabethean collar and looks a little pathetic as a result, but he's still completely adorable.

That's what's new in my world.

Spring Break in Austin

2009-03-12T16:37:00.000-07:00

So last year I went to London for Spring Break. I had a great time, but I really just wanted to hang out in Austin, so that's what I'm doing this year. Hanging out in Austin.

Spring Break started for me last Thursday. I went to Mandy's practice and Craig's talk. Friday I went to Gillian's class and then Clear Spring Practice. Saturday I taught my own classes and went to the afternoon part of Christina's workshop. Then that night out to see Lenore and Henry and H.W out at the Marriot Courtyard by the airport. They went to Kentucky this week and Jeff and I also went to Caroline Wright's new show. Sunday, Jeff and I did Christina's workshop and also met the Katherine the Kambucha lady... Monday, Yoga with Christina and her club. Tuesday, I had a meeting to go to for some consulting work I did for the State, coffee with Jeff, then Christina's classes. Wednesday Lunch with Mom Dad and CT and Kelly and Devon's hardwork Class. Today, inversions in the morning and totally fabulous massage with Rebecca Rowbatham. AMAZING. Then Christina's practice. Tomorrow Gillian's class and clear spring, Saturday my own classes and the inversion workshop. Sunday Mandy's class...

You get the drift.

I actually have gotten some writing done each day. I'm revising Chapter Three of the book this week. I'm really glad I've gone over these earlier chapters again. I've been able to cut a lot and streamline what I'm saying now that I know "where I'm ending up." I'm going to read through this chapter again next week, making sure the flow is there after the cuts. Then onto revising Chapter Four, then back to finishing chapter five. Today, I see the end in sight.

Of course, all this activity is interspersed with puppy fun. Here are some pictures.

The Week in Review

2009-03-06T08:24:00.001-08:00

I've had a busy but fun week. The budget phase two was due. Two Ancient Philosophy Society friends, Sara Brill and Ryan Drake, came to Baylor to give talks, took them out to a couple nice dinners. Clay Pit in Austin and Diamond Backs in Waco. Yummy. I finished listening to the Half Blood Prince and am firmly in the grips of the Wizarding World. I got my fifteen year service pin. Had a nice dinner with Mom and Dad, taught two of Christina's yoga classes. finally made it to Thursday practice and Gillian's noon class as well. It is now Spring Break and I'm really looking forward to hanging out in Austin.

Here are some more pictures from last Sunday afternoon at the Draught House.

Some Funny Pictures from Around Austin

2009-02-28T10:00:00.000-08:00

The other day I was coming out of the Barton Hills Grocery Store and saw two giant poodles in car. it really looked like they had driven themselves there.

Milo learns to Fetch

2009-02-27T08:37:00.000-08:00

Hello Blogosphere,

It has been awhile since I've posted. I've been busy with my new job, driving back and forth to Waco, yoga workshop in Dallas, beginning to look for a house in Austin, and just generally enjoying life. Yesterday, Mom and Dad drove up to see my new office and I took them to lunch at Baylor's new faculty center. Then we shopped a bit, well Mom and I shopped a bit, Dad waited in the Books a Million store while we checked out Belk's and Cold Water Creek.

This morning, I'm catching up on various writing tasks and playing with Milo.

Here are some recent photos of Milo learning to fetch.

Here is the ball.

Milo running after the ball

Milo, returning with the ball.
Milo, giving the ball to Jeff.

Milo, running up the stairs.

Photo montage

2009-02-15T17:17:00.001-08:00

Here are some scenes from the past week or so.

Great sunset from the balcony.

Milo, enjoying the sun.
Milo Pre bath
Milo wearing a T-shirt. He was jealous of the dogs at the dog park with t-shirts.
Q happy.

Q sporting homebrew shirt.

Milo with squeaky goose.
Milo pre bath.

Milo post bath, all blow dried and fluffy.
Milo checking out the Greenling box.

25 Random Things

2009-02-04T13:41:00.000-08:00

On the off chance that you read this blog and are not on Facebook (which as far as I know is Lisa, Mom and Dad), there's a little game going around where you write 25 random things about yourself and sent it to 25 people who are supposed to do the same. Like Pam, I figure why trust the ephemerality of Facebook when there's the oh so permanent blog... So here's my

25 Random Things About Me

1. I am having a hard time figuring out what counts as random.

2. I wrote my dissertation on Plato’s Symposium.

3. I have a golden retriever puppy named Milo.

4. The auras of at least two cats have appeared to me in dreams.

5. I like singers who can’t sing.

6. I’m a dual citizen of Austin and Waco.

7. I look a lot like my sister.

8. I’ve been to Greece three times.

9. I signed my contract to work at Baylor the day the compound burned.

10. Macaroni and Cheese is still my favorite food.

11. I’m trying hard to be vegan, but I really like cheese.

12. I practice yoga.

13. I meditate.

14. I played soccer in high school.

15. I played clarinet also.

16. I like spicy food.

17. I think Facebook is fun.

18. I desperately need a pedicure.

19. I’ve been to the top of the pyramids in Tikal.

20. I really dislike laminate flooring.

21. I have to make myself read novels these days.

22. I have three blogs.

23. Sometimes a fat cloud follows me around.

24. I’ve been almost finished writing a book for a while now.

25. I have a great boyfriend.

Spontaneous Trip to San Antonio

2009-02-02T07:46:00.001-08:00

Friday Meg and Jesse came over and we had a great time.

Saturday I went upto Waco to talk at Winter Premeire, a Baylor recruiting event. I met Mom and Dad for lunch at Chipolte Grill on the way up.

Sunday, Jeff and I decided to go down to San Antonio Sunday morning to take George Purvis' class. He was doing an all levels workshop down there (more on that to follow on the teaching philo blog). Here's the yoga studio and pictures from the Pearl Brewery area.

On the way back we stopped in San Marcos to buy a pair of Sun Glasses and also to commemorate a trip we took to the shopping mall to pick up a coffee table for Randy. When we were looking for Pottery Barn, we called to get directions and they said it was across from the gondola.. what Gondola? So yesterday we went in search of the Gondola. It turns out there is no Gondola, only the space for a Gondola to move back and forth across a very small water way in the middle of a very large parking lot. Here is the sign for Gondola Park. Here is me looking for the gondola
Jeff wondering where it is. Jeff in his new sunglasses.

then the dog park

Update of the past couple weeks

2009-01-28T13:07:00.000-08:00

Here's Super Puppy Milo at his cutest.

Hello Avid Readers of Anne in Austin,

I haven't had as much time to write since my life as a dual citizen began in earnest two weeks ago. I like the new BIC director job a great deal. Here's a picture of my new office.
One benefit of driving back and forth to Austin: it is quite easy to see Mom and Dad. Here's a picture of them at our first of what is sure to be many meetings at Starbucks.

Here is a picture of Dad eating his birthday blue berry muffin yesterday at Starbucks.

Last week in Waco, I got to catch up with my step daughter Christa and meet her new puppy Toby.

Here's a picture and Here's a picture of me and Toby. I am wearing the dress I will wear at Christa's wedding at the Renaissance Fair. It is apparently in the Italian style which is appropriate being a Frosolono and note too the green and gold color scheme. Christa made the dress which is quite impressive as well.

Here's a photo of Milo and Spirit at lunch last Friday at Christina and Kelly's house

and here's a really cute one of Milo, Q, and Jeff.

IToday, I spent the day in Austin catching up on some editing and personal errands. Tomorrow, I have a full day of events up in Waco.

More Dog Park Pictures

2009-01-18T11:29:00.000-08:00

It is a beautiful Sunday afternoon. I really have nothing on the agenda for today, I was looking forward to taking Mandy's class, but she's doing a workshop instead and so suddenly there was a whole day where I really have nothing scheduled except for taking Milo for a training session at 4. It really feels quite luxurious, particularly after the action-packed week.

After my two classes yesterday, I wrote for a while, and then Jeff and I took the dogs to the dog park. Then we made garlic pasta for dinner. Yummy and super easy. Make pasta, saute garlic and red pepper flakes in olive oil. Add pasta, stir around a bit. Top with cheese of choice.

