Thursday, October 26, 2006

Vote for Bell

If you are one of my legions of readers, and you were contemplating voting for Kinky, please read this.

And if you'd like some information about Chris Bell, who I plan to support, please email me. I feel strongly that he is the guy to get behind to rid our state of Rick Perry.

I had this letter published in the Statesman today responding to their endorsement of Rick Perry for Governor....

I can't believe how soon the Statesman is willing to forgive and forget.

Tom DeLay didn't force redistricting on Austin without the local help of Rick Perry. Many of us attended numerous hearings at the Capitol, trying to protect our city's right to a locally based representative in Washington. My democratic rights, and those of the citizens of Austin were trampled by the DeLay/Perry assault, when Austin and Travis County were drawn and quartered into four gerrymandered districts stretching across the state.

Chris Bell, the Democratic candidate to replace Rick Perry as Governor, started the ball rolling with an ethics complaint, which eventually led to the downfall of Tom DeLay. As an Austinite who would like once again to have one D.C. Representative based squarely in Austin, I'm doing everything I can think of to help Chris Bell replace the other half of the dastardly duo.

Sunday, October 22, 2006

Sunday: The Pumpkin Patch


This year's pumpkin patch photo. Posted by Picasa

Max and his friend Uma at the pumpkin patch Posted by Picasa

Saturday: Company Picnic


David's office is very cool. Actually they are just a bunch of big kids, so their company picnic is pretty fun. The had a bouncy house, kegs, bar-b-que, two luscious cakes from Whole Foods, a homemade train ride, and all the body painting you can handle. Oh yea, horse shoes too.

The perfect weather was just a bonus.

One of Max's classmates, Sadie, also has a parent who works for the company, so he had extra fun. Posted by Picasa

Emma and her friend Kiki show off their tatoos. Posted by Picasa

My green/blue monkey tatoo Posted by Picasa

Kids on the train. The man who owns this party ranch built the train out of barrels, and the opening of the barrels have garden hose lining the edges. The ingenious locomotion system is a series of hand trucks sort of bolted end to end. The whole thing is pulled with a yard tractor.... oh yeah, the seats in the barrel are boat seats. Any ideas Grandad? Posted by Picasa

Joey gets a paint tatoo (fire breathing dragon) Posted by Picasa

Saturday, October 21, 2006

Women Organizing to Revive Democracy!

The main reason I haven't added anything new to this blog in a week is that I'VE BEEN BUSY! What a week, I had a meeting at church on Tuesday, I hosted the PTA's teachers' lunch on Wednesday, my scout troop met Thursday and our first ever W.O.R.D. (see the title above) met last night. And what a meeting it was!

After Ann Richard's memorial service, I really felt charged up, but since it was a funeral, no one really seized the power of thousands of pretty politically interested mourners and told us to do anything.

I have wanted Rick Perry gone since redistricting. Ever since Austin was split into four parts, and my representative lived west of Houston, I've been pretty pissed off. I mean, you expect some dirty politics, but when my district was so badly drawn that no Democrat even entered the race, my voice in national politics was basically taken away. That is serious and wrong. So all these years, I've hoped Tom DeLay and Rick Perry would get what they were due.

One down, one to go.

Anyway, cut to last month's memorial for Ann. A couple of days afterwards, I saw a mom-friend at the grocery store. We were both feeling antsy. She told me she had decided to "drink the Kool Aid" and work on getting Chris Bell elected. I made the decision right there, that instead of only trying to get Rick Perry out, I wanted to get my guy in. Chris Bell does not want to build a useless wall along the Mexican border, he does want us to stop coming in 50 among the states with regard to getting kids health insurance coverage. He wants to stop putting so much emphasis on testing in public schools (Hallelulia!) And I want it all.

So within a two week span, we started a little email revolution, planned a party, and held it last night. And it was a success. We had a couple hundred people show up. They had fun. We cheered, we laughed, and we inadvertantly raised over $2000. We didn't even appeal for money, but at the last minute thought we'd better bring something to put donations in. So one girl slapped a Bell sticker on a coffee can and brought it along.

We might do more in the future, but for now we are basking in our success.

