Little People!!

We found this Playmobil Advent Calendar set at
The Spunky Monkey in Fredericksburg for $11! When I was growing
up, we had Playmobil sets. We called them Little People. Christian
played with them as a child, too, so we had to get it!! We are looking
forward to using it at advent next year!

Happy Holidays

Just logging on from a remote location to say I hope everyone had a
Merry Christmas and is planning a safe and Happy New Year! We are with
family and will be heading off to celebrate our 3 year anniversary,
belated, soon.
I have tons of pictures to post when the holidays are over!

Sad news: trans fat free cake mix update

Bad news for the holiday baking - you may remember that I previously posted about how the Walmart Brand Cake Mix is trans fat free. Marketed and sold under the Great Value brand.

Unfortunately, it has become apparent that Walmart/Great Value has stopped manufacturing and distributing the Great Value cake mix in Walmart stores. For a brief time they sold Great Value brand brownie mix, which was also trans fat free. That is gone now too. I bought the last one at the new Walmart on Forest Lane and they didn't restock. Don't worry, I am writing them a letter as we speak. This does put me on the search for a new, affordable and easily available trans fat free cake mix.

Kroger has really been leading the way with their store brand products going trans fat free, they do have a special kids cake mix called "Kroger Sports Yellow Cake mix" which is trans fat free. It comes with little sports-themed sugar appliques to put on the frosting. I have not tried it, so I don't know how good it is or if it could be used for cupcakes. So far they do not have a chocolate or white cake version. They do have some of their Private Selection brand fancy bundt cake mixes also trans fats free, but I am not sure how successful they would be as cupcakes or regular cake. I was going to take pictures of the boxes, but I forgot my iPhone when I went to the store yesterday.

I also checked Tom Thumb, their O Organics brand does not have a cake mix yet.

One note on the search: I know that Whole Foods has some mixes without trans fats. However, I avoid recommending those because, as a friend of mine has pointed out, they are typically 1) very expensive - around $5-$8 a box, and 2) require you to add eggs, butter, vanilla, oil, and other things; if you are going to do that, you might as well make it from scratch - that is not a mix, you just paid $5-$8 for a container of flour.

Countdown to Christmas

Freebie: for the next 48 hours, Oprah.com is giving away a free Christmas CD for download, so go download yours now!

We are getting close to Christmas, and I am almost finished with the holiday things. I think we have all the gifts. The Christmas cards have been...challenging. Unfortunately we have developed kind of a reputation for having unusual Christmas cards and that sets the bar kind of high for us, causing us to procrastinate.

I have gone to Walgreens to print the cards for several years, but this year the usual person is gone and someone who has no idea what they are doing is there. They lost our order at least once, I had to go back twice, and they asked me to re-send it, which caused me to get a double order. I am not sure yet if they charged us twice or not because my Mastercard web site is not working. I am scrambling to address and send them all right now. So when you get yours, pretend it's not late. Also, I do not recommend the Walgreens on Matilda & Mockingbird now.

Light at the end of the tunnel: After all my years of being a grinch at the holidays, I have learned to plan time to do nothing. I used to take a random day off work for miscellaneous errands, but I had used up all my days this year so far. Then there was a need for someone to work the Saturday shift this weekend. In exchange, I am getting Monday off - all day! I have booked a mani/pedi at an organic spa about 30 minutes away. I am very excited! I have never been to this spa, so I'll let you know how it turns out...

Preserve razors: updated review

A while back, I blogged about my efforts toward more "green" hair removal. When I gave Preserve double-bladed razors a "thumbs down" score, Elissa at Preserve contacted me to sample the new Triple Blade Preserve razor and see if it fares better. I want to disclose first off that she did send them to me for free, which I hope did not make me too biased.

The good news is, the triple blade razors are SO much better! They work comparably to any traditional razor you might have tried. None of the "shaving with a piece of dull cardboard" feeling that I had with the double blades. I have been using them regularly for about 2 weeks and had no trouble!

I change my rating for the Triple Blade razor to: thumbs up!

The bad news is that, so far, I have been unable to find the triple blade replacements anywhere. Every Whole Foods I try has only the double blades. They have the triple blade handle but no triple replacement blades. This is very odd since we live in a very densely populated area with multiple stores carrying the Preserve brand within a 10 mile radius of our house. My only guess is that the double blades don't sell well, and the stores won't re-order until all the old double blades are gone.

It's unfortunate, since I am on my last replacement blade and I really want to buy more! If anyone in the Dallas area sees them around, let me know.

I also tried the Preserve toothbrush, which is also made of recycled yogurt containers. I really don't know anything about toothbrushes. It worked just like a toothbrush, is all I can say. The most unusual feature is that the handle is curved. It definitely takes a little getting used to. I keep switching between it and my other toothbrush and that is a weird experience. I would say, run out and give it a try yourself, and see what you think!

Destined for "What Not To Wear"

HAHAHAHA....doh!

NOTE: This is not our car, it is a car we saw in the parking lot of the Cosmic Cafe.

Potato stamps

This Christmas I have been trying to figure out how to either use the Christmas wrappings I currently have or find a way to use the gifts' own packaging to wrap. So, I had 3 gifts that came in plain brown boxes and I thought: these just need to be dressed up a little! I didn't want to buy anything new, but I had some red and green craft paint and some small red potatoes. I took a knife and made little potato stamps.


I might have too much time on my hands, but this is a welcome break from past Christmases. And we are still attending parties every weekend, so not much else has let up. Merry Christmas!

