Mae's Cribmate (Roommate?)

Sweet Sophia was Mae's roommate in the orphanage. It sounded like there were 4 girls to a room, and I'd swear that Zoe and Addie were also in that room. Mae took to Zoe right away in China. I was unclear if the babies shared cribs, but we were told Sophia was her cribmate, so we'll leave it at that. She was the one "with all the hair!" Crazy long hair on a 9 month old! She's such a cutie. It was great to see them interact. I wonder, when they're teenagers, will they be a huge pack, or will they pair up? It'll be interesting. Our Denver contingent has made a pledge to get together once a month from now on. It's silly that we don't. And, still thinking on this one but, I'm thinking of enrolling Mae in Chinese School at CCAI. That would be a schlep, but we could carpool with Zoe and it's such a good school. We'll see.

Friday and Saturday Update

I'm recovering from a crazy food poisoning episode. I think I will live. Eek. Friday was JCC's last day of school and Ted's first day of vacation. We spent the day chilling out. He played Legos and a Blues Clues computer game he found in the basement. I cooked, washed, line dried, and caught up on blogs. We got the kiddos and came home for a mellow afternoon (nap for Mae, playdate with Jason for Sam and more Blues Clues for Ted.) When Paul got home with Sam we had a quick dinner followed by our New Replacement Wahoo's Tradition (TM). I had procured a used Burley from a teacher at Horizons, thanks to Stacy, and Paul attached it to my bike. Off I went, pulling 70+ pounds. Ted was on his bike and Paul walked Ole. We met up at Boat Park at the end, then came home to popsicles. It was tough on me but not impossible. I'm looking forward to tomorrow, Sunday. If I'm feeling better, I'll try biking to South Pool with the Burley. That's major uphill, but at least the return will be easy. We'll see. My Burley is red, but you get the idea. I need Paul to take a pic of us all.
Saturday we went to Gabi's 4th bday party at the Farm. Tara kindly gave me a frappachino and I think that's where it all went wrong. The party started at 10 and on the dot at 12 I got sick. Tara took the boys home and I hung out in the Sprout House, making good use of their bathroom. I eventually left and had to make 4 stops on the way home. But I made it. Paul took the 3 kids to Pump It Up! for Adam's 4th bday party. I spent the rest of the day in bed, sipping water and Pedialite popsicles. Around 9 I came down to watch Star Trek with Paul and I'm feeling better. My tummy hurts!! Hopefully I'll be good as new tomorrow.

Eco-Throwdown Recap

Crunchy's Eco-Throwdown comes to an end tomorrow. I've done well, but not as well as I thought I could.

I committed to:
1. No plastic
2. No paper products
4. Local food only
5. No garbage output
6. No excessive water usage

No plastic was HARD. It's everywhere! But truthfully, not buying things made that pretty easy. I also only am gifting books (wrapped in comics, something I've always done) to the birthday children (we have 3 parties this weekend alone!). The kids' water bottles are replaced by stainless steel and I am 100% committed to not accepting plastic at the store (I bring my own bags for bulk items as well as big ones for the whole shebang. That's been fun.)

No paper products was easy since I was coming at it from a paper-free place. We already use cloth wipes, towels and hankies.

Local food only was tougher at the start of May and easy now, with the Farmer's Market in full swing. The big chore is to make sure to put up enough so we can still eat locally in the late winter. Mmmm, the beet greens and red chard are soooooo good after a long winter!! I've found local flour, honey, nut butters, eggs, and produce. The rest I'm working on. Hard to get local tofu that is not wrapped in plastic! Looking into making my own.

Originally I wondered, without plastic and without buying new things, would we have any garbage? The answer is yes, but SOOOOOO much less! Today, Friday, I pitched our full kitchen garbage into the large bin in the garage. We downgraded from a 90pound bin to a 60pound bin since we weren’t filling the 90pound. I noticed, while tossing it in, that this was our FIRST bag. Garbage pickup in on Mondays! I anticipate one more bag, since we will fill up the kitchen bag with the 2 small upstairs bathroom bins. Anyway, if we keep this up, I'll downgrade again to the 30pound bin. I would LOVE to manage just one trash bag per week. But two is not bad!!

