My Kitty Needs a Temporary Home!

Hey all. While I’m on the topic of cats, my kitty needs a temporary home! If any of you know of a good person for the job, please please let me know!

Here are the details:

I am leaving the country at the end of September and will be traveling around the world for exactly 1 year. You can view my route here: http://circleourearth.com/about/my-route
I’m desperately seeking a kind, trustworthy person to be a foster parent for my kitty, Pandora.

I’ve had Dora for over 6 years. She’s very affectionate, talkative, quirky, and amusing. Her interests include cuddling on laps, chasing bugs, stealing soybeans off my plate, lounging around like a drunk old man, and sleeping in the strangest positions for as many hours as possible. Pandora absolutely loves people but unfortunately cannot tolerate other animals. She’s a really easy cat to take care of – she just requires food, water, love, and a stable living situation without other pets.

If you’ll be in Austin for the next year, you like cats (but don’t currently have any), and would like a free furry friend for a year, I would love to hear from you!
I’ll of course give you money for all her living expenses and bring you cool gifts from my travels.

Please Contact Me:
Cristen: 512-731-8544
cristenrene@gmail.com

Kitten Rescue Update

I while back, I wrote a blog post about some terribly injured kittens that I found and was taking care of. Since then, I’ve been getting lots of emails from people wondering how they’re doing. I realized it’s been a year since I’ve written about these little guys, so it’s definitely time for an update.

Fidel (aka Snake Plissken) escaped from Miguel’s screen porch the first day we brought him home. He was missing for about a week until we found out he had found his own wonderful home with Miguel’s neighbor Bonnie (who is now our good friend). His eyeball has healed almost completely and he’s super happy in his new home.

Captain Ron was adopted by our friend Ada. She’s extremely energetic, playful and unpredictable. When we found Captain Ron, she barely had the energy to lift up her head. Now she enjoys jumping all over the furniture, climbing up Ada’s blinds, and playing with whatever she can get her paws on (in the picture above, she’s stealing my camera cord as I’m trying to take a picture of her).

If you’re interested, here are previous posts I’ve written about these kittens:

7-3-2007

7-6-2007

7-18-2007

Curry in Hurry – Austin, TX

Soon I will be leaving Austin for a year. Before I leave, I’m going to try to write a brief review of all the Austin food places I like. I’ll start with Curry in Hurry.

Curry in Hurry offers great Indian lunch meals at a decent price. Each meal is about $6 and you get rice, one of three curry dishes, one of two daal dishes, and a choice of bread (either paratha or roti). You can view their menu here. Everything is vegetarian and most things are vegan. The employees are helpful and they can easily point out which menu items aren’t vegan.

They also have lots of interesting snack foods. I was asking the owner tons of questions about them and she was nice enough to let me sample a bite of each.

Apparently they have a whole menu devoted to sweets and chaat (Indian snack food typically served from street carts), but those are only available on the weekends (I haven’t been there for that yet, but I’ve heard it’s worth going for). You can see their snack menu here.

They also own the Indian grocery store next door called Gandhi Bazar.

Here’s their Web site:

http://www.gandhibazar.com

One of the things I hate about Curry in Hurry is that they always use Styrofoam – regardless of whether or not you order your food to go. I recommend bringing your own Tupperware and asking them to put your meal in that. I actually haven’t tried this yet, but I’m going to try to remember to stick a reusable container in my car next time I go. I don’t think they’ll have a problem with it.

Curry in Hurry is kinda far away (off Parmer Lane, west of I35), but worth making a trip there if you’re in the area. I also just found out that they deliver!

Evil Eye Cookie Cake

Sorry for the long hiatus.

Here’s a fun picture of a cookie cake I made this weekend for my sister’s birthday. I made two different types of cookie dough (this one and this one). Then I got carried away with the icing and blueberries, and it ended up looking like a bunch of evil eyes.

Blog Problems

I’m sad I haven’t been able to post in a while, but I’m having trouble uploading pictures all of a sudden. Hopefully my problem will be fixed soon.

As soon as I figure this out, I will cover these topics:

1.) Vegan Biscuits

2.) Titaya’s Thai Food

3.) Vegan Camping Food Ideas

Vala Bags

My friend Sarah recently recently returned from Panama. While she was there, she met a group of women artisans who live in an isolated jungle village and make these amazing bags woven from organic plant material. Since she met them, her goal has been to empower these women by helping them sell their bags.

You can learn more about this project on her blog, where she charts her progress towards her goal of making a luxury brand of handmade, fair trade, and 100% environmentally responsible bags.

http://www.bagsmakeadifference.com/

Second Veggie Dog Eating Contest

Mike Litt, organizer of many vegan events in Austin is holding his second veggie dog eating contest this Saturday. For those of you who went last year, it was tons of fun.

