bad aunt kate

OK, so Aunt Kate has been kind of a crappy communicator lately, so I thought I'd just give y'all a few newsy bits here and try to use that telephone thing over the weekend to chat with people in person too.

About 2 weeks ago - read a magazine article about autism and healing that brain injury with a gluten- and casein-free diet. Somehow this hit a nerve for me and I was motivated to get off wheat and dairy again, which, since I was already being vegetarian, just made me a wheat-free vegan, basically.

Ordered a couple of vegan cookbooks, because, hey, what's a new thing without books to go with it?! Have now read all of "Vegan Freak," "Vegan with a Vengeance", "Skinny Bitch", "Skinny Bitch in the Kitch" and "How it All Vegan." Very motivating!

Very soon started feeling much more clear, able to focus, out of 'the fog.' It's just amazing... and good.

Found a local Austin vegan group and will probably go to one of their potlucks soon.

Things are going well at work (got some higher-visibility projects), and I've found 2 program buddies at work too: one with just 30 days (who I actually brought to their first meeting, what an honor) and one with 26 years. So I'm bookended! Went with the new person to a meeting last night to celebrate and collect a chip for her.

Signed up to work at our client-facing conference so I can meet some of these customers myself, especially the ones for favorite organizations like Humane Society, PETA, and ASPCA.

Read a great book, "The White Tiger", which just won the Booker Mann prize. I highly recommend it for a fun but thought-provoking read.

It's finally cooler here, thank HEAVEN, although it's now dark when I have to get out of bed. Grumble.

Got a flu shot, which our work was nice enough to arrange for us to get from nurses who came right to the office.

Voted yesterday for THAT ONE at my local Randall's market, which is just the Texas version of Safeway. Saw several "red state" people in line, so worried that my vote was being canceled out repeatedly.

Tomorrow morning I'm going out painting with the Plein Air Austin group. One of the members actually owns a ranch where they raise Longhorn cattle and we get to go there! Can't wait to paint a real live Longhorn!!

Sunday, I'm hoping to work some more on the Dede portrait and then I just joined a book club that a coworker and her sister started and they meet up at 4 pm. The theme for the food is "Disney" (since the book was The Last Lecture) and I'm still not quite sure what my dish will be - probably a vegan cold salad from Whole Foods with a Tinkerbell decoration on top of it, knowing me and my schedule.

Well, that's it from the lone star state!

A New Birdfeeder

New Feeder for my Deck

The little song birds love my new feeder... it took them a day to figure it out and now I have all sorts of the smaller birds chowing down. I could not get a photo of the feeder with many birds on it all at once. I think my proximity kept them away. I love watching the action.

The Chickadees take one seed at a time and then fly into oak tree to eat it and then show up again for more. This makes for alot of action. I have also seen Titmice and Juncos enjoy the feeder. The pushy doves can not fit on the perches and so they go upstairs to my neighbors' deck that has a pan full of seeds, the blue jays also dine upstairs.

I love sitting in my bedroom chair in the early morning and watching my feathered friend outside my sliding glass doors.