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