Jasono's Blog

Irish Festival Friday 1 August 2008

2008-08-01T07:53:00.005-04:00

TGIF All! How was everyone's week? Mine has been pretty good. Its been real busy with summer outings and family stuff, so I apologize for being so lax on reporting in from the field.

The Dublin (Ohio) Irish Festival is this weekend and I am stoked about it. The City of Dublin puts on just an amazing program. They are trying to green it up this year by encouraging people to bike to it and providing a bike valet. They're promoting the (re)use of plastic tumblers for the adult beverages and providing several recycling points throughout the festival.

A couple of websites that I'd like to point out to you if you have a spare moment to surf. I came across gasfreecommute on cnn this week and have been tracking my work commute mileage there. I've also pledged mileage on Trek's 1 World 2 Wheels website.

The other place that I wanted to shoot over your bow was Restaurantica. Nice little eatery review site. I will be adding some reviews their over time.

I have been loving the bike commuting to work. I feel so good. I have been able to increase my stamina and muscle strength considerably. What used to wipe me out is turning into common place now. I am glad that work is nine miles away.

I can't believe the number of people on bikes that I see commuting on a dialy basis. This is very encouraging. I have about 300 miles down so far. I need to get a cycling computer that tracks all that stuff. If anyone has a suggestion for a moderately inexpensive puter, drop me a line. The government should leave the gas prices at $4.00/gal and create a fund for public transporation initiatives. Or reduce deficit, but I digress.

Saturday Coffee 18 July 2008

2008-07-19T10:52:00.002-04:00

Greetings everyone! Its been a while since I've done a Saturday Coffee blog. It has been a very busy time with my new job.

Well, the bike commuting to work has commenced and I love it! I started last Friday and bike again Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. Wednesday was my first day back in a car in five days and I found myself agitated by the whole thing. I felt as if I had less control of the situation in the car than I do on bike.

I hope to ride every day next week except for Tuesday, since I have an appointment.

Darla and I went up to Jazzoo last night and had a great time. Jazzoo is where the Columbus Jazz Orchestra plays up at the Columbus Zoo along the water at the John H McConnell pavilion. The CJO sounded great and am glad the series has started again. We highly recommend checking it out.

Speaking of the zoo, how about their new entrance. Well done Jack! Next week we hope to get there a little earlier to do a little exploring.

I hope everyone is enjoying their summer!

Happy Fourth of July!

2008-07-04T13:04:00.004-04:00

Happy Fourth of July everyone! Just got back from the Dublin 4th of July Parade. Darla and I biked down there. Even though it was raining we had a blast! We parked the bikes at Le Chatelaine, got breakfast goodies and coffee, and watched the parade. Outside of the coffee cup (I don't have a cage on the bike yet) it was a zero impact day.

Darla has been riding to work a couple of times a week and really getting a bunch of other people involved and riding as well. I am disappointed that I haven't yet, but its only my second week of work. I think I am going to attempt this week.

Something that I wanted to bring to your attention that's going on here in Columbus on August 23rd is Bike the C-Bus and the Long Street Tour. My Friend, Ray, is involved in that. Check out those links or email Ray at raymondmgeorge@gmail.com.

The Crew are hosting the Fire tomorrow. Dar and I are going with our good friends, the McQuires, to it. Go Crew!

UPDATE

Well we rode our bikes over to the Dublin fireworks and had a fantastic time. We sat in the Coffman yard with our bikes and used a tent footprint and a fleece blanket to keep our bums dry. My new bike headlight and tail lights worked flawlessly. I have a hiking headlamp that has a red night lens on it that I wore for seeing in my pannier and then wore it backwards around my neck on the ride home for extra visibility.

Saturday we went to the McGuire's pad and ate some good burgers and enjoyed a Great Lakes sampler pak and watched the Crew come back and tie it up against the Fire. Ended up being a great evening!

Bike Commuting

2008-06-17T16:28:00.004-04:00

This past week has been absolutely fantastic! Darla, Mallory, and I had a great family vacation up at Light House Point Cottages at the northern most point of Cedar Point. We were right on the break wall. The Mean Streak was right behind us. We drove up Tuesday afternoon.

We checked in shortly after 4:00 and started Happy Hour as soon as our backpacks hit the floor. I brought a light the bag charcoal and we had tandoori chicken on the grill and some vindaloo quinoa. It had rained earlier that day and the park was empty so we decided to go into that park using their twilight pass. Rode the new Maverick and all the other big rides. Absolutely no lines. Most times we were the only three in the coaster.

Wednesday we were in the park all day. So many times we try to cover too much ground and miss the details. This time we really took our time since the main rides were out of the way. Caught a couple of shows, rode the train and paddlewheel, and even sat around and watch glassblowing back in Frontierland.

Back at the cottage Darla and I had a nightcap overlooking the lake. The moon and stars were so bright. Thursday we gently made our way back to Columbus.

Since I took Route 4 and 23, most of it was 55mph. I got 30.6 mpg in the Subie. I decided to try 55mph all the way to Lima and back, while visiting Pops for Father's Day. Even in the 65mph stretches I kept the cruise locked at 55. Not too many people whizzed by me. I can see that people aren't leaning into the throttle like they used to. Anyway, by keeping it at the double nickel the entire way I was able to get 36mpg out of that tank. Isn't that amazing. I think we should lower speeds back down to 55mph across the country to help conserve. I am doing it proactively and Darla isn't even complaining!

I named this post Bike Commuting for a reason. Outside of those trips, I have been riding my bike for everything else. Krogers, Whole Foods, Lowe's, you name it. I even rode over to Darla's work and we rode to a park that's close and had a picnic lunch. Good Ol' PB&J. Tomorrow I am going to dry run the commute to my new job. Its 8.5 miles by car standards. I've got some recon to do for the Emerald Parkway and Tuttle intersection. I think there is a back way through Britton Woods and Tuttle's Grove, but we'll see.

Alright Y'all (for my kid sis interning in Texas), I have to ride my bike to meet Dar for dinner.

Friday Beer 6/6/08

2008-06-06T16:59:00.004-04:00

Do I have some updates for you!

I quit. I did it. I was sick and tired of having to bend my principles and strain my ethics. I was able to find another job by my self inflicted deadline of move day for my company. 11th hour, but got it done. Now I will be on the front lines of doing something about it. It feels so good. An 800 pound gorilla has been lifted off my shoulders.

I am going to take a couple of weeks off before starting the new venture. I am going to spend some time with my stepdaughter and harass the living hell out of her for awhile. She needs it. I think we are going to take a family trip up to Cedar Point for a couple of days. Other than that trip, my goal is to solely travel by bike. I am going to prep and train a little for my new bike commute to the office. Its about 8 miles.

Dar and I are going over to Trek Dublin this weekend to participate in their maintenance clinic. Then maybe hit Whole Foods.

Columbus made it to Treehugger! Check the article here! Good Job C-Bus! If you haven't checked it out yet why don't you wander over to Planet Green TV. I've watched a couple shows and looks kinda cool.

Oh! Forgot to tell you. My garden is bearing fruit (pun fully intended). Things are still very young, but I have several things coming up. The radishes and lettuce are growing like wildfire!

Saturday Coffee 5/31/08

2008-05-31T09:58:00.002-04:00

Greetings everyone! What a crazy night last night. The tornado sirens went off about 4:30am. We had a small, but strong storm cell pass over us last night. Its the Indian burial curse from the Memorial Golf tournament. The story goes that Muirfield golf club was built over top sacred indian burial grounds and the tournament has always been plagued by rain from the curse ever since. But, It is an absolutely beautiful morning. The heavy rain greened the grass up and knocked a lot of the pollen down.

For some reason I have become more sensitive to pollen. I have picked up a neti pot for my sinuses and absolutely love it. I would recommend using one to everyone, even with mild allergies. The saline solution really opens my sinuses up and can breathe so much better.

My container garden has sprouts! Things are really starting to come up. I've planted tomatoes, lettuce, carrots, cukes, peppers, cilantro, onions, etc. I can't wait until there are mature veggies to try. I am going to try to track down an organic, food appropriate fertilizer this weekend.

The compost seems to be working well. I have a second pile started so we'll see how I can keep this up. I may pick up some additional pots so I can get a second round of plants going.

Until my own business takes off a little more, I am in the process of changing day jobs. There are too many things that have recently come to light that I find unethical and I want no part of it. Unfortunately I don't have the power to change it. So, I've had a couple of opportunities come up where the offices are on this side of town and I would easily be able to bike commute. I am pretty excited about both opportunities and will see which one pans out.

In working out some of the logistics of bike commuting, I determined that I can almost be car-free. We will have to see if I am a fair weather biker or if I can power through inclement times.

I hope you all have a great weekend! Check back in with you soon! Get out there and enjoy this beautiful weather!

Happy Memorial Day!

2008-05-25T10:10:00.002-04:00

Man, it has been busy. Sorry I've been so absent. I think you'll all forgive me. Darla and I went to Vegas and got married last weekend. No, not and Elvis or Tina Turner drive-thru weddin'. A very nice ceremony at Mandalay Bay.

Our families were out there with us. It was a very nice celebratory event. It was absolutely perfect. We could not have asked for a better time.

Dar and I caught colds in the process. We think it came from the minister, who admitted to having a non-contagious upper respiratory infection. Yeah right. So we are laying low this weekend trying to recuperate.

I hope you all have a great, long weekend. I want to say thank you to all the men and women in the armed services that have put themselves in harms way to protect my freedom. Thank you. There are people out there still very much appreciate what you do and what you sacrifice for the rest of us.

Sunday Coffee 4/27/08

2008-04-27T10:03:00.002-04:00

Wow! Two posts in one weekend! The Earth, moon, and solar flares have all aligned. It has been just a beautiful weekend. We didn't get to ride our bikes to the Swaco recycling event because that was the one time it decided to rain. I got a lot of work done in the yard. I had a pile of wood for our fireplace that I needed to move to another location and clean up our patio.

