Milo Update

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.