clearly, i suck at blogging. i'll be back soon, i promise...

unbelievable (but yet not...)

The FBI will issue a rare "letter of regret" and pay environmentalist Josh Connole $100,000 after mistakenly arresting him for domestic terrorism. Agents followed Connole for several days in 2003, after arson-vandalism attacks at four Southern California car dealerships in which gas-guzzlers were spray-painted with phrases like "Fat, Lazy Americans." His suspicious activities included living communally with fellow vegans, installing solar panels, protesting the Iraq war, and (horrors!) driving an electric car. When Connole caught on to the surveillance and approached local law enforcement for help, FBI agents arrested him, held him for four days -- often chained to a floor -- and prodded him to confess to the arsons. But oopsie! Another guy did it, and even wrote to the Los Angeles Times mocking the FBI for arresting the wrong man. Asks Bill Paparian, Connole's lawyer, "How does advocacy of electric cars become the basis for suspicion?"

source: grist magazine

we've got alot to be thankful for...

so i'm sitting here watching food tv and paula deen is making thanksgiving dinner, savannah style. although i'm not particularly enthusiastic about oyster dressing, everything else has me counting thursdays...

including these. sweet potatoes. covered in coconut. i mean, come ON!

sweet potato balls
4 large sweet potatoes
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons orange juice
1 teaspoon orange zest
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
2 cups shredded coconut, sweetened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 large marshmallow per potato ball

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Bake the potatoes until tender, then peel and mash them. Stir in the brown sugar, orange juice, zest and nutmeg. In a separate bowl, toss the coconut with the sugar and cinnamon. Press mashed potatoes around each marshmallow, creating a 2 to 3-inch diameter ball. Roll the balls in the coconut mixture. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes. Watch carefully for the last few minutes of cooking; the expanding marshmallows can cause the potato balls to burst open.

click here to look at all of paula's recipes from this episode (i'm totally going to have to try her apple butter pumpkin pie - yum) as well as find out when you can view this southern special for your very self.

i love thanksgiving. i love paula deen. i now know how to make turducken.

sitting by myself...

barclay has a new song up on his myspace page. maybe he'll play it live this saturday night at prospero's.

ahhh, prospero's. one block away from my house. and i'm in houston.

somebody go and enjoy the show for me...

from the daily dig...

How strange that we should ordinarily feel compelled to hide our wounds when we are all wounded! Community requires the ability to expose our wounds and weaknesses to our fellow creatures. It also requires the ability to be affected by the wounds of others... But even more important is the love that arises among us when we share, both ways, our woundedness.

Source: M. Scott Peck, "A Different Drum"

it's official...

i have a giant crush on orlando bloom.

tania and i went to see elizabethtown this afternoon. a few thoughts about the movie:

• (see above comments regarding orlando bloom)
• i love a whole lot of stuff about the south. (except sweet tea. yuck.) those people know how to take care of one another.
  
• i love small town culture. especially since i'm able to appreciate it from afar.
• one of these days, paula deen is going to be my friend.
  
• i'm a fan of any movie in which patty griffin makes a cameo. one can never, never get enough patty griffin.
  
• we should all take a road trip sooner than later.

i know alot of the reviews of this movie weren't particularly positive, but i really enjoyed it. i'd go see it again, and think you should too.

get it, it's your digestive system!

source: strange but trewe (via deanne)

in NOVEMBER???

so i'm working today at taft, and a lady just walked in with her ten week old son in transport. and what, you ask, was covering his stroller?

a mosquito net.

you have got to be kidding me...

has santa seen this?

ran across this article today while in the midst of thesis research:
a note on mercury levels in the hair of alaskan reindeer

a fascinating read, i'm sure...

if i were in kansas city, i'd go see this...

The Sacred Art of Sand Mandalas
November 1 to November 5
10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily
Union Station

Witness the construction of an ancient art form as the Tibetan monks of the Drepung Gomang Monastery construct a mandala, or Tibetan sand painting. The mandala (from a Sanskrit word meaning “world in harmony”) is a three-dimensional form composed of colored sand.

