I’ve put 3 new posts on the Eco-blog:
The Reusable Coffee Sleeve -this was my “WTF?” thing I came across yesterday.

CFL Bulbs - money saving lightbulbs AND better for the environment

Natural Deodorizers - just what it says. Motivated by my own need to get rid of some weird smell in my washing machine.

Now,I want to say something here. Even if you don’t care anything about the environment and don’t give a damn about being green or think that the whole environmental movement is some sort of liberal crackpot scheme to control the government and turn America into a communist state (hey, strange things go through people’s heads)…..the eco-blog has some good tips for anyone who wants to save money. Contrary to some misconceptions, being green DOES NOT cost more. Quite simply, simple living is just that - simple AND costs a lot less. That’s why I get so pissed off at companies trying to make a dime off the “green” trend by charging more for “natural and eco-friendly” products. Living green is NOT expensive.

So,therefore…if you want to save money , a nice by-product of some green methods will benefit you as well,even if you don’t care about the whole green part.

Anywhore….

Not too terribly much happening here.

I have to go buy lemons today for my entrepreneurial daughters who want to have a lemonade stand.

Maia and I are sewing a Crayon Roll-up for her crayons today. She wants it to be able to hold all 96 of her new crayons but I think we’ll make it more practical and hold 24.

I also need to make a Sourdough Starter. I want to see if this helps my bread production because so far the traditional bread baking method is not helping me to replace store bought bread with homemade. When Dylan was little, I made our bread with a Sourdough Starter and it was really easy and I always had surplus starter to get rid of…because then of course it was only him and me.

I also want to go check out the new “Sweet Shoppe” that just opened here in town. It’s a traditional bakery but they also are serving smoothies and ice cream. They were closed yesterday when I tried to take Lilly. Poo.

Memorial Day was unkind to my body. After watching our (very short) parade, we decided to go for a family creek walk. Half way to our destination where we intended to leave the creek and take the road home, I nearly quit.

This means I’m getting old. I’d never quit a creek walk in previous years.

The kids went ahead of us and left us behind w/ Dmitri , who at 2 is not quite capable of navigating all the rocky spots and deeper water of the creek on his own and moves at a slower pace, especially when he stops to relocate rocks that were perfectly content where they were on the bank of the creek to the bottom of the creek.

Because the other kids went ahead of us, they missed out on the dead deer laying on a little inlet in the middle of the creek. There’s a great CSI:The Great Outdoors opportunity in there. Did it get wounded by a hunter and wander down by the creek to die? Did it have some disease? Did it starve? (not likely considering out nice Global Warmed Mild Winter)…. Was it a crime of passion? Did some bigger buck catch this young buck with some hot young doe?

*sigh* we’ll never know.

Also on our travel up stream, Bob found an egg laying on a rock. There was no visible nest it could have fallen from, no mama bird flapping hysterically about…just a lone egg on a rock. When he picked it up, he noticed it was cracked…and there was movement inside. The poor baby bird was alive but from the looks of it, it was not even fully formed and wasn’t even ready to hatch yet. Poor thing Bob named it Balboa..(because he was a fighter,get it?). He ended up doing the human thing and ended it’s short life. There was no way it could have survived if we had just left it and it would have suffered.

After creek walking, we had a nice little BBQ w/ BBQ Pork Chops, a big tricked out macaroni salad,beans,watermelon….all that good stuff. Dylan went to the park w/ some friends after dinner and the rest of us just stayed home and chilled. I worked on my sock knitting skills …whee!
I guess that was about the extent of our Memorial Day.

Today so far has been relaxing. We’ve done the jaunt to the library and now I’m about to get Little Guy down for a nap so Lilly and I can take bottles and cans back to the store to get stupid toilet paper and go have a Mama-Daughter Date to the new bakery/smoothie shop.And with that little exciting bit of info,I’m off

Pretty sad about Oklahoma banning abortion in state hospitals. One small step to pave the way to try to overturn Roe v. Wade.

I was reading the April issue of Mother Jones recently and there’s an article about Operation Rescue . Now, I’ve really hated that organization for a long time now. I consider them domestic terrorists. What else could you call them? I mean, they drive around in ice cream trucks with music playing designed to draw children near and then they have pictures of aborted fetuses plastered all over the side of the truck (they call them “Truth Trucks”) and a man with a megaphone shouting out his whole fire and brimstone spiel.

