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.