Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Top ten energy post from R-Squared

An excellent post from R-Squared about the Top Ten Energy Stories of 2008. The list at-a-glance:

1. Unprecedented volatility in the energy markets
2. Oil price volatility fallout
3. Barack Obama elected
4. Ethanol producers struggle
5. Somali pirates hijack supertanker
6. 2nd generation ethanol is delayed
7. Peak oil becomes fashionable, then unfashionable again
8. Gas stations in the southeast run out of gasoline in the wake of Hurricanes Gustav and Ike
9. "Drill here, drill now"
10. Record profits by US energy companies

Microfiber towels

In order to decrease the use of paper towels in the kitchen I've finally purchase a set of 3M branded microfiber towels. I hope these replacement towels will last a looooong time. Like paper napkins, I find paper towels an evil, yet necessary waste. In addition, we use Mrs. Meyers All-Purpose Cleaners to wipe the kitchen counter area and dining room table. As an added bonus, Mrs. Meyers product are biodegradable and phosphate-free!

Monday, December 15, 2008

Nice Coldplay photo...

A photo from the recent Coldplay concert that I attended...BUT it was not a photo that I took. The image is from a friend's daughter who was also at the concert. The photo is of the band when they wandered to the our end of the arena and played The Scientist and Death Will Never Conquer (according to my son). We were one section above the band while this image, as you can see, is just a few rows away from the band! Thanks Stan!

Thursday, December 11, 2008

How long will they last?

Now that we have an ample supply of cloth napkins I want to know how long will our bag of paper napkins last. These napkins were purchased about 2 weeks ago and it is still more than 90% full. Any ideas out there?

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Reusable napkins...

Theresa has been making cloth napkins from leftover fabric. I like these napkins because they prevent use from using paper napkins, which we go thru quite quickly. The cloth napkins are great because they are reusable and we simply wash them with the laundry as they really do not add that much.

Another item that I have been thinking about getting rid of (really decrease its use as much as possible) are paper towels. I want to know if you have had any experience with products such Shamwow (read they are a ripoff) as a kitchen counter towel...or some other product that I can use/reuse and wash. I currently use a combination of paper towels and sponge...

Monday, December 1, 2008

Bye, Bye ITMS??

This past week I have decided to no longer purchase music from Apple's iTunes Music Store because of its insane DRM license to satisfy RIAA. I love iTunes to manage my music and to browse music but to purchase DRM music is just painful. I know that ITMS has some DRM-free music but I just do not have time and do not want to figure out which song is DRM'd and which is DRM-free.

Although I have an iPod and can move purchased music there, I wanted to move MY music to my Blackberry so that I do not have to carry 2 devices. Well, it took me over an hour to create a playlist, burn the CD, rip the CD, get song titles and finally move music to Blackberry. Ouch! that did it! I'm done.

To be honest its been quite a while since I've purchased music from ITMS and have instead been buying music from Amazon because it is DRM-free and I can move the music to my Blackberry or iPod without the burn/rip thingees. I like Amazon's digital music service because it's easy to use and they have REAL deals and free music is always free, not just for one week like ITMS.

What do you think? Am I nuts?

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Zero waste day

Recycling is nice but would it be nice if we generated even less waste than we currently do...that's where Zero Waste Day comes in...it's on the 15th of Nov. and is used to raise awareness to the amount of waste generate. According to the Annenberg Foundation, the average American generates about four pounds of solid trash per day. The idea is eliminate as much waste as possible by reduce, reuse and then recycle. If you have reusable items that you no longer need, try listing it with Twin Cities Free Market.

Zero Waste Alliance
http://www.thereusecenter.com/
http://www.twincitiesfreemarket.org/

Friday, November 7, 2008

That's me!

On the far left...On Thursday's edition of the StarTribune, they did an article about the changing face of along Lake Street in Minneapolis. If you scroll thru the slide show you'll also see a photo of my older sister and mom...

Source: StarTribune.com


Joan, mom, and cook in front of Dragon City Cafe

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Once again I have been negligent...