Using less water has been a great lesson. I just never thought of it before. Now I fill my kitty litter jugs with 'warm up water' from my not-daily-anymore shower, keep jugs on hand by the drainspouts for afternoon rain showers, and keep the dishes in soapy water before putting them into the dishwasher, rather than rinsing each dish. I'm still doing a load of laundry a day, but I'm trying to not just toss things in just because they've been worn. This is easy for Paul and me, and even Mae, but the boys' clothes are always SO DIRTY!! Working on it.

I didn't sign up for the electricity one, but I've made some simple changes that should help. I don't turn any lights on til early evening (taking an Army Shower in the semi-darkness is an example!) and am in the process of transferring the deep freeze food into the regular freezer so we can turn it off in the summer. No AC needed yet, and our goal is to make it til August (July can be pretty brutal). Paul has a good system of closing all the blinds in the front (south) of the house and opening up the back, then switching around 3pm. So far, it's working well. It's only gotten up to 82, but I'm hoping we can stick it out!

This has been a great challenge, but a tough one. I plan to continue doing everything I've started and see where it takes us. The kids are SO aware of what's going on. "Is this plastic?" "Mae's wasting water!!" "Did this peach come from our farm (our CSA)?" Very cool.

Another challenge

This month's challenge over at Chile Chews is to identify an 'addiction' and do without it for a month. Mine is eating out. I love my Monday night sushi night (alone with a book and delicious sushi ... heaven) but what am I really craving? Time alone to read? Delicious food? Let's try a month without it. We also love biking to Wahoo's, eating outside, and then biking home. It's a fun summer tradition. Let's try picnicking in the park instead. I have 2 exceptions: Girl's Night and Paul's birthday dinner. Other than that, no eating out in June. Check.

Green Bean's Bookworm Challenge is going to continue because we all love it so much. I read SOOOO many eco books this month. I just plowed through "Radical Simplicity" and am working my way through "Food Not Lawns" by H.C. Flores. I didn't post a review of "Last Child in the Woods," last month's book, so I'll do that soon. "Radical Simplicity" was a great, fast read. I'll review that tomorrow. Good stuff.

We opened a savings account today. For the month of May, we managed to save 2K plus some change. It was REALLY interesting to record EVERY SINGLE PENNY and see where we're spending money. Since we're not buying anything new and using up all our pantry stores, we're in a good place. It doesn't feel like deprivation; it feels like SUCCESS that we CAN DO THIS. I'm hoping to save $2500 next month, so the deposit of 2K doesn't completely empty the account. We'll do it. Rock on.

"This is WAY better than U B Funkey!"

For those of you not in the know, U B Funkey is a computer game for kids, gifted to Ted by his friend Jack for his 6th birthday. Luckily, Ted prefers Legos to just about anything, but Sam! Sam LOVES it. Today after school Nyla's dad, a former backcountry ranger in Idaho and Montana, took us (and Kai) on a hike at Chautauqua. He pointed out critter tracks, local birds, basic geology, and some edible plants. The kids were in heaven. There was an old (unused!) brick oven at the end that they had fun "getting stuck" in. When Sam blurted out the title of this post, I couldn't help but laugh out loud. That's right, buddy. Being outside beats a dark basement anyday!

want $1 off your latte?

