no secrets here.

Now if only I could take my own advice...

roles-shmols.

I was upstairs on my mac, working, when The Boy, downstairs watching Y&R, starts laughing suddenly...

Me: "What's so funny?"

The Boy: "Haha ' The role of Heather Stevens will now be played by -' Imagine if you missed that? You'd be like, wtf? Who's this?"

Me: "Is she hot at least?"

The Boy: "Who?"

Me: "The new chick, is she hot at least?"

The Boy: "I guess, a little bit."

Happy Earth Day!

In honour of earth day today I spent the day working on my yard and getting things ready for this year's veggie garden.

Okay, full disclosure time... I was planning on doing it anyway, it was just convenient that yesterday was earth day! ;)

I really do try my best to be conscious of what impact I have on the environment, though there is so much more I could be doing, many of the "big" things, like having a hybrid or electric car, for example, are simply out of reach for me, due to the financial cost involved. However, there are many "little" things that I do to be as earth-friendly as I can, within my current means... here is a list:

1. Every light bulb in my house is an energy-efficient compact fluorescent
   
2. We use a programmable thermostat to maintain a temperature between 20 to 22°C, depending on the season and time of day, and often don't use the furnace or central air at all in the spring and fall
   
3. I keep a small veggie garden as well as an herb garden... you just can't beat home-grown tomatoes, beans, peppers, carrots, etc... so much yumminess!
   
4. Planting bee-attracting wild flowers in my yard
   
5. Composting yard clippings and garden trimmings
6. I do not use pesticides or artificial fertilizers on my lawn or garden. I get down on my hands and knees and yank out anything I don't want in there
   
7. We bring our own reusable cloth grocery bags for shopping
   
8. We like to seek out locally grown foods, and try to buy produce from within Ontario when possible (full disclosure - I can't live without things like coffee & chocolate, so I would never be able to make it on a true local or macrobiotic diet)
9. I really enjoy patronizing farmer’s markets
10. We use non-toxic cleaning supplies, or simple "home solutions" like vinegar, or baking soda. This includes laundry detergent & dish soap that is phosphate and nitrate free
11. We do not buy bottled water, and have instead invested in a reverse-osmosis filtration system for our kitchen sink that supplies us with our drinking water
12. Bringing our own water with us in reusable bottles/containers
13. All of our laundry is washed in cold water
    
14. We try to purchase products that use as little packaging as possible, or are made using post-consumer products
15. We buy recycled toilet paper
    
16. Our city has a fantastic waste-management program that requires all waste be sorted into three specific categories for separate processing... this allows us to ensure that we are recycling all paper, plastic, glass, and aluminum products. All compostable/biodegradable materials are sent to a different facility for use in biomass energy production. This ensures that very limited amounts of garbage end up in landfill.
    
17. Both my husband and I work from home (I own a small home-based business, and he telecommutes), so our car is not used very often
    

I think that's about it... of course there is so much more that we can do, but at least it's a good start, right? Many small measures add up to a nicer big picture!

Happy Earth Day! :)

Bad Company.

I got this on my Formspring today:

Since I have neglected you - my dear blog - for a long while now, I thought I would share my answer here, since my response felt like something I would share here anyway...

Alright... Here's a random memory:

When I was nine years old, my Mom, little brother, sister, and I went to live with my mom's friend Mandy and her family for a while.

That summer the whole lot of us went to visit people who I think were Mandy's relatives. They lived in this really cool old house that had "secret" passageways between some of the rooms, including upstairs bedrooms and the attic. Creaky wooden doors in the backs of closets led to hidden, narrow hallways behind the walls. The house had a humid, sticky feeling to it, and for some reason I remember there being lots and lots house plants around.

It was made clear that we were to stay out of the way. While the adults sat in the backyard in a circle of lawn chairs, shooting the breeze, drinking, and whatever else, all of us kids crept around upstairs, pretending we were spies on an adventure.

I remember crawling up to this window that was open just a few inches, overlooking the backyard. It was one of those old wood-framed windows, with years of white paint caked over the hardware, weighing it down. There was a can (or maybe it was a jar?) propping it open, and all I could hear was "Feel like makin' love" by Bad Company blasting out of a stereo somewhere downstairs and into the yard. The smell of weed being smoked wafted in the window, accompanied by the heavy ozone smell that summer air takes on just before a thunderstorm.

I remember looking at my mother, her head thrown back, laughing... smoke from her cigarette curling around face. She looked so happy in that instance. I remember wishing I could keep her that way... wishing I scoop her up, and put in my pocket, or hide her away in one of the secret passageways of that house. I remember feeling so sad, because I knew that I couldn't, and even at nine years old I was aware that time marches on and changes everything, no matter how much you wish it wouldn't...

I heard that song today on the radio, and I thought of my mom. In my mind it's been forever linked to her and that summer.