Random

So in case you haven't been following the news from Sisters, Oregon... the GW fire was beaten into retreat from the Ranch, at least for now. Residents were allowed back at 6pm the next day. That is good news.

I am always trying to think of new ways to reduce, reuse, recycle. This earth could use a break from all the stuff we manufacture and then throw away. In the beginning of the summer I was thinking about how much we throw away from just one take-out meal, particularly from our favorite Thai restaurant within walking distance. Our typical order of 2 basil fried rice dishes and salad rolls with peanut sauce leaves us with disposable packaging of 2 plastic "clam-shell" containers, a paper boat with salad rolls wrapped in cling wrap, 2 small plastic sauce containers, paper napkins, plastic forks, and paper bag. Whew, that's a lot. We made it a goal for the summer to reduce or eliminate the amount of stuff we throw away from take-out food. Basically we ended up just eating in the restaurant (rare), making food at home (a lot), or recycling the take-out containers from New Seasons Market (nice that they use packaging that is easily recycled). Finally there came a day recently where none of these was an option and we wanted take-out. So I sent Mike (on foot) to the Thai restaurant with tupperware containers for the food, a small glass jar for the sauce, and a cloth bag to hold it all. The only thing that he came back with that didn't come from our house, besides the food, was the cling wrap on the salad rolls (I believe they pre-make them, so not much I can do there). Pretty good and it felt great not to toss so much into the garbage. Mike said that the staff was surprised but looked thoughtful and supportive of it. This would be a cool trend - bring your own containers and get 5 cents off your meal, just like getting 5 cents off for every cloth bag that you bring to the grocery store. We'll be continuing to do this!


And now for the Jake news... he is starting to walk while only holding on with one hand, instead of 2!! It's actually possible that he might meet the deadline of walking by 9/13 in time for that "Walkers" gym class. It's so thrilling to think he's getting so close (and our backs will get a break from "walking" him everywhere, not that I mind ;) ). He's very serious in this picture. He's sometimes serious when playing. He was playing with the circus train, which used to belong to me as a child.