I've not post a entry since mid-Sept. Ouch! Have been busy and just outright lazy as well as obsessing about the upcoming election. Since this summer I have been using Twitter and Twitpics and sometimes do not feel that I need to update my blog...

Anyways, going back to the blog...An image of the backyard vegetable garden with leaves I raked on last week. The leaves will protect the plants and also provide compost to loosen the soil.

Friday, September 19, 2008

Virtual solar power plant

Just read an interesting article about Duke Energy's plan to install 850 rooftop solar panels to create a 'virtual' power plant that will produce enough electricity to power approximately 2,600 homes. This is great news as I believe that solar must to be part of our future energy source... 

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Pickles

Theresa recently made a batch of pickles from cucumbers which grew in her veggie garden...


Basket of cucumbers

Cucumbers sliced and ready to be pickled...


Pickles

Birds...

A few weeks ago I was at the Dodge Nature Center and identified these birds for the first time:

Sunday, August 10, 2008

Water bottles

I have avoided buying single use bottled waters, for economic and environmental reasons, as much as I can. As a result, I (especially the kids) started to drink water from various water bottles, from freebies to nalgene-type bottle that I have purchased. Although it's nice to get free water bottles, they tend to make water taste like plastic. Yech! In the past year or so I have read many articles in regards to bpa within plastic bottles leaking into the water/liquid. This is especially bad for growing kids and babies. I decided to throw away all those old bottles and will try out the new bpa-free bottles.

Recently purchased Camelbak bpa-free water bottle



Where to get bpa-free bottles...

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Deck

This past weekend I worked on the cedar deck that was installed last fall. To clean the deck I used OxiClean. To seale the deck I discovered a product, from Hirschfields, called Soy Guard which is made from soybeans and is non-toxin.

I had some reservations in regards to cleaning the deck after going to HomeDepot and was told to use products that wanted/required me to cover plants, grass and anything organic. Yikes! This was not good as Theresa's veggie garden is next to the deck. I did some research and ran into something called oxygen bleach as a safe alternative to cleaning the deck. By coincidence I learned that OxiClean is a type of oxygen bleach and I has already had some. Oxiclean is a blend of sodium percarbonate and natural sodium carbonate and does not harm grass or plants. Yes! From start to finish the whole project took close to 15+ hours of work over 3 days...

Here are a few before and after photos:

Before seal was applied to deck board

After seale is applied...

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Package angst

OK, I admit it...like many other people I buy stuff from online sites such as Amazon, ebay, buy.com...Buying from an online store is convienent, saves me gas, and in many cases no sales tax. Recently I purchased a 4 gig microSD card for my Blackberry and it arrived in about a week or so. Everthing was great except for the package in which it was shipped. As you can see from the below image, the shipping package for this small, and I mean small microSD card, was really, really large. It measures 11 x 16...Come on people, use a smaller shipping package! Save the planet and svae yourself some money...What do you think? Am I being a green nut? Have you experienced package angst? Am I nuts to be nuts over this?


The microSD card is circled in yellow...



Sunday, July 27, 2008

Today's harvest

Today we picked green and wax beans, 2 green peppers, a cucumber and a zucchini from the garden. Earlier this week my sisiter stopped by and picked 5 eggplants, peppers and a bunch of beans...The garden is going strong and we are looking forward to the tomatoes as well as more zucchinis and cucumber in the next week or so. The only thing that is driving Theresa nuts are the number of slugs attacking the beans. In order to controll the slugs, she has put dishes of beer to attract and kill the slugs.


Friday, July 25, 2008

Vacation notes

Hello all! Just returned from our vacation and wanted to post a few thoughts about the vacation and photos. This is the first time I used Twitter and TwitPic to update our vacation. Let me know if I bored you with my twits and photos... In addition, I used my Blackberry Curve with Internet access, via the EDGE network and wi-fi, to map our driving course, get local address and phone numbers, weather update, news as well as to submit my twits and twitpics. I have to be honest...it was really nice to have the Balckberry on the trip.


