Refrigerator

Thursday, July 30, 2009

Recently Vanessa at Random Ramblings posted a pic and inventory of her refrigerator, and I thought it was a good idea so here is mine:

As you can see, it's pretty full, and this was taken while I was cooking dinner so it doesn't include that night's leftovers. Here are just a few items that are in there:

• A bottle of jasmine water to spray on my face when it's hot.
• Tuna for the cats. They are spoiled, they have tuna for dinner every day.
• Organic butter
• Organic fat-free plain yogurt (I mix this with the blueberries)
  
• Spicy V8 - I like to drink this and pretend it is a Bloody Mary. Only 3 more months and I can drink a real one!
• Organic blueberries, organic bing cherries
• Leftover pudding cups from the eclair I made myself on Tuesday night
• Cheese bin - right now we have romano, cheddar, Babybel, and string cheeeses
  
• Half a seedless watermelon - I ate the other half today all by myself, in an effort to cleanse my system because I have a prenatal weigh-in today. I live in mortal fear of getting in trouble for gaining too much.
• Bottles of soda Christian made with our SodaStream, flavored with organic grapefruit and lemon juices, also on the second shelf - they taste just like Fresca!
• Salmon for bagels and lox in the mornings.
• Tomatoes from the Farmer's Market that I put in an old container
  
• You can barely see a decorative bottle in the very back of the second shelf which contains magical Pure Water from the Pure Water Temple in Japan when we visited in 2008.
• Bottom shelf is almost all breads - sprouted grains bread, sprouted grain pitas, whole wheat bagels
• I always have at least 2 containers of eggs. I eat eggs like crazy!
• Veggie bin - yellow & green squashes, lettuce, garlic, new potatoes, onions...possibly some bell peppers?
  
• Fruit bin - tons of peaches right now, apples, oranges, a lonely plum

Well, that's about it for my fridge...it looks really boring now that I read it all. But at least it gave me something to post! Now, post yours on your blog!

HerbMart: discovered a new store!

I'd never paid much attention to the small storefront next to the Target in Medallion Center right down the road from our house, until one day Christian stopped there on his way back from somewhere on the scooter (it's so much easier to discover new places on the scooter...wish I could still ride it!).

It's a little place called HerbMart, and apparently they have 3 locations in DFW. I've never seen the other two stores, so I don't know if they are anything like ours, but the storefront is humble and can be easily missed. But my suggestion would be: don't miss it!!

They have a great selection of supplements, green/natural/organic health and beauty products, and green/natural/organic cleaning products, of course. But they also have food!! Lots of specialty, organic, gluten free, vegetarian/vegan products including several large freezers with meats and breads. The prices are actually better than even Whole Foods' 365 brand, or the versions I get at local grocery stores. For example, Moru-Nu tofu usually costs around $2.69 at Kroger ($3.69 at Tom Thumb - when they even have it, which is NOT often at TT) but $1.69 at HerbMart! I am definitely getting tofu at HerbMart in the future. They also have great prices on organic jams without added sugar. Those are the two items I purchased this week. In the past we have purchase bags of Xylitol for Christian's soda-making adventures, sugar free organic cookies, quinoa (again, much cheaper than the grocery stores), Amy's microwave meals, tea tree oil for cleaning, and green/biodegradeable dish detergent.

As mentioned on their web site, there are more products in the store than are listed on the web site. So I say, check it out, if there is one near you!

Zoya phthalate-free nail polishes: Twitter giveaway

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

I've blogged in the past about my search for phthalate-free nail polish and the discovery of Zoya polish, which is my fave! I have started buying a bottle almost every time I visit Whole Foods.

I also follow Zoya on Twitter, and they are having a contest now through Monday, August 3 to reach 5,000 followers. If they do, they'll Twitter a discount code on August 4 that will give all their followers free nail polish!! I really want this to happen, and as soon as you try the polishes, you will too!

So if you Twitter, go to Zoya's page and follow them now!

Green Swiffer

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Did you know that I have discovered that you can put a microfiber cleaning cloth onto the bottom of a Swiffer mop and use the microfiber cloth instead of Swiffer cloths for dry mopping? Then just throw the microfiber cloth into the washing machine. I am sure everyone knows this but me, but I thought it was neat. I get the microfiber cleaning cloths at the dollar store so they are super cheap. I realize I could pay around $10+ apiece for microfiber cloths at some stores but sorry, I am not there yet. I cannot bring myself to do that when I can get them for much cheaper.

I have taken pictures of how I attached the (cheap) microfiber cloth to the broom thing.

