We are big tech people. I can’t count how many servers, workstations, gaming consoles, and pieces of consumer electronics that we’ve purchased since we’ve been married. I’ve been recycling the big stuff — computers, laptops, monitors, and televisions — for a while now, but it’s been more difficult to figure out what to do with [...]
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I’ve been buying the Thanksgiving turkey for a few years now. I fight the crowds at Whole Foods, spend a crazy amount (last year I paid $75 for a 20-pound bird), and hand it off to my mother for cooking. And every year at least one or two people tell me I am insane to [...]
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I recently participated in a food-related Twitter party. During our discussion about Thanksgiving turkey and whether or not stuffing is safe to eat, the host asked about cookware: what were people cooking their turkeys in? I immediately tweeted that I used to cook in a non-stick Teflon pan, but about two years ago I banned [...]
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Recently, a few of my friends have mentioned the need for a “holiday clear out.” You know, going through toys, games, and clothing and getting rid of stuff to make room for all the new stuff the family will get during the holiday season. We don’t have that problem because I am constantly clearing and [...]
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Posted in Environment, Pissy mussings, Toxins on Sep 26th, 2011
We have had a rainy and therefore VERY buggy summer. The mosquitoes are so bad that, only a few weeks ago, I actually took Little Girl to the aftercare center thinking she was having an allergic reaction. I put her into her carseat in my car and drove three miles. By the time I got [...]
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For a little kid, Little Girl has a big memory. She’s been talking about Halloween since July. “I wanna be ‘arina,” she told me. (Translation: She wanted to dress up like the Marina character on Fresh Beat Band.) “And Daddy will be Shout and you can be Kiki.” Hmmm. Okay, so right away I started [...]
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Growing up, I lived in a house with a huge (for Long Island) backyard. It was a stretched pentagon-shaped piece of property 60 feet across in the front but about 300 feet across in the back. It went back at its deepest 250 feet deep, and the house wasn’t big so there was a wide [...]
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My house is pretty much a plastic-free zone. We’ve eliminated all Tupperware and plastic storage containers. I don’t use any Zip-Lock-type bags. I have reusable grocery bags. We don’t use plastic wrap, opting instead for glass containers with lids. We don’t have a single plastic cup. I even got rid of all the plastic utensils [...]
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As of Saturday more than 2,200 people in Europe have become ill after contracting E.coli; 22 have died. Scary stuff. For those who are not familiar with the bug: E.coli is a bacteria that gets into the system via contaminated food. Once inside, it produces toxins that make its host sick. Usually symptoms include diarrhea, [...]
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Posted in Environment, Health, Illness on May 31st, 2011
Multitasking, I scanned the CNN headlines when one caught my eye: WHO: Cell phone use can increase possible cancer risk. To paraphrase the story, the World Health Organization says that the radiation emitted from cell phones is a “possible carcinogen.” Crap. I was an early cell phone adopter, spending hours on the phone as I [...]
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