Today it was FREEZING! My sweet mother had sent me a beautifully decorated Starbucks gift card for Mother's Day (I, on the other hand, was too flummoxed by her hospital stay to even send her anything! I know, I'm pathetic. Luckily, she still loves me anyway. Yes! A card is on its way to her. Geesh.) Anyway, I went ahead and 'registered' the pretty card at Starbucks.com, since Wendy said it would get me free soymilk. Although I don't go to Starbucks much anymore, today's chilly temps begged for a steamy latte. Off I went, personal cup in hand, to my local drive-thru. "Grande Personal Cup Sugar Free Hazelnut Soy Latte, please, " I said. "That'll be $4," was the reply. Ouch. I'm glad I make mine at home. I drove up and handed the barista my rosebud card. She came back and said, "Wow! You saved an entire dollar!" She showed me my receipt and, sure enough, free soymilk and SF Hazelnut syrup ($.45 each) plus a $.10 personal cup discount and my total was $3.25 ($.25 tax). Not bad! Not something I'll do every day like I used to, but nice for a treat. Next time, I'm going to order a Tall (12oz) size and see what the total is.

awesome Bolder Boulder!

The cool temps and constant drizzle made for excellent running weather! Not such great waiting around for each other weather, but that's not the point anyway. Paul and I were both happy with our results. I trained well! I'm so psyched.

Ellen: 1:05:09 (10:30 min miles)

Paul: 0:42:58 (6:56 min miles)

Paul so rocks! Next year he qualifies for the AB wave! Rock on!

Sunday brunch

What a morning! We've decided we need a full week for next year's reunion! A 4-day weekend just isn't enough time. The girls were great today, playing together and having fun. Hooray! More pics on moeltini.

Girls from Left to Right: Big Sister Georgia with Gracie in her lap, Zoe, Kate, Addie, Mae, Sophia, Amber, Caitlan & Angelina.

2008 Reunion

It is so wonderful to see everyone (10 out of 11 families) again! Not only are the girls SO much fun this year, but Amber has a GORGEOUS little brother, Joshua, almost 2, from Taiwan. He is so beautiful and FUN! He hangs out with the girls just fine. Mae was VERY shy and clingy on Friday night and was similarly withdrawn on Saturday. I think it's a bit overwhelming for her. But she talks about it with enthusiasm, just can't quite bring herself to jump in to the fray.

I spent the morning cooking for Sunday's vegan feast! Here's the menu. Mmm. I love brunch!

POTS of coffee
Apple juice
Orange Juice
Peach Coffee Cake
Siena Muffins (almond/orange-esque)
Tempeh Hashbrown Casserole
Spinach & Sun-Dried Tomato Frittata
Watermelon chunks
Sliced Strawberries

Here is a cute pic of Sam in the jumpy castle with Addie. Addie LOVED Sam. And Ted, for that matter. She is a rough and tumble little girl and had a BLAST with them.

Rainbarrels, homemade corndogs and Jiggley-Puff

For those of you unfamiliar with Pokemon, there is a very cute one named Jiggley-Puff. She sings a sweet little song and puts everyone to sleep. This makes her angry, so she draws on everyone with her microphone-turned-marker. The boys think this is hysterical. Apparently they played Jiggley-Puff and Pikachu on Monday night. Sam was JP, obviously. Hee.

Today there was a tornado in Fort Collins! We had some wild rain and found out later how crazy it really way. During this rain, I went out and put my gigantic kitty litter jugs under my drainspouts. I filled 6 40-pound jugs! That'll be alot of water for my garden when it doesn't rain! Now I just need a way to store it. I'll be checking with the local car wash places (they have 50 gallon tubs that they will sometimes part with).

Also, today I cooked up a bath of VeganDad's hotdogs and cornbread from VeganLunchBox. This will be a re-try of homemade corndogs. They were soundly rejected last time, but we'll try again. I'm aiming for no more processed foods, and they love their corndogs.

Just got an email from Horizons and the kids were in "tornado position" for a while. Should be a fun story for him to tell.

