So today I wore the closest thing to orange in my closet to welcome Baby Stryker to the world. Yay Team Stryker! 10/22, 6:14am, 8lbs 12 oz, 22 inches long...


And Ladybug has a message for the Stryker pets:

"Welcome to Aunt and Uncle-hood cats and dogs. Remember that the little human boy is part of the pack now too, so be vigilant on his behalf. And keep your toys away from him."

Oh, and by the way Baby Stryker, sorry about the mess. Hopefully we'll have this planet a bit more cleaned up when you're old enough to notice.

This spruce tree is free to a good home for anyone willing to come and get it.



I think it is listing in an effort to get more sun, or the chipmunks have weakened the ground. I hope that it would do better on a more level location. Approximately 8ft tall. No guarantees on health or longevity, but effort to extract it offered.

Anyone?

I want to put a magnolia in the new bed, and don't want either tree to be crowded. And honestly, between a spruce and a magnolia, I'm taking magnolia everytime.

Finished Patio! Hooray!


To complement the picture of Alan operating the BRUTE jackhammer, here he is on the Wacker.
snert tee hee giggle- yes, sometimes I feel like a 10yo boy


Kirsten on the saw making pink dust


Kirsten and Susan made amazing progress on the patio this week. They spread the underlay of granite dust and pulled up and cleaned most of the bricks from the old patio to use on the new patio. The ultimate in green renovation, we cleaned off and re-used all of the pavers we could, and only had to purchase ~30 more pavers to finish off the back corner.

I spent Saturday sitting in the sand pulling up the remaining bricks and cleaning the concrete off those that needed it. (It looks like one previous owner tried to use dry concrete mix instead of sand so there were at least two buckets full of chipped off concrete chunks.) My right hand and shoulder were very sore at the end of the day, but it seemed to be a task I was reasonably good at, and kept me out of the way of Kirsten and Alan tamping, screeding, and laying the rest of the patio. Today I spent many many hours behind a broom slowly sweeping sand into the cracks and crevices prior to final tamping, etc. Kirsten spent her time making cuts for the final bricks, while Alan was marking and setting them. I'm a little sore, especially my right arm, as to be expected of a desk jockey pulling the weekend warrior tasks.

The rest of the time this weekend was spent playing with setting up my palm contacts etc. into a syncronizible format for use with my new iPhone. I did finally get it working late Saturday night, but we ran into problems trying to activate it as my phone, so that is a task for tomorrow. I'm already enjoying the portability, facebookiness, camera, and such. Suggestions for useful non-game related apps are cheerfully accepted.

Now, I must go to bed.

Today is trash day. That means that tomorrow our local streets will be filthy. It also means that during our morning walk I got to see the exact level of stupid some folks are about what goes in the recycling bin.

First, we are lucky in that they give us two bins, one for paper/cardboard and one for metal/glass/plastic.

• Putting a plastic oil jug in a cardboard box with a used tissue is not only not separating your recyclables, it's gross.
• No, your McDonald's soft-drink cup does not go in the recycle bin.
• I'm pretty sure they don't take plastic peanut butter jars, but if they do, they don't take them still half full of peanut butter (or whatever that oily substance is).
• The Entemann's donut box surely doesn't go in the metal/glass/plastic recycling bin.

It's not like this is hard. They even send us periodic reminders of what can and can't be recycled with clear instructions.
sigh.

As a follow-up to yesterday's rant, Karen posted a link to an article about the clean-up. The Trash was Historic Too: Workers pull an All-Nighter to Clear Spectators' Detritus. 100 volunteers and 300 Park service employees picked up trash. An average days trash is 3 tons, the 4th of July is 17 tons, this was 130 tons. Those people who left sleeping bags, hats, blankets and newspapers should be ashamed.

After watching the Inauguration, I kept checking in on the CNN live feed for a bit as folks departed and commentators commented. One of the things that struck me hard was the litter left behind. I've seen Kindergartners who knew better to clean up after themselves. If you were on the Mall and bought a program or newspaper or flag or even accepted a flyer from someones hand, it is your responsibility to deal with it.
Here are some images I gacked from various CNN videos. They didn't have any of the pure littered trash heap that was left behind, just these snippets of the clean up. I'm assuming those folks with the blue bags are volunteers picking up trash on the Mall. They could be paid, but then again, the folks who come collect my trash are paid. But they aren't paid to pick it up off my floor, they are paid to collect the bags that responsible adults have dropped their collective garbage in. In this interview over Colin Powell's shoulder you can barely see a corner of land littered with with papers and trash that the wind had blown around.