I wanted to pass along some links to some blogs that I found noteworthy. Carbonfund had a neat article about a hotel in San Fran that powered up some solar panels on their roof to not only offset their power consumption but also lessen their carbon footprint.

Rock on Rock Port, MO for the 23% wind power overage!

I am afraid that the only thing that is going to wake to general public up to how bad our oil addiction is by them not being able to afford it. I was at the gas station the other day after getting a phenomenal round in the Subie of 32mpg, listening to two guys bitch about how expensive it was to fill their Suburban and full size pick-em-up. Hmmm. Maybe it was your selection of vehicle type? Anyway, the positive note to this rant is that the positive outcome of high gas prices is an upswing for Bike to Work Week. Consider Biking, some local folks here in Columbus has put up a website about the local event here.

Here's a family that was fed up with their fuel costs that they decided to build a solar powered vehicle out of panels and an 8 seat bike.

Have a great week!

Saturday Coffee 4/26/08

2008-04-26T09:22:00.002-04:00

Good morning everyone! This will be a quick one. Darla and I are on our way to the SWACO household hazardous recycling drop-off at Ashland Chemical. Don't get me started on that irony, but at least there is community involvement. We were going to ride our bikes down there, but the ominous clouds are really deterring us.

The past two days I have been in class with the Nation Association of Homebuilders (again) to earn my Certified Green Professional accreditation. I am now a certified Enviro. Look out Ed Begley Jr. I gunnin' for your job.

Happy Earth Day!

2008-04-22T08:37:00.004-04:00

Happy Earth Day! I hope you have a great one!

Tina has a great rundown of the weekly green goings-on. Please check it out!

Monday Morning Coffee 4/21/08

2008-04-21T10:17:00.004-04:00

Happy Earth Week! What's everybody doing to celebrate? Studio 35 is having a beer tasting and playing Toxic Avenger Tuesday night. How fun is that?!?

We had a pretty good weekend. We helped celebrate our friend, Ben's birthday at the Rumba Cafe on Summit, Friday night. Had a Columbus Pale Ale and a Rye Ale that they had on tap. We could not have asked for a nicer evening for being out on the patio.

Yesterday, we broke the bikes out for their inaugural ride of the year. Dar and I did some recon for our bike to work routes. It will take me about 20 minutes to get to the Cota Park-n-Ride for the Express downtown. Dar's ride will be about 30 minutes straight into her office.

I am taking a class and exam this week for my Certified Green Professional accreditation. I will keep you posted on how that goes.

I hope to meet some folks at either Studio 35 or the SWACO household hazardous waste drop off at Ashland Chemical this weekend. We are going to ride our bikes over there with our drop-off items.

Have a great Earth Week!!

Al Gore Rocks.

2008-04-14T18:29:00.001-04:00

'Nuf said. Thanks for the link Tina.

Saturday Coffee 4/12/08

2008-04-12T11:54:00.002-04:00

Happy Saturday All! I am glad the weekend is here. What a flaming bag of dog crap this week ended up being. My day job boss quit suddenly last Friday and left me holding said bag of crap. I won't get into specifics, but the goings-on this week absolutely solidifies my decision to branch out on my own.

I had a birthday this week. Darla bought me some panniers! Those are bags that attach to a bicycle kinda like saddlebags on a horse. I got a couple of bucks too, so I am going to update my helmet and pick up a headlight and tail light.

We got a pretty early start to our Saturday. Mallory needed to be out the door early to take the ACT today. We took advantage of that and walked the dog and I pulled the bikes out and cleaned them up a little and filled the tires. My Moms and Pops are coming down today to take me out for birthday lunch. I am leaning towards the Brazenhead so we can watch some soccer.

There are a couple of blog posts that I wanted to pass along that I found interesting. lifehack.org has had some pretty interesting "green" articles recently and this one caught my attention. Beth Terry over at Fake Plastic Fish had a write-up on an urban composter. Even though she isn't 100% sold on a tumbler, composting is the way to go. I can't tell you how much less waste we are producing now that we are composting. I haven't put the trash can out in two weeks. I just now put one bag of non-compostable, non-recyclable waste out there. My pile will just about be ready in time for start of my garden. Green Living Online has a post about how to property dispose of your CFLs. If you haven't replaced your incandescent bulbs yet, why? When I made a large switchout to CFLs, I noticed about a 200 kWh drop in my electric bill. That is staying consistent as I track my consumption to the previous years. GLO also had a pretty good article about getting rid of your plastic water bottles. I have stopped using my Nalgene bottles and am either reusing a POM glass jar or a Sigg metal bottle.

Two last notes, Earth Day is April 22. Try to do something green that you normally wouldn't on that day. And for you folks in the Northwest Columbus area, Saturday April 26th is SWACO hazardous material recycling day over at Ashland's parking lot at 5200 Blazer Parkway in Dublin. So, if you have dead CFLs, paint, non-rechargeable batteries to get rid of, don't throw them in the trash. Properly dispose of them at this event. Find more info about it here. Sadly, they do not accept ammunition, hand grenades, or mouthy teenagers.

2008-04-08T17:39:00.002-04:00

I am alive. Sorry that I've been gone for so long. It has been crazy here. Okay, I've been beating around the bush for awhile now, but I think its time to unveil what I've been up to.

On top of vacations and the wedding plans, I have started my own company. There. I said it. In print. No going back now. My company name is Jason Stover Environmental Services. The National Association of Home Builders has unveiled their National Green Building Program at the International Builders Show and my company is a third party independent verifier for that program. This program is for newly constructed homes that are trying to be "green". I verify that the points a builder submits for the NGBP is accurate and certify the home as green or not so green.

I have been busy taking training classes with The Green Building Initiative (GBI) and the NAHB Research Center and studying for exams to do this. Friday, it was official. I passed the test and able to verify homes. I can do them for the NAHB or the GBI.

I have some links of interest that I want to pass along to all of you that I think are of note. I will have to do that in a later post. If anyone has any questions, drop me a line. I will be getting back to my Saturday Coffee posts real soon and on a more consistent basis.

Top O The Morning Lasses and Lads

2008-03-15T07:55:00.004-04:00

Happy Saturday before St. Patty's Day! I hope everyone gets their fill of green beer or Guinness, whatever your beer of choice is. However, please be careful and enjoy responsibly.

I am up early today. My Moms and Pops are on their way down to catch a flight to Orlando. We love the mouse. We are catching up with them on Thursday for a long weekend in Florida.

I also wanted to direct you attention over to Jamie's blog and his round-up of Mayor Coleman's State of the City address. Mayor Coleman is really pushing for mass transit and bike friendly lanes and paths. Jamie has an excellent blog entry regarding that and I couldn't agree more.

I've mentioned many times previously on here that my employer is moving our offices to downtown. Although I live in Dublin, I believe that I can fully commute by bike and bus the entire way. I will have to get just a little creative for one section from about Emerald Parkway over the the Dale Drive COTA stop, but I think I will be able to manage. With my reduction in car use, theoretically, 20 days out of every month unless I have off site meetings, I will make a serious dent in my quest to reduce my footprint on our earth. I spend on average about $125 per month on fuel. That's about $4 a day in fuel. So $4 times 20 fewer days driving is about an $80 per month savings.

I got the okay to start a garden. I think I am going to start small at first to make sure I enjoy it and also make sure I don't have a black thumb. We really like pico de gallo style salsa, so I going to try a salsa garden with tomatoes, peppers, cilantro and onions. I am also going to try my hand at some carrots and cucumbers. I have a good compost pile started and its processing well. This will be an interesting experiment and hopefully have some fun at it too.

I've also been making some homemade bread. Now that's all anybody wants. I don't overly mind because I use a super simple recipe. In a future blog I will outline the ingredients and steps. I will also give you guys some ideas as how I mix it up a little so that we can have some various styles of breads. If anyone knows of a good rye bread recipe I would be grateful if you passed it along.

Saturday Coffee

2008-03-09T11:14:00.002-04:00

This Saturday blog is happening on Sunday. We were out shoveling neighbors driveways yesterday and just completely spent. 15 inches out here in Dublin. Man that was tough work but it was nice to get out in it.

Happy International Woman's Day.

Vote

2008-03-04T09:12:00.002-05:00

For those of you in Ohio, today is the Presidential Primary. Don't leave it up to someone else to decide. Do your research if you unsure of a candidate's position on an issue. If you don't like the direction our country is heading in, do something about it.

Office Recon

2008-02-29T16:09:00.004-05:00

Had a business meeting downtown today, so I thought I would do a little recon on our new office site. I have been giving some serious consideration to taking the bus/bike commuting to work once our offices move downtown. It is going to be easier than I had anticipated. This pretty much solidifies my decision to do this, since I have a problem with the whole pay to park crap. This will also further contribute to my personal reduction in my footprint on the earth.

I started at our project site at West and Spring Streets by McPherson Commons. I walked under the railroad overpass eastbound on Spring for about one block. 70 % of it is under the pink AEP building's overhang. Crossed Marconi and there's the stop. Took all of 4 minutes. Had I taken the shortcut which will eventually be out the back of our building and cross the tracks at the pedestrian cross walk at Marconi, it would've taken me two minutes. It took me longer to find my car in the Arena garage than it did to walk that full circle from building to bus stop and back to the building.

And to whomever the gent was at about 11:00 this morning riding the sweet maroon fixed gear and crossed Marconi with the axe murderer staring at him, nice rig man.

Clif Bar Take Back

2008-02-24T10:46:00.002-05:00

I just read over at Fake Plastic Fish that Terracycle and Clif Bar are doing something about their energy bar wrappers. As Clif Bars are a staple in my diet, I just signed up. I encourage you to check it out.

