Video Skype for business. Somehow hilarious and totally professional at the same time.

Sweet potato eggplant lasagna with ground beef. Recipe here.

This text:

My Texan heritage. Only a Texan who has lived in Aspen for over a year and a half could STILL go on a fall hike after it snowed this weekend that goes to 11,000 feet, wearing this:

A new start

Friends with big feet … gifted/hand-me-down blue suede shoes!

Yoga

Yoga on the Lawn (October 15): Strike a pose in one of Austin’s most scenic spots during Yoga on the Lawn, an hour-long session led by registered yoga instructor Angela Knight with acoustic music by Murphy’s In Laws. A $10 minimum donation to Seton is requested; all participants who donate more than $20 will receive a pool day pass valid weekdays through October 31, 2011!

Bar

Pink Ribbon Martini, $14: Made with Savvy vodka, Paula’s Texas Lemon, fresh POM and lemon juice with a pink sugar rim, this cocktail for a cure tastes great and does good with 50% donated to Seton.

Eat

Bake Sale and Raffle (October 21): sweetest fundraising event of all, the Bake Sale & Raffle offers more than 100 varieties of handmade cookies, cakes, and other treats ($1-$15), along with a raffle ($5) featuring gift certificates and items from the Hotel and Austin businesses. As with last year’s event raised more than $4,000, all proceeds benefit Seton.

Pancake Supper for Seton (October 26), $15: experience the nostalgia of breakfast for dinner at TRIO’s 3rd annual Pancake Supper. Choose from four delicious pancake options, each served with a choice of side; a limited á la carte dinner menu will also be available. 50% of total proceeds benefit Seton.

Spa

Pink Grapefruit Massage, $145-$160: Uplifting and stimulating, The Spa’s Pink Grapefruit Massage incorporates pink grapefruit essential oils into either a Deep Tissue or Swedish massage, with 10% of proceeds going to Seton.

Over 30 of Austin’s finest yoga instructors will be leading classes on the festival’s four stages, bringing together the widest range of yoga Austin has ever seen – from kids classes to kundalini, from beginner to ashtanga vinyasa – which is so unbelievably awesome. I’ve been doing a few workshops, and there are some styles or teachers that work for some people (like AT for me) and others for others. The opportunity to try a bunch out … so cool!

The complete schedule of classes & instructors is here: austinyogafestival.com/schedule/

Tickets: $25/day pass, $40/two day pass (other deals for friends, kids, and so on are listed): austinyogafestival.com/tickets/

A percentage of all ticket sales from the Festival will go towards supporting several local organizations: Austin Food Bank, Community Yoga, Amala Foundation & Yoga Care Foundation.

Om on!!

I don’t normally write about things super-far in advance, but you might want to plan to be in Houston for this one. The First Annual BreatheCure Conference comes to Rice University Recreation and Wellness Center October 29.

The event supports the illness-to-wellness community with educational classes and lectures for participants of all ages and fitness levels to use as a means of enrichment and healing. It’s a FUNdamental day of bringing like-minded folks together in a place of healing harmony. My university is awesome.

Founded in 2007, Breathe the Cure®, is a 501c3 non-profit organization dedicated to bringing educational awareness to the general public about the benefits of breathing techniques, meditation, and yoga. Much of the focus is on cancer survival and recovery through these practices. The conference is also donating twenty percent of all proceeds from the conference to Pink Ribbons Project, a Houston-based nonprofit that saves lives and improves the quality of life for those touched by breast cancer. A list of the 2011 presenters is here.

Keynote Speaker Award-winning investigative food journalist Barry Estabrook, author ofTomatoland: How Modern Industrial Agriculture Destroyed Our Most Alluring Fruit, explains how tomatoes have gotten to their current tasteless, nutrient-deficient state and how we can fix the problems. Grown out of season to supply distant markets, dependent on a witch’s brew of pesticides and chemical fertilizers, and produced under some of the most abusive labor conditions in this country, the modern agribusiness tomato is a “poster child” for many of the ills facing our industrialized food system.

The 2011 BreatheCure Conference is a collaboration between Breathe the Cure® founder, yoga professional and legislative yoga advocate Jennifer Buergermeister fromJennyoga/CuraYoga and the Texas Yoga Conference, who partnered with Amy Garratt and Julie Byrd, co-founders and Yoga Studies Directors of Balance Your Body Yoga as well as BYB Pink Ribbon Recuperative Yoga. Of the first annual BTC Conference, Jennifer states, “We believe that change comes from a healthy mind, body and planet. This year’s conference supports integrative medicine, deep breathing techniques and mindfulness as a healthy lifestyle and a tool that helps alleviate many symptoms of disease.”

Registration for the 2011 BreatheCure Conference is $175 for the general public and $150 for students, teachers, and seniors. To register, visit btcconference.com/register or call 713-839-9642. Students of Rice University, UH, Baylor or UST can get a 50% discount if they enroll via email to info@breathecure.org.

