Oh you poor, poor pets... 
Ride 'em, cowboy!
This costume stinks...
Ride 'em, cowboy!Really?
Friday, October 24, 2008
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
NPR
Most days at work I listen to National Public Radio in my office. NPR presents all sorts of interesting programs, of which my favorites are: Talk of the Nation, Fresh Air, All Things Considered, Calling All Pets (and Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me! on the weekends).
Right now our local station KSKA is holding a membership drive to raise money for the annual budget and it seems that every five minutes they are asking for pledges. And the guilt! They have really perfected the art of making you feel bad about listening without supporting your member station. I feel like I should change the dial when the pledge drive harpies come on. But the tactics do seem to work, especially since I made a donation this morning. Now I can sit smugly in my office and listen to NPR without guilt. Until next year.
Right now our local station KSKA is holding a membership drive to raise money for the annual budget and it seems that every five minutes they are asking for pledges. And the guilt! They have really perfected the art of making you feel bad about listening without supporting your member station. I feel like I should change the dial when the pledge drive harpies come on. But the tactics do seem to work, especially since I made a donation this morning. Now I can sit smugly in my office and listen to NPR without guilt. Until next year.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Black hole
Why is it so cold in here? Oh, I see, Sammy is sucking up all of our precious house heat for herself. Way to go, kitty.
No, don't get up, I'll just put on another sweater.
FYI, we don't usually have hundreds of power cords all over the floor -- the house is still in remodeling mode.
Monday, October 20, 2008
Oh, rubbish
Last year I jumped on the recycling bandwagon and now I can't imagine how we ever threw away the things that we did. Every few weeks I would dutifully haul our glass, tin cans, aluminum, plastic bags, newspaper, plastic bottles and paper to the recycling center a couple miles from our home, navigate the sea of cars in the chute and elbow my way to the big bins. Doesn't that sound like a lovely way to spend a Saturday?
But hallelujah -- we now get curbside recycling in our neighborhood. I gladly pay the extra $6 a month to avoid the bi-monthly trip to recycling hell. We get to use this spiffy wheeled bin and the best part? NO SORTING! They WANT you to just dump all the stuff in there and forget about it
The only downside is that they do not pickup glass or plastic bags -- I can understand not accepting glass in the bin, because really, no none wants to deal with broken glass -- but plastic bags? Huh. So once every 2 months I still visit the center to drop off these items. Not all centers can accept everything with a recycling logo on the bottom -- ours is no exception, so I feel guilty when throwing away things like yogurt cups or other plastic containers, but there's really no alternative. Although we do save some of those containers to store the shrimp we get from Prince William Sound in the summertime. Along these lines, Real Simple magazine has a great explanation of how to recycle anything.
When we remodeled the kitchen, D worked in an area for my recycling bins -- yes, he's pretty great -- and I sewed a little curtain with Ikea fabric and hung it with some hardware, also from Ikea. It's a great system for me -- when the bins fill up, the recyclables get dumped into the big green bin outside.
But hallelujah -- we now get curbside recycling in our neighborhood. I gladly pay the extra $6 a month to avoid the bi-monthly trip to recycling hell. We get to use this spiffy wheeled bin and the best part? NO SORTING! They WANT you to just dump all the stuff in there and forget about it
The only downside is that they do not pickup glass or plastic bags -- I can understand not accepting glass in the bin, because really, no none wants to deal with broken glass -- but plastic bags? Huh. So once every 2 months I still visit the center to drop off these items. Not all centers can accept everything with a recycling logo on the bottom -- ours is no exception, so I feel guilty when throwing away things like yogurt cups or other plastic containers, but there's really no alternative. Although we do save some of those containers to store the shrimp we get from Prince William Sound in the summertime. Along these lines, Real Simple magazine has a great explanation of how to recycle anything.
When we remodeled the kitchen, D worked in an area for my recycling bins -- yes, he's pretty great -- and I sewed a little curtain with Ikea fabric and hung it with some hardware, also from Ikea. It's a great system for me -- when the bins fill up, the recyclables get dumped into the big green bin outside.
My mom has been recycling in her own way for as long as I can remember. In elementary school my sister and I were instructed to bring home our ziploc bags so they could be washed and reused. Hello, my mom is a trendsetter, people! I guess you can say that most Koreans are into reusing and saving -- this post on reusing plastic bags from the blog "Stuff Korean Moms Like" is hilarious but true. And it is truly written with love and respect -- don't send me any angry emails!
Companies even make drying racks for your ziplock bags!
I am truly my mother's daughter -- I save stuff like nobody's business. However it is getting easier for me to purge things and every few months D and I will have a big box of things to donate to charity. This site has some good tips for clearing the clutter from your life, as does this article from Time magazine. Happy recycling and decluttering!
Deal of the day
I debated on whether or not to blog about this deal site I visit -- SteepandCheap.com -- because the more people who visit it may mean less stuff available for me to buy. Horrors! Steepandcheap offers one outdoorsy-type item for sale at a time (overall quantities of each item varies) until the item sells out. Then a new one pops up and the process repeats. Each item is at least 50% off retail and I've been able to snag some amazing gear through this site. Steep and Cheap is powered by Backcountry.com, an online store with amazing customer service -- seriously, I love those guys.
If you are a gear addict like me, I apologize in advance for introducing you to this site. If you already know about Steepandcheap, I feel your pain...and euphoria, when those packages come in the mail!
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