Today was a real eye opener for me, not that anything incredibly new happened, but it was just sort of filled with little ways to reduce, reuse, recycle and limit your carbon footprint and all that and it happened so effortlessly that I am left wondering why in the world didn’t we do this sooner?

Let me explain:

Today we had to run a few errands at lunch time- our first errands via bicycles. A normal trip out to Freddy Myer’s on Broadway takes us by car about 10 minutes with traffic lights and parking. By bike? 15 minutes, tops. I couldn’t believe how quickly we were there, and how easy it is to pull Lil’ E behind me on a trailer- I could hardly tell I was pulling the extra weight in comparison to having him up on a seat. One of the things we needed from Freddy’s was rain boots for Ethan, because we’re going with the church to Sauvie Island Pumpkin Patch tonight and it might be muddy. We found some for 14.99, though he liked a different one with a dinosaur face on it but they did not have it in his size.

After we got several bags full of things stuffed in the bike trailer (there sure is a lot of room in that thing!), we stopped to split a grilled veggie burrito at Cha Cha Cha’s for 4.00. Next door is Bella Stella Resale, where I knew she’s had a good selection of random used rainboots and coats in the past. So I popped in and low and behold- the dinosaur boots were there, in his size, slightly used, for $6.99. (Needless to say we’ll be returning the other ones!)

Upon returning home in again what felt like record time, we were greeted by a box full of produce from Organics to You, our first weekly order of home delivered organic produce and grocery items. Here is what came in this week’s “small” bin for $30:

• 4 Gala Apples – *LOCAL, farm direct*
• 4 Fuji Apples – *LOCAL, farm direct
• 3 Bartlett Pears – *LOCAL, farm direct*
• 3-4 Bananas
• 1 Cauliflower – *LOCAL*
• 1-2 Leeks – *LOCAL, farm direct*
• 1 Kale – *LOCAL, farm direct*
• 1 bunch Carrots – *LOCAL, farm direct*
• 1 bunch Parsley – *LOCAL, farm direct*
• 1 bunch Green Onions – *LOCAL, farm direct*
• 1 bunch Celery – *LOCAL, farm direct*
• 1-2 Onions – *LOCAL, farm direct*
• 1-2 Delicatta Squash – *LOCAL, farm direct*
• 2-3 baby Bok Choy – *LOCAL*

Everything was in great shape, fresh, not over or under ripe at all. I was delighted to see things I don’t normally pick out, like Bok Choy and Delicatta Squash, as well as some yummy favorites like Cauliflower and lots of apples. We have so much that I will have to go down to the one person bin for next week, or skip a week.

I must say, being on the bike for the errands kinda took the “errands” part of it out of the trip. Unlike a car, there is fresh air, scenery, you take back roads and kinda just enjoy yourself. Lil’ E took a nap, Hubby and I got some exercise. No wonder people do this in Europe all the time. What is America thinking???

Anyway! It was also VERY NICE to stop at the bank and deposit the sale of the car today. Whoopie!

Final thought? Carpooling is not only green, its also sweet. Our friend Eric offered to tote us to Sauvieland tonight, thanks Eric!

It’s official. We have no more car! It’s a little scary, to be honest. But we thought it through a lot and I think we’ll be okay once we begin to use the local bus’, bikes, and FLEX cars more. I got a $70 bike trailer off Craigslist now so I also have a way to take back library books and pick up peanut butter at the grocery store, lol.

I’ve actually been kinda excited about the aspect of us taking more time to plan things and not end up running errands inefficiently.  I wonder how much gas we used in the last 4-5 months simply going 1 mile and back from the movie rentals and grocery store, when we could’ve done one trip per week or something and actually been organized about it! Well, this morning we catch the bus to church and back, which is actually a pretty sweet deal. It’s the same bus the whole way, and the driving time is about 30 minutes, which it takes us to get there anyway. There’s more walking time, which Hubby and I rather enjoy.

I think the most difficult aspect will be Hubby’s now 2-3 hour commute each day, along with the $100 monthly pass for the Washington busline. Interestingly, his boss has offered an old truck he could use for his commute, so we’ll see how that pans out. So long as the gas doesn’t exceed the pass, it could work out nicely. Don’t you just love generous people? It makes you want to go out and help others too. But that’s a whole other post.

We got Feist tickets for the Aladdin Theatre on Nov. 6th! Don’t have a babysitter yet- but we got Feist tickets! I’m so excited I could pee. They will also be on SNL next Satuday night.

Because I still get the question, “Why Portland?” or the statement that Portland is just like any other nice city, I decided to dedicate this entire post to the subject, so in the future I can simply forward this post without answering the question all over again.

Most of you know why we MOVED (we were in Lakeland, FL to graduate – never wanted to make that our long term place of residence. Since we we had spent a collective 30 years in the sub-tropical climate of Florida’s lovely sprawling resort cities and southern baptist culture, we wanted to move AWAY. Like, away away. Not nearby. At least as far as North Carolina. To boot, it was perfect timing for us to make a large move, when we considered all the logistics such as children, jobs, money, lease, so on.)

But still, the buzz about Portland never seems to reach all of you. I can understand that, in fact I didn’t think Portland had ANYTHING at all until I searched for articles and information about it. And as far as I’m concerned, that’s due to my southern education in which culture and geography were sorely under-taught. LOL

Well, this week’s Willamette Weekly, (the only newspaper ever to get me to actually read it with vigor), had an entire feature this week which picked apart a few articles or media coverage on Portland. You can follow the link if you want to read the article, but I have copied the tid bits of media coverage below.

Here’s the media clips they pick apart in the article on their site- I figure I will let the professional writers explain a little of WHY PORTLAND since that is who we trusted to tell us about it before coming here. (Although we did visit right before moving and LA-HUVED it.)

It was upon reading stuff like the above media coverage that made us, like so many 20-30 yr olds, flock to the city of Portland in the last couple of years. Some one told me a few weeks ago, though I’m not sure if its accurate so don’t quote me on it, that Portland has the largest growing population of 20-30 yr olds in the world right now. So the long and short of it? We are one of them. And that doesn’t in the least bit water down our decision to come because we love it too. And if any one reading this felt a little bit like this might be a cool place for them, it probably is. And you will not be coming in our shadow, you will be coming to a cool place for you.

There are many people whom I DON’T think Portland would be a good pick for. But it was for us, very much so, and we are SO glad we made the move.

THE END!

is kinda lax this week- I didn’t watch any movies because of my work load…

HOWEVER-

I did read a chapter ABOUT movies from Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs, and decided this piece was so well said it deserved to be quoted for Saturday movie mania…

“… it’s impossible to deny that the chances of seeing an uber-fantastic film in a conventional movie house are growing maddeningly rare, which wasn’t always the case. It wasn’t long ago that movies like Cool Hand Luke or The Last Picture Show or Nashville would show up everywhere, and everyone would see them collectively, and everybody would have their consciousness shaken at the same time and in the same way. This never happens anymore (Pulp Fiction was arguable the last instance.) This is mostly due to the structure of the Hollywood system; especially in the early 1970’s, everybody was consumed with the auteur concept, which gave directors the ability to completely (and autonomously) construct a movie’s vision; for roughly a decade, film was a director’s medium. Today, film is a producer’s medium (the only director with complete control over his product is George Lucas, and he elects to make kids’ movies). Producers want to develop movies they can refer to as “high concept,” which – somewhat ironically- is industry slang for “no concept”: It describes a movie where the human element is secondary to an episodic collection of action sequences. It’s “conceptual” because there is no emphases on details. Capitalistically, those projects work very well; they can be constructed as “vehicles” for particular celebrities, which is the only thing most audiences care about, anyway. In a weird way, film studios are almost requiring moves to be bad, because they tend to be efficient.”

Would love some hearty discussion on this point, I could talk about this all day (just ask my poor mother-in-law!)

So come out you lurkers, I know you have a thought or two about movies. And I’m not asking because I care about how many comments I get, but because I REALLY need adult conversation after being home all day with my toddler. See, now you are guilted into commenting, which I don’t feel a darn bit of shame about.

With the rainy season upon us, its not always easy to bus it to the farmer’s market these days. With the sale of our car impending, and no bike trailer to carry groceries, getting produce and grocery items will be a bit difficult, to say the least. But I’m really apprehensive about the trailer, for irrational fears of having the most precious thing to my heart trailing around behind my bike on the side of a busy road. Anyway, I typically bring $40 to the Portland Farmer’s Market each week. I look for the best deals (which aren’t always organic but at least local) and then I spend a little at the grocery store for items not produce related. The market runs every Saturday from May – December.

All of these complications lead me to look into the home delivery service, as I often see various vans outside the doors of houses in our neighborhood, dropping off groceries and bins of food.

Several full-fledged grocery stores, such as New Seasons Market, offer this service for a fee, and many local farms offer “drop off” sites for a seasonal membership (Sauvie Island Organics, for example, rounds off to about $25 a week, from my math, which is pretty good, but you have to pay $805 for the 8 months of service, and you still have to go to the drop off sites on the right days.)

What I want is something without a fee, that tells me what I’m getting each week, and that provides more than just produce. Oh yes, and if you could just leave it on the door, thanks. Is that too much to ask?

Apparently not! Organics to You offers home delivery of fresh organic produce from several farm locations, and all you have to do is schedule for the size bin you want (one person, small family, large family, etc) including extras such as “Juicer Bin”, “Kids Bin” etc. To top it off, they offer an ever expanding selection of high demand grocery items, such as bread, milk, butter, yogurt, cheese, eggs, coffee, – even Chai! (Meats are coming soon!) You see the price (and, by the way, the brand) for what you’re checking off and it all adds up to one sum which you can either pay in advance with your credit card or leave cash under your door mat! The prices, compared to non-discounted items at, say, Wild Oats (prices I am most familiar with) are by and large comparable, if not cheaper, (although for the time being, I do have Hubby’s 20% discount) PLUS you are not paying for gas OR the time/chore of getting your groceries each week.

Pro’s: esp without a Hubby discount: no travel and very little time invested (takes two minutes to fill your order). Price is reasonable, and best of all, it makes it very easy to stay within your grocery budget, as most of us would do if we actually saw the total adding up AS WE WERE SHOPPING!

Con’s: If you are not concerned about organics AND you are not a big produce eater, then obviously its cheaper to go to your local grocery chain.

Below was this week’s bin for a “small family”, which costs $30. I think its MORE than enough for us and I might go down to the one person bin every other week, and with the savings buy some grocery items such as my milk, bread and eggs.

SMALL BIN

Hello, For the week of October 22nd. ENJOY!

1 Pomegranate
4 Gala Apples – *LOCAL, farm direct*
3 Bartlett Pears – *LOCAL, farm direct*
2-3 StarKrimson Pears – *LOCAL, farm direct
3-4 Bananas
1 bunch French breakfast Radish – *LOCAL*
1-2 Onions – *LOCAL, farm direct*
2lb. Red Potatoes – *LOCAL, farm direct*
6oz. Crimini Mushrooms – *LOCAL, farm direct*
1/2lb. Green Beans – *LOCAL, farm direct*
1 Lettuce – Some *LOCAL*-’last of the local lettuce’
1 bunch Chard/Kale – *LOCAL, farm direct*
1 bunch Broccoli – *Local*
1-2 winter Squash-(Gold Nugget) – *LOCAL, farm direct*

*LOCAL* = locally from supplier
*LOCAL, farm direct* = Locally direct from farmer

I’d like to add that even the website for this organization is impressive to me- with recipes, community pages, so on. I will get my first delivery next week, and I’ll let you all know how it measures up!

I like to share news about the company I work for, because working from home can sometimes feel a bit isolated even though in reality I do work for a corporation. I’ve been very happy working for Wiley, even as a “part-timer” who works 30-35 hours a week, lol. Ahhh, maybe one day I will move up the ranks for a permanent full-time position…

Book Business Magazine rated Wiley number 14 in its recent article/study on the best book publishers to work for. Below is the snippet from the article:

I realize “blessed” is like a churchy buzzword, but I can’t help using it. I have had several good conversation’s with women in my life lately who took some time to listen to my complaints and problem solving, and a combination of it all has left me much clearer at the start of this week. I feel almost like I’m on stage thanking those who helped me get here, tears running down my face, “God …. bless…. (ugly sob) you all…”

But not quite that bad.

Ok, ok, so making a plan to blog about a certain topic on a certain day each week is NOT my forte (whatever happened to consistent Wednesday LOST blogs?)