This makes me very sad. Didn't we learn in the 80's not to toss garbage out our car windows on the side of the road? Aren't there Don't Litter signs all over, sometimes with fines posted? Didn't our parents teach us to clean up our rooms and not leave trash everywhere when we were growing up? This is not a statement on one race or social demographic of people. There was a blessed variety of faces of all colors and ages and backgrounds all over the news in the crowds. The crowds looked happy and exhilarated. Why do we humans have to be pigs when gathered in groups?

I'm going to borrow a few lines from President Barack Obama's Inaugural Address:
....
We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things.
...
Our journey has never been one of shortcuts or settling for less. It has not been the path for the faint-hearted — for those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame. Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things — some celebrated but more often men and women obscure in their labor, who have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom.
...
We remain the most prosperous, powerful nation on Earth. ... But our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions — that time has surely passed.

For everywhere we look, there is work to be done.
...
To the people of poor nations, we pledge to work alongside you to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds. And to those nations like ours that enjoy relative plenty, we say we can no longer afford indifference to the suffering outside our borders; nor can we consume the world's resources without regard to effect. For the world has changed, and we must change with it.
...
As we consider the road that unfolds before us, we remember with humble gratitude those brave Americans who, at this very hour, patrol far-off deserts and distant mountains. ... We honor them not only because they are guardians of our liberty, but because they embody the spirit of service; a willingness to find meaning in something greater than themselves. And yet, at this moment — a moment that will define a generation — it is precisely this spirit that must inhabit us all.
...
What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility — a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task.
--------------------------------

I don't understand how anyone could hear these words, these fine words, and then leave behind their trash on the ground where the winds will sweep the papers all over our streets. He talks of responsibility, service, hard-work, and a cleaner and better world. Start with picking up your trash, and let's move on from there. Besides, if you stuffed your coat with newspapers, it would insulate you from the cold.

This has been brought into sharper relief for me as I now take walks around the neighborhood twice a day. Even the nice neighborhood we live in (not counting the condos across the street) is littered with trash all over. I'm pulling Ladybug away from loose paper, McDonald's wrappers, broken glass bottles, and all manner of trash. Some of it was loosed during trash-day pick-up on Thursday, but some of it simply is. I'm feeling the need to take another baggie on my walk routes just to collect the trash others have left behind.

This isn't about making the place just look nice, it is more. It is removing trash that will go into our sewers, into our watershed, into the Bay, into the tires and shoes and doggie's stomachs. It is collecting the items that won't decompose and placing them in landfills so that nature can take place and breathe.

Everyone, young and old, rich and poor, of all colors, jobs and backgrounds. Pick up your damn trash, please.

Am so very tired. Even after a nice lunch sitting outside in the shade enjoying the breeze, want a nap. Only, want a nap in the shade with breezes. Very tempting to play hooky for the rest of the afternoon and go read a bit in the backyard and watch the birds and chipmunks and squirrels frolic, as well as actually catch the waterlilies in bloom. So very tempting.

But at least I get to sleep in this weekend. Hopefully I won't go as hard-core as I did on Memorial Day, sleeping in until 1pm, but sleeping in until 9am would be nice. snuggly bed of doom. For the first weekend since March 22nd, I am not going out of town, to an in-town event, prepping the house for a party, or otherwise volunteering/working away from home. I plan to enjoy it, and perhaps be a bit productive about the house. Or maybe I'll just bond more with the comfy chair. comfy chair of doom.

I would like to slip in a bit of car shopping though. For a month or more I've been contemplating getting a commuting vehicle for myself. I love my truck, but I've been looking at used, cheap, gas-efficient but reliable vehicles online. Earlier this week Alan poked the newest issue of Wired at me, especially their cover article: Inconvenient Truths: Get Read to Rethink What it Means to Be Green, that provided very interesting food for thought. (I'm not moving into a city, we/family already farms trees, I'm okay with nuclear power and genetic engineering, and have only ever owned a used car.) Last night I asked Alan to log into Consumer Reports and I researched the cars I had found interesting, as well as did some more Autotrader searches based on their recommendations. I figured if I could double my gas-mileage, that's essentially cutting my gas bill in half, and would save wear and tear on my truck for when her capacity is truly needed. So I've found a few deals I want to check out, most in Fairfax/Falls Church areas, but one up in Baltimore. Will also need to call/go online to the insurance company and get quotes on insuring the rough possibilities I have in mind. It could make a particular brand/car a deal breaker, but I am looking at '98-'02's so nothing brand new. Some people have children, some cats, some dogs, we have an army of fish and I want a fleet of cars. Is that too much to ask? I wasn't thinking of moving to NYC, especially now after the crane crash, so I do have room for my fleet, to a point.

