Pull up a chair

It's going to be a long post :0) Sorry for the inordinate amount of silence, things around here have been BUUUUUSY!! Lets see, heres a bulleted list of what all has been going on 

• wicked migraines
• wedding in Houston
• mom came to visit
• Lyndsey moved in 
• special session was called 

Whew. Tires me out just looking at it! But, now for the fun part- pictures!! Last week I had 3-4 days of terrible headaches which turned into a full blown migraine. I woke up that morning and made it as far as the shower before I realized I wasnt going anywhere that day. My friend Hana from the ACLU was awesome and stopped by to walk the dogs for me, and I finally managed to wake up enough to eat something. I ordered this pizza from a local pizza place and just had to take a picture of it it was so funky looking- I loved the portabella mushroom presentation! 

Fortunately for me (who has a love/hate relationship with my job) the ACLU has become really great at organizing happy hours! Here are a few of my fellow interns enjoying the great outdoor Austin weather and a cold beverage. 

On Friday, Jason and I made the haul down to Houston with the doggies. Skyler, the bride, is the little sister of one of my best friends Chelsea so it was really fun to work with their family. Of course, in classic Kati and Carter style they were all over the ride in the car. Here is Cartman doing his job giving mom wet willies 

and Kati monitoring the light

They are very good at their respective jobs..... except when Carter decides to 'nest' on the camera case. For whatever reason his favorite place is wherever is highest in the car, I swear he's really a cat that got stuck in his halloween costume. 

On Saturday, mom visited us from DFW. It didnt take much convincing to get her to go to the city wide garage sale with me, although Jason wasnt too thrilled at being roped into it too! We rewarded his efforts with a snowcone later so I think he forgave us :0) Heres a picture of moms loot and our almost eaten snow cones. 

Lyndsey moved in on Sunday, and its been so nice to have a roomie! She'll be working at the AGs office this summer, so we'll get to spend the next 6 weeks enjoying the time here together. I dont have a picture of her but I'm sure they will come in the next few posts. Today I was craving marshmallows and decided to hunt down some yummy vegetarian friendly ones. I had to drive about 15 minutes to a Whole Foods up north, but they are worth it! After that I made some awesome veggie lasagna featuring a home grown egg plant! My neighbor came over to eat with us and we all had a great time. 

Alright, well it's 1 am and I have a memo due tomorrow. So I'd better go and actually get some work done. Special session starts tomorrow and HOPEFULLY will go through Friday. When I have a little more time I'll explain what that means and what I've been up to :0) Until then, g'night!

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!