Saturday Coffee 2/24/08

2008-02-24T09:30:00.003-05:00

As much as I love the seasons, I am ready for Spring. My trip to Florida did me a world of good but its about time. Yesterday was a nice day. 32 but the sun was out. If we could have more days like that and fewer gray, depressing days. I know, I know, what should I expect from Ohio. If I want that go to Denver.

I made a trip to Lowes yesterday for more CFLs, water filter and a furnace filter. My sidekick, Darla, and I were perusing the appliance section near the cabinetry and I stopped her. I asked her if she could smell that? She said yeah what is that. I told her that was formaldehyde offgassing from the particle board in the cabinets. Her immediate reaction was "shit, that's bad." She went on to say that "kids wooden swing sets were made with that and what happens when a kid gets a spinter from it?" Exactly. That's the point environmental advocates have been trying to make.

What I am learning is that for those of us trying to exact change in perceptions and peoples' thinking is that you have to connect our message to a trigger point or a hot spot in peoples' mindset. Darla's trigger is our daughter Mallory. This connected the dots between what I've been saying and how its affects even kids. Mallory could have been affected by this. Darla continues to have an open mind about my rants and is really starting to connect the dots and consciously make changes. I am very proud of her. Mallory has been hounddogging kids at her school in the lunchroom that when they throw a recyclable product away she harasses them to pull it out and put it in the recycling bin. She even went to the principle and asked for a additional recycling bins next to each trash can and got it!

Anyway, the good news from Lowes was that as I was checking out, I asked about LED bulbs and the lady at the counter said they were on order. She said there's been so much demand that they put in an order last week and should be in store in a couple weeks.

I was also paid a very good compliment this week. My co-worker and dear friend, Erin, came into my office and said, "It's all your fault! Its your fault that I feel bad every time I throw away a piece of paper or paper towel roll and not recycle it." She and Todd don't have curbside recycling but she said they took 3 large bags to a recycle center. Success! Imagine if one person could affect one other person's thinking about recycling the amount of change would be staggering!

Our company is getting closer to our move to our new office building downtown. We are having another cleanout day so we aren't moving any unnecessary items. I am still struggling with the fact that I am now going to have to pay to park. Right now, I can park 15 yards from the office door for free. When we move downtown, I can get into a lottery to park in the garage attached to our building for $95 a month or just sign up for a surface lot for $65 a month that's two or three blocks away. I am sure the feminists will crucify me for this, but there is no way I am going to enter into a lottery to take a spot in the garage knowing that I am taking a spot from a woman and making her walk.

Darla and I have been discussing it, and I am continuing to lean towards taking COTA down. Its 2.5 miles from my house to the Dublin Park-n-ride. I will take the Express to downtown and then maybe a mile from the terminal to our office. A monthly COTA pass will be half the cost of parking and is a week's worth of gas for me now. There will be some days that I will need my car for appointments or the weather is inclement, but I guess I will pay the per diem on those days. We'll see how it goes.

The IBS in Orlando was fantastic. There were a lot of great exhibitors and the NAHB's unveiling of their Green Building Program was pretty good. A lot of unanswered questions, but I think it's a work in progress and will learn on the move. The BIA here in Columbus will keep our existing program in place and then eventually migrate the the NAHB's once the kinks are worked out.

Saturday Coffee 2/16/08

2008-02-16T08:47:00.002-05:00

Greeting for Florida! The IBS was great! I attended many seminars while I was at the show relating to green. I will have to sort out all of my notes and provide a legible summary for you, but Darla is here and we are on the move.

I don't want you to hate me, but my weather widget on my dashboard says its 17 degrees up there. It is current 65 here. Relish in the fact that I haven't had a decent cup of coffee since I got here.

We are heading to EPCOT today. Its just the two of us so we'll be able to stroll through the World Showcase at our own pace and sample the food and spirits.

Just wanted to pop in and say Hi! I will post more later!

International Builders Show

2008-02-12T14:32:00.000-05:00

Greetings everyone! I am sitting at the Columbus airport waiting on my flight for Orlando. I am heading down to the International Builders Show. I am pretty psyched about a few days in Florida. The cabin fever has started and the walls are closing in a little, so this couldn't have come at a better time. the NAHB is unveiling their new Green Building Program which is why I am going down. I can't guarantee how much I will report in, but I will try to keep you as up to date as possible. This is fairly important to me because as I've mentioned in the past I've considered starting my own business. Well this is a major component of it. Sorry for being so covert about it, but I want to get the roots firmly started before my current employment gets wind of it.

Darla is meeting me down in Orlando on Friday so we can have a little weekend away with each other. For those of you that have children you can probably relate to an adult weekend away alone. Funny thing is, we are staying at Disney! How's that for irony.

More later!

Monday Afternoon Tea Blog 2/11/08

2008-02-11T16:33:00.000-05:00

It was another busy weekend at the homestead. Friday night Dar and I went shopping with the kiddo and her boyfriend for a Sweetheart's Dance dress. I was able to burn up a gift card from Banana Republic on some chinos. Mal ended up getting a white dress with a black sash from Forever 21. We ate at Brio, which used to be Lindey's. That was the first time I have ever been locked IN a mall before. It was 11 when it was all said and done.

Saturday, we just bummed around the house, went to Whole Foods for some groceries and some fixins for a dish we made for the Post Holiday Depression Party we attended Saturday Night. What a boss party. There were so many interesting and genuinely good people there. And one hell of an assortment of outstanding beers. Good times, good times.

Dar and I went to an awesome restaurant for date night last night prior the the Broadway show Camelot. We went to Zen Sushi. Man! What a great time! They have the conveyor belts all around the joint that they put dishes of sushi on. The plate color indicates the price of the item and you just pluck whatever you want off the conveyor and chow down. It reminded me of a Yo! Sushi! in Paddington Station in the UK. The plum wine and sake were great too. I recommend Zen Sushi to anyone looking for a great time and good sushi. They are located in the Hampton Inn building right across High Street from the convention center. I think their addy is 505 N High.

Help

2008-01-29T10:05:00.000-05:00

I am looking for a company that furnishes professional looking business cards that print on recycled stock and uses soy-based ink. For that matter I am looking for a company that provides all of my small office needs with environmental sensitivity. If anyone has an idea, please shoot them over to me. Thanks!

SWACO Household Hazardous Waste

2008-01-28T15:57:00.000-05:00

I have been meaning to provide you all with this info for some time. I've got a box going in my garage with old CFLs, batteries, etc and want to properly dispose of it. Check SWACO's site our for your community's time, date, and location of SWACO's mobile pickup. You can always take your junk directly to them at:
PERMANENT HOUSEHOLD
HAZARDOUS WASTE LOCATION
1249 Essex Avenue, 43201.
(The corner of E. 8th and Essex Avenue)

Saturday Coffee 1/26/08

2008-01-26T10:31:00.001-05:00

Sorry its been so long! How is everyone? It has been very, very busy. I have a lot to tell you guys.

Darla and I have set our wedding date. We are heading out to Vegas in May! We wanted it to be a really fun, but super casual event, so we are going for a cabana by the pool ceremony at Mandalay Bay. It should be a riot. Darla and I having both been previously married, we don't want to short change the importance of the sanctity of marriage but we wanted to do something really different and make it a super fun time.

I have also been asked to present my Simple Changes speech again. I am highly honored that people would want to hear about it again. I will also want to add some additional content that I didn't cover last time and add a little content that would be relevant to moving to our new office downtown.

Also this week I attended a course put on by The Green Building Initiative and I have been certified as a third party verifier for the Central Ohio Green Building Initiative's Green Building Program. Check out the site. I will be attending the International Builder's Show in Feb to see the official National kickoff

The Big Lewbowski beer tasting at Studio 35 was an absolute blast. Columbus Brewing Company had five of their beers and 5 "guest" beers. I particularly enjoyed the CBC IPA (India Pale Ale) and the CBC Java Porter. The Brewmaster, Eric Bean was the MC for the events and did a fabulous job. Bravo, Eric. One thing that I learned is that they do give brewery tours on non-brew days. I would like to do this soon. I did a brewery hop in Denver through Great Divide, Rock Bottom, Wynkoop, and Breckenridge and was a great time to see all the different beer styles.

Kyle Jodice contact me about a company that is offering green home products. Check them out at Let's Go Green.

Bicyclists check this Treehugger post out. This is very disturbing.

Saturday Coffee 1/12/08

2008-01-12T09:55:00.000-05:00

Good day everyone! I have a friend coming in from out of town and we are having lunch today. Its been about a year so it will be good to see him today.

Some sad news. Sir Edmund Hillary, the first person to ever summit Everest, has passed on. He was 88.

I wanted to invite you all over to green buckeye. There is just a wealth of knowledge and list events going on over there. They have an extensive link list and blog roll.

The Big Lebowski is playing next weekend at Studio 35, along with a beer tasting. I invite you to check that out. In a previous post I review the beer tasting Darla and I went to while they were showing Old School. Good times, good times.

Darla and I have tickets to The Wedding Singer on Sunday. As part of Darla's Christmas present we build in a "date night" with each show we see. I try to mix it up and surprise her with a different restaurant for each show. I think its safe to reveal that we are going down to the Old Mohawk for dinner tonight as Dar most likely won't read this blog until Monday.

Keeping this one short and sweet. Take care, see you soon!

Saturday Coffee 1/5/08

2008-01-04T16:28:00.000-05:00

Welcome to 2008! This my first post of the new year. This is somewhat of a bittersweet weekend. We had such a wonderful holiday season, but this marks the end for the holiday decorations. The lights come down, the tree is undressed and sent out to become mulch, Frosty goes into hibernation. But, the house gets put back into order and cleaned up a little and we try to start things out right for the new year.

