Anti-Antisocial Saturday!

This morning I hung up some laundry that Eric had washed last night, and decided to stay outside with it because the sky looked ominously cloudy.  I brought both of the cats out with me - Mystic loves being outside and Addy begs at the door to be let in.

Eric and I generally stay in on Friday and Saturday nights.  We usually have to wake up early and are babies about getting enough sleep, and being home means that he can game online with Steven.  Tonight we abandoned that to go to Ross's birthday party with a bunch of friends.  We were some of the first to arrive, and Eric and Steven were lucky enough to get in on a game of Circle of Death.  This is a family friendly blog, so I won't go into too many details of the night, haha.  However a good time was had by all, and the three of us agreed that we were really glad that we decided to go out.  We had all seriously considered skipping the party, and we had a great time.

After me got home, Eric passed out on the couch, and Steven and I talked about how we are neo-hippies because we have made various activist lifestyle changes.  We both recycle, he is a vegetarian and Eric and I are considering going down that path, we line dry, reduce electricity use, etc.  This causes people to thinkthat we think we've better than them, that we're uninformed about our choices, that we're going to pressure them to change etc.  It was a really good conversation, followed up by watching "Tapped" again on Netflix.

 It was so relaxing to put up the laundry and then sit down and read a few chapters.

I was SHOCKED that Addy explored further down our porch area. 

Mystic laid in the extra chair the entire time we were outside, she was soooooo happy! 

Addy pondering what lies beyond our porch. 

These party cups have cool chalkboard nametags where you can scratch off your name. 

Circle of Death!

Eric shooting the air gun in Steven's eyes.  They definitely took turns shooting one another.

Independence Day [weekend] 2011

This reduced blogging schedule already has me forgetting what we've done in the past few days!  We had an interesting weekend - Mom, Alan, and Papa joined Sean and Matt's families at Sean's lakehouse to celebrate Connor's birthday and the 4th of July.  Ashley couldn't go because of work and Eric & I couldn't go because of his work and church.  So Ashley watched M&A's and Sean's pets, while Eric and I watched Papa & Matt's dogs.

Saturday - Eric went to work and I took the dogs for a walk to practice for our upcoming 5k in August.  After he got off of work, we watched Date Night at Mom & Alan's house with Ashley.

Sunday - We truly couldn't tell if today was good or bad, haha.  We both woke up in grumpy moods, which was only intensified when we had to clean up the messes made by the dogs at Papa's house, and were running late for church.  The service was nice and we felt much better afterward.  We enjoyed a picnic at St. Thomas with Ashley and a new family that we met at the St. Thomas "New Members Dinner" last week.  We stopped back at Papa's house again before proceeding with our afternoon plans.

Fox 4 was sponsoring free entry into the KC Riverfest between 1-3pm, so we planned to take advantage of that to save $10 each on a great fireworks show.  We got down again because it looked like Steven and Leslie were dropping out of joining us...boo...  To pass some time because it would just be us all day, we used my season pass to the zoo.  We were happy to be walking around and seeing the animals, and we rode the new sky ride to the far side of Africa.  Then there was lightning in the sky, a downpour of rain, and the ride back to the front of the zoo was closed - this soaked our clothes and shoes all the way through and almost made us late to the Riverfest's free admission time frame.  Between driving, parking, and busing, we made it in the gate at 2:50 - just in the nick of time!

Happy to be there, and interested in the record high Missouri river, we were quickly bummed out again because there was truly nothing to be seen (without paying out the wazoo!).  But, spirits were high again because Steven and Leslie changed their minds and were going to spend the rest of the afternoon with us.  I hatched a scheming plan to get them in for free too - you just ask for a readmission bracelet when you exit the park...so I removed our bracelets after we left and came back in, then we got another set of bracelets when we left the second time.  BAM!  Four bracelets!

We were once again pissed off and disappointed when we planned to meet Steven and Leslie at a Waffle House on I-35 & Antioch...apparently this same intersection exists in Kansas and Missouri.  We had driven about 15 minutes south to find that they were in Missouri and we were in Kansas...so we wasted over 30 minutes trying to meet up with them.  

The rest of Sunday went great - Eric, Steven, and Leslie shot off fireworks while I napped, and then we all got into the Riverfest and found THE best seats on the river - directly across from where they were being fired.  Eric and I shared a carnival burger and fries for dinner, and the fireworks show was coordinated to some really fantastic patriotic music.  A very good end to a very back and forth day!

