The daddy of all blog updates (Ha! Get it?! 'Cause it's fathers day!)

Ok, Yes, I'm corny. But you obviously love me anyways because you're still reading this post! Things have been busy busy over here in Austin, and I'm loving every minute. Things are finally settling in at the ACLU and I have my first round of congressional meetings next week. I can't wait to update you on how that goes. I'm actually really excited about it because I get to meet with Senator Wendy Davis' office to work on a big interim project. This election season I had the pleasure of calling octogenarian republican ladies in Colleyville to try and convince them about why it would be a good idea to vote for Wendy. She is a friend of a friend that I met for the first time a long time about 3 years ago, and I was thrilled to see such a capable woman running as my districts senator. It's really neat now to be able to call her office and actually have someone remember me. So yeah, I'll keep you guys updated! Ok, onto the picture show! 

Chelsea and I finally found the time to hang out this week. Her sister is getting married on Friday, so we HAD to go shopping for crazy bachelorette party outfits! This one was totally my favorite. If you can't tell, they are busting out the 80s theme! 

Jason came into town all weekend! Yippeeee!! We had a really great, busy Saturday! We started off at the famous Flip Happy Crepes. It was featured on throwdown with Bobby Flay, and lived up to the promise of an excellent breakfast this side of Quebec! 

Yum, lemon crepes with blueberry topping!

As you can see, we loved it!

After Flip Happy, we made our way down to the farmers market. There is a huge park in the middle of the city that is basically overrun by local organic farmers every weekend. I love it! 

I picked up some organic carrots and local peaches for the week. 

We also stopped by old navy for the awesome 1/2 off fathers day sale. Jason never buys clothes, so we took the chance to stock up on some basics for him. He always has a terrible time trying to buy jeans. Because he runs so much, his legs are much larger than his belly, creating what I lovingly call and set of gamms ripe for drag queening :0) It's hilarious to see him in a pair of boot cut jeans, I swear he looks better than me, but it's definitely inappropriate!

Sunday was a super lazy fathers day. I made banana pancakes for the hubs and we took a nice long nap. Followed by a visit to our favorite burger place P Terrys (which has an awesome homemade veggie burger). Very successful if you ask me! 

Happy fathers day to all the dads (or doggie daddies) out there! Until next time!! 

My first Quiche and Yoga to the 70's

So today was fairly uneventful. I'm supposed to be working on a press release, but decided it's much harder (and a lot more boring) than it looks. Instead, I went home to take a nap. I know it seems like life should be pretty much easy and relaxing right now, but the gang and I have been keeping pretty busy. I didnt realized how tired I actually was until it hit me today after lunch. Of course, it might have also been that big slice of pizza, but we'll say it was that I've just been super busy! What has been keeping me busy you ask? Well, cooking and yoga, and long walks with the doggies of course! Yesterday, I made my first quiche, and I must say I'm pretty dang proud of it. I was able to use veggies from my very own garden, so it was even more special. Here are a few pictures. 

Oh, and so I took a picture of my crazy hair this morning. It's been interesting without a blow drier or a straightening iron, but I think I've finally managed to figure out how to at least make it look decent. Notice the super cute green camera and J Crew Vintage Closet shirt :0) 

Lastly, today I went to an AWESOME yoga class. I mentioned earlier that I've finally found the right studio for me, and boy have I ever. After class last night I asked the instructor if she could recommend any particular classes for me. Well, apparently there is an instructor who likes to do THEME NIGHTS!!!! Today was 'bad 70's music', and I'm now a firm believer that you should do yoga to 'war.... hunh.. yeah... what it isssss good for, absolutely nothin' say it again now'...... Yep, it was as amazing as it sounds. Here is the beautiful 360 studio that is about 10 minutes from my house. They have 5 local studio locations, 3 of which are within 15 minutes from me. It's my little version of heaven. 

Until next time.

Pie, Yoga and loving life

I headed down to Dallas again this weekend and was able to spend lots of time just hanging around. Jason and I had a wedding on Friday, which freed us up for a date night Saturday and a yard day Sunday! On Saturday I had a total girl day, meaning i got my hair cut, grabbed some take out lunch and new nail-polish from MAC! Gotta love lavender colored nails! 

 

We met up with Cassie and James for dinner and had a little desert action at the good ole Dixie House. For those of you who dont know what the Dixie House is, imagine the grossest greasy spoon with the most struggling waitresses you can think of and there you have the Dixie House. BUT, they do have great Pie! Here are our slices for the evening. 

Yum, Lemon Meringue! 

On Sunday, Jason and I weeded the garden. It was fun to check out how all of my plants are growing, and I found out that what I thought was a bell pepper plant is actually an egg plant. I'm hoping that this beauty will be ready to pick when Jason visits me this weekend. 

