Category Archives: My Life

Physical inactivity

Not even sure where to start with this one, but it basically goes something like this.  I went away to college and spent a few months not doing much in the way of exercise, other than walking all over the beautiful Notre Dame campus going to classes and such.

At some point not quite halfway through freshman year, I discovered the beautiful (and FREE) fitness center, where I spent significant time over the next 3.5 years (especially after I got a job there).  I enjoyed nice balanced workouts with cardio (I was the elliptical queen) and weight lifting.  Thanks to good weight training instruction in high school, I was not intimidated by the machines, free weights, or disproportionate number of males on the weights side of the fitness room.

Grad school also brought “free gym” perks and a small, but adequate, fitness facility right in the basement of the public health building.  After I graduated, I even ponied up for a staff membership, since I continued to work in the same building.  I think it came out to around $20/month, which I didn’t quite appreciate for the bargain it was.Continue reading “Physical inactivity”

Wedding dress rescue

I’ll start with a brief recap of my wedding dress saga.  In an effort to be both green and frugal (i.e., not spend a ton of money on a dress that I would only be wearing once), I was determined to buy a used wedding dress.  After much hunting on Craigslist and Ebay, I finally bought a dress on Craiglist, paid for some alterations, and decided, about three weeks before the big day, that the dress was COMPLETELY wrong for me.

In a last minute attempt to correct the situation, I found another dress in an online-only department store collection, crossed my fingers, and placed the order.  Several days later, I held my breath as I opened the box, pulled out the dress, and slipped it on.  (Much more breath-holding ensued as I attempted to zip it.)

The girl who really didn’t even want ONE wedding dress ended up as a two-dress bride.  Ironic, no?

Although dress #2 (“the dress”) was, technically, a wedding dress, the fact that it didn’t scream “Wedding!” and could thus be worn on other occasions, justified the purchase.

Fast-forward almost two years, and I have yet to actually wear the dress for anything other than the wedding.  Matthew suggested we makes plans to get dressed up and go out to dinner.

I pulled the dress out of the closet, where it had hung, untouched (and unwashed) since immediately after the wedding, only to discover some serious stains.  There was my dress, my dress that was not going to be a one-time-only dressed, stained and unwearable.

I investigated dry-cleaning options, and a Treehugger article led me to this EPA list of dry cleaners across the country that offer alternatives to the really nasty traditional dry cleaning method that uses PERC.

Luckily I found a “greener” cleaner not too far away, but before I could get the dress there, I started investigating DIY options .  We were pretty sure the stains were either wine (maybe a rosé?) or beer — since the stains were almost two years old, I felt pretty pessimistic about anything, including dry cleaning, removing the stains — nothing to lose by taking a stab at it myself.

I started with a washcloth and some lukewarm water, gently washing the affected areas.  Lo and behold, it seemed to be working.  After treating all of the spots with the warm water, I tossed the dress in a large garment bag, grabbed a couple of other delicate items, and ran a small load on the permanent press setting.  I just happened to have some laundry detergent especially for delicate clothing.

Unfortunately, I forgot to take a “before” picture of the stains,  so you’ll have to use your imagination — lots of brown colored splotches in a two-foot wide swath on the bodice of the dress.

I’m happy to report that after my careful home cleaning and air drying, my dress returned to its original glory, no dry cleaners, green or not, necessary!

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How green was my wedding bouquet?  Click here for the full story.

One month too late

We’ve been enjoying the fall flowers brightening up our apartment these last few weeks.  When we planned our wedding, I had the delusion that maybe, if we had a very nice, mild fall, I could carry a homegrown (or at least locally grown) bouquet down the aisle in mid-November.  Turns out, not so much.

My MIL made some beautiful dried flower (and other natural product) arrangements to decorate the altar and pews, but for the bouquets and boutonnieres, I reluctantly resorted to conventionally grown flowers (with  all the chemical nastiness and poor working conditions for people in other countries 😦 ), but in an unconventional way.

See, just like many grocery stores and restaurants throw away unconscionable amounts of food every day, large florists do the same thing — but with flowers.  Dumpsters full of perfectly good flowers!  Or almost perfect flowers that just need a little TLC.

With a little A LOT of help from our personal floral guru, we created some beautiful arrangements from flowers (including lots of roses) that would have otherwise taken up space in a landfill.  Not a bad compromise!

Still, I would have preferred to walk down the aisle with flowers (and greens — like basil!) from my own garden, and if this is a priority for you or anyone you know who will be planning a wedding soon, I encourage you to consider local flower availability when setting your wedding date.

Taking the Challenge!

Several weeks ago, I wrote this post about plastic and how we can (and must) reduce the plastic waste we generate.  In that post, I provided a link to some useful information on Beth Terry’s blog Fake Plastic Fish.

Today I committed to doing Beth’s “Show Your Plastic Challenge,” where I will collect, photograph, and catalog all the plastic trash (including recyclables) that I produce in one week.  This particular week I’ve chosen has a few twists that will keep things interesting and challenging.

The idea for the first week is to “live normally” in terms of your plastic waste and use that week as a guide for how you might begin to reduce.  Anyone else out there want to join me?

Granny behind the wheel

I’m a fairly assertive and aggressive cyclist, but I drive like a ninety year-old woman.  Sure, I generally get up to, and sometimes surpass, posted speed limits, but I go to great lengths to avoid sudden starts and stops.

In practice, this means I accelerate VERY SLOWLY — my goal is to stay ≤ 2000 rpm when accelerating.  I’m always on the lookout for things that will require stopping (car in front of me stopped waiting to make a left turn, red lights, etc.).  When I spot said situations, I start slowing down far in advance, in the hope that by the time I reach the light, it will be green, thus avoiding the gas intensive start from a complete stop.

Turns out that there are lots of impatient people behind the wheel out there who don’t appreciate my laid back, gas conserving, driving style.  I love nothing quite so much as an impatient driver who blows by me in the other lane, clearly annoyed that I am “slowing her down,” and speeds on toward the red light, only to sit and watch as I, at my slow, steady pace, flow right on by when the light turns green because I maintained 15 mph while she had to come to a complete stop.  Ha!

(Okay, I lied about “loving nothing quite so much” in the above paragraph, because I really would love nothing quite so much as biking to work instead of driving.)

Anyway, I’m cruising along on my way home from work yesterday, maintaining a nice, steady pace in the left lane of  a 4-lane, 35 mph street (Kingshighway, for all you StL folks), approaching a red light with cars already stopped in front of me, and the guy behind me pulls out and passes me on the right.  As he passes, he yells, “Lay off the brakes!”  (Followed by some nice, mature name calling, for good measure — this did not further his case with me.)

Which, what? Really?  You’re suggesting that I “lay off the brakes” as I approach these stopped cars in front of me?  Just drive right into them?

Seriously, where do these people come from?!?

Despite the sometimes negative reactions of fellow drivers, I highly recommend a more laid back approach to driving.  Fewer starts and stops, and gentler acceleration, mean less wasted gas.  If you have to drive, you can take steps to make your driving at least a bit greener, not to mention more relaxed.