The Monks begin by consecrating the site of the mandala sand painting with a ceremony of chants, music and mantra recitation. Over the next 4-5 days, they will pour millions of grains of sand, using traditional metal funnels called chak-pur, to create the mandala.

Once complete, the mandala is consecrated and then swept up to symbolize the impermanence of all that exists. Half of the sand may be distributed to the audience in small bags as blessings for personal health and healing. Then the monks, along with spectators, travel to a body of water, where the sand is ceremonially poured into the water in order to spread the healing energies of the mandala throughout the world.

no better way to start the season...

spurs - 102
nuggets - 91

are your feet cold?

these lovely (and clearly warm!) boots can be yours for the low, low price of $59.95. That's 37% off the regular price! sale ends friday, october 28.

click here to order from zappos.com

ugh...

i'm pretty sure i'm getting sick. the universe hates me.

this is such bad news.

i like big butts and i cannot lie...

baby got back. acoustic, with a banjo. i kid you not.

listen here

checking in...

hey friends -

in an attempt to put off some work, i thought i'd post an update on the happenings and travels of the past few weeks.

i left kansas city on wednesday morning, october 5th, and drove to my parents' house in wellington, tx (click here for a map).

here are a few things i thought during my drive and first week at home:

• i love the flint hills of kansas
• i'm no fan of driving in the rain behind 18-wheelers
• pumpkin ice cream is the BEST
• listening to lyle lovett on the iPod as you cross into Texas is a good idea
• as is bringing with you a bag of hi hat coffee, for a little taste of kansas city in the panhandle of texas
• i LOVE high school football games. especially the ones that happen on a crisp fall evening.
• i was quickly reminded how inconvenient living in a small town can be when i had to drive to amarillo to make copies
• i heart sunday afternoons

i stayed in wellington until monday morning (which was the 10th). that day, i arose exceptionally early and headed west, to glorieta, new mexcio. glorieta is a retreat center about fifteen minutes outside of santa fe. each october, emergent has their annual emergent gathering there, under the falling leaves of the aspens. it really is my favorite thing we do all year, and save a couple of people, it is a pilgrimage that my closest emergent friends make each year. this year was no exception. the gathering lasted through thursday noon, and then my friend naomi (from minneapolis) and i drove up to taos. we stayed there through friday afternoon, and then drove down to ojo caliente (a natural hot springs) where we met up with friends for the evening.

regarding my travels to new mexico:

• t-mobile needs to get it together so i can have service on I-40.
• i drank WAY too many liquids on the way to glorieta.
• yay for rest stops.
• i'm no fan of driving in the rain behind 18-wheelers.
• if you ever find yourself in santa fe, you should go out of your way to eat at harry's roadhouse. yum.
• yarn spun by mennonites and dyed with vegetables is expensive. and makes a nice addition to my stash.
• i love october the most.
• i need to go back to taos very soon.
• the rio grande river gorge is scary deep.
• i'm totally digging this album by my friend ryan sharp.
• boo for rest stops that are open on one side of the road and closed on the other (especially when i'm on the closed side).

i returned back to wellington from new mexico on saturday, the 15th. i spent the week at home, resting, tying up loose ends from the emergent gathering, and obsessively watching coverage of hurricane wilma. there's not much to do in wellington, so there's not much here to report. except that:

• i love miss piggie's hamburgers. rusty, we should go there when you're home at thanksgiving...
• always buy enough yarn for your knitting projects. it's bad news when you run out of yarn for a project, replacement yarn is two states away.
• the reason there's no fall color in west texas is because there are no trees.
• i am more allergic to my hometown than any other place on the planet.
• not having cell coverage is both a blessing and a curse.

so now i'm in houston. i arrived here saturday night, and will be here until i go back to wellington for thanksgiving. i'm staying with my sister and my friend tania. monday is my work day for my paying jobs, and i'll be starting on thesis work tomorrow. positive thoughts and prayers will be much appreciated.

so far:

