Austin Empty Bowl, and how to get some bowls for Christamas!

The weekend before Thanksgiving, I participated in the Austin Empty Bowl Project put on by the Austin Food Bank. It was an amazing project and it let me do some of my favorite things:

1. I got to volunteer to help fight hunger in America.
2. I got to eat great soup and bread from good restaurants around Austin.
   
3. I got to meet new, cool people.
4. And here is the BIG one, I got to shop for pottery.

Not only did I get two little bowls that were made by Art Students at the Austin Museum of Art, I also was the winning silent bid on a great set of bowls by a local Austin potter.

The line around the building snaked. Some people waited in line for more than two hours.
But, the "Bowl" doesn't happen for another year. So if you want to shop for great pottery this year. I have some recommendations.

1. As always, I am shamelessly promoting Mom and Tom's pottery, the Clay Coyote. See a great post on their blog about what they have available for the holidays.
   
2. But, let me let you in on a couple of other amazing potters that you can order in the Gallery:
   
1. Crystal Pottery: I would go for this bowl. It is perfect for stews and soups this holiday season and it will be great for mixing things (like cookie/bread dough) later in the year. I could have really used a bowl this big last week at Thanksgiving when I was mixing up the stuffing.
   
2. Hank Goodman: I consider myself a "Hank girl." I love this guy, I love his pots and I really love his blue and brown glazes. Just take a look at all the serving pieces he has. I am telling you, bake some cookies, put them on a Hank tray and wrap it up for your favorite person...you will be loved!
   
3. Last bit of fun, this year you have another fun reason to come out to the Clay Coyote and shop! I will be there working in the Gallery for three weeks. Starting December 17th, going until the 4th of January you can come visit with me. I will have cookies, wine, witty conversation and ISSB and Sarge the Wonder Dog will be there too! (Heck if you are lucky you can see my brother, my nephew, and my sister-in-law.)
   

So really, after this post, how can you not want to come out to the Gallery to see me later this month? And, if you can come - visit them online (one last shameless plug!).

Happy Halloween: Drill Baby Drill (Day 1: Part 3)

You asked for it, and you got it!

Just to be sure there is no confusion; I was wearing “Barack the Vote” button under my flag pin.

Register to vote, and look at cute people...

Help! Save the Dillo'

The Austin Capitol Metro is bumming me out. Today they cut four of the six free bus lines in Austin. The line that used to go from my house to my work wasn't cut entirely, no, they just made it completely inept by making it only go from the Capitol to the river and back. What really gets me is the line is so short you should be able to walk the 10 blocks that it covers! The old line at least ran about two miles making it useful!

Well I have never been known to give up easily, and in times of rising gas prices and unbelievable congestion I am not going to let this one just slip by. I started a petition on Care2 and you can sign it too.

It doesn’t cost anything and it would make my day if you would help me fight for more public transportation not less!

Eyebrow Clause

So today is Day 7 following my jaw surgery.

Before my surgery, thankfully I had a chance to live it up on vacation. But, as soon as I got home, I knew what lied in store. I had already done the meeting where they go over all the bad things that could possibility happen to you. I honestly believe that this spheel is not for me, the patient. It is the CYA spheel, they are just saying everything under the sun so you can’t sue them later. The worst thing they made me sign was the clause stating that I understood that the surgery was taking place next to the important thingy (nerve, muscle, etc) that allows me to move my eyebrows. I can't believe that I had to sign away my eyebrows before this procedure. Amazing.

Well, the good news is I can move my eyebrows and everything seems to be pretty much in working order. Sorta. I did get both sides placated (sewn in to place – ewwwwe gross) so that means I am on a liquid diet for the next three months (one down, 11 weeks to go).

I think that might be the hardest part of this whole experience. It is truly a forced diet. I am struggling everyday to get the right amount of nutrients, the pounds are flying off me and I am weak and cranky all the time. Not because I am hungry, that would be impossible as I eat, scratch that, drink every hour. But, because it seems like no matter how much I consume I just can’t reach the magic 2300 calorie marker. So this is the lingering effect, that and my head feels like the size of Texas.

On a more positive note. I am back to talking, back to work and back to being a pain in ISSB’s rear.