I am doing well so far on my resolutions. We are still cleaning up leftovers, but I am taking them in smaller portions. When we are out or I am getting lunch I choose a salad. I've run only once this week but once in three days isn't too bad. I am easing into, don't want to pull anything. Update: We've gotten back into our River Forest route. Its a three mile loop around a really nice older community where we walk the dog. We've seen a lot of deer over there.

The NYE party we hosted was an astounding success. We had two couples attend that haven't been out on New Year's in about eight years. Two couple ended up spending the night and were treated to an awesome Jasono's Hog Trough Breakfast. I considered it my "Last Breakfast" of that magnitude. That's really the way parties should go. Its like being a kid again. Having so much fune that you don't want it to end so your friends spend the night, then you get p in the morning and eat breakfast and watch cartoons in you PJ's.

I am also getting back into my smoothie breakfast routine. Made one this morning and it turned out fairly well, just like riding a bike. I start off with a scoop and a half of protein powder, a banana, and then usually a frozen berry medly. Today, all I had was frozen blueberries so I used those. I usually use soy milk as my "base", but I went with a cran/raspberry and OJ mix. Then, I put some Aloe vera juice in to top it off. Darla and I were watch a podcast on holistic foods and medicine and were intrigued by this product. It supposedly helps with digestive issues. The smoothie turned out pretty good actually! We will make a Whole Foods or Sunflower run this weekend and will pick up some more frozen fruit and try a different concoction.

I saw over on considerbiking that Ryan Heflin was injured in a hit and run. If you'd like, please send get well cards to him at:

Ryan Heflin
250 Wilber Ave
Columbus OH 43215

I hope you feel better and make a speedy recovery. Please let us know if you need anything.

Happy New Year!

2007-12-31T14:22:00.000-05:00

I finally was released from my day job and was able to get home to help Darla with the NYE party prep. We are having several couples over for a little get together and ring in the new year. Everyone is bringing an appetizer that starts with the first letter of their last name. Todd and Erin are bringing a Mango curry shrimp dish, I am preparing Swedish meatballs and Darla is making Hanky-panks. You get the idea. We are also doing a wine/beer exchange. Good times, good times.

Now on to my New Year's "Resolutions". I don't want them to be the normal "I am going to lose 5 pounds or I want to be a better person", but I am not sure how to get around it. I have gotten completely out of my normal routine after getting sick a couple of months ago. I have also completely fallen off the wagon as far as what I've been eating. I have a slight cholesterol problem, so the 10pm run to Steak and Shake last night was probably a bad idea and won't be happening on a go forward basis.

So, the obvious first one is to get back into my normal routine. I am a morning person, so I need to get everything out of the way in the morning or it won't get done. I really miss the outdoor activities I used to do so I am going to reincorporate the outdoors and an exercise routine. I like to get on my bike more as well.

A lot of my thoughts on resolutions are multipurpose. Getting out on my bike more, for instance, is for exercise as well as my intent to reduce my oil dependence and footprint on the earth. Another resolution is to not take the elevator at my day job. Our office is on the fourth floor and I am more than capable of getting up and down four flights of steps. I get bent out of shape about the people that take the elevator from the first to the second floor. What's two more floors really. Taking the stairs also uses zero electricity, so again, multi purpose.

I've also been playing footsie with getting my LEED AP certification. I resolve to earn my LEED AP designation, as well as become an NAHB certified green professional. I'd also like to get my HERS certification, but that may be a lot for one year.

So for those of you that like lists, here's my resolution in list format:

1. Get back into my normal routine, which consists of some of the following

2. Start my exercise regimen again. Start trail running again, rock climbing, maybe see what yoga has to offer.

3. Eat healthier, be healthier. I'd like to increase my amount of organic foods and support the local guys and I am very intrigued by holistic health ideals. I am going to trying to reduce my red meat intake and prepare more vegetarian meals.

4. Bike more. Good for me, good for the environment.

5. Reduce my impact.

6. Take the stairs, not the elevator at my office.

7. Earn my LEED AP and NAHB CGP certifications.

I hope you all have a very happy and safe New Year's. Please be careful out there. It's amateur night tonight. Please drink responsibly and have a DD or call a cab.

Merry Christmas!

2007-12-24T10:39:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas!

For those that celebrate a different religious holiday, have a happy, warm and safe holiday!

Saturday Coffee 12/22

2007-12-22T09:27:00.000-05:00

Good morning All! I am keeping it short today, but I wanted to wish each one of you a warm, safe, and happy holiday season. I hope you get to spend the holiday with family and friends. Darla and I have been fortunate that we have been so busy visiting with family and friends. It started the first of December and hasn't slowed yet.

I also want to take a moment and sincerely thank the men and women of our armed forces. Thank you. Some of you are sacrificing your holiday with your friends and family to keep me and my family and friends safe. I deeply appreciate that and please know that there are people that don't take that for granted.

If anyone is looking for last minute ideas (I know they are a dime a dozen), but here are some things that we've done or think may help.

-Purchase a carbon offset from terrapass or carbonfund.org

-Sponsor a less fortunate family on someone's behalf

-For the naysayer of climate change, buy a 3 pack of CFLs and install them for said person

-For the bicyclist, purchase a bike spa day where they can have some preventative maintenance and a clean up done to their rig

Happy Holidays!

Sweeney Todd

2007-12-17T20:55:00.000-05:00

Darla and I had another wonderful evening. For Christmas, I got Darla the Broadway series here in Columbus. The first show was Spamalot and we loved it. Last night was Sweeney Todd. I don't know how to approach this. I don't know if its my own shortcomings or what, but this was absolutely terrible. The actors did their jobs extremely well, acting, playing instruments, singing, but this was an extremely disturbing show. It was mass exodus at intermission. Darla and decided to work through the second act but couldn't wait for the curtain to drop. Maybe I don't get some art. Dar and I agreed that this was well outside of out comfort zone. I had trouble following the show without the scene changes and trouble understanding what was being said. Better luck next time at Wedding Singer, Camelot, Avenue Q, and Lion King.

Please don't base your opinion on mine. This may be your bag. I don't think that we'll be seeing the movie anytime soon.

Help for the Holidays

2007-12-15T21:46:00.000-05:00

For when the dorks in the Hummers get to you.

I found this over at zenhousewife for when you get to you:

"You must be the change you wish to see in the the world." -Gandhi

Saturday Coffee

2007-12-15T15:37:00.000-05:00

Holiday Hookey was a success! Darla and I had a great time. We hit Schmidt's Sausage Haus and Dar got the Veener Schnitzel and I had the sausage sampler. Dar loves the hot buttered rum and I get an imported german beer. After lunch we did a little shopping in German Village to support some of the local artists.

After that we went out to Easton and shopped til we dropped. We are pretty much done with the holiday shopping. Both Darla and my families have cut back on what we buy for the holidays. This is nice because it allows Dar and I to cut back as well. We can get gifts that are very meaningful for one another. I am fortunate enough to not want for anything. I'd be set with just having everyone together for the holidays again. This also helps me stay on track and practice what I preach about reducing one's impact.

I really slept in today. I am still catching up from working a power outage all night last Sunday night. Being dragged to 812 different stores yesterday probably took its toll too. Anyway, I was able to finalize my plans for the International Builders Show in Floriday in Feb. The National Association of Homebuilders will be releasing their National Green Building Program during that convention. I am very interested in this as it is something, professionally, that I want to be involved with heavily. I think I will try to have a Daily Recap while I am as the show. If any of you are going to this as well, let me know and we can maybe get together.

I don't know where the rest of you are, but here in Dublin, Ohio we just got about 5 inches of snow in as many hours. Now the freezing rain is coming. We were supposed to go to a holiday work party, but I think we've decided to batten down the hatches and just be home bodies tonight.

Dar and Mallory are upstairs making another batch of Christmas cookies. We drastically underestimated how many we would need. We finished up the decorating around the house in prep for some upcoming dinners we are hosting. Some very good friends of ours are coming next weekend and we are also having a New Year's Eve Bash.

Stay warm and dry and I will see you all real soon. Happy warm and safe holidays!

Saturday Coffee - Early!

2007-12-14T08:43:00.000-05:00

TGIF everyone! I am getting to my Saturday morning coffee post a day early! I did an unheard of thing. I took the day off. Darla is taking a half day off and we are playing our annual Holiday Hookey! We are going down to Schmidt's (a german restaurant in German Village) for lunch and then out to Easton for a stroll, and some last minute holiday shopping. We will probably end up at the Zoo for a walk through the holiday lights. We did this last year and ended up engaged! I proposed to Darla out by the old ferry boat landing along the Scioto. So, needless to say our Holiday Hookey has some sentimental significance to us.

It has been an extremely busy time of year. We've had some staff decreases at my day job which has caused some additional responsibilities to be shifted to me. Again. On the fun side of that coin, I was installed as the Co-chair of the Associate Council for the Columbus Apartment Association. That will add to my duties, but this part I really enjoy. It is a really great association to be a part of.

I am also on the Green Building Council of the BIA. I am setting up my travel arrangements to get to the International Builders Show in Orlando in Feb. The NAHB will be unveiling their green building program and want to get all of the info firsthand. My only methods of travel are car or plane. Columbus doesn't have a decent public transportation system to get me to a train line. The closest train terminal is Cinci, which is two hours away.

I tried to go holiday shopping on Thursday. What an absolute fiasco. How do people do it? I wandered aimlessly for two and a half hours with list in hand. How many things did I get? Zero, zip, zilch. I came home and burned through 90% of my list in 30 minutes online. I did this last year as well. I wanted to try to go out this year, but I should have known better. It is hassle-free, so much easier, and so many fewer jerks in Hummers talking on their cell phones honking at me because I didn't make the left on the yellow light. I recommend online shopping to everyone.

Alright all, I hope to hear from you soon, and I hope to be back on blogging soon too. Drop me a line at jasonsstover {at} aol.com.