• driving through suburban dallas is a favor that i will do only for the very best of friends (i met my friend lauren for lunch on my way through...)
• seeing a sign on I-45 heralding an upcoming 161 miles of construction really takes the wind out of one's sails.
• thanks to debbie and stacy for getting married, and giving tania one of their extra beds. this means i don't have to sleep on the couch.
• this is the funniest website.
• if you've gotta be in houston, late october - may is the ideal time.
• it's fun having my friends ryan and holly from california in houston at the same time i am.
• it's nice to not have to cram seeing four years worth of friends into a weekend trip.
• some of the very best people in the world live here. i hope you get to meet them sometime.
• i hope the astros pick it up, or it's going to be sad times around here.

i hope you all are very well, and would love to hear from you.

laci

p.s. a bit of concert promotion:

1. barclay's unexpectedly back in kansas city, and is playing a couple of gigs around town. if you're looking to fill your evening with a bit of acoustic folk music, click here for more information. somebody's got to go for me, since i can't be there...

2. my friend brad hoshaw is coming into kansas city from omaha this weekend and will be playing at the borders on 91st and metcalf. you should get yourselves out to the show. you can listen to his work here, as well as find out the details on the show. brad has been in kansas city twice this year, and i have missed him both times. this is not good. don't let this happen to you.

3. for those of you in houston, my friend ryan sharp (referenced here twice already) is playing a show wednesday night at taft. more information available here. let's all cross our fingers that wednesday night isn't potentially the last game of the world's series.

4. and for those who love the classical musics, my friend nicole is giving a recital sunday night at baptist temple church in houston. the curtain goes up at 6:30 PM.

so the moral of the story: support independent artists - get thee to a show this week! and tell them i sent you...

back from new mexico...

eat your (knitted) vegetables...

from this month's issue of magknits.

ladies, i think at the next knit nite, you should embark upon a group project and knit a salad. amy, i'm sure we could find a good crochet pattern for radishes...

um, did he say heartbreakingly handsome?

from this week's edition of the pitch (by jason harper)

The phrases heartbreakingly handsome and pop singer, when attributed to the same person, usually point to complete garbage. Nick Lachey. Enrique Iglesias. Ryan (George Bush Rocks!) Cabrera. So it's a good thing that locally born singer and potential ladykiller Barclay Martin doesn't do pop. Late of the excellent bluegrass combo Potato Moon and a former employee at the friendliest little bean brewery in town, Hi Hat Coffee, Martin is smooth but not weepy, acoustic but not Dave Matthewsy. He's more like a version of James Taylor (the voice resemblance is undeniable) that replaces coked-out '70s mellowness with a brew of bluegrass, jazz and dark Americana. We haven't heard much locally from Martin of late because he's been traveling the country like a real walkin' man, but his 2004 solo album, Promise on a String, remains a very welcome entry in Kansas City's musical catalog. Buy it at this rare in-town performance at PotPie.

present and accounted for...

a hurricane update from my friend nicole...

Dear Friends,

Just wanted to update you...we survived the hurricane. Eddie and I tried to evacuate Houston on Thursday morning; but when we had only gone one mile in four hours because of the congestion on the freeways, we turned around and went back. We spent the duration of the storm at Eddie's mom's house (near ours), which is a more formidable structure than our house. The power did go off at her house, but not at ours. Other than that, we just encountered some slightly high winds and barely any rain! There was little damage done to our area...just some broken limbs. It turned out that the evacuation was the biggest challenge, not the storm itself!

Certainly others eastward of us were not as fortunate. We continue to remember these disaster victims and those of Hurricane Katrina in our prayers and giving, as I hope you do also.

Thank you all for your concern and calls. It means so much to know that so many people care for us.

We love you,

Nikki and Eddie

this seems to be the story i'm hearing from loved ones in houston on all fronts. trenda and jacob made it back to houston yesterday afternoon, and found the electricity out at her and tania's house. but by evening, it was back on. the biggest inconvenience of their day yesterday was that the cable went out minutes before the season premiere of the west wing, which jacob had been looking forward to since approximately mid-may.

not bad, in light of what we had feared earlier in the week.

i haven't spoken to jill personally, but trenda reported that she, dan, and all four dogs made it to dallas fairly easily on friday and returned home on saturday.

tania's still in dallas, hoping to avoid a repeat of thursday's seventeen hour trip. she and her mom will head back south either today or tomorrow.