Bye bye, cute dishes

Today I went through the cupboards, chucking the cute kiddie plastic dinnerware. No more plates, bowls, sippy cups or utensils made of plastic. Mae was momentarily furious but a brownie soothed the tide. I'm sad to see the cuteness gone, but I admit, I am LOVING the spaciousness of my cupboards! The boys, as usual, are completely on-board. Ted wondered if all the plastic bottles gave him his asthma. A possible connection. Here's why I went AWOL on the dishes:

Bisphenol A is used to make hard, glasslike plastic containers for food and drink, such as clear Nalgene bottles and toddler sip cups. It also can be used to line tin food and drink cans.
Avoid using plastic food containers marked on the bottom with the recycling label No. 7; they may contain bisphenol A. Not all No. 7 products contain the chemical, but this is a reasonable guideline for a category of plastics to avoid, especially for children's use. Plastics with the recycling labels No. 1, No. 2 and No. 4 do not contain bisphenol A.

To be super-safe:

Use glass baby bottles and dishes.
Don't microwave food in plastic containers.
Toss out old, scratched plastic dishes and containers.
Don't wash plastic dishes in the dishwasher or using strong detergents, which can speed up wear and tear.
Avoid canned food and drinks.
Avoid using plastic wraps. Some contain bisphenol A, though certain brands, such as Saran, don't.

Source: Environmental Working Group

First Bike Race of the season

This afternoon was a perfect day for a bike race. Hot and windy, it seems like all bike races are exercises in tough conditions. Ted was psyched to race again after a long winter and zoomed along happily. He has two more years of fun (free!) racing before he'll need to decide if he wants to race 'for real.' Oy! It's weird now that he's in the oldest of the group (6-7 yos). There was a 2-3 yo wave .... soooooo cute!! I think they went about 0.02 of a mile. Hee!!! (Ted's in orange.)

Great Strides '08

Thank you so much for supporting me in the CF Great Strides Walk. We sincerely appreciate your kind hearts, generosity, time and effort in helping us to raise CF research dollars. Here is our group photo.
We’re proud and honored to report that the JJ Walkers raised $22,584.00 in Denver’s CF Great Strides Walk this year, placing 3rd among the teams. The gross preliminary total is $334,868.00. Hooray!!

Thanks a million again for your time, energy, generosity and support!

3rd Place!

Our team, the JJ Walkers, came in 3rd, raising over $20,000! I raised $1155 (thank you soooo much to all the people who sponsored me!!) and it was a perfect day for a walk. Hot, but nice. I lost Ted at one point, but Paul found him, so no harm done. I had pinned notes on both boys with my cell phone #, so I wasn't too frantic. I love this shot of Sam and his friends Eli and Jason. This was Sam's first CF Walk and he did great! Ted's done it every year, except for 2006 when I was in China. Hooray for this year's walk! The Denver chapter raised over $300,000. We CAN beat this disease!!

swim season!

This afternoon the Rock Creek Flyers had their first pre-season practice. It's an outside pool, but they had heated it to 83 and the kids were working pretty hard, so they were OK with it. There were quite a few sad little kids sobbing, so I was very glad I had already decided to follow Ted's lead (i.e., if he doesn't like the team, we'll quit. No big deal. No pressure. I want him to LIKE swimming.) He was great though and was surprisingly attentive and followed directions so well. He has really matured this year. More pics on moeltini.

Mikey likes it!

We've named our yard squirrel Mikey, mostly because he'll eat anything, including the bird seed. Ole spends much of his day guarding the deck from Mikey. Last week I put in a make-shift squirrel feeder using a flower pot and duct tape. Well, it works! Mikey is quite happy. Just look how easily he can get at his munch! (Squirrel food this week is dried corn, peanuts and sunflower seeds.)

a plan

We have news. We are going to move to Boulder. W00t! This will be a 12-24 month process of building up equity in this house and padding our savings for a hefty down payment. We had a good talk on Saturday night about our priorities. Mostly, our focus now needs to be at Horizons. We'll be there for 11 years, and another 4 if you count high school. It makes sense to live in Boulder. And for me, I want to live close enough to school to be able to walk (6 blocks or so is out far enough, I think). I want to be able to bike or walk to the store for essentials. And we will be. Soon. Now that I have a goal, my whole obsessive leap into the Voluntary Simplicity movement will have some backbone behind it. Paul is willing to move; I want to move. All we need to do is save for it. Will do. I've been paring down anyway and I have to tell the truth - I don't miss the shopping! I drove past Target today on my way home from the library and I didn't even WANT to stop in. I don't want anything! (Well, I would like a bird feeder, but I'm working on scoring that in some other way. Used, donated, make-your-own? We'll see.) I almost feel a sense of relief that I have 'an excuse' for not shopping, for not having new clothes, for not buying my kids new plastic crap just to give myself an hour of free time. I feel more peaceful and content than I have in a long time. Now, back to reading. Lordy, my eyes are going to fall out!

