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

i've been sick for a week. it's the weirdest cold i've ever had - SUPER cyclical, with me feeling okay in the mornings, CRAPPY in the afternoon, and okay in the evenings.

because i am a moron whose social calendar is overbooked, and because i feel pretty good at night, i'm staying up far too late. and the internal alarm clock that goes off in my head every morning is precluding any semblance of sleeping in.

fortunately, i don't have anything going on this week. this is good news, as in the last hour i have gone COMPLETELY HOARSE.

this sucks...

big six thanksgiving dinner 2006...

words from a hobbit who's currently staying at my house...

so yeah. go watch the lord of the rings with your loved ones this christmas. watch them and think of your own story. and think of someone you love, and someone who loves you.

but take something from em. they're great stories. they say: life is hard. sometimes you have to do some shit that you don't want to. and sometimes those things turn into adventures. or sometimes you want to have adventures and they turn into difficult trials. but either way, it's good to have friends there with you. live well. live fully. be ready for loss. or don't. but know that you have to keep going, even if you're crying as you walk. enjoy the nights by the fire. enjoy the days under the sunshine. enjoy the moments of shelter and kindness from people of all walks of life. live well. live full.

via hooch dupree and the whiskey priest

i'd like to buy a vowel...

wheel watchers, tonight you can see my friend edye bisagno as a contestant on WHEEL - OF - FORTUNE!!!

this is so random, so fun, and soooo edye...

be sure and watch!

world AIDS daydecember 1, 2006

In the 25 years since the first case was reported, AIDS has changed the world. It has killed 25 million people, and infected 40 million more. It has become the world’s leading cause of death among both women and men aged 15 to 59. It has inflicted the single greatest reversal in the history of human development. In other words, it has become the greatest challenge of our generation.

For far too long, the world was in denial. But over the past 10 years, attitudes have changed. The world has started to take the fight against AIDS as seriously as it deserves.

Financial resources are being committed like never before, people have access to antiretroviral treatment like never before, and several countries are managing to fight the spread like never before. Now, as the number of infections continues unabated, we need to mobilize political will like never before.

The creation of UNAIDS a decade ago, bringing together the strengths and resources of many different parts of the United Nations family, was a milestone in transforming the way the world responds to AIDS. And five years ago, all UN Member States reached a new milestone by adopting the Declaration of Commitment -- containing a number of specific, far-reaching and time-bound targets for fighting the epidemic.

That same year, as I made HIV/AIDS a personal priority in my work as Secretary-General, I called for the creation of a "war-chest" of an additional seven to ten billion dollars a year. Today, I am deeply proud to be Patron of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, which has channelled almost three billion dollars to programmes across the globe. Recently, we have seen significant additional funding from bilateral donors, national treasuries, civil society and other sources. Annual investments in the response to AIDS in low-and middle-income countries now stand at more than eight billion dollars. Of course, much more is needed; by 2010 total needs for a comprehensive AIDS response will exceed 20 billion dollars a year. But we have at least made a start on getting the resources and strategies in place.

Because the response has started to gain real momentum, the stakes are higher now than ever before. We cannot risk letting the advances that have been achieved unravel; we must not jeopardize the heroic efforts of so many. The challenge now is to deliver on all the promises that have been made -- including the Millennium Development Goal, agreed by all the world’s Governments, of halting and beginning to reverse the spread of HIV by 2015. Leaders at every level must recognize that halting the spread of AIDS is also a prerequisite for reaching most of the other Goals, which together form the international community’s agreed blueprint for building a better world in the 21st century. Leaders must hold themselves accountable -- and be held accountable by all of us.

Accountability -- the theme of this World AIDS Day -- requires every President and Prime Minister, every parliamentarian and politician, to decide and declare that "AIDS stops with me". It requires them to strengthen protection for all vulnerable groups -- whether people living with HIV, young people, sex workers, injecting drug users, or men who have sex with men. It requires them to work hand in hand with civil society groups, who are so crucial to the struggle. It requires them to work for real, positive change that will give more power and confidence to women and girls, and transform relations between women and men at all levels of society.

But accountability applies not only to those who hold positions of power. It also applies to all of us. It requires business leaders to work for HIV prevention in the workplace and in the wider community, and to care for affected workers and their families. It requires health workers, community leaders and faith-based groups to listen and care, without passing judgement. It requires fathers, husbands, sons and brothers to support and affirm the rights of women. It requires teachers to nurture the dreams and aspirations of girls. It requires men to help ensure that other men assume their responsibility -- and understand that real manhood means protecting others from risk. And it requires every one of us help bring AIDS out of the shadows, and spread the message that silence is death.