to my friends across the country who have called and emailed expressing concern for my friends in family in houston, thank you. your care and hopefulness for those i love have been such kindness to me. and i've passed along your well-wishes to those in houston whom i've been compulsively calling over the past week. there's nothing like the kindness of strangers.

perhaps, one day, you won't all be strangers. it's a personal goal of mine to get at least some of you in the same room together.

until then, here's what you have to look forward to...


and there's a fun picture of barclay and anh here (i can't seem to pinch it off anh's flickr site...

exodus...

praise the lord and pass the biscuits...

while in line for lunch at rozzelle court, barclay and i found ourselves engaged in a riveting conversation regarding church potluck fare. i was offering my expertise on texas panhandle potluck culture, and its specific offerings of fried chicken (from allsups), deviled eggs, homemade rolls, pink cookies, and instant tea. i was also issuing warnings about all mayonaise, jello, and cool whip based salads. a cardinal potluck rule: if you don't know (or can't identify) the ingredients of any of these "salads," proceed with caution.

why, you ask? read on...

avocado-lime jello salad
2 sm pkgs lime jello
2 cups boiling water
4 small pkg cream cheese
2 mashed avocados
1 small jar pimentos
1 small onion, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
2 cups celery, diced
1 cup mayonaise

dissolve jello in boiling water. cream chease with mayonaise, add a little bit of hot jello. add avocados. mix all together and place in a flat pan (pyrex). when congealed cut in squares.

(source: for the sake of their culinary reputation, i will only say that i found this recipe in my very favorite orange church cookbook.)

the double whammy of jello and mayonaise. congealed. ugh.

may i never come across this "salad" in person. for the sake of the lady behind me in line.

i've been to memphis, and i don't mean texas...

note: i've been to memphis, texas - don't recommend it...

last night, for the second time in my very fortunate life, i have seen lyle lovett and his large band live in concert.

concert number one: a lovely november evening in houston three years ago. trenda and i saw lyle at jones hall (home of the houston symphony).

it was a spectacularly texas evening: the people sitting in front of us were wealthy houstonians who inhabited their wealth in a particularly texan way. the ladies sported fur coats, leather pants, large hair, bright red lipstick, and LOTS of perfume. the men were clad in wranglers, ostrich skin boots, leather vests, crisply starched shirts, big ole cowboy hats, and carried with them the faint smell of cigarette smoke mixed with expensive cologne. and they were tall. and kept getting up. and talked. alot.

but the concert was WONDERFUL. that's right (you're not from texas) is best experienced when in texas. it's like texas' school song.

and the musicianship on that stage. holy cow. assemble fifteen of the best studio musicians from austin, los angeles, and nashville, throw them on a stage together and let 'em go. my ears were very pleased with me.

and lyle lovett is funny. and from houston. and told tales of getting lost in a semi-shady part of town late one night on his way home from his favorite mexican restaurant. and we all laughed knowingly, because we all knew that part of town. and had either gotten lost there ourselves, or had worked very hard to ensure that we knew exactly where we were going so as not to find ourselves in the same predicament.

concert number two: last night with ruthie. a stormy night at kansas city's starlight theater (an outdoor venue).

the crowd looked a little less (ahem) refined than the texas show. likely it was because we had all gotten caught in the POURING rain on our way from the car to the venue. we all looked like wet dogs. but excited wet dogs, because we could see the stage full of instruments and microphones, and we knew we were in for an a-plus evening. if the freaking rain would ever stop.

we were slated to begin at 7:30, but were delayed just a bit because of said inclement weather. it seems the storms ushered in a bit of a cold front, because when the band took the stage at 8:00, we found ourselves in the midst of a perfect fall evening. the thunder rumbled a couple of times early in the performance, and the umbrellas came back out for 15 minutes or so at one point, but we were undaunted.

that's because we were entranced by lyle and his large band.

as a transplanted texan, it was fun to hear him make references to places i knew. like that line i've been to memphis, and i don't mean texas. as i said before, i've been to memphis, tx. it's about 30 miles from wellington (my hometown). we don't like memphis very much. or when lyle mentioned a truck stop at the corner of i-40 and highway 287. i know exactly where that is - right on the outskirts of amarillo. i've been to that truckstop before - it's a pilot station that has super-cheap gas.