Step 1	Step 2	Step 3
Final product

I read on Wikipedia that microfiber cloths are not biodegradable, is that true? I might give one to my friend who has a compostor and find out for sure. Or bury one in the earth for a few months. I will let you know. But they also have the advantage of not requiring chemical cleaning products. So what is the trade-off?

I also realize I might get some traffic from Swiffer and they might be mad. I am sorry about that, but I have felt bad about buying the disposable cloths for some time now, and if I can substitute them for something that is washable and reusable, I would rather do that. Just think of all the business I have given you over the years, Swiffer. And I do still plan on buying a Swiffer WetJet for my wood floors, even though I admit I am planning on rigging it with microfiber cloths and environmentally friendly cleaning solution.

Blogging with integrity

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Thanks to Elaine of The Miss Elaine-ous Life for directing me to the Blog with Integrity site via her Twitter, where I immediately signed the pledge.

There has been some discussion on BlogHer and in the blogsphere about the integrity we have as bloggers when reviewing products, doing marketing, and accepting gifts which we would later review or recommend. Prompting as much as a suggested PR Blackout in August.

First of all, I want to be clear to all 15 of my regular readers - I am too small to receive any marketing or PR offers. Like you didn't know that already. But obviously, even with my recent efforts to get to know my fellow bloggers, and how much I do enjoy that, and how much I wish I was going to the BlogHer 2009 conference, I'm such a small fish in a big pond that I don't have marketers or sponsors contacting me to review stuff, or paying for anything.

There are 2 times I have received something for free and mentioned it on this blog:

1. After giving the Recycline Preserve razors a bad review, Recycline contacted me to try a more recent product of theirs so that they could redeem themselves. The new blades were indeed better than the ones I tried, and I blogged about that.
2. I won a contest on another blog where I received free Reebok EasyTone sneakers. I do love these sneakers. They even sent them to me in green! However, I won these in a contest fair-and-square, I was not sent the product for free so that I would review them. i blogged about winning because I was so excited, I needed shoes at the time, and I never win anything!
   

In the past and as of right now, whenever you see a product review on this blog, it is because I am always actively looking for ways to do things A) greener and B) cheaper. When I encounter an area in my life where I believe I can do better, I search out a solution on my own. I spend my own time and money on various products or solutions and I let my readers know what I find, whether it is good or bad, whether it works or it doesn't. I do this because I want to save everyone else the time and effort, and I always enjoy reading comments that give me more ideas and other methods or products to try.

As you can see, a PR Blackout is not a problem for me - now or hopefully ever. I will gladly participate, because I am already participating! If I do get big enough to receive freebies, I will disclose where I got the freebie and I will be honest in my opinion. If you have a blog, I do encourage you to take the pledge to Blog With Integrity!

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

In Cold Blood
by Truman Capote
In the list of classic books I should have read a long time ago - like in college or high school - was "In Cold Blood" by Truman Capote. Especially after seeing the film "Capote" for which Philip Seymour Hoffman won an Oscar in 2005. I love Philip Seymour Hoffman.

I really enjoyed this book, which reads kind of like an episode of Law & Order. What nags at you throughout the book is why the killers did it. I think that is one of the things that has made this book so compelling. But honestly, it's mostly the way Capote wrote it. He writes in the kind of detail that you would find in a fiction book, though the introduction is candid about how some of it is fictionalized - it is based on Capote's conversations with Perry Smith during Smith's years on Death Row in Kansas.

There is an area in the book where Capote quotes long sections from psychiatrists/psychologists regarding the brain of a murder, which I found very interesting. I can't say I'd ever thought about any of that.

I don't know if I would qualify this as a "light summer read". There were times when I read it late at night and felt a little spooky! But I do think there is a good reason this book is a classic and I thought it was very good. I would definitely recommend it, especially if you are a fan of Law & Order type mysteries that don't necessarily have a clearcut ending, but spend a lot of time really thoughtfully solving the crime and learning about the perpetrators. Now I want to see Capote, the film, again!

Charming Charlie's DFW Blogger meetup

Monday, July 20, 2009

Last night the folks at Charming Charlie's were kind enough to invite our DFW Blogger/BlogHer group out to their store for a special shopping and mingling event. I always enjoy seeing other DFW bloggers, and missed those who couldn't make it! Those who were there and I talked to, as I recall, were Burb Moms, Vanessa from Crazy Says What, Marjorie from My Inner French Girl, Bobbi from When Did I Go From Kid to Grown Up?, and of course, Jes from Chirky, our fearless organizer! I might be forgetting someone....let me know if I did!

