My days. My nights. My life. Lived well.

So, I know that I have neglected my blog, but I don’t have a team of writers like Perez Hilton, and I guess I’ve just had other stuff going on. I’m sure you’re wondering where I am if you’re even reading this, and maybe you think I’ve just faded into obscurity like an old Top Model winner. I have been semi-active over on Facebook and Twitter, so I suppose those are the best ways to see what I’ve been up to. Although, I’m probably going to set some better privacy filters over there. Believe it or not, I have been having an internal struggle the last 3-6 months about how much of myself I want to share online. I don’t really know where this has come from, but I think I’m starting to find the balance.

Rob is back from the Recording Workshop and he is now interning over at Azmyth Studios. In addition to it being a good studio with a diverse group of clients, it’s also the closest studio to our house.  I am so glad he’s back. I really missed him. The first month wasn’t that bad, but oy February seemed so long.

Anyway, I’m really going to start blogging more now. I think I’m finally to a point where I can start sitting down and doing some writing, as I have not been able to do any since my main concentration has been purging my clutter.  Frankly, I feel like I can start doing a lot of things now because my house is almost that of a normal person. I do know that I will officially be leaving my pack-rattedness in 2009.  I have recently been working on purging clothes.  It is now to the point that everything clothes-wise has a home in my house, yet there is not enough room and the spaces are overflowing. So, now that it’s all amassed together, I get to go through and go category by category and make myself get rid of at least 1/3 of each category of clothing. I am still battling with some stuff going on in my basement. Apparently my joists are too short to support by floor properly. And there’s some erosion. I am getting back in contractor mode and it sucks.

On a better note, my most recent obsession has been green breakfast smoothies. I’ll do a whole post at some point here, but I have really been enjoying my breakfast. I basically stuff whatever I can into a blender that’s good for me- greens, fruit, flax oil, protein powder, Centrum liquid, Benefiber- and blend it all up into a delicious morning breakfast drink. I’m sure a lot of the green smoothie purists would scoff at my additions of Centrum, Benefiber, and protein, but whatever.  Today I am mourning the return of my friend Jennette’s Vita-Mix to her. You may remember when I met Jennette at BlogIndiana (yeah, lot of good it did my blog to go to that *wink*). She’s such an awesome blogger that companies send her stuff, just hoping she’ll start using it.  Anyway, I was reading up on blenders and apparently the Vita-Mix and the Blendtec are the Canon and Nikon of blenders. So, I put out some feelers on Twitter to see if anyone had any experience with either blender, and she offered to let me take hers for a spin. My Cuisinart is a pretty awesome blender, but it just can’t hold a candle to the Vita-Mix. My next mission is to get a Blendtec to try.

Anyway, that’s what’s been going on here. I may take a day off, but I’m going to try the whole blog-every-day-for-a-month-straight exercise in April, so get used to coming back here.

Nothing but love!

As we drove back from Chicago this week, I was disheartened. I don’t know if it’s because it’s winter and the lack of foliage allows things to blow across the plains with less resistance or what, but it seemed like there were plastic bags everywhere. Rob says this is my new crusade. I don’t know if it’s that, but I am determined to at least minimize my own impact and encourage my friends to do the same.

I’m not sure if the problem is really as bad as I perceive it to be or if it is just that I am more aware of it as I strive to not take any bags whenever possible.

The problems I noticed with the plastic bags are many.

1. They are abundant.  There are so many!  People give you a bag if you buy a bag of chips at the gas station.
2. They are lightweight; they have the potential to fly everywhere and get caught on stuff.
3. They are not recycled as often as paper bags.
4. They are a danger to wildlife.
5. They are a suffocation hazard to children.

Even though it takes more energy and resources to produce a paper bag, it is more likely to be recycled and they last longer and can be reused.  They are not as likely to get caught in trees or entangle wildlife.

I’m a big fan of paper when I need to take a bag.  I’m also a big fan of the Aldi approach of charging for bags or making people bring their own.  In the UK, after a charge was imposed on taking plastic bags at IKEA, it reduced plastic bag usage there by 95%.

Most importantly, buy durable ones that you can reuse or sew some out of old T-shirts.  I really don’t want to see it get any worse than this.