I also got to see Carebear before she headed out to the tropics for a wedding. I'm so excited that she and Stu have a contract on a house! Hopefully the inspection will go well and they will be homeowners this summer!! 

On Sunday, I drove home and hung out with the doggies. A very relaxing day. Monday, I finally had a chance to check out a new yoga class and I'm happy to say that I have found my place! Apparently, in New York I practice Kula Yoga, in DC I practice Power Yoga, in Fort Worth I practice Vinyasa Flow and in Austin I practice Hatha Flow. Who knew that the same set of 15 or so movements could have so many freakin names! No wonder it's hard for people to find the perfect studio for them. After yoga, I made a delish dinner of portobello mushroom pasta. It warms this little veg girls heart to sit with a great dinner of pasta and a Time Magazine. :0)

Caution: Dori has a bike

I HAVE A BIKE!!!!! Austin is an amazing place to spend on two wheels, either by scooter, rollerblades, or bike. I have an awesome pink scooter, but couldnt ever find a truck to use to bring it down to Austin. Additionally, it's pretty well universally agreed on that I should not ever try to rollerblade, because you can rest assure that I will manage to break bones you didnt even know existed. Which leaves a bike. A glorious, vintage blue bike (with a basket no less). On Thursday I managed to convince Hana to make the hour drive down to San Antonio where I had seen a craigslist post for an awesome bike deal. We got there and actually both fell in love with totally different bikes than we had expected, so we both bought one! It was really funny trying to get 2 full size bikes into my little pocket sized car! Here are some pictures from our adventures!

Hana with our supplies! Foam was necessary to keep the bikes from scratching each other or the car

The bikes loaded in the car. You cant see it, but we actually had to hang one of the handle bars out of the window to get it to work out! We were quite a sight rolling down the freeway with a big old handlebar hanging out

Not a great shot, but here's my fun little bike! I've changed out the front basket to a black wire one, and I love it! Hopefully it'll take me on plenty of fun rides this summer! 

The hubbs is home!!

Yippeee! The hubbs is finally home from Germany! He was able to visit me in Austin for 1 day before getting back to the real world know as work. Unfortunately, I still had to go to work for the day, but we did manage to get a lot done anyway. He hung out with the dogs, got a desperately needed oil change, took me to dinner and we still had time to go on a long walk with the doggies. If you ever find yourself in Austin craving Italian, Enoteca Vespaio was amazing! Like, I ate so much my belly hurt amazing! Here are a few pictures. 

Jason decided to get a callimari panini and found a whole baby squid in his sandwich. I think he was too freaked out to eat it, but he said the rest of the 'pieces' were tasty. 

 

The weekend update with the lowly intern

Whew, what a whirlwind 4 days! Sorry for the late update, but I just couldnt find the time until now (when of course I should be working!). Soooo onto the show:

THURSDAY 

Ummmm it was FIRST THURSDAYS!!!! Ok, now re-read that line screaming like an excited 12 year old girl at the top of your lungs. I was soooo happy when I was driving home and realized it was first Thursdays last week! For those of you who have never experienced it, basically on the first thursday of every month Congress street shuts down for a huge arts and crafts fair. There are bands and music and tons of handmade art in just about every price range. Additionally, all of the shops on the row stay open until at least 10, so while you're wandering through the clumps of booths you can also visit the flagship buildings. It's a super fun atmosphere and not something to be missed. I also may have run into the nicest cop ever. I parked in what I thought was truly good Karma parking- it was right next to the cupcake trailer, with easy access right onto Congress. After I shopped around a little I was walking back to my car to go to yoga and see myself getting a ticket! I ran over and asked if she was writing the ticket for my car and she said I was in a no parking zone. HUNH? There werent any signs. Turns out, apparently you cant park close to a stop sign. WHO KNEW??? I think she could tell I was really surprised and said 'you're leaving right?.....' and did a little hand flick thing indicating to me that I should shoo in a hurry. Like I said, nicest cop ever. She actually stopped writing a ticket in the middle of filling out the form. I love Austin! Here are a few pictures from the first Thursday in June. 

FRIDAY 

I spent most of Friday driving home only to hustle over to a wedding with Jake. Hi Jake!! Lucky for us the bride was gorgeous and at the YWCA where Jason and I got married!

SATURDAY

Jake and I also had a wedding on Saturday. I was seriously one tired girl! Thankfully, it was over at 7 leaving me plenty of time to meet up with the girls for a little Chimys margarita action! And of course we couldnt go without some curlys desert 

SUNDAY 

Sunday was a bit of a lazy day. I had a bridal session that evening and I checked in on the garden. I have some of the best clients at times, Leisha (the bride) brought me cupcakes because she remembered me mentioned that I like them. How awesome is that!! When I checked on the garden, I found out I had my first cucumber! It was huge! Here is a pictures of my bounty! I'm so happy that the garden is finally starting to grow like crazy!