I will soon be stepping down as Secretary-General of the United Nations. But as long as I have strength, I will keep spreading that message. That is why World AIDS Day will always be special to me. On this World AIDS Day, let us vow to keep the promise -- not only this day, or this year, or next year -- but every day, until the epidemic is conquered.

Kofi A. Annan

source: UNAIDS

other helpful links:

* world AIDS campaign

* the global fund

* (RED) (be sure and also click on the global fund link)

rachael ray, i'm talking to you...

i made this soup for dinner last night. it was pretty tasty. the hen house in fairway didn't have chipotles in adobo (although they did have canned snails), so i settled for some roasted chopped jalapenos. a decent second for sure. the soup was pretty good (could have used more jalapenos), but next time i make it, i won't be finely dicing the zucchini. the texture reminds me too much of raw onions.

anyway, this post is not a commentary on my last night's dinner. it is me, asking rachael ray the question...

are you kidding me? Why-the-Chicken-Crossed-the-Road Santa Fe-Tastic Tortilla Soup?? rachael, ye who are supremely overexposed at the moment, please, PLEASE stop trying so hard.

i was reading some food blog the other day, and the recipe that the woman had listed called for extra virgin olive oil. the woman said, and i quote, "don't call it EVOO"

heh. it seems i'm not the only one who shares this opinion.

but the soup was good. and for that i say, thanks rachael...

early out...

it's disgusting outside. sleet, ice, twenty eight degrees...

as such, the long arm of justice has determined that we should all go home early! i was campaigning for immediately, but 3:45 will certainly do.

i'm going to make a pot of soup, and pray for snow.

from this, to houston tomorrow. a shock to the system, for sure!

in advance of the front...

outside, it's as windy as a spring day in texas. the kind of day where, for those of us of the female persuasion, we are careful to avoid wearing skirts.

it only took once for me to learn that lesson.

thank you to the ENTIRE month of march in plainview, texas...

grateful...

i thank You God for most this amazing
day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky;and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun's birthday;this is the birth
day of life and of love and wings:and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any--lifted from the no
of allnothing--human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

~ e.e. cummings, XAIPE, 1950

wonder woman!

sorry, texas...

rick perry re-elected governor of texas

a great start to the season...

spurs edge mavs 97-91 to win 10th straight opener

you can't make this stuff up...

on the menu last night at bar natasha: the barclay martini.

this is good news...

a new book by wendell berry. arriving on my doorstep november 28, 2006.

hooray!

from my second grade halloween play, miss morgan's class...

strange things can happen
on a dark halloween
the SPOOOOOKIEST sights
you ever have seen

jill and dave humes...

here's to you, jill and dave. you know how to throw one hell of a party. my red hat and i had the most lovely time...

oh, and best wishes for your new life together.

good news for your thursday...

guess who has a new cookbook out?

ina garten is my favorite. FAVORITE.

i must have this cookbook. there are not alot of things in this world that i feel i must have, but friends, this is one of them.

many of you have enjoyed the benefits of my obsession with ina garten and her fabulous recipes - apple crostada, macaroons, sun dried tomato pasta salad, turkey meat loaf, peanut butter cookies, sour cream pancakes...

yum.

i heart you, barefoot contessa...

can't get enough of...

joe purdy. check out his music.

introducing...

my new friend, paxton sharp. paxton's mom and dad, ryan and holly, are some of my favorite people. they live in san francisco.

welcome, little one!

category: superfluous things for the kitchen...

this would fit so nicely in my kitchen. as if i have any extra countertop space...
           italian glazed antiqued salt box

tess 3.0...

recommended reading...

eat, pray, love: one woman's search for everything across italy, india, and indonesia.

so, i just finished this book, and i'm recommending it to everyone i know. especially those of the female persuasion. I NEVER buy books any more, but this one will certainly make its way into my library.

an excerpt from each section of the book...

italy
it was interesting for me to discover what i did not want to do in italy, once i'd given myself executive authorization to enjoy my experience there. there are so many manifestations of pleasure in italy, and i didn't have time to sample them all. you have to kind of declare a pleasure major here, or you'll get overwhelmed... i found that all i really wanted was to eat beautiful food and speak as much beautiful italian as possible. that was it. so i declared a double major, really - in speaking and in eating (with a concentration on gelato).

india
the other day a monk told me, "the resting place of the mind is the heart. the only thing the mind hears all day is clanging bells and noise and argument, and all it wants is quietude. the only place the mind will ever find peace is inside the silence of the heart. that's where you need to go."