On another front, I've got tickets for Alan and I to go see Blondie up in Baltimore next week. Should be fun, we'll get some time together, and we'll check out a new venue. Anyone else interested, it is general admission and we'll see you there.

Now to go back to pondering plans for the Pas in a few weeks...

Okay, enough of being a scolding harridan.

Earth Day came and went.
I still drive an SUV, but I did do some research (and consulting with Alan) on installing some rain barrels in the back yard, thanks to Ealdthryth's post. Need to see if Behnke's has some in stock, or chase down this Arlington Echo place. I figure at the least, it will put a small dent into water bill when we need to top off the pond. Saving water in this house of three fish tanks and the koi pond (and a girl who loves her long showers) is like trying to fill the Grand Canyon one brick at a time, but it is a start. I also continue to use the reusable bags when shopping, and even got a free one today in trade for a pile of plastic grocery bags. I try to use cold water in the washing machine except for towels, sheets, etc. And we don't have any big desktop machines in the house sucking up energy, just some laptops and a mac-mini. I've thought of composting our coffee grounds and used tea bags and the few other plant matter bits, but flat spaces away from the fence are in short supply. hmm... Perhaps I could start a small garden plot in the backyard, but what would I grow? I like tomatoes. I have some herbs I never use (rosemary, oregano, chamomile, lavender and hopefully the mint will come back.) I liked the blackberries two summers ago, but they were a beast to harvest on the hill behind the pond. Perhaps I need waders. Oh, and there is the whole nature-hates-me aspect to trying to grow things. I'd need to convince Alan that HE wants to start a small garden plot...

So baby steps are at least steps. I took my manager's soda bottle from her to recycle before she trashed it. yeah, um, go me.

Last night, inspired by needing a reminder on how to do sprang, I made a little red wool bag. I warped up my faboo Spanish Peacock sprang loom at home while waiting for a load to finish the spin cycle before tossing the clothes in the dryer. Then I took it to fight practice and did most of the body of the pouch, and preparing it for the condensed chain stitch to form the bottom, just before heading out to dinner with folks. (BTW Miguel, Wally admired the workmanship of the loom and beater for quite some time, while we chatted about string stuff and the tools needed for the fiber addiction.) And I finished the bottom of the bag, sewing up the sides and braiding ties for the drawstring portion before crashing in bed. Hooray Sprang! I should take pictures. What to try next...

I love my truck...
I love my truck...
I love my truck...

Hadn't filled up in a while. Gas was 3.38/gallon on the way home from Kynny's birthday dinner, and that was at the cheap place.

sigh.

On the plus side, I was able to donate the two large bags of styrofoam peanuts from our pottery shipment to a shipping and packaging store, so that they will be reused. And the rest of the packaging was recyclable cardboard. yay.

When I got home and brought in the trash bins, I was attacked by the bushes flanking the path to our back gate, so after stowing the bins, I got the loppers and attacked them with vim and vigor (or piss and vinegar) and cut them back so I could walk between them safely. Sadly, I can only cut the boxwood back so far or else it looks ugly (Alan thought trimming it twice a year was enough...), but I felt no problem mutilating the side of our neighbor's thorny shrub that was encroaching in my path, and at least tried to smooth it up and over the top so it doesn't eventually form a little thorny arbor overhead. I did leave the raked pile of clippings for Alan to collect and truck up the hill and over the fence to the brush pile, cause I'm like that.

I will be at the MOL table at TOC this weekend, so again, find me or avoid me there. Alas, you fighters and marshals who wish to take the field will not be able to avoid me. Oh, and yes, I do look over the sign-in sheets and will call out anyone I see who I noticed did not sign in. Yes, I am looking at you, person who forgot to sign in last weekend who I expect to see on Saturday...
And be nice to my MOL in training, since he just autocratted NOTT last weekend.

The past two days have been seriously meh inducing. I woke up yesterday with a really sore throat, but assumed it must be due to allergies or something, taking ibuprofen to calm the inflammation. Today, I still had a sore throat, and a flashlight illuminated the white chunky stuff on my tonsils. So I now have antibiotics and Cepacol and will struggle to life tomorrow, especially with NOTT this weekend to be ready for. So far I've spent minimal time on the computer, lots of time napping, some reading and watching tv/movies. Find me (or avoid me) at the MOL table on Saturday.

