My purse - Animal Rescue site

Recently, I was looking for a new purse. I live in Dallas so my initial thought was to spend money on a really nice Coach bag. A bag like that is an investment and would last for many years. I have still not ruled that out for a future purchase, but at the time I was bothered by the thought of not knowing how the cows who provided that leather were treated. How do I know they didn't come from a factory farm? And what about the workers who assembled the bag? Where they paid a decent wage? I couldn't answer those questions. (if you do have an answer to those questions, please email me! I want to know!)

My friend Millie reminded me of the Animal Rescue web site store, which is a great resource that I would recommend to anyone. Anything you buy from their online store contributes money toward feeding cats and dogs waiting for homes. They also offer organic, recycled, and fair trade items such as accessories, clothing, and gifts. It was here that I found a handbag made out of recycled tire tubes, which was assembled in El Salvador by a woman-owned small company.

It's funny because the material, being made from a tire tube, is irregularly marked. But it's surprisingly supple and lined with nice cloth, even with a little key holder and pockets inside. It's nice and small, and I am really loving it! And I provided 42 bowls of food for animals waiting for homes!

Missouri 2008

Last week we took our annual trip to Kansas City to see Millie and Danny! Once again, I am terrible at remembering to take pictures. We were there 4 days and I hardly got any. But, at least this time I actually remember to get a picture of Millie and I together. We get together about twice a year and for 2 years I have forgotten to take any pictures of she and I together. I have posted the rest of the pictures on Flickr but here are some of the highlights.
A long awaited picture of me and Millie. Why do I look like a complete dork in every one of these?
Millie and Danny have 4 furbabies, but this one is Gangy wearing her lobster costume. I have a video of Gangy in the lobster costume
And here is a picture of a giant stuffed pig and cow on top of a truck at the Farmer's Market at River Market.

I have already voted

I have set the following auto-responder on my email, I would appreciate all of my friends and family taking the time to read and respect my request:

Thank you for your email. Please note that I have already early voted in Texas and I am happy with my choice of candidates, so please stop sending me videos or email forwards regarding who I should have voted for, or how I am not a Christian because I did not vote for your candidate. I believe very strongly in my choice. I do not believe in engaging in futile arguments with my brothers and sisters - I am not going to convince you and you are not going to convince me.

"Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope when you were called"

Eph. 4:2-4

Tim Keel's Blog: Election 2008: Some Perspective

In light of the fact that I voted yesterday, and that I have caught
flack (i.e. name-calling) from members of my own church body for the
direction of my vote, about which I have been intentionally quiet, I
would highly recommend that everyone read this post on the blog of one
of my friends' pastor:

http://www.timkeel.com/timkeel/2008/10/election-2008-some-perspective.html

Spiral Diner Dallas

I know I mentioned that we wanted to go to the Trinity Audubon Center on Sunday, but it turned out that since it was free, so did everyone else! We got there and the police were turning folks away for overcrowding. So we hope to go some day in the future, even if it won't be free anymore.

However, before we headed over to the Audubon Center we stopped in Oak Cliff to try out the Dallas version of the vegan Spiral Diner, which has apparently been in Fort Worth for years. When we were in Spiral Diner I felt like I was in Austin! Oak Cliff has that very Austin feel anyway. The food was awesome, and all vegan so I could eat anything on the menu!
I had the taco salad, made with a grain substitute taco "meat". It was delicious! Next time I am going to have the Philly Cheesesteak sandwich. I've never had one because I don't eat the steak part normally, but theirs is made with a meat substitute. Looking forward to it!

Komen For the Cure, Mavs game

Even though we're only halfway through the weekend I thought I'd post a few pics to catch you up since I hope to take more later today. So far this weekend, my parents came to visit Friday night so that mom and I could get up early on Saturday to walk the Komen For the Cure 5k in memory of my grandmother and our friend Kathy Eaton. Somehow we missed the table with the papers that you pin on your back to say who you're walking for. Also, even though I made a special effort to set it out, I still managed to forget my camera. All I have is this photo I stole from my parents' camera.
Lots of people! Mom and I also donated some tissue for research. After that, we hung out some and after they left, Christian and I went to take a look at some scooters and helmets. Yesterday evening we had tickets to the Mavs game from my company, in their Platinum Suite - those are the boxes at the American Airlines Center.
When Christian and I both worked for this same company we used to get box tickets a lot, but they're a lot more scarce nowadays, so it was nice to go again. They are great seats and we get to hang out with my co-workers in relative peace, rather than being in the stands around people we wouldn't know. Also free. Free is good.

Right now I am waiting for the last of my sinus headache to go away and for Christian to come back from geo-caching and then we are planning on going to the Trinity River Audubon Center since this is the opening weekend and admission is free.

Motorcycle license!

For those of you who do not follow me on Twitter (and why don't you? hm?), this morning Christian and I went up to the DMV at the crack of dawn and took the written motorcycle exam and passed!! So now we are officially licensed to drive motorcycles or a scooter! Very exciting. We are already talking about buying a larger scooter so that Christian could drive it to work. We are more confident in our abilities due to the classes and practice from last week now, but the scooter we have is not robust or fast enough to take on real roads (also, not street legal on roads with posted speeds of over 30 mph). I know the girls in the Community Group just read this so you might as well be thinking about it now because you know we are going to ask you about it next time we get together.

Tomorrow: the Susan G. Komen For the Cure 5K with mom! If you have not donated, donate now - we are walking in memory of my grandmother, Erma Stengele.

