Calling all Locavores!!!

Excellent program here (aired this morning) about eating local during the holidays, and in general...

accomplishments:

Math Final for my class half made up ...check

Water siphoned out of broken dishwasher ...check

Evil (and dirty) filter removed from heat pump intake ...check

Mushy avocado finished off ...check

Car cleaned out ...check

Clothes washed ...check

Futon taken off bed and put in spare room ...check

Airbed installed in bedroom ...check

Ice packs ready for tonight ...check

Recycling removed from porch ....hmm....

Lesson plan for class tomorrow ready ...sort of

Dining room table piled high with STUFF ...check

Oh, well.

getting rid of STUFF

I spent a lot of time yesterday sorting through books (and other things, but mostly books) trying to make myself unload a lot of them. I'd hoped to be able to post a list of the books here in case any of my readers want any of them, but so far that hasn't come together. It probably won't, I guess, since the boxes of books are out in the car already... but I am not getting rid of any family heirlooms or anything irreplaceable. Don't worry.

If there is anything in particular that you are looking for, ask me. I'm in a giving-stuff-away mood! Remember that any urgent requests need to be phoned in -- I still don't have internet at home so access is sporadic! (Like, tomorrow [Tuesday] I don't think I will be able to get online at all. Wednesday afternoon, maybe.) But, good news: Friday I am getting internet at home again!

spring!!

I just uploaded some photos of spring at the Oratory to my Google photos...


Here's a link!

Let me know if it doesn't work, please!

Going Green!

Check out Sally and Sadie's new book, Going Green! I am excited that this is finally in print, and hope that it will sell very well!!

Heads up, book lovers!

Anybody who knows me more than just a little knows I'm pretty much of a book nut... I frequent independent booksellers and used bookstores and library book sales when the opportunity arises. One of my goals in life is to have a lot of time to read...but I'm not there yet! Anyhow, I thought some of my fellow book lovers would be interested in knowing that Better World Books (BWB) now has an online store, BetterWorld.com, where you can buy books with free (in U.S.) environmentally-friendly shipping. (Shipping overseas is very cheap: $2.97) The website is pretty easy to use, and a portion of the profit supports non-profit organizations working to promote literacy. (I'm curious to find out what that portion is -- I've sent them an e-mail and should hear back in a couple of days.)

I became familiar with BWB last spring through my interest in Room to Read and just got around to sending them the first of (hopefully) several boxes of books in support of Room to Read. (see my March 22 '07 post for more info...)

styrofoam

I had choices: either I was going to have to do something like what is pictured in the link above, or I was going to have to get rid of the massive amounts of styrofoam that were piling up in an ecologically sound way: reduce (been doing that) re-use, or recycle. I had found a place to recycle the stuff in Cherryville, which is almost an hours' drive from here, so I was waiting until I had a big load. But then I figured if I was going to Cherryville, I might as well go the rest of the way to Asheville, so made arrangements to visit with Cindy and Marti, and planned to attend a family reunion/party in W. Asheville the next day. To make a long story short, during a conversation with Cindy just prior to my leaving home, I mentioned that I would be dropping off the styrofoam to be recycled, and she got all excited because she has been needing some styrofoam for a project she is working on. So I ended up with the "re-use" option instead of the "recycle" option. (Thanks, Cindy!) And none of it ended up in the landfill. Hopefully the next place it goes people will find ways to re-use it as well.

I had a good time in Asheville, and came back not quite so discouraged by the boxes that are still ubiquitous...

"Ivy Alert!"

I'm thinking about maybe planting some ivy (see above link) right inside my new abode, to cover up the boxes, which are everywhere. It would be a whole lot prettier...probably wouldn't get enough sunlight, though.

Lots has happened in the past month; the fun part is documented here and here and also here... I'm going to try to post some photos soon, too. I finally got mine back yesterday.

I don't have photos of my move (who would want to look at photos of sweaty 50-somethings toting a lifetime of stuff around, anyway?) but rest assured the move did happen, and I am daily dealing with the aftermath. I'm trying to spread the "joy" around as much as possible by loading up my car with stuff to recycle and dumping it various places, though I did the first part of that today but didn't get to the dumping part because I was working too much with students today and ran out of time. Maybe -- hopefully! -- tomorrow.

Oh, by the way, the title of this post was because I thought of our "kudzu alerts" of years ago when I saw the ivy photo. And then thinking of kudzu reminded me, with sadness, of the untimely death a couple days ago of Doug Marlette, who was a wonderful political cartoonist and worked for the Charlotte Observer for many years as well. He also had a comic strip named "Kudzu".

Polar Bears

This comic would be more amusing if it didn't ring so true!

Random gleanings from lots of radio listening...

I've been listening to the radio a lot lately, and came across a few things that were interesting and enlightening enough to spread around:

A fascinating story about physics that was on NPR's All Things Considered tonight. I was fascinated by it -- the way they told the story, as well as the story itself - it made me feel like I was right there. I'm sure a lot of people I know, some of whom read this blog, will not consider this story "news", but it was the first I'd heard of it and it sounded pretty cool. My favorite bit was the response of German safety engineer Christoph Schaefer (sic) when he was asked, "What would happen if [the 200-ton magnet] were to fall on your foot?"

One of our local morning programs, Charlotte Talks, fortunately has an encore in the evening when I am usually able to tune in. Today's guest was Dr. Phil Goscienski, a proponent of a "Stone Age Diet". I had not heard of this before, and it was intriguing, though I wasn't converted. I agreed with a lot of what he said, like eating a variety of fruits and vegetables, and lots of them, is important, and that physical exercise is one of the best things we can do to avoid health problems in general and diabetes in particular. But one of the oddest things I heard was about a restaurant in Washington, DC. (The reference to the restaurant is near the end of the article. I'm sorry to report that it sounds as though it is long gone...) This info was sent in by a listener in response to Dr. G's prediction that the next generation will find a certain kind of creature to be common on restaurant menus.
Anyway, the talk got a little weird at times, but lots of what was said was right on the mark.

Here's something I didn't learn on the radio, but just researched on the web and found out about: it is possible to recycle styrofoam coolers and the styrofoam pieces that are used to package electronics securely. These types of styrofoam, which are really Expanded PolyStyrene or EPS, are recycled all over the country. I found this website that lists all the places in the US to take EPS for recycling. Check it out! (I might head out to Cherryville to take a load one day this week...)

Those are all the stories I remember right now, but I hope to put up some more links soon to some other interesting things I have heard about or read about.