If that’s not creating terror (which is what a terrorist does), I don’t know what it is.

Since most of these groups are religious based, they seem to be a good example to me how some people can lose all common sense and decency for the sake of their religion.

Anyway, now this group, as well as other anti-abortion groups are in the practice of protesting aggressively outside women’s clinics with the intention of causing the clinic to lose their clients and be forced to shut their doors. The groups then buy the women’s clinics and operate them under the guise of a clinic and when a woman makes an appointment to have an abortion,she’s bombarded with these bastards telling her she’ll be a murderer if she kills her baby, yadayadayada.

Um, there’s laws against business fraud and false advertising. Why aren’t charges being brought against these people for doing this?

I wouldn’t have half as many problems with these anti-abortion organizations like this if they’d just offer practical solutions to women wanting an abortion and save their moral preaching. What they seem to do is pressure a woman and scare her with eternal damnation into not having the abortion and then what? Nothing. No support,no advice…no practical solution to what she should do with the fetus once it grows to be a baby and is born.

Personally, it’s my feeling that every adamantly anti-abortion person should become a foster parent and adopt an unwanted child. If they want to prohibit women from having an abortion, they’re going to have to take some of the responsibility for raising these unwanted babies and ease the burden off the already way overtaxed foster care system.

These organizations just make me so angry. Don’t they realize that there are other things besides abortions that happen at women’s clinics? Women who can’t afford to go to an OB/GYN NEED the services of women’s clinics for routine health check-ups as well as when they have a problem. Also, these clinics are important places for teenagers to go to for proper sexual health and preventive methods. Well, for that matter…..for ANYONE needing those services.

It’s funny that a lot of these groups are also anti-contraception,isn’t it? To me, the logical solution to reducing abortion is to make it unnecessary. If more young women (AND men) are educated about birth control and the methods are made readily available to them both then it will greatly reduce the rate of unplanned and unwanted pregnancies. Not to say it will not eliminate entirely the need for abortion because obviously,things happen and each circumstance is unique but it will have an impact.

The other thing that bothers me from the anti-abortion movement is how much they try to make you believe that all women who have had an abortion are wracked with guilt and sorrow over their decision. I’m sure some do have issues with it but most are fine with their decision and embrace it as being part of being a “good mother”.

I leave you with I’m Not Sorry.Net:Celebrating Women’s Right to Choose

:: The Current Stuff::
Reading:::shut up
Listening: ::Mike Doughty,Haughty Melodic. I don’t think there’s a single song I don’t love on that album
Watching(ed):::nada
Project:::get newest batch of paper dried and cut fabric for sundresses.

Let’s see…the weekend. Let me see if I can remember highlights.

Miss Maia lost her first tooth.
The Tooth Fairy now pays $5 for the first tooth. I feel gyped.No way I ever got $5 for a tooth when I was a kid!

Lilly has the strangest teeth.She grows new teeth behind the baby teeth so she’ll have a new tooth and a loose one simultaneously. Right now,she’s got one dangling and there’s clearly another tooth there too.

Yesterday….went to breakfast with my Grandma,mom and Dylan at the American Legion.

Yesterday morning the pink & purple paper I made on Friday sold on Etsy. I really loved the color of both of them:

Yesterday I made a batch of offwhite with green tea added, a batch of solid green, then green with yellow flecks then this really strange yellow-green that kind of looks like Gatorade.

Tomorrow is Bob’s surgery. He’s got to go pick up his Vicoden and other prescriptions today so he has it for afterwards. Whee. Gotta mail packages today (including the 2 dozen wipes for girl-interrupted ).

Ugh, kids. Doing nothing but squabbling this morning. I’ve totally lost track of what I wanted to say….

