It is.

The clubbed and striped antennae give it away. My first impression was that it was a lycaenid, it would be pretty small, if it were but that leaf in the first picture, is it a hackberry? Maybe it is a nymphalid. I am actually quite poor with my butterflies. They are a group with fanatics and so I avoided them to my suffering since they are actually fascinating and beautiful.

I think I found it! I'm not sure--will head to BugGuide to check, but in my Houston-area butterfly book, there's a listing for "Amymone", _Mestra amymone_, that shows the pale gray, white band, orange-yellow band above, and mentions its low, weak, fluttery flight and "breeds as far north as Austin..." It is migratory.

Yup, that's it. See:

http://bugguide.net/node/view/57021

Tony Gallucci photographed one near Kerrville, dorsal and ventral views, just exactly like yours here. Apparently its called "Common Mestra" in some places and "Amymone" in others.

Now--was that really what we saw yesterday? I'm not sure, but if the darker scales had been lost from the top of the one we saw (it looked more whitish to me) then I'd say yes.

yes-nanowrimo? or no-nanowrimo?

i think i will attempt. much less on the fence than i was. expecting some failure. but expecting some goodstuff too. your sis is being protectively cautious - for you and for her... however, my monkeys are dusting off their parasols right now... so, what are the pros and cons of officially registering with the actual nanowrimo official site? http://www.nanowrimo.org/
(which now seems to be up and running at last)

All I got from registering with NaNoWriMo was a bunch of incoherent e-mails. They might help you find local NaNo groups you can meet with in your area. But you can also find them through Live Journal and other sources.

Should I set us up an LJ community where we can chat and share our progress and/ frustration at our lack of progress. It has to have a name.

i think she is going to write an amazing novel if not now, sometime and nanowrimo should get her started... and i think the LJ community should have monkeys and parasols in the name... heeheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee