Green Resolution

For Christmas, Travis got me a book called "Farewell, My Subaru" by Doug Fine, which records his efforts to reduce his carbon footprint. A former journalist, he quits his job and moves to a remote New Mexico ranch and tries to live locally.

This has inspired my new-year's resolution of taking my habits to a darker shade of green. Hopefully, I too will have a few good tips and updates as my efforts unfold month-to-month.

A movement against plastic shopping bags has created a small amount of awareness. However, even in eliminating the mode of transportation for food, we are still faced with a problem. (Even if the horrible feeling of plastic bags digging into your fingers is solved.)

(FACT: Sea turtles are one of many animals who ingest plastic bags thinking they are eating a jelly fish. After the animal dies, the plastic bag will remain even after the body has decomposed.)











A box of cereal will have a cardboard box and a plastic bag to keep things fresh. A bag of Reeces Peanut-butter Cups has the outside plastic bag, a wrapper around each candy, a cardboard platform, and a final piece of waxpaper. Even to make dinner, (let's say fajitas,) there will be a plastic bag from the tortillas, a plastic container from the sour cream, a glass bottle from the salsa, plastic bags that brought home the onion, peppers and tomatoes and a foil wrapper from the seasonings.

In short, we all know that trash adds up fast. And nowhere faster than the kitchen.

So taking the plastic bag effort a little further, I have made smaller bags for bulk foods and produce. On a routine trip to the store today, I bought flour, quinoa, rice, granola and dried chickpeas in bulk. All of which would have come in paper, plastic or tin. I also brought home apples, lettuce, mangos and mushrooms in my new bags as well.

I still brought home a fair amount of packaging that will be thrown away, but hopefully over the course of my new bags, it will add up. I figure today, I eliminated 10 plastic bags, 1 paper bag, 2 cardboard boxes, 1 styrofoam container and at least 12 tin cans. It's a start, anyways.

The bags were very easy to make. My sewing machine is old: it was made somewhere between 1930-1950. Needless to say, its stitching capability is limited to a single, straight forward stitch. I didn't rely on a pattern to cut the fabric, (I chose batiks since the weave is tighter than other types,) and just eyed the size as I cut based on the quantities I normally buy. Using a fold as the bottom, I hemmed the tops of the bags to prevent fraying and then stitched the sides of the bags, being sure to double-stitch the corners for reinforcement. And that's it.

Tip: get your resuable bags as souvenirs from trips, or make them yourself from favorite old tee-shirts. They will remind you of your fun adventures every time you use them.

Hopefully this simple step will cascade into others I can share. But if anyone else hears of daily improvements, please send them my way. They will be greatly appreciated.

A New Addition

Travis got my Christmas present early, and said it's my duty to write and introduce Gus. And might I just add that although we now have a cat, this in no way puts us into the category of "cat people." We fully intend on adding to the furry friends once we have a yard and a bigger place.

We adopted Gus from a no-kill shelter that brings in pets weekly to one of our stations at work in hopes of finding homes faster for them. The cats in the facility live in a giant communal cat-room, and out of the 50+ cats begging to be pet we ended up taking Gus home.

With his black mustache, my parents and co-workers thought his name should be Adolph or Hitler. But we decided that since he doesn't hate Jews, Gus it is.

He's super fluffy, with wild curly whiskers that get stuck in his ears and nose, causing him to sneeze. He took care of his right eyebrows by sniffing a candle on our coffee table already. He kept getting stuck in the couch, and didn't mind at all when we trimmed his claws to fix the problem. The greatest thing about this cat, is his shedding is unnoticeable.

We don't have to worry about him finding trouble when we're not home, because his favorite thing to do is just laying around. If anyone sits on the couch their lap is fair game to him, and he never passes up an opportunity. When he's relaxed, he crosses his eyes and drops his jaw so we can see all of his teeth and tongue. It's pretty creepy.

He's getting braver, but for the first few days we had him he was terrified of the furnace and would run and jump into the bathtub whenever it came on. I'm not really sure why the tub registered to him as the safest place in the house.


In other updates, Travis and I are very excited to be going to Portland for Christmas even though we won't have much time to enjoy it. We should be getting our place tickets for South America this week as well, and are eagerly planning that trip.

