Lunch time was never a time of joy for me.  Ever since I had this awful experience at a YMCA camp at 8 years old, where I was running a fever and ended up peeing my pants on a white linoleum floor at lunch time, I never really thought it was the party other kids thought it was.  Plus, in high school I did this dichotomous thing - I was both bad and good: I was either illegally off campus smoking cigarettes with my best friend Kristin, or I was in the library studying. 

So anyway, would kids today even be open to taking a lunch pail or reusable sack to school, AND remembering to return it?  I used to have one when I worked at IBM and started to get chubs from the cafeteria food... it was insulated and had Velcro at the top, and I packed cottage cheese and carrots and nuts, instead of the fully loaded backed potato with roll, followed up by 100 candy corns from the bins in our cafeteria.

So if your kid is too cool for lunch pails, and/or too irresponsible to bring it home, would your significant other or you be open to it?  Seriously, digame!

Off to make burritos for weekly lunch staple... Jen

I took a red eye flight last night from LA to NY. Personally,
unless you are landing in a foreign country or are STARTING your trip,
not ending it, I think one should avoid redeyes at all costs. It's just too depressing to show up at dawn and start a work day.

In
spite of the woman who threw a hissy fit and had to be taken off the
flight before we could take off (true story), I did, however, have
quite a nice flight - partially due to the fact that people couldn't
get enough of my water bottle. In a world where apparently you are
supposed to have a toy dog or a baby in order to get picked up, I
learned last night, that it's really the water bottle that does the
trick.

Apparently,
I am not the only one who has a mad love of my SIGG water bottle -
nearly everyone who saw me sip out of it remarked on it and asked where
they could get one. I was a one-woman marketing machine for SIGG.

Well, for me, I think I want to do all three! It has been quite the week of travel and excitement - from a photoshoot in LA (check out Vanity Fair, May Issue), to finishing off the week riding a mechanical bull in an LA bar with the founder of TreeHugger.com (just ask Graham who stayed on longer).  So anyway, I am in the mood to recharge before going into what looks like it is going to be an exciting spring.

So to settle the debate on which saves more energy, I did some hunting around, and EPA only had more office-based info on saving energy with computer systems. I did find the following debunking of myths interesting... taken from this article on small / home offices, written by Monte Enbysk.

MYTHS:

• Turning your PC off uses more energy than leaving it on. Not true. The small surge of power you use when turning it on -- which varies per PC make and model -- is still much smaller than the amount you use in keeping it on for lengthy periods.
• Turning your PC on and off wears it out. A decade ago, there was something to this, but not today, say Hershberg and others. It used to be that PC hard disks did not automatically park their heads when shut off, and that frequent on/off cycling could damage the hard disks. Today's PCs are designed to handle 40,000 on/off cycles before a failure, and that's a number you likely won't reach during the computer's five-to-seven-year life span.
• Screen savers save energy. Not true. Screen savers, at a minimum, can use 42 watts; those with 3D graphics can use as much as 114.5 watts, according to Don McCall, a Dell product marketing manager who does power measurement studies for the PC manufacturer. "It's absolutely wrong thinking that a screen saver will save energy," he says.
• Your computer uses zero energy when "off." That's true only if it is unplugged. Otherwise, the PC utilizes "flea power," or about 2.3 watts, to maintain local-area network connectivity, among other things, McCall says. In "hibernate" mode, your PC uses the same 2.3 watts; in "sleep" mode, your PC uses about 3.1 watts. Monitors do use zero energy when turned off.
• Lab tests done by Dell show that a PC running Microsoft Office uses 42.7 watts, McCall says. If it runs continuously at that rate for 365 days, at 7 cents per kilowatt-hour, the power consumption costs would be $26.18 for the PC and $45.99 for a regular monitor, for a total of $72.17 for the workstation.
• Flat-panel monitors use less energy (22 watts when left on, 3.3 watts in "sleep" mode) than regular monitors (75 watts when left on, 5 watts in "sleep" mode), McCall says. So the same workstation with Microsoft Office running for a year would use $39

So, you know what... off to totally unplug, build a fire, take the Crick for a walk, and make some organic whole wheat pasta.... wahhoo!
- Jen

Hey Gang:

So, today, we launched a new tip type - our Green Chip Company Showcase.  We hope you enjoy our updates about the companies out there which are taking the right steps toward being green.

For today, we'd love to hear 2 things from you:

1.  What did you think of the showcase today?  Was it informative?  Did it inspire you to try out John Masters products?

2.  What questions do you have for John?  Let us know, and we'll pass them along to him and have him respond.  In future GCCS blogs, we hope to have a company owner or representative guest blog for the day and respond directly, so the more feedback and questions we get from you, the better chance we'll have at getting them to guest blog.

Happy Friday, Happy first GCCS, and as always,

Happy Biting.