Breakfast for Dinner Potluck!

So, I am a bad documentarian because somehow yesterday I totally didnt take any pictures.... but it was a good day none the less. Work was great, I'm still waiting on my supervisor Matt to return from vacation but I'm able to get a good amount of research done in the mean time. I left work early to make a yoga class and it was awesome. I went to the same place, but this time it was a vinyasa class, so much more my style. Lemme tell ya, after 2 weeks of no yoga I am feeling it this morning! I always pass a small park on my way to work, so I decided to take the dogs there yesterday to see what they thought. There was a perfect little looped trail that took us a little under 10 minute to walk, so we walked it a few times and they were such happy campers!! I think we'll be visiting that area more often for our 'short' walks! About 9 people from the ACLU came over last night for a breakfast for dinner potluck. I made pancakes and people brought everything from donuts, to mimosas to beer. The guy I'm subleasing from has an AMAZING record collection, seriously amazing. He has every one of the beatles records, and bob dylan, and the doors, and beck and lots lots more. So we put on a Beatles anthology and visited. It was a really nice night and the doggies loooooved meeting all of the new people. Jason skyped me in the middle so he got to say hello to everyone too! After everyone left I we were all so tired that my babies and I crawled into bed and promptly passed out! I'd say it was a very successful first get together! Ok, off to save the world, er, I mean work :0) 

Paaarrttay!

Good morning! Just a little update about yesterday. I spent most of the day doing a little bit more research on my topic and think I have finally hit on something interesting. Basically, there is a federal mandate that says that if a child is in state custody for 15 out of 22 months termination proceedings automatically start, unless that child is placed with a family member during that time. Unfortunately, it's very difficult for immediate or extended family to get funding like a normal foster family would for a child that is placed with them, so statistically it's pretty uncommon for a family member to offer to care for a child in lieu of foster care. What this really means is that for women especially, any sentence over 2 years pretty well means that you will lose your child, unless you have a family member that is willing and able to care for them in your absence. SO, this is an interesting little catch 22 for me in the law, especially since often times even non violent crimes such as drug offenses are subject to sentences longer than 2 years in Texas. I'm not sure what sort of position or angle we'd look at here, but it seems like there could be a few options that will at least mitigate the issue. Additionally, it looks like I'll be submitting lots of open records requests regarding women and healthcare in prisons. We're also looking to see if healthcare requests are routinely denied by guards to the detriment of women in the system. Interesting stuff right? I'm all about keeping families together when practical and making sure every person has a right to basic healthcare. 

Ok, now onto the parties! The Texas session ended Monday, so there is pretty much a party every night in Austin to celebrate. Last night there were 2 fun ones that I attended. It was really nice to meet other people in the advocacy community and hey, a free beer is nice too! Here are a few pictures from early on in the evening. 

A few of the ACLU girls. Apparently, there is some chatter going around that the ACLU has the cutest interns this year. I'm all for having cute, smart summer friends! Also, it was really funny to find out that everyone in this picture are all water signs. We all get along really well, so it was no surprise to us! 

The second party was at an ACLU supporters home. He had a rockin garden and some really neat artifacts in this house. We thought they were joking with us when they said the address is 1600 Pensylvania Avenue and is known as the 'other white house', but it really was. The owner had all sorts of fun memorabilia from the big white house and commentary on his white house in texas. 

First Monday

Hello hello! Sorry I failed to update the blog yesterday after my first 'official' day, but I was way too tired! I wasnt sure what time to arrive, somehow we had forgotten to talk about that, so I showed up at 8 am- YIKES! Of course everyone else was more reasonable and showed up an hour later at 9. DOH! I got my first project, it should take me about 3 weeks and is reasonably interesting. I cant say I'm stoked, but hopefully as a delve more into the issue I'll get a little more engaged. When I got home I took the doggies for a nice long walk. It is so cute how they know when we get near the park now and get all sorts of excited. Carter pulls on his collar the whole time and Kati looks like she's about to pass out from the heat, but somehow they both truck along happily for about 45 minutes! Later I decided to try a yoga studio here. I found out that i HATE bikram yoga. Like so much so that I left the class half way through, which is a huge deal. I just couldnt imagine having to sit through 45 more minutes of that. So I went to whole foods instead and spent about a million dollars but it was SOOOOO well worth it! Ok, off to work now. We have 2 end of legislative session parties tonight, so I'm sure I'll have some fun pictures later!