deliberate consumption

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Plastic Trash in Cozumel

We are fortunate, in the US, to have access to safe drinking water from our taps. Often, our tap water exceeds the safety of bottled water and tastes better than bottled water.

Bottled water is bad for us. From the manufacturing of the plastic bottles (petroleum based), to the waste management (including “recycling” which just ships the bottles to be some poorer country’s problem), not to mention the outrageous cost, there is just no reason to choose bottled water when we have access to potable water from a faucet.

Not even to mention how disgusting and sad it is to walk on a beach, like in Bermuda or Cozumel, and see plastic stuff littering the shore, washing up on the beaches.

Out in the Pacific, there’s a trash island that is twice the size of Texas. Seriously – we need to take advantage of the luxury we have. Drink tap water.

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When Threadless had their $9/shirt post-T-day sale, I bought two. Then, after making some holiday purchases, seeing that they still had a fantastic sale on, I bought two more. I’m wearing a Threadless shirt *right now.* I can’t imagine needing more t-shirts, but they have me addicted.

I realized that all but one shirt has to do with water, and even that shirt has at least rain involved.

Here’s the ones I’ve bought so far:
Art Is My Weapon - Threadless, Best T-shirts Ever
Lysergsäurediethylamid - Threadless, Best T-shirts Ever
Loch Ness Imposter - Threadless, Best T-shirts Ever
Star-cross'd Lovers - Threadless, Best T-shirts Ever

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…does that make the Cosmopolitan a retro cocktail?

Last night I got to play mix-mistress at a Sex and the City themed evening hosted by my always fashionable friend Heather and made a rather large amount of Cosmos for everyone to enjoy. My recipe had all the main ingredients, but I tweaked them based on ease of mix and taste. Here’s what I did:

2 part vodka
1 part triple sec
1 part cranberry juice cocktail
1/2 part lime juice

Also needed: lemon wedges (at least one per drink for garnish), a small dish of sugar or fancy rimming sugar), chilled martini glasses

Rim a chilled martini glass with a lemon wedge and dip in sugar. Combine the ingredients in a shaker filled with ice, shake vigorously, strain and serve in the martini glass, garnishing with a lemon wedge.

I like using “part” instead of ounces or other defined measures because that’s just easier for me to manage when I’m mixing a drink. Another note for this recipe is that I went with R.W. Knudsen’s Cranberry Nectar (100% juice) instead of your usual cranberry juice cocktail because I loathe high fructose corn syrup. Heather had a fancy Cosmo rimmer that added a nice touch, though I don’t know what the brand was! I cheaped out on the triple sec, going for a domestic triple sec instead of Cointreau. The vodka was a reasonable mid-grade, and I probably could have made the drinks perfectly reasonable using even a cheaper one, but it worked just fine.

All in all, great fun and well worth it!

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Hit Up Farmer’s Markets When Cooking for One – My friend Dave shared this link thanks to the magic of Google Reader, adding to the assertion that I have that shopping at the farmer’s market is not just a healthy (for you and the planet) solution, but a thrifty one as well!

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by It we mean Economy

by "It" we mean "Economy"

Today is day one of a long weekend in the Bay Area with Jon while he works with one of the many companies down here. Since I had some time to kill, I wandered around the area near the hotel and found this bizarre little mall/village/apartment complex complete with your J. Crew, Coach, H&M and Old Navy, to name a few. The place is filled with these messages encouraging a complete disregard for restraint and personal finance. They’ve already started playing the holiday music. It’s infectious and desperate at the same time.

I love California!

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