Great weekend.............................

Our dumpster is about half full at this point. Now I am trying to hold the thought that it will be big enough to hold all we want to get rid of. Most of the work room and all of the shed is finished, but the attic hasn't even been touched. I am sure (my) Mister is getting sick of hearing me ask if there will be enough room or if we will have to have a second load.

My heart is sick about the stuff I am throwing away. There must have been hundreds of those plastic pots that plants come in. Plastic in land fills, I know they will be there years from now, but I have no use for them and it is the only way the plant people sell their plants. Is it my fault they don't use peat pots to begin with?

So far we have consistently converted to the new light bulbs. I even found a couple of the old style ones the counter the other day. Seems (my) Mister switched them out for the new ones because they were in lights we used frequently. He plans to use them in lights used less often. I am rubbing off on him (poor soul). I have also surrendered to no more plastic water bottles, even if they are convenient. The re-usable shopping bags are going great. The other night I bought close to four hundred dollars worth of stuff and had to use only one plastic bag. If the silly store would keep the bags at the check-out lanes instead of at the door of the store (who is thinking of checking out when they have yet to face the nightmare of shopping?) they would sell more bags and maybe even market to the shopper behind the person using the re-usable bags. The other day I even discovered that our small grocery in town refunds you five cents for every plastic bag you don't use (based on how many of your own bags you do use).

I am working on cutting down on plastic baggies/wrap to cover food, and trying to work up the courage to tackle decreasing my paper towel/napkin usage, and then it is on to cleaning chemicals. I use bleach and would absolutely die if someone took away my Clorox wipes, but I keep entertaining the notion that one day I will be able to do so, and try and be patient with myself.

So Saturday was my youngest daughter's nineteenth birthday. We started the day with a 5K race, and we both ended up winning second place in our age division. This was only the second time I placed in a race. The first time I was also last overall, and was in the bathroom "recovering" from the six miles when they called my name as a winner. It was VERY sweet to hear my name being called. The other cool thing was I used two guys to pace myself against during the race and beat both of them, and at the end passed a girl that I had chatted with at the beginning of the race. Ended up she got third in our age group, and when she turned around and saw it was me that got second she said, "Man! I so should have passed you." Ya! She looked the part of a runner MUCH more than I did; tall, lean, with full on make-up, to my short, stubby, really need to wash my hair look. Just goes to show you never know what is inside the package until you open it!

After birthday cake and presents the two of us went for another run in the rain (thankful it wasn't snow), uptown to buy marshmallows (she wanted Rice Krispy treats) and a rent video to watch. It made me feel good to be alive. It also made me think of you Maria, and the hard time you are having right now. I know you don't believe in prayer, so I sent out good thoughts to the Universe for a timely recovery for you, my friend.

Okay, the sun is up. Time to go wake (my) Mister and get him back on dumpster filling patrol. Enjoy your day...