Itinerary took us to these following cities:
  • Burr Oak, IA
  • Galena, IL
  • Springfield, IL
  • Gateway Arch in St. Louis, MO
  • Mansfield, MO
  • Wilson Creek Nat'l Battlefield in Springfield, MO
  • Independence and Kansas City, MO
A few of the highlights:
  • Lincoln home with original furnishing
  • Old State Capitol where President Lincoln lay in state following his assassination
  • Dana-Thomas house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright is a whopping 12,000 sq. ft. residence which still retain much of its original furniture and stained glass windows
  • Laura Ingalls Wilder's home in Mansfield, MO
  • Hotel where the Ingalls worked at in Burr Oak. 25 cents per night will get you 1/3 a bed...
  • Catching crawdads in Mansfield, MO
  • Seeing my first Indigo Bunting in Mansfield
  • Truman house which looked as it did in 1972 when he passes away. And, seeing his trademark hat and trench coat
  • KC Royals baseball game even though we caught in a downpour and hail!
Reflecting pool at the Dana-Thomas House


Old Illinois State Capitol

Route 66


Gateway Arch

Wilsons Creek


Canons at Wilsons Creek


Crawdad...

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Killdeer eggs hatched!

Since June I've been watching a Killdeer nest at our local park. The nest, under a young maple tree, has survived heat, thunderstorms, Relay for Life event and the 4th of July fireworks. Yesterday morning while biking to the bus stop I took a photo of the eggs just as they were beginning to hatch. At the end of the day I ago checked on the nest and saw two of the three immature Killdeer birds running with their mother and father!

Monday, July 14, 2008

My little energy talk

A few days ago I was a party and ran into an old 'advisee' from the U of M. He has been working in the financial market since the late 80s. We started to talk and I asked him about the impact of $4.00 per gallon has on the market. And, shortly I asked his opinion about the current energy issue. This is a bulleted list of main ideas from our conversation.

  • $4.00 per gallon is here to stay
  • US is using 3 to 5% less gasoline than same time last year..."the market is working
  • drilling (having more drilling rights) will NOT decrease price per gallon for a long time, if ever...
  • expanding drilling rights does not guarantee that oil companies will explore as that will cost billions...
  • why put money into exploring if you can make billions selling current supply of oil
  • NIMBY
  • we still have access to oil...no long lines at the gas station
  • China is having an enormous effect on the global petro market
  • ethonal is not the answer
  • ethonal decreases your gas mileage
  • ethonal is having an effect in food price
  • what will happend to all those hybrid car batteries once they die?
  • 2010 is an important as that is when US auto factories can be fitted to produce hybrids
  • No more SUVs from automakers
  • if you have a SUV, it's your until it dies...no one wants one!

Please note this is base on my recollection...I could be wrong or misheard what he said.

Mulch

Just spread some coco hull mulch on the flower and veggies garden this past weekend. Why mulch, here are a few reason...

  • it smells nice
  • keeps soil cool in the summer
  • prevents moisture lose by retaining water
  • provide organic matter to soil
  • makes bed look nice
Do you use mulch? If so, what kind...straw, leaves, hay, grass, wood chips???



    Thursday, July 10, 2008

    Compost...

    Since the veggie garden has been dug in the back yard we started to compost our food scraps. We currently have two bins on the north side of our house and a counter compost bin where we deposit food scraps such as egg shells, raw vegetables and fruit (no hard pits). Luckily the two compost bins face our neighbor's garage and we have not had any complaints. The veggie garden has received three to four bin of compost thus far.

    Here are a few photos

    Sunday, June 29, 2008

    Garden photos...






























    Monday, June 23, 2008

    Lawn care

    I'm the first to admit that I am really, really bad at taking care of the lawn. Besides mowing, which I hate, I have done very little...Well these past few years the dandelions won and I could not take it anymore. I decided to call a lawn care service about 2 months ago to get some help. I selected a 'green' lawn service as I did not want any pesticides on/in the lawn because of the kids and veggie garden. Thus far they have applied two applications and I have to saw the dandelions and clover are both suffering!

