Matt and I have never really made New Year’s Resolutions. Recently while reading another blog I realized why we don’t do resolutions. We are both goal oriented people.
Concrete goals don’t evaporate in the face of adversity, hardship or laziness. Resolutions are broken — and usually abandoned — with one misstep; goals are such a long journey that bad footwork days are to be expected. There have been goals that have taken several years to accomplish but that have been achieved over time.
Two blog entries that made me smile this week:
A website that tells you how green the candidates are:
Greendimes is perfect for someone who is sick of all that junk mail. Plus you don’t have to hope it arrives in time to wrap, you just select the date you want it sent to their email.
They will also plant 10 trees for the recipient.
This posts is for all of you considering line drying and weighing the pros and cons. My friend Tara recently finished Serve God, Save the Planet and was considering this next step. Continue reading “Line Drying”
That is the gist of an article on cnn.com today. Continue reading “Get Out of the Car!”
I love this commercial by Honda. I am tempted to make one and put it in our community roundabout with a big sign saying, “You dropped this Acacia Crossings clean up your act.” Of course, I won’t actually do it as I have better things to do with my time that make a tree out of the trash I pick up.
I have mentioned GreenDimes before in my post on junk mail. I am bringing them up again because they now have a referral program ($5 referral bonus). I sent out a bunch of emails from greendimes.com to hopefully get some people to sign up, plus I would love to reduce junk mail for all. All the proceeds from any sign-ups made through my emails will go to helping fund our adoption. For only $15 you can help the environment, yourself (less mail to sort), and our adoption (thanks).Here is what greendimes does:For a $15 one-time fee, the GreenDimes Junk Mail Reduction Kit reduces your home’s junk mail by up to 90% and includes:
For more info visit greendimes.comIf you didn’t receive an email from greendimes today and would like to sign-up,Email Me , I may not have your correct email address, or check your junk/spam folder.
I tried something new this week. I am not always the biggest fan of trying something new, let’s just say I don’t like to venture out of my comfort zone much. Continue reading “Trying Something New”
If you are anything like me, seeing the trash around your neighborhood gets under your skin and occasionally you pick up a piece of trash and put it in your trash can. I have in the past carried plastic bags when I walked my dogs to pick up trash littering my neighborhood streets, but I haven’t done it lately. I don’t really know why, it is probably out of frustration and to be honest some laziness. I mean it is so difficult to bend down and pick up that small piece of trash.
Today I walked to the post office instead of riding my bike because they are working on the road that I usually ride my bike on and I didn’t feel like putting the wheel on my mountain bike and dealing with the fact that it doesn’t have pedals I can use with regular shoes. I was on my way back when I noticed several beer bottles and other glass bottles and yes there was even a plastic bag. I was apparently in one of my lazy moods because I walked right past them, but thankfully I stopped and thought about it, I turned around and decided to pick them up. All that glass was perfectly recyclable and I could easily take it to R.A.M. to recycle when I took the rest of my glass down. Guess what? It only took me about 30 seconds to pick it up and thanks to the plastic bag I easily carried it home, except for one large malt liquor bottle which I had to carry in my other hand, I am sure it just showed how much fun I have on my walks.
The purpose of this post is to encourage everyone, including me, to simply pick up the litter around us and recycle what you can. You have plenty of opportunities to do it, trust me there is litter everywhere. Whenever you are out walking, whether it is with your dogs, on your way somewhere, or in a parking lot just stop for a second and pick up that piece of trash. If we all did this, our neighborhoods would look so much nicer. Of course, I also encourage you to not actually litter if you do that now, seriously there are trash cans everywhere, it’s not that hard.
Edited to add: Apparently there are not trash cans everywhere, I stand corrected. If you are visiting somewhere that does not have trash cans please dispose of trash responsibly.
I had heard of a few uses for vinegar like cleaning windows, unclogging drains, and putting out in a bowl as a deodorizer, but apparently this environmentally friendly product has a lot more uses. Did you know it can be used as a weed killer, fabric softener, and a stain remover? See more vinegar uses here.
Neither! Continue reading “Paper or Plastic?”
Some of these ideas will save you time and money:
This is an entry from the fastcompany blog that I found interesting:
It’s not easy being green. Anybody who’s ever really tried to minimize his or her carbon footprint, knows that even when you’re committed to recycling and responsible purchasing, you can be foiled by forces outside your control. You buy a new set of tiny earbuds, and they come encased in a mound of nasty plastic and Styrofoam. You order lunch at the Cheesecake Factory and get a portion big enough for three (the upside: I now feel virtuous instead of cheap for my unrepentant doggie bag habit, and my predilection for tap over bottled water). You buy something online, only to trigger a torrent of unwanted catalogs. Continue reading “Talking Trash”
This was sent to me by my dad, so I thought I would pass on the words of wisdom.
Sound advice on retirement planning.
If you had purchased $1,000.00 of Nortel stock one year ago, it would now be worth $49.00.
With Enron, you would have had $16.50 left of the original $1,000.00.
With WorldCom you would have had less than $5.00 left.
If you had purchased $1,000.00 of Delta Air Line stock, you would have $49.00 left.
But if you had purchased $1,000.00 worth of beer one year ago, drank all the beer, then turned in the cans for the aluminum recycling REFUND, You would have had $214.00.
Based on the above, the best current investment advice is to drink heavily and recycle.
It’s called the 401-Keg Plan.