404 Cookies Not Found

I actually did quite a few little creative things this weekend which I am just now getting around to posting about. One of these was to make cookies for the fellows that Christian works with at EMC. They are a tiny part of EMC called 404 User Experience Design. 404 is actually the room number they were assigned when they moved to their new office a few years ago. This is funny to web guys because of the obvious 404 Page Not Found joke.

In honor of 404, I made these cookies for the guys:
I used Sandy Bembenek's awesome sugar cookie recipe, here it is. The secret to the icing is to sift the powdered sugar!

Christmas Cookies

Cut Out Cookies
1 1/2 cups confectioners sugar
2 1/2 cups flour
1 cup butter or margarine
1 egg
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract

Mix sugar and butter until smooth, light, and fluffy Add egg and flavorings.
Mix well and then add the dry ingredients
Refrigerate at least 3 hours (you can do a quick chill in the freezer for 1 hour if using butter not margarine)
Roll out and cut into shapes
Place parchment paper on cookie sheet and bake cookies at 375º F for 7-8 minutes
Cool at least 15 minutes before icing

Buttercream Frosting
1/3 cup butter
2 cups confectioners sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla
1-2 tablespoons cool milk or cream

Beat butter several minutes until creamy
Add sugar ½ cup at a time, beating well each time
Add vanilla, then milk or cream and beat well again (if it gets too stiff, stick the bowl in the microwave for 10 second increments)

I figured out to hem my jeans

Lately the girls in my Community Group and I have been on a jeans kick. After careful consideration, we are realizing that since we are now old enough not to be growing out of jeans constantly, it is actually more cost effective to invest in quality jeans that cost a little more and fit perfectly to your body and wear them for many years, than to buy a larger number of cheap jeans that have to be replaced regularly and are not built in a way that would take full advantage of your natural assets. Let's face it - if it doesn't flatter, you aren't going to wear it (or feel comfortable when you do). You are just going to spend more and more money buying more and more cheap jeans that still don't fit right.

My first experience with designer jeans comes from a few years back when I was at the Salvation Army main store on Inwood here in Dallas. It's huge and it has a boutique area. A lady came up to me, out of nowhere, and said "Hey, I saw some Sevens and some Citizens jeans on that rack that look like they would fit you". The Sevens were too small but the Citizens fit great! That is how I acquired my first pair of designer jeans for $4.00. I have been wearing them for years and occasionally searching eBay for the same style, but I can never find them much below $100.

A few weeks back, I was able to pick up a pair of moderately nice Odyn jeans for $40 at a FIG sample sale (normally $80 - $90), thanks to Mica May, who let us know about the sale! Then the girls found out about a denim warehouse sale at Dallas Market Hall this weekend. They went early on Friday when the crowds were thick, but I work all day Friday, so I went on Saturday in the afternoon. There was still a huge selection and I had my own area of the community dressing room for all my stuff and my own mirror to try on the jeans. I was excited to find another pair of Citizens for Humanity jeans that fit even better than my Salvation Army pair!

You may be thinking at this point "I thought this post was about hemming jeans". Yes, that is where the hemming comes in. If I have learned anything from What Not To Wear, it is that clothes do not always come to you completely fitting off the rack, and especially that well-made clothing is created to allow being altered, if necessary. With the Odyn jeans, most parts fit great and the length is good for heels as-is. But, the waist band was a little large ,which always happens with my body type. For $40, I couldn't pass them up! And honestly, I may sew, but I am not touching the combination of denim and a waistband alteration. So I took them to a tailor, and for only $16, that is being taken care of (thanks again to Mica for the referral!).

When I bought my original Citizens jeans at the Salvation Army, I could tell that they had been hemmed. Fortunately, the original owner was apparently exactly my height, so it was great! The Citizens jeans I bought on Saturday were long, but I was so excited that I had the original Salvation Army pair because I was able to deconstruct how the (probably professional) tailor had hemmed them, keeping the original hemline intact. It took me probably 4 hours of doing and re-doing my new jeans this weekend, but I have figured it out as of this morning! I am so totally excited! I am not sure if I really saved myself that much money by doing it myself but I think the satisfaction of learning how to do this in the future is so fun!

I did something to my foot

On Sunday morning I woke up and my foot didn't feel right. I honestly have no idea why, but over the last few days it has gotten much worse. Monday I worked from home and kept it elevated all day. I thought that helped, but on Tuesday it was worse. Yesterday I had the brilliant idea to hop directly on it and see what happened. That was a bad idea, it hurt so bad I yelled, and then it was worse from then on. It was at that time that Christian suggested I go to the doctor and I agreed.

Today I tried calling my regular doctor but he didn't have an appointment until next week. It was getting embarrassing to be limping everywhere and the pain was now pretty significant.

At this point I would like to digress for a minute and point out that the argument some people give against national health care system like the one in Canada is that you have to wait too long for care. I would like to point out that we have very good health insurance (Christian's company is one of the top largest technology companies in the world), and we live in Dallas, a city with many doctors. But I am unable to get in to see my own doctor for a week. What if it was broken?! Apparently I couldn't see him before them for love or money. I am just saying...there is something wrong with that. I don't think the "waiting too long theory" is a good argument against nationalized health care, because it happens now.

Back to the story, I fell back on our most common option, CareNow. I really like CareNow because even though it is open late hours and they have emergency services, it is charged to the insurance as just a regular doctor copay instead of the Urgent Care copay, which is usually higher. Also, you can do Web Check-in, where you enter your information online and they call you when the doctor is ready to see you, so you don't have to sit in the waiting room for hours. There is still waiting, but it isn't too bad.