Monday - Eric worked (time and a half, yea!) and I slept most of the day.  But I did get some chores done!  After he got off of work, we rode the motorcycle over to the local fireworks stand and then out to Smithville.  Eric is a great rider, and I'm totally comfortable riding with him.  We shot off a ton of daytime fireworks, and then Edie served an excellent dinner of BBQ chicken, corn, salad, bread, watermelon, potato salad, baked beans, and excellent brownie sundaes for dessert!  Once it got dark, everyone (Me, Eric, occasions, Leslie, Grant, Phil, Edie, Pete, Paul, Deb, Shannon, and Taylor) went to the golf course to shoot off nighttime fireworks!  We had neighbors on either side with much more impressive stashes, so there was a good show!  We had a few mishaps with a firework called "That's Your Problem", it tipped over (on 4 separate occassions) and shot mortars toward neighbor houses and at our crowd.  

Happy Independence Day!

The lioness's were cuddling!  And celebrating their 6th birthday! 

Completely soaked, in front of the Wacky Worm roller coaster at Riverfest! 

The 4 of us on the shuttle bus. 

Red, white, and blue! 

A very cool finale with an obscene amount of sonic booms! 

Us at the KC Riverfest! 

Leslie and I pet the ponies!  This one sniffed my foot and scared me when he exhaled hot air on me. 

Eric's awesome parking job - it was the last "spot" in the parking lot - this is just the driving lane, not actual spots, but we didn't get a ticket! 

 I'm still on the line drying bandwagon!  It definitely made an impact on our electric bill last month, and it makes me feel happy when I'm hanging it, double whammy!

Steven and Leslie's firework stash!

I caught a parachute!

Discussing strategy at the golf course!

Day 353: Line Drying OOPS!

Today was my first line drying mishap... I left the final round of cloth diapers (from when Andrew stayed with us) on the line while we were at work today.  When we got home, we were down one prefold!  I looked around our porch and on the ground level an it was nowhere to be found.  So now line drying will probably only occur when we'll be HOME!

An empty clothespin right in the middle!

Day 342: Booooo Rain!

This rainy day can't ruin my laundry day!  The weather channel app said there was no chance of rain, so I ran a load of laundry.  But by the time the spin cycle started, it was icky and drizzly out.  Instead of reverting to using the dryer (which we've done once in a "work clothes emergency" for Eric), I just hung the clothes up in the bathroom.  It took all day for them to dry, instead of a few hours, but that was worth it to me!

Apparently my new hobby is line/air drying clothes!

Day 334: More Field Trips, Grilling, and Laundry!

I got to go on a field trip to the capital with my 4th grade class today. It was a lot more interesting than last years 4th grade field trip, because we went to a museum for a scavenger hunt after the tour of the capitol building. I was exhausted so I went to sleep as soon as I got home, well...after I out out another load of laundry on our line.

Eric got trained on the out of town route at work today. He'll be delivering parts to Gardner and Paola one or two weekends each month. Then he had his last class at JCCC before graduation!

After he got home from class, I got up and we grilled some burgers and watched Scrubs for the rest of the night. Goooooooodnight!

Line drying is still going well for us! 

A student found this in a science book and reported it to me as "immapropriate". 

Governor Brownback's office with our fourth graders.

We relit the grill's fire with lighter fluid, hoping for a "flame broiled" flavor...we ended up with a lighter fluid taste.

Day 333: Our Active Life!

Eric was off work today, so he finished preparing my Mexican pinwheels for me!  I made them all last night, but I didn't have time to slice them all up this morning.  He was off work today - so he was able to send some mail, withdraw budget money from the bank, cut and deliver the pinwheel snacks, starts a load of laundry for me, and gets busy with his tax final.

I brought these yummy treats to school because we had a going away party for two retirees and 5 of the staff members who are transferring to other buildings/out of state.  When I got home from work I hung out the laundry, and then Eric and I went for a really long roller blading bike ride - 2.5 miles!  I think this is our new favorite kind of exercise!  I'm starting to pick up stamina and not get tired as quickly...though I did have my first blading wipeout today...

Then Eric grilled a burger for him and some barbecue chicken for me, and we spent the rest of the night working on our separate computers while watching "In Plain Sight" at Katie's recommendation.  Eric finishing a project for his tax class, and me updating this darn blog.  Only another 32 days to go!!!

Mexican pinwheels - refried beans, Rotel with green chiles, olives, and nacho cheese sauce - yum! 

Today Eric called and asked "Do you just line dry because it saves energy, or do you really like the process of hanging it?"  I said that I really do like it, handing them is really relaxing and a nice experience.  I just wish we had line space to dry more than one load at once!  Doesn't it look nice?