    A few things I have learn thus far include the importance of aeration of the lawn, overseeding during the fall and letting the grass grow to at least 3 inches tall (does this mean less mowing?).

    Thursday, June 19, 2008

    Killdeer nest, again...

    Last year I wrote about a Killdeer nest located in a park near our house. To my surprise, the Killdeer has returned and there are three eggs in the nest this time...

    Killdeer on nest









    Killdeer eggs







    Tuesday, June 17, 2008

    Firefox 3 available!

    Sunday, June 8, 2008

    Eggs...

    We've been going to the farmer's market these past few weeks to get produce such as eggs, meat, and whatever vegetables available such as asparagus, green onions, and spinach. There is something weirdly satisfying about a meal that was prepared with items straight from the farmer. The evening after our trip to the farmer's market we had oven roasted asparagus, quiche and chicken meatballs...Thank Otis Family Farms and all the other farmers!

    Saturday, May 31, 2008

    Flowerbed view


    Here are a few photos of the flowerbed..it's amazing what a little rain and warm temperature will do...



















    Tuesday, May 27, 2008

    $9.25 and $3.85

    This past week the numbers 9.25 and 3.85 have been permanently grafted into my brain cells...

    • $9.25 because that is how much evil Ticketmasters levied PER ticket as a "convenience" charge when I purchased Coldplay tickets!
    • $3.85 because that is how much a gallon of gas cost, Ouch!












    Monday, May 26, 2008

    Eagle sighting...

    This afternoon, on the way back from Afton State Park I saw an American Bald Eagle flying above our van as it was being chased by half dozen or so small birds.

    Wednesday, May 21, 2008

    Garden update

    Yesterday I took the day off and helped do a few things around the vegetable garden. Theresa has been working hard on the garden and it's starting to look nice...we put more peat moss and leaves onto the garden and then I dug up the soil in order to loosen it up (saw lots of worms). We need the peat moss because our soil has a lot of clay and can get real hard! Theresa has already dumped one compost bin of compost onto the garden this spring.

    Vegetables in:

    • cabbage
    • broccoli
    • tomato plants
    • basil
    We are using blood meal to add nutrients as well as a rabbit repellent around the our vegetables.

    Saturday, May 17, 2008

    House Wrens are back...

    Just saw and heard a pair of House Wrens this morning in our back yard. These song birds are one of my favorites as they have a pretty song and will sing throughout the day. Our neighbor has a birdhouse that has attracted a nesting pair for a number of years.

    Wednesday, May 14, 2008

    Interesting ideas from Living Green Expo

    I attended the Living Green Expo a few weeks ago and was happy to see a large turnout and many, many vendors exhibiting. Sadly, I had to rush thru the expo as number 2 and 3 were complaining -- remember to go w/o kids next year ;)

    I did however see a few items that I though were great ideas. First, FreEner-G is a startup company which, according to their Web site, is a 'first-of-its-kind solar electricity leasing' to residents. The goal is to help homeowners 'avoid the significant up-front cost of owning and eliminate the responsibility of maintaining' solar panels and batteries to run the system. I think this is a great idea as not many people have $20k to $40k to install solar panels. I put my name down to have an evaluation done...Also, visit trusyguides.com to get a solar panels 101 education...

    The second is the sale of rain barrels from refurbished food containers. Located in Minneapolis, Verde Strategies, is selling the barrels to $60 not +$125 that I have seen. I've been thinking about getting one of these for sometime now...

    Friday, May 9, 2008

    Single stream recycling

    Just saw a program about the pros/cons in regards to single stream recycling. The idea of single stream recycling is that residents can mix ALL their recyclables (paper, cardboard, glass, plastic, cans) together for pick up. The sorting of material is done at the factory. Some pros include increase recycling participation, more types of paper products collected and reduced collection cost. Because the materials are all mixed together there is an increase in contamination which actually results in the items being throw away! Ouch! Definitely not what I want.