Anywayz, after doing x-rays they determined it wasn't broken and they think it is just a tendon that is messed up somehow. They have given me a painkiller and some steroids. I have to say I hesitated in taking the drugs, but I do need to get better. I will probably not take the painkillers tomorrow, I think they are making me dizzy/sleepy/nauseous. The steroids only last 5 days and they taper down in dosage each day so I guess that is OK. But the ankle is feeling much better!

Welcome, Christmas!

So, now that Thanksgiving is over, on to Christmas!

This year we actually 1) put up a tree, and 2) put it up the day after Thanksgiving!

It might not sound amazing, but has only been one other year in our marriage that we've had a tree at all, so this is unusual. Part of this is because we end up traveling so much during the holidays that there didn't seem to be any point. This year not only did we not have to travel for Thanksgiving, but we'll actually be here in our own beds the night before Christmas!

I've also got almost all of our Christmas shopping done, and within the budget!

I would like to thank the lack of artificial hormones in my body for my not-hating-Christmas this year. I think it is the first time in as many years as I can remember that I have not turned into the Grinch for the month of December.

I would also like to thank our families and friends for being so easy-going and un-demanding when it comes to gifts. I don't feel like anyone has unrealistic or unhealthy gift expectations, we really just all enjoy spending time together during the holidays. It makes the holidays much more pleasant.

Here is Christian's TwitPic of me decorating the tree:

Thanksgiving 2008

I hope everyone had a blessed and peaceful Thanksgiving! We had so much fun hosting this year. I really did not feel that it was stressful at all. It was great to have my in-laws and my parents and my sister-in-law and her husband all in one place. We always have so much fun together! I am very thankful to have been blessed by such a great family through marriage.

I have posted previously about my efforts to make the event more "green", so I'm not going to go into that any further. Update on the tablecloth: I did end up going out and buying a regular tablecloth. FAIL. Oh, well.

I have posted all the pictures on Flickr, so check out the Thanksgiving 2008 set for all the shots, but here are some highlights:

Christian carving the turkey - this was his first turkey to carve, and he did a great job!
The table before adding food.
I made this centerpiece out of chrysanthemums from our garden and some leaves we picked up when we took a walk that morning, as well as some lilies from Whole Foods.
Everyone asks about the tofurky, here is a shot of it before it was carved:
My brother and his family couldn't make it because he was preparing for a big day at Mugshot the next day and they had family from Christina's side in town, but he sent coffee beans in his place.
Garrett lives in Chile so everyone took turns talking to him on Skype after the meal:
We had a great day! So many things to be thankful for...

Thanksgiving, 3..2..1..

I haven't been posting because I've been busy preparing for Thanksgiving this weekend! The news so far...

• Kroger makes me happy once again by their store brand crescent rolls with no trans fat! I posted previously about their cinnamin rolls, but now they've added the crescent rolls, I can have them with our meal!
• Napkins - these have been a pain because, while I know that cloth is probably the most "green", the only ones I have are a set of only 4 from Crate & Barrel that I never use, and I have 8 people coming. It's too expensive to buy 4 more and Crate & Barrel no longer makes the style we have. So I went out and bought disposable napkins made of 65% recycled post-consumer waste that come in a recyclable wrapper.
• Centerpiece - right now, my chrysanthemums are in bloom so I think I am going to put them in a few (mismatched) nice bowls in the middle of the table. I might add some flowers I buy at Whole Foods when I go to pick up the turkey.
• Wines - I have used the handy tear-out card in the November issue of Real Simple to buy a red and a white wine from their list of wines that pair well with turkey and rich dishes.
  
• Coffee - My brother is sending me a bag of Mugshot's house blend Allann Brothers beans, fair-trade, organic beans. Are they shade grown? I did not ask. :-( But the point is, he and Christina and Natali can't make it, so by having the Mugshot beans, it's kinda like they are with us!
• Tablecloth - do not even talk to me about tablecloths. I have still not found one and there is an issue with the table not being large enough for all the guests.

Eco...shaving? Post about "green" hair removal

I titled the blog post so that people who don't want to read about me removing hair can just stop reading now. You have been warned adequately!

A while back I promised that I would be trying to find more "green" ways of hair removal. I was mainly concerned about how I've been using and throwing away plastic disposable razors for years.

Razors
I read about the Recycline Preserve razor which is just one of those razors with the replaceable heads, only the handle is made of recycled yogurt containers, so I bought one. I also bought 5 replacement heads. You know, it is all well and good to make the handle of recycled stuff, but I am here to tell you that if the razor part of the thing sucks, then there is really no point. The first time I used this razor, the blade dulled immediately. I had to throw away the first replacement blade after 2 uses. For the next 5 blades, the same kind of performance, so this was no fluke. While I might be throwing away smaller pieces (razor heads rather than the whole razor), this was worse than the disposables. Also, the replacements were not cheap. About twice what regular replacement heads would be, and they don't have coupons for specialty brands like Preserve. I tried buying regular razor heads to fit the Preserve handle, but none of the drugstore brands fit. I have finally settled on a store brand razor instead, the Bic Soleil. It just shaves so cleanly and so well. Not like trying to shave with cardboard, which is how I would describe shaving with the Preserve razor.
Thumbs down for Recycline Preserve Razor.
NOTE: This review has been updated for the Preserve Triple Blade Razor, here

Sugaring
I also mentioned that I would like to try sugaring. This is like waxing only with a solution made of only sugar and water and lemon. I got the Parissa Body Sugar set from Whole Foods for only $10. It was easy to use and I don't feel like it was really that painful at all. The cleanup was also easy. Bonus: the strips used for the removal are washable and reusable. Unfortunately, there were a lot of very small tiny hairs that could not be removed with the sugaring. I have also been struggling with ingrown hairs on my legs after sugaring (yes, I used the special oil that was supposed to prevent them - it didn't work). My conclusion about sugaring is that it is good for some areas of the body, but not all. For me, it does not work for legs for the reasons stated above. But for other areas, I believe I will continue using it.
Thumbs up (with caveats) for body sugaring.