Carbon Credits are heading to 'The Show'

2007-12-12T18:12:00.000-05:00

I just read an article from Grist that said that carbon credits and other things "green" are going to be traded on the Nymex. Right next to natural gas and oil. Ironic, but I am also hopeful. I hope people see the importance of green products and their true intentions of trying to better our Earth and environment, and not just another commodity to make money at.

Sierra Club Tip

2007-12-12T09:53:00.000-05:00

I get tips emailed to me from The Sierra Club's The Green Life and thought I would share.

"Replacing commercial household cleaners in your home with a bottle of vinegar and water or other homemade concoction reduces your potential exposure to toxic chemicals and saves energy that would have been used in the manufacturing process. If every American household replaced one big-brand bottle with the homemade stuff, it would save millions of barrels of petroleum."

Saturday Coffee (5th Cup) Post

2007-12-08T14:34:00.000-05:00

Well, I did it. I pulled the trigger. I have crossed over.

I bought a Mac. It's actually a MacBook. I absolutely love this thing. HP and Dell had their fair shake. I've been historically notorious for not getting out of my comfort zone, sticking to the meat and potatoes only. My kid sister was at our house for Thanksgiving and she brought her MacBook over. I got a long test drive on it and really liked it. So I got one. Thanks Squirt!

Working on the Macbook is so intuitive, once you get past the Windows-based to Mac conversion mindset change. It has so many features and I just like the way things operate.

The holidays are in full swing here. We have been running at full throttle since Thanksgiving. While its extremely fun, it is also very exhausting. Today, up to about 40 minutes from now has been fairly relaxing. I was able to catch up on a couple of things for work and get through a lot of my RSS feeds that have been stacking up.

Move Downtown: Update

2007-11-29T16:31:00.000-05:00

In a much earlier post I mentioned that my company is moving downtown. We received an internal newsletter that provided us some updated info as to the goings-on and our construction status.

I was very excited to hear that there will be a full recycling program initiated in our move. They outlined what all will be collected and what wouldn't. They also mentioned that the cleaning crew would be using environmentally sensitive cleaning agents in our office.

We are also having an open floorplan. Low cubes and lots of glass. I am pretty excited about all of this.

The one bittersweet portion of the news was the parking situation. They outlined that parking would be $65/month for surface level parking and $95 for a garage. This is going to meet with some major opposition I think. That's quite a bit of money for anyone, especially going from free parking to having to pay for a spot 3 blocks away. I hope the company incorporates some sort of transition plan or offset to help some folks out.

I am a little upset about it too, but I am spinning it into a positive. This is my break to going car free. I know that I will need my car some due to the nature of my position. But now, rather than pay for a monthly pass at a lot, I can buy a pass for COTA. I can ride my bike to the COTA stop in Dublin and take the Express downtown and ride the rest of the way in. I figure I will save a couple of bucks from by a bus pass vs a parking pass, as well as reducing my gas expenses. If any of you out there have any suggestions on making this transition easier or just have general tips, I'd love to hear them. Drop me a line or a comment. Thanks!

Happy Thanksgiving

2007-11-27T15:02:00.000-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I hope yours turned out as well as ours did. I could not have asked for a better turkey. Turned out perfectly. And ahead of schedule, unlike the previous two years. I think the key was 1. fresh turkey 2. let it set out two hours prior to oven 3. didn't jam a bunch of stuff in the cavity. The night before I prepared a brining solution that Dar and I get from Williams Sonoma and let the turkey sit in that overnight. I pulled the turkey out of the brine at 6:00a.m. and let it rest on a rack for two hours at room temp. We put some onion, apple, cinnamon sticks, rosemary inside and threw it in the oven at 450 for 45 minutes then 350 for three hours. The only other thing I did was brush olive oil over the bird right before putting it in the oven.

My parents, both grandmothers, and my kid sister came down, as well as Dar's parents. We had quite a spread. It was a wonderful time catching up with everyone. I really enjoyed having everyone gathered around the table and laughing and carrying on.

I wanted to pause and give thanks for all of the things that I am fortunate enough to have in my life. Some days it is difficult to not sweat the small stuff and need to keep that in mind.

Mother Nature Swings Back...How You Like Me Now

2007-11-10T10:29:00.000-05:00

Take that.

Lunch & Learn

2007-11-09T13:27:00.000-05:00

I apologize for my absence. It has been very crazy. Ever since my last post I haven't been feeling well. I have also been working on a Lunch&Learn presentation that I gave at my office Thursday. I was a guest facilitator in the absence of the regular moderator, Greg, who is fulfilling some National Guard obligations in Guam. Greg, we are all thinking about you. Stay safe.

The title of my Lunch&Learn was Simple Changes. I've talked on here before about trying to make a change and someone suggested this to spread the word. I used the many things that me and my family do as examples. I didn't want it to come across preachy and tried to take the stance that "hey, this is what I do, it may or may not make sense in your situation." There were some very good questions and discussions that came out of this and I hope that it had a positive affect on the folks that attended. I thank you all that attended!

I've had a handful of people stop by my office this morning and ask questions if certain things were recyclable or how to get a home energy audit, so it seems that it at least got some people thinking.

2007-10-23T10:51:00.000-04:00

I am working from home today. One, because I have a sore throat and two, because I want to reduce the amount of driving I do in order to reduce my footprint.

I enjoy working out of my home. I am fortunate have a nice office in our lower level of our house. I worked really hard on getting this space set up and I am completely removed from outside influences. Its minimalist, for sure. Its nothing more than a desk, two CFL lamps, my work laptop and a couch. I can get so much more accomplished working from home than I can in our office. I like it also, because it is a quantifiable measure of reducing my impact on the environment. I have a lamp on with a CFL in it and my laptop on and thats it. My office has a sliding glass door in it that provides an immense amount of daylight, even on a dreary rainy day such as today.

I think I get sick in our office because of the horrid HVAC system they have. When one person gets sick in the office, it eventually finds its way to everyone. I am a germaphobe and am constantly washing my hands or using some sort of antibacterial hand sanitizer. It doesn't seem to help much though. I also like working remotely because I am removed from the constant bull of office politics. It drives me nuts. It is almost counter-productive. We have some folks that need some serious attitude adjustments, so much so that those of us that still give a damn are almost at our wits end and want to look elsewhere. I have to say somedays I think those of you that make your living from blogging or writing on websites are the lucky ones.

I hope to eventually be able to work at a company that is either completely on board with telecommuting and/or is logistically positioned to ride my bike to work. Maybe I will just be my own boss and start something of my own.

Cheers!

2007-10-19T15:19:00.000-04:00

Now we are getting into the weather I like. Its been very nice walking Foxy in the evenings. I have seen a large uptick in wildlife activity recently which signals the transition into fall and winter. The squirrels have been absolutely relentless in their nut activity. I can't remember the last time I've seen so many squirrels.

We also saw three separate stands of deer. The first set had two doe and four fawn, the second totalled eight and the last set was only two. The amazing thing was how timid they were. Usually only the width of the road was between us because the deer, because they were browsing the treeline right at the road. Deer are beautiful creatures. I always have to stop and stare at them with my jaw half open. Foxy even seemed interested this time.

Darla and I have an action packed weekend on tap. I think we'll lay low tonight, but tomorrow we are going up to the Columbus Zoo during the day to meet some family at Boo at the Zoo. Saturday evening we are meeting a bunch of friends down at Columbus Brewing Company for dinner then on to the old Wasserstrom Warehouse for the haunted warehouse!

After that, I think we are going to walk down Wallhalla Drive and see the 11:30 showing of Rocky Horror Picture Show at Studio 35.

Sorry I missed you all at the considerbiking meeting at Kafe Kerouac. I hope to make it to the next one!

2007-10-13T10:02:00.000-04:00

Went to Whole Paycheck Friday night. We are having a dinner party tonight (Sat) and needed a few things. One of out guests is a celiac, which is a person who must eat things that are gluten-free. I figured that would be the place to find what we needed.

When I met Dar there after work, Whole Foods was hosting a Five After Five event. For 10 bucks, you get to sample 5 wines at different stations thoughout the building and each station also has a little sample of food that's paired with the wine. Last night was an Italian theme. It was alot of fun and we ended up getting a case of wine from one of the samples we had.

One of the things I focused on last night was to purchase items that were produced as close to Columbus or Ohio as possible. I was very successful in doing that, especially the produce. I like how Whole Foods labels where everything comes from.

Book Review: The Green Book

2007-10-13T09:45:00.000-04:00

Darla picked up a book for me last week while she was over at Border's looking around. She got me The Green Book written by Elizabeth Rogers and Thomas M. Kostigen. I can't put this damn thing down. It has so many useful and easy tidbits of info and ways you can change your routine that can really add up and make a difference. The book is organized into nice little easy to read sections, like Home, Work, and Shopping. I am going to be a guest host for a Lunch and Learn at my office in November and I am going to use quite a bit of the information in this book in my presentation. I will definitely suggest that everyone in my office pick this book up. The nice thing about this book is that it doesn't go overboard with its ideas. It won't scare the Rush Limbaugh lovers away with its Hippie Enviro chain yourself to a tree slant. I feel its actually written for the general public in mind and a way for them to ease into some of these ideas.

Happy reading!

2007-10-07T09:06:00.000-04:00

As a follow up to yesterday's entry, the weekend continues.

Mallory got totally spa'd out yesterday after her work shift. She went and had mani and a pedi and got an up-do. Let's be clear, these are not my terms, merely re-referncing them for the women-folk in my life. Mal looked beautiful! Alex looked pretty suave too, for being a punk that's dating my daughter. I've got my eyes on you boy.

After we got all the pictures taken and got them on their way, Dar and I had our date night. We went and picked up some movies and ended up deciding on La Chatelaine for dinner. It was really nice. For a moment I felt like we were back on vacation in France. What a cute little place. We both tried a wine sampling flight and a cheese plate. We also got their tomato, mozzarella, and basil plate.

