23rd July, 2010 - Posted by carsi - No Comments

If you’ve been feeling a little helpless about the Gulf oil spill and want to do something to help, head on over to the benefit tonight at 6:00 at Hotel San Jose and Jo’s on South Congress to donate some money, eat some delicious food from Perla’s and Lambert’s, listen to Papa Mali and Lost Bayou Ramblers, and get educated about how you can help. The optional $10 cover charge and the $10 per plate shrimp boil proceeds will benefit the Greater New Orleans Foundation and the Gulf Restoration Network. Additionally, Texas State Rep. Mark Strama will be speaking about renewable energy policies in Texas, and Brandi Clark of EcoAustin will be discussing local volunteer opportunities and green energy resources in Austin. Sounds like a great time for a very important and timely cause.
23rd July, 2010 - Posted by carsi - No Comments
Paul Robbins, creator of the Austin Environmental Directory and local environmental activist, discussed on KUT this morning the possibility of zero energy suburbs. The idea is to create energy efficient houses that would use up a net of zero energy. Robbins says that by using newer, efficient appliances, good insulation, CFL light bulbs, and solar rooftop panels and water heating, it’s possible to have a net zero energy home. He also states that it would be about $500 more per month for an average family to reach this goal, including energy efficient changes to the family cars. He says this is feasible for some of the population at this time, but as solar energy and electric vehicles become cheaper in the future, net zero homes will become more and more attainable.

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23rd July, 2010 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
Last week I visited Bombay Bistro with a friend, and we both had great meals. It’s located in the Great Hills area at 10710 Research Blvd, Ste 126 (right by the HEB), and it is rated pretty well by customers on yelp and urban spoon (4 out of 5 stars for both places). The restaurant’s website isn’t working well for me, and without being able to look at the menu again I can’t tell you what I had, which makes this a pretty inadequate restaurant review, but what I can tell you is that this was probably my 4th visit to this restaurant in the past 2 years, and I’ve never had a bad meal and the service is always good. Each time I’ve always gotten a vegetarian dish, of which they have a good variety, and I’ve always overeaten. It’s American-ized Indian food, so it’s probably not very authentic, but it’s a nice spot to go during the week if we don’t have time to make dinner. The lighting is sort of dim and it’s decorated very nicely (big comfy booths, bronze decorations, sort of an exotic feel) – you wouldn’t expect such a nice looking restaurant to be located in an HEB strip mall - it’s a very relaxing, comfortable atmosphere. The prices are reasonable ($10-15) at Bombay Bistro, and if you are trying to eat vegetarian meals more often when you are eating out, Indian restaurants in general are a great place to start because there’s always such a great variety of interesting vegetarian dishes!