Thanksgiving tablecloth

We are having Thanksgiving at our house this year! This exciting for me since I've spent the past 10 years traveling somewhere for Thanksgiving. We are having as much of both our families come as can make it. We will miss the ones that can't! :-( I am providing the turkey, a tofurky (for me!), the drinks, and some appetizers. The various members of my family are bringing and preparing the rest of the meal here. We are excited to have each of our moms bring our favorite dishes that they make!

Since it is at my house, I am also trying to make it as eco-friendly of a Thanksgiving as I can! First, the invitations I sent were made of recycled paper and printed with soy ink. I also got some great suggestions from a pamphlet I got from Whole Foods when we ordered the turkey.

No, I am not "technically" cooking the turkey...I am buying one pre-cooked from Whole Foods. There are several reasons for this. In addition to my own inexperience with cooking meat of any kind, we have a strange mini-oven in this house that won't hold a whole turkey. Also, the turkeys from Whole Foods were allowed to range free their whole life and fed on vegetarian grains (not chopped-up pieces of other birds. Yes, this is usually what poultry are fed to fatten them by most factory farms. If you don't believe me, read the book The Way We Eat).

The pamphlet said that using real plates, forks, and glasses and washing them in the dishwasher reduces waste and is more energy efficient. Not that I have anything fancy, we are just using our usual stuff. We only have one set of plate, folks. They are neutral on purpose for that reason. I wouldn't know what to do with china if I had it. It would be a waste of space for us.

The thing that is really getting me, though, is the tablecloth. I figure I probably need one so that I can clean up the table easily by putting the whole thing in the washing machine. However, I have a weird size of table (54 x 54 square when the leaf to extend it is put in place). The Whole Foods pamphlet suggested that the most eco-friendly tablecloth would be one I could get from a thrift store. I thought that was a great idea! ...Until I spend most of Saturday driving around to various stores and so far haven't found even one tablecloth. The only ones left to visit are those that are more than 30 minutes away. Not only do I not have the time to do that, it really isn't eco-friendly if you consider all the fossil fuel I am burning on that ridiculous search which probably won't even yield anything.

I tried Googling "eco tablecloth" and so far haven't found anything under $50. I am not spending that much on something I am probably going to use once. We are not really tablecloth people.

I have one more idea...I had a tablecloth I bought on sale after Christmas 2 years ago that fits the table without the leaf in it. I am going to see if it still fits the table when the leaf is in.

Midriff issues

I think we can all agree that for a 30 year old married woman, showing any part of my midriff, even accidentally, is just not great. However, I am also a very small and apparently oddly shaped woman. I actually have no shape (think about a board...that is my shape), so I have to buy jeans and pants that sit low because there are no known pants that actually fit me in both the hips and the waist. This causes an obvious gap problem at times. I try to buy long shirts and layer them, but sometimes I still experience issues.

One advantage of having so many pregnant friends is that I have been made aware of the Bella Band. This is a band that sits over your jeans and covers your midriff when you are pregnant so that you can unbutton the jeans, etc, and still be covered in that time between regular clothing and full-on maternity clothing. I think these are super neat. However, obviously I am not pregnant and not planning on being. I found out this week that there is a non-pregnant version of the same thing, they are called JAKS.

But here is the issue: JAKS are around twice as expensive ($38 for one) as the maternity bands that I've found. And JAKS come in only 3 colors. Some of the bands come in tons of colors and you can get them in multi-packs ($56 for 3 different colors).

So my dilemna is...is it right/fair for me to buy something that is specifically for pregnancy when I am definitely not? Is that cheating or would it look like I'm trying to be something I'm not? Would I be benefitting from the cool accessories while avoiding the actual pain of the whole pregnancy thing? And is that tacky? At the same time, who has $38 per band? That is a huge chunk of our monthly clothing budget. Comments are welcome!

Our new scooter

So, this weekend we bought a 2008 Honda Metropolitan 50cc scooter from a nice lady through Craigslist! We drove it all the way from Arlington to Dallas on Sunday evening. Christian drove it to work yesterday and I drove it to work today.

This morning I filled up the tank for the whopping cost of $1.49. We can go something like 100 miles on one tank of gas!!

Vegetable pot pies

To distract everyone from all this election talk, how about we talk about vegetarian pot pies?

I have a lot of great vegetarian cookbooks that people have given me, but sometimes Christian gets a craving for something and I have to search for a way to make a vegetarian version. Last week, he suggested pot pies. When I want something specific, I love Allrecipes.com because I can search by ingredients and type of recipe, and each one comes with reviews from people who have tried it.

The hardest part of these pies was the crust. I have looked everywhere for pre-made crusts that don't have PHO's in them and I can't find them. So I decided to try making my own. It took me two tries to find a recipe that would work with whole wheat flour and did not call for lard or solid shortening (Whole Foods does sell a vegetarian solid shortening that does not have PHO's but it is expensive and I've been watching our food budget lately). Here is the recipe I settled on.

There was also an easy vegetarian pot pie recipe on the site, here it is. What I like about it is that it uses just canned veggies and condensed potato soup so it took hardly any prep.

Here is the finished product, they are VERY rich, and it was hard for me to eat a whole one.