Charming Charlie's is actually a rather large accessories and apparel store located at Preston and Park in Plano (they have other locations in other cities as well). I usually get kind of intimidated by accessories but theirs are arranged by color and theme, so I just wanted to hang out in the green section all day! They even have some really cute clothes, which I really wanted to buy, but then had to remind myself that I am a weird shape right now, and I have no idea what my shape will be post-baby. I hope I can remember to go back and check out the dresses after the baby!

I have not worn a watch in over 10 years but I found this one that looks like a bracelet and I really like it!
I also got a lovely necklace that I am hoping will brighten up a few very plain maternity tee shirts when I want to wear them to work or something:


So, it was great to see everyone, and I hope you all have a great time at BlogHer 2009 this weekend! I wish I was attending this year, but will be waiting to hear you all blog about it!! I will be there next year!!

Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

Friday, July 17, 2009

Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
by Gregory Maguire
I have heard so much about this book that I felt I needed to read it. Or possibly I have heard more about the musical, but I felt it would only be right to read the book before watching the musical. So that I could say "Well that was nothing like the book" and get offended, of course.

I actually "read" the audiobook, thanks to the library. It was 20 CD's long, so it took a really long time. I thought at times that this book would never end. My friend Millie described this book as "very political". If it was some kind of allegory to American politics, that was completely lost on me. I think what she meant was that it has a great deal to do with the politics in the land of Oz. I have to say that I have enough trouble caring about the political bickering here in my own country sometimes, so I had a huge problem trying to muster up some kind of caring about the politics of some imaginary country. When the narrative went on and on about what was happening in what area of the country it was all "blah, blah, blah" to me. I mean, I feel bad about the fact that the talking Animals were persecuted, but do you want me to really get all fired up about something that doesn't even exist?

It's not my fault the main character made some really bad choices. The author was able to make the character of Elphaba disagreeable enough that I actually didn't care enough about her to want her to make the right choices. I was like "fine, do your own thing! see if I care!". Until about halfway through the book I wasn't even sure she was the main character because I never got that attached to her.

I really don't know how I feel about this book. It was very dark, but not the kind of book that is dark the whole way through. It starts out "normal" and gets darker and darker until you just basically give up at the end. I actually like "dark" books just fine, and I am not someone who likes a book with a happy ending. So it's not the fact that it was dark that bothered me...I think it was that it didn't start that way. I thought it was going to be one way, and it turned out to lead me through all that blah blah blah, then at the end I was left feeling like I had just listened to 20 CD's and WHAT WAS THE POINT??

The plot was so complex in so many ways, and spanned so many years, that I could not see how they made this into a musical. They would have had to chop off large chunks of the plot. And possibly change some the characters and their relationships.

So I did go to Napster and listen to whatever tracks were available from the musical. From the track "The Wizard and I", it was obvious that the character of Elphaba had been changed quite a bit. In the book, she never wanted to be liked, she never cared how she looked. She was more concerned about politics and being a revolutionary to even become attractive to even the reader. From another track, "Dancing Through Life", I saw that apparently they have Nessa and Bok linked romantically in some way...that never happened in the book, either. Nessa was very religious in the book and never dated or showed interest in anyone. In fact, in the book there were a lot of extremely religious characters, which played into the political themes.

I hear really good things about the musical, so I will be looking for a chance to see it at some point. Hopefully by then the weird, rambling randomness of this long, long book will have faded from my mind...

"Natural" vs. "Organic"

Thursday, July 16, 2009

I was really kind of horrified to read about a recent poll:

American consumers believe that a 'natural' label claim is a better indicator of an eco-friendly product than 'organic', according to a new survey from advertising firm the Shelton Group.

I know there is a lot of marketing out there, and a lot of companies who really aren't concerned at all about responsible or conscientious production are attempting to take their regular products and make them look "greener" by simply adding words to their marketing, but it is very important that you, the consumer, know what you are buying! Bear in mind that every product we purchase is a "vote" and sends a message to the large companies who make the things we consume. We have a choice every time we buy something to send a message which encourages companies to produce certain products, and allows other products to fail. Here is a breakdown of natural vs. organic, as it applies to marketing.

Natural - anyone can call anything natural. You can slap this label on anything. Even things made of 100% chemically created components. You could put this label on arsenic. Arsenic is a naturally occurring element. You could put this on bleach. Anything. There is no FDA regulation of the term "natural". Most of the time it is merely a marketing ploy to make the same conventional products look more "green". From USA Today:

"People are surprised to know that partially hydrogenated oils and high-fructose corn syrup could be in a product that is 'natural,' " Rangan [Urvashi Rangan, senior scientist and policy analyst at "Consumer Reports."] says. "High-fructose corn syrup isn't just squeezed out of corn -- it's chemically processed dextrose, which comes from corn."

