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