My Alternatives to Plastic.

I have decided to change some things in my life regarding my use of plastic. I don’t want to use plastic around food or store food in plastic anymore if not for the fact that toxins “could” be leaking into our food from these plastics, I think the over consumerism, and waste of all the plastic containers for food is abhorrent. I am 35 and I am just now getting the message. I have a lot to make up for, besides being a good steward of what we have been given. We should take care of this place, because it is our home right now. Look how wasteful our society is, just because they can be. I decided it was important enough to take action for my family. It is my responsibility to protect them from harm and insure their safetly.

1. I will NOT use plastic bags from now on. Not only are plastic bags wasteful, but they are terrible for the environment. To combat this problem, I have a nice collection of canvas and cloth bags to take with me to any store. China has banned them in most areas because of all the problems they are having with their environment. The plastic bags are becoming a type of polution.



I think America could take a lesson from other countries in this issue. Europe charges for each plastic bag, which is a nice way to deter people from using them. Also, I get $0.5 for each cloth bag I use at my grocery store. It is a nice incentive for me. Maybe they should start a tax for plastic bags, and use the money collected to help clean up the plastic bag problem in our country and also deter people from using plastic bags. If you woud like to also begin to limit your use of plastic bags, please check out this site about reusable bags: reusablebags.com

2. I will ONLY store my food in glass jars. Yes, I took all my old Tupperware and put them in a large bag for storage in my garage until all these types of plastic can be recyclable, especially #5, but also #3, #4, #6 and #7. I already recycle #1 and #2 types of plastic, like milk jugs, and water bottles. Plastic items are marked with a “recycling identification code.” If you ever wondered what the numbers stood for here is a list:

1—polyethyelene terephthalate (PETE)
2—high-density polyethylene (HDPE)
3—vinyl, polyvinyl chloride (PVC)
4—low-density polyethylene (LDPE)
5—polypropylene (PP)
6—polystyrene (PS)
7—other (includes polycarbonate, acrylic, polylactic acid, fiberglass)


The least harmful plastic for food storage are 1, 2, 4 and 5. Avoid numbers 3, 6 and 7. These should never be used for food storage because some of them could have BPA leaching plastics in them. The next thing I did was go to my Bashas store and Walmart and found some really nice Ball Canning Jars and Glass containers like the ones you see blow.



The price couldn’t have been less expensive then if I had bought them online in bulk. I got a case of 1/2 gallon size jars for all my drinks like milk, orange juice and they are great for brewing my favorite beverage, iced tea. I got a case of 6 oz. ball jars for “left over food”. They work great and you can safely warm up your food in them in the microwave without worry. You can just put them in your dish washer with the lids to wash. I can tote them to work in a bag and everything takes up much less room. My fridge looks pristine. Why didn’t I do this sooner? It is so much nicer and I didn’t ever realize it would be. I thought it would be expensive and would be a hard thing to change over to, but it was inexpensive and easy. The only thing you have to remember is to put labels on the jars so you know what is in them, otherwise you are doing smell and taste tests to figure out what is in each jar. I just use sticky notes for labes. It is surprisingly easy.

3. I will make an effort to buy my food in glass containers and re-use them or recycle them. I already buy my peanut butter in glass jars, as well as pickles. In recent shopping I found canned peaches in jars, and apple sauce. Why buy it in plastic when it comes in jars and is just as expensive? Buying butter in sticks wrapped in paper rather then plastic tubs is a good idea as well.

4. I will work on purchasing some stainless steel water jugs, mugs and glass cansisters to use instead of plastic containers. Glass canisters can be used to store some of my dry goods, like flour, sugar, rice and coffee. Right now those items are in plastic Tupperware containers. I also want to get a large stainless steel water dispenser to put all my drinking water in or one of these glass jars like the one at this store: Homecanning.com . They are hard to find and a little pricey, but I hope to find one soon. In the weeks to come I am sure I will find more ways to enhance this project.

Little Things To Make A Difference.

People often feel that what they do doesn't really matter, but it does. Each person does matter and what they do effects everyone around them. I think more and more people are realizing this, and things are changing for the better. Here are some things I do to make a difference for the environment: I don’t do anything radical, expensive or complicated and they end up saving me money:

Drink Tap Water: Having drinking water delivered to you isn't really cost effective, causes polution by having to use gas to deliver the water to the door. I don't like the idea of having water sitting around in plastic bottles and everyone knows how wasteful and expensive botteled water is. Osmosis is better because you don’t have to have a driver deliver water to you and the water is filtered right at your home, however we do not have one of these systems. We drink tap water filtered in a Brita Water Pitcher. I love this because the water is always cold and ready to drink and tastes great and this really saves us money. When my family takes water with us we use only stainless steel water bottles that last forever and are very easy to clean.