So that is the latest. More on the milkshake diet later!

Minnesota for the NCMR

I keep going back to the NCMR and each year it keeps getting better and better.

This year, however, it was in my home state of Minnesota and it was fun to host my coworkers in the Land of Lakes.

On the conference, all I can recommend is that you go to this site and watch some of the powerful speakers. My favorite of the weekend was Van Jones, but his speech isn’t up there yet.

On the homefront, we had a blast. Not only did I get to spend time with my coworkers, I also got to spend time with my mom, Too and Amy.

On Sunday when the conference was all said and done we went to uptown and walked over to Lake Calhoun and watched the people go by and the boats sit still as the wind was non existent.
It was a great conference and trip! I wonder where we will go next year!

Maine was beautiful!

Last week, for work amazingly, I had the opportunity to add two new states to my list. New Hampshire and Maine. In the “live free or die” state I only saw the highway and a bit of the coastline. But, I am still counting it. I would like to go back and spend more time in the more wooded area of NH.

In Maine, on the other hand, I spent two lovely days. When we arrived in Portland it was a wet and dreary day. The fishing boats were in because of a fog warning.

We still wandered the streets in search of a good place to dine for the night and we scoped out the spot where the Old Port Festival (our reason for being there) would take place the next day.


On Sunday, the first day of June, the weather was perfect for a street fest and I was covered in sun screen for the eight hour event.

When the Port Festival was over I waved goodbye to the RV Crew (this was my last stop with them…for now). I decided this was my opportunity to see some of Maine.
I asked a local shop owner, if she had a few hours to spend seeing Portland, what she would do. The recommendation was to take a commuter ferry boat out to one of the islands on Casco Bay and walk around and have dinner.

I chose Peaks Island. Mostly, because when I was scoping out restaurants on ChowHound I saw a good recommendation for lobster out there. What the heck. I paid my $7.75 and boarded the boat.

It was amazing. What a difference a day makes. May was cloudy, wet and cold. June was sunny and warm.

Take a look:

Fort Georges
I think that this is one of the two Cape Elizabeth Lights.
Welcome to Peaks Island.

Lobster traps.

That night after I wandered the island, I stopped at the Inn on Peaks and had a lovely lobster dinner all by myself. It was one of the most decadent things I have ever done.

I even made a new friend on the island. One thing I can say is Maine people have funny accents.

That night as I went back on the last boat, it was a perfect sky and I think, just maybe I will have to go back to Peaks Island again someday.

Here is the shot as the boat pulled back in to Portland.

Where in the world is Morgan and why is she slacking on the phlog!?!?!

I have been working on the road for the last month. And for the last week, I have been following this rig around the country. Take a look: www.CoverAmericaTour.org

Aron was here: He left a wake of BBQ destruction

On Saturday, as promised we drove down to Lockhart fro Smitty’s BBQ masterpiece. Aron, our new friend Lucas, ISSB and me. Oh, were the boys excited. And, because we went on Saturday we were lucky enough to get there before they ran out of prime rib. I swear on my mother that this is the greatest single bit of meat that I will ever eat.

Lucas is literally drooling!

Then we went back to the house, sat on the patio and drank cool, crisp white wine in 85 degree weather. Later in the evening, Paula and Iain came over to join us. And together we walked over three blocks to South Congress to see what the local commotion was all about. It was the Lonestar Rod & Kustom Roundup weekend. And, it all takes place in our neighborhood. It was just as billed, “A Texas-Sized Weekend of Loud Pipes, Lead Sleds, Live Music and more…” The Continental Club is the big sponsor.

We decided since the party was in the street that the San Jose Bar (the best bar in town – my opinion) would be a little more calm. It was. It always is. They say it is where Texas meets Japan. I just love the smell of wisteria and the sound of rustling bamboo leaves. It is hard to beat.

All in all, I think that Aron will be back (soon) with Liz in toe. There is a boot store with her name on it and a bottle of wine in a bamboo garden calling her name. Next time, though I think it might be an all Mexican food weekend.

PS: We are eating nothing but salad for the next 2 weeks.