However, I’ll still report on the movies I watched since last last Saturday…

A Scanner Darkly- I some what enjoyed this, in the sense that I found some parts funny, some parts well written, and I thought the animation aspect was creative. I wasn’t through the roof about it though.

Before Sunset- I LOVED this movie, and I never even saw the first one. It was like sociology experiment, watching the two characters interact in a 2 hour period, as they at first are very “best foot forward” and slowly they lose control and break down a bit, only to pull back, and on and on. In the end I SO wanted this couple to just stay together, because in that two hour conversation I was convinced NO ONE would have that much connection. I guess that’s why its not reality.

Calendar Girls - Very cute chick flick, a lot of fun!

A Great New Wonderful - Some parts of this were funny, but mostly it was kinda sad. I didn’t remember it was about the aftermath of 9/11 for every day new yorkers’ until the very end. I’d watch again; it was a thinker.

Office Space- You might see a common  release time frame of a lot of these movies- they came out during the time of anti-secularism in my life. So I have some catching up to do- (and the public library makes it easy to do without breaking the bank!) I was glad to finally watch this whole movie, though I don’t think there was anything brilliant about it, it definitely helps me understand the references in just about every Gen X book or film Gotta love that “Don’t it feel good to be a gangsta” song and when they smash up the printer- I doubt I could ever sit in a cubicle, esp if I didn’t have a family to support. Noooooo thanks.

The OH in Ohio – hahaha… It’s foolish, really, most of the movie is pretty scanky for my taste, but some parts were funny. It would make a good gal night, with the right gal’s… and the right martini’s.

The Wind the Shakes the Barley -  This was worth watching as a drama film- it’s the story of two brothers, initially on the same side of the Republican’s in the 1920’s in Ireland, though in the end they are drawn to opposite sides after the peace treaty. It’s war, so be prepared for that. I liked this movie up until the end, because I felt it was marketed as though the brothers were divided by the war for most of the movie, but instead it spent a great deal of time following the band of rufkins in the Republican “army” struggle with the concept of killing, torture and war. It was not until the end that the treaty divided them and it ended leaving much of the storyline to be explored.

I REALLY want to see Into the Wild and the Darjeerling Limited in theaters now. It’s driving me crazy.

I found this post/article at EcoMetro very interesting (my home community leader has several fantastic articles there for going green on a budget too!). For one thing, I never once considered the difference between driving a car and producing 1 lb of beef (used every time I make chili or spaghetti sauce or any number of things.)

I spent several years as a pre-teen as an Ovo-Lacto Vegetarian, but I really didn’t know enough about nutrition to maintain a steady supply of healthy protein and other vitamins. Since then I’ve been a fairly average meat eater, most women will say they eat chicken or turkey most, and every once in a while pork or beef. Honestly, I do whatever is on sale this week, lol, including (and I’ve heard its one of the best meats you can eat) ground Buffalo. We often eat veggie burgers as snacks and buy meat alternatives for ground beef recipes a lot too. (And quickly, for the sake of price comparison, I cannot stand when people say produce is too expensive. 1.99/lb for some organic produce is FAR less expensive than 4.99/lb for some variety of meat. Most often a pound of produce is at least half the price of the meat I’ve bought- and I don’t buy the value pack of drumsticks for .89/lb from god-knows-where-farm). Particularly from the farmer’s market (or how about the the price difference when you join a local farm’s co-op and get shares each week? I wonder…)

ANYHOO, I’ve wondered about going vegan a lot, and there are 2 main things stopping me. Cheese and yogurt! I know, I know, but its true. I eat yogurt for breakfast, as does Lil’E and Hubby. And good cheeses are one of my vices. I can’t picture never having Caprese Salad again. Eggs too- I can’t quite see why I should give that up, esp if we have our own chickens producing eggs, so we know they are eating organic and are laying eggs without hormones. (Don’t have them yet but plan to get chicks in the spring).

What do ya’ll think about this? (Read linked article before responding )

*edit* based on the comment my mom made, I should revise my question- I meant to ask what you guys thought about the idea that being a vegan is a “green” thing or about the environmental impact of the meat industry. I, personally, am eating my yogurt for breakfast