Today I went shopping at Target. I bought an entire shopping cart full of canned goods, heavy jars of spaghetti sauce, boxes of cereal, and about 50 really tiny travel items for our trip to Yosemite. When I got to the check out counter I realized that there were no more plastic bags for the customer's convenience. This is because the city of Sunnyvale has banned plastic bags.
Apparently plastic bags are inconvenient for the environment. So now a million Target customers are going to buy 2 reusable bags a piece so Target will make $2 million dollars from reusable bag sales. And the tiny bit of cheap, reusable, recyclable plastic that was so convenient for me will no longer harm the streets of Sunnyvale.
No, even though plastic is used in almost every object that we use daily: cars, hair brushes, toothbrushes, shampoo bottles, toothpaste, appliances, mattresses, cell phones, razors, eyeglasses, light switches, bathtubs, buttons, toilet seats, contacts, refrigerators, cooking tools, trash cans, computers, ice cube trays, food packaging, furniture, milk cartons, TVs, remote controls, video games, fans, sun glasses, purses, pens, etc., the threat to the environment from plastic in Sunnyvale is over!
So, since I refused to be charged money to use bags made of cloth and trees, which require plastic parts and materials to be produced, and I have left my many reusable bags at home, I will be inconvenienced.
I packed every single item I bought into my cart and then loaded each item into my car. The cans and jars rolled and clanged in my trunk as I turned corners and stopped at stoplights.
Thanks Sunnyvale. I will shop in Mountain View from now on, until they too ban plastic bags. Then I will drive in my car made with plastic, shop in the store built with plastic materials with my cart made with plastic materials, and will place my plastic jar of sphaghetti sauce and my plastic wrapped loaf of bread into whatever plastic bag I can scavenge. I plan on saving them from other stores and stockpiling them to use later when the city decides that convenience stores no longer have the choice to offer their customers convenience.
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
New Apartment
More space! Eric and I moved into a two bedroom apartment Easter weekend and we are loving it! Not only do we have room division for all our office stuff, but we also have a large fenced in patio with a little yard that Mia has claimed. There is no one above or below us so it is very quiet and we don't have to worry about making too much noise. I didn't get the extra bathroom or the washer and dryer--in fact, our bathroom is smaller and the laundry room farther away--but the ground floor, huge patio, and skylight really make up for it.
Last minute moving was a big pain, but we had the help of our friends Lindsey and Jason and Michelle and Mark. We could not have accomplished the move in time without them. Thanks guys! We thought we had at least two weeks to move but the leasing office told us upon signing the papers that we only had a couple of days. Unfortunately this forced us to move on Easter Sunday. It was stressful but well worth the price. The apartment was vacant so we got a real deal on the rent if we moved asap. It's in the same apartment complex that we've lived in since we moved out to Cali-- we just did an onsite transfer.
We were also very thankful for all the trunk space in our Hyundai Elantra Touring. We got a UHaul for the big stuff (thankfully UHaul was open on Easter Sunday), but a lot of boxes and crates got taken to the new place by back and forth trips in our car. Thanks mom and dad Barndollar!
We have made a lot of progress in setting up our new place. We've got a few new pieces of furniture in the living room and bathroom. All of the pictures are up except one painting that we don't know where to put yet. The bedroom and living room are larger. It's more comfortable and spread out; I feel like I can stretch out and make bigger messes. In fact I already used my new open space to host some meetups. In June I hosted a Lia Sophia jewelry party and a NOBLY shopping party. I could never have hosted them in my little one bedroom apartment.
Mia loves her outside. We never had much sun hit our old apartment, but we get full sun now. She immediately picked up the habit of sunbathing; whether she is lying on the carpet in front of the sliding glass door, or sprawling out in her little patch of dirt, she is always soaking up sun.
Also soaking up the sun are my vegetable plants in my patio box garden. I've been growing organic roma tomatoes and zucchini, along with a green pepper plant, strawberry plant, and a collection of herbs including basil, oregano, cilantro, mint, and parsley. It's my first real attempt at gardening and I love watching their progress. They started out as tiny little seedlings and are now flourishing. My tomato and zucchini plants are ginormous! I have a billion little green tomatoes and I have harvested my 4th zucchini. So far I've made zucchini pancakes and roasted zucchini.
