My husband has been hounding me for years now to make the switch from plastic bags to paper bags. I've always preferred plastic, due to the handles of course. However, the whole "green movement" hit me over the head last weekend and I've found myself balking at the thought of plastic. It's like it has cooties or something. Plastic bag? Do I look like someone who uses a plastic bag? You offer me plastic and I've never been more insulted in my whole life. And the thing is, I don't know why all of a sudden this is important to me. Why now?

Why not now? It's not too late to make a difference. And even if it's a small difference, and even it's only me, I can feel proud of myself for being greener than I was before.

However, with this comes that. And that is like a big can of worms that is too squirmy to handle. Where does that begin? Where does it lead to? And where does it end? So far it's leading to subscribing to The Green Guide, which is put out by National Geographic. It's also leading me to scrutinize the ingredients in the products that my family uses.

Let me ask you this: How green are you?

(Cross posted @ Thoughts Outside My Head)

Currently I'm reading 21: Bringing Down The House, by Ben Mezrich, which is the book that the movie "21" is based on. I'm totally into this book! Have you read it? Have you seen the movie? These MIT kids make blackjack seem sooooooooooooo easy. I've only played blackjack a handful of times, and never for real money. I've never been to Vegas, and quite honestly, I'm not sure that I ever want to go. So the book, it's fascinating! I've only got about 60 more pages to go and then I'm done. Then I can go break out my deck of cards and start practicing, because you know what? Someday I just might change my mind about Vegas.

Next book on my shelf is Lush Life by Richard Price. I started to read it, but I had to put it down to read the blackjack book. It was on the New York Times Bestseller list, which is why I picked it up. I've found that some of the best books I've read over the past year have been the books that I picked specifically from the bestseller list. Case in point: A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini. Hands down one of the best books I've ever read.

What was the best book? The Time Travellers Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger. If you haven't read it, you simply must. 

What are you reading? Any suggestions?

Last week Monday we went to the library, it’s a very small library, maybe 1000 sq. feet.  See? Very, very, small. Anyhow, we were there for the Monday night pajama story time (for Zoe) and I happened to have a couple audio books being held for me. I checked out the audio books, Zoe went to story time, and then we came home. Somewhere around 10 p.m. I checked my receipt that says what books I checked out and when they were due, and low and behold, it seems that I checked out Consumer Report 2007.

First off, I didn’t.

And second, do I really look like someone who would check out Consumer Report?

(I don’t)

The next day I called the librarian and told her about it, and she said she fully remembers that I did NOT check it out, but there is no explanation as to why it’s on my receipt, and futhermore, on my library card record.

Okay, I have to be honest here, this is bugging me to no end. I mean, it’s really REALLY bugging me. The librarian is all, “oh, don’t worry about it, I wrote a little note and taped it to the desk so everyone knows.” And outwardly I’m all, “did you figure out that Consumer Report thing yet?” but inside my head I’m all, “Look, I don’t have the stupid magazine, and I need to have you remove it from my library card record!!! WHY CAN’T YOU JUST PRESS THE DELETE BUTTON??? FOR CRYIN’ OUT LOUD, JUST PRESS THE STINKING DELETE BUTTON!!!!”

That stupid magazine is due back today, and I don’t have it, and the librarian says not to worry because she wrote a note and taped it to her desk, but someone out there has Consumer Report 2007 and God only knows what they are doing with it, how long they plan on reading it!

Do you think that they know that I might break out in hives if they don’t bring it back soon??? Do they? Huh? 

HIVES!!!

Have you seen it?

Do you have it?

(Cross posted @ Thoughts Outside My Head)

Yesterday my daughter and I spent the day at the Milwaukee Art Museum. We were there for a children's class about Georgia O'Keeffe, however Art in Bloom was also going on and we stayed the day so we could attend the workshop with the lovely Lois Ehlert who wrote and illustrated many children's books. The event is going on again today, and Lois will be there again from 1-4PM, I highly recommend stopping in to meet her, read a few of her books, and then create some art to add to the flower garden. It was a lot of fun!

Who knew that a cat needed to have his teeth brushed? I mean really, really, really needed to have his teeth brushed -- especially a diabetic cat who has excess sugar in his body, and apparently diabetic cats have lower immunity in their mouths and therefore have a higher chances of getting tooth and gum disease. I didn't know. Did you?

The bottom line is that having your cat's teeth extracted is costly. And now my cat needs to get a job. Are you hiring? He's really good at looking out a window, rolling in cat nip, and playing with glitter balls in the middle of the night.

On Friday I came home from work, and for no good reason I looked at my cat's front teeth. NO GOOD REASON! What normal person looks at her cat's front teeth??? (Oh hello, have we met?) Well, I found that one of those four little top ones was hanging down like a fang, and it was wiggly. Very. Wiggly. So on Saturday I took him to the vet, where I was told that he needed 4 teeth removed, possibly 6. Yesterday I picked him up after his surgery -- 7 teeth had to go. After having a handful of teeth extracted two years ago, this is leaving him with not so many teeth. My poor cat needs dentures, that is, if they made dentures for a cat.  

Cross Posted @ Thoughts Outside My Head

I'm dreaming of a getaway to Door County. Last June, right before the busy season, we vacationed for five days in Fish Creek and it was wonderful! We spent our time doing things like: riding our bikes through Peninsula State Park, painting pottery at the Hands On Art Studio, visiting The Peninsula Bookman (where the owner has my dream job), drinking lots of coffee at Blue Horse Bistro (where the owners have my other dream job), and eating as much pizza as we can at Moretti's Pizzeria -- YUM!

Where are you dreaming about getting away to?