First Week Back

2009-01-17T12:32:00.000-08:00

I survived my first week back to school after my sabbatical. My class went well. So far the new job is not too onerous. I have a great team of staff and faculty who are all working together to make the BIC be great. It was a busy week with a job candidate coming in for both philosophy and BIC. I definitely missed being in Austin full time, but it was good to see everyone again and really the drive is not too bad. Highlights of the week: lunch with Mom and Dad, dinner at Diamond Backs, sitting in my new office, coming back for yoga class and practices..However, I'm glad not to have to make the trip up again until Tuesday afternoon. I'm savoring the 100 or so uninterrupted hours in Austin.

Here are some pictures of Q and Milo from last week.

Dog Park Pictures

2009-01-12T04:32:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, Jeff and I took Milo to the dog park. He was the most popular dog in the park, at least with the humans. Everyone wanted to pet him and said how soft he was. As Christina said, he's pretty irresistable. He did well play with the other dogs too. No major altercations. Lots of running around and sniffing.

I did finally get some rechargeable batteries, so the pictures should be of higher quality from now on. I'm off to Waco in a few minutes. Busy day ahead, a BIC staff meeting, Plato seminar. Looking forward to seeing my friends up there.

Walking Milo

2009-01-10T13:36:00.000-08:00

I just got back from walking Milo. He is getting better at walking, but still likes to keep hold of his leash in his mouth. This is one of the times he is being a perfect walker! His training overall is going pretty well, a few accidents in the house, the sock swallowing incident, but he's mastered sit and down and has a decent sit stay and down stay. He's getting better at come and better at not jumping on people. He's not a big barker so far. the newest skill he is learning is "go to bed" so he won't be underfoot so much while food is being prepared.

I taught two good forward bending classes today, got a little bit of work done, went to CM, and am going to write a little more and then get upside down.

I've definitely been more productive at the tail end of the sabbatical, but maybe that's the way it goes. the thyroid medicine and herbs and diet really has helped my concentration and focus.

I have some mixed feelings about going back to school. I'm excited about starting a new job and it will be nice to see my friends in Waco more regularly, but I enjoy being down here so much that there's a bit of a sense of possible loss. However, I am working hard and embracing the abundance all around me and dwelling in the present moment.

Hanging rosemary by the driveway.

what a beautiful day

2009-01-08T10:14:00.000-08:00

When we were growing up, my Dad would always say, whenever it was a beautiful day, "What a beautiful day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it." Anyway, to this day I still think of him saying that whenever the weather is truly glorious.

When I was in college, my roommate Julie and I would always say, whenever it was a beautiful day, "This is why we came to college in Texas." At the time, I still was tanning and there's a picture of me sunning myself on the balcony in mid January. Unfortunately, the photo is pre digital era. I had a really cool Ann Taylor polka dot bikini, but I digress.

Anyway, that's mostly what's going on today, enjoying the great weather, getting things organized for school to start back. doing laundry, getting ready to do some yoga.

Here are some more Milo photos for the day,

Play Date with Louie

2009-01-06T11:31:00.000-08:00

Lisa, co-owner of Sammy the famous golden retreiver with huge paws, just brought her other joint custody dog, Louie, over to play with Milo. Milo pretty much towered over little Louie, but Louie held his own. It was lots of fun. Here are a couple pictures

Q staying above the fray.

and here's some video footage of the event.

Big Day of Writing

2009-01-05T14:48:00.000-08:00

I worked a lot today. I took my car in to be inspected. The Check Engine light was on so they told me it could not pass inspection. It may well be that it needs a new catalytic converter. Sigh. I'm waiting on them to say for sure. Since I don't have a car, I wasn't able to go to Devon's happiness class, which is a bummer as it is the last one I'll get to go to for a while. Once school starts back, I'll be in Waco on Mondays.

Anyway, the upside of car trouble... I spent a couple hours there waiting on it and got a ton of work done, then when I was starving and brain fried, I walked home, ate and worked some more. I'm getting ready to do a bit of yoga and hopefully clear my head.

Above are some pictures of Milo helping me work. It reminded me of my late mentor, Carl Vaught. Carl had a great dog named Otto who always rested at Carl's side while Carl was writing. Carl actually dedicated one of his many books to Otto, which I thought was very sweet.

Sunday Evening Pre Dinner

2009-01-04T16:29:00.000-08:00

I subbed two classes this morning for Charlie L, did some practicing and caught up on things domestic. It really turned cold today and Milo was very frisky. Jeff and I just tried to go to the Wine bar A22, but unfortunately it was closed. We've really missed going to it this holiday season. I don't really think gift basket storage was quite as effective a use of space. Oh well. Hopefully, things will get back to normal there soon. It is really a great way to try lots of interesting wines and cheeses.

Here are some photos of Milo, they are back with the phone camera because I ran out the batteries on my new camera and haven't gotten around to buying the rechargeable batteries.

Here are some pictures from today. Milo's newest discovery: flower pots...

Mellow Saturday Morning

2009-01-03T08:56:00.000-08:00

I just got back from teaching my 9:00 AM Hatha Class. I'm going to practice in a bit before heading out to teach at 360 and then my workshop this afternoon. Even though it is a busy day, there's a very mellow feeling to the day.

Yesterday, I worked some in the morning then headed upto Georgetown to visit Mom and Dad and my cousin Andy and his wife, Machelle. We had a good time. Then I drove back, dropped Milo off and went to practice at Clear Spring. I made a really good stir fry for dinner and then Jeff and I watched Part One of Joseph Campbell's Power of Myth Series. I show part three every year in Classical Philosophy, but it has been a long time since I saw the first part. Campbell is really one of my favorite thinkers. I love listening to all the cross cultural similarities in myths. This particular interview focused on the hero journey and the inner quest we all must undergo. Inspiring stuff.

Here are some pictures from lunch. Here's me and Andy.

Machelle, Andy, Mom, and Dad

Andy and Machelle
Milo's tail. He stayed in the laundry room /garage while we were eating, but clearly he wanted to be a close as possible to the action. Indy seemed to remember Milo and was very tolerant of his puppy behavior.

Happy New Year

2009-01-01T13:10:00.000-08:00

Hello Everyone,

Happy New Year. I just got back from the 108 sun salutations festivity. I've personally never done 108 salutations before. The hardest part was listening to the very slow yoga flow music for an hour and a half. As many of you know, I'm not all that into flow, but at least if I'm going to flow I like rockin' music... I had agreed to lead some salutations but it turned out they didn't need me. But I figured I was there, may as well experience it.

In terms of non yoga resolutions, my resolution is to get the book sent to the publisher by the end of March. I just looked back to last year and that was not my resolution last year, so that's good to learn. The resolving to finish will no doubt do the trick. To that end, I worked some this morning on revising the intro and parts of the first and second chapter.

Milo, The Sock Eater

2008-12-31T11:29:00.000-08:00

This is Milo with squeaky ferret.

This is Milo's newest chew toy. He likes it but not as well as the squeaky ferret.

So yesterday afternoon had an unexpected trip to the vet after Milo inhaled one of my sleeping socks. He seemed totally fine after swallowing it, but in the name of avoiding future suffering, I figured the sock needed to be removed. Happily, Milo threw up the entire contents of his stomach after the vet gave him a vomiting inducing shot, then he got another shot to stop the vomiting process. TMI, perhaps. But the good news is it only cost 140 dollars as opposed 1500 which I guess is what stomach pumping and surgical removal run for puppies.

Milo seems just fine this morning and even tried to get another sock at the first sliver of a chance available. Sigh.

It has been a mellow day so far. Veggie sausages, upside downs, a trip to Target and now we are heading to the Love Shack for the New Years Practice. Jeff and I are going to make a vegan pizza for dinner and maybe go see Carolyn Wonderland.

Here are some more pictures.

Tuesday Morning

2008-12-30T06:34:00.000-08:00

I'm getting ready to sub Gillian's classes at Castle Hill. There's one at 9:30 and then another at 12. It is actually really nice to do both. I have just enough time to invert inbetween and use the really fun Wall Pro there. Then, I'll probably eat a bagel at Einstein's. Yummy. Writing and walking Milo scheduled for the afternoon then CT's classes at YY.

Yesterday, mostly I did yoga and wrote. This particular section I'm working on is still rough, but there's more of a shape to it now. I subbed a fun hatha Star class at 6:30 then came home, had dinner with Jeff, and got some provisions at CM. Happily, A22, the wine bar is back open. They are having a Sparkling Wine Event.