NOLA: Cities of the Dead

As promised, here are shots from the Saint Louis #3, on of the above-ground cemeteries in New Orleans. I am not morbid, I just thought that it was a beautiful and historic place and I wanted to capture some of it to share with you.

I would go in to the 30 minute description for how they fit hundreds of people in some of these tombs, but that might seem a little morbid. So I will provide a few resources: wiki on Saint Louis Cemeteries, an excerpt from a book called “Haunted New Orleans,” and a FAQ from someplace called the FuneralDirectory.com (yikes).

Or, you can skip the links and enjoy the photos of a beautiful, historic place:

Some new, some old. Some didn't pay for "perpetual care"
This one is home to the Sisters of Mt. Carmel (1883)
These are called "fours" and they are all condemned and have to move to new homes. Fours are historically (1) for rent until you can go to your final resting place or (2) for the poor.






This is so that the cemetery continues to care for your tomb forever. Burial is not cheap in NOLA, most people spend between $40-60K for their tomb. Mausoleums are less expensive.



Sorry, if it ended up being too morbid. I thought it was fascinating.

New Orleans, my recommendation: go see it yourself

The last time I was in New Orleans, I was 17. Now, 11 years later it is a different city and I am a different woman (well, older at least).

The first time I saw New Orleans, it was through the quintessential “kid in the candy shop” eyes. I was 17, alone in the city with no chaperone (sorry Mom, but they were totally nonexistent), I drank Hurricanes while walking down Bourbon Street and I came back with chopped off, orange hair (I kid you not, my mother almost killed me). I did more than just party, I was the Minnesota page at the National Federation of Republican Women – yeah me, the little Lefty. I do remember loving the Audubon Zoo and the bayou. I remember eating soft shell crab at Antoine's and hating it and I remember eating lunch on the floor of the Superdome, I even remember the little Superdome shaped chocolate shells they filled with raspberry mouse. I remember a lot about the wonderful city.

And in August 2005, all those memories came back to me when the storm hit. I sat in my dry and warm apartment outside of Washington, DC and watched as the US government failed hundreds of thousands of Americans when they left people there without help for days.

And now, more than two years since the storm and the city is still in disarray. The downtown is back to order, mostly. The French Quarter where the Superdome and Convention Center are is back up and running, Bourbon is still partying and there are 50 more restaurants now than before the storm. But, don’t look too close. Don’t scratch the surface because if you do, you will find that things are not back to normal.

Before the storm there were almost 700,000 people in New Orleans, today there are about 200,000. Most the people who are back are either the really rich (their neighborhoods didn’t flood) or the people who work in the service industry and depend on tourists.

The poor are still there; living in FIMA trailer parks -- they put on a smile and call them “gated communities.” There are streets after streets with no one living on them. There are houses gutted, roofs caving in and windows busted out donning the infamous spray painted “X.” And you can drive for miles and be the only car on the roads in some neighborhoods.

But there is good news, tourism is becoming popular again. Hotels and airlines are offering packages. The tourists are bringing people and money back in to the region. And the universities which had seem fallen enrollment in all grades for the first time since the storm expect that this year’s freshman class will be as high as it was before Katrina.

There is hope. And for all of you who want to know about the city or what little piece of help you can offer, my advice is go visit. They need us. They need tourists, they need revenue we can bring in and not only that they want us there. So go to NOLA.

Now, as you all know, this is a phlog, so I need to stop typing and show you some photos.

View from my hotel to the Mississippi. To the South.
To the North. The street cars. These are replicas of the ones that the Tennessee Williams' Streetcar Named Desire was written about. Open up this photo and look closely at the tree with out leaves. This is St. Charles Street, also known as Mardi Gras path.
In Antoine's Restaurant, the historic Mardi Gras Queen's dresses and jewels.


I vote this the most annoying job yet, that is the woman who stands on the steam boat and plays all day. I kept hoping she would be blown off (but, not injured of course).
Jackson Square.
A shotgun house. In the old days, in NOLA the houses we taxed on the lengths of the front of the house. So they tried to make them as small as possible. This yellow house is a duplex!!!!
More tomorrow, I have a series from the one of the historic cemeteries, referred to as "Cities of the Dead," and I will tell you about the unique above ground burial system.