I had a lovely Mother's Day. Paul let me sleep in and then I had a nice long run. Ted and I walked to Starbucks to enjoy my Mother's Day card from my mom. We had ice cream cake from Glacier (mmm!) and grilled (veggie) burgers and watermelon for dinner. A restful day. I finished up my bookclub book and am on to Not Buying It which is a good read.

Saturday

Saturday we took Alex and Adam to Sunflower farm with us, for Shabbat Mispacha. All in all, despite some crazy wind and brief hail, it was a lovely morning. Then after naps we dropped the boys off at Ninja Night and took Mae with us to Japango. As usual, she was beautifully behaved and ate a TON. She LOVES rice. It is really fun to have the rare opportunity to be alone with her, just the 3 of us. She clearly relishes the attention and we enjoy her so much. She would have been a perfectly happy only child. Oh well!

Friday

Friday was Mae's Gotcha Day Party. The 'real day' was yesterday, Thursday, but between the kids' schedules, TKD and a Council meeting at Ted's school, there wasn't time to pay it the attention it deserved. So, tonight we had her party. Wendy baked another gorgeous (now a tradition) Butterfly cake. The boys played wildly and happily all night. Henry and Baby Kit got to meet Baby Jacob, all so beautiful! What gorgeous children we all have! We had a Chinese feast from Spice China and lots of mojitos and beer. It was a lovely evening.

2 years! Mae has been in my arms for 2 years. It seems like forever!! Happy 2nd Gotcha Day, Mae HuaiXiang! (More pics on moeltini, although the server is down (Sunday am) so check back soon. Wendy took such great pics!)

Farewell to toys

Paul has a (in my opinion, rather severe) clean-up policy. Any toys left on the floor get tossed. In reality, they end up in a garbage bag in the crawl space. Another reality? The kids SELDOM ask for them, and if they do, it's worth finding whenever we happen to go through the bags. I went through them for the final time today, sorting out the beloved Playmobil. I donated the knights sets and the large pirate ship sets, keeping the 2 small pirate sets and the Gladiator set Ted got for Hanukkah this year. I doubt they will even notice, which is so indicative of the abundance of toys in their lives. We're trying. Ted is such a great Lego player that we're getting by beautifully on the neighbors' Lego bins. He'll play with Legos for HOURS. Sam is not into them. At all. While Ted entertained himself this afternoon, Sam and Mae had a tea party in Mae's bedroom. Very cute. Without the toys in the basement, the clutter is magically vanishing from our house. Just the front room Lego disaster remains, but I'm OK with it. Apparently all of Ted's kindergarten friends prefer coming to HIS house because he has Legos. Do other kids not have it? Is it retro? Old-fashioned? It IS plastic, so at least it was donated to us, for the most part. Anyway, a good day of clearing out the old. Next up? My kitchen.

new pool

Judy has a new pool! This one is in a hotel and has a cool waterslide and a little kid slide, although they (hotel management) didn't let us use them today. Hopefully next week. The kids loved the new place and they have two teachers now instead of one, so they get even more attention than usual! Sam is in a class of 4 with 2 instructors. Back when Ted was in this class, it was 6-8 kids with 2 instructors. This rocks.

