Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Mel's Virtual Bouquet
So.... I'm trying to teach myself Adobe Illustrator, which is a program we use a little at work. The wonderful thing about it is that you can create great logos, designs, etc from scratch. Here's my first real project.... very simple but Hey, you've got to celebrate the small stuff, right?
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Birthday Fiasco?
Nah, just an cold treat at The Gelato Fiasco on Maine St for Mel's birthday..... who wants lunch when there's 16 flavors of gelato to choose from? Mel tried Dulce de leche and Pomelo (similar to grapefruit); Brian tried Navel Orange and Mint Chocolate Chip. Mmmmmmmmmmmm.
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Monday, February 18, 2008
How to defend yourself again a pack of wolves
This is the story of a boy named Scott that escaped with only a scratch on his hand after fending off a pack of rabid wolves, in the dark, while walking home from work, in the frigid winter cold, walking uphill both ways.... oh wait... that's not this story :)
No, this story goes.... Scott stabed himself with a screwdriver and gets out of work for this little scratch!!!! Aww, that's not fair either...that "little" puncture wound ended up being more than that, since it hit the bone... and then the entire top of his hand swelled up!
But that didn't stop us from visiting Scott this weekend. The doctor bandaged him up and he was good to go - which gave Brian ample time to taunt Scott with that dreaded screwdriver.
No, this story goes.... Scott stabed himself with a screwdriver and gets out of work for this little scratch!!!! Aww, that's not fair either...that "little" puncture wound ended up being more than that, since it hit the bone... and then the entire top of his hand swelled up!
But that didn't stop us from visiting Scott this weekend. The doctor bandaged him up and he was good to go - which gave Brian ample time to taunt Scott with that dreaded screwdriver.Thursday, February 14, 2008
Roaming Giants
Look how funny our front lawn looks?! And no, we didn't go run around on it to make all those dimples... it seems to be caving in on itself under all the weight! Or did a gang of wizarding giants pass through our yard?? Pretty cool looking either way.
Brian works on getting this week's worth of precipitation off the roof.....
And this would be one of our lovely snowbanks that we can't see past when trying to pull out of the driveway in the morning!
Just a few more months 'til spring!! Who knows where all this water will go when it finally melts!!?
And this would be one of our lovely snowbanks that we can't see past when trying to pull out of the driveway in the morning!
Just a few more months 'til spring!! Who knows where all this water will go when it finally melts!!?
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Barack Your Socks Off
Guess who caucused for Obama tonight - yup, that'd be these two right here! And what did we learn about the political process ..... well, exercizing that beautiful thing called civic duty can be pretty boring and uneventful. It took us 2 hours to have our vote for Obama counted (and about 1 1/2 hours of that was just standing around, but that's ok since it means a lot of people are getting involved). We wanted to give him our support/votes for the dem. nomination , and we learned a little about the political process; it was a win-win. Here we are sporting our Obama stickers:
Go Obama!
Go Obama!
Roaming Snowman
This was a highlight of our afternoon today (not saying much, huh?)... feel free to join us in our silly adventure... in three parts! NOTE: These are 3 videos - click on the play button at the bottom left of the picture. It should start playing after a few seconds.
Sunday, February 3, 2008
Friday, February 1, 2008
Recycling Woes...
FYI - if you're tired of me sharing every little "save the world" fact I find, this post is not for you....
From a website www.coopamerica.org (a recommended link I found on the website for our local enviromental store FW Horch (which, by the way, we just LOVE).
“It’s safe to say that plastics with the resin code 3-7 are not recyclable and should be avoided by consumers,” says Mark Murray, executive director of Californians Against Waste. No plastics are truly recyclable back into the same type of container they were before, due to the chemical properties of plastics. Plastics #1 and some #2 are “downcyclable” into second-order products, like plastic “lumber” for picnic tables and decks. With the exception of a few model programs like that of Stonyfield Farms and Recycline—which turns used #5 yogurt cups into Recycline toothbrushes and razors—there is almost no domestic market for plastics #3–7. When municipalities do accept the higher numbered plastics, it’s often because they are under pressure from the public to take them. In most cases, higher numbered plastics are bundled together and shipped overseas to developing countries—where they may be burned as boiler fuel (which generates toxic air pollution), or simply dumped into unregulated landfills.