Scooter/Motorcycle school

After spending Saturday and Sunday in Motorcycle Training School we both passed the riding and written tests. The riding was HARD! We were on real 50cc Vespas (as opposed to our very light Chinese scooter) which were heavier than I was used to. The hardest manuever for me to master was the U-turns in small spaces. Thank goodness we didn't have to do it on real motorcycles like the rest of the class, because those things have clutches and require down- and up-shifting in the turns which would have made it much more difficult, I think.

Now all we have to do is go up to the DMV some time this week and pass the written portion!

Blog tag!

I was excited to be tagged by Olga because I have only been tagged once before in my life and that was because I specifically asked someone to tag me, and I don't know if that counts.

Here is how it works:

1. Post the rules on your blog.
2. Write six random things about yourself.
3. Tag six people at the end of your post.
4. If you are tagged, JUST DO IT, and pass the tag along.

And here are six totally random things about me:

1. I have this toe thing where if someone were to unexpectedly grasp a toe or toes I would be completely unable to breathe and probably have a heart attack. If you are planning on trying this, please thing about the fact that you would be touching someone's feet. And stop it. ;-)

2. I love Ben Folds, and I can't stand John Mayer. I am sorry, John Mayer fans, but it is true.

3. I am very smell-sensitive. Bad smells really cripple me but good smells can really make me super happy.

4. Somehow I have never learned to cook American food that well. If I need to make a fast meal, it's always Asian (stir-fry) or Italian or even Mexican. Is that because American food is big chunks of meat and I don't eat that?

5. I believe that coffee is very important and wonderful, even though my husband doesn't like it so much.

6. It really bothers me when people are rude to each other or yell at each other. I can't stand political debates sometimes for this reason.

OK I tag Mel Sutton and, um, I think she is the only person I know with a blog who reads this. Let me add "I am kind of boring" to the list.

Scooter Time

So, you might be thinking, how is the scooter going? Well, right now the scooter is disabled. Last month I went out to ride it to work one day after it had been in the garage about a week due to rains, and found that it didn't work even though it was fully charged. Christian disassembled it that weekend and found that all 4 of the wheelchair batteries that power it had exploded. We were able to find new ones, but their voltage was a little lower. When the throttle is fully opened it dies in its tracks. Christian suspects the charger is flawed, so he is searching for a new one.

All that said, even though it is not operational during this fantastic weather, we are signed up to take a motorcycle course this weekend which will serve as the driving portion of our motorcycle licenses. They will provide "real" scooters for us to use during the entire course so that we can learn to use road scooters. Then, all that is left is for us to go to the DMV one day and take the written portion and we'll have our motorcycle licenses! These are what we would need to get something like a Buddy or Vespa (*drool*) ...should we ever choose to do so ;-)

One surprise for me today was that I thought this was a Saturday-only course, but it's actually both Saturday and Sunday. So, I guess you know where we'll be this weekend!

Green Toilet Bowl Cleaner - new & different

As promised, I went searching for a green toilet bowl cleaner this month, I had just run out of my old stuff. I was in a hurry so I only went to Whole Foods. Later, at Kroger, I noticed that they also had a good selection in their natural foods area, and at simliar prices. So, apparently they're pretty easy to find.

I was really torn between the Ecover brand and Ecos Earth-Friendly Products. I have other Ecover products and I have to say that a lot of the appeal of that brand to me is the ecological design of their facilities, what with their grass sod roof and whatnot. I love that! But, there was some vague language in their ingredients that I didn't like so I went with Ecos for now. Even though I had some trouble with Ecos automatic dishwashing detergent in the past.

Coincidentally, both our toilets needed cleaning today. I started with the main toilet and squirted it under the rim of the bowl like I did with all my previous cleaners. If you use these, you might know that most of the traditional toilet bowl cleaners are a thin liquid that coats the bowl of the toilet. That is what I was expecting. However, not the case with this green cleaner! It was instead a thick, almost gummy substance. Here is a picture I took:
On this first attempt, I missed the rim and the substance was left clinging tentatively halfway down the slanted bowl. I went after it and tried smearing it around with my disposable toilet brush (I told you I can't get rid of them. At least they are biodegradable, but I digress). However, it was so gummy that it just plopped into the water and started dissolving. Because of this it was pretty diluted by the time I used it and it really didn't clean anything that well.

With the second toilet in our house, I tried following the instructions and aiming for directly under the rim, then letting it slide down by itself over 10-15 minutes. This worked great! It cleaned easily and it smelled nice. The moral of this story is, follow directions.

I would recommend this product and might buy it again. Or, I might try the Ecover version for comparison sake. I will let you know when I run out!

Mugshot opening and State Fair weekend

I postponed blogging about this weekend until I had all the photos uploaded. First off, we went to Longview on Friday morning to see the new Mugshot Coffee House and since both our jobs can be done from pretty much anywhere, we worked from there all day (free WiFi).

For those of you who aren't aware, this is the coffee shop my little brother just opened in East Texas, where I grew up. There are lots of photos in my Mugshot set on Flickr, and I have also started a Flickr Mugshot Coffee Group so I hope people start to contribute their own photos soon. Christian took some really good ones, he just hasn't uploaded them yet.

We drove back home late Friday night, and Saturday headed out to the Texas State Fair here in Dallas. Every year we go and meet my sister-in-law and brother-in-law and her in-laws (are they any relation to me? I have no idea, but I always enjoy hanging out with them!).
Highlights of this year included the Fried Pop-Rock Sundae and the Chicken Fried Bacon (oh yes!). These are the things we eat every year and then feel very, very sick.


We also got to see the Birds of the World show....
....and here is a picture of Borden's Elsie the Cow, who is treated much better than the factory farmed cattle Borden uses for their actual milk, but that is a different story.
After the day at the Fair on Saturday, we spent Sunday serving in Parking at church in the morning services and in Infants for the evening service. It was a tiring but very fun weekend!