We had a 100% local dinner tonight. Tortillas from Tortilleria La Esmeralda, eggs & spinach from Jay Hill Farm, mushrooms from Hazel Dell Mushrooms, and MouCo ColoRouge cheese. Excellent! My mojito wasn't local, but the mint was from my garden. I admit, my garden, put into the ground Saturday afternoon, doesn't look so hot. It looks ... wilty. We'll see. I hope it survives. We've had 2 strawberries so far. I'm encouraged so I think I'll get 2 or 3 more plants this Saturday at the market and we'll put the whole lot of them into one of our two large container planters. Maybe put the mint in the other.

I am beat. I washed all the winter coats, snowpants, mittens and hats today. Luckily the threatening rain didn't come and they all got dry on the line. Now they are put away, so I'm sure it'll snow tomorrow. Argh.

slowing down some more

Decisions, decisions. Today I decided to take a mini break from TKD. I'll restart again in June after the next testing cycle. I'm really wanting to be HOME these days, plus my knees are sore enough with running - adding 25 lunging jumping jacks to the day doesn't help. Mr. D. was completely understanding, so that was a relief. No guilt or anything.

I had the laundry up on the line by 8:15, when I left to take the little ones to preschool. That was cool. I knew I wouldn't be home til late and we're getting into the season of afternoon showers, so ... better safe than sorry. Or, better damp than soaked, in this case.

After hiking with Ole, I spent the morning going through the last of the toys in the basement and loaded the van with 2 boxes of toys and some shoe donations. That feels good. I plan to go through the legos and Playmobile on Wednesday. It seems cruel to just hand over a huge box of mixed up pieces. The least I can do is organize into "pirates" and "knights," I figure. And I recycled about 10 Bionicle boxes at EcoCycle. Turns out they are #1 plastic and could have gone in our bin anyway. The person explained to me that "narrow neck bottle" actually only means that the NECK needs to be NARROWER than the body. So, the Bionicles boxes and the peanut jar would have been fine. Good to know!

I am still reading Last Child in the Woods. It's a fabulous book, but written in a less witty manner than Voluntary Simplicity and Affluenza. I am slogging through though, and it is worth it. I can't wait to get to our book club pick this month, Digging to America.

Off to fold, bath and bed!

sunday

"The dugout in the weeds or leaves beneath a backyard willow, the rivulet of a seasonal creek, even the ditch between a front yard and the road - all of these places are entire universes to a young child." - Last Child in the Woods

We wrapped up this lovely weekend with a birthday party at The Children's Peace Garden (next to, and a part of, the Community Garden in Boulder.) The kids donned bee suits and went to the hives to gather honey, planted seeds and tasted lots of different herbs and vegetables, and dug around in the dirt in search of worms. It was a fitting end to a weekend filled with fresh air and sunshine. Paul and I noted that the kids had not had a single fight all weekend.

While on my run this morning, I noticed a falling apart shack on the trail. I think we'll head over there some time this week, just to poke around and explore.

Last year I enjoyed the Eat Local Challenge and this year's is coming up on June 1. The Eat Local Summer Challenge asks that you prepare one meal a week from entirely local foods (spices and oils are exceptions.) I joined this group back in September and have been striving to eat local as much as possible. Summer is so easy with the bountiful Farmer's Markets here in Boulder. We are so lucky to live in such a rich, thriving locavore community. The challenge doesn't officially start til June 1, but our dinner tonight was 100% local (spices and oils excepted.) Sauteed mushrooms on toast (Colorado flour!) and baby beets with greens, fresh from yesterday's market. Mmm!

a perfect day

Today's chavurah at the Shoenfelds came at an opportune time. Both Becky and I are "into" the "locavore movement" and found out today that we both are also "into" the "voluntary simplicity movement" as well. We chatted about starting up a Jewish-themed Voluntary Simplicity group at HHS. We also talked about the book Last Child in the Woods, which I'm reading for the Bookworm Challenge. All this while our kids climbed robes, traversed wires, zipped across our heads, played (literally) 6+ hours of soccer, and generally ran happily amok from 9:30am til 5:30pm. Perfect. Just perfect. Meanwhile, the dads joined the kids in soccer, spotting them in times of worry on the zip line and took them on occasional 'adventures' to the creek while the moms sat on the porch swing and talked. Perfect.