Here are some Milo photo's from the morning. Milo playing with a stick and one picture of a lime kumquat plant to boot.

New Digital Camera Photos

2008-12-29T08:04:00.001-08:00

This is Milo's first close up photo, taken with my new digital camera. He's really totally cute. He's looking more and more like a golden retriever everyday.

This is Q contemplating play time with Blue Snarfles.
Milo sitting.
Q, in Milo's crate, happy for some peace and quiet.

In non-dog related news, Jeff and I went down to practice with Christina (and Kelly for awhile). We worked on a sequence for kaptotasana from a Patricia Walden workshop CT went to in 2005. I had the notes from an Iyengar friend. We'll do the sequence in an upcoming Friday practice. After practice, we ate yummy samosas and dosas.

Today, I'm trying to get some writing done and get my yoga expenses organized and figure out the digital camera. The return to school is beginning to feel like a reality.

Sunday Morning Update

2008-12-28T07:23:00.000-08:00

I had a nice time yesterday. Lenore and Henry and H.W. and Tony and Gabrielle drove down from Waco for the afternoon. We exchanged gifts and ate delicious mediterainian treats from Phoencia. Great cheeses and baklava, humus and eggplant dip. It is right down the road from my house, but it is the first time I've gone in there.

Then Jeff and I went out with Gabrielle and Tony to the Treehouse Italian Place on Live Oak. There is a 750 year live oak on the patio. It was a nice mellow low key place. I'd definitely go back.

Other than that, I've been practicing yoga. (more on that on the teaching blog) and playing with Milo.

This is Milo playing with Blue Snarfles. Moshie really liked Blue Snarfles at the Christmas gathering.
This is Milo and Q with their Christmas scarves on.
Q with Christmas scarf. I think Q sometimes looks like Max, the Grinch's dog.
This is Sock Monkey after being mauled by Milo.

Waiting for the Leaf Guy to Arrive

2008-12-26T09:15:00.000-08:00

I'm sitting here waiting for the leaf guy to arrive. Then I'm going to see CT and Kelly's new house and have lunch at CM with AP1 and AP2.

We had a really nice Christmas up in Georgetown. I don't have any photos of it, but blog readers will be happy to know I got a digital camera for Christmas so there should be more and higher quality photos of Milo and others in my life in the future. These pictures are still from the phone.

Here are some photos of Milo and Q with their christmas scarves on and also some pictures of Milo and Indy's first meeting and one of Milo with the pink play toy.

A bit under the weather

2008-12-22T11:35:00.000-08:00

Here are some cute Milo pictures from yesterday

I've been fighting off a cold/chest congestion thing for a week or so now, but I woke up this morning and felt significantly worse and it is so cold that anytime I go outside, I start to cough. I went ahead and taught yoga this morning and took Sudafed Severe Cold then went to see Craig for a treatment and more herbs. Am feeling better already.

Had a fun weekend down at Christina's practice and party and Mandy's class was great fun on Sunday. I'm getting closer to getting into padmasana in sirsasana without some form of help.

Anyway, I'm going to try to write for a while, go to Devon's class to be restored and then teach for Gillian tonight, unless someone agrees to sub.

Mom and Dad are in route to Texas, so that is exciting !

Getting Ready for Friday Practice

2008-12-19T12:34:00.000-08:00

The past couple days I've mostly spent writing and doing yoga and battling off a cold. This morning Kim the Dog Trainer came by and we worked on "down stay" a lot and getting Milo to come. He got very tuckered out from working so hard.

I got a great massage from Rebecca and am headed off to the last Friday Practice of the Year.

Here are some Milo and Q pics from the day.
The past couple days I've mostly spent writing and doing yoga and battling off a cold. This morning Kim the Dog Trainer came by and we worked on "down stay" a lot and getting Milo to come. He got very tuckered out from working so hard.

I got a great massage from Rebecca and am headed off to the last Friday Practice of the Year.

Here are some Milo and Q pics from the day.

Back in Austin

2008-12-16T14:04:00.000-08:00

here's a picture of him letting me know he wants to go out. What a great puppy dog!

I went upto Waco yesterday afternoon to hear a job candidate give a talk, went to dinner at Diamond Back's, a yummy place to eat in Waco and then watched the candidate's teaching demo and headed home. It was nice to see people and it was nice to hang out in my house for a while. It is also super nice to be back in Austin.

I'm off to CT's classes and then she and Kelly are coming over for Black Bean soup. I'm wearing my cool new Lululemon pants. I was going to wear the top but they forgot to take the plastic tag thing off, so I need to go back. Maybe I'll wear the top anyway. It just looks like I shoplifted it. Sigh. Maybe not. Sort of decreases the hip yoga chic factor.

Here's a video of Milo. He is a very enthusiastic drinker of water. Actually, he seems quite engaged with all forms of liquid.

A weekend of Festivity

2008-12-14T17:01:00.000-08:00

Well this weekend was pretty fun. Friday night Jeff and I went to Kelli's Red Door Soiree. Kelli is my former housemate and she throws this big parties a couple times a year. I got to see Dylan wearing his jingle collar and also wore a great Ann Taylor outfit, red and gold, a hand me down from Christina.

Saturday, we drove up to Waco for my good friend Gabrielle's Wedding. It was really a lovely event. I got to wear my really cool Marc Jacobs dress that Christina and I bought at Buffalo Exchange (that was the same trip where we had a near death experience in a Bikram class). Gabrielle and Tony both looked so happy and radiant with love for each other.
This is Milo and Jeff in Waco. Notice the lovely new fence my neighbor put up!

Milo enjoyed his first trip to Waco. He particularly liked the big yard and the fact that no leaves have been picked up.

It turned out to be a gorgeous day in Austin. We took Milo for a walk and ended up renting a canoe and Milo took a swim out of it at one point.

Here are some photos from earlier in the week that I didn't get around to posting.
This is Milo looking at the Chimenea.
This is the lower patio with bench and chimenea.

Chimenea with fire.

Friday Morning

2008-12-12T05:48:00.000-08:00

Wow, I can't believe a whole week went by. Mostly, I've written a bunch, played with Milo, and did yoga. I've had a productive week writing wise. After today, I'll have a good draft of the first section of the last chapter. I really should have a good draft of the whole last chapter by the end of December, then I have some revising of the whole to do. That's sort of how the process goes for me. I write what Anne Lamott calls a "shitty first draft." and the drafts become less shitty until at some point I consider it "a good draft." Then, I revise several times after that. Other people read it around the "good draft stage."

Ellen Hogan, a high school friend of mine, asked me about my writing process. If I have an inspirational pen or if I'm totally computer et al. I do like the idea of an inspirational pen, but basically when an idea comes to me I use what ever is available to write it down. Then often, I'll start writing for the day getting those thoughts into the computer. I do most of my writing and revising on the computer, but I do revise by hand also.

I've been struggling a lot with issues related to motivation in writing for the past couple years. I do increasingly think some of that lack of focus was due to thyroid issues because I'm really starting to think more clearly and not mind sitting down to write nearly so much now that I'm on herbs and medication for it. I tend to work pretty well with deadlines, but they really do have to be externally imposed. Setting deadlines for myself doesn't work. So now the end of the sabbatical looming is motivating.

Lately, a lot of ideas have been coming to me in meditation. More ideas about the character development of Plato's Agent. That really feels like ideas simply are coming. When it is an idea about A Philosophic Muse it is more like a puzzle piece fitting together. I enjoy that part of the writing process. Most of the time creating a SFD isn't so bad because I do manage to turn the censor off. Getting from SFD to GD is quite painful. I don't mind editing/revising. It is a lot like doing a crossword puzzle or something. I'm definitely enjoying writing Plato's Agent.

In terms of other aspects to writing, Craig Williams gave me a chant to Mercury that I've been working a lot with lately to stimulate writing. Somewhere along the line I also came across a prayer that Aquinas said before writing and studying and I read that every morning. He was quite productive, you know, the Summa is sort of the tip of the iceberg. Of course, Aquinas ended up saying all of his writing was "straw." so who know what works. I also like reading about the writing process of other writers. Bird by Bird is probably still my favorite, but I really like Stephen King's On Writing and Annie Dillard's The Writing Life.

