Steve Sleeve

We've heard about how Apple has made efforts to make the MacBook Air green. Now the accessories are following suite. Timbuk2 is bringing us the Steve Sleeve.

We've overbuilt the hell out of this sleeve and spec'd earth friendly materials throughout. Ultrasonic seam welds use a notoxic glue, the durable exterior softshell fabric (just like the stuff in mountaineering jackets) & low pile brushed fleece lining are made from post-consumer pop bottles (PET). The buttons are made of Poly PET and the string can be reused to tie your shoe in a pinch.

I dig the design and the green efforts.

Earth Hour

Plan to go for a walk outside (or any other activity that doesn't require the lights to be on) on Saturday at 8pm Central. Earth hour is a simple way you can conserve even a tiny bit of energy. Turn off your lights. Turn off the TV. Turn off your computer. Maybe you can even turn down your electric furnace for the hour.

Find out more at EarthHourUS.org.

Clarion Hotel, Cedar Rapids

So, today at work I was awarded with a special prize as part of my participation in the "Big Brothers, Big Sisters BOWL for Kid's Sake". The prize was a mini-weekend stay at the Clarion Hotel in Cedar Rapids. On the little gift certificate, I noticed the phrase:

"Cedar Rapids Largest Family Owned GREEN Hotel."

Dem's fightin' words, boy. A quick google search revealed this page on their website: http://www.clarioncr.com/green.htm. What a pleasant surprise! Not only are they doing the standard 'linens' stuff of reusing towels, but they also are using low VOC paints, bamboo flooring, hybrid cars for airport shuttles... and more!

I find it refreshing that they even went as far as putting recycling containers in the guest rooms, empowering us to help in our own little ways. Check it out, and next time you need to stay in CR, consider the Clarion FIRST. It truly is a nice place, and they are doing their part.

-- I

An Open Letter to Subway Sandwich Shops

Dear Subway,

Hello, my old friend. As you know, I visit you a lot. Like, a total shit-ton. I probably eat there 5 to 10 times per week, and there have been a few things that have been bugging me. It's not me, it really is you, and I want us to have a good relationship going forward, so I feel like I should tell you these things now, instead of letting it drag on and on. I can't make you change, but think about these things, okay?

First, can you please get rid of those god-awful plastic straw wrappers? Seriously, they are *impossible* to open. I usually break two straws before I successfully get one open without damage, and that is just wasteful. Plus, the plastic wrappers do not degrade nicely in our landfills, and every little bit helps the environment, ya know? I know, I know, some people will think you are killing a tree, but at least you won't be using oil to wrap your straws, and you can always sponsor tree-planting programs to help offset your use.

Second, when I'm visiting your store, it's usually just me that I am ordering for. I don't need that huge plastic bag to carry my sandwich and chips in. I'm capable of doing it by myself. I bring this up because it's not that I can't refuse the use of the plastic bag (I often do), it's just that other people don't think about it the same way I do, so maybe it would be nice to give them the option, okay? "Hi, would you like a bag to carry your sandwich, or can you handle it on your own?" That's all.

TWO layers of paper? Seriously, I'm not sure why you need that little square at the beginning of my sandwich assembly process. The bread usually spends some time bare-assed on that white cutting board for a little while while it is cut, so why do we need that extra square of paper? Any germs that it picks up certainly hasn't killed me yet. Besides, your sandwich artists usually do a great job of keeping those things pretty clean.

Those are the big things that have been bothering me, so I hope you understand. Just pay attention to these things a little more, okay? I still love you, even if you are hanging out way too much with that Jared jerk. He used to be fat, you know.

See you around.

-- I

First Strida Ride!