My purse - Animal Rescue site

Recently, I was looking for a new purse. I live in Dallas so my initial thought was to spend money on a really nice Coach bag. A bag like that is an investment and would last for many years. I have still not ruled that out for a future purchase, but at the time I was bothered by the thought of not knowing how the cows who provided that leather were treated. How do I know they didn't come from a factory farm? And what about the workers who assembled the bag? Where they paid a decent wage? I couldn't answer those questions. (if you do have an answer to those questions, please email me! I want to know!)

My friend Millie reminded me of the Animal Rescue web site store, which is a great resource that I would recommend to anyone. Anything you buy from their online store contributes money toward feeding cats and dogs waiting for homes. They also offer organic, recycled, and fair trade items such as accessories, clothing, and gifts. It was here that I found a handbag made out of recycled tire tubes, which was assembled in El Salvador by a woman-owned small company.

It's funny because the material, being made from a tire tube, is irregularly marked. But it's surprisingly supple and lined with nice cloth, even with a little key holder and pockets inside. It's nice and small, and I am really loving it! And I provided 42 bowls of food for animals waiting for homes!

Missouri 2008

Last week we took our annual trip to Kansas City to see Millie and Danny! Once again, I am terrible at remembering to take pictures. We were there 4 days and I hardly got any. But, at least this time I actually remember to get a picture of Millie and I together. We get together about twice a year and for 2 years I have forgotten to take any pictures of she and I together. I have posted the rest of the pictures on Flickr but here are some of the highlights.
A long awaited picture of me and Millie. Why do I look like a complete dork in every one of these?
Millie and Danny have 4 furbabies, but this one is Gangy wearing her lobster costume. I have a video of Gangy in the lobster costume
And here is a picture of a giant stuffed pig and cow on top of a truck at the Farmer's Market at River Market.

I have already voted

I have set the following auto-responder on my email, I would appreciate all of my friends and family taking the time to read and respect my request:

Thank you for your email. Please note that I have already early voted in Texas and I am happy with my choice of candidates, so please stop sending me videos or email forwards regarding who I should have voted for, or how I am not a Christian because I did not vote for your candidate. I believe very strongly in my choice. I do not believe in engaging in futile arguments with my brothers and sisters - I am not going to convince you and you are not going to convince me.

"Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope when you were called"

Eph. 4:2-4

Tim Keel's Blog: Election 2008: Some Perspective

In light of the fact that I voted yesterday, and that I have caught
flack (i.e. name-calling) from members of my own church body for the
direction of my vote, about which I have been intentionally quiet, I
would highly recommend that everyone read this post on the blog of one
of my friends' pastor:

http://www.timkeel.com/timkeel/2008/10/election-2008-some-perspective.html

Spiral Diner Dallas

I know I mentioned that we wanted to go to the Trinity Audubon Center on Sunday, but it turned out that since it was free, so did everyone else! We got there and the police were turning folks away for overcrowding. So we hope to go some day in the future, even if it won't be free anymore.

However, before we headed over to the Audubon Center we stopped in Oak Cliff to try out the Dallas version of the vegan Spiral Diner, which has apparently been in Fort Worth for years. When we were in Spiral Diner I felt like I was in Austin! Oak Cliff has that very Austin feel anyway. The food was awesome, and all vegan so I could eat anything on the menu!
I had the taco salad, made with a grain substitute taco "meat". It was delicious! Next time I am going to have the Philly Cheesesteak sandwich. I've never had one because I don't eat the steak part normally, but theirs is made with a meat substitute. Looking forward to it!

Komen For the Cure, Mavs game

Even though we're only halfway through the weekend I thought I'd post a few pics to catch you up since I hope to take more later today. So far this weekend, my parents came to visit Friday night so that mom and I could get up early on Saturday to walk the Komen For the Cure 5k in memory of my grandmother and our friend Kathy Eaton. Somehow we missed the table with the papers that you pin on your back to say who you're walking for. Also, even though I made a special effort to set it out, I still managed to forget my camera. All I have is this photo I stole from my parents' camera.
Lots of people! Mom and I also donated some tissue for research. After that, we hung out some and after they left, Christian and I went to take a look at some scooters and helmets. Yesterday evening we had tickets to the Mavs game from my company, in their Platinum Suite - those are the boxes at the American Airlines Center.
When Christian and I both worked for this same company we used to get box tickets a lot, but they're a lot more scarce nowadays, so it was nice to go again. They are great seats and we get to hang out with my co-workers in relative peace, rather than being in the stands around people we wouldn't know. Also free. Free is good.

Right now I am waiting for the last of my sinus headache to go away and for Christian to come back from geo-caching and then we are planning on going to the Trinity River Audubon Center since this is the opening weekend and admission is free.

Motorcycle license!

For those of you who do not follow me on Twitter (and why don't you? hm?), this morning Christian and I went up to the DMV at the crack of dawn and took the written motorcycle exam and passed!! So now we are officially licensed to drive motorcycles or a scooter! Very exciting. We are already talking about buying a larger scooter so that Christian could drive it to work. We are more confident in our abilities due to the classes and practice from last week now, but the scooter we have is not robust or fast enough to take on real roads (also, not street legal on roads with posted speeds of over 30 mph). I know the girls in the Community Group just read this so you might as well be thinking about it now because you know we are going to ask you about it next time we get together.

Tomorrow: the Susan G. Komen For the Cure 5K with mom! If you have not donated, donate now - we are walking in memory of my grandmother, Erma Stengele.

