He was shortish. And oldish. And brownish. And mossy. And he spoke with a voice that was sharpish and bossy.

My absolute favorite children's book of all time is being made into a full-length animated film.  Its plot and message were almost singlehandedly the basis for my curriculum as a science teacher.  It contains powerful and insightful lessons for not only children, but all of us.

The Lorax will be out sometime in 2012 and will feature the voice of none other than Danny Devito.  I couldn't have dreamed up a better fit myself.

Counting the days until I can introduce MY LITTLE BOY to this gift from Dr. Seuss.

Well Look at What We Have Here!

My mom helped me create succulent centerpieces for our wedding last year, and I'm still enjoying them today.  Got a nice surprise of some psychedelic mushrooms after some crazy rain yesterday.  You can stay little mushies (as long as you don't kill the succulents!)

Dang Octopus

The octopus stole my video camera!  Oh how I love this.  And oh how it makes me miss scuba.

Bears Love Casinos

South Louisiana, March 2010

Gotta Love Austin Weather

...at least this week. We've had the absolute best of both worlds.

Sunday @ Red Bud Isle, 78 degrees



Tuesday @ Reicher Ranch,31 degrees

Colossal Snowball Fight!

Sad I missed out on this huge snowball fight in DC. Looks like it was so much fun!

Home

Everyone is entitled to a home where the sun, the stars, open fields, giant trees, and smiling flowers are free to teach an undisturbed lesson of life.

-Jens Jensen, landscape planner, 1930s

Coco's Parting Words

I loved this. Great advice for anyone, no matter your profession or situation.

To all the people watching, I can never thank you enough for your kindness to me and I’ll think about it for the rest of my life. All I ask of you is one thing: please don’t be cynical. I hate cynicism — it’s my least favorite quality and it doesn’t lead anywhere. Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you’re kind, amazing things will happen.

- Conan during his last show

Kids - Gotta Love Em

My wedding photographer's ten year-old son created this adorable blog. It

1) Cracks me up
2) Amazes me that ten year olds are growing up blogging!

Cute Captioned Cats

Calling the Container Home

Chris and I are in the market for a home, and look what I found today! I don't know how I'm just hearing about these, but WOW - shipping container homes :)

My grandparents had a container on their property in New Orleans. Grandpa was a farmer, and he used it to store tools, tractors, crops, etc. All of us grandkids used to play in there, but we never thought about sleeping in there. But if it would have looked like this...

...I don't think we ever would have left!

If you've ever been to a major port, you know how many shipping containers exist in this world. What a great secondhand use. And they are earthquake, hurricane and fire resistant. Some of these homes are designed and delivered (all-in-one of course) for only $17,000! And of course they are extemely portable.

Here are a few really neat homes.






...And this one is a DORM in Amsterdam

See more shipping container homes here and here.

Pimp My Ride, Hyde Park Edition

P.S. Look who's driving...

For the Rest of Us

*Also notice the Erring of Grievences board below. Love my neighbors.

Teardrop Envy

After a half-cross country trek to Florida and back for Thanksgiving, I overdosed on my fill of mega-RV sightings.



I can try to be understanding. Maybe if you spend half of the year in a Rio Grande Valley RV Park like this one and never leave your spot and need a certain "standard of living", I'll let you slide by. But judging by the huge spike in sightings I see during holidays, I think people are actually using these things to get around. Maybe it's just me, but what a nightmare! It would be so limiting.

I've never traveled in an RV, but I think it could be a lot of fun...under appropriate circumstances. For example, if I was traveling with small children in a very cold area, camping might be a little tough. Or if I was an elderly woman traveling alone I might want more than a spot on the ground.

In fact, I met an elderly widow about five years ago at Big Bend. She was a very sweet octogenarian traveling alone across North America. Her husband had died years before, and she stayed at home, deeply depressed for several years. They had plans to see the country together, and he died before they could set out. Once she moved past her grief, she bought herself a little teardrop and set out solo.

Her teardrop was the first I'd seen in person, and I instantly fell in love. Teardrops are tiny campers for one to two people, complete with queen size beds, heaters, and kitchens. As you can see, you don't need a huge vehicle to tow a teardrop.





After I've won the lottery or sold some photos to National Geographic, I may just purchase a teardrop for my little family. Certainly can't hurt to dream :)

*Dance Parters For Life*

One of my favorite things about being married =]

This Will Make Your Day (or Week)

I think this video could be a metaphor for life. It makes me so happy. Make sure you watch until the end.

RealRyder

Check out the RealRyder, an excercise bike that twists and turns, requiring better form and harder work. These would be awesome in spin class!

Here's an article if you'd like to read more about the RealRyder.

Stuff this White Person Likes

I am a dork, but why exactly? One has to have certain characteristics or interests contributing to their dorkiness. I have many, but I'll give you a big one:

I LOVE LOVE LOVE ROLLERBLADING.

Austin and Dallas are two very different cities, and this holds true to perceptions of inline skating. In Austin, the only great place for it is the Veloway. But even there, rollerbladers are sparse and dominated by cyclists. And not quite cool. But in Dallas, people embrace their inner 1992 and rollerblade without qualms. All kinds of people - I've seen seniors, kids, and even us cool almost-30somethings.

So I'm in Dallas today and what am I most excited about doing while my brother is at work? Rollerblading! Ondre lives in a loft downtown, and the trailhead of the Katy Trail is right outside. The trail is about 5K (one way) and connects downtown with the SMU area. It's a fantastic and very popular urban trail. My family and I have even used it to walk to restaurants for breakfast. People use it to get to train stops as well. But most of all, they walk, run, stroll, bike, and ROLLERBLADE with a smile.

Revolutionizing Car Insurance

Though I haven't usually thought of Dallas as an innovative city, my assumptions have shifted in the past few years. Now that I'm studying transit-oriented development, I've learned that Dallas has proven itself among the ranks of world-class cities providing transportation options that benefit the city (and planet) as a whole.

Now there's an auto insurance company out of Dallas that is revolutionizing the way people think about car insurance just as ZipCar did with the way we think about car use. MileMeter allows customers to purchase car insurance by the mile! That's right, here comes another great incentive for people to drive less. This company is not only providing cost savings to consumers, but it's encouraging them to think about how much the drive and give them a financial reason to decide against it.


I can get on the MileMeter website right now and purchase 1,000 to 6,000 miles of insurance. That means if I decide to take public transit or muscle power to get around, my insurance will last a lot longer than if I get around purely by car. GENIUS. I'm thinking about giving State Farm the boot.

But actually, it's not genius. It's common sense. How do we pay for electricity? For water? Food? With this new model, the old model of paying for car insurance whether it's sitting in the garage or not seems ridiculous.

Thanks to the founder, Chris Gay, Texans are some of the first people in the world to be able to purchase auto insurance by the mile. That makes me a happy girl.

Thanks for putting this on my radar, Ondre!

Trashman 2.0

Unless you live in New Orleans, I'd guess you haven't heard of Sidney Torres. I hadn't either until about a week ago. I caught a great story about him on NPR.

Sidney owns a "waste management" business that won a contract to clean the French Quarter after Katrina. He is a true entrepreneur who is proud of his work, even if it is a little stinky. He has used modern technology (and attitude) to reinvent the trash business in one of the trashiest places I can think of (Bourbon Street is not a place I associate with cleanliness.)


As he says, he's bringing "class to trash." He created a fragrance called "SuperFresh" that the trucks spray throughout the Quarter. In the NPR interview, he spotted a cup (yes, one cup) in the Quarter and had a driver immediately drive to its location to remove it. Who would've thought?

Listen to the NPR interview here.