and the music. un-freaking-believable. the fusion of jazz and blues, and country, and gospel. very few people can pull that off. lyle does it better than anyone. he and his merry band of better-musicians-than-the-majority-of-the-six-billion-people-in-the-world.

so if you ever have the chance, GO SEE LYLE AND HIS LARGE BAND. if you don't believe me, just ask ruthie. or trenda. or dan hamilton.

wednesday cheese

from an email i received this morning:

working for God on earth does not pay much
but his Retirement plan is out of this world.

just in case you forgot.

(why, do you suppose, they capitalized the R in retirement?)

looks like i've got competition...

one more on katrina...

by rick casey, houston chronicle

Is Katrina whispering in our ears?

Some preachers tell us Katrina is God's way of telling us to repent.

New Orleans is, to them, Sodom.

Biloxi, I suppose, is collateral damage.

I think God's message is much less sexy. God is lecturing us on economics.

Katrina is God's way of telling us that for all the power of the free enterprise system, it doesn't take care of everything.

In other words, thou shall not worship free markets.

Actually, a friend from New Orleans pointed out that the most free market in America over the past few days has been on the rubble-filled streets of his hometown.

It's a market totally without regulation.

You have armed thugs taking advantage of a crisis with all the moral depravity of Enron traders holding up California.

So let's begin by saying we need government to protect us from thugs, whether they be armed with guns or power switches.

But Katrina speaks of more than the terrors of anarchy. It speaks of the decaying concept of community.

read the entire article here

the truest words ever to come from the department of homeland security...

But if this is a religion story, it's not about an act of God or the banal use and abuse of the Bible as substitute aid for people dying of literal thirst; it's about sin. And no vague, blustery "pride of man" stories about ill-preparedness or mistakes by the Army Corps of Engineers will address the original sin of this event. We need theologically-charged, morally outraged, investigative historical reporting to tell us why and how the dead of New Orleans died, and when their killers -- not Katrina, but the developers and politicians and patricians who are now far from the city -- began the killing. It wasn't Monday, and it wasn't last week. We need journalists, not just historians, to look deeper into the American mythologies of race and money, "personal responsibility" and real responsibility. This isn't a religion story because God acted, but because people acted. It's not about what they didn't do, it's about what they did do, under the cover of civic development and urban renewal and faith-based initiatives that systematically eradicate the possibility of real, systemic response to a crisis that is more than a matter of individual souls.

source: the revealer

burying global warming deep in the heart of texas?

who says texans aren't environmentalists?

It’s a tired cliché that people like to stick their heads in the sand when a tough problem arises. But some smart folks in Texas are burying their problems – and it’s productive!

Carbon Dioxide (CO2) is a major cause of global warming when floating in the atmosphere. Innovators in Texas figured out how the gas can be pumped, or injected, underground, where it can be harmlessly stored forever.

In Texas, oil fields are drying up faster than a puddle on a hot summer’s day. But by pumping CO2 into the ground near oil deposits, more of that precious remaining oil can be pushed to the surface.

All in all, it’s a pretty nifty solution. By using CO2, more oil can be brought up through existing wells, helping to limit the environmental damage caused by drilling for new oil reserves in unspoiled areas. Today, some 14 oil producers are using CO2 injection on 49 different oil fields in the West Texas Permian Basin, pushing an impressive 180,000 barrels of oil out of the ground each year.

But this is just a start—the Department of Energy estimates that there are 44 billion barrels of oil in the U.S. that could be recovered with CO2 injection. The problem is there won’t be enough CO2 available for the job, unless power plants and factories start capturing their carbon dioxide pollution. A Catch 22 for the oil industry and the planet—but with oil at $60 a barrel, what are we waiting for!