I woke up this morning and although I should have ridden my bike, I went to Starbucks and got us coffee and scones. I actually have no way of transporting liquids on my bike yet as I have no cages on it. Mind you, I took our reusable coffee mugs and got a discount and didn't waste a paper cup. Were on our patio this morning doing our weekend reading routine and it absolutely beautiful today. We are going down to the Taste of Grandview today with one of my coworkers later today.

You know, I talked a little yesterday about looking at a house that is 1/3 the size of the home we have now. I am torn. Although moving and downsizing would be the right thing to do in the scope of minimizing our footprint, but at what cost? It would absolutely cut our footprint, but what about the next owner in this house? Would their consumption completely negate what I am trying to do? We are fairly conservative in this house. Although its fairly large, with our continuous improvements and "greening" I am able to continually reduce our utility consumptions. I will have to continue thinking about it.

85 Degrees in October?

2007-10-06T17:09:00.000-04:00

Its a little warm for me. I can't believe I am saying that in October. This is sweater time. Bonfires and S'mores.

Okay, enough of that. Dar got me up early and we rode down to Starbuck's for coffee and scones this morning. After that we rode over to Kroger's (still no racks) to pick up a boutonniere for Mallory to give to Alex for the Homecoming dance tonight. Kroger's hadn't received their supply so we rode back down to the Starbucks area right at Bridge and High and got one from Dublin Floral.

While they were making that, Dar and I walked down to a little house in historic Dublin that we've had our eyes on for some time now. Its for sale and fall's within our downsizing plan. We'd like to go through it, but we're having some difficulting contacting the homeonwers, as they are selling it themselves. We'll see what pans out. The nice thing about our excursion and to my complete surprise, Dar was totally into it and also how she was kinda juiced about everything we could do by bike. Outside of my work travels and Dar's outside appointments, she could see how feasible it was to sustain our lifestyle by biking alone. Man am I psyched!

After we get Alex and Mallory off to Homecoming, Dar and I are going out on a date tonight. We had originally thought about going out to Easton, but after this morning's adventure she suggested we ride our bikes back down to "Bri-Hi" and eat dinner there. Maybe at La Chatelaine or the Dublin Village Tavern. We'll see! Have a great weekend all!

Events Week of 10-1-07

2007-10-03T11:54:00.000-04:00

Couple of things I wanted to pass along.

The COCEN Central Ohio Solar Tour Preview is Thursday, Oct 4 at Burgess and Niple.
7:30a-9:00a
5085 Reed Rd

BIA IECC Energy Code Seminar
1p-4p
BIA Offices

Also, on deck for next week Oct 11 is MORPC's Central Ohio's USGBC progress meeting.

What is wrong with people

2007-10-03T09:56:00.000-04:00

I tell ya, people are crazy in this town. Especially behind the wheel of their cars. Three times now, since Friday I've had an issue with drivers. Friday, coming home from work I was northbound in the intersection of Emerald Pkwy and Dublin Rd (with the green) and this ding dong in a Mercedes pulls right out in front of me. I think that's the closest to an accident that I've been since I kissed a tree when I was 16. What boils my blood is the attitude that I get from these people like its my fault. Last night, at the same intersection, it goes from two down to one lane and I was obviously going to slow and a jerk in a silver grand cherokee passes me on the right in the merge lane. He had OSU plates and a hitch cover. I say this because this really depresses me. Even Ohio State allows A-holes to graduate. Now this morning, this one takes the cake. Coming off of 270 onto Cleveland Ave South I need to get over three lanes to turn left onto Community Park Drive. I do that just fine, no one near me. I am several cars back the the green arrow comes on. It goes to yellow and three cars in front of me are off to the races to beat it. Theres no chance any of them are legally going to make it so I don't even try, that's not even a game I play. Well the nincompoop behind me lays on his horn screeches around me straight ahead down to the next light which is Corporate Exchange and turns left on two wheels. Now mind you, he has a fine piece of machinery. It was an early 90's red corolla with grey doors. He's obviously pulled this stunt before, but unsuccessfully. Well I come around to a stop sign and here he comes. He is hanging his head out the window the entire way past me yelling and various hand gestures at me. I turn left and am right behind him and we enter the same parking lot at the same time. He's still ranting. We got to the same place at the same time. I have no idea what is wrong with this guy. Why is he so upset that I didn't jump the light? This guy is going to have a stroke for no reason.

My point to all this ranting is what is wrong with people? Can anyone shed some light on this for me? I've had a bad string of luck lately in the car with idiots or traffic. And I just don't feel safe enough to ride my bike to work. There isn't a good East-West artery for me to take from home to work and back. Good Lord.

Word of the Day: Neighborship

2007-09-30T10:15:00.000-04:00

Darla and I had our Russian neighbors over last night for dinner as a thank you for watering out plants while we were in Europe this summer. As in a previous post, I mentioned that they like to toast to everything. Well, Dimitri was pretty tame this evening, but totally took the cake and made the best toast I have ever heard: "To Neighborship!" What a perfect word!

The Russians are so interesting to listen to. It is fun to listen to how they grew up in the Soviet Union and all of the differences and similarities there are between our cultures. We couldn't be more opposite from these people but we've ended up being the closest of neighbors.

They had some other good news. They are pregnant. We were shocked by that. Alexi, their son is 10. I guess I was 13 when my brat kid sister ruined my gig, so it shouldn't surprise me too much. Its alot of fun having folks over, after dinner we sat around a nice little bonfire and made S'mores!

Today we are going to the Crew game against the Galaxy. I don't think Beckham will be playing but, still! I am glad to see the shot in the arm he has brought to American Soccer. Even if he sits out for his $250 mil, he is bringing that much all across the country for other teams. Thank you Becks!

2007-09-29T09:02:00.000-04:00

Happy Saturday All! Sorry I haven't been on much this week. I've had a terrible week at work and ended up getting sick. I was rolling through my google reader this morning during Saturday Morning Coffee and laughed so hard at this article (#4, Til Green do us part) I spit coffee all over my screen! Ed Begley absoluetely cracks me up. His relationship with Rachelle reminds me a little of Darla and me. I am total Enviro and Dar is "meh", but trying. Why can't I dig up the back yard and put a cistern in? Makes perfect sense to me. Is there anyone else that has a relationship like this.

Studio 35

2007-09-25T16:20:00.000-04:00

On Sunday, Darla and I met some friends at Studio 3 5 for a beer tasting and the movie Old School. The beers were really good! There were 10 samples of various beers and a beer rep discussing each one. After words we went over to our friends' house and had a cook out and played croquet. I think I was a kid the last time I saw a croquet set. We had a really good time. I hope Studio 35 has more of the tastings and movie. They already have an awesome selection of beers, I highly recommend checking them out.

2007-09-22T16:58:00.000-04:00

I met a lot of nice people at this past Thursday's Green Drinks at the Surly Girl. I didn't get a chance to stay to hear the speaker, but it seemed like a very diverse crowd. I met the entire gamut from an HR director, to a Powell Mom, to a young girl that rides a fixed gear. The October Green Drinks will be held Thursday, October 18 from 6-9p at CCAD's Canzani Center Gallery. I hope to meet a few more of you at that one.

This morning I got up and realized that there is no coffee in the house. Zero. Not good. In the spirit of car free day I hopped on my rig and pedaled down to Starbucks and bought a bag of coffee. I got back right as Darla was finishing her run and we were able to have our morning coffee together out on our patio. Its kind of our Saturday morning ritual, drink coffee together in our adirondack chairs, Dar reads People, I catch up on my google reader or magazines and generally ease very gently into the weekend. Its funny, last weekend we were out there in long pj's and wrapped in fleece blankets and this weekend we are in shorts and tshirts. I spent most of the day studying and Darla painted our bathroom.

Sunday Darla and I are meeting some friends of ours at Studio 35. There is going to be a beer tasting and then showing Old School. It should be pretty boss.

Oh by the way, cyclists that ride on the sidewalk, consider this your fair warning. My Stepdaughter got her driver's license yesterday. Congrats Mallory!

Suds, Sun, and Gettin the Word Out

2007-09-19T16:40:00.000-04:00

The 2nd Annual Columbus Microbrew Festival was an absolute blast! I am really impressed with the showing that all of the various local microbreweries had. Hats off to each one of you! I have to say that my two standouts were the Columbus Brewing Company 1859 Porter and the underdog Weasel Boy Brewing Company's Plaid Ferret Scottish Ale. Guys, please get these onto some local shelves. Bravo! We were even responsible patrons and took a COTA bus down and back.

I am really excited and very hopeful about this next bit of information. I met with the owner of a local solar panel company yesterday about the possibility of installing PVs at an apartment complex. There are several buildings, many of which have south facing roofs. Its very conceptual at this point, but if this works out as a test bed, imagine the possibilities!

An opportunity has arisen here in the office where the normal speaker for our weekly Lunch & Learns will be out of town and in need of a guest facilitator. I figured that this would be a perfect opportunity to address a crowd outside of the normal "green zone". I am going to approach it as fun and factual and try not to preach and try not to scare them with some of the things that I do to lessen my footprint. I am not perfect, I have some vices or things that I have/do that I just can't stop/get rid of yet. But the yin to that yang, I try to make up for it on the backside.

Don't forget, tomorrow is Green Drinks at the Surly Girl! I hope to meet the three people that read this blog.

Columbus Green Building Expo and LEED

2007-09-15T09:19:00.000-04:00

I had the opportunity this week to attend the GBE at the Athenaeum this week. I was there attending the LEED for New Construction Technical Review session. As posted in an earlier post, I have decided to stop assuming that people with power, money, and political clout will do something towards positive change in the environmental arena. I am taking it upon myself to become more educated and earn my accredited professional certification in LEED.

