Waste Less Living

This morning I mailed cards and gifts to my mom for her birthday, so that means Earth Day must be almost here!

I'd like to tell you about something that I think is really neat (and smart), and I'd love it if you'd spread the word about this!

A woman I know (Christy Lenches-Hinkel) from The Boy's Parent Ed class has started a home-based business called Waste Less Living. It only services this area, but it's a wonderful idea for anyone else out there looking to start up their own eco-minded business!

All of the services she plans to offer are designed to make it easy for people to generate less waste! So far, she has launched three of the many services she has planned: "Compost Starter Kit," "Eco-Water Starter Kit," and "Eco-Party Starter Kit."

The "Eco-Party Starter Kit" service recently got a write-up on Evite's blog! If you hire her to do your party, she provides the waste bins, plates, cups, utensils, napkins, etc. At the end of your party, she comes and picks up the waste and food scraps and composts it all! As an alternative to trash bags full of paper and plastic plates and cups, I just think it's fantastic!

Please check out her website and see what else you can find out!

Rental Car

I dropped the minivan off at the body shop and got the rental car. As expected, my deductible is waived as I was not at fault.

I got to see it with the bumper off. There is damage to the metal under the bumper (um, the chassis?) It looks pretty mangled in that corner. Somehow they bang it back into shape or something. I tried to ask questions so the guy would tell me exactly how they do it, but he just kept answering "we repair it, we don't replace it, since that part is the size of the whole car." So, yeah, whatever, they "repair" it.

They said it should be done by Friday, March 7. Two weeks with the rental car...

It's a new N i s s a n A l t i m a. Or as The Boy refers to it, "the grey car." It has a wireless ignition. This is weird: there's no key, just the thingy with the buttons for unlocking/locking the doors. Let's call it the "fob." As long as the "fob" is in the car somewhere (pocket, purse, kid's mouth, whatever), you can push the "Start/Stop" button to start the car. "Wow, cool!" thought I.

And it is pretty fun to start the car without a key.

For about a day and a half.

Then, it's "so what?" I mean, I still have to take the fob out of my purse and push the unlock button to get in the car, so it wouldn't be a big deal to then stick it in the ignition rather than sticking it in my purse. I also have to take it out to push the lock button when I get out of the car. Is sticking the key in the ignition and turning it any inconvenience to anyone?

So, yeah, I think it's kind of a fun toy, but it doesn't seem to me like it's worth the effort it took to invent it.

Anyone out there have a car that has this feature? Do you see the point? Enlighten me.

me likey

I saw these Baekgaard leather bags while out yesterday. Such pretty colors! Such creamy, soft leather! I like the light blue best.

The square one with the flap has a shoulder strap inside. So cute. But, why can't I find it on the internets to show you some better pictures? They have the tote, the travel clock, the passport holder, the coin purse, even a bag to hold golf balls on there... I don't get it.

Pieceless Puzzle

My daughter just got this for her fifth birthday: the Pieceless Puzzle. (She got the "Ages 4 & Up"; I think this one is "Ages 8 & Up")

Check out this video (and enjoy the background music that takes me back to the days of Bob Barker):

www.ceaco.com/ceaco/index.php?category=Pieceless%20Puzzles

The pieceless puzzle is a pretty cool idea! My favorite feature is that you can just grab it and throw it in the drawer for clean-up, and you don't even need to put it back in its box!

The drawback I see is that once you figure out how it goes together, it is then really easy to do. Your brain and fingers remember how the little shapes go together, so it becomes too easy pretty quickly.

The fact that there is an image on both sides helps with this a little.

I should point out, however, that we have this problem with most of our puzzles. They always become too easy after we know them too well. I have thought that there should be puzzle libraries, so you can check out a puzzle, put it together a few times, and return it to the library. That way we wouldn't have boxes of puzzles that no longer challenge us stacked in the cabinet taking up so much space. (But I can't give them away yet, because I have younger children who can use them someday. So the space, it is taken up.)

But I can see why this wouldn't work. Imagine how many pieces would be missing from the library's puzzles!

A Christmas Miracle

The videocamera is back!!! And they replaced the power fuse or something so it is working!!!! We needn't have stressed so much; Canon's customer service was very smooth. Panasonic's was awful and made us pay for the labor (parts were under warranty but not labor). Canon's just fixed the camera and sent it back by FedEx! Hallelujah!!!