I was feeling pretty confident in my skating today - I was flying down a hill, in the street because there was no sidewalk.  After an intersection, the sidewalk started back up again and I went to roll back onto the sidewalk.  However, in Eudora we have those red bumpy bricks at every curb cut - probably as an alert to walkers and strollers that they are about to go into the street.  Well these bumpy bricks also do a fantastic job at throwing roller bladers off their feet!  I knew I needed to dive for the grass in order to avoid a bad injury on the concrete, and barely made it in between two small electrical boxes.  My blades hit one of them with a loud bang, and Eric though I had smashed into it.  


The breath was knocked out of me because I landed first on my hands and then on my chest.  Minus some grass cuts on my legs, I've just got a sore left wrist, left shoulder, and neck.  Not too bad for something that could have been a lot worse.  From now, on, I'll be riding with a helmet.  And as soon as I can find some affordable guards in an ADULT size (apparently, only children need protective gear!), I'll be wearing that too!

Day 331: Multipurpose Porch

After we got back from camping, Eric's blanket was pretty smoky from hanging around the campfire.  I've only line dried twice, and Eric requested that we wait for a sunny day to line dry his blanket!  So I ran a load of laundry when I got home from work and set up my third round of line dried clothes on our porch.

After that was set up, Eric rode his bike and I roller bladed around Eudora - and then we stored his bike onnnnnnn the porch!

Finally, I lit up our grill and grilled some fantastic burgers...on the porch!  We may have a small little apartment, but we use our space wisely!

Cheeseburgers & fries.

Line drying and bikes!

Day 324: Bottled Water

Tonight Eric and I wanted to watch a movie that neither of us were terribly interested in as background noise to our homework and regular playing on the computer.  We have a ton of documentaries lined up on Netflix, and decided to watch "Tapped" - a documentary about the bottled water industry.  I've got far too much to say about the movie, so instead of typing it all out, I'll post a review and hope you will all watch the movie as soon as you get a chance!

The rest of the night we took care of business at home - laundry and graduation announcements.

"Tapped, a new documentary about the bottled water industry from director Stephanie Soechtig and the producers of Who Killed the Electric Car?, is a pretty damning look at how consumers have been tricked into spending too much money on water packaged in plastic and quite often not as clean as what's available from the faucet.

I knew bottled water sucks, but I didn't know it sucks this much. Not only is it a clear waste of resources (only 20 percent of plastic water bottles used in the United States are recycled, and far too many of the rest probably end up in the Pacific Garbage Patch), it's an incredible waste of money for consumers, who pay more than the price of gasoline for water that's marketed as "pure," but in reality is largely unregulated, full of harmful toxins like BPA, and far less safe for drinking than free tap water. (In fact, 40 percent of the time, bottled water is nothing but municipal tap water, freed from the government oversight that keeps it safe.)

Tapped, which began a one-week run at the IFC Center in New York on Friday, traces the evolution of bottled water from its hoity-toity Perrier days to its present ubiquity, and succeeds at making the industry reps look like total jerks. A few too many mid-interview cutaways to Soechtig looking concerned came off as a little journalistically self-important, but Tapped does a solid job of covering every aspect of this damaging industry and inspiring more outrage than despair. It features interviews with the likes of Atlanta mayor Shirley Franklin and Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), not to mention some footage of Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) tearing into an FDA rep at a government hearing.

I will never look at bottled water with anything less than loathing from now on.

Watch the trailer:" ~ Claire Thompson, grist.org

Our collection of reuseable bottles and travel cups - we are definitely through with supporting the bottled water industry.

My second round of line dried clothes!

 Eric finishing up his graduation announcements.

It was a really hot day and we don't have our air conditioner turned on yet, so I cooled Mystic down with an ice pack.

As soon as Eric stepped on the chair to adjust the fan settings, Mystic was immediately laying on his feet.

Ta-Da!

Day 321: O'Reilly & Line Drying!

Oh, Friday!  You are so good to us!  I'll let the pictures do the talking today!

Eric's first day at O'Reilly went well.  He's a little overwhelmed at how much there is to remember, but confident that he'll catch on quickly.

I got to go see little miss Charlotte and Katie on Mass Street for some 3 Spoons Frozen Yogurt.  The guy working misunderstood my punch card and accidentally gave us both yogurts for free instead of "buy one, get the last one free".  Yea!

I spent $1 on nylon clothesline, and $1.50 on clothes pins.  Now I can save electricity and money by line drying our clothes!

My first time line drying!  Lesson learned?  Wear sandals, socks are a bitch and take too many clothes pins! 

We went on another walk/roller blade ride tonight.  Eric decided to take on this "sweet jump" behind the grocery store. 

I had to make him do it three times to come this close to an action shot, haha! 

We watched the movie "Into The Wild" tonight, which was a really good movie about a guy who gives up on our material life and goes to live wherever he pleases, ultimately ending up in Alaska.  We paused the movie halfway through to go on a walk, and landed on this hilarious still frame!