Sunday Morning Pre-Carlos

2008-12-07T06:19:00.000-08:00

This is Milo posing for his daily photo shot last night.

Carlos Pomeda's Workshop on the Gita is this weekend at Christina's place. I went down for the afternoon session yesterday after teaching my morning yoga classes. I'd done his home study course in the Spring and I realized I just enjoy learning a lot more in the "live" environment, more on that on the teaching blog perhaps.

What a luxury to spend 12 hours on a text like the Gita ! I read the Barbara Stoller Miller translation this time around and really found it about the most accessible I've read.

So other news, I had a good day writing, have been in conversation with Parmenides Press about my book, they are anxious to see it, that and the end of sabbatical is motivating me a good bit and the shape of the final chapter is coming together, weaving the stranding together. So I hope to have a really good draft of the Republic chapter by the time Mom and Dad get here and I can then turn the final revisions of the whole.

Friday afternoon, I took Milo over for a playdate with Dylan. Dylan is my former housemate Kelli's dog. It was nice to touch base with Kelli. She's busy writing her book as well. It was very nostaglic going over to Tarrytown. I really feel like I live in Austin now, and that is where the Anne in Austin all started.

Here's some photo fun.

and video footage as well.

This is Milo getting ready for bed.

Sparkle Lights and Raw Hide Toys

2008-12-04T16:58:00.000-08:00

This is a picture of Q in front of the fire with a rawhide bone. More on the joys of the rawhide bone below.

I'm sitting at the dining room table which used to belong to my grandmother, looking out over my balcony. Jeff put up some Christmas lights for the Meet Milo party and he set them on a timer so they come on automatically a little after dark. Right now, I'm looking at them and behind them there are the lights of South South Austin and highway 360, wchi sort of look like more sparkle lights. Anyway, it is quite lovely. Not as lovely as the sunset, but lovely in its own way. I tried to capture the view, but with my cell phone camera, well... fill in with your imagination.

Today was a really fun day. I had breakfast with Josh at Whole Foods. Josh had never been to the Mother Ship, and he really likes food. We grew up eating all the great food in Chapel Hill together. It is really too bad it was really too cold and too early for their gelato as ice cream was an integral part of our relationship. There was an actual Haagen Daz store in Chapel Hill. They had the best fudge sauce and real whipped cream, but I digress. Anyway, that was fun. I got a facial and went to Gillian's lovely yoga class, then I came home to a lovely housecleaning in progress courtesy of DeLora and wrote a bit. Actually, wrote some in the early morning also, which was nice to get back to, that hasn't been my schedule of late.

Then I taught Christina's advanced class and that was fun. We worked with using the wall in various ways to support standing poses.

Milo had his second round of shots yesterday. He now weighs 16 pounds. Here he is at the vet.

He's pretty rambunctious but super cute. There is relative calm right now because he's chomping on a raw hide bone. It really is good for about 30 -45 minutes of puppy self-contentment. Video below.

A fun filled Thanksgiving Week

2008-12-02T07:16:00.000-08:00

Jeff and I left late Tuesday evening to drive down to Galveston to spend the first part of Thanksgiving with his family. We spent Tuesday evening with his brother and sister in law and their two kids. One of them Madison, has a profound fear of dogs and we were hoping that Milo's super puppy powers would win her over, though she seemed interested in the puppy and his feeding regime, when her brother Caleb but her barbie in Milo's crate and she saw Barbie's head in Milo's mouth, I think additional trauma ensued. Anyway, they have a lovely home, newly renovated in the area right around rice. Milo and Q both enjoyed their walk the following morning.

Wednesday we got to Galveston. There was definitely a ton of devastation from the Hurricane Ike, but Jeff's parent's houses came through okay. The stories about the initial days back are quite horrific. Jeff's mom, Suzette, is an amazing cook and made all sorts of vegetarian friendly dishes which was very sweet. We walked along the sea wall a couple times and fought off mosquitoes pretty much anytime we were outside. It was really a very nice couple of days.

Then we drove back to Austin didn't do too much other than yoga and walking the dogs, watched some movies, read the Gita in preparation for Carlos, got some samosas to eat after Mandy's second annual burn the bird practice. This weekend was the fourteenth anniversary of my yoga practice (more on that on the teaching blog in a bit).

Monday, I went to Charly's class and when I got out I found that one of my best friends from high school, Josh Hilberman, had called. It turns out he's in town for the week doing some tap work at Tapestry and out at St. Stephen's school as well. he came over to meet Milo and we'll get together a couple times while he's here. So that's what's new since last week.

Me and Milo at the sea wall.

Jeff leading Milo down to the water.
Jeff trying to get Milo to swim at Barton Springs. Jeff teaching Q and Milo to walk on water.
Milo with towel, post bath, post swimming lesson.
Jeff trying to teach Milo to climb a tree at the park.

Puppy Parenting

2008-11-25T14:05:00.001-08:00

Here's some Milo pictures for his many fans above at the dogpark today. He went in the big dog area
Milo with his ACL cup. Cool Austin dog that he is.

Jenn notes that she hadn't visited my site in a while and thought she'd stumbled upon a parenting blog. Milo is pretty time consuming, but definitely not in the newborn toddler/ teenager domain, though I really only know first hand about the last of those domains.

Just have a few minutes before heading to Westgate for CT's classes, sitting here, post packing/ getting ready for the Thanksgiving trip to Galveston. This is the first time in many many many years, I think since 1993 or 94 actually that I haven't spent thanksgiving with AP1 and AP2. They generally would come to Waco for a week or so, but since they are soon to be wintering in Georgetown and since CT is off to Winnipeg the day after TDay, they are staying in Georgia.

Anyway, new life, new traditions, along with the new puppy.

Ya'll should check out http://thefrosolonopatriarch.blogspot.com/
He wrote a blogbiography. Quite fascinating.

More Milo Pics

2008-11-23T17:16:00.000-08:00

Here are some Milo pics from the past couple days. This is Milo at the Dog Park this afternoon.

Milo on the back porch.
Milo flying in the air.
Milo and Q
Milo Sitting.

Last Night, I hosted a Meet Milo Puppy Love Party. It was a lot of fun. Milo got several wonderful gifts including his own dog songs sound track courtesy of Pammy and his own dog sleeping bag from Jason and Rebecca. The party was tons of fun. I really like having parties and this was the first I've given in Austin. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures.

Other weekend news: Friday Afternoon Practice and Clear Spring was super fun. About ten people showed up and we did a variety of backward bending tricks. Saturday I taught my classes and had 36 people at the Free Day of Yoga at the 360 studio. I subbed for Lance this morning.

Next week, I'm back to work on the Myth of Er, another section of the last chapter.

It's Cold this morning!

2008-11-21T07:41:00.000-08:00

Milo is being quite rambunctious this morning. I think it is the cold weather. Yesterday, he went on his first walk with me. He also learned to play with a plastic cup. The day before he was quite enthusiastic about playing with a stick. Video footage below.

Anyway, I've got a busy day ahead. I need to send off my Ancient Philosophy Society paper, go up to Georgetown to deposit checks in the bank, take Milo to the doggie park and then there's yoga practice at Clear Spring this afternoon. This week has mostly been filled with doing footnotes for my paper, playing with Milo, and doing lots of yoga.

Milo Goes to the Dog Park.

2008-11-18T09:26:00.000-08:00

Here's a couple pictures of me and Milo outside.
Here is Jeff capturing Milo after his first run away experience. Bounder likes to get Milo to chase her and then runs across the street to various yards and Milo follows her like a lemming.. Will have to work on this.

Jeff and Milo
Milo this morning, Nine weeks and one day and almost 14 pounds.

This morning Milo, Q, Jeff and I went to the dog park. That was pretty fun. Milo is now very tuckered out and very dirty. He is sort of grey colored now as opposed to golden. I'm working a bit on footnotes and getting ready for Christina to come over after her NIA class. Then we are having lunch at Mr. Natural, getting mani-pedis which are long overdue and then she has either accunpuncture or therapy I forget which and I'll come home and do more footnotes and then go to her classes.

I enjoyed the John Friend workshop, the very epicenter of Anusara Land. Its really a whole different world than Iyengar Land. I'm glad to have access to both realms.