Since my company is a subsidiary of a home builder I thought I could affect change internally and start small, looking inward at myself and my direct or immediate surroundings. I hope this idea is well received with an open mind. I think small tweeks can be made by everyone and that will add up to some serious and quantifiable change.

There were some really neat products at the GBE. Several companies showing off their LED fixtures and low-VOC carpeting and painting materials. There were a couple of solar panel installation companies with some cool new products. I am actually meeting with one company in particular next week to see what the viability is of installing solar panels on one of clubhouses we serve.

If you get the chance, check out the LEED info and also the Columbus Green Building Forum. I am off to the Columbus Micro Brew Festival!

Columbus Microbrew Festival

2007-09-14T15:09:00.000-04:00

Well another Friday gang. We are heading down to the 2nd annual Columbus Microbrew Festival tomorrow with some friends. We will actually be taking the bus down tomorrow, the good ole No. 2. It looks like there might be a farmers market going on, some live music and several other things. Check it out here.

The 11th Hour

2007-09-11T13:47:00.000-04:00

I went down to the preview screening of Leonardo DiCaprio's The 11th Hour last night. I want to thank Charlie Fredrick of the Sierra Club for hooking me up with a ticket and the Buckeye Forest Council for some great tips for spreading the word. What a great idea to host a viewing party of films such as An Inconvenient Truth and The 11th Hour.

Let me first off say that I am going to see this movie again as a paying customer to support this effort and I encourage every one that was there last night to somehow contribute as well. I am going to take Darla and Mallory to see it. I recommend that everyone see this movie. I was very interested to see how the movie was going to present itself. I was afraid that it was going to be some wack-job enviro "the sky is falling" Armageddon speech. It was NOT. But it was extremely powerful and I hit a wide range of emotions from sadness, terror, embarrassment, to encouragement and hope.

It absolutely terrifies me that the people with all the power and money and decision making ability can't see what all of the scientists are saying. The two quotes that stuck with me was from Gloria Flora, who said "You can also vote—and I don't mean voting at a voting booth—anybody of any age can vote. Because you vote every day that you pay for something. Every time you lay money down on the counter to buy something, you are saying that I approve of this object. I approve of how it was made, the materials that are in it, and what's going to happen to it when I no longer need it and throw it away." and I don't remember the gentleman's name so someone help out with the proper credit, but he stated (paraphrasing) "Its all hands on deck time. Not just government, Auto manufacturers, Oil companies, Solar array and wind turbine manufacturers. Every one." Folks that me, you, kids at school, the Starbucks slingers. Everyone.

I would encourage everyone to see this film. I would encourage you to try to reduce your impact. We try to bike whenever we can, reduce, reuse, and recycle items we have. I am trying to reduce ours as much as financially possible with energy efficiency in our home, through changing lights out to CFLs, low flow showerheads, turning the AC up a couple of degrees than we've had it in the past, keeping it a little cooler in the winter. I try to vote with the products I purchase. If each one of us continues to make changes in our lives and try to effect changes from a governmental, national, and global level we can begin to make a difference.

Columbus Green Drinks and The 11th Hour

2007-09-10T11:34:00.000-04:00

Okay, I guess we are back on.

Hi all,

I need to retract my last e-mail! There is going to be a screening at the Drexel. I hope everyone can still make it!

Best,

Caroline

--
Caroline Murray
caroline@11thhouraction.com
11th Hour Action Campaign
Tree Media Group
2218 Main Street, 2nd Floor
Santa Monica, Ca 90405
(310) 450-4343

???Update??? I just received and email fromCaroline Murray saying tonight's event is canceled. Can anyone verify this for me? Thanks.

For all of you that are local to Columbus, I am heading down to the special screening of the 11th Hour documentary by Leonardo DiCaprio. I received an email from Columbus Green Drinks about it. It is going to be held at the Drexel Gateway and it sounds like we are meeting up a little early (6:30) at the lava lounge. After the screening someone from the Sierra Club will be hosting a discussion. I am trying to get some confirmation, so if anybody out there has some firm info, shoot me an email or a comment. Thanks and hope to see you there.

Dublin Bike Racks

2007-09-10T09:46:00.000-04:00

I have received some very encouraging and positive feedback from my recent inquiry to Kroger and the City of Dublin. It pays to ask the questions. I think the important thing to remember is to approach people with respect and the proper "delivery". You attract more bees with honey than you do vinegar. Please see the below email that I received from the City of Dublin's Mayor, Marilee Chinnici-Zuercher. Marilee, thank you very much for responding.

Jason,

I am in full agreement with you regarding the need for bike racks at shopping centers. I will work with the staff to be sure we include them in our code and as a requirement for shopping areas. It is strange that we encourage walking, biking etc. through our terrific bikepath system yet don't have available the racks once people get to their destination.

Thanks for bringing this to our attention.

Marilee

Kudos to the City for their responses on this. I have four emails from various people in Dublin's government that are working on this. I appreciate the responses I have received. So much so that I put this out to you, City of Dublin, that if you need extra manpower or help spreading the word you can call on me. If you are going to put the effort in to fulfill this request than I will meet you half way. I will do my fair share.

Bike Commuting

2007-09-06T19:11:00.000-04:00

Well I have jumped into this blogging and bike advocacy both feet first. I would like to thank everyone for all of the support and encouragement they given me over at considerbiking and bikecommutingincolumbus. I want to try to eventually be carfree for the majority of my week and use it only out of absolute necessity.

With that said I've read a couple of blogs recently and they have spoken about a sense of community. We don't have a lot of that here in our neighborhood. Our neighbors are nice enough and we speak often, but they aren't folks that we'd walk over to each others houses in our PJs and watch movies and drink some beer. But then again, it may be the different places in life we all are. Our neighbors to the west and south have yuppie kids, out of school and into the first years of their professional lives. Our neighbors to the east, the Russians, have a grade school son. They are really nice people and have been to their house a couple of times for dinner, but these russians are wicked smart. Like I mean created some sort of dense wave division multiplexing algorithm that can track the cavitation bubbles from US subs, project the path and shoot it out of the water sort of stuff. I can't make this up, this was an actual conversation. They are way out of our league. And they make the best vodka. Yes, make. Its spicy vodka, almost like tequila. The amazing thing is, no hangover. I am a cheap date and am sauced at two, but this stuff is good. And when we are at dinner with them, they toast to everything. Have an appetizer, toast to friends. Have a bite of salad, toast to metro parks, have a bite of bread, toast to deep sea cavitation.

Back on track, back to different places in life. Dar and I are in the home stretch. Mallory is a Junior in high school and starting to look at colleges outside of the Ohio realm. California and Colorado mostly. She will most likely move away and Dar and I have kinda talked about where we are going to move to once that happens. The house we are in was an investment and is not really us. Its three times the side we need. We've thought about a condo, hoping that the close proximity to others would invite a sense of community and like mindedness. I am really pushing for South Worthington, Clintonville, Short North/Downtown and Grandview. We'll see. If we get to one of those then I am centrally located and can get pretty much anywhere on a bike. More to follow. Too wide of a spread on subject matter.

Kroger Bike Racks

2007-09-06T15:45:00.000-04:00

Okay, so as you know from the previous weekend wrapup post, Dar and I went to Kroger. There were no bike racks and decided to dig into why. You can see the full discussion here. Thanks to all who commented and supported me in this. By the way MilitantCyclist, I checked with Dublin and Whole Foods is not in their jurisdiction.

Update 9/6/07 16:43
I have just been emailed by both Jane Brautigam, Dublin City Manager, and Abby Scott, Land Use and Long Range Planning. Both very positive emails. Sounds like there may have been some miscommunication on Kroger's part. Below are their posts.

Thank you for bringing this to our attention.  The City of Dublin allows and
encourages the installation of bike racks throughout the city.  Typically, bike
racks are included in development applications and reviewed for their location
within the site.  Generally, property owners are also permitted to add bike
racks to their site at any time with approval from the city.  The city has
extensive multi-sport paths and an adopted bikeway plan to expand existing
bikeways and create connections between them.  Bike racks provide the necessary
infrastructure to support this growing network of bike routes and allows for
alternative modes of transportation for city residents. 

I hope this addresses your concerns and am available to answer any further
questions you may have on this topic.

Thank you,

Abby

AND

Dear Mr. Stover,

Thanks for your email to the Dublin City Council and to me yesterday inquiring
about bike racks at the Kroger store on Bridge Street.  I have asked the Land
Use and Long Range Planning Department to look into your question and reply to
you as soon as they have researched the Planned Unit Development document that 
governs that shopping area.  I apologize that I could not provide you the answer
immediately but we do want to be accurate in our response by reviewing the
governing documents.  If you would like to discuss this matter with one of our
planners, let me suggest that you contact Steve Langworthy, the Director of the
department at 410-4653 or slangworthy@dublin.oh.us

Thanks again for taking the time to write to the City Council with your
question.
Very truly yours,
Jane S. Brautigam
City Manager

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Steps I've Taken At Work

2007-09-06T07:52:00.000-04:00

I do not use overhead incandescent or fluorescent lighting at work. My office’s north wall is all windows so I am fortunate enough to have all the daylight I need to illuminate my desk space. For the rainy days or darker times of the day during the winter I have a small desk lamp with a CFL in it.

I am constantly walking through my office turning lights off after people. Its like they were born in a barn or something.

I try not to print anything unless absolutely necessary. When I do, I have my margins set at their maximum and I print on both sides.

I have my docking station, light, and computer speakers all on a power strip which I turn off every night.

On my way out I will turn people’s monitors off and shut off as many lights as possible

I will pull out paper products out of the trash that can be placed in our shredding boxes. I do know that the company that provides them recycles all of the shreddings. I will also pull recyclable plastics out and bring them home with me to recycle.

I order all of our corporate supplies and make sure all are recycled products or sustainably produced.