Organic - the only way to make sure a product is truly "organic" (by the terms defined as organic right now...sometimes still not very strict, but the best you can get), is for it to be USDA Certified Organic. This means the product will have a seal or state that it has been certified organic by the FDA. Merely the unqualified term "organic" with no seal and no mention of certification is suspect. There is no way to back that claim without regulation.

One note about organic certification, though: to my knowledge, water cannot be certified. This means that if a product is mostly water and the percentage of water is greater than what the USDA would allow for the "non-organic" portion of the product, it might not be "certified" organic. Due to the amount of water in it. I do not have an update on whether this has been changed since the last time I heard about it, and can only find reports from 2005 or so. If you know of other information, please feel free to let me know!

When you buy something, it's OK not to choose organic...I do it too! Just don't be fooled by companies marking things as "natural" so that you pay more for something that isn't necessarily better. And don't let the wording on the package convince you to skip the very important step of reading the ingredients! It's easy to think "oh, it says natural (or organic)" and just not take the time. But do we really want to encourage that kind of dishonesty in industry? Hm. I don't. I don't want the products who have been labeled in a deceptive way to sell well! Companies read their profit reports, and those products won't last long if we are smart enough to see through the marketing and choose only products that we want companies to keep producing.

So now you know...and in the words of G.I. Joe: knowing is half the battle!

This cat is fat

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

I am planning a wondorous post on the difference between "natural" and "organic" but right now I am slow so instead I will leave you with this photo of my fat cat. She has struggled with her weight all her life. I had to share this picture of her fat lapping over Christian's leg.

Yes, she got this fat eating organic food formulated specially for cats that don't get much exercise...she had to work hard at not moving to get this way.

Bloggy business cards

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Since I've lately gone to all the trouble to actually purchase "real" URL's for my two blogs, and have also started to attend more BlogHer/DFW Blogger meetups, it appears the time has come for me to actually order blog business cards.

I do plan to attend the BlogHer conference in 2010, so might as well get ready now!! I've also really appreciated other bloggers having cards at our meetup events, and I do realize how difficult it is to remember www.conscientiousconfusion.com and how to spell it! I especially like the design of the cards I've received from Crazy Says What and Chirky.com. Since I am not a designer myself, I've just picked a template design from VistaPrint.com.

Here is my question: should I put an email address on my cards? My initial thought was no, because I know at some of the events there are vendors collecting cards, and after working in email marketing myself for 5 years before my current job, I know they often use those cards to build their non-permission-based email lists. I know I can set up a special box for my blog email with more robust filtering, but I really like to get blog feedback right away on my iPhone so I can monitor comments, etc. I'd hate for the spam to start coming to my iPhone.

A related question: If I do include an email address, which domain to use? This one or afamilyisus.com? Then there is always the option of setting up a whole new Gmail address neutral to both. So many choices!! I hope someone sends me some feedback on this soon! I'd love to order the cards to arrive before next week's DFW BlogHer meetup at Charming Charlie's!

Green Kitty Litter FAIL

Wednesday, July 08, 2009

It was around this time last year that I thought I had finally found a "green" kitty litter that met all the criteria needed. It was biodegradable, the tracking was not bad, it actually contained odor (most "green" litters do not contain odor, I don't care what their bags or web sites say), and the cats approved....Well, I thought the cats approved.

About 2 months after converting to "World's Best Cat Litter", one of the cats began pooping directly in front of the box. Every day. Not anywhere else in the house, only right in front of the box. Right in front of the entrance to the box. Not like "oh, I couldn't find the box". This was intentional. Whoever it was peed in the box with no problems, and presumably pooped at least one other time a day inside the box, but always first thing in the morning, right in front of the box.

After 3 months of this we took Gabby to the vet to see if she was sick, we thought for sure it was her (she is always "the bad one" because she can be vengeful). The vet basically said, maybe they don't like the litter, but he had never heard of this happening and there is nothing wrong with her physically. We paid $70 for there to be nothing wrong with her, which I already knew because she was acting completely normally. I thought, surely not the litter, because she had been using this litter 2 months or more before this problem even came up.

This continued for another 4 months. Sometimes getting better, but most of the time it was consistent - every day, one poop outside the box. When I became pregnant, I couldn't clean the litter box anymore (something about cat feces is dangerous to unborn fetuses, apparently). Every day I had to call Christian over to pick up the poop, because now I also have this super sense of smell. I can smell the uncovered poop from anywhere in the house. Sometimes Christian was gone and I had to put on gloves and a face mask to remove it myself (he does not want me doing this so I tried not to...but sometimes the smell was so bad!).

