Friday, May 27th, 2011

So I'm starting to realize how often I eat out...

On the way home from my friends house, my other friend and I decided that we wanted a late night snack at Subway! It was going to be all good, and I was going to get a sub, and then he was going to get a fountain drink and we were going to share and I wasn't going to have to deal with not being able to buy a plastic bottle! But then the unimaginable happened... it was closed.

Luckily a Tim Hortons is right across the street, and in we went. as I was ordering my food, I froze. The drink! There were two options; a bottle or a can. Can you guess what I chose? That's right, the can. And do you know what I did with it? That's right, recycled.

Sadly, that is not enough to save our planet... If those products weren't there to entice me, I wouldn't buy them. My will power just isn't good enough.

Here's a link for everything you need to know about Ottawa's recycling:
http://www.ottawa.ca/online_services/recycling/index_en.html

Previous hidden message: so good

Thursday, 26 May 2011

Today I went out for lunch with some friends thinking all would be good, I had packed a lunch so I wouldn't have to deal with being peer pressured into buying food and along with it, a bottled drink.

So here we are going to the Blair Mall, when someone mentions Starbucks, and off we go. HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO SAY NO TO STARBUCKS?? And so I ordered my caramel frappuccino, I can't refuse one, I don't have the will power.

deliciousness.

I mean c'mon! Just look at that. It's impossible to refuse.

And so I guiltily drank my delicious drink, and quite suddenly the tastiness of it made it not seem so bad...

Previous hidden message: say no

Who knew a play could result in cheating?

Michelle Brazeau is a bad influence.

She is the reason for me cheating for the first time! At the intermission for Colonel By's 2011 production of Lil' Abner, she decided she was thirsty and wanted to buy a drink. But no, she did NOT want to wait in line and buy the "yokenberry tonic" that they were selling at the concession stand, but decided she had a toonie, and would go to the vending machine and pick something out. I thought alright, I wouldn't be cheating if she bought one, it's not that bad... but not only did she get a plastic bottled water, she pressed thechanged back button and we got it for free. So now we had an extra two dollars, and a thirsty girl looking to influence another. And so, we got a bottled diet coke.

I am ashamed to say that I enjoyed every sip of those drinks I took. And I can safely bet that Michelle feels the same.

BUT, you'll be happy to hear that even though we did buy these drinks, we recycled!! At least we're making an effort:)


4th post's hidden message: no bottles

Update on the laundry

I was very happy friday morning when I woke up and all of my laundry was dry! I've decided that leaving my laundry to the last moment probably isn't the best idea, especially if I'm going to be hanging all of my clothes around the house. There were just too many last time! When my mom go home, she walked up the stairs, laughed, then turned around and walked back down the stairs... definitely not doing that again!
So I'll probably be doing a load again by the end of the week :)

I haven't been having too much trouble with the "no plastic bottles" thing, which I'm really happy about because I've wanted to do this for a while now :) However, I also haven't been at school all weekend, so the temptations from the caf aren't there either...

Previous hidden message : yummm

Yummy dinner!

Last night for dinner my family and I went to a vegan restaurant for my dad's 52nd birthday (my brother's a vegan... my dad wanted a steak! The restaurant was called ZenKitchen on Bronson and Somerset and everything they served was local food, and many of the meals were available gluten free. It was delcious! I was very surprised by how many options there were and how tasty it all was :) They even had vegan wine! Who knew that wine wasn't vegan?? Apparently some wineries use egg whites to filter their wines.

For my meal, i ordered a coconut curry which wasn't spicy (just the way I like it) but it came with a side of some sauce that you could add to make it more spicy if you like it that way. For dessert I ordered a chocolat peanut butter tart that had coconut whipped cream on top with a baked peanut butter glaze/cookie thing... sooo good. And after all of that, the kitchen gave us complementary cupcakes!

I will definitly be going back and recommending it to everyone!
http://www.zenkitchen.ca/

Laundry day!

For this post I made a video! It took me a while so, enjoy :)

I had lots of fun with this!

How am I doing?

Starting this project was kind of difficult. The first day it started I left for an Outdoor Ed. camping trip! And since I lost my reusable water bottle at my last cheerleading competiton in Myrtle Beach, I bought a 1.5 L plastic water bottle thinking that I could reuse it on the trip as we would be hiking for 7 hours in a day. Turns out I was right! I used it many times during the trip and I didn't have to use the water purification because I had plenty for the whole trip :) I also used it at the competition I went to this weekend! Because it was in a convention centre, I was extremely happy that I had a humongous water bottle and I didn't have to pay for an extremely over priced drink while I was there.

Consequently, after both those trips I still have yet to do my laundry. I can just see the clothes hanging everywhere in my house now... Hope my family won't mind!

Last post's hidden message: Watch me do this!

Let's get started!!

For the CGR4M 2011 “No Impact” summative we must “think about and change our impact on the planet through a closer inspection of our lifestyle.” And so I thought to myself, what could I change out of my everyday life that could make a difference? First thing to come to mind was to not watch so much TV. But who am I kidding? The second these three weeks are up I’ll just be on my PVR catching up on everything I missed. I mean, c’mon, its finale season!! Second thing I think of is water bottles. By staying away from them I would be 1)creating less landfill, and 2) giving the plastic bottle business one less costumer. If the costumer doesn’t want it, they won’t produce it! This will be a bit challenging for me as every once in a while I enjoy my Pepsi from the caf... well if I can mooch enough change from my friends I’ll get one. It’s my secret pleasure. So that will be the first thing I will change in my lifestyle for this three week period. If all goes well, I’ll be done with Pepsi!

Now that doesn’t seem like much, so I decided to pick another thing to change that will make an impact. So while doing some research I came across some interesting stuff. Did you know a dryer is typically the second biggest electricity using appliance after the refrigerator? And over its expected lifetime of 18 years, the average clothes dryer will cost you approximately $1,530 to operate according to the California Energy Commission. To cut down on these energy deficient ways, I vow for the next three weeks to not use the dryer for my clothes, but to let them air dry! Let’s hope I can cope with this, as I usually let my laundry build up until I have nothing left to wear, then wash everything at once... but with this that would be bad! I’d have to wait for everything to dry, which could take who knows how long!

Wish me luck!

Ps. Put together the bolded red letters in order to uncover a hidden message!