Thanksgiving was wonderful, and it was great to have my family come and visit. We had a great meal and got to go out to Antelope Island for an afternoon. We also enjoyed the lights at Temple Square, and my dad got to show off the true "Mormon Hub" (as he calls it) to the foreign exchange student Orm, a sweet girl from Thailand. She was very impressed with the lights and decorations, and bought a few ornaments to send home to her family.

I applied for a job with the AP, and should be hearing an official word this week, although one of the reporters I worked with in the legislature last year said he thinks I've got it. It would be a great opportunity, to say the very least.

Our ward Christmas party is over, and all together now... WOO HOO! The food and entertainment was great, and a little over 150 people came. Travis and Joey Guertz did a break dance routine and had Santa join them for the last little bit. It was a great introduction for the big man.

We look forward to seeing everyone soon. Happy holiday-ing until then!

Tag-- We're It

Rette and I have been tagged. So without further adiue here are our lists. The entries apply to both of us, except where indicated.

8 Favorite TV Shows:
1. The Office
2. 30 Rock
3. Late Night with Conan O'Brien
4. Mythbusters
5. Futurama
6. The King of Queens
7. The Simpsons
8. Man vs. Wild


8 Things I Did Yesterday:
1. Went to work
2. Went to the post office to pick up a letter from Bolivia (Trav)
3. Watched Planet B-boy with a bunch of breakers
4. Danced in James Weaver's basement
5. Tried to learn Fuetes (ballet move) (Trav, Rette was teaching)
6. Went to Fazoli's
7. Split a cherry dip cone
8. Watched a little Conan O'Brien

8 Things to Look Forward To:
1. Thanksgiving with the McKnights
2. Christmas back in Portland
3. Being done with peak season at work (Travis)
4. Decorating a Christmas tree
5. Getting a new couch
6. Traveling to Peru and Bolivia
7. Running a marathon in May (Rette)
8. BYU vs UT

8 Favorite Restaurants:
1. Noodles and Company
2. Andina (Peruvian restaurant in Portland, check it out)
3. Fazoli's
4. Biaggis
5. Thai Ruby
6. Tucanos
7. Fudruckers
8. The Pita Pit

8 Things on My Wish List:
1. Getting a pet.
2. A garage/yard
3. Having a house
4. Seeing a glacier (Rette)
5. Going back to Alaska
6. Going to Borneo
7. Checking out Puerto Vallarta with the fam (it would be awesome to make a trip together)
8. Be a better dancer (Trav) Be in shape for a marathon (Rette)

8 Concerts we Love:
1. Trans Siberian Orchestra (saw them this week they were amazing)
2. Muse
3. Jason Mraz
4. Dashboard Confessional\ Toad the Wet Sprocket (saw them at the same show)
5. Apacolyptica (Who would have thought 4 Finns with cellos could rock so hard)
6. Ben Folds
7. Matchbox 20
8. Panic at the Disco

8 Things we're greatful for:
1. Flowers (Rette)
2. Mattress heaters (Rette)
3. Dollar menus (Trav)
4. The mountains
5. Sandals (Rette)
6. Shoes (Trav)
7. Modern appliances
8. Roll out linoliem (Trav)

Hitchcock Was Right

Alfred Hitchcock classic The Birds inspired fear in many people for our winged companions. Pretty far fetched movie you say. Well what if Mr. Hitchcock was right?


About a month ago Rette and I decided that while her mother was in town we would make a trip to the Tracey Aviary to check it out, the aviary that is, not Hitchcock's thoery that birds are evil.


















I was impressed with the variety of birds that they had there. Some of my favorites were the golden eagles, and the emus. The emu especially caught my interest because of the sound it makes. When I was standing near the emus I kept hearing this low pitched thudding noise, which I assumed was coming from some construction going on in the aviary. After listening for a little while and goading the emus to speak to me I realized that the sound was coming from them. They make a very guttural thumping/clicking noise in their throats, their beaks don't open. This made me appreciate the emu even more.
















The best part of the visit was when we got to feed some of the birds. If you pay $2 extra at the gate they let you go into one one the enclosures and feed a type of Brazilian Parrot, I forget their actual name. They give you these little sticks with pieces of apple stuck on them and you hold them out and the birds will land on you and start eating.





When you first step in and hold out the food 20 or so birds flying right for you is quite intimidating. However, they quickly settle down and begin enjoying their apples and the opportunity to be so close with these beautiful birds really is something.