One day, a breakthrough - Christian caught Samantha doing it! She was the culprit all along, not Gabby! After that, I caught her a few times too, and we tried disciplining her when she did it. She absolutely did not care and kept it up. She even did it at my parents' house when they stayed there during our trip to DC. We didn't take her to the vet because she had recently had her annual physical and there was nothing wrong with her. At this point she'd been doing this for almost a year. If there was something physically wrong with her, she would have shown other signs by this time.

Finally we switched one of the two litter boxes back to the old Arm & Hammer "kill the earth" will-never-biodegrade cat litter. They both completely quit using the "green" litter and resorted to using only the one box with Arm & Hammer. This was not fun because the box needed to be cleaned twice as often. So we had to switch both boxes to the Arm & Hammer.

Now we are back to killing the earth, but the pooping in front of the box has pretty much stopped (there was one relapse during the time when there was one box of each litter).

The moral of this story is that the "green" way, as much as we want it to work, just will not always work. I have now tried every brand of "green" litter in the stores here and none of them both control odor and are acceptable to my cats. "World's Best Cat Litter" was the best performing, and I stand by that, but the cats would not accept it.

Since I don't exactly want to be picking up loose poop for the rest of our lives, I am just going to have to accept the conventional clumping litter. Which is too bad, because the conventional litter is so much heavier and the tracking is so much worse than the "green" litter was.

You can leave comments suggesting other brands if you want, but to be honest, I am really not going to try to acclimate the cats to another kind of litter and endure the horrible odor and the pooping everywhere in these last few months of my pregnancy, especially since I can't clean it up myself.

Sorry, earth :-(

Happy 4th of July!

Saturday, July 04, 2009

We went to see fireworks at Addison Kaboomtown last night (July 3). If you've never been, I recommend it! It's a long show, and well coordinated to the music on 100.3 (whatever station that is).
We did make the mistake of watching from the main parking garage, and then it took an hour to get out of that parking garage. Our car's battery died (some kind person gave us a jump - thanks!), I had run out of water, it was hot, and the fumes from the other cars were making me sick so we went downstairs to wait while Christian waited in line to get the car out of the garage. There were a lot of drunk kids who did not appear to be old enough to drink. I am sure they were, and I am just really, really old. But in case anyone has forgotten, no one is as smart or funny when they are drunk as they think they are at the time. I know this because I was sober and I had to listen to them speak to one another. I think I lost IQ points just listening to them. So glad I am not in that life stage anymore...

Happy 4th of July!

Drool: NatureMill Composter

Wednesday, July 01, 2009

Let me first confess: I have killed yet another plant. We bought one at the White Rock Local Market and I was very faithfully watering it every single day, just as instructed. It looked worse and worse and now it is completely dead. This is a big problem I have with doing the "green" thing and growing my own veggies or, honestly, growing anything edible. I kill them all. I can grow chrysanthemums and roses, that is it. Anything more than that dies.

I have managed to kill: ivy, cactus, and bamboo. All of which are supposed to be impossible NOT to grow, and impossible to kill. I beg to differ. I apologize to their little spirits.

How does this bring me to composting? Well, things grow in compost. Maybe compost would keep me from killing things. Who knows? Either way, we eat a lot of plant matter, being vegetarian, and I feel bad that I have to throw it all away. A friend of mine just got a lovely spinner composter thingy for the backyard. It reminded me that I really wish I could compost.

For a while I was doing vermi-composting, which was a good idea in theory. However, it seems that the extreme heat of summer kills the worms, and even the mild cold of winter here also kills them. That leaves only a few months they will live here in Texas. And forget about bringing them inside. I know they say you can do it, but "they" apparently haven't 1) smelled the odor, 2) dealt with the worm juice that comes out the bottom, or 3) lived in space as small as ours that makes #1 and #2 big deals. Not to even mention what the cats would do with the box, which would probably be indistinguishable from their litter box if the lid came open, and therefore be used for the same purpose.

This is my dream composter:

It is the NatureMill Plus under-the-sink, does-everything-for-you composter. * drool *
You just scrape your stuff in there and it turns it and makes the most lovely compost that just comes right out the other end perfectly.
It is also like $300. Which is why it has been on the "wish list" for years.
Check out how happy these people are with it:
They look totally thrilled!!
I am just saying, if anyone at NatureMill wants me to review their product for free...I will do it! I will review the heck out of that thing!!