This is Braeden. So anyway.
These are the first examples of four different book types Cassi has taught me to make. Tonight was my first try at the single-needle coptic (the blue one). It was complex, and sorta complicated, but it was also a heck of a lot of fun and I am quite pleased with the outcome.
I just love to make books. And Cassi is the best teacher at bookmaking.
The first photo is from the morning of Braeden’s oral defense of his comp exams. (He passed, no big deal.) And yes, he did bring his Captain America shield/Frisbee with him to his oral defense. You know, for protection.
The second and third photos are of the Captain America shirt I made for him for Easter. He was wearing it at the comic book store the other day and another patron asked him where he got it. When he told him his wife made it the guy was super jealous: as he should be.
—Seen earlier today on the internets. Truer words were never spoken.
There’s no national tally of companies or organizations that have achieved zero-landfill status, but reports of success are increasing.
- General Motors said this month that 81 of its manufacturing plants earned this designation and that it recycles 92% of the waste generated by its facilities worldwide.
- Toyota reported in November “near zero landfill status” at its North American manufacturing plants. Spokeswoman Cindy Knight says the plants divert an average of 96% of their waste from landfills, and nine of the 14 divert 100%.
- Honda Motor said in July that 10 of its 14 North American plants had zero-waste operations.
Sounds like progress, no?
Zero-waste? That’s amazing! I wish I could do that just at my house…
Tax code unfairness as depicted in a pretty infographic.
I don’t know how people can rationalize this unfairness as “just a part of healthy capitalism.”
Braed and I are currently obsessed with this video. You should be too. Our favorite part? “Let’s open up this pit!”
—The System
Ever since I started library school I can’t get this song (written and performed by Lord of the Pants) out of my head.
Here are some photos from Christmas time. We spent the actual day with Braeden’s family (with a quick jaunt down to Sandy to see my Mom’s side of the family) then headed down to St. George for our week of weddings and Christmas Take Two with my family and two close friends (Jen & Tess!). We were gone 14 days and all in all it was a long break but a good one. We love our family, we love our friends, but after 6 total straight days of driving, one accident, and one almost lost wallet, we are so incredibly happy to be back in Iowa again.
Help me make a difference by sharing my charity water page and/or donating by clicking this link and/or the image above. Throughout the next few months, I will be hosting fundraisers in my local area to help me reach my goal, but I will need your help! If you donate any amount I will be sure to recognize you on my blog! Thanks!
Many of us have no idea what it’s like to be thirsty. Here in the United States, we use about 400 billion gallons of water each day, and we take it for granted. 1 in 8 people in the world have no access to clean water, but we can make a difference.
If every person gave up some change — a Chipotle burrito, a few hours’ worth of pay, or even just the loose coins in your pocket — we could bring water to families who have no access to clean water. Challenge yourself to give up a day’s worth of indulgences, host a fundraiser, or even just empty out the coins in your pocket. I’m asking you to help me make a difference.
100% of the money from this campaign goes to providing water access for people in need, so if I reach my goal of $1000, we can give 50 people water for 20 years.
Imagine that.Ivy is a fantastic person and I would encourage you all to support her in any way that you can!
I like that EVERYTHING you donate goes to this cause. This is an attainable goal!
Today, while baking sweet potato fries I noticed an abnormal amount of smoke coming from the oven. Worried I’d fried the fries, I opened the oven to see two trays of slightly well-done fries, though they weren’t the source of the smoke. Instead it seemed to be coming from the bottom of the oven, from what looked like a grease puddle possibly left over from Thanksgiving turkey and certainly not helped by the corn meal residue fallen from the pizza stone from over a year of pizza making.
Braeden suggested we clean the stove to take care of the problem, so we locked the door and set the stove to “clean.” Soon our house was filled with thick billows of acrid smelling smoke. Braeden went into the kitchen first to see what the problem was and as I tried to follow him my eyes began to sting and water uncontrollably and I had to back out, rubbing my eyes. When I finally forced myself into the kitchen where Braeden was frantically turning on the fan and opening doors and windows I saw a pillar of smoke emanating from one of our stove top burners: the oven was venting straight into the house. We hurredly rushed around, opening windows, turning on fans, and closing the doors of adjoining rooms to try and keep the smoke—and smell—out as much as possible. Braeden put a glass bowl over the smoking burner to try and keep it in the oven as much as possible.
We determined that we couldn’t stay in the house and breathe in the poisonous smoke. I left via the front door to avoid walking through the still densely smokey kitchen and Braeden met me in the driveway with my shoes. It was only when we were standing in our driveway looking through our now open windows into our house when we determined that we had to abandon ship: Braeden took a deep breath, ran back into the house and shut the oven off: it was so clearly a lost cause.
So what did we do? We left our smokey house to air out and went to the mall. We walked around, making sure to stop at Bath and Body Works to spray ourselves with their free samples to at least cover up our own smokey aroma which was debatably successful. A new Target bookcase, two cans of Febreeze, and a bottle of oven cleaner later and we were on our way home.
We arrived home a few hours after we’d left to find our home smoke-less but still smelling terrible, which made us glad that we had a) turned the oven off when we had an b) purchased plenty of Febreeze to help clear the air. Luckily the curtains in the living room don’t seem to need to be cleaned, but every fabric-based kitchen item most certainly will.
Hey, Braeden! Remember when we tried to clean the oven?! Yeah, me too.
