According to The Cabin, their Readings and Conversations lecture on Tuesday, Nov. 10 featuring Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has been postponed due to an illness in Adichie's family.

The Cabin’s artistic and executive director Paul Shaffer noted on their Web site: "We hope to reschedule her Boise appearance sometime early next year.”

All tickets already purchased for Adichie’s Readings and Conversations lecture will be accepted at the door at the rescheduled event. If you have any questions, call The Cabin at 208-331-8000.

The Boise Bicycle Project is looking for volunteers to help fix up some used kids bikes which will be given away to children whose families might otherwise not be able to afford a bike.

They’ve already finished 75 of the 150 they hope to gift this year as part of the third annual Christmas Kids Bike Giveaway. Anyone interested can turn out for volunteer nights from 6-8 p.m. on Mondays and Wednesdays. BBP is also looking for donations of training wheels to go on those bikes.

Call BBP for more info at 208-429-6520.

We did promise ya'll in the article that we'd walk you through the process for analyzing your hourly power consumption, so here ya go, step by step. We'd love to hear from readers how you plan to use this glut of new information.

If you want to read your actual digital meter, the one outside your house, you can follow the detailed instructions in the Idaho Power video on this page.

• Log in to your Idaho Power account, you may need to register, if you have not done that before.

• Then click on the "Energy Usage for ..." drop down menu at the bottom of your billing information.

• Then choose "Detailed Meter Data" and click on the bar representing any month.

• And voila, you can see when your kid gets up in the middle of the night to visit the refrigerator, the extra processor use in the middle of the day when someone is surfing, or, seriously, all the appliances that suck juice just because, even when you are not using them.

“Over the last several months, I have met with thousands of constituents from all over Idaho’s First Congressional District. They are gravely concerned about the economy, about job security, and about the kinds of opportunities their children and grandchildren will have to make a better life.

“Like most of them, I believe that cutting down the cost of health care is one important step we can take in moving our economy forward. We need to reform the insurance industry by demanding accountability and increasing private-sector competition. We must reduce government spending on programs such as a Medicare, and look to Idaho for examples of ways to do just that. And we must reduce costs throughout the health-care system, so the long-term benefits of reform will truly help our economy to grow and our nation to prosper.

“Unfortunately, the new health-care bill in the House does not adequately meet those goals, so I will vote ‘no.’ However, I am encouraged by the work of the U.S. Senate, and am hopeful that the final bill I vote on will be one that all Idahoans can support.”

Shu’s Idaho Running Company is holding the Shu’s Holiday Shoe Contest between now and Dec. 23 as a fundraiser for Girls on the Run, an organization that helps young girls through mentoring and track.

Contestants are challenged to decorate a pair of shoes with a holiday theme, be it Christmas, Thanksgiving or maybe even the winter solstice. Just bring the fancy footwear to Shu’s—along with the requested $10 donation. The shoes will be judged and the $10 goes to Girls on the run.

The owner of the winning pair will receive a $50 gift card, socks and a goodie bag, while second place will walk with a $25 gift card, socks and a goodie bag.

Stop by Shu’s, 1758 W. State St. or call 208-344-6604 for more info.

The 51 pieces each appeared on Boise Weekly's cover in the last year and all are works from local artists. BW accepts submissions from the community, pays every featured artist $150 plus a gift certificate from Boise Blue, and asks that each work be donated to BW's annual auction. Every November, we auction off the whole lot and then turn around and put the money right back into the arts community via a private grant. In eight years, Boise Weekly has raised more than $75,000 for the arts community through the auction.

Doors for the auction open at 5 p.m. and auctioneer Johnna Wells will start bidding at 6 p.m. sharp. If you see something tonight you can't live without, but you're unable to make the auction, contact BW Publisher Sally Freeman to place an absentee bid at 208-344-2055.

• Don't worry, we'll have more chairs than this come auction time.

• The year's most controversial piece, "The political world as seen from Boise, Idaho (November 4, 2008)," is up for auction.

• Google Maps / desert.net
• Boise Weekly First Thursday Map, November 2009

You've browsed our First Thursday calendar in the paper, and perhaps sought out wine and cheese and art on boiseweekly.com. You've used Google Maps to find stuff. Now you can use the First Ever BW Calendar-Google Maps Mashup to plan your evening.

Click around, zoom in and out, drag the map to you or push it away. And then fix your scarf and get out there in the cold. I'll be here, paying what I can ... where you be?

Today’s esophagus burning questions of the day are brought to you by the letter “booze.”

A couple of weeks ago, user Violet asked, “What's the best happy hour in town?” The question only received a couple of short replies, not nearly enough to properly answer a question of this magnitude.

Then yesterday, user beesknees asked a related question: “What's the best hangover cure? Hair of the dog? Greasy burger and fries?”

Have any thing to tell these two hoochounds? Know where to find the best cheap buzz or how to wash away a buzz that once was? Then pop on over to questionland.boiseweekly.com, stat!

And as every one goes to bed at night,
My heart wakes,
My mind gets at work,
And all I dream about is, me in the war,
Is me in the refugee camp,
Is me fighting together with those refugees I left behind to bring peace,
I have never find peace,
Reason why I am writing to you,
To hear our voices in the empty space,
Blowing in the wind, seeking to catch the ears of the merciful,