Envirosax

I just ordered these fantastic reusable shopping bags! I know, I know, I am leaving the country. I actually ordered them for my mom. She is a great shopper, translation--lots of plastic bags. As her environmentally friendly daughter I could not stand to see her march in the door with another handful of plastic bags! She has quite a few reusable shopping bags already... although she routinely forgets them in the car on her trips into the grocery. These are prefect because they fold up small enough to fit in her purse. Go shop mom, hurry, there might be a food shortage tomorrow! Oh to encourage others to save the world!

These bags seem a little bit costly at first glance. Remember, though, the cost at which your lifestyle comes to the earth. Trust me, it is going to take more than eight dollars to repair! You can also buy the bags in bulk (a group of five) to reduce the cost a little. This is how I chose to purchase them because I figured the bags would make great gifts or I could selfishly keep them for market day shopping in Lesotho! They're light, they're cute, they're durable! I think I am in love.

Possibly even more exciting than the Envirosax is the shower timer that came free with the bags! Despite my thick medium length hair I am naturally a five minute shower taker. The timer presents a challenge. You must shower in four minutes or be chastised by mother nature. Each minute of showering uses two and a half to seven gallons (depending on your shower fixture) of water. Tonight I am glad to report I beat the clock, four minutes and done. To be competitive with myself! Smile.

Toughen Up

I believe medication is a sign of weakness and therefore never pop pills for minor aches and pains (or the more serious discomforts like wisdom teeth). I would like to totally rid my life of doctors but that will not happen until the Peace Corp releases their control of me. By taking decent to good care of my body it performs like well oiled machine. Lucky for me! Oh and my brain tells me when I am experiencing aches and pain... which then signals me I might be tired or dehydrated or somethings a tad more serious. It does not signal me to pop a pill! Pills simply hide the issue instead of handling the cause from the source. Pills also obstruct the bodys natural ability to combat disease by relaying bogus messages to the brain. Did you ever think for just one second you may be stuffing yourself with junk, rarely drinking water, missed out on this great part of life called sleep, or prehaps indulged in too much alcohol last night? Girls, sure you get cramps... but did you ever think about child bearing? Oh no, you didn't, cause there is medicine for that now too.

Stop and think for just one second about the millions of chemicals in each little pill you pop? Yes, they have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration... but they also approve of Aspartme, that messed up chemical found in all those diet pops you drink. Would you jump off a cliff if someone told you to? No, your brains says that's idiotic. And in every area of your life you listen to your brain... except when it comes to over the counter (heck, even prescription) treatment. You pop pills, cover the symptoms, add new symptoms to the list (thanks to the medication), and you repeat. You my friend, do not make sense.

For me, it's not just pills I refuse to take. It's vitamins and minerals too. Maybe if we stopped eating all the nonsense we shovel into your systems we would have room for foods that naturally give us the vitamins and minerals we need. It's hard to believe, I am not prefect. A life without meat means a life without iron. Okay, not really, but I really struggle to naturally find enough iron for my diet although I will not be defeated with an iron enriched vitamin. Last stop beets, not too bad, but I just can't eat enough of them. I need more iron. The search for natural iron continues...

So there you have it weaklings, whether you are out to lose weight, maintain your perfect health, fight off a head ache, or sleep through the night.... stop and think about that pill you are popping! May we all be freed from magic we call medication.

Signing off, Perfect Me

Water You Thinking?

There are few things in life worth stressing over. This list excludes automatic flush toilets! They are so wasteful and more than unneccessary, a major concern for the conservationist in me. They flush when you might not be done, they flush when they are not being used, they flush flush flush whenever they want to. Besides the extremely lazy folks, germ-a-phobes might also be a fans of these flush happy toilets. You see, I am not a germ-a-phobe so grabbing that lever to flush the toilet does not bother me at all. Oh to only have concern for myself! Except it's not only concern for me, its concern for water. The new and improved toilets require 1.6 gallons of water per flush, but the older models still use approximately four gallons of water. Yikes, I could bathe in that. If I controlled public bathrooms there were be signs stating, "If it's yellow, let it mellow. If it's brown, flush it down." Let rid ourselves free of the flush happy toilets and save a few gallons by not flushing that sterile cup of pee.

Even the writers of Two and a Half Men agree, "Automatic toilets are terrible, everything is gone before you turn around and check to see how you did!"

So are they going to do it?

In all honesty I never imagined with six games left in the regular season the Atlanta Braves would have an actual shot at the postseason. They are on fire right now, winning fifteen of their last seventeen games. Today they are only two games behind the Colorado Rockies in the National Wild Card Race. The Braves are facing two more games against the Florida Marlins (a team with no postseason prospects) at home and then a four game series against the Washington Nations (who have managed to lose 103 games this season--potentially more embarrassing than their D.C. football brothers loss to the Detroit Lions) at home. Can they pull it off? They can, they have the potential... the pitching, the hitting, the fielding. Will they do it? Please, pretty please!

The Rockies are hosting the Milwaukee Brewers (no postseason dreams for 2009) in a three game series before heading to Los Angeles to face the Dodgers (who have clinched the NL West Division). The Braves schedule looks more promising but the team with a two game advantage with only six games left to play is always going to be a favorite. Who truly likes predictable outcome when there is time on the clock? Not me. I am pulling for the "upset" or a Rockies repeat. Remember 2007 when the Rockies won thirteen or their final games to force the Pirates into a playoff. If the Braves win the next six games... they will have won all thirteen of their final games. It's survive or die!

PS: Atlanta Braves fans are the worst. Statistic confirmed(!!!). Last night only 50.4% of the stadium was full. With all the excitement, how can that be?! A fan like me would die to fill a seat.

I like my Apples green.