The BTC Conference will be held at Rice University Recreation and Wellness Center, Saturday, October 29, 2011. Doors will open at Rice University’s Gibbs Recreation and Wellness Center on Saturday at 8:30a with the first session beginning at 9. Event ends at 8p. Performance by the Houston Ballet at 7p Saturday night to end the event with a Pink Aware Splash!

2011 BTC Conference Sponsors include: Breathe the Cure, Texas Yoga Association, Texas Yoga Conference, Balance Your Body Yoga, Jennyoga/CuraYoga, YogaOne Studios, Wisdom & Co., New Living, Luke’s Locker, OneYoga USA, Pink Ribbon Recuperative Yoga Training, 002 Magazine, Kingwood Yoga and Wellness Center, Yoga 4 Kids, Expedition Balance, Origin. Magazine, JCC Houston, Yoginos: Yoga for Youth, Ligmincha Texas Institute, Yoganonymous, Luna Bar, Body Dynamics, The Motherhood Center, Ekam Yoga, Mind Body & Soul, Sedona Tea Blends, Pure Rain, PerfectMind Yoga, and Aerobifit.

Having skier extraordinaire Nick Devore play a didgeridoo over my body during Yoga Therapy class

Happy meat for just $4/lb from Homestead Meats at the Aspen Saturday Market

Monday Night Football

Gossip Girl season five premiere!

Picking up a new girl [space] friend at the bar.

Opportunities, questions, and answers…

Did you know you can get a full week, seven days, of free yoga at tons of studios across the country thanks to National Yoga Month?

It’s no secret that I’ve been practicing A LOT of yoga recently. I did a seven-day boot camp in Aspen that was transformative. No, I didn’t come to any life-changing realizations. No, I didn’t make any decisions. Trust me, I had plenty of realizations and decisions needing to be had, I WANTED them. But yoga, you learn through doing it, is just about doing it. Just about being. The other stuff comes with being. Being present. And it definitely does not come instantly.

Why then was my yoga week transformative? Because it made me realize how important yoga is to my health and well-being. I have previously publicly declared that I’m not yogi. But I AM. I am a yogi.

There are 10 days left to take advantage; yoga month culminates September 30th with The Time for Yoga, a global community practice.

Use the studio finder here to immediately get your yoga on. For free.

I went today and am signed up for all week. It’s a phenomenal experience, incredible mind and body workout. I can’t wait for the rest of the week!!

Click HERE to sign up! $25 drop-in.

How awesome is this? On Sunday, July 3^rd Community Yoga will collaborate with Eastside Yoga, Blue Dahlia Bistro, and other East Austin businesses to raise money to bring a weekly Yoga class to ALL of the students of Blackshear Elementary School, starting in Fall 2011.

Blackshear students are majority minority, with about 60% of its population being Hispanic and about 40% of the students being African American. 99% of the students are eligible for free and reduced lunch, so we’re dealing with an impoverished community without access to extracurricular opportunities that are often experienced by more advantaged students from higher socioeconomic backgrounds.

Yoga is an atypical extracurricular, but it’s such a cool opportunity for the kids. Exposure to and experience with yoga at such early stages in their development will help them internalize key elements of the practice in order to support and strengthen a sense of inner calm as they move about their daily lives. So without further ado, you MUST attend the fundraiser classes!

9:30-10:15  BY DONATION meditation class at Eastside Yoga

10:30-11:45  BY DONATION hatha yoga class at Eastside Yoga

*I say, do them both!

ALL DAY: 15% off ALL food & drinks at Blue Dahlia Bistro (with coupon that is available on the Community Yoga website) & Blue Dahlia will also donate 10% of ALL SALES from that day to support the program.

RAFFLE ITEMS: gift cards & items from the following businesses will be on raffle at Eastside Yoga, Blue Dahlia, and also online through the Community Yoga website:  Zandunga Mexican Bistro, East Side Pies, Blue Dahlia Bistro, Give Back Yoga, & several more.

All proceeds from the classes, dining at Blue Dahlia, & the raffle will go to fund the semester of Yoga at Blackshear. This is an amazing example of how awesome the Austin community is—support it!

Click here for the full schedule; below are my top three can’t-miss events of the weekend!

1) Saturday and Sunday, 10a-5p: ECO Marketplace featuring vendors and demos of all things handmade, remade, recycled, organic, or reused; products must be at least 50% local materials! Bonus: Sustainable Food Court with delicious, healthy, local goodies.

2) Film Screening, Saturday, 1-2p: Vanishing of the Bees presented by Honeybee Organic Juice Bar (click here for my review!) at Wheeler Opera House. Check out the trailer here.

3) YoGroove Yoga In The Park by King Yoga, Saturday, 2-3p. Join Aaron King (my fave instructor EVER) and Evan Rachel in Wagner Park for “Yogroove” with live music by Cameron Williams of the local aspen band Jes Grew.

Of course, there’s also a Green Tie dinner and ball, but these are the three things I will be, without a doubt, checking out personally.