Scooter/Motorcycle school

After spending Saturday and Sunday in Motorcycle Training School we both passed the riding and written tests. The riding was HARD! We were on real 50cc Vespas (as opposed to our very light Chinese scooter) which were heavier than I was used to. The hardest manuever for me to master was the U-turns in small spaces. Thank goodness we didn't have to do it on real motorcycles like the rest of the class, because those things have clutches and require down- and up-shifting in the turns which would have made it much more difficult, I think.

Now all we have to do is go up to the DMV some time this week and pass the written portion!

Blog tag!

I was excited to be tagged by Olga because I have only been tagged once before in my life and that was because I specifically asked someone to tag me, and I don't know if that counts.

Here is how it works:

1. Post the rules on your blog.
2. Write six random things about yourself.
3. Tag six people at the end of your post.
4. If you are tagged, JUST DO IT, and pass the tag along.

And here are six totally random things about me:

1. I have this toe thing where if someone were to unexpectedly grasp a toe or toes I would be completely unable to breathe and probably have a heart attack. If you are planning on trying this, please thing about the fact that you would be touching someone's feet. And stop it. ;-)

2. I love Ben Folds, and I can't stand John Mayer. I am sorry, John Mayer fans, but it is true.

3. I am very smell-sensitive. Bad smells really cripple me but good smells can really make me super happy.

4. Somehow I have never learned to cook American food that well. If I need to make a fast meal, it's always Asian (stir-fry) or Italian or even Mexican. Is that because American food is big chunks of meat and I don't eat that?

5. I believe that coffee is very important and wonderful, even though my husband doesn't like it so much.

6. It really bothers me when people are rude to each other or yell at each other. I can't stand political debates sometimes for this reason.

OK I tag Mel Sutton and, um, I think she is the only person I know with a blog who reads this. Let me add "I am kind of boring" to the list.

Scooter Time

So, you might be thinking, how is the scooter going? Well, right now the scooter is disabled. Last month I went out to ride it to work one day after it had been in the garage about a week due to rains, and found that it didn't work even though it was fully charged. Christian disassembled it that weekend and found that all 4 of the wheelchair batteries that power it had exploded. We were able to find new ones, but their voltage was a little lower. When the throttle is fully opened it dies in its tracks. Christian suspects the charger is flawed, so he is searching for a new one.

All that said, even though it is not operational during this fantastic weather, we are signed up to take a motorcycle course this weekend which will serve as the driving portion of our motorcycle licenses. They will provide "real" scooters for us to use during the entire course so that we can learn to use road scooters. Then, all that is left is for us to go to the DMV one day and take the written portion and we'll have our motorcycle licenses! These are what we would need to get something like a Buddy or Vespa (*drool*) ...should we ever choose to do so ;-)

One surprise for me today was that I thought this was a Saturday-only course, but it's actually both Saturday and Sunday. So, I guess you know where we'll be this weekend!

Green Toilet Bowl Cleaner - new & different

As promised, I went searching for a green toilet bowl cleaner this month, I had just run out of my old stuff. I was in a hurry so I only went to Whole Foods. Later, at Kroger, I noticed that they also had a good selection in their natural foods area, and at simliar prices. So, apparently they're pretty easy to find.

I was really torn between the Ecover brand and Ecos Earth-Friendly Products. I have other Ecover products and I have to say that a lot of the appeal of that brand to me is the ecological design of their facilities, what with their grass sod roof and whatnot. I love that! But, there was some vague language in their ingredients that I didn't like so I went with Ecos for now. Even though I had some trouble with Ecos automatic dishwashing detergent in the past.

Coincidentally, both our toilets needed cleaning today. I started with the main toilet and squirted it under the rim of the bowl like I did with all my previous cleaners. If you use these, you might know that most of the traditional toilet bowl cleaners are a thin liquid that coats the bowl of the toilet. That is what I was expecting. However, not the case with this green cleaner! It was instead a thick, almost gummy substance. Here is a picture I took:
On this first attempt, I missed the rim and the substance was left clinging tentatively halfway down the slanted bowl. I went after it and tried smearing it around with my disposable toilet brush (I told you I can't get rid of them. At least they are biodegradable, but I digress). However, it was so gummy that it just plopped into the water and started dissolving. Because of this it was pretty diluted by the time I used it and it really didn't clean anything that well.

With the second toilet in our house, I tried following the instructions and aiming for directly under the rim, then letting it slide down by itself over 10-15 minutes. This worked great! It cleaned easily and it smelled nice. The moral of this story is, follow directions.

I would recommend this product and might buy it again. Or, I might try the Ecover version for comparison sake. I will let you know when I run out!

Mugshot opening and State Fair weekend

I postponed blogging about this weekend until I had all the photos uploaded. First off, we went to Longview on Friday morning to see the new Mugshot Coffee House and since both our jobs can be done from pretty much anywhere, we worked from there all day (free WiFi).

For those of you who aren't aware, this is the coffee shop my little brother just opened in East Texas, where I grew up. There are lots of photos in my Mugshot set on Flickr, and I have also started a Flickr Mugshot Coffee Group so I hope people start to contribute their own photos soon. Christian took some really good ones, he just hasn't uploaded them yet.

We drove back home late Friday night, and Saturday headed out to the Texas State Fair here in Dallas. Every year we go and meet my sister-in-law and brother-in-law and her in-laws (are they any relation to me? I have no idea, but I always enjoy hanging out with them!).
Highlights of this year included the Fried Pop-Rock Sundae and the Chicken Fried Bacon (oh yes!). These are the things we eat every year and then feel very, very sick.


