Getting Ready for Friday Practice

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.