Injecting CO2 under ground won’t entirely solve the problem of global warming, but it’s a creative start. It would help America buy less foreign oil, keep jobs in Texas and other oil producing states, and it could be the key to reducing global warming pollution from large factories and electric power plants.

via stop global warming

currently reading...

roadside religion: in search of the sacred, the strange, and the substance of faith, by timothy beal

faith requires one to go further than trust allows. this is true of religious faith as much as it is of the kind of faith required of us to be in relationship with other people. faith requires self-imperiling vulnerability. in faith, i open myself to another, to otherness, even to the wholly other. i expose myself, lay myself bare, express desire, show wounds. in this vulnerable expression of lack, fear, need, brokenness, i open myself to the unexpected -- to healing, transformation, a word of grace. i leap, arms wide open, teary-eyed face and soft belly exposed, into an unknown possibility, without assurance that my leap will land me safely on solid ground. faith requires vulnerability, desperate vulnerability.

highly recommended.

this is brilliant

via Rick

this just keeps getting better...

regarding pat robertson's comments on venezuelan president hugo chavez:

The Rev. Jesse Jackson called for the Federal Communications Commission to investigate, just as it did when Janet Jackson's breast was exposed in the Super Bowl broadcast in 2004. "This is even more threatening to hemispheric stability than the flash of a breast on television during a ballgame," Mr. Jackson said.

via the new york times

pat robertson is a moron...

Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson has suggested that American agents assassinate Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to stop his country from becoming "a launching pad for communist infiltration and Muslim extremism."

Robertson has made controversial statements in the past. In October 2003, he suggested that the State Department be blown up with a nuclear device. He has also said that feminism encourages women to "kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians."

source: abcnews.com

topic: the environment

why aren't conservationists fighting poverty?

on biodiesel vs. straight veggie oil

paper or drastic: on personal actions that make a real difference

lather, rinse, rethink: on making eco-friendly cleaning products

pee-powered battery smaller than a credit card

guess who i'm having lunch with today!

how i spent my 29th birthday and pictures of the bride and groom

one thing you will frequently find referenced here at in the midst is my girlfriends from houston. affectionately self-referenced as the big six. they are (please see the photo above to match names with faces) me, jill, nikki, lauren, trenda (my sister), and tania. lauren and i are unfortunately no longer in houston (a fact i simultaneously mourn and rejoice daily), so a couple of times per year, the six of us get together for a reunion.

last thanksgiving, we decided that we should repeat a big six vacation of a couple of years ago, and make our way to cloudcroft, new mexico, where nikki's folks have a cabin in the mountains. since all six of have summer birthdays, we decided that the occasion for our reunion would be a communal brithday celebration. and it just happened to work out that we did it on my actual birthday weekend.

and except for the man across the aisle from me on my flight who systematically tore up about five credit card statements page, by page, by page, by page.... it was a PERFECT holiday.

click here for proof.

and as promised, the bride and groom. lovely...

better days

i heart the robbie seay band. buy their new album. it's available via itunes.

this is good news

spurs re-sign robert horry

coming soon...

pictures of the bride and groom (also known as debbie and stacy). and of the big six holiday in the mountains.

try not to go crazy with anticipation...

book recommendation

cloudstreet, by tim winton

an excerpt:

Don't you want to be independent?

Quick, I don't even know what it means anymore. If it means being alone, I don't want it. If I'm gunna be independent, do you think I need a husband? And a kid? And a mother and father, and inlaws and friends and neighbours? When I want to be independent I retire. I go skinny and puke. You've seen me like that. I just begin to disappear. But I want to live. I want to be with people, Quick. I want to battle it out.

SHHHH!

i'm sitting here at the corinth library. it is louder than the freaking missouri state fair in here.

for the love, people...LOWER YOUR VOICES!

why we flee...

from friday's daily dig:

Unfortunately, in seeing ourselves as we truly are, not all that we see is beautiful and attractive. This is undoubtedly part of the reason we flee silence. We do not want to be confronted with our hypocrisy, our phoniness. We see how false and fragile is the false self we project. We have to go through this painful experience to come to our true self.