-Heather... off to prep for my closeup...

OK, so today's entire tip on home heating resulted from a tip submission from one of our Biters, Maria Ruth.  In case you weren't aware - about half of the tips that we publish are the result of ideas from readers like you.

Now, clearly, we embellished upon Maria's initial tip idea - when you finish baking cookies, open the oven as it is cooling down, and let that heat warm the house so you don't need to keep the thermostat cranked.  Our researchers got to work and unearthed other little "bites" you can take out of your heating bill, and a handful of resources to help you learn more. 

But that central nugget - that came from Maria.  We don't know everything (and god knows, we ain't baking cookies much these days), no matter how much we like to pretend we do.  But we have resources and researchers, and if your idea is a good one, we can get the word out.

So whatever your favorite green idea - be it silly, sassy or even so simple that you imagine it just couldn't make it into a tip... send it our way (submitatip@idealbite.com).  You never know - like Maria - your name could make it into the Biter lights, and your maybe-too-simple idea might influence tens of thousands of readers to make a shift that will help change the world.

-Heather... off to pack for a trip to LA... (more on said trip in a later blog)...

As an aside - if you read our blog, but don't get our daily tip, what we write here isn't going to make a lot of sense, generally.  Visit www.idealbite.com to sign up to receive our daily email tip. 

So in spite of wind chills in the teens, my inner garden freak is percolating. My mad crazy love of the world is becoming more pronounced.

Which leads me to planning for my rooftop this year - ideas about seeds and roots and shoots and herbs.

In a way, my planting is beginning to follow the rules of biodynamics (although, sadly, I am not growing grapes). And one element of biodynamic winemaking is to harvest according to the cycles of the moon.

So - interesting garden factoid to consider:

If you are planting "Roots" - things that need to grow deep and dark (think potatoes and carrots and anything that needs a big root base) - you should plan during a waning moon.

If you are planting "Shoots" - things that need to grow out and up and across and get tall (think flowers, climbers, and most veg)- you should plants during a waxing moon.

The theory is that if the moon can pull the ocean higher when it is getting full, it will help the seedlings to sprout and pull them out of the ground, and if it makes those same tides lower when it wanes, it will ease up on the pulling and let the roots take hold.

It might be complete garbage.

But I gotta say: anything that has the argument "I can pull the entire OCEAN at my will" has some credibility with me.

-Heather... off to dream of sprouting sweet peas...

I don't know why I got obsessed, but I did. From the moment I saw them, I knew they would grow (ahem) near and dear to my heart.  Sure, it is a touch corny to be obsessed with plantable notecards, and the paper is nubbly, but after some introspection here is what I decided:  I love them because they are invincible to the litterbug. If the litterbug tries to throw them away, they sprout flowers.  They are like the peaceful warrior in this battle to save the planet.

Oh, I heart plantable notecards, I really do.

And as a side note, when doing the research for this tip, we discovered plantable paper with wine grape seeds in them! I was excited to tip them, but alas, the store owner didn't think we were worthy of him sending a sample. Oh well, Montana doesn't grow good grapes anyway.

Off to write a note on my nubbly notecards to that wine grape seed guy, telling him that he missed out on 35,000 Biters' love, Jen

Dime a Dozen today has two meanings:

1. The Wal-Mart meaning… low cost, high volume crap
2. The second world meaning… low cost, hand crafted works of art
   

I lived in Antigua, Guatemalaonce for three month, on sabbatical. I had lost the Spanish I learned while studying in Spain, and this was a good excuse to go and get it back, and explore another country.

Everyday I would go to “El Parque Cenrtral” in the late afternoon to watch the people, write in my journal, and eat some papoosas.. these yummy handmade tortilla pockets with sharp salty cheese (petacones) in the center. So since I had become a regular, I started to get to know the adorable little girls who would come running over to me with baskets of homemade goodies on their heads. “Yennifer! Yennifer!”  So cute.

Anyway, these people work so hard, and are so delightful, that it feels like a dream come true for the notion of “fair trade” to be entering the mainstream.

Go Biters Go.

Off to see look to find the photos of those two “guate” precious angel girls –

Jen

When I was in college, the only thing green in my dorm room was the 3-week old cheese in the mini fridge.

However, I bet that is changing (not the cheese, but the amount of true eco things they got goin’ on.)

Reason why I know this?  My new boyfriend is in college and I just got back from his dorm.

(HA.  That was pretty funny.)

Real reason I think I know this?  I just returned from dinner with my neighbors, and they have teens, and our dinner discussion was about the viability of building hybrid engines into trucks and tractors, and how General Motors is a day late and dollar short in their race towards green during the Olympic advertising race.

Sure, not everyone is going to have a salt lamp (Heather, you adorable whack you), but green is going mainstream, as evidenced by my dinner conversation, and so theretofore (I don’t really use that word in real life, don’t worry) certainly green is sweeping college campuses everywhere.

