After using a battery powered lawn mower for so long, we finally decided to get a new mower. After dealing with electric ones for so long I made the decision to go gas. Maybe not the most environmental choice, but it is newer technology.

Also, it must be better than wasting electricity on the batteries. It also wastes way less time too. The old electric would start to die quite quickly and I would have to spend ridiculous amounts of time cutting the grass.

With the new mower I was able to rip across the grass and get it nicely trimmed in half the time it normally takes. Nice!

My wallet was not in its usual spot, and that is pretty strange for me. I began searching the house top to bottom. No sign of it. I looked in the laundry, in the bathroom, the bedroom, rooms my wallet really should not be in. No signs of it anywhere.

Last time I remembered seeing it was at work. Off to Oak Bay. Nope. We were at Kaptain K’s for dinner, so I called over there. They had not seen it. Back home there was more searching by the entire family. Could not find it. I even went back to work a second time and scoured my office.

I gave up the search for dinner, and decided I was stressed enough and didn’t want to keep looking. As we were climbing in to bed Sox asked me when I would call and cancel all the cards. In my mind it must have fallen out of my pocket, and I wanted to give the locater time to get it back to me. I decided Monday morning I would call the banks and cancel the cards.

As I was drifting off to sleep I was still thinking of more places to look. An odd one popped into my mind: in the closet under Sox’s hanging clothes.

This morning after breakfast I looked in that spot, and as I peeled back the clothes, there was my wallet! Weird. I really have no idea how it got there, but it may have been sitting on some clothes, and as they were picked up it bounced under the clothing, neatly hidden from sight.

It got me thinking about all the cards I have in my wallet. I don’t have an inventory of what’s there and what phone numbers to call. Perhaps I should make such a listing.

Sure enough, my morning Americano’s are tastier than every.

The grinder has all the features I really wanted. A timer instead of just a button, better grind controls, and a way to disassemble for cleaning. Switching to grinding for a bodum is the simple turn of a knob. The new grinder is also a lot quieter than most others, which is an excellent feature for a parent.

To complement my drinks, perhaps I need some new mugs?

via BoingBoing

via Gizmodo

Every store you go in, there are plastic bags. Grocery stores are horrible for plastic bag use. The cashiers seem to just put in a few items before reaching for a new bag. Sox and I bought some of the cloth re-usable bags, and I really like them. What fits in 3 cloth bags, used to end up in ten or more plastic.

When I first started reducing bag consumption, I started by requesting no bags for items I can easily carry by hand, or in my backpack. Each week at work I tend to head to the grocery store to get lunch supplies for the week. If I can walk through the store, and not need a basket, then I won’t get any plastic. Reasonable rule, but some of the cashiers are incredulous when I decline a bag, and have 6 items or more. I am only going upstairs so it isn’t a big deal.

This weekend, I needed to head to the store to get some lunch for Sox and I. When I drive to the grocery store, I quite often forget the bags in the car, but this time I was walking, and remembered to grab one before I left. I felt quite good about this since it signalled to me that the cloth bags are more of a first thought, and not an afterthought. The return trip home was nicer due to the cloth bag not cutting into my hand like the bunched up plastic bags do.

Now, any time I come home with more plastic bag, I feel bad . This is quite a mindset change, that I hope more people can make.

One thing that I like is that many shops give a discount when you bring in your own bag. Strangely, if you say no bag, you often don’t get any discount. The result is the same (no plastic bags leaving the store), but the environmental impact is technically a little better (some resources were used when making the cloth bags). I would love to see more stores offer incentives to people not using bags or bringing in their own. I just remembered that MEC donates money to a charity if you decline a bag.