It is a harrowing journey, a death to self—the false self—and no one wants to die. But it is the only path to life, to freedom, to peace, to true love. And it begins with silence. We cannot give ourselves in love if we do not know and possess ourselves. This is the great value of silence. It is the pathway to all we truly want. -- m. basil pennington

geez...

tomorrow's my birthday. i'm pretty sure this would make the perfect gift.

i’ll put this one in the i’m-a-christian-but-not-that-kind-of-christian category

from SoMA Review

A religious troupe in Maryland now sells a Christian Flag of the United States of America. According to the website they’re “loving [their] Jesus in the U.S. of A.” And they’ve got a flag to prove it.

The flag features an eagle carrying a blood-stained cross (“the American Christian taking the gospel around the world”); 50 stars around the border (“US Christians banding together to protect [their] right to preach the gospel”); and some apocalyptic punch courtesy of the Gospel of Matthew and King James (“And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world…and then shall the end come” – chapter 24, verse 14).

The gold-fringed edition goes for 50 God-trusting bucks.

you have got to be kidding me...

oh that i had a picture of the bride and groom

i just returned from a whirlwind trip to houston to celebrate the marriage of my friend debbie. i, unfortunately, do not have any pictures of the bride and groom. when i obtain some from my friend (and photographer extraordinaire) todd, i will put them up.

until then, here are a couple of me to tide you over.

do you think they'd take a check?

a gem from this week's wellington leader...

NBA CHAMPS

poop...

(ROBERT SULLIVAN/AFP/Getty Images)

final score: detroit 95 - spurs 86
game seven thursday night.

go spurs!

only from my grandma...

my grandmother comes from a people who invent their own cuss words. a couple of gems: she-honkey and hella-tee-damn. needless to say, language around her house is often...colorful.

so today we walk into her house, she looks at my niece and says (and I quote): "hey, pooter-dick"

i kid you not.

pithy saying of the day

on a church billboard, in childress, tx

patience on the road prevents patients in the hospital

ba-dum-ch

that was the night the lights went out in georgia

on my list of favorite people in the world, you will find my friend nicole. i love her for many reasons, but today, i love her best for telling me that if one stays up til midnight, they can catch a late-night episode of designing women.

have i ever told you that designing women is my all-time favorite tv show? i have an uncanny (some might call it disturbing) ability make any life situation relate back to an episode of designing women.

go ahead, try me...

meltdown

oh my beloved san antonio spurs, what happened to you tonight?

in my mind, i'm going to carolina

song lyric of the day:

ain't no doubt in no one's mind
that love's the finest thing around
whisper something soft and kind

james taylor, you're so great...

ground rules

in the midst is not a publication designed for...
* conversations of deep ecclesiology, theology, eschatology, or any other -ology discussed on a seminary campus. for that kind of discussion, i would point you to my friend tony jones. bring a dictionary.

* conversations of deep politic. although i cannot guarantee the occasional rant against karl rove and his minions, go visit rick instead.

* conversations about mini coopers or mac computers. although i think both are great, you would be better served to visit my friend todd's blog.

* beautiful conversations about spirituality and faith with such poor spelling as to ask the spirit for the gift of interpretation. no, my friends. no one can do that like rusty.

* and finally, i can guarantee that this blog will not be dedicated (or even mention) the pursuit of running. marymuses is your source for all things fitness related.

well then, what else is left, you ask? oh, there's plenty.

in the midst is indeed a publication where you will find...
* observations of people, places, and things that i make throughout the day which i believe are too interesting for me to keep to myself.

example: the muzak at hobby lobby is truly horrible. i was in there today, and they were playing the absolute worst rendition of "be thou my vision" (on saxophone...) that i have ever heard. come on, hobby lobby. do you think you're really bringing people to jesus with this stuff?

* original pithy sayings.

example: ladies and gentlemen. when shopping for new clothes, always remember that just because they make it in your size, this does not mean that you should wear it.

* recommendations on books, music, and video.

i don't think we need an example here - it's pretty self explanatory...

* heartwrenchingly adorable stories of the exploits of children i know and love.

example: today i was in the mall with my niece (she's thrteen months), and she waved at every person we walked past for about five minutes. i wanted to eat her up, it was so sweet.

* the occasional recipe

* knitting stories (you can't wait, can you?)

* tales of big six adventures

and so on, and so forth.

so, let the blogging begin!