I am a germ freak so instead of using lots of water and paper towels for my hands I choose to use well-apportioned hand sanitizer.

Weekend Recap

2007-09-04T09:19:00.000-04:00

Just wanted to recap a few items I saw while surfing this weekend and a couple of ideas that popped into my noggin. I found this great tip for recycling plastic bottles. I also saw that last week on Living with Ed. Huh, I had no idea that caps weren't recyclable. You learn something new every day.

I was over reading carfreeworld about Patrick’s attempt to live a car free lifestyle and got me to thinking. I want to preface this blog or at least set the baseline of where my family and I are at in this venture. Darla and I have been very fortunate in our lives in the realm of employment and where our careers have taken us. It affords us a very comfortable life. We currently have three cars. But, two are Corollas and one is a four cylinder Outback. All three of us go different directions through out the day. Major progress was made over the weekend, however. We did some recon and it is extremely feasible for Darla on the days that she does not have outside appointments to commute by bike. Mallory could ride to school but try making that point to a 16 yr old that is about to get their driver's license. I, on the other hand have a 12 mile commute from the Northwest side of town to the Northeast side of town. I am tentatively mapping out some bike routes, but I will be honest, people in cars are stupid and have no consideration for the biker, and I am scared of that a little. I need to find a good balance of living my beliefs and not getting killed in the process.

I was also out on the270 this morning and saw a blog on TehKu Tea Company. We love that place! They are opening a satellite store in the Dublin Rec Center. Read about that here. Darla and Mallory swear by the Bubble Teas. They have tapiocas in them, which grosses me the hell out, but to each his own. I am going to stick with all of their varieties of green tea. I am actually just going down the list and trying a new one each time I go in. Ingrie is the owner and a very nice lady. I encourage you to visit them and support them.

Happy Labor Day

2007-09-03T12:36:00.000-04:00

I hope everyone is enjoying their Labor Day weekend. I certainly am relaxing nicely. Sunday was such a great day. Dar and I were able to go out on a date and spend some quality time together.

As Mallory gets closer to graduating from high school, Darla and I are continuing to look for a smaller house or condo that will be more in line with our beliefs and actual space requirements. So we went exploring in the Worthington and Clintonville areas. I actually had an ulterior motive. I wanted to surprise her with a trip to Whetstone Park of Roses. Dar had never been there before and I wanted her to see it. It was a beautiful day! Not a cloud in the sky and the roses are so beautiful. There was even a natural herb garden there.

After that we ended up going to Aladdins for some hummus and wraps. We walked around the shops in the area and stopped in to a new store Clintonville Outfitters. They are just getting up and running but looks like they are knowledgable and carry some good stuff.

We picked a few things up at the grocery, made a little dinner and ended the evening out on our patio. We had a couple of beers and had a small fire going in out fire ring. We even made s'mores! What a nice night.

Today, Dar took Foxy for a playdate at Highbanks Park. I cleaned up a little around the house and caught up reading some blogs. I found a couple of Columbus-centric that I liked, like this one and this one. When Dar got back we rode our bikes down to Kroger. While enroute, Dar asked me if she could ride her bike to work. So we continued on to see if the community multi-use paths go all the way to her work. They go all the way except for the last 300 yards. Perfect! I timed the ride back from her office so we'd have an idea of how long it may take her. Only 45 minutes door-to-door.

On the return trip we did end up stopping at Kroger. To my amazement, there were no bike racks. Not along the entire plaza. I don't like to lock my bike up around a light, but we had no alternative. I am going to contact Kroger to see if they will install a rack. There's obviously a need for it, because there were already two or three bikes when we got there.

Long Weekend

2007-09-01T16:53:00.000-04:00

Well, its a pretty good start to the weekend. Darla, my fiance, and I took our 1 year old miniature pincher to puppy obedience (should be called owner orientation) class last night. This was round three. We've been having some issues with Foxy in the destruction department. I think Fox has a little separation anxiety while we are at work and has a meltdown every now and again. Foxy has been really good lately as we have been really working with her, and training ourselves, from what we've learned in class so far. I don't know what triggered it sometime yesterday, but Foxy decided to chew/claw/shovel a 4 inch square hole in our bedroom carpet clear down to the floor board. In the exact same spot that she did it in about 3 months ago. I am running out of spare carpet.

Anyway, we stopped on our way home for some ice cream and got home and rented Black Snake Moan from Pay Per View on cable. What an interesting movie. Definitely not a movie that I will be recommending to either of our parents, but it was a decent movie.

I sampled a couple of beers during the movie from my Goose Island sampler pack. The "Summertime" was a fairly light, same category as Sierra Nevada's but slightly lighter. I also had the Pale Ale which was good. I would equate it to a Columbus Brewing Co. Pale Ale.

We just picked up a couple of adirondack chairs that are made out of recylcled plastic and sawdust for our patio under the deck. It was a perfect two pot (coffee) morning, so I surfed the internet out there and Dar caught up on People. Poor Owen, who woulda figured. The subject of suicide has hit close to our home, so we wish him the best.

I jumped on my new rig to explore and go get a haircut and Dar took Foxy for a walk. Right now we are chilling and making some killer cupcakes for tonights BBQ at the In-laws.

To the point of this post. Living in Dublin, Ohio, or Ohio in general, we don't always get the advantages of near perfect weather. Today however, is different. Not a single cloud in the sky. Riding around this morning I got to wondering. If every new home/apt/condo was built with some kind of alternative energy source, be it PV, solar hot water heater, passive solar design, on a day like today, where every single air conditioner would be off, how much energy would be produced and put back out onto the grid? Even on scorching days where every A/C unit was running, offsetting some of the draw with PV would help.

Why don't homebuilders offer at least the option up front on new builds to incorporate green design and try to offset the footprint they are creating with this urban sprawl. Home buyers could just roll the cost into their new monthly payments. The builder could even work out a deal with a CFL manufacturer and install CFLs in every fixture. I dunno, maybe I am too optimistic. Let me know your thoughts.

Renewable Energy Certificates are here!

2007-08-31T12:55:00.000-04:00

We now have the option to purchase Renewable Energy Certificates from our electric company, AEP! Renewable Energy Certificates (REC)in a nutshell are produced when a renewable energy provider generates one megawatt hour of electricity that is certified and sold into the electricity market. That REC is then sold to a buyer or multiple buyers.

This is good news for me twofold. One, because I can support it through my consumption in my home and two, because the company I work for supplies over one million kilowatt hours a month to multiple communities. We can aggregate the total monthly consumption and purchase large blocks of RECs.

TGIF!

2007-08-31T08:13:00.000-04:00

TGIF everyone. Got a nice long weekend coming up. Not too many plans yet made by my in-house event planner, so hopefully it will be a farily low-key holiday weekend. Ohio State has their first game of the season tomorrow against Youngstown State. The Crew plays Colorado on Tuesday. This is a playoff bid so it should be a fairly interesting match. Good luck to our Ohio teams!

I saw a very interesting sight this morning. Along I-270 there were trucks with wind turbine blades. They were longer than the flatbed, whose length usually runs about 40 feet. I am guessing these had a wingspan of 40-50 feet per blade. If I recall correctly, these parts are not allowed to be transported from state to state. If that holds true, then a company in Ohio is manufacturing these for Ohio use. This is movement in the right direction. If anyone has any idea of where this is an active wind turbine construction site let me know!

Idling at a stoplight

2007-08-30T19:25:00.000-04:00

I was sitting at a light tonight on my way home from work next to a Toyota Prius. It had the Autostop feature on it and the car was not running while at the light. Autostop is where a vehicle rolls to a complete stop and when the driver keeps their foot on the brake the ICE (internal combustion engine) shuts off. The engine restarts automatically as required when the battery portion of the hybrid drive doesn't have enough juice, the driver mashes the peddle for additional hp and torque, or there is a large ancillary electrical draw (heater, A/C, wipers, lights, etc).

Why don't all cars have this feature, hybrid or otherwise? Imagine all of the gasoline this feature would save if it was on all conventional autos. This would even be an easy way to get folks that are not overly concerned about their environmental footprint to participate in carbon reduction.

2nd Annual Boys' Weekend

2007-08-30T16:26:00.000-04:00

Its that time again! The 2nd Annual Boys' Weekend rafting trip is next weekend. Me and my two homies, Sean and Arch, go down to the New River Gorge and do a little camping, beer sampling, and a little bit of rafting. This year, we are doing the Upper Gauley. We've stayed at Rivers both times but we've heard rumors that it might be their last year open.

We are going a little earlier in the season this year so the weather will be warmer but the water will be colder because its coming from lower in the lake. The other guys picked up some hydroshirts, gloves, and booties, but I might just wear some fleece, wicking shorts, and my Keens with wool socks to avoid the expense. Does anyone have any experience or suggestions?

If you don't see any posts after the weekend of the 7th, then the Gauley got me.

Purpose of this blog

2007-08-30T12:20:00.000-04:00

Hello all. I've gotten caught up recently reading several blogs and really liked the info and stories they provided. The two that got me hooked were Jakob and Kim's Green-Savvy and James' Bike Commuting in Columbus. I don't know how informative mine will be, but I will give it a shot. I am brand spankin' new to this, so please be patient as I continue to learn about the innerweb.

The general purpose for this experiment is for me to have one place to put my thoughts, questions, rants, etc. Possibly others can comment and contribute on various items placed out here. Here are some items that I have rolling around in my head like bolts in a metal trashcan that I will eventually try to contribute more body to at some point. But for now in no particular order:

Footprint reduction, commuting by bike/less reliance on my car, alternative energy why in the hell are there so many roadblocks to develop and implement it, smart and easy ways to reduce energy usage in the home, make it my life's work to contribute to saving and bettering the environment and maybe be able to sustain a household in the process.

Well, thanks, everyone, for reading this all of you (Dar and Mal). I appreciate it.