Use Real Silverware: I invested $10 on an inexpensive set of stainless steel silverware and tray for my office. They supply everyone with plastic ware in our kitchen, but I feel it is wasteful to use so much that will just be thrown away or break. I put the tray in our kitchen for everyone to use. I was somewhat surprised that some people complained that they would have to wash the silverware off, so therefore they wouldn't even consider using it? Wow, I thought that was incredibly lazy and a poor excuse to keep being wasteful. In fact, no one even said thank you, but when I see employees using the silverware, I am secretly happy, because I know that is one less plastic fork in the garbage.

Use real dishes: Our office also supplies the kitchen with paper plates and bowls. Again, this is very wasteful, so I brought in my own set of dishes that I wasn't using for just my co-worker's to use. There are 6 of us in this office. 3 use the dishes and 3 continue to use the paper dishes because they "don't want to wash any dishes." I was again shocked at the lazyness of this, but at least there are 3 of us who don't use the paper plates anymore.

Use real coffee mugs: The next thing I thought of was all the styrofome cups in our office. Why do people drink their coffe in those when they could just as easily use a mug from home? They also have plenty of mugs in the cubbords of the kitchen, so why not use one of those? I always use my coffe mug or stainless steel coffee cup for beverages at work.

Curry Chicken

Curry Chicken: I just adore Indian cuisine. I can’t say I am an expert in perpairing these kind of dishes, but I like the challenge. This particular dish is fantastic, easy, healthy and aromatic.

Ingredients:

1 cup rice (cooked) Basmati is the best for this dish.
3 chicken breasts
1 onion small chopped fine
1 tsp minced garlic
3 tbs flour
1 cup chicken stock
1 cup yogurt
3 tsp curry powder (Or more if you like it really spicy. I do not use “hot” curry. I make my own curry powder and it really makes a difference, but you can use the store bought kind as well).

Fry the chicken in some olive oil until cooked through. Cut into cubes and set aside.
In the same pan fry the onion and garlic (about 3 min).
Add the flour and cook until it turns brown. (About 1 minute)
Add the chicken stock and wisk together. (simmer for 3 minutes)
Add yogurt and curry powder and mix well.
Add chicken cubes and stir. Allow to simmer on low heat for 3 minutes. Pour mixture over cooked rice and serve.

13 Things I Love About Halloween.

1. Carmel Apples: I just adore carmel apples, but especially the kind you can get at the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. My favorite kind is the “apple pie carmel apple”. Other favorites include, the “classic carmel”, peanut covered and “apple pie alamode.” They are worth the price.

2. Fall Weather: I love how the sky looks during the fall when the weather is gradually cooling off. The evenings are so nice you can just sit on your porch and enjoy the outdoors after a very hot summer. We don’t really have the changing of the fall leaves in the dessert of Arizona, but it is still a nice feeling. In New York the leaves are really pretty this time of year. I love this picture I took while visiting Lake George in the fall. The reds and gold hues are so beautiful.

3. Pumpkin Carving: I think there is a rule that says you must do pumpkin carving the night of Halloween. We sart early in the evening so that we will have plenty of time to do the work. The inside of the pumpkin is such a mess, but also fun to stick your hands in and pull out all the insides. Freshly toasted pumpkin seeds with butter and salt fill our house with warmth and wonderful smells. I have an entire array of pumpkin carving tools, some are officially wood working tools, but they are good for pumpkins as well. I think the kits you can buy in the store are really great for carving too, and safer for kids. I like the stencil books you can tape on your pumpkin and use for a guide or design. I love putting out a freshly carved pumpkin for our “trick or teaters” as they walk up to our house.

I am also a big fan of luminaries. I have a set I made last year that spell out “Happy Halloween” and another set that say, “I’d turn back if eye were U”.

4. Trick or Treating: I haven’t gone trick or treating since I was a kid, but now that I have a little one of my own, we are taking him out for the first time this year. I am really looking forward to this new experience though the eyes of my child. I hope he has as much fun as I did.

