today i am thankful for...

creativity and imagination. (and the fact that i'm done with my grocery shopping...)


source: serious eats

today i am thankful for...

• the birth of my cousin's daughter, peyton grace
• a great phone conversation with my friend kimber last night
• the coming cold front. i'm thinking soup...
  
• another chance at making pie crust
• pictures on the fridge
• the giant pile of leaves that sophie and i crunched at the park today
• the kansas farmer i saw interviewed today on "martha" who is growing heritage turkeys.
• magazines. i love magazines
• food blogs. i love them even more than magazines.
  

today i am thankful for...

• is it against the rules for me to say my friends two days in a row? because seriously, i get to count the most unbelievable people among my people. brunch with the girls this morning, dinner with ruthie tonight, and breakfast with ryan and holly in the morning. it's abundance!
• my yoga studio in kansas city. my teachers ashley, gina, sarah, and xi and their beautiful studio in the crossroads. this place became my second home (in more than one sense of the word) this past summer. i miss it every day.
  
• babies hysterically laughing, especially when that hysterical baby happens to be my niece.
  
• the friend of a friend of a friend who let me throw on to her compost pile today. hooray!
• the news that the writers and the AMPTP are going back to the bargaining table. i'd really like to see a christmas episode of "the office." call me shallow, i don't care.

today, i am thankful for...

• i seriously know the greatest people. i have friends in every corner of the world, a couple of which are in dallas for the weekend!
  
• the bulk section at central market, which allows me to buy one cup of cake flour.
• national public radio
  
• my new resuable grocery bags. they're working out great!
• a charlie brown thanksgiving
  

today, i am thankful for...

i've been learning alot this year about mindfulness. and intention. these virtues have been growing in me for the past couple of years, but my 2007 summer of yoga really framed them in new ways.

this, combined with the coming of my favorite holiday, has inspired me to count down the days to thanksgiving by...giving thanks. a thanksgiving advent calendar of sorts.

today, i am thankful for

• a perfect afternoon for a walk (which i did) - with a warm sun and a cool breeze.
  
• my eldest niece, who serenaded my voicemail earlier this week with a rousing rendition of "jingle bells."
• the fact that my job comes with free housing that includes maid service (what?). and vicky, the blessed soul who cleans my toilet.
• the team of writers who create the genius that is "the office."
  
• cranberries, apples, pears, and PUMPKIN. yum...

life is about balance, right?

getting a head start...

i have had it. i can no longer abide by the sheer number of paper/plastic bags that i myself partake of on a weekly basis. plastic bags are produced by a petroleum based process, used once, and even if i take them to the grocery store for recycle, i'm not guaranteed that they actually are reduced and reused. paper bags are somewhat better (i collect my recycling in paper bags), but starting today, my answer to the age old question of "paper or plastic" will be neither.

i am, at this moment, placing my order for four reusable grocery bags, made of recycled plastic. in addition, i am ordering two ultra-compact bags that i can keep in my purse, for random errand running. (note: i fully realize the irony of the fact that i am ordering bags to be delivered via UPS in order to reduce my ecological footprint...)

i am going to keep a running tally of the number of times per month i forget to BMOB (bring my own bag). i'll let you know on december 1st how many bags i accumulated over the course of november. of course, my goal number is zero, but we'll see how well i do here at the beginning.

if you're so inclined, i encourage you to join me in this endeavor. mindfulness is a good thing.

i'm just sayin...

i love candy corn. yum.

cool as a cucumber...

all non-menopausal female office drones could benefit from a pair of fingerless mittens. it helps keep you warm when your office temperature is approximately 40 degrees and you look down to find your fingernails turning blue. (i actually used to keep a couple of scarves in the drawer when i worked at the law firm for just such occasions). the benefit to fingerless mitts is fairly obvious. they are sans-fingers. so you can carry on with your Very Important Work unimpeded. typing? check! making phone calls? no problem! giving your coworker the finger? bring it on.

so for the past year, i have been on the hunt for just such a pattern. i thought i'd get in touch with my crafty side and knit myself a pair of fingerless mitts that would inspire fits of jealousy among my fellow i-keep-a-secret-space-heater-under-my-desk office mates. and don't get me wrong, the internets are a vast sea of fingerless mitt patterns. but they're all so...boring. i wanted my mitts to make a statement. to inspire conspiracies of theft among the non-possessors of such a treasure. i did find a pair of cable knit mitts that i liked alot, and they're still on my list. but otherwise, the pickings were slim for someone with such lofty goals as i.

but these. these are the money gloves. and i'm going to make the hat to match.

you know, since i'm moving back to texas, and the winters there are so harsh.

actually, i really like most of the hat patterns on marnie maclean's site. they're so pretty. and interesting. and have just enough going on that i won't gouge my eyes out with a knitting needle out of sheer boredom.

now i just have to dig all of my knitting gear out of storage...

you are what you grow...

michael pollan has written a great article for the new york times magazine about the farm bill, which goes before congress for renewal today.

kitchen window...

another reason i love NPR. they did a whole story on lima beans.

you should give them a chance. yum...

oh, in other news:
  * i'm moving to dallas
  * the spurs won the championship
  * tess had a birthday
  * i'm eating watermelon 24/7

happy thursday!

this is national public radio...

