Stop the Waste

Are you interested in eliminating 90% of the junk mail you receive? Join GreenDimes and reduce the waste that fills our mailboxes and landfills and in the process, GreenDimes will plant trees to help replenish what is being lost.
Check out their website at:
http://www.greendimes.com/
Join the Bundle service and receive 2 CFL lightbulbs, a reusable shopping bag, a GreenDimes t-shirt and the It's Earth Day children's book. Plus they will plant five trees on your behalf!
A small change can make a BIG impact!

Another Great Singer from the UK

Duffy singing "Mercy".The first female singer from Wales to have a number one pop single in 25 years.

Soak or Swim?

So this weekend I used a free night at the local Sheraton and 4 water park passes that I had won at a winetasting over the holidays. The Sheraton is the largest hotel in the area and located right next to the Arlington International Racetrack. A year or so ago they added on an enormous indoor water park so I grabbed my kid and a friend of his and off we went. We checked in Saturday night, watched a movie and then went home (the hotel hallways were full of guests who treat their cheap overnight stay at the Sheraton like a week long vacation at Disney World, packing all the fun in one 24 hour period)). We drove back the next morning and my son and his buddy spent about 6 hours in the water park while I hunkered down in the lobby with free WI-Fi to complete my online final. Traveling with my family as often as we did when I was a child, it was all about what hotel we were staying at and how good the pool was. Ah how things change as you get older. I will venture into a nice pool in the Caribbean or the Riviera while traveling, but I won't touch a public pool at a chain hotel. Masses of people, warehouse size building, no windows, chlorine bathtubs, babies in "waterproof" diapers, gag...so I happily hunkered down in the non chlorine smelling lobby for the afternoon. The kids at the park seemed to have found their idea of heaven and I'm glad my own kid had such a great time acting like a stunt man on the slides. I grew up on the beaches and in pools and love to swim so I started looking though the library for some books on pools and found a couple with great pictures of the ultimate status symbol for your backyard (minus the cesspool hazards hotel pools are). Don't get me started on public hot tubs...shudder....

Ever wonder....

where your little quirks come from? Or if people think you are a little "strange and unusual"?
I've got a few and was wondering where these silly little oddities came from. For example:

* I eat all my left overs cold but never eat left over fish
* Every time I get on an airplane, I kiss my fingers and then the airplane door to give the plane a "kiss" for goodluck
* I like to read the end of a book first so there are no surprises
* I believe in ghosts and know there was one named Bill in my former house
* If I predict something I have to tap my forehead 3 times
* I look for UFOs
* When I was little I wore plastic shoes in the ocean so I didn't have to touch the bottom and thought I was born a mermaid

What are yours? Do you think people love your little oddities or think you're just nuts.
My favorite quirk of my husbands, when someone asks him how many and he says "a couple few".

Hero

I was cleaning out some boxes recently, things that had been in storage for years and found everything I had kept from junior high and high school. Yearbooks, corsages, notes I passed in class, buttons, gymnastic medals, photos...I also found some old magazine covers including a People magazine from the 80's about the death of one of my childhood heroes Samantha Smith. Samantha became famous in 1982 at 10 years old when she wrote a letter to Soviet leader Yuri Andropov asking how to prevent a nuclear war between the US and Russia. Andropov received Samantha's letter and wrote her back, inviting her to come to Russia to see the country and meet the children. Samantha agreed and she went to Russia in the midst of the Cold War. After that she became a celebrity, she wrote a book, became an Ambassador and starred on a television show with Robert Wagner. Samantha was 2 years younger than me and I read all about her adventures and watched her television series Lime Street. When she was killed in a plane crash with her father, she was only 13 years old. The People magazine cover was published after her death and is a picture of her running through a field with her dog. As a child of the 80's, Samantha embodied everything that I remember as good, she was innocent, All-American, smart and interested in how the world was changing around her. 23 years after her death and thanks to the Internet, it's easy to read about Samantha and her lasting legacy at the sites below.
I wish I could have read about her growing up as I was.
http://www.samanthasmith.info/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samantha_Smith

What Happens in Vegas....

Ladies night last evening for tapas, sangria and a movie was a perfect way to spend a cold Tuesday night. The fact that the film was better than the last one I saw was great (The Other Boleyn Girl, thumbs down!) We saw "21" with Jim Sturgess, Kate Bosworth, Kevin Spacey and a very funny guy who played the geeky best friend. The film is based on the book, Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six MIT Students Who Took Vegas for Millions by Ben Mezrich. I started the book a few years ago, never finished it but might go back and try again now that I have seen the film. Hollywood added some typical fictionalized drama, characters and a love story but it all makes for an entertaining movie. I found an interesting article about the real life woman Kate Bosworth potrays in the film here:
http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/articles/2008/03/25/count_her_out/?page=full

The Green Book

In my constant quest to become more environmentally responsible, I have made some small changes in my everyday life thanks to the easy tips in a great book. The Green Book: The Everyday Guide to Saving the Planet One Simple Step at a Time by Elizabeth Rogers and Thomas Kostigen is full of smart and easy tips to change how much waste we create and energies we consume.
Some of my favorites:
Don't request an ATM receipt, save paper rolls and the trees
Turn off the water when you are brushing your teeth
Place a bucket in the shower to catch the cold water when you turn it on. Use this water to water your plants.
Get rid of your answering machine and save energy.
Unplug your appliances when not in use, even when plugged in energy is being wasted.
In my house we have stopped using paper plates, paper cups and plastic utensils. I am slowly weeding out napkins and paper towels too. I also shop with reusable shopping bags and stores like Trader Joes enter you in contests for free groceries each time you use them.
Every small change means BIG results, join in and make a difference!
Check out the website at: http://www.readthegreenbook.com/