5. Door bell divergence: I love passing out candy for trick or treaters that come to my door. Sometimes we play scary music up the walk to our front door. We have been known to use a “lightning” machine, which imitates the sound of thunder with the flash of bright light. Sometimes kids will get scared before they make it to ring our door bell. We usually dress up in costume to answer the door. I love looking at all the little kid’s Halloween costumes and see their parents at the end of our walk way winking at us as we pass out candy to their children.

6. Scary movies: There is no better time to watch a scary movie then on Halloween night, late in the evening. It just adds a little spark of magic. Give me some popcorn and candy corns and away we go.

7. Developing a good costume: I think a good costume takes time and money. Sometimes I have been known to work on my costume all year, other times a few months. I don’t sew, so it is expensive and time consuming to find all the necessary items for a costume and make it fit really well. I should learn how to sew, so I can make all my own costumes because I am sure it would save me a lot of money. My favorite costumes have been a skeleton bride, a renaissance queen, a masquerade ball attendee, an “Amy Brown” fairy, and a pirate wench.

8. Decorating the font yard: I think a big part of the holiday is decorating your house. The front yard looks great full of tomb stones similar to the one seen at Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion.




We hang a black wreath on our front door and cob webs, as well as spiders on the door bell and Halloween lights in the trees because the font yard is the first impression. We even have little purple lights strung on our back porch, which give off a sickly glow. I like to change my outdoor front porch light to a black light for full spooky effect.

9. Decorating the house: Inside our house we have fall leave garland, and candles all around. We put up our “spooky town” which consists of the “Haunted Tower Tours” with encircling gargoyle, the “LaGhosti Movie Theater”, complete with sound effects and marquee. “Grimsly’s House of Oddities” and mausoleum with grave yard and a pumpkin patch.


I have a “Krinkle” Halloween tree with ornaments and a pumpkin witch. I am a big fan of anything from Department 56. The couch and chairs are covered with Halloween themed throws (striped orange and black and black with white skeletons). I think there might even be phantom hands playing on my paino…..



10. Candy: I love how all the candy makers come out with Halloween themed candy. It’s all so creative and fun. I mean, who doesn’t like chocolate? Did I mention candy corn? It’s one of the best little treats around this time of year.

11. Pumpkin Patch: There is nothing quite like picking your pumpkin right from the patch. Traveling to the pumpkin patch at our local farm is a grand adventure. They take you on horse drawn wagons through the patch. You can choose the size, shape and color of your pumpkin, rather then be limited to whatever your grocery store has at the moment. Weaving your way through the vines and up and down the rows of pumpkins is a unique experience and good exercise too.

12. Corn Maze: Traveling through a corn maze is lots of fun, but even better at night with a flash light. Spooky times for sure!

13. The Element of Spooky Fun: Sharing Halloween with friends who also appreciate the holiday is most fun of all, like going to a great Halloween party or just getting together for pumpkin carving or to watch a scary movie. I love to set a great party table full of interesting foods and strange brews.


My friend Davina makes the most wonderful Halloween themed cakes you have ever seen, such as a haunted house complete with black iron fence and ghosts peeking through the windows of the house or a weathered old witches spell book with snakes and skull.

New Indiana Jones Movie Poster

It is finally here, the release of the new “Indiana Jones” Movie Poster: “The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull”. I never thought Spielberg would get around filming another Indiana Jones movie. I am really looking forward to this movie since the 3rd Indiana Jones movie was released when I was in high school. I love the style in the films, the characters, the humor and the action. Harrison Ford is perfect as Indiana Jones and it will be interesting to see an older version of his beloved character in this new film. I once wanted to decorate my den in “Indiana Jones Style”, but eventually gave up the idea after find out how hard it is to collect WWII memorabilia, archeology items and all the antiques you would need. But I still dream about it sometimes. I did manage to pull into my den an Egyptian theme, so the idea is there a little bit. You can imagine how excited I am, so I am posting a copy of one of the new posters here on my blog:

What is Christmas like at your house?

What kind of tree do you have?
I have an artificial tree that is white. It is pre-lit with white lights. We also string colored lights on it. Then we hang only blue balls all over along with our regular Christmas decorations. My decorations are very unique. I collect Krinkles, which add a whimsicle touch. I also have a dragon ornament collection and hand stitched ornament collections. Next we drape silver beads as garland all around the tree from top to bottom and a star on the top. I don’t have tinsel because my two chihuahuas would probably eat it and I heard it isn’t too good for little dogs to eat that stuff.