Today was the perfect rush of adrenaline. We were running late and missed the opportunity to catch my usual bus. My husband was sick and I felt bad that he was burdened to drop me off at my bus stop. The weather was a nice 45-ish degrees and the roads had finally rid themselves of snow. With all of these conditions perfectly aligned, I made the quick decision to break in my Strida and find out if my solution had any hope. The short story is that it worked! I got to the bus stop and back home in one piece. My morning bus driver suggested my solution to another rider, and I got plenty of comments (providing great leads into encouraging other people to bike or ride the bus). The long story involves some areas that I would like to improve for my next trips and comments about the bike. Here is my list:

1. The ride is much more vertical than I'm used to. This is something I knew ahead of time and I'll just have to get used to it. My main problem is that habit makes me try to dismount forward of the seat. This *doesn't work* since it's an A frame and there is a big bar there. I really need to remember this so I don't continue to look ridiculous when getting off!
2. I need to aim better when putting the two wheels together in the folded position. The magnets are quite strong and pull the wheels together quickly, so I didn't get them centered well this morning, which provided opportunities for the wheels to separate when I pushed the bike over cracks and bumps.
   
3. Weight is important! The bike was actually pretty heavy to steer even though I was just pushing it. It's more that you have to control the direction of the bike and keep it from wobbling too much, so hopefully this will get easier as I become more adequate at driving a folded bike.
4. I need to find straps/Velcro/something to hold the handles still when they are folded down. They currently flop around and can get caught on various things while trying to steer the folded bike. They were also a problem on the bus. I was able to fit the bike right in front of me on the bus, so that it was between my seat and the seat in front of me. The handles are about head level and could smack me in the face or hit the person in front of me in the head. Luckily neither of those things happened today, but I did spend the whole time on both bus trips holding the handles still.
5. I love that there are straps to lock the breaks. The was so helpful while I was both waiting for buses and on the buses.
6. The bike is adequate for riding the approximate mile that I have to get to the bus stop, but I wouldn't want to go touring around with it.
   

That is all I have for now, along with a bunch of excitement that my scheme worked on the first try! Now to commit to getting rid of my car...

Give Your Mail Person a Break

How much mail do you get that you really need? Most of the stuff we put in our recycle bin is junk mail, and I am sick of getting catalogs for the people who previously owned our house. A few months ago we signed up with Catalog Choice to limit the amount of useless mail we receive. I have to say that I have noticed a significant difference, at least with catalogs, and it's free. They have all of the major catalogs and even more that I have never heard of. Their service makes it really easy to go in and cancel catalogs and magazines at any time. I try to do this at least once a week with any catalogs we may have received.

The next step I am taking is to stop the rest of the junk mail. I have read about some other services that work with all kinds of junk mail, but several require a fee: 41pounds and GreenDimes are a few. The best option I have found so far is through the Direct Marketing Association and costs $1, but in my opinion, that is one dollar well spent. You are able to put up to 5 names per address which is nice since I still get a lot of junk mail sent to my maiden name. I recently signed us up and was surprised by the "are you sure" page. They post the following information to try to convince you to stay on the list (I added the bold formatting to highlight certain content).

Important: you have selected to eliminate all mailings from organizations participating in the DMA Mail Preference Service.

What you will miss.

The average household can save 1200 dollars per year from marketing offers.
You will no longer receive savings offers from these companies.

In fact, you will no longer receive offers and special savings for more than 80 percent of all commercial offers.

And you will miss the environmental benefits of shopping at home rather than driving to the mall!

By replacing just two shopping trips to the mall each year with shopping by catalogs or direct mail, DMA estimates that Americans could:

• Reduce the amount we drive by 3.3 billion miles.
• Reduce carbon dioxide emissions by more than 3 billion pounds.
• Save more than $490 million on gas costs.

When you click here, your name will be removed from future consumer prospect lists and you will see a significant reduction in all catalog and other commercial offers. If you wish to reconsider, click here and uncheck the box removing your name from DMA's member prospect lists.

DMA and all its members support the Commitment to Consumer Choice guidelines designed to better serve consumers and your right to choose to receive more of what you want and less of what you don't want. If you have questions about the CCC please visit the DMA web site homepage.

I found it interesting that they were pointing out the environmental benefits to receiving junk mail. Perhaps some people drive to stores often enough that receiving tons of paper is healthier for the planet, but I don't fall into that category. Also, I would rather spend my time searching online for the few products that I shop for each year, than waste it sifting through junk mail to find the two coupons I would use. So here is to fewer pieces of junk mail and more time to spend reading useful things like books!