We also got to see the Birds of the World show....
....and here is a picture of Borden's Elsie the Cow, who is treated much better than the factory farmed cattle Borden uses for their actual milk, but that is a different story.
After the day at the Fair on Saturday, we spent Sunday serving in Parking at church in the morning services and in Infants for the evening service. It was a tiring but very fun weekend!

Becoming more green: upcoming steps

I know I haven't been blogging enough lately, my apologies there. I'm waiting until October 1 (new Mvelopes funding!) to search for the green versions of some things I've run out of. Here are a few things I'll be looking for this month:

• Toilet bowl cleaner. Right now I use a combo of the Scrubbing Bubbles Fresh Brush disposable brush and conventional toilet bowl cleaner. I don't know that I am willing to give up my disposable brushes, but I am willing to search for a more green toilet bowl cleaner.
• Razor/shave gel/hair removal. Not something everyone needs to hear about in detail, I know, but I keep thinking of all the disposable razors I've been throwing away. I read this article about some other options which do include sugaring.
• Body lotions/perfumes. After watching America The Beautiful I realized that everything I use has phthalates in it. There is mixed thought on whether phthalates are cause for concern, but from what I've read, I'd just rather phase them out. I have found some great Whole Foods brands of lotions that are inexpensive. I was thinking of adding essential oils for scent. This would be an investment since those oils are a little costly. I am not 100% sure about this yet.

Well, I hope to keep everyone posted on these efforts in the upcoming month(s)!

The dangers of business casual

If you follow me on Twitter or are my Facebook friend, you know that I hate business casual. Over the summer at my work, we could wear jeans every day. Then when Labor Day rolled around, it was back to business casual. WHY? I am hating it. Why is it OK to wear jeans 3 months and not the rest of the time? I am a programmer so I never, ever see clients. I just sit here and write code all day. Half the time I work from home. Why do I have to change clothing for the 4 hours of the day I am in the office, only to change again for the other 4 hours I am working from home?

Not only is this annoying, it is dangerous and let me tell you why. For women, business casual involves different shoes. I have discovered 2 ways in which these shoes can cause me personal bodily injury.

Flats - Despite how fashionable flats are nowadays, I have come to terms with the fact that I am too clumsy to wear them. We have long shiny tile hallways into the building with slippery floors. At least once a day, one of my shoes flies off my foot in mid-stride and I have to go chase it and put it back on. Either that or, for some reason, I lose traction and slide on the floors. This only happens when I wear flats.

Wedges or heels - I actually have fallen in love with wedges because they are heels with less chance of me falling off of them. But let me tell you what is not safe. What is not safe is when I am going down 4 flights of stairs in wedges and some dude behind me is trying to run down the stairs. It's dangerous enough trying to go down stairs in wedges at all, but trying to run downhill, as it were...that is a straight up ticket to the hospital! This has happened to me several times in the last week. What is the deal with needing to run down the stairs at 9 AM? I haven't even had my coffee, and you are making me run. What can be so important that you need to get into the building right now??

My suggested solution to these dangers is that I should be able to wear jeans and flip flops all the time. At least jeans so that when I fall down stairs or slip on floors, I will have a more flexible and comfortable landing.

The economy and the radio

In case you haven't heard, apparently the economy is in the toilet. One of the things I had to become accustomed to when I married my sweet husband was constant NPR. I've really gotten to like a lot of the shows - Morning Edition, Fresh Air, Marketplace, Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me, A Prairie Home Companion, and CarTalk are some of my favorites. However, with the onset of this economy trouble, I found that listening to the constant reports of how everything is going to crash, we are all going to go broke, no one knows what to do about it, really had me in a constant state of worry. I was seriously thinking about investing in gold dubloons. I don't even know if that is spelled right! Craziness!

Since I realize there is no action we can actually take to change anything in the economy, I had to take some action of my own. I had to cut off listening to KERA altogether. I asked that we be allowed to change our clock radio from NPR, where had been since we were first married, to the Christian radio station so that I could hear a positive message when I wake up. I am listening to either that station or the local Mix station in the car. I listen to the iPhone or Pandora when I'm at work. I've also been listening to podcasts from Walk In The Word by James McDonald or MidDay Connection by Moody Bible Institute. I highly recommend both those podcasts for anyone who needs a little encouragement these days! You can find them both in iTunes by searching.

Thank you for your prayers!

A few people have asked about my grampa, and I wanted to pass on that I hear he is doing well. They sent him home from the surgery the next day and he is recovering there. I have not talked to them directly because every time I have a chance, it is something like 10 PM and that is not a great time to call someone who needs a lot of rest. Mom might be able to post some comments to this post for readers regarding the most recent recovery news. Thank you for your ongoing prayers, I see them working for sure! Feel better soon, Grampa!

Spare room

The spare room has always been a little weird for us. We primarily use it for an office, but sometimes when people visit overnight they use it as a bedroom. We have never owned a real bed for it, but just blow up the queen size AeroBed mattress. We did combine our two separate filing cabinets (from before we were married) into a single drawer-style which looks a little more like a bureau than a filing cabinet and purchased a simple and streamlined desk for the room.

But, we were still inflating and deflating the air mattress. I had moved my desk into the room when the bed wasn't out, but what I really wanted was somewhere I could sit and read comfortably while Christian worked at the desk in the evenings, and which could also be used for a bed when guests visit. So, when my friend told me she was getting rid of a daybed, we were excited to take it for free! I spray painted it black to go with the rest of the room and bought a grey custom daybed cover for it. Here is the end result so far:

And here is a shot of the trundle bed and linens under the daybed cover - when the trundle is up and pushed against the daybed it makes a king size bed:

I do think we need some nice bright pillows for it, although I am struggling to decide what color of pillows. Any ideas?