What is your favorite Christmas themed movie? I like “A Nightmare before Christmas”, “Elf” and “It’s a Wonderful Life.” I enjoy “A Muppet Christmas Carol” too. That looks like a curious combination doesn’t it?

What is your favorite Christmas time food? I like apple pie with ice cream, but I know some people don’t consider this a Christmas food, but it’s really the only time we eat apple pie in my family. I like pumpkin pie too with real whipped cream. Cool whip has hydrogenated oils in it, so I try to stay away from it, even though I do like it. I like all kinds of Christmas cookies, like sugar cookies, pumpkin butterscotch drops, which are a big favorite in my family, and orange cranberry drops, which are my specialty. Everything I just wrote down was a dessert. Is that a bad thing?

Do you use wrapping paper or gift bags? I use gift bags mostly, or when ever I can because you can use them over. Also, you don’t have to deal with cutting, and all the tape. They are simple and re-usable, and less wasteful, which just makes sense to me. Sometimes you have a gift that comes in a big box and in that case I do just wrap the box with paper, but that’s about it.

Do you have a nativity scene in your house? I do. I really like my scene. I put it on my server in my dining room and it really makes that corner of the room look festive. I like looking at it because it makes me remember what Christmas is really about and I don’t get so wrapped up in the commercial side of everything. I enjoy looking at other people’s nativity scenes in their homes because each one has such a different style. They are fun.

What is your favorite Christmas Song? I love Sleigh Ride, the instrumental version. I love the Nutcracker Ballet, and Handel’s Messiah. I love any Christmas songs sung by Pery Como, Nat King Cole, Bing Crosby, Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra. Give me the old crooners any day over the popular Christmas music of the day!

The Police: Concert Review from Phoenix , AZ

Attending a POLICE concert was something that I just can’t quite seem to put into the right words yet. I never ever thought I would get to attend such an event, considering they broke up when I was yet too young to go to a concert, therefore crushing my young dreams along with their break up in the 1980’s. Considering I was so young when the POLICE was first introduced to me, via MTV and the radio, I always dreamed of going to see them in a huge arena concert when I was old enough, never thinking they would break up before I was old enough to attend. I watched old POLICE concerts on VH1 in college, thinking how fantastic it would have been to be there at see them perform live. What does it feel like now? I just can’t say. Seeing the POLICE perform live in concert was on my “List of things to do before I die”, but I had accepted that like most things on my list, I would never get to do that one.

In college my dad got me tickets to attend a Sting concert in Phoenix after I tearfully begged him over the phone. He ended up getting me 5 tickets, 7th row. Wow! It was fantastic. I will always be very grateful for my dad doing that for me. I had never asked for tickets to see anything before. One thing about the concert I noticed though, when Sting sang his POLICE songs during his concert, that was when everyone stood up and screamed, those songs were the ones everyone wanted to hear the most. Not that his solo hits were not fantastic, but they were not as beloved by the fans as his POLICE songs. I am sure it must have been a point of great frustration for him to know that at every concert they only screamed for his POLICE songs. However, this experience made the wish to see the POLICE in concert even more then before, but seeing Sting perform these songs in his regular solo concerts would be the closest I ever came to the real thing, or so I thought.