:: The Current Stuff::
Reading::: Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm
Listening: : Harry Belafonte
Watching(ed)::: Dreamgirls and When the Levees Broke:A Requium in 4 Acts (I finished “Act 3″ last night)
Project::: stuff
Website: Atlas Quest - another Letterboxing site.The two Letterboxes we went to the other day aren’t listed on there but others are we didn’t know about so I figured it was a good ide to hang on to it

Before I forget….people were all indignant about the $25 shopping bag (as I was) and a lot mentioned they’d use cloth shopping bags if they didn’t have to pay so much. That one bag was rare (and an example of what I was talking about with people having a business motto of “I can save the world with my craft” but not really looking at who their target market should be ,instead of or in addition to the nouveau hippies who have money.)

a few weeks ago,I had a post on the Green Blog about shopping bags:
BYOB
I listed ideas of places you can get cloth bags pretty cheaply, so if you want to use cloth bags, check that out first.

Also, I mention in that post that some grocery stores have complimentary or low cost bags for customers. If you ask at customer service and they don’t have any, speak to someone managerial and suggest that they start carrying them. Be like,”Dude, do you know how much money your company could save if you used reusable bags instead?”.(yes,people…say it just like that,with the ‘Dude’ and everything.. ).Companies are more likely to change policies if it saves them money. Add the eco stuff afterwards and you could mention that doing the right thing by the environment is only going to boost the company’s image.

And if that dude or dudette stands there looking at you like you some crazy tree-hugger, write to their boss and tell them all the dude stuff.

Anyway….

The stench form the dumpster on the other side of the fence in the backyard is driving me nuts. It’s so gross. It’s from the bar/restaurant 2 door’s down. Good lord, I don’t understand why some restaurants don’t compost their crap. They have space out back. Cornell Coop would probably manage it for them. And it wouldn’t cost anything,as opposed to that stupid dumpster.

And it wouldn’t smell like a dead body in my back yard. *gags*

Little Guy is pissed at me. I won’t let him go upstairs until the girls are awake. I put the gate up and he cried and yelled,”DAMMIT!”. *dies* Now he’s consoling himself with nursey. I love how he’s pissed at me…yet using me as comfort .Silly kid.

Oh,and speaking of nursies…
Maggie Gyllenhaal Rocks

I really hate the whole tabloid aspect of this though. I hate tabloids,anyway.At least they caught something decent for a change instead of stupid celebrities making out on a beach or Britney Spear’s nasty crotch.

All righty, it’s 7:30. Time to go make breakfast for the tribe and get this day started. Go me.

:: The Current Stuff::
Reading:::Same as before
Listening: ::I stumbled on Michael Buble yesterday. I couldn’t listen to him all the time but it was moodlifting and a diversion
Watching(ed):::I watched the most recent episode of Survivor last night.I’m a dork
Projects:::
Paper making.Would have started yesterday but I seem to have lost my papermaking screens so I had to dig out picture frames that had glass missing and ….then I realized the staple gun is missing, so I had to use duct tape to attach the screen. I’m skeptical about this workign but we’ll see.

Also, I’m pretty sure I can make a reusable grocery bag like this one using recycled jeans and charge a hell of a lot less than $25 for it. It’s hard to encourage people to use reusable bags when they have to pay $25 a piece for one.

Websites::: Squalor Survivor Stories and Pictures - I’m a little speechless, truthfully. I can’t stop reading and find it fascinating in an odd way and then I feel guilty because this is someone’s life I’m reading about and they’ve been incredibly brave to share it.
(And the really sad thing? There’s elements of what goes on in theses people’s brains that I can totally identify with….)

We have Bob’s surgery date.May 15th.Can everyone cross their fingers,pray,send blessings or whatever hoodoovoodoo you prefer that he has a quick recovery? thank you.

My little guy is potty training. He made it most of the day yesterday without incidence. We put a diaper on him when he went to the park and ballgame with Bob but he did not like that one bit.There really isn’t any bathrooms there,though so it’s tough. I’d rather we not have to do that.It feels a bit like stepping backwards.

Also, he doesn’t like the little potty chair,he prefers the toilet. However,our only toilet is upstairs. I was keeping the potty chair downstairs so we don’t have to mad scramble upstairs but he won’t go on it. Figures.

Life isn’t too terribly exciting beyond that. We’re going Letterboxing today,I think. *note to self:remember camera*

Rage Against the Machine has somewhat reunited. I guess they figure with the state of affairs in the world,they have something legitimate to be pissed off about and it’s worth another try to get people to get their head out of their asses and give a damn about the world and what’s going on in it.