indonesia
then, yesterday, i was standing in the courtyard, saying my good-byes to ketut, and nyomo came shuffling past with her broom, sweeping and pretending not to be paying attention to everything that happens in her empire. i had my hands clasped behind my back as i was standing there, and she came up behind me and took one of my hands in hers. she fumbled through my hand like she was trying to untumble the combination on a lock and she found my index finger. then she wrapped her whole, big, hard fist around that finger and gave me this deep, long squeeze. i could feel her love pulsing through her power grip, right up into my arm and all the way down into my guts. then she dropped my hand and limped away arthritically, saying not a single word, continuing her sweeping as though nothing had happened. while i stood there quietly drowning in two rivers of happiness at the same time.

and the last paragraph of the entire book:
in the end, though, maybe we must all give up trying to pay back the people in this world who sustain our lives. in the end, maybe it's wiser to surrender before the miraculous scope of human generosity and to just keep saying thank you, forever and sincerely, for as long as we have voices.

handmade...

the post office has a new set of stamps featuring the quilts of gee's bend. in a word, they're stunning.

have you heard of the women of gee's bend? if not, here's an introduction from their website:

Gee’s Bend is a small rural community nestled into a curve in the Alabama River southwest of Selma, Alabama. Founded in antebellum times, it was the site of cotton plantations, primarily the lands of Joseph Gee and his relative Mark Pettway, who bought the Gee estate in 1850. After the Civil War, the freed slaves took the name Pettway, became tenant farmers for the Pettway family, and founded an all-black community nearly isolated from the surrounding world. During the Great Depression, the federal government stepped in to purchase land and homes for the community, bringing strange renown — as an "Alabama Africa" — to this sleepy hamlet.

The town’s women developed a distinctive, bold, and sophisticated quilting style based on traditional American (and African American) quilts, but with a geometric simplicity reminiscent of Amish quilts and modern art. The women of Gee’s Bend passed their skills and aesthetic down through at least six generations to the present. In 2002, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, in partnership with the nonprofit Tinwood Alliance, of Atlanta, presented an exhibition of seventy quilt masterpieces from the Bend.

tania and i saw the second exhibition of the quilts of gee's bend this summer at the museum of fine arts, houston. these works of art emerged by the hands of women who were simply working to keep their family warm by cutting up old work clothes and sewing them in to quilts. they are a living history - a testimony to the tenacity and determination of these women, raising their families in the post civil war south. and generations later, the women of gee's bend are still quilting.

never would they have imagined that their work would wind up on a stamp...

as always, NPR delivers in spectacular fashion. the women of gee's bend are profiled on this episode of all things considered...

another tale from the christian ghetto...

a gem from the piece, business gets religion, on NPR...

FaithGuard car insurance waives your deductible if you're in an accident on your way to or from a church function, or, as it happened to Pastor Jim Goforth, in an empty church parking lot.

and this isn't even the most unbelievable statement made in this article! you'll know what i'm talking about when you read the transcript, or listen to the entire story here...

everybody's got their thing...

season six of gilmore girls comes out on dvd today.

this is good news...

sugary sweet...

raise your hand if you knew that a can of del monte stewed tomatoes contains HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP.

this irritates the heck out of me.

how did i make this discovery, you ask? well, it's okra season, and i love me some okra. i recently ran across a couple of recipes for stewed okra and tomatoes, and picked some okra up at the farmers' market yesterday so i could whip up a batch. one of my recipe calls for canned tomatoes, and another for fresh. today i decided to try the recipe with the canned tomatoes, and as i was opening the can to dump them into the skillet with the okra, i read the ingredients. first ingredient (thank god): tomatoes. second ingredient: high fructose corn syrup. grr...

perhaps it was purely the power of suggestion, but the okra seemed too sweet to me. i mean, it was still tasty in all its slimy loveliness. but still...

so, this experience has led me to a couple of resolutions:

1) try the recipe that calls for fresh tomatoes. it will be interesting to note if, when using non fructose corn syruped tomatoes, the dish is less sweet that what i made today.

2) i am instituting a boycott of del monte stewed tomatoes. or, for that matter, any stewed, diced, or chopped tomato containing anything other than said tomatoes and perhaps a few spices within the auspices of its can. tomatoes, by nature, are tart and sweet at the same time. there is no need for sugar syrup in my stewed tomatoes. soup season is coming up (hooray!) and i go through multiple cans of tomatoes each week. this year, they will not be the tomatoes of del monte.

(mary begemann, i thought of you the entire time i wrote this post...)

not today, popeye...