As we entered the arena, after parking in a seedy basement parking garage near by, we were first greeted by several radio station stands blearing POLICE songs from their speakers. We rode the large elevator up to the top of the arena. My dear friend Davina had gotten me tickets on the upper right side of the arena, which turned out to be great seats. I really don’t think there were any bad seats in the house, because the stage was set up well and the monitors and sound system was fantastic, but I am getting ahead of myself. We began milling our way around and weaving through the crowds to get to our side of the arena. I could hear the pre-show going. I thought Sting was singing, but then I didn’t recognize any of the songs, so I thought I was just hearing things. The pre-show band was named Fiction Plane, but I knew nothing about them except they were English. We finally arrived at our seats, which were really hard to find in the dark. We listened to the pre-band. I thought, they must be modeling themselves from the POLICE because they had a lead singer who also played the bass in their trio, and at times I thought the lead singer had some of Sting’s moves down. Fictions Plane’s music made me think that if the POLICE were young, making new music today, that they might sound a little like this band. I soon realized after we were seated that my ears were hurting due to the amazing sound system that made your chest vibrate to every note. It was a thrilling feeling, but my ears were screaming at me. I had already given my husband my green ear plugs, which he promptly lost one of. What were us old folks going to do now? I was sure that when the POLICE came out it would be even louder. If I only had a napkin or cotton or something to shove in my ears, that would solve our problem. No napkins in my purse, nothing. Wait, a tampon has cotton in it. I promptly broke one open and ripped it into perfect ear plug sized pieces and put them in my ears. I gave my husband one for his ear that had lost it’s ear plug. I smiled thinking about later telling him he had tampon cotton in his ear. It was such a relief. My ears were happy now. I guess this is what I get for being old at a concert. The band was good. I think the audience really got into their hit, “Two Sisters” which really does remind me of the POLICE style. Every one was really enjoying things, until the last song which was filled with the F-word over and over and over. It was a bit much for me. I enjoyed the days when swear words were not considered appropriate for bands to add in their songs. It pretty much put a damper on things. I was even considering buying Fiction Plane’s album when I got home, until that point. I looked over at my husband who rolled his eyes and mouthed, “too bad they had to do that, I liked them.” I realize that swear words are used to make an emotional response, but I rather admire the bands that can get their point across with out having to resort to that kind of crude verbiage. After the concert Davina informed me that Fiction Plane is Joe Sumner’s band, who is Sting’s son, I recalled thinking his voice, moves, and bass playing resembled his father’s.

When the POLICE finally came out to play after the technicians set up the stage after the pre-show, it was to a stadium completely full of people. I looked around and I really didn’t see any empty seats. The stage was set in an oval and it was 360, so even the people who would normally be behind the stage could see pretty well. From where I was the stage looked pretty tiny, but when the show started they fired up the monitors, which I was directly across from and you could see the smallest freckle on Stings face. It was crystal clear and amazing. The giant speakers were also directly across from me and from the first chords of “Message in a Bottle”, which started out with a gong note from Stewart Copeland, you could feel every chord and beat of music go right through your bones. It was the best feeling in the world. Stings voice was perfection, clear as crystal from the first note of the concert to the last. His bass guitar was so old and beat up, the finish was completely warn off and you can see this in the picture below. From the girl sitting next to me who was in college, to the 50 year old couples seated in front of me, we all sang the words to every song. I have never been to a concert where everyone knew the words and was singing along. I sang my little heart out too. At times Sting would ask us to sing the well known counter melodies or some, “Yo, yo, yo, yooo” in the song sets. We ate it up. Sting would walk around the stage and when he came on our side he would wave and the spot lights would show the audience and we would scream our hearts out. Andy Summer’s guitar solos were amazing and Sting usually went to the side of the stage so that Andy could have the lime light. Stewart Copeland was incredable from the first beat of that gong. At one point he broke his drum stick and in between 8th notes he swaped out sticks and thew his other one behind the stage some place. He ran from gongs, to simbols and back to his drum set in flying motion with more energy then I could imagine he had. How old are these guys? You couldn’t tell they were not yong men again. My favorite songs were: “Message in a bottle”, “Walking on the moon”, and “Walking in your footsteps.” The best song in my opinion was “Wrapped around your finger” which was just pure magic everywhere. During “Invisible sun” they had pictures from the Iraq war play in the background of their faces singing live. It was a very powerful message. During "King of Pain" I think Sting got a little annoyed with the audience because we were not singing his counter meldoy loud enough, but I think that is because we forgot the words. Actually I have never figured out what they are saying on that line anway. It was still one of my favorite POLICE songs reguardless. Sting once swore never to sing that song again, but I was glad he did for us. "Roxanne" was a little funky compaired to the original, but not nearly as jazz oriented as when he played it in his solo concerts. I was pleased with what they did with it. They also had two encores and we were still begging for more songs at the end. I am still trying to wrap my mind around the fact that my little dream came true and I got to see the amazing band perform live.


Here is the play list: (I was a little bummed they left out Synchornicity I though.)

The Set List: Message In A Bottle
Synchronicity II
Walking On The Moon
Voices Inside My Head
When The World Is Running Down
Don’t Stand So Close
Driven To Tears
The Bed’s Too Big Without You
Truth Hits Everybody
Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic
Wrapped Around Your Finger
De Do Do Do De Da Da Da
Invisible Sun
Walking In Your Footsteps
Can’t Stand Losing You
Roxanne
King of Pain
So Lonely
Every Breath You Take
Next To You