This is probably a temporary thing.Maybe or maybe not.Who knows.Which is why if you’re a Rage Against the Machine fan…and they’re in concert in the same state as you, you definitely want to go.

NYC is an 8 hour drive from where we live.Well, depending on how you drive. We’ll say 8 hrs. Where we live in NY…NOT like NYC. I like visiting NYC but after a few days, I’ve had enough and want to go back home to where I can see cows and trees and hick country girl stuff like that.

(I know.There are people reading this who are amazed that there is something in NY besides New York City.)

Dylan…who turned 17 in March….wants to go to Ny City, by himself, to the Rage Against the Machine concert.

And I said yes. If you ask Bob,it’s because I’m a pushover and don’t use great judgment about these sort of things.If you ask other people,it’s because I’m just plain crazy. If you ask me,it’s because I know my kid is responsible and mature enough to handle it.

He has his ticket reserved.He found 2 friends willing to go with him ,who also got tickets. The plan is that they take the bus and stay overnight and come home the next morning.It isn’t until July so we have time to firm up details. Also, there’s this guy Dylan works with who has tickets. This guy is my age….but honestly, from what I know of him, the boys are probably better off going alone than with him but I am leaving that open as an option. He’s not a bad guy but …well…Dylan is probably more mature than he is.

I just wish I knew someone in NYC who I could have as a point of contact “just in case”.

I was tagged by Debi.
To name 7 random things about myself. And then to tag 7 others.

1. I have severe wanderlust. I really want to travel…EVERYWHERE. I have a section in my binder labeled “Wanderlust” that I collect magazine articles and such of places I want to go to.

2. Oh…my binders. I love my binders. I have my main BIG 3 ring binder that has sections for each month that I organize homeschool activities in, a section for my Lists (to-dos,movies to watch,books to read,etc), a section for household finances and things like that and other miscellaneous sections. I have a separate binder for arts and crafts, divided into sewing,quilting,knitting,crochet,kid’s crafts,recycle crafts,etc. My journal is also bindered. (yes,I just made up that word…bindered.It works for me)

3. I don’t believe in credit cards.My feeling is that if I don’t have the money,then I shouldn’t be spending it.

4.I have a collection of maps. My favorite is of the Caribbean Islands w/ sites of supposed sunken ships that may have treasure

5. On the wall, I have this Mary Engelbreit print that has a little girl with a stack of books and an ostrich with it’s head buried in the sand and it says,”Not to know is bad, but not to WISH to know is worse”. I love this little motto and it really reflects one of my greatest annoyances about some people. I get really perturbed by people who CHOOSE to remain ignorant or in the dark.

6. I HATE cold weather. The weather here the past few days has been sunny and in the 60’s,low 70’s.Everyone I see is like,”Beautiful weather we’re having,isn’t it?” and I’m like, “no,it needs to be warmer”. This is my ideal temps for WINTER. I could tolerate winter if it was like this.

7. There really isn’t a genre of music I won’t listen except stuff that’s really cheesy and bubblegummy pop…and stupid hip-hop and rap that glorifies violence and misogynist bullshit…as opposed to incredibly thoughtful,insightful and intelligent hiphop,which I love.I’m also not really into Industrial Rock,like NIN. It just feels too aggressive and grates on my nerves.But other than that? I listen to everything.

I’m not tagging anyone because 8.I make up my own rules

I don’t know if anyone else knew this but…
When you make coffee, you have to add water to the coffee maker.

urgh.

I’ve been waiting for my first cup of coffee for 20 minutes now. You’d think I would have figured out that something was up before just now.

I’m not the sharpest tool in the shed sometimes.

I think I’m going to try to make this a productive day.

At 10:00 a.m. tickets go on sale for Rage Against the Machine.The pre-sale tickets sold out in 20 minutes.Think I can score one for Dylan?(on his behalf,thankfully….using his credit card, not ours)

The whole Rage Against the Machine concert is another issue in itself I don’t feel like delving into right now. Let’s see if I get Dylan a ticket first and then I’ll talk about it.