Here’s the official press release:

iLoveMikeLitt’s Veggie Hot Dog Eating Contest
Saturday, June 21, 2008 – 1 to 4pm
Competition starts at 2pm
Scholz Garten map
All Ages, Families Welcome – $5 cover

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 16, 2008

Contact: Mike Litt, 512-828-2484, ilovemikelitt@gmail.com

AUSTIN HOSTS SECOND ANNUAL VEGGIE HOT DOG EATING CONTEST
Austinites and other Texans invited to help eat 1500 veggie dogs and 14 gallons of vegan ice cream

Austin TX – Building on the theme, “No Meat, No Mercy,” Austin will host the return of last year’s inaugural veggie dog eating contest on:

Date: Saturday, June 21st

Time: 1:00 p.m.-4:00 p.m.

Location: Scholz Garten, 1607 San Jacinto

The annual Veggie Dog Eating Contest was created by IloveMikeLitt, a local social group that puts together various artistic and cultural events, after a random conversation with The Hot Dog King, a local vendor who sells hot dogs on Red River Street.

Individuals can compete as solo competitors or as part of teams of two in the doubles category. Prizes from local businesses and national vegetarian-friendly companies will be awarded to the teams and persons eating the most veggie dogs in 12 minutes.

A $5 cover includes a free Smart Dogs veggie dog and all-you-can eat NadaMoo ice cream until supplies run out.

Co-hosts this year are Deb O’Keefe from the MorningX on FM 101.5, and Chris Trew, co-founder of ColdTowne Theater. Deb and Chris are both vegetarians.

Contestants this year include last year’s solo competitor champion, Colin “the Tim Duncan of competitive eating” Kalmbacher. Colin, a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin and vegan for six years says, “What is more Austin than a bunch of vegans, vegetarians, and omnivores, all alongside each other, gorging themselves on hundreds of soy dogs for the sheer insanity of it?”

For more information go to www.ilovemikelitt.com.

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IloveMikeLitt is a social group based out of Austin, Texas that puts together various artistic and cultural events. Last year’s 1st Ever Veggie Hot Dog Eating Contest was the group’s first event. This year’s contest marks the group’s 15th event as an organization. Events such as Vegan Arm Wrestling and Veggie Speed Dating continued the eating contest’s goal of bringing people of all eating orientations together for fun interactions. Involvement with events such as Treasure City Thrift Store’s Recycled Fashion Show and Hands on an Electric Scooter promoted other sustainability values. Events such as 20 Slideshows: 20 Tastes and Acknowledge Me showcased local artistis, crafters, and other model citizens. For more information go to www.ilovemikelitt.com.

My Trip is Booked!

My trip is finally booked!

Here is my itinerary. If anyone knows people in these places or has recommendations of things to do, I’d love to hear from you. I plan to blog about my search for vegan food while on the road. Advice is welcome.

Oct 1: Los Angeles, US – Auckland, New Zealand

Oct 29: Auckland, New Zealand – Perth, Australia

Nov 26: Perth, Australia – Osaka, Japan

Dec 20: Osaka, Japan – Beijing, China

Jan 13: Kunming, China – Bangkok, Thailand

Feb 24: Bangkok, Thailand – Penang, Malaysia

March 20: Penang, Malysia – Madras, India

• buy round trip flight to Borneo

April 18: Bombay, India – Istanbul, Turkey

April 28: Istanbul, Turkey – Damascus, Syria

May 22: Aleppo, Syria – Cairo, Egypt

June 19: Cairo, Egypt – Athens, Greece

July 17: Athens, Greece – Zagreb, Croatia

August 10: Zagreb, Croatia – Copenhagen, Denmark

• buy round trip flight to Iceland

September 8: Copenhagen, Denmark – London, England

September 30: London, England – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Pink Breakfast

I don’t feel like writing, so I’m just going to post this pretty picture.

My friend made this for breakfast the other day. Not sure what all was in it – he mentioned something about flax seeds, hempseed oil, asafoetida powder, and beets.

It was good!

VegCast

Sorry I haven’t written for a while. Things have been crazy busy around here.

I just found this vegetarian podcast called VegCast (http://www.vegcast.com/). I’ve been listening to it at work and I like it a lot. Each show follows a similar structure:

1.) Vegcast theme song and show preview (sometimes with a cheesy radio DJ/sports announcer voice)

2.) Brief overview of news and/or background story for show topic

3.) Interview with a vegetarian/animal rights advocate (such as Carol Adams, Dr. John McDougall, cookbook authors, etc.)

4.) Interesting musical selections (from bands with at least one vegetarian member)

5.) Science facts

6.) VegCast theme song

Unfortunately I kinda think this show is a little bit like preaching to the choir, as most of the listeners are probably already vegetarians. I wish that wasn’t the case because there is a lot of good information in each show and I think anyone who likes interviews and podcasts will enjoy it.

Today I listened to VegCast43 – an interview with Rory Freedman, author of the bestselling book Skinny Bitch.

Listen to a VegCast podcast and see if you like it!