Maybe one day the room will have a few more accent pieces like art or something. For now, I am really enjoying it as a type of couch to read on while Christian is working.

Prayers for my Grampa

Got a call last night from my mom, my Grampa Edinger had some emergency surgery last night. I haven't heard anything since then because everyone is away from their computers right now, but we are keeping him and my Gramma in our prayers. Not sure yet if we should travel to East Texas this weekend or not. Next weekend at least one of us will most likely be traveling to South Texas to take care of some business down there, so I don't think we'd be able to make it out to East Texas then. So, keep them and us in your thoughts and prayers if you can!

Birthday Geocache hunting

Yesterday was my husband's birthday, and since we now have church in the evening, we got up Sunday morning and went searching for geocaches! I had never done this, but his new iPhone has GPS so now we can.

Here is a blurb from the GeoCaching.com site explaining what geocaching is:

Geocaching is a high-tech treasure hunting game played throughout the world by adventure seekers equipped with GPS devices. The basic idea is to locate hidden containers, called geocaches, outdoors and then share your experiences online. Geocaching is enjoyed by people from all age groups, with a strong sense of community and support for the environment.

That is a pretty good description - we looked up 3 caches on White Rock Lake trail there near our house and we were able to find 2 out of the 3! We each found one, so that was neat. One had been there since early 2006. We are thinking of making a cache of our own one day.

Happy Birthday, honey!

Oh the drama of permanent coffee filters

I was excited when I got the new coffee machine because I was going to use permanent coffee filters instead of paper ones. I had even read the Amazon reviews and found that the Mr. Coffee filter worked well but the Medelco filter had holes too large and made weak coffee. The day after we bought our new cofffee machine I logged on to Amazon to order the Mr. Coffee filter and was horrified to find that it was out of stock! I checked every day for a few days to see if it would be re-stocked but it never was. I also went to local stores, Target, Bed Bath & Beyond, etc. but they did not have the size I needed (4-5 cup basket filter).

I looked all over the internet to find other brands of 4 cup permanent coffee filters and finally ordered what appeared to be a no-name filter from some anonymous online store. It took 2 weeks to get here! When it did, it turned out it was a Medelco! Doh!

And the reviewers were right, the Medelco made weak coffee. It was pretty bad. The day I received the Medelco filter in the mail, the Mr. Coffee filter went back in stock on Amazon! Oh, the irony.

Before I was able to go ahead and order the Mr. Coffee filter, we happened to go by Green Living this weekend. There I found canvas coffee filters in many different sizes, so I bought one. So far, I really like it. It makes great coffee. It does say that it lasts only about a year instead of indefinitely. But, I can buy it locally and I think that maybe organic cotton or canvas might take less energy to produce and there fore be more renewable than something bad of plastic and vinyl and metal.

Trans fat free: cinnamon rolls and cake mixes

I have a personal vendetta against trans fats, and have been known to go on rants about food manufacturers who label products "trans fat free" because their products contain less than 0.5 grams trans fats "per serving". (info about trans fats and why they are bad). You have probably also heard me explain that you can always find out if there are really trans fats in your food by looking for the phrase "partially hydrogenated" or "hydrogenated" in the ingredients of your food. So, I am going to leave that part of the lecture out, for now.

After I became aware of the dangers of trans fats and adjusted my diet to avoid them, there were some things I had to simply stop eating. Two of these things were: store bought cake mixes (so, no more cupcakes at home), and refrigerated ready-to-bake cinnamon rolls. For years there have simply been no companies making decent versions of these items, even at my beloved Whole Foods. I have to say that I've missed these things a lot.

Today I have great news! I have found versions of these products that are now truly trans-fat free! As in, no PHO's at all! Here they are, and where to buy them. Guess what? They are both store brands!
Note: This post has been updated, Walmart no longer manufactures Great Value cake mixes.

• Wal-Mart "Great Value" Cake mixes are without trans fats
• Wal-Mart "Great Value" cake icing is without trans fats
• Kroger brand Cinnamon Rolls are without trans fats

I have already written a thank-you note to Kroger for allowing me to eat "homemade" cinnamon rolls for breakfast again for the first time in many years. It's a little harder for me to say thanks to Wal-Mart because I have other issues with them, but I am indeed grateful.

I'll keep my eyes open for more trans-fat free items. If you see any, always feel free to let me know!

Homemade veggie/produce wash

I have been so impressed by Mel's success in spending only $200 on food for a whole month, and also convicted that here in our family we have been woefully over our (very generous) budget in the food and eating-out categories. I had to come to the painful realization that all the organic items I've been buying have really been taking their toll on the ol' wallet, especially now with food prices rising.

I discussed with Mel and Mica that it is hard for me to consider the idea of going back to buying conventional vegetables. We all had a good laugh about that, since apparently the term "conventional" vegetables is only something seen at Whole Foods...which is yet another reflection on how much time I spend in specialty organic shops.

I decided that if I need to buy conventional (non-organic) produce, I really want to take extra care to get as much of the pesticide residue off as possible. I have heard of products like Fit produce wash, but I think that spending $7/bottle on this wash would probably cancel out the monetary reasons for buying non-organic produce in the first place. I was pretty sure that I could find a recipe for a homemade wash, and here it is! I really like that there are 2 versions: a soak and a spray.

Last night after we went grocery shopping for the week I filled the sink with the soak version of the recipe and put a bunch of produce in it. I didn't let it soak for a whole hour, probably more like 30 minutes, but I feel like it probably did help. At least I feel better about it and I am hoping it might even extend the fridge life of some of the produce. If you get a chance to use it, let me know how it goes!