I went to the Farmer's Market this morning (chickened out of the bike ride and we all went together in the car) and bought a gallon of Compost Tea from the EcoCycle booth, as well as 3 dozen eggs, spinach, beets, cheeses and mushrooms. We stored those in a cooler in the shade for the day, but I had to get my plants into the ground tonight to use the Compost Tea in all its compost-y goodness. I put everything in but the tomatoes, so: broccoli, carrots, swiss chard, spinach, mint and sugar snap peas. Ted helped. Everyone took a bath (WOW the dirt!) and crashed without a peep tonight. Perfect. What a lovely day! More scary action pics on moeltini.

CF Donations DOUBLED next week!!!!!

Wow!!!! This just in from my team leader:

Happy Friday to you all! We are closing in on the big day- Great Strides is two weeks from tomorrow. A generous donor in the CF family has graciously and generously offered to match 100% of every donation that is made ONLINE between the days of Monday, May 5 and Monday, May 12, 2008. That is right- 100% of online gifts.

This is amazing! If you haven't yet sponsored me and would like to, please know that your gift will be DOUBLED if you give online next week! Wow! Thank you so so SO much to all of you who have already made your generous donations! I am up to $965, $450 in checks (doesn't show up on the webpage but it's there!!) and $485 in online donations. Thanks to you all!

Click HERE for my CF site!

go Obama!

from No Impact Man:

As the New York Times said today in an editorial (with my emphasis):

Senators John McCain and Hillary Rodham Clinton have hit on a new way to pander to American voters: a temporary suspension of the federal gasoline tax between Memorial Day and Labor Day. The proposal may draw applause and votes from Americans feeling the pain of nearly $4-a-gallon gasoline. But it is an expensive and environmentally unsound policy that would do nothing to help American drivers... Fortunately, Mr. Obama has not caved to the rising calls for cheap energy and has refused to follow his rivals down this misguided path...

Joseph Romm, a progressive, who worked for the Clintons as acting assistant secretary of energy for energy efficiency and renewable energy, writing critically of the gas tax on his blog, Climate Progress, says (again with my emphasis):

I write this post with some sadness. I would not have expected a major progressive politician who obviously cares about global warming to propose a gas tax holiday, which has no public benefits whatsoever, but at the same time undermines the entire rationale behind a national climate strategy that includes, as it must, a pricing mechanism for greenhouse gases. I try, however, to be as consistent as possible — and if such a proposal was cynical and hypocritical for Sen. McCain, it is equally cynical and hypocritical for Sen. Clinton. Kudos to Sen. Obama for opposing this absurd proposal — double kudos because it might cost him a few votes.

According to the Washington Post, meanwhile:

Harvard professor N. Gregory Mankiw, who has written a best-selling textbook on economics, said what he teaches is different from what Clinton and McCain are saying about gas taxes. "What you learn in Economics 101 is that if producers can't produce much more, when you cut the tax on that good the tax is kept . . . by the suppliers and is not passed on to consumers," he said.

Which makes the move by Clinton and McCain all the more cynical. While the measure will cost the federal government $9 billion and send entirely the wrong message on climate change, McCain and Clinton know as well as anyone else that oil companies won't pass the price break onto consumers but instead will pocket it.

They are paying $9 billion in our money, in other words, to make a false promise. They are trying to trick voters into voting for them.

Environmentalists said, according to the Post:

[that] stoking ire about the cost of gas undermines efforts to build a case for limiting carbon emissions, which could raise prices at the pump. "It sends a confusing message," said Kevin Knoblauch, president of the Union of Concerned Scientists. "What's more helpful is if [politicians] help consumers understand that this isn't about near-term gas prices, it's about a comprehensive and smart approach to energy policies."

The sad news is that this whole mishigas is a first indication of how McCain or Clinton would treat the climate issue if they became president. The good news is that it is also and indication of how Obama would treat it.

the Extreme Eco Throwdown has begun!