E. coli in bagged spinach kills 1, sickens dozens

happy birthday!

holy crap, i'm running behind...

happy 30th birthday to tania on september 2
happy 30th birthday to lauren TODAY!

another reason to move to portland...

Realtors in and around Portland, Ore., will soon be able to search more easily for homes that have met national green-building standards. Starting in 2007, houses certified by LEED, Energy Star, and other such programs will be searchable in Portland's authoritative Regional Multiple Listing Service. Added amenities like on-site solar power and high-efficiency furnaces will be searchable individually. "People increasingly want energy efficiency in their homes, indoor air quality, and lower energy bills. This gives them the ability to find those features and a mainstream tool, which is important," says Terry Miller of Portland's Office of Sustainable Development. Advocates hope that the new policy will benefit low- and middle-income buyers; lenders may be willing to give bigger loans for energy-efficient homes, as money saved on electric bills could potentially go toward paying a higher mortgage.

source: grist

according to gram parsons...

the best thing we can do is learn from the past and live our lives the right way so, in time, when we can do something to change things, we will be real people. not sick or haunted by what life has done to us. we have the advantage of seeing definite examples of what can happen when people permit life to tangle them so badly that there is no escape. for us there is time - life can be real and beautiful if you build it that way honestly so there will be no lies or shadows to be afraid of later...it requires alot of work, knowledge, and love.

FINALLY...

new pictures of baby tess...

this is national public radio...

NPR how do i love thee? let me count the ways...

today i love thee especially for introducing me to a new band, the weepies.

listen to their interview from weekend edition here.

and a visit to the NPR website indicates they're going to be in kansas city next month!

NPR, you're so great...

two things...

1. i SUCK at blogging these days. (clearly)

2. just in case you were wondering, i have fabulous new glasses...

more soon, and thanks for your patience,
laci

ugh...

so my glasses just broke. in half.

i was on the phone with trenda at the time, and i let out a flurry of expletives such that i asked her to wash out her ears before she touches her baby again.

this is such poor timing...

wal-who?

Last October, Scott pledged to transform his sprawling company, which employs 1.8 million people worldwide and ranks No. 2 on the Fortune 500 list, into a lean green machine powered exclusively by renewable energy, producing zero waste, and selling sustainable products. Those goals are so lofty they sound downright deluded, but Scott has followed them up with specific, seemingly achievable commitments and timetables. He aims, for example, to reduce Wal-Mart's total greenhouse-gas emissions 20 percent by 2012, and invest $500 million in environmental improvements each year.

read the entire article here

a gift for the person who has everything...

The problem facing the Asian elephant is simple yet complex. In the age of technology, how does the elephant survive? Man had taken away its way of life when he cut the rain forest indiscriminately until there was little left. Now, the elephant had to find a new way of life or face extinction, or worse yet - degradation at the hands of man. Eventually an idea was formed. The simplicity of the idea (making Elephant Dung Paper) is remarkable. Collect the dung of elephants, turn it into handmade paper and then recycled products. We then sell the dung paper and return profits to feeding and caring for the Thai elephants

more information, plus photos of dung paper production in action, can be found here.

today's heat index...

is a blistering 107 degrees. a plastic cup melted in my car while amy and i were in the grocery store. MELTED!

raise your hand if you're ready for october...

hot dog, anyone?

Man Relishes Wonder Dog
by Mike Peters, Greeley Tribune
June 26, 2006

This is the story of an anniversary.

No, not a wedding anniversary or some company's anniversary.

This is likely the strangest and most bizarre anniversary you have ever heard of.

This is the hot dog anniversary for Richard Carroll of Milliken.

Five years ago, on July 4, Carroll was grilling some hot dogs for a family gathering, and he dropped one of them on the ground.

Josh Severin, a family member, quickly picked it up, and instead of merely brushing the hot dog off and putting it back on the grill as most men would do (remember the 5-second rule), he stuck it, lengthwise, on the radio antenna on Carroll's pickup truck.

That hot dog, after five years, after 80,000 miles, after rain and storm and sleet and hail, is still on that antenna.

And it's not a pleasant sight.

It's shrunken, this wonder hot dog, and it has turned black and kind of fuzzy and hard.

"It kind of makes you wonder," Carroll said this week, pausing to look at the shriveled symbol of picnics everywhere. "It kind of makes you wonder about all the hot dogs you've eaten over the years..."

He doesn't remember what brand of hot dog it was. Whatever brand, there must have been enough preservatives in it to prevent it from simply rotting away and falling off.