In other news, we have had a steady flow of visitors all year long. We recently said goodbye to my mom and grandma who came to stay with us for a week. It was their first time in Mountain View/San Francisco and they really enjoyed it. I'm glad the weather was very mild, because when it's hot our apartment is like an oven. I miss them already :-/
We are currently hosting Eric's parents, sister, and cousin. We will be going to Yosemite on Wednesday along with Uncle Tom. We still need to do laundry, grocery shopping, and pack.
The summer is packed! My birthday is coming up July 6th and I am excited to celebrate this year. Our 2nd anniversary is on July 17th. I am having gum grafting surgery at the end of July, which I am not at all looking forward to, but I am prepared with all the necessary pain prescriptions. Maybe I will get more blogging done at the end of July. I will also be planning a trip to Pittsburgh before the summer is over-probably at the end of August beginning of September. It's wedding planning time for Miss Alicia!
It all seems much more doable in our new place. I have my own desk space now in the section of office not taken over by Eric's stuff. Will I get more writing done now? We will see!
Last minute moving was a big pain, but we had the help of our friends Lindsey and Jason and Michelle and Mark. We could not have accomplished the move in time without them. Thanks guys! We thought we had at least two weeks to move but the leasing office told us upon signing the papers that we only had a couple of days. Unfortunately this forced us to move on Easter Sunday. It was stressful but well worth the price. The apartment was vacant so we got a real deal on the rent if we moved asap. It's in the same apartment complex that we've lived in since we moved out to Cali-- we just did an onsite transfer.
We were also very thankful for all the trunk space in our Hyundai Elantra Touring. We got a UHaul for the big stuff (thankfully UHaul was open on Easter Sunday), but a lot of boxes and crates got taken to the new place by back and forth trips in our car. Thanks mom and dad Barndollar!
We have made a lot of progress in setting up our new place. We've got a few new pieces of furniture in the living room and bathroom. All of the pictures are up except one painting that we don't know where to put yet. The bedroom and living room are larger. It's more comfortable and spread out; I feel like I can stretch out and make bigger messes. In fact I already used my new open space to host some meetups. In June I hosted a Lia Sophia jewelry party and a NOBLY shopping party. I could never have hosted them in my little one bedroom apartment.
Mia loves her outside. We never had much sun hit our old apartment, but we get full sun now. She immediately picked up the habit of sunbathing; whether she is lying on the carpet in front of the sliding glass door, or sprawling out in her little patch of dirt, she is always soaking up sun.
Also soaking up the sun are my vegetable plants in my patio box garden. I've been growing organic roma tomatoes and zucchini, along with a green pepper plant, strawberry plant, and a collection of herbs including basil, oregano, cilantro, mint, and parsley. It's my first real attempt at gardening and I love watching their progress. They started out as tiny little seedlings and are now flourishing. My tomato and zucchini plants are ginormous! I have a billion little green tomatoes and I have harvested my 4th zucchini. So far I've made zucchini pancakes and roasted zucchini.
In other news, we have had a steady flow of visitors all year long. We recently said goodbye to my mom and grandma who came to stay with us for a week. It was their first time in Mountain View/San Francisco and they really enjoyed it. I'm glad the weather was very mild, because when it's hot our apartment is like an oven. I miss them already :-/
We are currently hosting Eric's parents, sister, and cousin. We will be going to Yosemite on Wednesday along with Uncle Tom. We still need to do laundry, grocery shopping, and pack.
The summer is packed! My birthday is coming up July 6th and I am excited to celebrate this year. Our 2nd anniversary is on July 17th. I am having gum grafting surgery at the end of July, which I am not at all looking forward to, but I am prepared with all the necessary pain prescriptions. Maybe I will get more blogging done at the end of July. I will also be planning a trip to Pittsburgh before the summer is over-probably at the end of August beginning of September. It's wedding planning time for Miss Alicia!
It all seems much more doable in our new place. I have my own desk space now in the section of office not taken over by Eric's stuff. Will I get more writing done now? We will see!
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