Other news in the life of Anne in Austin. I did get my car registration yesterday and had a really wonderful class with Devon yesterday afternoon.

Here are the pictures from the dog park.

Pictures of Milo days 3-6

2008-11-14T21:18:00.000-08:00

Well, six days as a dog person and I'm sold. Very fun. So far, Milo has gone to the dog park, the vet, had Kim the dog trainer come to visit and has played numerous games of ball, frisbee, and is really just generally delightful. Above Milo demonstrates the art of sitting.

Here are some more pictures of Milo.
This is Milo endearing himself to Q.

This is Q ignoring Milo.

Milo checking on the concrete.

Anne with Milo

Jeff with Milo.

In other non-puppy related news, it has been a bit of a stressful week with Christina being way laid with medical maladies. She hopefully is "most all well." When I was very very young, my dad almost died from Rat bit fever, a rare disease that took a long time to diagnose and I would constantly ask him if he was "most all well."

I subbed quite a few yoga classes, three for Christina, two for Heide, and one for Gillian and I have one of my own to teach tomorrow.

I have embarked upon a new time management system that I will elaborate on in the teaching philosophy blog.

John Friend is here. Tonight he gave a dharma talk about luck and the kirtan that followed was pretty cool, though it was not the most comfortable floor to sit on, but in all a lovely experience.

Milo and Me

2008-11-10T19:07:00.000-08:00

Christina and Kelly came to meet Milo last night. We had a really lovely dinner with squash soup and fresh bread. It was a really nice time. This morning I met with a prospective student for our graduate program and then Jeff and I took Milo and Q to the dog park. Normally, Q does not like to go on outings, but she has seemed more interested in going since Milo's arrival. Milo learned how to swim today. here's some video footage of that.

Here's another video of milo, taken yesterday after we bought five dogs beds at Academy.

In other non milo related news. Devon taught a lovely restorative class and Jeff and I had a great dinner at Madam Mam's.

Everybody Meet Milo

2008-11-09T05:23:00.000-08:00

Puppy Pictures!!

Here is a picture of me and Milo in the Shuttlecraft moments after picking him up. Milo comes from the Goldance Kennels in Victoria. Jeff and I drove down there late yesterday afternoon. He cried a little at first. We took turns playing with him in the back seat on the drive back. He is totally adorable, looks like a little polar bear.
Here is a picture of me introducing Milo to Q. So far so good.

Here is a close up of the said meeting.

Here I am being pulled in two directions maybe it is some sort of doga partner work.

Here is Jeff, Milo, Q, and my shoes

In other non-puppy related news, I taught two great standing pose classes yesterday. My 9 Am class had ten people in it. Some regulars and some brand new people. I was particularly impressed by the showing since I was also teaching at 12:30 and if I were given the choice of the same teacher at 9 AM or 12:30, I'd probably pick the 12:30. The new class at 360 studio had nine people, some I knew like Lisa and Pam, and others new to me and one new to yoga. The 360 studio is just a beautiful space to teach and practice in. Wonderful design, lots of windows, trees. Not much useable wall space for the size of the room, but it is hard to complain.

Friday, I went to Heide's class at Castle Hill. I'll be taking over her classes for the next three weeks (or at least most of them). I may pick up one or two permanently. Then I subbed Jenny D's class at South and then Jeff and I went out to the Bird Festival at the Ranch. Debra Morin hosted several yogis and yoginis at her place outside of Dripping Springs. We practiced a bunch of arm balances for about 2 and a half hours and then had a dinner party (where everyone had to wear a costume with a feather or feather motif in my case) in celebration of Heide who will be leaving Austin soon to return to New Orleans. It was really a fun evening.

Thursday CT and I spent the day together which you can read about on her blog.

Milo is currently asleep on my shoes. I'm getting ready to meditate, get upside down, and the go up to Mandy's class. CT and Kelly are coming up this afternoon to meet Milo.

Heading up to Waco to Vote

2008-11-04T06:38:00.000-08:00

Well, I'm getting ready to hop in the shower and head on upto Waco once the traffic clears. I did not focus up on changing my voter registeration to Austin nor did I request an absentee ballot, so I'm driving up to Waco to vote. I'm also going to sign a few papers at work and have lunch with Gabrielle. I should be back in time for CTs classes.

Oh here are some more puppy pictures. I'm not actually sure which one is going to be mine yet. Maybe I'll get all three afterall. (Just kidding, the puppies all have homes now). My friend Paul Larson suggested that I name the puppy Obama. Though Barack would be a good puppy name also.

Getting Started on Monday Morning

2008-11-03T06:56:00.001-08:00

Well, Day light savings time certainly makes it easier to be productive in the morning. I"m up and ready to be writing. This week I'm working on the Myth of Er section of the Republic Chapter. The myth of Er is the story Socrates tells to end the Republic. It is all about reincarnation and the choices we make based on our experiences and our opinions about what a good life is. More on that on the teaching blog later this week.

Let's see last week was mostly filled with life organization tasks, a bit of writing, a bunch of yoga subbing, and puppy preparations. I got through the revisions to the Republic chapter I wanted to make based on the conference presentation.

Some trick or treaters came by Friday night and the first advanced practice at Clear Spring was quite a success. Saturday I taught my first Special Inversion workshop which went really well. More on that on the teaching blog as well. Then the YogaYoga 360 opening bash.Sunday, the highlight was Mandy's backbending class and some nice time in the sun on my balcony. Jeff had to work that afternoon and evening, so I caught up on some phone conversations with Mom, Dad, Lenore, and Christina. I also watched All the President's Men which I had not seen in a really long time. It was really interesting looking at life without cell phones, computers, and email...and yet there was still information gathering and truth searching, conspiracies, and the like.

Update on the puppy. Jeff and I will go to pick him up Saturday afternoon in Victoria after I teach my first class at 360.

Puppy Update

2008-10-31T09:50:00.000-07:00

It turns out there were some complications with Riley, the mother of my puppy to be, and given that she might not get pregnant, the breeder put me in touch with a breeder friend of hers who has three male golden retriever puppies ready to come home next week, so I'm getting a puppy sooner rather than later. Here are pictures of the already in existence, soon to be my puppy...

Pizza Crusts

2008-10-29T07:17:00.000-07:00

When Jeff and I first started dating, we ordered a pizza one night and I noticed that he was not eating his crusts. Pizza crusts are one of my favorite aspects of eating pizza. Particularly now that I'm vegan, mostly. I figure the crust of the pizza doesn't have any cheese.

Anyway, I wasn't vegan then... but being the sort of person that I am, I just helped myself to some of the pizza crusts piling up on his plate, I mean he wasn't going to eat them and they were perfectly yummy crusts sitting there. Jeff kind of looked at me strangely, well sheepishly if not strangely and he said, "those are for Q." He put the pizza crusts in a bowl for Q whenever he gets pizza. I did think that was pretty cute and he did generously still let me have some of Q's crusts.

Anyway, Jeff was getting a couple of last minute slices of pizza at the airport and lo and behold he put the crusts in the ziplock bag and brought them home for Q. Q pronounced them yummy. In fact, they were so yummy she didn't want to eat her regular food the next day.

Fun time in NYC

2008-10-28T13:20:00.000-07:00

Well, New York City was really fun. Here's a six word summary for Pammy.

NYC for me: food, yoga, philosophy.

I really just love walking around there and stopping in a cool looking place the most, well, that and the yoga. And the philosophy conference was actually pretty good also. I was actually a little more apprehensive than usual about giving my paper. I think because I'm a bit out of academic mode in that I'm not teaching and expressing my ideas out loud so much. Sometimes, I think that I've forgotten how to do that. Both this year and last year the same thing happened when I was reading my paper, I thought to myself, "you know this sounds much better out loud than it does when I'm constantly reading it in my head as I'm writing on the computer."

Let's see Thursday we visited Anusara Land and took class with Elena Brower at ViraYoga. It was absolutely the most sattvic Anusara class I've ever taken. Lovely. They have a nice new space in the same building as before, ate at a nice French Cafe for lunch and then went to Lure for dinner. My student, Natalie, is a wine sommalier there and she led us through a lovely meal with some really great wine pairings.