We had this for dinner last night:L

Grilled Salsa Burger with Avocado
Serves: 4 Active Time: 25 min

1 lb Wegmans 90% Lean Irradiated Ground Beef, formed into 1/2-inch-thick patties
3 Tbsp Wegmans Basting Oil, divided
4 Tbsp Food You Feel Good About Hot Salsa
4 Kaiser rolls, sliced
1 avocado, peeled, pitted, sliced (drizzle with lemon juice to prevent darkening)
1 small (about 3/4 lb) sweet onion, peeled, sliced into rings
1/4 lb Manchego cheese, thinly sliced

Preheat grill on HIGH 10 min.

1. Clean grill with wire brush. Using soft cloth, coat grill grate lightly with vegetable oil.

2. Drizzle each burger lightly with basting oil.

3. Sear burgers on grill 2 min, until they have changed color about one-quarter way up from bottom. Turn over; baste (brush seared side with basting oil). Sear 1-3 min.

4. Turn over, baste. Brush seared burger with basting oil. Reduce heat to MEDIUM or LOW. Reduce heat to MEDIUM (for most burgers) or LOW (for burgers thicker than 1 inch); close lid.

5. Cook burgers to desired doneness.*

6. Spread salsa on roll. Top with burger, avocado, onion, and cheese.

Nutrition Info: Each serving (1 sandwich) contains 630 calories, 43g carbohydrate (5g fiber), 36g protein, 37g fat (14g saturated fat), 75mg cholesterol and 670mg sodium.

(that recipe was copy & pasted from Wegman’s (Bob’s work) website. The recipe was also in their flyer and when I was looking at it last night, it kept bothering me that the recipe says doneness. I don’t think that’s a word….and my spell check agrees so as I’m typing this, doneness has a red line underneath it.

Of course, we didn’t have Manchego Cheese.The only store likely to have that here is where Bob works and since he’s not working,there’s no point to go there just to buy some Spanish sheep cheese.

I substituted some Mexican cheese blend,pre-shredded.

Ok, coffee done…kids all up and squabbling about the evolution of children’s art and whining about wanting to be fed.Sillies.

:: The Current Stuff::
Reading::: Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, That same Hitler Youth book & Warrior Politics
Listening: ::Amy Winehouse…and Rage aginst the Machine
Watching(ed):::Nothing,really
Project:::cleaning out my front porch/foyer/mudroom, sorting through boxes of clothing

Well, it looks like I’m going to be blessed with hubby’s presence at home for awhile. He saw the doctor today and the verdict is that he has to have surgery on his wrist. There’s only 2 openings for surgery this month so hopefully Worker’s Comp will get on the ball quickly and approve the surgery before the open slots are scheduled. If that happens ,he’ll have to wait until June.

So, this month is going to be skinny,financially and I really have to pick up the slack and be entrepreneurial. No more squandering the spare time him being home affords me.

Which is fine. I need to anyway. I just need motivation. And I suppose this would be the motivation,eh?

Dylan went today to getr his tux for the Prom. *sniffles* Muh baby boy,going to the Prom. Eep.

We still need to get a corsage for his date. I don’t know what her dress looks like so I don’t know if a pin-on kind will be best or just to stick with a wrist corsage. Also, he dress is this odd turquoise color. So, I’m thinking white ribbons will be the best bet so it’ll match her dress.

I really don’t know though. I’m pretty clueless about this sort of thing. The whole Prom thing wasn’t my “thing”. I decided the day before my Junior Prom that I was even going to go.I went and bought a $27 dress at a vintage clothing shop and went with a gay guy.I can’t tell you how many times I rolled my eyes at the girls I went to school with that started planning for Prom in September and competed with each other for Mr. Popularity as their date/

Just…not my thing.

It’s really not Dylan’s,either but he’s going anyway.

Not much else going on in our house.Tomorrow is yoga class. This weekend is busy,with building still going on for the “Children’s Village” and a rally for the skatepark…and The Berettas have a show this Saturday night at The Rongo…which I won’t be able to go to because Dylan is usually our babysitter and of course, he wants to go ,too. Maybe on Friday evening, Bob and I will go to the Back to Democracy meeting and Movie Night.I can’t remember what movie they’re showing this week. Oh…and also this weekend is the big Impeachment Rally.

Hopefully it’ll stay nice and sunny. I had enough rain this week