Seriously. I mean it!

After I wrote the post about the reusable bags, my good friend Chris called to tell me that yes, I am a hippy. Thanks Chris!

This weekend was my first shopping trip sans plastic bags. I folded my little reusable bag up, stuck it in my purse and headed to the mall. I really wasn't sure what to expect and I was a little nervous. I can talk a big game about breaking social norms, but when it comes time to back them up, I worry about how awkward it's going to be.

The only store that I bought something in was New York & Company. I bought a dress shirt on clearance. I took my purchase up to the counter and when she went to bag my shirt I pulled out my bag and asked her to please put it in that instead. She read the sassy little comment on the bag, "Paper or plastic? Neither." and asked if I just brought these bags in when I shop. I told her I did because I hate plastic bags. She gave me my receipt and that was the end of it. It was pretty anti-climactic, which is good and how it should have been. My hippy crusade can continue.

This weekend Ben was in the wedding of his old roommate. I like going to weddings and seeing how other brides pull theirs together. This had to be the biggest wedding I've been too. There were 14 bridesmaids and 7 groomsmen. There were 33 people involved in the wedding ceremony! I don't even think that I have that many friends!

Here are some pictures:

Here we are waiting for the exit of the bride and groom. Ben's tux smelled like butt.

I hope you all had a great weekend!

A word of advice to those who DJ for their friend's wedding:

Clear your iPod playlists before hooking it up to the sound system. That way when someone hits "shuffle" while everyone is cleaning up the church fellowship hall, a song won't come on the drops the f-bomb multiple times.

Just a suggestion....

Computers, the environmnet and yuppies

I am gaining quite a reputation at work as a computer whiz. This is funny since once I deleted Windows Explorer because I used Firefox and didn't need it. For all of you who just thought that that sounds like a good idea let me explain the difference between Windows Explorer and Internet Explorer. Internet Explorer lets you read this blog. Windows Explorer controls your desktop and deleting it will remove your start bar and all your icons. You will need to reinstall windows to fix this.

Most recently I purposefully disabled the TCP/IP on my laptop while trying to connect to the coffee shop Wi-Fi. Again, some of you get the irony there and others of you don't know that the TCP/IP must be enabled to access the internet.

So it really is ironic that people come to me with computer questions. To prove to you how great a computer whiz I am, here's a list of all the things I've done to help:

• Made 2-sided copies
• Deleted a line in a pdf document
• Copied only values into an Excel sheet
• Changed the tab spacing in Word
• Put a schedule into PowerPoint
• Password protected an Excel sheet

You can see that I'm not terribly helpful with the computer and I certainly don't deserve the title of Computer Whiz, but I am going to ride this wave as far as it goes. Hopefully it lasts until review time...

But what I really want to know is why couldn't I be tested on these sorts of things when I interviewed? I mean seriously, Long Division? And while I know it's a mute point because I got the job, I think I could have showcased my skills better by formating a letter instead of dividing 456 by 12. I'm just saying....

In an unrelated note I've decided to stop using plastic bags. At all. I hate them. I hate how they sound. I hate how the clutter up the sink. I hate how they feel when they are wet. I hate how they get stuck under my car on the highway. I hate them and I don't think you are supposed to have that kind of a feeling toward a bag. So I'm not going to use them anymore. I'm using reusable bags instead. I've been using them for awhile at Kroger and I love them. They are so much easier to carry. And you get money off of your grocery bill for every bag you bring in at Kroger. I now have bags for other non-Kroger places. I think I will look like the hippy when I go clothes shopping with reusable bags, but if they won't use my bags, they won't get my money!

I stopped by the Wild Oats store near my work today and they are making it a company policy to stop using plastic bags by April 22, 2008. I wanted to hug them. Until I bought gluten free pretzels for $5.99. They should give me a resuable bag for free at that price....

Today while driving home in my convertible, wearing a visor, sipping my green smoothie and listening to a lecture on my iPod I realized that I fit a stereotype. And I'm not quite sure what to think about it....

Pinching those copper coins

This weekend I did two things to try and save us money.

