Hey!
It's been another long while. I can't seem to get my blogging momentum back. That very statement is cringe-worthy, as so many abandoned blogs start their final post with those words. I don't plan on this being the case for me, nonetheless, it's becoming harder to stay consistent.
Last week was good. Bill and I went to an exit about 50 miles outside of Knoxville to pick up 2 of our friends, Joe and Melissa. They are hiking the Appalachian Trail and we hosted them for a "zero day", or a day of resting, laundry, and normal food. We picked them up underneath an I-40 overpass and drove them back to K-town. We ate at the Downtown Grill and Brewery before stopping to refill their food supply and they crashed in our guest bedroom on the cloud bed (our air mattress is referred to this way). They said they slept better then they had since they started their journey, which always makes a hostess feel good. I think they enjoyed Harley too, since every time I walked into the room she was asleep on one of their laps. We had some great BBQ pork chops and fruit salad (thanks to Sue Wolf and her awesome family recipe scrapbook) and chowed down on some no-bake cookies and strawberry milkshake Oreos (YES they are being sold right now!). We dropped them back off underneath the interstate on Wednesday and they are off again. They should be finished with their hike in September. It was very cool hearing their stories and learning about "roughing it".
Tomorrow my small group is teaching it's final green class. My other small group made up of college girls is actually going to be teaching this one. The research has been really interesting and we are making small changes in our house, with the plan of gradually working these "green" steps into our daily lives. We started a long time ago with changing our light bulbs to CFLs, which made an immediate positive impact on our electric bill. Our next electric step will be plugging our appliances that aren't in use except for certain parts of the day to power strips with on and off switches. Another step was switching all of our soap (after we'd already run out of what we were using) to bar soap. The advantage here is less packaging and more earth friendly ingredients (less chemicals washed into fresh water). These are small steps, but each one is moving in the right direction. I've also been taking note as I do my grocery shopping. Everything with packaging beyond a number 2 is pretty much out of the question. It can be hard and a little more time consuming, but you only have to take that time once before you know which products to look for. It's a good time.
My girl's small group had a fun outing to Nama to celebrate Rachel Yager's birthday. I would like to share a funny story but I have to call and get Heather's permission first....calling....ok, it's approved.
Ok, so Heather did some really good sushi research before our outing at Nama. She chose a roll and thought she'd have a complete meal by ordering the calamari. The calamari arrived at our table in the typical likeness of onion rings. To decorate the dish they placed squid legs that had not been fried and breaded on top, spread out and cascading down the pile of calamari rings. I quickly saw this going bad so I snatched the unbreaded tentacles from the pile and slid them under the plate where she wouldn't have to look at them. I love calamari, but I can barely stand looking a the suckers on the legs of those things myself. Anyway, Heather looked puzzled, but she took the first bite. Conversation continued around the table, everybody tried the calamari and oohd and aahhd over each other's beautifully presented sushi. Out of nowhere, I hear Heather say to herself, "Wait a minute. I think squid are the scariest animal in the ocean." Then she looked around, perplexed as the realization hit her. "What is calamari? Isn't it clams? Wait. Is this squid? Oh no." This was the day that Heather discovered that she didn't like calamari.
We started the weekend with some Balderdash and Shout Out Loud Music trivia dvds. I inevitably laugh till I cry playing Balderdash, and this was no exception. You are probably familiar with the game, and several of you readers were there, but in Balderdash you are given a term, a name, an acronym or a movie title. Everyone has to write down what they thing the terms mean, or what an acronym stands for, or a description of what they think the movie title is about. The final round was the movie "Sally of the Sawdust". Bill's answer was "Sally lost three limbs in the saw mill that day. Luckily she only needed the one to get home. Sometimes home is closer than you think." Maybe we were just giddy, but I laughed at that one for a long time. That Bill.
That's about all for this game of catch up. In the words of Tony Cornheiser, "I'll do better next time". Have a great week!
Comments (12)
Since last year, I've kept my electronics plugged into power strips and switch them off when not in use and this has made a drop in my bill as well.
thank you for referencing Tony Kornheiser...I love him
i second Brandon, "The Corn" is awesome
and what do you mean by "packaging beyond a 2"?
in the little 3 arrow recycling symbol, it just gets harder to recycle beyond the number 2, and impossible in some cases to recycle or biodegrade.
hahaha, i told dani about sally and the sawdust and it was funny all over again..
did my wife really just quote tony kornheiser? man, i am one lucky dude!
"An action packed movie about a motorcycle rider with chains whose head turns into flames...."
I love CFLs and use them all over, but just be careful with them. They are filled with mercury and cannot be thrown away when they do burn out. Granted, it will be several years down the road, but still....You gotta watch them. They have to go to a special disposal place or else we'll have mercury leeching out of the landfills and into the groundwater, causing more harm than good in the long run.
i've been going back and forth with this green stuff. i was watching the view today and there was a lady on there talking about all the baby stuff that has bad toxins in it and it freaked me out. it just seems to impossible to be "green" when it comes to ella.Â
but ne who... you should write more often... :)senor joel wasn't around here. i drove up to ohio. hahha. i'll have to come by and tell you about it. he was amazing!
that Heather girl is fun-ney!
Here's an acronym for the next time you play Balderdash:
L
I
G
H
T
H
O
U
S
E.
See what you come up with...