Unlike the rest of America I am not 100% on board with Apple and all of their products. That's fantastic since I just purchased a brand new Macbook Pro. Not too mention it came with a nifty iPod Touch, and I already own a regular iPod. Apple prides themselves on being this environmentally friendly company yet their products do not last. In a truly green society shouldn't we encourage longevity in our products... not products that need to be replaced after the warranty expires? Everyone in my family's first iPod committed iPod suicide after two years. The iPods realized (like their American peers) the next generation was so much better they pulled the plug before it was pulled on them. My second iPod just had it's second birthday, we did not do anything big to celebrate. Maybe we should have, now it seems little bit ill... or obsessed with a particular song. Even after manually removing the repeat setting my iPod refuses to stop repeating the first song of a playlist.

That is just prefect since I planned on taking it to Lesotho where I would be able to introduce all the villagers to Tea Leaf Green, Animal Liberation Orchestra, and the Beatles! Yes, I have an iPod Touch (thank you Apple... although I still have not received my rebate!!!) but it seems a little strange to take an iPod whose features will not work without WiFi. Apple wants to charge me $29 dollars to talk to someone on the phone and $34 dollars to talk to someone in the store. God only knows how much to fix it, if if if the problem is fixable. An [Apple] genius told me I would be best buying a new iPod, and he could dispose of the old properly. Dream on, you think like an America! Buy, Use, Dispose! Repeat, as many times as needed. I fell twice and I will not fall again. I do not want the brighter, more storage, newer, classic iPod. I am (or was) content with my aged iPod... until IT STOPPED WORKING! I am not making another $300 investment in a product that will not even last my stay in Lesotho.

I am not totally knocking Apple, comparatively they are a relatively green company. They are expanding their recycling program so I was able to dispose of my old ThinkPad properly. My new Pro has a longer-lasting battery life and meets the EPA's Energy Star Rating. I am also equipped with an aluminum body (recycle friendly) and many harmful toxins have supposedly been eliminated from the processing of new computers/iPods/iPhones. Apple as a company also disclose their annual corporate carbon emissions and show you how exactly it is distributed. That is actually awesome to see (for the few of us who care).

Apple, you bring some longevity and I will bring business.

Chiefs Report

And the Kansas City Chiefs are winless.  This time they went down hard to the Philadelphia Eagles rookies and back-ups, this time away from home, this time I watched the bad football that is the Chiefs.  No offense, little defense, and lots of penalties never wins a game.  Patients, two years of grow and development makes winning teams.  

Exciting in football news, today the Detroit Lions ended there nineteen game losing streak, second worst in NFL history, to the Washington Redskins.  As a fan of the Georgia Bulldogs I am pulling for Matt Stafford.  The Lions are on the rise!  Ha... Ha!  Ironically, their last win was to the Chiefs in my presence... a game I was guaranteed to see the Chiefs win (or so I thought that December 23, 2007).  

Last week I had M.L. to relate too.  This week I have a city stocked with Redskins fans!  While they managed a win against the St. Louis Rams last week, they did not even score a touchdown in the win.  This week they ended the Lions losing streak.  Even though thirty-one of the fifty-three players are new to the Lions (and not at all associated with seventeen of the losses) it still must make you feel a little pathetic.  After all, you were the team that lost to the laughing stock of the NFL.  

Birthday Bonanza

Today I was an additional adult supervisor at H.G.W.'s fifth birthday party, fourteen five year olds dressed as princesses with too much stimulation!  Within five minutes of arriving at the party the little girls were bored.  Did I mention H.G.W. has a toy store in her basement?  What ever happened to entertaining yourself, being patient, and showing kindness by waiting for your other friends to arrive?  Am I asking too much of a five year olds?  It is called respect and manners.  In order to insure everyone had a good time we dove right into the games: pin the tiara on the princess, hot prince frog, and pinata madness (the new safe version where everyone pulls a string instead of whacking it with a bat).  Then we jumped into arts and crafts: at home build-a-bear unicorns, face painting, crown making, and wand decorating.  Next the girls filled their plates with food: chocolate covered strawberries, magic wands (pretzels covered in chocolate with lots of sprinkles), veggies (you could dip in dressing found in Cinderella's carved pumpkin), chicken sandwiches, princess fruit snacks, and a cake in the shape of a crown with ice cream.  If you learned anything from reading the lengthy descriptions... the party was over the top.  You're lucky I did not even go into how the house was decorated!

Now my children will not only be deprived of a consumerism Christmas but also of birthdays... or the parties that come with them.  It's official, birthdays are dumb.  We are celebrating a day you do not even remember. In my opinion it is not an accomplishment to make it to 1, or 10, 0r 13, or 16, or 21, or 50.  Maybe in Lesotho it is, but we live in America.  It is sad to think that the chances of H.G.W. remembering her party that her mom worked on and stressed about for days are slim to none.  The memories she has will be through pictures and video recordings.  I was doing a lot of the recording... oh how badly I wanted to add my commentary.  

Birthday parties are so expensive, there an obligation, they contribute an unlimited amount of paper products to landfills, and are more about gifts than anything else.  All of the birthday bonanza really annoys me. Call me heartless because on your birthday I feel obligated to call and wish you a happy birthday, buy you a gift you told me to get you, or come and celebrate with you.  Frankly though as we get older it's totally meaningless when social networking (a.k.a. Facebook) helped me remember your special day.  I am going to call you when I am thinking of you. Send you cards when I think you need them the most or when I miss you lots.  If I see something that reminds me of you, I am going to buy it then.  Although I truly think non-tangible gifts are the best to buy and receive.  Peer pressure stop dictating the way I celebrate.  I am so over you.  

"And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count.  It's the life in your years." (Abraham Lincoln)  Instead of celebrating each year, lets celebrate your accomplishments.