My shoulders are peeling and making me feel quite snake-like. Soft loose fabrics only may touch. My green cable cotton cardi was too rough today. Fleece is best, but a bit warm given the weather. Moisturizer is my friend, and the sinks are littered with my peeled skin (and coughed up phlegm.) Yeah. gross, sorry. not really.

On the plus side, Alan has done well. His charcoal gray suit was wearing out, but instead of tossing/donating it, he took it into the tailor at Men's Wearhouse (when picking up a new suit) and asked the tailor to refurbish it. She did a stellar job of replacing the lining (including moving the tag over from the old lining to the new), recuffing the pants to take away the worn hem, replacing the bottoms of his worn out pockets, etc. It looks good as new, and gives his favorite suit a longer life. (Yes, he wears a suit most days of the week.) That's a nice little green step, the reuse part of reduce, reuse, and recycle.  I imagine kass_rants would be a little proud.

Time for bed.

 Blearghhhhh... Braaaiiinnnssss, Braii-ugh, wha? Ogh. Braaaaiiiinnnzzzzzz...  (translation: iz zombie, still sick)


But I came home and sifted through our recycle paper pile and pulled out all the political propaganda mailings. Alan's usually good about clearing this area out prior to guests, so the longest these could have been sitting there is a month and a half. 
11 for Donna Edwards, 7 for Albert Wynn. 
The best part was the 2 identical mailings from the Sierra Club for Donna Edwards. For Shame! 3 came from a group called Maryland WOMEN VOTE! for her. And 6 fine mailings came from her own group Donna Edwards for Congress. Mr. Wynn only sent 3 from his own campaign, and the other 4 came from Realtors Political Action Committee. I believe all of them will get angry messages back.

I also went pawing through ealdthryth's green posts and found a link for GreenDimes.com that reduces your junk mail and plants trees on your behalf. Now this will be worth the money if they reduce my hassle and stuff to recycle. Reduce does come first in the mantra.

The one good thing about the icky weather this afternoon/evening is that there was no horde waiting outside the polling place to accost you to vote for their guy. I even bought a magazine at CVS this morning (when getting another antibiotic Rx filled) to have reading material for the wait. I didn't even get the chance to crack it open as I had no wait, and walked right in and voted in less than ten minutes.

BTW, the local politicians are pissing me off. For the MD 4th congressional district, I have received so much junk mail from the two (assumed) leading democratic candidates full of negative (and some positive) BS that it makes my hippie heart want to scream for the trees. I literally got 5 in the mail from the two candidates today only. Seriously, five huge multiple page pamphlets, 3 from one and 2 from another. I actually got so pissed off, I sent a note to Donna Edwards' campaign site contact regarding the shame that someone who calls herself an environmentally friendly candidate should feel at the pile of junk mail I have to recycle in her name. And Albert Wynn? Oy vey. 

So I did my research on the democratic candidates, visiting each of their websites and reading up on their stance on the issues, etc. On the whole Jason Jennings really spoke to me, so he got my vote. I was glad that Edwards and Wynn didn't appeal to me on the issue level since they appall me on an advertising level. Sadly, JJ probably won't get the nomination since he didn't advertise and, let's be real, not everyone takes the time to look up everything themselves.

~~~~~~~~

Speaking of being green, I've taken some small steps towards being more environmentally friendly myself where I can. Yes, I still love and drive my SUV. But we have not been heating the house as toasty to save a bit on the energy usage and bills. I've also taken to buying more organic in products, except when the packaging is so outrageous to make it not worth it. (Quaker Oatmeal, what is with you packing the simple harvest stuff in plastic instead of the nice waxed paper packages of your regular oatmeal? Ditto with you free-range egg folks putting eggs in plastic containers vs. the recyclable cardboard ones?) But my biggest step has been to take and use reusable bags to the grocery store and other shopping outages. I've been doing this for months now, and it warms my heart, and I can carry more in each bag. It really costs me so little, just keep the canvas bags in the truck and take them in shopping when I do. I've done this at Giant, CVS, Trader Joe's, Bed Bath and Beyond, Target, and even DSW. The noticeably thinner pile of plastic bags that need recycling is what makes me really happy.

So Green is the new Pink, and has been for a little while. Wish more folks would make the small changes.