Does someone want to present Interface Carpeting with the idea of “renting” college carpet-rug thingies to students and then they reclaim them for recycling at the end of the year? I remember back in my brown days of getting an area rug each year from those vendors and then throwing it out in the scramble to get to the beach in late May. I did think about all these area rugs going into the landfill, but then I got distracted by tanned bodies and beach parties... can ya blame me?

Off to create the pitch to Interface…or maybe a Biter can just forward this blog so we can get researching next month’s tips… Jen

I have to admit, after I watched Father of the Bride all I wanted was a wedding like that, swans and all.  It became a family joke …. Like when I may have been bad my father would say “no swans for you!”.  Or when I was sad, they might cheer me up with floating the swans and fancy food wedding day image *with the right guy* past my watery eyes of post breakup.

 
Ten (or more?) years after seeing that movie, I now think most weddings are like the Hilton or something… standard fare, lots of travel, lots of waste, nothing to really show the true heart and soul of the event.

 
Today, I have been fortunate enough to help friends plan their “green weddings” – and I am so inspired. When you add that dimension to the expected pomp and circumstance, it somehow reminds everyone that this is a very spiritual event, as opposed to an excuse to get loaded at the open bar (not that I am opposed to that).

 
Instead of swans, now I just want a small gathering with horses involved, only because I am a romantic and want a Fall, outside wedding.  And to be sure the guy I marry can handle both me and 1600 lb animal with grace.

 
If you Biters have had a green wedding or are planning one, chime in!

Off to ride (finally) this week… I am officially back in the saddle, sans swans, which is good since they tend to poop a lot.  - Jen

I have had a sweet tooth as long as I can remember.  People that don’t like anything sweet baffle me.

But when I turned 14 and it was no longer possible to eat as many cookies and candy bars as I could wrangle from the hidden spots in my neighborhood friends’ kitchens without needing to shop at Layne Bryant, I turned to sugar substitutes.

I was a blue packet girl. As I grew older, I actually grew to prefer the taste to real sugar.  It had more bite (no pun intended.).  And yes, I heard all the stories of brain tumors in rats and what-have-you….but the risk was worth it, especially for my morning coffee experience.

Most recently while tasting artesian honeys for a future tip at my co-op, I rediscovered the raw joy of raw sweetener. I even found a variety that I now add to my coffee in lieu of the blue stuff.  And now every morning I get to start my day off with delicious shade grown coffee and local honey…. It really feels a bit more grounding (pun intended) than mainlining chemicals as a first order of business.

Buzzing off to my second cup – Jen

Most of them rhyme.

Many, I wrote when I was 14.

But every so often, the world gives us a true poet, or a perfect poem, or sometimes just a perfect line.

I can't remember the majority of most poetry, but there are a few lines I know by heart - that make me lose my breath and my mind with the knowledge that someone out there got it perfectly right. So in honor of a day devoted to love, here are some faves:

"I love thee to the depth and breadth and height my soul can reach

When feeling out of sight for the ends of being and ideal grace."

Or

"I want to do with you what spring does with the cherry trees."

Or

The whole of Sonnet 29...

Are you kidding me? I mean, really? Are there better descriptions in all the world of that feeling? You know the one I'm talking about. I'd take a whack at describing it for you, but you can just re-read those lines again, since they do a far, far better job than I ever could.

Single or paired, happy or sad, dumper or dumpee, date or no date, I've never been a Valentine's Day Hater. I love this holiday. Maybe because I - quite simply - love love... to the depth and breadth and height...

Sure, it's commercial. Sure, we should all express our love every day of the year.

But come on. Who cares? For one day, we are all given the go-ahead to be in love with being in love.

So on this day, I wish you a love that reaches to the ends of being and ideal grace.

Or at least a good box of organic chocolates.

-Heather... off to schmoop my way through my day, smiling at the snarling people...

So I got a piece of spam the other day that gave me pause.  The subject line said:

"She will never forget her present if it's a Lady Glamour Plastics Replica Watch." 

Indeed.

If
anyone out there is thinking of sending me a Lady Glamour Plastics
Replica Watch for Valentines Day, please know that I will be turning
around and donating it to Freecycle. 

But yes, they got one bit right: I will never forget the gift.

-Heather... off to finish clearing my junk mail cache...

OK, so I have a very good friend.  (Let's call her Laura, in the interests of preserving her anonymity).

Years ago, Laura got a rabbit.

Laura truly enjoyed her rabbit at first.  Her rabbit was a good companion.  She gave it a proper Italian name, much to the delight of her friends.

One day, the rabbit died.  My friend was sad, but she understood that this was a way of life - sometimes rabbits die - and she got a new rabbit.   It was a different color, but she gave it the same lovely Italian name.  She even tried to give the dead rabbit back to the pet store.  But the store wouldn't take it for some reason.  All in all, though, the new rabbit was as good as the old.

