Green your hotel

With the new year approaching in a matter of hours, I have been dreaming about all my vacations to take in 2009. With the thought of vacations, leads to the thought of hotel rooms...yuck. However, I digress from my point. Here are a few tips to keep in mind to make your stay a little friendlier to the Earth:

1. Unplug lamps, blow dryers, mini-fridge, coffee maker, etc. Appliances drain electricity even when they are not on. This small step really can make a difference.

2. Keep your showers short to reduce water consumption. The average US shower head spits out 2.5 gallons of water a minute. A fifteen minute shower uses nearly 40 gallons of water.

3. When you leave your hotel room, turn off the AC, heating, lights and any other electrical devices. Well, maybe don't turn the AC/heating off, just turn it up/down.

3. Reuse your sheets and towels during your stay.

4.“Do Not Disturb” Even when you do try to be environmentally-conscious, sometimes the hotel staff doesn’t quite understand and still gives you new towels, turns up the heat, etc. Placing the “Do Not Disturb” sign out will ensure the staff stops destroying the Earth in your room. It also makes sure that the staff doesn't touch your toothbrush. Gross.

6. Adjust the thermostat. Just like home, a small adjustment makes a big difference.

7. Bring your own toiletries. One small reusable shampoo bottle for every trip creates less waste than using the hotel samples every time. Plus, you use your shampoo, not the cheap hotel stuff, and that's just win-win.

8. Leave the freebies. There is no reason for another pen. Keep it in the room. This goes for pads of paper, soaps, and Bibles too.

9.Give your hotel feedback. Express your appreciation of current practices and encourage more with specific ideas.

Don't forget to pack your sleep sack and wipe down every surface (including the remote and light switches) when you arrive just for stranger's germs and overall freakiness.

Clooney Watch 09

On January 5th crews will start production on a new movie to be filmed in St. Louis. The new movie will star....my George.
Clooney will be in town over the next 5 months. I am begging you all to help me out. I will wash your floors, walk your dog, I will baby-sit your children. I just need every opportunity to meet this man.
I am planning to scour the city for the next 5 months. I will be spending a lot of time at The Four Seasons (I am sure this is where he will stay, but I taking volunteers to stake out The Ritz and the Chase.) and the airport (that is where some of the filming will take place). I am asking you to forward any leads, any sightings, any discarded food pieces to me. Any tidbit of information is invaluable.
Does anyone know a union member of Studio Mechanics Local 493? This is my best lead as of today. This union will do most of the filming and therefore will know locations and times.
I have been in love with George since his first Facts of Life episode aired in 1985. I just need one picture. Or maybe 200 pictures.
Thank you all for your help.

Thanks to NY

I finally got NY pictures developed...


Rockefeller Center

This is how New Yorkers watch the parade...on ladders.

Snoopy, a parade favorite.

Smurf's, this is about all we saw of the parade. We left after that.

The snowflakes on Saks 5th Avenue.

Lots of tents, cameras, and bleachers set up in front of Macy's the day before the parade.

Me & Chuck at Rock Center.

What I did over Christmas Vacation pt 1

Again, I will post pictures and spellcheck when the page is functional.

For Christmas I was off from Friday December 19th-the 21st. The first half was spent buying the majority of my Christmas presents in 8 degree weather. After I got home and allowed my body to thaw, I spent the evenings wrapping everything in my pauper's christmas themed wrapping paper this year.

On Tuesday, I painted my kitchen "Baby Seal Black." After the third try I am happy with my choice. Even if I wasn't happy with the choice, this one was going to stick no matter what. I was not spending another dime on paint. I got lucky.

I spent a lot of time listening to NPR. Besides, "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me" I love "Fresh Air" and "Talk of the Nation." I listened to them everyday! Then Christmas Eve came and "Talk" gave me my Christmas present, Michael Pollan was a guest.

If you are not familiar with Pollan (even thought this is my third mention of him, here's a brief summary: Michael Pollan, professor at UC Berkeley, wrote "The Omnivore's Dilemna" which inspired "King Corn." He also wrote "In Defense of Food" and he is my hero. He has a casualness and friendliness in his voice that never sounds preachy or elitist. I wish I could be like that.

Here is some of Pollan's advice: If you can't pronounce it, don't eat it. Don't eat anything that contains more than 5 ingredients (when you buy it; it's ok to create something on your own). Only eat what your great great grandmother would have eaten. In other words: no high-fructose corn syrup. Stay away from highly processed food.

I read. It was nice to have the time to enjy a book and not steal 10 minutes here and there. I am about halfway through "Water For Elephants." Good book. Interesting. Hopefully I will finish it this week and won't be disappointed with some lame "Lovely Bones" ending.

That led me up to Christmas Eve. I will post later on holiday festivities.

Cheap and Healthy

OK, home computer is working.

First of all, I am sorry for the hiatus. I was on Christmas break. I am also sorry for the boring font, no pics, and possible spelling errors. I am not sure if there is a problem with my blog page from my end or blogger's end, but bear with me, I will post the appropriate graphics soon and spellcheck too.