My maiden Aunt Una — universally known to everyone as Nunna — was 75 when I was born. She lived with her youngest sister — my grandmother — for pretty much her entire adult life. They had what you'd call a problematic relationship. They argued over minor, ludicrous things incessantly: Who took the last of the cottage cheese? Is teal more like blue or more like green? When is Hee-Haw on? They bickered over everything. And they swore like longshoremen. I acquired a working knowledge of the most multivariate and polysyllabic foul language imaginable. My mother and father never, ever swore, except on one memorable occasion involving my dad, a carving knife and an especially tough-skinned pumpkin.

you HAVE to listen to this. it had me in stitches...

chickenbutt and other lessons from grandma

i wish i were friends with eva longoria...

then maybe i could score tickets to tonight's NBA finals game in san antonio...

go spurs!

three!

every cinco de mayo, we celebrate not only with our favorite mexican goodies (read: margaritas and cerveza) but birthday cake. for today is grace's birthday.

what, you ask, are three year olds into these days? what things do they feel they need to to add to their vast collection of booty from generous friends, family, and (most of all) grandparents?

these are grace's requests to me:
1. storage
2. lobster

god, i love this kid. feliz cumpleanos, my lovely girl...

this changes EVERYTHING...

warriors finish off mavs with blowout win in game six

go spurs!

bears, beets, battlestar galactica...

fact: i am currently addicted to the american version of the office.

fact: this is the funniest thing i have ever seen. ever.

fact: if you have watched even one episode of this show, you too might pee your pants.

eek!

i have a job interview this week at bread for the world. much to my mother's chagrin, it is in washington dc.

they're flying me in and hosting me in their offices for thursday and friday. i'm attending an all staff meeting and meeting with department heads.

after a year of job searching, i consider myself to be officially jaded. but this looks pretty promising...

prayers and good thoughts would be appreciated. i'll let you know how it goes.

one. thousand. words.

i know that guy!

barclay was in yesterday's edition of the kansas city star! go have yourself a look-see...

wise words...

an excerpt from an interview with Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore's Dilemma

AM: If there's one thing that you hope the readers of The Omnivore's Dilemma will take away with them, what would that be?

MP: Eat with consciousness. When you eat with consciousness, and you know what you're eating, and you eat it in full appreciation of what it is, it's enormously satisfying. You also confront certain ethical dilemmas. I think it's important that we do that. One of the most irresponsible things we can do is eat in ignorance, without any awareness of what our eating is doing to the world or to other species. I guess that's what I would leave them with.

good stuff. read the entire interview here.

this creeps me out...

the newest addition to madame tussaud's house of wax in new york. and that's about all there is to say about that...

dewey decimal...

the online card catalog at my library has been down for three days.

this is proving endlessly frustrating for me. i mean, there are cookbooks i need to read! i need to reserve the sixth season of sex and the city! i might have books on hold that i need to pick up!

i love the library. don't judge me.

big six at the lake...

on lent...

The journey to Easter is not a mournful denial of our humanity. Rather, Lent embraces our humanity – our deepest fears, our doubts, our mistakes and sins, our grief, and our pain. Lent is also about joy, self-discovery, connecting with others, and doing justice. Lent is not morbid church services. It is about being fully human and knowing God’s presence in the crosshairs of blessing and bane. And it is about waiting, waiting in those crosshairs, for resurrection.

author: diana butler bass
source: god's politics blog

manu!

Manu Ginobili is thriving as the San Antonio Spurs' sixth man

Ginobili scored a season-high 40 points, including 24 straight for San Antonio in the first half, and Tim Duncan had 30 to help the Spurs beat the Atlanta Hawks 103-96 on Wednesday night.

"I've had some good stretches in my career," Ginobili said. "Today was kind of impressive. In those three or four minutes, or however many they were, maybe, yeah, it was some of the best."

read the full story here. go spurs!

ashes...

remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return

we like to call her baby tess...

a fine way to start the day...

guess whose pipes were frozen this morning?
guess whose upstairs neighbors' pipes were not frozen this morning?
guess who, as a result, had to take a shower at her landlord's house?
go ahead, guess!

i am going to texas next weekend. it will be warm in texas. i cannot wait.

well, hello...

i've been hibernating. every night when i arrive home from "work", i put on my pajamas, turn on the tv, and huddle up under my electric blanket (thanks, mom!). and save a trip to the bathroom or kitchen for some hot cocoa, there i remain until it's time for bed. it's been like this for over a month. like i said, i've been hibernating. march is just around the corner, though, and i can feel myself ready to awaken from my winter slumber and again engage the world.

so what, you ask, has been the thing to compel me again to blogging? is it my mother, saying that she's given up on me? is it my friends, checking to make sure i'm alive? do i have any particularly good news to report?

nope. none of these.

it is this recipe, my friends, that i must share with you all. that's right. homemade thin mints. i have several people as my witnesses. these are the best. cookies. i've. ever. made.

the ONLY motivation the weather as of late (grr, the weather...) has given me is to bake. so when i stumbled across this gem in my Great Recipe Organization of 2007 (i'll tell you about that later), i knew this was just the thing to soften my winter blues. i was right, and quickly had to remove all of them from my house or my winter blues would be replaced with a mighty stomachache.

i also baked these last weekend. yum.

they tell me that this is the last of winter's cold. you'll understand if i'm skeptical. if you don't hear from me, assume that i'm watching CSI (did you know there are THREE of them???), huddled under my old-lady blanket, plotting goodness in the kitchen.

thoughts for the new year...

i beg you...to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. don't search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. and the point is to live everything. live the questions now. perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer... --ranier maria rilke