Our Crowd!  Posted by Picasa

Our team of 6 WORD girls. Posted by Picasa

Donna Howard a fantastic state representative for most of us. Due to a suspiciously timed resignation by the Republican who held her seat previously, she's had to run for this office three times in about 6 months. Posted by Picasa

Genevieve Van Cleve, Slam poetry queen, gets the crowd fired up. Posted by Picasa

Gretchen, our musical entertainment Posted by Picasa

The Big Democratic Sandwich and Corinne and Edie, Gretchen in the background onstage Posted by Picasa

Spike cuts the big Democratic Sandwich with the sword of justice Posted by Picasa

Young Sandwich server Posted by Picasa

Saturday, October 14, 2006


Robbin's gift to me was this wonderful photo of my assistant sales manager, Max. Love you buddy. Posted by Picasa

Just got home from the Fall Festival at our church. I sold my pillows, greeting cards, and Elisa's purses and accessories. Lots of browsers, and visiting and conversation. Not so much by way of sales, but I was next door to my buddy Robbin, and I had a whole day of just sitting in a chair, avoiding all my chores. So that was worth it. Posted by Picasa

Wednesday, October 11, 2006


Yellow Dog ladies Posted by Picasa

Talk about exciting! Guess where I was today. At Liz Carpenter's house. I'll have to take the time to fill in some details, but a few of my friends are holding a little party for Austin Democratic Women. We just thought it up, and this party is taking on a life of it's own. My friend Anne, told Liz Carpenter about it, and she offered to give us some advice. We met at her house today, and she gave us pointers, and even ended up pulling out her Rolodex, so we could have contact numbers of some of her buddies. What a kick! Posted by Picasa

Monday, October 09, 2006

Good Read, Good Watch

Very quick post, since I've been BUSY. I'm sewing like a crazy lady, trying to get my pillows ready for the big Fall Festival at our church. I'll be holding forth at my "funky pillow booth" next door to Robbin's "funky painted stuff booth". And I'm trying to get 40 pillows ready before Saturday -- I'm up to 26 tonight, which is cool, even if that's all I get.

Anyway, to the book, I just finished Gilead. I was trying to get it done for a book club, and ended up missing the discussion to wait for a locksmith to visit me and re-key the house Friday. (another story) It was a hard book for me to follow, as it is written without chapters, but worth the effort. I can tell I'll be thinking about it for a while. Lots of beautifully written paragraphs in there. It is the story of an older, ill preacher, mid 70s, who has a young son (7 or 8). The book is a letter written to the son. Some of the thoughts about God, prayer, and love, took my breath away.

The bigger recommendation I have for you is this: Please make time to see An Inconvenient Truth. I will pay for your rental fee. I will pay your Netflick fee. It is that important.

I saw the movie at church last night. I think only one person admitted to being a Republican during the discussion session that followed, but I really think this is the kind of movie that needs to be seen by people who think the current administration is doing a good job. The facts about global warming, and they are facts, are impossible to ignore. It makes any other issue you might hinge your vote on, pale in comparison.

Before and after shots of glaciers, snow capped mountains, and then endless graphs of historical climate data make a methodical case. Laid down one after another, the facts just kept on coming. Al Gore narrarates, and I'm sure there are people who will discount the movie, just because they hate him, or Democrats. But I invite anyone to watch the movie and then convince me that global warming is just some sort of theory dreamt up for some reason to scare/bankrupt/spoil our fun. I'm eager to hear anyone question the premise that we are on a disaster course, because it would be wonderful if Gore and countless scientiets are completely wrong about this.

The movie addresses the idea that there is somehow controversy in the scientific community over the notion of global warming. It examined over 900 peer reviewed studies about climate change and the percentage of them that show global warming to be unrelated to human action are ZERO. But the press stories studied showed over 50% to have reference to a "controversy in the scientific community."

The rate of change, the rate of effects that are being seen right now, are astounding.... and scary.

The movie might not be out on DVD quite yet. I think our church got a copy that was pre DVD release, but please go see it when you can.

Wednesday, October 04, 2006


Happy Five Year Old Posted by Picasa

Family birthday dinner, and the Ben 10 Omitrix style cake decorated by David. Posted by Picasa