Monday, June 04, 2007

Back to the grind

Monday morning again.  How do the weekends go by so quickly?  Despite packing in as much activity as possible, I managed to get nothing done…

Between family in town, my race, two belly dance shows, two farmers markets, sewing, reading, painting, cooking and attending my first ever roller derby practice (just to watch) with ML, I’m quite exhausted…

So it’s Day 4 of Low Impact Week.  Not too bad, so far.  I remembered my water bottle and my hand towel, so I can honestly say I did not use a single napkin or paper towel.  I did, however, use 2 disposable plastic cups, in addition to the paper cups during the race.  It couldn’t entirely be helped – the bar I was at Saturday night didn’t seem like they would be amenable to putting my drink in a water bottle.  I let that one go.  Yesterday, ML and I managed to bring all of our plastic drink ware (and everyone else’s) home for recycling.  I also ended up with a couple plastic bags at the farmer’s market Saturday (none on Sunday though!)  I was OK with one of the bags – it’s not practical to bring loose salad greens home without a bag…the other bag I tried to fit as much as possible in – it had meat in it (grassfed ground beef, and locally-raised bacon-wrapped chops…mmmm….) from two different stands, so I had one vendor put their wares into the bag I already had from the other stands…  Man, it’s amazing how guilty I feel about plastic bag usage this week.  It’s not like I ever throw them away after a single use, and usually not even then…

Unfortunately on Saturday, we got to the Farmers Market too late for tomatoes and the herbs we were searching for.  I found locally grown oregano and basil at my Hyvee, but had to resort to the Whole Foods store for organic tomatoes…  Ugh, I remembered why it is that I don’t shop there on a regular basis…those were some pricey tomatoes!  Granted, I bought a ton of them, but still…I can’t wait until my garden starts yielding some of those plump red babies!  

The second farmers market, the new one on Bancroft, was a little disappointing.  There were only 2 food vendors, and despite the no-artsy-craftsy promises in the ads, there was a art/craft stand.  I came away with some fresh broccoli and a couple of lamb chops, though, as well as some information on a community gardening project…  I won’t give up on this FM entirely – it was their first day, so I’m sure it’ll improve over the weeks.

In the pleasantly surprising news category, I have to say my dear sweet husband is handling Low Impact Week very well, even asking some questions.  I caught him tossing a plastic veggie dip container in the trash without thinking about it (don’t worry – I rescued it), but other than that, he’s been very cooperative.  

Well, I suppose…off to work I go…