Friday I went to Iyengar Land and Jeff with to Anusara Land in the morning. I did some philosophy stuff in the afternoon and then we went to the first session of the John Schumacher workshop at the Iyengar Institute. It just happened he was in NYC the same weekend and that you could just take the Friday class, which is the only thing I really could have done. It was nice to work with him again, though a Level II class was not quite the same intensity as the big kid's group at Feathered Pipe.

Then we went for dinner at this lovely Belgian Cafe Markt right near the Institute. Here's a picture of me at it from our last trip.

Saturday was all day philosophy for me and Jeff walked around the city, though this picture is actually taken on Monday morning.

Saturday night we went to the BurningMan NYC decompression party with my friend, James. That was a lot of fun, it involved a lengthy car ride out to the darkest Brooklyn and a trip to costume shop on Broadway. Here's one scene from the festivities.

Sunday more Iyengar Land and Ethiopian Food at Meskerem with James and Natalie joined us for a bit. We also stopped in this really lovely place, The Waverly Inn. We just walked by and thought it looked cool and went in. It turns out it is this sort of uber-trendy place that is often quite hard to get into, but we had more of the we just stopped in great experience that several others comment on. Really, it was quite magical.

Monday, a quick visit to Anusara Land, a last minute pizza slice and a long ride to the airport and a long plane ride home.

Today, I caught up on various things, subbed this morning for Heide and am getting ready to go teach CTs two classes.

Getting ready to go to NYC

2008-10-22T08:00:00.000-07:00

Here's a picture of me during my last trip to New York. On our way to find ViraYoga, Jeff and I passed by this very cool clothing store that used the word philosophy to sell its wares. Philosophy for sale. How about that?

Anyway, our plane leaves this afternoon and we get in late tonight and get back late Monday. I really love going to New York City. I love the food, the art, the yoga (the Iyengar Institute is there and ViraYoga is pretty cool as well). Basically, I like the overall energy of the place. When I was a child, we lived outside of NYC and going into the city for field trips kind of scared me, but as an adult I love it. I started going there pretty regularly in grad school and it just has turned out academia has offered me quite a few occasions to go. Every fall, I have the Society of Ancient Greek Philosophy up there (though I did find out that this may be the last year it is held there).

I'm also looking forward to seeing my good friend, James, and hopefully my former student, Natalie, as well. And also all my philosophy conference buddies.

Well, off to do a bit of pre-flight yoga, print off my conference paper, pack, and head to the airport.

We are out of vegetables

2008-10-20T11:39:00.000-07:00

Here is a picture of my step-daughter, Christa and her fiance, Chris. . Christa has been teaching English in Thailand since May or so and for a variety of reasons she decided not to return for the final semester. She has a job doing wedding dress alternations at a nice place in Salado and wants to get into the Renaissance Fair costume making trade. Christa is a very gifted seamstress, as evidenced by the above outfits that she made.

Christa's engagement party was at La Fiesta, a Mexican food place in Waco. Anne, in newly vegan mode was greeted with vats of queso on the table, but luckily it did not look like very good queso...I just had salsa, Happily, salsa is vegan. After careful study of the menu, I decided on veggie fajitas... The waitress comes back to inform me that We are Out of Vegetables." Hilarious, completely out of vegetables. Imagine. I had guac and black beans and rice.

That aside, it was a nice trip up and back. Lenore and Henry were there and it was really nice to catch up with them. Lenore had just gotten back from a week in kentucky and Henry basically took the week off of Law School to take care of H.W. for the week.

Sunday Afternoon

2008-10-19T13:39:00.000-07:00

Here is a picture of me and Jeff at the Trinity Alumni Event, last Saturday.

It is a beautiful Sunday afternoon here in Austin, truly gorgeous weather. Mom and Dad, the weather is really getting not hot now... . I'm getting to drive up to Waco for Christa's engagement party.

Yesterday, Jeff worked at the Austin Home Brew Octoberfest Sale and I taught yoga and then took Devon's special backward bending class. Then I made amazing Veggie Enchiladas and helped Jeff press wine.

Here is a picture of the wine press.

Here is a picture of me using said wine press,
That's the weekend update.

Golden Retriever Update

2008-10-17T18:58:00.000-07:00

I mentioned in a previous post that I decided to get a golden retriever puppy.

Here is a picture of Lisa's step-daughter's Golden Retriever, Sammy. As a "former" step mom, I really love this story. Lisa's step-daughter really wanted a dog when she was like five or something and her parents said she had to wait until she was 8, (probably thinking she would forget)... Then on her eighth birthday, the step-daughter said, "Where's the dog????" Here's the great thing... the Golden Retriever goes where the kids go. So Lisa also has part custody of Sammy. Christa, my own step-daughter, didn't come with a dog, though she had many of them at her mom's....

Lisa, upon hearing that I wanted a Golden, brought Sammy and her non-step dog, who she brought into the marriage, who I think is Jack Russell Terrier and whose name I do not remember unfortunately, though he was super cute and seemed to deal well with the fact that I was obsessed with Sammy of the giant paws .. to meet me last Saturday after yoga class.

Anyway, the dog update is that I've found a place outside of Houston that breeds lovely Golden's (Renegade Goldens) and have reserved a soon to be created puppy from the litter matching of Ryder and Riley. Ryder will be donating sperm from his location in St. Louis I think. Here is the link. The above puppy picture is a picture of the mom, Riley, when she was a puppy. Here is another one

Riley is set to be impregnated next weekend and assuming all goes well, I should be able to get the puppy around the end of Feb. Very exciting. I've wanted a Golden Retreiver (and a BMW) my whole life, so waiting another four months does not seem so long... We'll see on the BMW. I have grown increasingly fond of the Honda Odyssey/ Shuttle Craft.

Pictures from San Antonio

2008-10-15T11:29:00.001-07:00

Jeff and I went down to San Antonio for my 20 year college reunion. I had a good time, though really most of my closest friends weren't there. So I saw a lot of people I remembered and there were a lot of people I didn't. Trinity was really very much Anne, Julie, Tom, James, Claire, Greg, Ed so it was definitely a little strange being there and not seeing any of them. But oh well. . Everyone said I looked the same. Which is not true, but was still nice to hear. We went to an "I'm with the Band" reunion and then the 20 year party. Sunday, we went to visit with my former teachers Willis and Vicky.

The weekend in SAT itself was just fabulous. Lots of great food, walked around the King William District a lot and Q even got to go to Greyhound camp.

Here is Q in the car going to camp.

Here are the dogs meeting Q

Jeff and Kelly overseeing dog greetings.

Jeff saying good bye.

Panorama of us on the porch swing.

My feet on porch swing.

Jeff under the flowers

Grape Stomping Pictures

2008-10-10T10:58:00.000-07:00

Here are some photos of the recent great grape stomping event. Here is a lug of grapes. Altogether there were 3 lugs of grapes.

Here is a picture of my foot, which will soon, be stomping said grapes.
Here is a picture of me dragging the bunches of grapes across a rack. Peel me a grape?

Here is a picture of me getting ready to enter the stomping vessel.

Here is a picture of me in the vessel, part way, shortly after this point is where I toppled over backwards.

Here is me having full mastered the stomping process.

This weekend Jeff and I are going down for part of my twenty-year college reunion. I didn't make it to my 20 year high school reunion. In fact, I think I went to my five year high school and my five year college and then I guess I was reunioned out for fifteen years.

Other big news, I have decided to get a golden retriever puppy.

Mid Week, Mid Day

2008-10-08T10:04:00.000-07:00

It's Wednesday at Lunch. I'm having a difficult time sitting down to write today. It is just such a beautiful day and I'm looking forward to practicing with Heide and Gillian and Devon and then CT gets back into town so there's her class at 7th street.

The highlight of the last couple days is surely the stomping of the grapes event. Jeff orders a bunch (well three lugs of grapes ) that's quite a lot of bunches actually and they arrived from California on Monday. That was a lot of fun, except for where I toppled over backwards before my feet firmly hit the bottom of the container, sort of like being in cold quicksand or something. The even is commemorated on video, but I'll not make it available to the world wide web. Just use your imagination, Anne slowly floating backward and landing in a leather chair. I'll say it is funnier than the I Love Lucy grape stomping scene. Way funnier.

Well, off to read over my Republic chapter and ride on the writing waves of Mercury's Day.

Lift the Contents of Your Brain !

2008-10-06T06:37:00.001-07:00

Lift the Contents of Your Brain!