    You can view the video from this page...it is Real format.

    Monday, May 5, 2008

    More free music

    Get it while you can...Nine Inch Nail is giving away their latest CD, The Slip, as a free download.

    Friday, May 2, 2008

    Weekend full of events...

    Besides the usual kids stuff, I'll try to attend these events:

    • Free Comic Book Day at The Source
      on Saturday, May 3rd
      • This is the 6th year of Free Comic Book Day and is a great way to learn what comics are out there as well as to reintroduce yourself to this ever changing and exciting genre.
    • Attend the Living Green Expo at the State Fair grounds
      • The expo is "is a free, annual event that provides information and products to help Minnesotans improve the environmental and social impacts of their day-to-day living." Try to get more green ideas...
    • Bring a few items to my local Earth Day Recycling Day
    • Attend Iron Man

    Tuesday, April 29, 2008

    Free Coldplay song

    If you are a fan of the band Coldplay, you can download "Violet Hill" for free. The song is the first single from their latest CD which will be released on June 12, 2008. The song will be available for free for one week only. You simply have to submit your email address which will generate an email with a download link.

    Thursday, April 24, 2008

    Tree hurt

    A few days ago I noticed that our Japanese Lilac Tree had three big gouges on it's side. The Japanes Lilac was planted 2 years ago and is doing quite well. I am quite sure that the neighbor boy and number 3 had a hand in this, but cannot proof it. I tried to explained to number 3 that trees are our friends (and birds) and that hurting them is not OK...Hopefully this will be the end of this.

    Japanese Lilac buds



    Wednesday, April 23, 2008

    Amazon shipping

    I buy a fair amount of 'stuff' from Amazon and have always been happy with their service. Lately (past year or so) I've started to hate their 'free shipping' promotion. Sure, I do not have pay blah, blah amount to get my stuff if my order is over $25, but do they like to hold onto your merchanise forever?

    For example, I placed an Amazon order on the 21st of April and it is still NOT shipped...I mean how hard is it to put three books and a cd into a box and slap a lable on it. I know Amazon want people to pay for their Amazon Prime servcie...this still stinks!

    On the other hand I purchased a new HD TV from bugdig.com on a recent Saturday and it arrived on the following Thursday! That is service!

    Monday, April 21, 2008

    King corn

    Just happend to see the independent film, King Corn, this evening. The film was interesting and well done. The documentary is about 2 guys who wonder where 1 acre of corn goes to. They actually rent and grow an acre of corn in Iowa. On the way they learn about the farm bill which encourages the over production of corn (they plant 31,000 corn seeds into their one acre plot!). It was interesting to see how corn has changed from a food to a raw material that is need to create other food and the fact that corn products are EVERYWHERE...The film is a good companion to Michael Pollan's Omnivore's Delimma, especially the section on the industrialization of corn. Like Michael Pollan's book, I will never look at a field of corn the same way...

    A preview of King Corn

    Thursday, April 17, 2008

    SMS heaven

    I've been using sms to get weather, word definitions, phone numbers and sports score on my cell phone.  Today I learned about another nice feature that is being offered by Google Calendar.  I can now send a message to my Google Calendar and receive a return text with current day events...

    Monday, April 14, 2008

    A little green is good

    Took this photo from our flowerbed area...a little of green is starting to pop up.

    Friday, April 11, 2008

    Eagle nest in the city...

    Saw this video about a pair of Bald Eagles that has built a nest in Minneapolis next to the International Airport in middle of the city.

    Wednesday, April 9, 2008

    Thanks Hulu

    Thanks to Hulu for posting the latest offering from Battlestar Galatica!  It was awesome...Join Hulu if you are interested in viewing content from FOX, NBC, MGM, Sony Pictures Television, Warner Bros., Lionsgate, and others...


    Here is that episode if you wish to view it!

    Monday, April 7, 2008

    The yard

    Here are a couple of photos of the front and backyard garden. Look for more photos as the growing season gets going!

    Front flowerbed



    Backyard vegetable garden