This makes me soooo sad!! And how do we avoid these plastics when nearly everything comes in a plastic bag/wrapper/jug/countainer?! And as much as we enjoyed our fresh bread last week, there is no way most people have time to do that with all their foods, every week!!
Here's another one....
Q: My grocery store accepts plastic bags for recycling. Can they really be recycled, or is the store greenwashing?
A: Some may be sold to actual recyclers—Safeway, in particular, has an arrangement with a domestic recycler to downcycle these plastic bags into compressed “lumber” for decks, fencing, and picnic tables. But the majority of the plastic bags collected by these receptacles are baled and shipped to Asia. What is done with them there? Even the man responsible for overseeing California’s mandatory plastic bag recycling law for supermarkets hasn’t been able to find out: “I’d love to know what happens to [baled plastic bags] overseas,” says Neal Johnson, a research analyst for the California Environmental Protection Agency. “There are a lot of anecdotal comments about whether it gets burned as boiler fuel [a toxic use of plastic that’s illegal in the US], or reprocessed as some sort of filler. We don’t quite know what happens there.” Your best bet: bring your own reusable shopping bags and produce bags with you to the supermarket.
Okay, it's official: if I forget my canvas bags, I'm not allowed to buy more than I can carry out in my two hands.
On this topic, I was pleasantly surprised to see the "grocery tote" style bags being sold in retail stores... it makes me feel better about bringing my bags into Target (where we saw them selling their own red versions), etc.
Okay, enough save the world ravings for tonight... :)
From a website www.coopamerica.org (a recommended link I found on the website for our local enviromental store FW Horch (which, by the way, we just LOVE).
“It’s safe to say that plastics with the resin code 3-7 are not recyclable and should be avoided by consumers,” says Mark Murray, executive director of Californians Against Waste. No plastics are truly recyclable back into the same type of container they were before, due to the chemical properties of plastics. Plastics #1 and some #2 are “downcyclable” into second-order products, like plastic “lumber” for picnic tables and decks. With the exception of a few model programs like that of Stonyfield Farms and Recycline—which turns used #5 yogurt cups into Recycline toothbrushes and razors—there is almost no domestic market for plastics #3–7. When municipalities do accept the higher numbered plastics, it’s often because they are under pressure from the public to take them. In most cases, higher numbered plastics are bundled together and shipped overseas to developing countries—where they may be burned as boiler fuel (which generates toxic air pollution), or simply dumped into unregulated landfills.
This makes me soooo sad!! And how do we avoid these plastics when nearly everything comes in a plastic bag/wrapper/jug/countainer?! And as much as we enjoyed our fresh bread last week, there is no way most people have time to do that with all their foods, every week!!
Here's another one....
Q: My grocery store accepts plastic bags for recycling. Can they really be recycled, or is the store greenwashing?
A: Some may be sold to actual recyclers—Safeway, in particular, has an arrangement with a domestic recycler to downcycle these plastic bags into compressed “lumber” for decks, fencing, and picnic tables. But the majority of the plastic bags collected by these receptacles are baled and shipped to Asia. What is done with them there? Even the man responsible for overseeing California’s mandatory plastic bag recycling law for supermarkets hasn’t been able to find out: “I’d love to know what happens to [baled plastic bags] overseas,” says Neal Johnson, a research analyst for the California Environmental Protection Agency. “There are a lot of anecdotal comments about whether it gets burned as boiler fuel [a toxic use of plastic that’s illegal in the US], or reprocessed as some sort of filler. We don’t quite know what happens there.” Your best bet: bring your own reusable shopping bags and produce bags with you to the supermarket.
Okay, it's official: if I forget my canvas bags, I'm not allowed to buy more than I can carry out in my two hands.
On this topic, I was pleasantly surprised to see the "grocery tote" style bags being sold in retail stores... it makes me feel better about bringing my bags into Target (where we saw them selling their own red versions), etc.
Okay, enough save the world ravings for tonight... :)
More Scrappin'
It feels like I haven't scrapped in a looong time, but I found a few minutes somewhere... Just happy to be "Home."
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