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This week: Swedish Meatballs For the meatballs... 1 cup minced onions 2 tbsp. butter 1 egg 1/2 cup milk 1/2 cup fresh bread crumbs (unflavored) 1 1/4 tsp. salt 1 tbsp. sugar 1/2 tsp. all spice 1/2 tsp. nutmeg 3/4 lbs. ground chuck 3/4 lbs. ground pork Saute onions in butter until soft. Set aside. In a mixing bowl, combine egg, milk, bread crumbs and spices. Add meat and onions; mix until well blended. Shape into 1 1/4" balls. Place in two lightly buttered 13x9 baking dishes. Bake @ 350F until lightly browned. Transfer meatballs to an oven-proof serving dish or casserole. Scrape fat drippings from baking pans into a saucepan. For the sauce... 3 tbsp. flour 2 tsp. sugar 1 1/4 tsp. salt "dash" of black pepper 1 cup beef stock 3/4 cup half and half or cream To the drippings, stir in flour, sugar, salt and pepper. Slowly add beef stock and half-and-half; stir over low heat until sauce thickens. Pour over meatballs and serve. Note: You can make the meatballs up ahead of time a...

St. John Church / Heritage Plaza (background) Sam Houston Park Heritage Society In 1891, German farmers built this country church in northwest Harris County for their Evangelical Lutheran congregation. It still has its original altar-pulpit and cypress plank pews. The church was given to the Heritage Society by the congregation in 1968.

One of the problems with "movement" politics is that the movement followers tend to want purity over pragmatism... this kind of energy is great, if tempered by leadership that knows how to harness the fervor without engendering a backlash. It's a fine line to walk -- and harder to accomplish: you risk ticking people off that might normally support you and you risk losing support from your followers when you transgress into what they perceive as heresy. I wonder when the "disappointment moment" will happen with Obama... and whether that will be enough to tamp down his base of "new" support. (Of course the flip side is the Clinton campaign, which banked on experience and competence, but failed to ignite the kind of passion -- however short-lived -- of the Obamaniacs. My hope is that Hillary be given the opportunity to become Obama's LBJ, should she not pull off winning Texas and Ohio.)

Woodway Bridge over I-59... one of the "gateway" bridges into downtown that are marked with bright red fineals and fiber optics outlining the arches that change colors at night. (Although I took the original photo in color, I like it better with in black & white because of the contrasts.)

For some reason, I've been banned by John Aravosis on AmericaBlog -- probably because I noted that he's become increasingly shrill in his commentary rather than reasoned in his approach. Yet other hateful comments are left. Oh well -- his blog has jumped the shark... and now comes off my favorites list and blog role.

More from the sculpture garden at Reliant Park... The trail riders are just a couple of days from camping out at Memorial Park. http://www.hlsr.com/wh/wh_tr.aspx

15 days to go before this 19th annual AIDS Walk Houston... and if you happen to stumble on this blog and would like to support the Walk -- http://www.aidshelp.org/goto/chevron is my starting place. I'll be there -- walking and taking pictures -- and will post a recap afterwards. (This is a weird year in terms of timing -- usually, I'm done with the Rodeo by the time the walk is here, and the only timing conflict is with Mardis Gras. Instead, the walk is right in the middle of International Days at the Houston Rodeo, which makes it rather jam-packed schedule-wise.)