Well, it's May 1 and snowing like crazy. Just yesterday it was 80! Crazy Colorado weather. So, I've committed to Crunchy's challenge and here are my resolves. Note that I didn't do ALL of them, but I do resolve to do the ones I list all month.

I commit to:

1. No plastic
2. No paper products
4. Local food only
5. No garbage output
6. No excessive water usage

So, some explanations. No plastic is a toughie. I'm happily in love with Burt's Bees Rosemary Mint Shampoo bar, fresh lemon in place of deodorant, baking soda/salt/peppermint essential oil for toothpaste, Eco-dent floss, Dr. Bronners bar for washing and Seventh Generation laundry detergent (which came with a plastic scoop! argh! at least it was recyclable.) Basically, if I'd run out of a product that used plastic, I'd replaced it for this challenge. Obviously, we're taking products here and not appliances etc. Thanks goodness! Plastic is EVERYWHERE though. It's close to impossible to find a supermarket item without something lurking. Even the Silk soymilk has a plastic cap. It's recyclable, but it's still plastic! And there's that pull-off tab thingee under it to deal with. Oy.

No paper products is easy. We are using cloth wipes, towels, hankies, Keeper, etc. The whole family is on board with this one. If the 'guest TP' runs out this month, I'll replace it with Seventh Generation. I was annoyed that the 12-pak came wrapped in plastic, but Whole Foods said I could order a case (unwrapped) from them, so I will when the time comes.

#3 was no driving. Sadly, I can't do that yet, but I can minimize extra trips and combine errands. And walk/bike whenever possible in Rock Creek.

Local food only will be fine, except for things like oils and spices. While breakfast for me is easy (eggs, homemade toast, local jam, local nut butters), it's tougher on my kids who prefer maple syrup on their (homemade) waffles. Lunch is easy-peasy: homemade bread, local jams & nut butters, local cheeses etc. Fresh fruit and veggies are really coming into their own so I can expect more in that department as the month progresses. Dinner is easy too, since I usually prepare dishes from our CSA share (starting May 20) or from the Farmer's Market. I've finally found local flour. WheatLand Farms. The wheat is grown in several Northern Colorado counties and milled near Greeley. It's available at King Soopers.

No garbage output simply interests me. If we have no plastic and we recycle all glass and paper, will we still have garbage? I'm curious. I'm guessing most of the garbage will accrue from the mail. We don't fill our garbage pail each week anyway, but we do have a few bags. I wonder. We'll see!

No excessive water usage. I'm already trying army showers but I don't like them much at all. It's close to impossible to get the water temp back to a normal level without wasting a bunch while fiddling with it. Still, I have shaved (not!) 5 minutes off my 10 minute showers, last time I checked the clock. I'm aiming for another 2 minutes off this month. Also catching the "heating up" water to water the garden (which will get planted the weekend of May 17-18! can't wait!) and the bird-attracting flowers (probably going into the ground on Sunday).

#7 was no electricity which I can't do, but I have eliminated the dryer, unplug everything when not in use (like that electric toothbrush charger!) and don't turn any lights on til it's pretty dark in the house. That is going well.

Whew!

This morning the kids and I baked 4 different types of cookies for the Teacher Appreciation Luncheon tomorrow at Horizons. I filled up the left sink with water and a squirt of soap and put all the dirty dishes on that side, then put them into the dishwasher. That MUST be more efficient that rinsing off each dish. (another Duh! moment for me, *sigh*) I also baked 2 loaves of bread ... 3rd bread baking of the week! Sam and Mae are into sandwiches again so we're really going through it quickly. I tried to make bagels last weekend but they didn't work out. I'm going to try again this weekend. In the meantime, Ted has been ok with the lack 'o bagel in the morning.

Last but not least, running is going well. It always seems to snow, sleet, hail or rain on Thursdays, so I was prepared this morning. Crazy snow. We are coming to the end of Week 5 of the training program. I need to plan something for the month of June so I don't fall off the wagon.