Health magazine came out with their top ten healthiest grocery stores in the US. Lucky for us, Albertson's made the list. I know you are questioning me because Albertson's are not in StL. I have good news for you, Albertson's cheaper brother is in the neighborhood...Shop N Save.

Albertson's received the shared title largely due to their organic house brand food, Wild Harvest. Health magazines says Wild Harvest is typically 15% less than name-brand organics. Since Albertsons and Shop N Save are all under the same happy grocery family banner, SNS also carries the Wild Harvest line. I have tried and few things and it is tasty.

I recommend their three berry granola.

Christmas Wrapping

This year I am making a real effort to be environmentally-conscious in my wrapping. Wrapping presents are probably my favorite part of Christmas. Around Thanksgiving, I start spying the different papers on the market. Pier One, Target, and especially, The Container Store always carry festive assortments. After careful research and a gut instinct, I buy my ensemble for the year. The wrapping I choose is not over the top or obnoxious, just a couple of coordinating papers and matching wide ribbons. I do not buy all pine cones, bells or anything else to adorn the gift, just paper and ribbon. Name tags aren't even on the gift. I thought since I was minimal in my wrapping the Earth would forgive me for being gratuitous. Well, not this year. The guilt has approached and surrounded my house.

For the past couple of weeks I have been researching alternative gift-wrapping options. Don't bother people, the alternatives are weak and few. Besides being environmentally conscious, my second priority for this project was spend less. Stamping and painting my own was out of the question. I salvaged a large roll of printing paper, but it is too thick to wrap nicely. I also did not want to spend the entire day moving furniture to create an assembly line of stamping and painting. Trust me, if I spent that much time on the paper, you all would never be allowed to open the gift. I would be way too emotionally involved in the paper to just throw it in the recycle bin. For your sake, I nixed that idea.

My next idea was newspaper but not the comics. I like the black and white of the paper. I could still put a nice bow or ribbon. Plus, I saw an idea of adding a strip of wrapping paper around the package for an extra splash of color. I think I found my answer.

Last night I collected my supplies to wrap some gifts. I had the Sunday paper, ribbon and paper from Christmas past, tape, scissors, etc. Here are some life lessons I have learned about newspaper wrapping paper.

1. When you hand out the gifts, make sure you also hand them a wet reusable washcloth. My fingertips were black. I know it's to be expected, but seriously, this was ridiculous. Have they recently changed newspaper ink? I will not be wearing my white pants for Christmas.

2. You may want to befriend someone who reads a newspaper in a foreign language. There are many tragedies in our world and the newspaper likes to report all of it. The economy, Blagojevich, war, terrorism, there's even some Cholera outbreak. These headlines do not make for festive wrapping. Even the movie section (Zack and Miri Make a Porno) was no hope. At least with a foreign language newspaper, you don't know that your paper says, "10 mauled by bear."

3. The two-page spread of the newspaper is too small to wrap anything of a decent size. You end up piecing a separate sheet to the bottom, using additional tape and getting your fingers dirtier.

4. The black and white of newspaper is really dull drab gray. All my gifts look a smudgy, dirty and bleak. They look sad. It looks like Christmas at Tiny Tim's.

I tried to take a picture of them with my phone, but I can't send a picture to email with my new phone (but I could with the old one). New technology is a pain. I will take a picture with my camera, but I don't know when you will ever see it. I will try to make a real effort. The picture attached is pretty accurate though.

Here are a few gifts under my tree. God Bless us, every one.

Welcome Lotus

My dear friend and fellow blogger, Denae, welcomed Lotus Katzoff to the world yesterday.

Lotus shares her birthday with Emily Dickinson, Susan Dey of The Partridge Family (and LA Law), and most importantly, teenage hearthrob Jake Ryan (Michael Schoeffling).

Congratulations Ben, Denae, and Taj!

If you are a guy, apparently this is what you think about if you hear Lotus...

7 facts about Anna

I have enjoyed reading the 7 facts, so now I will share 7 things you did not know about me.

1. My dream job would be to scout locations for travel shows or create the living areas for movie characters. You can create their world. Does this yuppie have a collection of antique teapots and a collection of miniature motorcycles? Yes, I think they do. Would this bachelor character secretly have a copy of Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus right next to his Kama Sutra book? Yes, he does. I want to be in charge of making their home set look lived in. The next time you watch a movie, take a look at the main character's apartment or house and notice all the small details that make it look real. It's fascinating.

2. I will never go on a cruise. I have some control issues.

3. You will never hear me say, "as a rule of thumb..." or use the words wife-beater or rape in another context than the original meaning. The rule of thumb is that you were allowed to beat your wife with a stick no larger than the diameter of the husband's thumb. You don't call them sausage fingers for nothing, that can be a deadly weapon. As for the other words, these words should carry a weight and an emotional reaction when you hear them. I want to wince when I hear these words for the horror associated with them. Using these words to describe a type of clothing, etc. takes all the emotional weight and punch out of the word. It begins to lose its despicable meaning and that should never happen.