The first thing that I did was to switch the toilet paper. We had been buying gold plated TP, and I figured that if we were really serious about cutting costs we had to downgrade - our tushes could handle it. We aren't really roughing it yet (pun intended). The money that we are saving is for vacation not to buy food or anything. And while it may only be a camping vacation, my work is going to pay me to NOT work. Life is hard.

The second thing I did was cut Ben's hair. Myself. With scissors and a comb. I'm not so sure it was a good idea. The front looks pretty good but that back looks like I took a weed wacker to it. Ben can't see it so he thinks that it looks fine. But I can see it and I KNOW! We were at lunch today and I kept staring at his hair thinking, "What have I done?" I'm not sure how to fix it. We may go buy clippers and try and even it up that way, but that costs money and that's counter productive.....

A Comment During Our Walk Today

"You know, I would feel a lot more confident about the drivers around here if I didn't just see one with one hand on the steering wheel and the other hand shoved completely in their mouth."

Sledding!

Here are some pictures from our sledding adventure yesterday. We didn't have any sleds so we covered cardboard in a trash bag and that worked for a while.

Ben:

Me:

Bundled up:
Snow drifts:

Here's a video of one of the sled runs:

Fire and Snow

I was beginning to think that the great people of Kentucky were prone to drama. This was mainly supported by the Kentucky Homeland Security Ads that ran on television. You can watch it here. (It'll open up windows media player to play it.) Go on and watch it and you'll see what I mean. Obviously if you live in Kentucky you are at risk of spontaneously combusting. So, please visit that web-site and make sure you are prepared for that.

If that's not enough to worry about, people around here also like to freak out about the weather. Someone in all seriousness told me yesterday that we were supposed to get 8-12 inches of snow in a place where I have ever only seen 1-2 inches. People were stocking up on food and firewood so that they could ride out "the worst storm in the last 10-15 years".

I scoffed at their predictions. I am from the North and snow does not phase me. I laughed at them all, pointed out that it's supposed to be 50 on Monday and assured them that I could wait out the storm with my meager groceries. Plus I live within walking distance to a grocery store. I will live. Plus, I said, "we are only going to get 1-3 inches of snow. In Ohio they have blizzard warnings. I'm not scared."

Well it looks like they may have been right. I think that we probably have about 4 inches of snow. It almost covers the grass in my backyard. It really isn't that much snow, in Ohio this may slow things down for an hour, but life would keep moving along. Here life stops. The people of Kentucky knew something that I did not; THEY DON'T HAVE SNOW PLOWS IN THIS TOWN. I have not seen a single snow plow around my house this whole storm. 4 inches does shut things down because YOU CAN'T SEE THE ROAD. Dang-it. You people win. You were right. I guess I need to go figure out how to avoid spontaneously combusting now....

*** Edited to add:
A couple hours after I wrote this post the road crews were out in a force that I had never seen before. They were a team that was unstoppable.

They had a show plow:



And a back hoe:


How I love Kentucky.

Tomorrow! I post pictures of sledding!

quality products

It's lovely outside and I really wanted to wash my car today. Ben headed to the store to pick up a garden hose and he found one with this warning:

WARNING!
Do not drink out of garden hose!
This hose contains chemicals that are known to cause cancer and birth defects!
Wash hands after use!

Seriously? This product is seriously on the shelves? Why would this hose be out there for sale? I can't think of a time when I have wanted to wash my car AND get cancer all at the same time. Maybe we just aren't their target market....

Somebody call a WAAAAmbulance!

I know what you all are thinking, "I hope Andi is OK what with her terribly hard life where she has to work & clean & pay bills & deal with colds. She's got it so much harder than the rest of us!" and I wanted to let you all know that I will be fine. I will persevere and get through this.

Soon after the whine-fest of my last post God laid the smack down and showed me how selfish I was being. He pointed out the following things I had gotten wrong:

- I was interpreting "God will provide" to mean that "God will pay all of our bills right now" because you know, God is a giant sugar daddy in the sky.

- I interpreted "God will care for you" to mean that He has placed His holy force field around me. Apparently not only is God a giant sugar daddy, but he is also a super hero. Who only serves me.

Needless to say, God quickly shot holes in all of my interpretations and showed me how little I was trusting Him. He is going to take care of us. It may not be how I would like, but it will be good. And that's all that matters.