Despite their being so adorable these birds posses very hard sharp beaks which make me a little uneasy and in this case rightly so. One of the birds becoming bored with his apple began to peck at my finger right below the finger nail. This hurt quite a bit but because I had several birds on my hands and arms I didn't want to just violently shake them off, so I had to try to slowly brush off the offender. He easily left but not before cutting open my finger. I don't know if it was the cold or something else but it bled quite a bit. The aviary worker who was with us felt really bad for me and kept apologizing for the behavior of this bird. It wasn't that bad I'm glad that it happened to me and not my wife or her mother if it had to happen to one of us.





I seem to have bad luck in these situations as a similar thing happened to me at a Petco several years before. One of the workers was showing off a bird and asked us if we wanted to hold it. She instructed us to hold out our index finger and the bird would perch right on top. I remember asking , "these birds don't bite, do they?" She assured me that they did not, but as soon as I stuck out my finger out to take the bird from her it latched on my finger with its beak, not its feet. I think this one hurt worse than the pecking incident. Once again I couldn't just shake the darn thing off because the Petco lady was standing right next to me. She coaxed the bird into letting go, but this took several painful seconds.





Despite the injury I still had a great time at the aviary. As we left with my finger bandaged my wife and mother-in-law asked me if I should get checked out for bird flu. I told them that I'd take my chances.


Here's a blurry image of the attacked finger.

Coast Fun

Rette and I got a little time of to head out to Nahalem, OR and enjoy a weekend at the Oregon coast with my Family. We got 3 days of coast and 3 days of rain but I won't complain, it was still a vacation.

Because of the wind and the rain conventional beach activities were hard to enjoy, so we played with bull kelp. Here's Wes and myself doing a little jump rope with the kelp. Then there's Wes trying to whip Josh. Rette was impressed with how fast Josh was running.

Not everyone was enjoying being out in the weather as Max showed more visibly the way that we all felt.

We did manage to catch a break in the weather long enough for us to enjoy some of the senery. That's Wes taking in the view at Cape Kiwanda State Park, and Rette enjoying the trees at Munson Creek Falls.

We also got to try a long jump competition in the sand dunes. As Max is demonstrating getting up to the top of the dune is the definitely the hardest part.

What's the best way to end a beach trip you ask, why by shooting things of course. So here are some pics of Wes and I shooting things. Most significantly we put my old IBM thinkpad to rest with the help of two potato guns and a couple of potatos.

Sawtooth Serenity

Rette, my father, my brother (who just got back from a two year mission to Norway), and I went on a 3 day backpacking trip to the Sawtooth Wilderness area. Here's a little photographic journey for you to enjoy.

Wearing the appropriate clothing is a must for any backpacking trip. Here Wes demonstrates the European look that is all the rage in Norway, while I try and show off my new pants

We hiked the 18 mile Toxaway loop which was absolutley beautiful. We spent a night a Alice Lake and also at Toxaway Lake.

Some of the fish were biting, unfortunetly the hungry ones weren't much bigger than 6 or 7 inches.















The 2nd day we headed up over Snowside Pass. Our timing wasn't great because just as we were reaching the top of the pass a thunder storm came rolling in on top of us.



Thanks to some quick steps and some classic Disney songs, we made it over the top and down into some trees in time to throw up a tarp before we got soaked.


Even though we got a fair amount of rain it was still bueatiful when if cleared. Plus it kept all the streams and waterfalls flowing.



















Unfortunately for Rette her heels didn't like her boots very much, or maybe it was visa versa. Either way she still toughed it out and managed to walk out of there without being carried.

I managed to get one of the worst cricks in my neck that I've ever gotten and couldn't turn my head for a full two days. So in short summary it was the best trip ever! Seriously though, despite the rain, the bugs, Rette's heels and my neck this was a great trip to a beautiful area and we'd all do it again.

What's Wrong With This?

Here's a great question that was posted to Craig's list from a women in New York. Just click on the news strip to see it larger.

I really love this post and the response is spot on. Of coarse there is the chance that this was just a joke, but I don't think it is. We've all know girls or guys (usually looking for something other than money) like this which is what makes the girl's question believable. The thing that strikes me about this woman is that she doesn't understand why she can't attract the right guy when any guy that's smart enough to make $500k is smart enough to stay away from her, hence her problem. It just blows my mind that their are people out there who think its worth it to marry just for money, not that marriages are that hard to end these days.

Just some food for thought. Leave a comment, I'd like to know your thoughts on this one.