4. I will never grow tired of potato casserole with cornflakes on top.

5. I have never broken a bone or stayed overnight in the hospital. I have been rushed to the emergency room once. My brother knocked out 4 of my teeth when I was 4 in the pool. I have had stitches once, 6 on my right foot. I cut it on a boat motor when I was thirteen. Hmmm, maybe I need to stay out of the water.

6. Two small things that always make me cry: The SATC episode when Miranda's mom dies, the end of It's a Wonderful Life when George's brother proclaims, "To George Bailey, the richest man in town."

7. Three things that will always make me smile: The brutal honesty of preschoolers, What About Bob?, the every-three-year-family vacation I take with my first cousins, aunts, uncles, etc, on the Kohnen side.

You probably already know...

1. My socks never match. They match in color or a previous degree of color (the white ones get a little gray).

2. One of my favorite things is wet bread: bread pudding, french toast, monkey bread. Delicious. One of my most hated things is wet cake: cake and ice cream, pancakes with syrup. Barf.

3. I start listening to Christmas music on October 15th every year.

I will be that bitter old lady

It's not a surprise to many people that I am just not a people person. I like being by myself. I like hanging out with Anna. She's a pretty cool person and enjoyable company.

Last year, I took a personality test. My results stated I was a 'Serious' personality. Then it continued, "tending to be an introvert, you are likely to be more involved with you interior reality...other people and situations may simply not be as interesting to you as your own thoughts." Well, that hit the nail on the head.

When I am an old lady children will point at my house and run away when they see me in the window and I am ok with that.

It's not that I don't like all people. I just raved about my family and friends in the last post. I do need people. I like people, but I don't like strangers. My most hated activity of all is small talk. I go to a lot of networking events for United Way and you can typically find me in the corner talking to the caterer. I am terrible at small talk and the truth is, I don't want to get better at it.

This week has been a little extreme for me too. I have had plans every night (lots of small talking). I have spent no time one-on-one time with Anna. I have even had plans on my lunch hour. I am running on empty. Anna is feeling a little neglected and starting to act out. It didn't help that How I met Your Mother wasn't on on Monday either.

Back to my point, people are strange. I do not want to know their drama or what happened on American Idol last night. Every time I try small talk, it goes horribly wrong. Here is one example from yesterday.

I work in a building with 400 others. Of course I do not know everyone nor do I care to (I know it's rude, but I put on a good facade. I am very cordial to most and have gotten to know a good handful of people in the building. I may not like people, but I do realize what I need to do to create a nice work environment and cordial atmosphere). I was sitting in a communications seminar yesterday and we were asked to turn to our neighbor and ask them the following question: What gives you joy about your life?

Reluctantly, I turn to my neighbor. A 60 year-old women with a snowman embroidered sweatshirt accompanied by a not quite matching snowman turtleneck. Her hair is very plain, no make-up, glasses circa '96, and her pants possibly were stirrups. I would question if she had showered today. You get the picture.

I ask. Her response: My joy is spending time with my husband. [well, that's nice] I like to go on dates with him. He is my fourth husband, but we don't have any kids together. My 4 kids are from the other 3 husbands. He has stuck around the longest, it's almost been 12 years. I tried to be single, but it never worked out to well. I like having sex too much.

This is why I don't like talking to strangers. People do not know boundaries, always give up way too much information or talk about drivel. This happens all the time. One day you all hear the story of the flirting pianist with the dead fiance.

The picture is an example of some of the people I actually like: me, Doty, and Nord. The other pic is me, Molly, Rae, Schriber, Doty, Nord, Morton, man that works with Morton, Boyet, Ginger, and Amanda.

Thankful

What are you thankful for?

I am thankful for...

1. Great friends and a great family. My friends are about the coolest things on Earth. They are so much fun and they are so supportive. While we continue to grow up, we still keep circling back around to each other. I am very lucky. My family rocks. I love that I love my family and I love to hang out with them. My cousins are best friends and my nieces and nephews are entertainment for the ages. A special shout out to Luke. Being 18 months old is very busy and important. Now that you don't need any authority figures in your life anymore, thank you for entertaining us. Thankfully your ability to string 5 words together will get you further than your dancing ability.


2. My job. I like my job. Yes, it gets frustrating and I should get paid more, but overall I have a pretty good job. Pretty flexible hours, 10 miles away and a grocery store in the lobby. What more can I ask for? I get to figure out puzzles everyday and it's expected of me to lecture everyone on their non-environmentally friendly practices.

3. My ipod. I have only known you for a short while Mr. Pod, but I don't know how I ever lived without you. I can listen to NPR anytime I want. What will they think of next?!

4. Books. You have been my lifelong love. You will always be there for me.

5. My health, my house, and the ability to live a productive and good life. I know I have my moments of selfishness (it's a hard habit to break), but I really am trying to leave the world a little better than when I got here. I am thankful to be in a position that I can give back with the wealth of opportunities and advantages I have.

Guide to pictures: Mom, me, Bern, Grandma and Grandpa Kohnen; Luke looking a little preturb that his parents make him sit in the cold; Pollard, Doty, Celeste, Morton, and Nord.

I am getting my NYC pictures developed today. I will post them later.