November 2010

Starting early.

November 24, 2010

You’re not a member of my household until you have a pair of fuzzy grey wool slippers. Are these not the cutest things you’ve ever seen? They have cushy shearling soles with suede bottoms. Joel wants a pair in his size.

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Reducing oil dependence: November update

November 23, 2010

I’m overdue for an update on my oil independence project. It’s been two steps forward, one step back, but we are definitely making progress. The changes are incremental. 1. Reduce household electricity use to 25% of the national average. My goal here is to keep my energy usage below 230 kilowatt hours per month. Here’s [...]

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Baby pics.

November 21, 2010

I’m posting these for my mom and dad. We have a growing collection of blurry sonogram photos, which are never quite recognizable. It’s frustrating because the sonogram itself is clear, but something is lost when they do a screen capture. Movement, maybe? Anyway, here are pics of the baby from our 18 week sonogram. The [...]

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Pregnancy Brain

November 20, 2010

I was just talking with my friend Tiffany (who’s due 3 weeks after me! Hurray!) about pregnancy brain and some of the odd things we’ve done lately. I was putting some of my spices into new jars today and I noticed that the chili powder was still sealed, which is odd since I bought it [...]

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One program to rule them all.

November 19, 2010

Good: I love to clip recipes to cook someday. Bad: I have huge piles of recipe clippings that are impossible to organize. (So does my mom. So did my grandma. I will inherit these someday.) Good: Every week I try new recipes from cookbooks, the internet, and my recipe clippings pile. Bad: I sometimes give [...]

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Whales!

November 18, 2010

Ever since my whale-watching trip to Baja this spring, I’m a little obsessed with whales. So I was delighted to come across this little gem, which combines three of my favorite things: 1. whales 2. linen 3. things for the kitchen Now you know why there are whales in my kitchen. (I found it at [...]

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Mind blowing.

November 17, 2010

I read a lot of non-fiction, and relatively few novels. I’ve been at a loss to explain why, but it finally hit me this week. A good novel takes me to another place; introduces me to people I would never meet. A great novel sticks with me so that I can revisit that place and [...]

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My (almost) plastic-free kitchen.

November 16, 2010

I don’t like plastic. Besides the fact that it’s made from oil and will never decompose, I really hate the idea of being poisoned by my own plastic stuff. And if you’ve been following the recent news about BPA and other endocrine-disrupting chemicals that are leached from some plastics, then getting rid of plastic sounds [...]

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This stinks.

November 15, 2010

I stopped using most scented products a while ago, as a natural effect of greening up my consumer products. Now I notice that I’m really sensitive to things with perfume, like most detergents and fabric softeners. So when I read about this study from the University of Washington last week, I decided to replace that [...]

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On eleven years of wedded bliss.

November 9, 2010

I meant to write this post on our anniversary, September 25, but I was a little distracted that day. So, over a month late, I wanted to write a few things about being married to Joel for eleven years. These have been the best, happiest, and easiest, eleven years of my life. People will tell [...]

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