Instead, it's stayed on the antenna of Carroll's 1992 GMC pickup, stuck right at the top.

"I kept thinking the birds would eat it, or the wind would blow it off on the highway," Carroll said. "But I've been on a lot of hunting trips with it, and it's been brushed against tree limbs and bushes, and it's still there."

Carroll, 52, is a native of Weld County and worked as a heavy equipment operator for the Colorado Department of Transportation for 22 years.

He said he'll leave the wonder dog on the antenna until it finally falls off, but it appears it's become part of the antenna now.

As for the 5-year anniversary of the hot dog, Carroll said there won't be anything special. They'll just have a barbecue like they always do on the Fourth of July.

Cook something on the grill and have a picnic.

But Carroll said he probably won't be serving hot dogs.

the nieces...

interesting...

Ben Wallace appears ready to sign with Bulls

Free-agent center Ben Wallace is leaving the Detroit Pistons to sign with the Chicago Bulls, a person within the NBA said Monday.

happy birthday, nikki!

introducing...

my new niece, tesslyn scott hazell, born sunday, june 18 to my sister trenda and her boyfriend jacob.

as you can see, she's perfect...

a cacophony of errors...

i just spilled an ENTIRE sonic limeade all over my pants. while driving. and the limey-ness that was once was so pleasurable is now reacting with my freshly shaven legs to give me a nasty case of razorburn.

good grief...

you can take the girl out of the country...

i am currently the inhabitant of a hillbilly fabulous farmer tan (complete with v-neck accents).

it really is so classy.

it's pouring outside...

the evil bird left his poop upon my car
the evil bird left his poop upon my car
the evil bird left his poop upon my car
and the rains came tumbling down

bye, bye hot pink bird poo. while your fluorescent presence was certainly a curiosity, i bid thee farewell.

shat...

is there such a thing as hot pink bird poo? my car has been christened with such a substance, and i'm curious as to its origin.

regardless, it's gross. and fairly substantial.

when i finally get a job, the first thing i'm going to do is pay someone to clean the inside and outside of my vehicle. until then, i'm praying for rain...

recommended reading...

what could closure mean to a believer in an eternal soul? what could closure mean in the shadow of an all-seeing, all-remembering god? even to someone whose faith is as shaky as mine, it seems simply common sense that true stories do not end.

from vows: the story of a priest, a nun, and their son by peter manseau

a cornucopia of musical offerings...

ticketmaster is once again singing to me its siren song. listen to this...

• toad the wet sprocket - sunday, july 23rd at the uptown theater
• lyle lovett - tuesday, july 25th at the uptown theater
• laci's 30th birthday - saturday, august 5th (well, technically, that wasn't on the ticketmaster website...)
• ben harper - friday, august 25th at starlight theater

you have got to be kidding me. how in the world to choose?

happy birthday, trenda!

feliz cumpleanos, grace!

the jukebox in my head...

is currently stuck on one particular line of an alabama song.

i'm guilty of love in the first degree

you have got to be kidding me...

i am a sunburned moron who CLEARLY doesn't learn from her mistakes...

so when my mac died earlier this year, you would have thought that the threat of losing all of my thesis work would have made me religious about backing up my computer.

you would have thought that, wouldn't you...

well, monday i narrowly avoided DISASTER when the blue screen of death appeared on my PC. the PC with ALL my email on it. with EVERYTHING regarding brian's booking. the last time i'd backed that up was in january. do you know how many emails i've sent since january?

i said a very short prayer (over and over and over...) that if my computer would just start for ten minutes - just long enough for me to back this information up, i didn't care if afterwards it burst into flames.

it took about an hour and a half for my miracle to come, but god delivered in spectacular fashion. i now have a comprehensive set of backups. stuff i know i'll need, stuff i'll likely never need again. spare copies of it all.

perhaps you, too, might take the time to back up your computer today. no doubt there are files on it that you would be loathe to lose to the irretrievable ether of a crashed hard drive.

technology - i shake my fist at you!

kerrigan v. harding, the opera...

MEDFORD, Mass. -- When Tufts music student Abigail Al-Doory sought inspiration for her opera, she looked not to Wagner's "Ring" cycle but to the Olympic rings, where themes like power, envy and greed are plentiful.

In "Tonya and Nancy: The Opera," Al-Doory provides 18 movements on the scandal that turned the once-dainty sport of figure skating into a soap opera of whacking, wailing and time spent in jail.

Scheduled for two Tuesday night performances, the production portrays the skaters not as rivals but as a pair, singing for the audience's sympathy as the tawdry affair unfolds.

continue reading...