Portland's got some Recovery Act money to throw around on residential energy efficiency, so I applied for a piece of it the other day ( Read more... )

The mayor of Stumptown is giving his first State of the City address right now. According to Twitter, he began by thanking "my boyfriend Peter Zuckerman," definitely a Portland first.

( State of the City. )

Thank you, Decemberlead, for pointing me to this cool little video encouraging President and Mrs. Obama to plant a food garden on the White House grounds.

Click to view

And if the embed doesn't work, the video is here.

Since my visit to Rowena on Tuesday, I've been unrolling the great big thought-ball that was downloaded into my head.

( Ferment. )

Yesterday, Harriet taught me how to make sauerkraut and pickles without fear.

Harriet is the proprietor of Preserve, a school of food preservation that she runs out of her house and garden here in the 'hood. Yesterday's class was Fermentation and Pickling ( Read more... )

Nothing in my spendidly leisurely day yesterday prompted me to run any practical errands. Today, I looked around the kitchen and consulted my stomach, and realized that I needed some food.

So my experiment today was running errands without a car on Sunday afternoon.

( A surprising success. Thank you, Tri-Met. )

As I reported a couple of weeks ago, I've quit using shampoo.

( The results are in. Wow. )

On Friday evening, roseambr and I saw The Story of Stuff, a 20-minute movie designed to kick your consumerism down a notch or three, while awakening whole new levels of sustainable living.

Now I'd like to invite everyone else to see it, too.

( Don't let the simplicity fool you. )

( Good day. Go-o-o-o-d day. )

I've used up all my grocery bags and I'm not getting any more. They're clutter and a waste of resources. But I still need something for shopping and taking my lunch to work. I've been hunting for a solution that would serve both purposes, take up no real space, and look pretty.

( Help came from the Japanese Minister of the Environment. )