Special Inversion Workshop Suitable for All Levels.

I'll be teaching a 2 hour workshop on INVERSIONS at Clear Spring Studio.

Saturday November 1, 2008 2-4 PM.

$25.00

To register Contact Anne at AnneBowery@yahoo.com or 254.744-7157

Friday After Lunch

2008-10-03T10:15:00.001-07:00

This is a picture of me outside Devon's studio. I've decided that I should post more pictures on my blog and now that I have a new cell phone with a camera, that should be easy to accomplish. I'm getting ready to go practice with Devon in a couple hours. After that I'll come home and then Jeff, Jesse, Meg and I are going to a Dance Umbrella performance at an Old Dance Hall some where a bit north east of town. Should be quite a cultural adventure in many ways.

Let's see. I've had a good week. I had a very productive day yesterday. I revised the Intro to A Philosophic Muse (APM) and am pretty happy with it. I streamlined a lot of the unnecessary background info I originally had in there. I'm going to take another pass at it in a bit and do some more Republic reading. I also finally sent a proposal for APM to Parmenides press and the editor was enthusiastic about receiving it, so that is good.

I'm also continuing to feel a lot better with the new herb/veganism regime. I really feel like I"m coming out of this hazy fog I've been in for quite some time. I've been struggling a lot with mental focus and motivation for well over a year and yesterday was the first day I felt really sharp and engaged. It is strange to think it really could have just been a slightly out of whack thyroid all along and not some major psychological obstacle. Well, it was a psychological obstacle but how interesting to learn that it really may have been pysiologically based.

Yoga wise I've spent most of the week in Iyengar Land (except for CT's classes on Tuesdays and Craig's class last night ) but more on that on the Iyengar blog.

Tuesday Afternoon

2008-09-30T11:10:00.000-07:00

Here's a picture of Bounder. Bounder is alive and well. Worry not! Just thought I'd post a picture of a living pet of mine. Bounder bounded up to the back yard in Waco three years ago or so and her black nose was so endearing that we started feeding her. She and Jade really never got along, so Bounder lived downstairs and Jade had the rest of the house. They actually got along a bit better after the move. Bounder's adjusted just fine to Austin. She's really mostly an outdoor cat and is not really very snuggly except on her own terms. Comes inside to eat and sleep awhile, but then is ready to bound back out. She bounds a lot, hence the name.

Just got back from a very lovely lunch at Madam Mam's with Sherri Brooks. Sherri and I both went to Trinity and we ran into each other at a yoga class I subbed a while back and then at some other yoga things, Johnny Kest, CTs classes. I meant to go to CM on the way home, but forgot, so I'm going to read and write awhile and then head back out.

I really enjoyed and learned a ton at the Lois Steinberg workshop. More on that on the two yoga blogs sometime soon. Had my first dinner party in the Westrock house. Various Iyengar Yoga people, Devon, Randy, Leeane and Pauline from Houston and Jeff (representative of Anusara Land) and me. Looking forward to hosting more gatherings now that I actually have a dining room table.

Sunday Jeff and I went to A22 the wine bar at CM and I indulged in very small amounts of very fine cheeses. But in general I'm doing okay with the more vegan approach and I'm still feeling better.

yesterday CT and I got mani pedis went to Whole Foods and then took in Peggy's class. (more on that on the Iyengar Blog. That's pretty much what's been going on.

other big news, I ordered a new cell phone today.

Friday Morning

2008-09-26T05:04:00.000-07:00

I'm up very early this morning, actually I usually wake up pretty early/can't get back to sleep and so I do meditation and pranayama and go back to sleep for a couple hours. This morning however, I'm sufficiently awake that I am not feeling the need to go back to sleep. I'm excited about getting at least an hour of writing in before I go to Heide's class, actually closer to two. I've had a relatively productive week even though I haven't felt all that great.

Let's see yoga wise, I subbed three of Ct's classes while she was away and two of Devon's while she was away and practiced with Heide and Yves on Wednesday, but otherwise I've pretty much taken it easy yoga wise.

The biggest news of the week is that I started in on a new eating regime that is approaching being more vegan. I called Mary and Eddy about yoga and thyroid and they did give a couple poses and said double your time in inversions, but Eddy's primary recommendation was omitting fat from animal products. Told me to read the book The China Study . I really love cheese and eat way more of it than I should and I've been eating a lot of egg whites lately, so shifting to more vegan sources of protein is a lot. After an initial mourning period of a few hours, I've actually not found it very difficult so far. This is only day four. But I made a great sweet potato dish yesterday, yummy hummus and wrote a long list of all the vegan friendly foods I do actually like. I ordered some Vegan cookbooks and some books on Plato from Amazon and they arrived yesterday.

Randy and Leeane are coming down for the Lois Steinberg workshop this weekend. It will be fun to see them.

I'm looking forward to CTs return also. It has been a different feeling week not taking five of her classes and I don't think we've even talked via cell phone since last Friday.

A New Week

2008-09-22T06:59:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm getting ready to start on a brand new week of writing. I've got a number of non writing related tasks to accomplish also, found a nail in my tire yesterday and there's a bunch of house organization stuff to do. I finally got Grandmartha's dining room table moved down to Austin. It looks great. Fifties furniture in a fifties house. Also, Jeff and I went to a garage sale saturday and I found this really cool wicker baker's rack so now there's more storage. That's the main drawback about the Westrock house. Very little storage space. My house in Waco has tons and I definitely got spoiled.

I have to say I'm glad to put last week behind me. This weekend was fun however. Heide and I practiced Friday afternoon and then I went to Wahoo's with her and a friend of her's Callie. Wahoo's food and drink wise was really good. I'd definitely go back. Later that night Jeff and I went to go see Mark Franke's band play at Flipnotics. I'd never seen hip hop live and it was just great. Really elemental. What you go see live music for. I didn't even mind being about 20 years older than the average audience member...

Saturday I taught my class at Yoga Yoga worked on a back bending restorative ish sequence and then Jeff and I drove upto Waco to get the furniture. Stopped by to see Lenore and H.W. H.W. is huge and then we met Gabrielle and Tony and Marie, Brian, and Catherine at the Dancing Bear Pub. It was great to see everyone. It is strange going back to Waco after such a long stretch it is like seeing it with the eyes of someone who doesn't live there anymore.

Sunday I subbed for Charlie, inverted, looked up poses that relate to stimulating the thyroid (found out last week I have hypothyroidism)... and went to my favorite HEB down here on a massive grocery shop. Excellent news for the apple eaters! Honey crisp apples are in and they were on sale at HEB, 50 cents off a pound... Yum.

Farewell to Jade

2008-09-17T07:17:00.000-07:00

Some sad news. Yesterday, I took Jade to the vet. She had become a bit alarmingly thin. She never really settled in that well to the move to Austin. At first, I wasn't too worried about her weightloss, because she was a little round, but she just started seeming really lethargic and uninterested in food. The vet tried to get her on IV fluids and a feeding tube and some where in that process Jade left this world for her next incarnation. (back story: my childhood cat died when I was in grad school and her aura appeared to me in a dream and told me not to worry about her because she had been reincarnated and was living as an artist in Dallas with red hair).

I'm sad about it, of course, but grateful in a way that she went quickly. Sam's decline was so long and drawn out and the decision to put him down so difficult, that at least Jade didn't suffer long and I didn't have to make the decision.

My stepdaughter, Christa, rescued Jade on Labor day weekend about ten years ago. Jade was less than 8 weeks old and she was about to drown in a drain pipe. I was hesitant to take on another cat because Sam had just recently been diagnosed with diabetes, but Christa left Jade with us that weekend when she went to stay with her mom and Jade curled up in a little ball and slept right in my armpit all night. I was hooked. Having Jade around really perked Sam up. Sam would teach Jade things and bath her. Jade had a very perky, inquisitive personality. I missed sleeping with her last night!

A Productive Week

2008-09-12T09:50:00.000-07:00

Well, I just spent almost an hour and a half working on the Republic chapter, so I'm taking a little break. I have ten more pages written than I did at the beginning of the week. At that rate, I'll have a draft of the whole chapter by the end of the month, which would be great.

I'm taking a little break and then am going to do some secondary lit reading before having a late lunch. Jeff and I and Jesse and Pam I think.. are going down to San Marcos to practice with Christina and then go see Marcia Ball. Hopefully, we will not hit much hurricane related weather or traffic. Jeff's parents have evacuated Galveston. He's a bit worried about them. It really does look pretty dire down there.

Last night, Christina's classes were quite fun. I did my best Surya Yantrasana ever and got into Visvamitrasana without toppling out of it on both sides. Those were the high points, the goddess and moon squats in the flow class very low points...

Also the post class gathering at Hyde Park Grill was tons of fun.

Off to read Rosen's Republic Book.

Late getting Started

2008-09-11T09:03:00.000-07:00

I slept late this morning. I love being able to sleep until I wake up and feel completely rested. Nothing like 4.5 hours of yoga to help with sleep!! Then, I spent some time talking with Christina and updating my other blogs. However, I have no where to be until 4:15 when I leave for CTs Thursday classes at Westgate, so I can still get a good session of writing in.

Yesterday, things started to flow a bit with the Republic Chapter and I keep on having ideas about how to streamline this. It is nice when ideas come. I was telling Jesse after class that I feel like I have a giant jigsaw puzzle, all the pieces I need, just haven't quite figured out the best way to fit them together. Another image of the creative process; it is sort of like an out of focus picture and I need to keep changing and shifting the pixels to bring out the image that's already there in my mind.

So off to it.

Wednesday Morning

2008-09-10T07:42:00.000-07:00

Just getting ready to write and read for a few hours before a nice little yoga marathon. Christina and Heide and I are going to practice and then I'll go to CTs class at Seventh Street.

On the agenda this morning, Plato's critique of Homeric poetry... .

On the more mundane level of Anne's life in Austin....Monday, frustrating day of writing, Devon's Restorative Class. Tuesday, slightly less frustrating day of writing and Christina's classes. Also I got my hair cut for the first time in several months. Now that I sweat more in yoga practice, it is nice to have it a little shorter and off of my neck...

Getting Started for the week.

2008-09-08T07:17:00.000-07:00

Well, I had a really fun weekend which culminated in going to the Rainbow Cattle Company to see the Austin Baptist Women perform. I was hoping for a bit more direct humor about the Baptists, but really they got the wigs and the hair just perfect... One of my favorite lines about Baptists... the bigger the hair, the closer to God. Jeff, Jeremiah, Laura, and Christina and I had a blast. Definitely one of those, you're not in Waco anymore moments.

I went with Christina to the Johnny Kest Sweat Fest Sunday. Really I've never sweated more in my entire life... However, I was still not even in the ball park of CT she could wring sweat out of her sports bra. It was really more like a free form dance/ aerobics class than yoga... but still a lot of fun.

Jeff and I went out Saturday and had a great time at Polvos. I also taught my first class at YY South, more on that on the teaching blog.

Friday just a mellow evening at home.

Looking forward to the week of writing and yoga yoga and writing

Oh I also have a new blog. iyengaryogainaustin.blogspot.com

It lists all the public Iyengar classes right now... it will also post updates on workshops articles on teachers and things about Iyengar Yoga in general.

Fun day in Austin

2008-09-02T20:03:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, Jeff and I went down to the Labor of Love festivities/ back bending extravaganza. It was quite fun. See CTs blog for documentary evidence of said fun.

This morning I worked a bit on revising the Lysis chapter and then spent the rest of the day hanging out with Christina living life as a yoga workshop. We went up to Breath and Body yoga for a fun filled very sweaty flow class. I think I sweated even more than the hatha flow/asthanga extravaganza several weeks back. Then we ate lunch at North CM, came back here and rested on the leather furniture, then she went to pick up Kelly and I checked in on the email domain then went to her classes. I kind of ran out of steam half way through the advanced class, arm balancing, but I was well into my third hour of pretty intense yoga by then...

I'm about ready to go to bed. Pretty beat, though I may watch one of my favorite movies, Practical Magic.

Weekend Update

2008-08-31T12:24:00.000-07:00

Well, I ended up not going upto Dallas and have had a pretty mellow weekend at home. Jeff had to work on the computer virus situation and so I decided to work a little as well. Normally, I give myself the weekends off, but I didn't get as much as I wanted to done on Friday, so I kind of caught up Saturday morning. Then I went to practice with Christina's new immersion group. It was a little strange walking in the room and it being a whole set of new faces. Sort of like a new semester at school.

Then we ran some errands and ate dinner and went to look at Caroline Wright's Migration showing. I saw a couple things I'd like to buy and one I will relatively soon. The walls in the westrock house are very beige and I've grown used to more bold colors....

This morning I subbed for Mandy who has been laid low by a variety of ailments. The Hatha Star class was huge. We worked on, what else, opening the hips and shoulders. Did a lot of padaghustasana work of various sorts and then I taught inversion in the advanced class. Sirsasana I, II, and III and Niralamba Sarvangasana I, II.

Then Jeff and I got totally yummy samosas for lunch at the Indian Food Grocery on Burnet. They were fabulous.

I'm going to work for awhile this afternoon in anticipation of not doing too much tomorrow given the trek to San Marcos for Labor of Love.

Friday Morning

2008-08-29T08:49:00.000-07:00

Writing went well yesterday, though I got off to a slow start. I revised about half of the Lysis chapter and will do the rest today. I also hit upon a revision plan where I'm going to spend a week on the Republic chapter and then a week revising an earlier mostly finished chapter and then go back to the Republic for a week. I think that will help keep my perspective fresh. And help me see the whole and the parts.

That's the current plan of action anyway.

After spending the afternoon writing, I went to CT's yoga classes. Jeff was working late fighting some sort of massive computer virus stuff at his work, so I watched the Democratic National Convention. Obama's speech was really great! I thought he did an amazing job of calling upon a higher vision of American that transcends Red America and Blue America. I'm so impressed that I'm actually going to put an Obama sticker on the shuttlecraft (mini-van). Of course, this is less of a radical act here in Austin than it would be in Waco (home of Republicans for Voldermort).

Celina is here cleaning (happiness) so I'm now going to need to sequester myself in the back of the house and start revising while she cleans the living room.

Thursday Morning-Getting Ready to Write

2008-08-28T08:11:00.000-07:00

Well, life on sabbatical doesn't make for the most thrilling blog entries, but here goes. Yesterday, I talked to Christina for a while in the morning and worked pretty steadily from around 10:30 to 3:00. I did take a couple small breaks to eat lunch and move the various laundry loads from the washer to the dryer and the upstairs for folding. Around 3 I felt pretty brain-fried so I hung up a couple shelves and pictures up on the wall and then finally took a shower and changed out of my PJs and into yoga togs and did a little bit of my very late Carlos homework and then went to Devon's advanced class. We worked on stablizing the legs in a variety of standing poses and backward bends.

I decided in class that I really don't feel like going to the Mary and Eddy workshop up in Dallas, a variety of reasons, mostly a bit of workshop overload, that and labor day traffic on 1-35..... I haven't completely decided but am leaning in that direction.

Well, today more of the same. I'm revising the sample chapter and doing some secondary lit work and then I'll go to CTs classes.

Wednesday Morning Update

2008-08-27T08:08:00.001-07:00

Yesterday, I had a productive day writing. Writing is more enjoyable when it is all I have to do.

Anyway, I worked in the morning, inverted around lunchtime, worked more in the afternoon, then went to CTs Tuesday classes at Westgate. I felt really stiff from all the sitting and was sort of mentally tired, but about half way through the flow class, I began to feel better. Oh yes, this is why I do yoga. I was even quite shocked that standing baby cradle went okay. Standing baby cradle is probably my least favorite pose in Anusara-Land. I dislike it even more than all the various pigeons..
In fact, one great thing about Iyengar Land is that I know I won't have to do Standing Baby Cradle. Even as grueling as the Asthangha classes are, at least I know there is no standing baby cradle in the primary series.. However, in Anusara-land... it is their way... so it goes.... The hip opening advanced class was pretty gruelling, I was really glad I'd done flow before hand... but I did get a lot of deep opening, and my mind was much clearer at the end of class. Really different feeling than after backward bending, but both are cathartic and clarifying.

Anyway, I'm getting ready to get started again. I'm going to work some more on the two-page proposal, chapter by chapter summary, and I need to decide on a sample chapter to send off.