But one day, Laura started to worry.  Maybe other pets wouldn't be as good as the rabbit, now that she loved the rabbit so much?  Perhaps her love of her rabbit was ruining her chances of happiness with other playmates?  (Laura is happy to report that this is not the case - there are better pets and playmates out there, but don't tell Marcello).

This worry morphed into an even greater one: what about global warming?  What if - some day in the future - the "food" that FED the rabbit and gave it its energy were no longer available?  What on earth would she do?  Could she go back to NOT having a rabbit?  This global warming thing - it could have some dire consequences...

Fortunately for Laura, there are now pets out there that are fed by the sun.  And there is "food" for rabbits that can also grab its energy from the sun.  Laura
still stresses about global warming, but knows that should the end
arrive, she will have her trusty Italian sidekick at hand.

I don't mean to be a jerk, but if you send me roses (unless they are organic, of course), you lack imagination.  If they are in a decorative basket that I should later use for serving bread, it becomes even more apparent that you have NO IDEA what you are doing.

And if - god forbid - there is any sort of stuffed animal anywhere near said arrangement, you can pretty much guarantee that ours will be a short-lived affair.

(In the interests of full disclosure, I got precisely that arrangement once.  I stayed with that guy for three years.  This was a serious lapse in judgment.  I shoulda taken my cue from the flowers.  Oh - the meaning was right - the guy just wasn't).

Life used to be a bit more simple by being somewhat more complex.  In Victorian times, the kinds of flowers you sent were a code to your feelings.

So if you are feeling a bit coy, here's a nice little key to help you decide really what kind of (organic) flowers you want to send this holiday: http://www.victorianbazaar.com/meanings.html.  (Apologies for the fact that the background looks like someone vomited flowers all over your screen - this site makes the Unicorn Tapestries look naked and unadorned).

So, check it out, and you can see why - this year - I prefer receiving pansies to roses, and hope never to receive rhododendrons as a gift.

-Heather... off to rifle through old love letters...

Do you remember that song that Cookie Monster from Sesame Street sang -- his was "C" is for Cookies, and cookies are for me!  Oh, those were the days.  Anyway, I have changed the song and sing it quite frequently.

See the thing is this... I am a pretty good girl - I have never done cocaine, I wish good things for other people, I write my grandmothers letters.  Oh, and I work my butt off.

So I really deserve some small indulgences. My perfect culinary night is filled with wine, cheese, fruit, and chocolates. And a hot latino who drives a Prius.

You?

Off to open my Dagoba bar to celebrate Hump Day.
- Jen

To be honest, I don't care that much about massage oils.  It's the massaging itself that I go in for.  But if I were actually choosing an oil (and this is not just me, being all green), I'd go for coconut oil every time.

Try Kuumba Made - I promise - no matter who is doing the rubbing... it doesn't ever disappoint.

What are your faves?

-Heather... off to bed...

So I am a huge fan of effeciency. Not just energy effeciency. I am talking like I plan my trip to the bathroom to intersect with some other errands that I have to do, like pick up the print out, check on the Cricket, and maybe even call a talkative neighbor back while I pee and the phone is on mute.

Therefore the idea of "green dating" is a cool one, in that I don't want to waste time dating someone who loves to litter, who thinks that oil dependence is a great thing, and drives a Hummer. (I actually don't care about dating a meat eater, as long as they will let me persuade them to eat free-range organic meat, and then worship me for opening their minds. :-)

However, I must confess... I have never tried a dating service.  I dipped a toe in the water and was emailing with this guy on Friendster once, but I could never close the deal.  I guess it is wildly popular these days.  BITERS -give us the goods... what is the scoop... share your stories and we will love you long time.

Off to daydream about the hot latin I will meet online who picks me up in the Prius, sporting pleather shoes and a crisp organic white button down - Jen 

But after a long day of tech troubleshooting, I'm feeling a bit tired and sappy, so instead, I'll say this:

It may be a day of gluttony and guzzling.  It may be a foolish sporting event full of waste, and sure - all our time could be better spent elsewhere, I am sure.

But
for one day, an unbelievable number of people all look at the same
thing at the same time, share the same experience, react to the same
images.  For a few hours, the collective energy of a vast
variety of Americans from different walks of life, with different
political bents and favorite teams is focused in one single direction.

Good god.  Imagine if we could just harness that energy somehow.  Who'd need oil?

-Heather... off to send out a very, very belated tip...

"Young people everywhere have been allowed to choose between love and a garbage disposal unit. Everywhere they have chosen the garbage disposal unit." - Guy Debord

So funny, and I am sure true -- I remember apartment hunting in NYC and was floored and saddened that disposals weren't allowed.  Now it makes sense since I am thinking more about it... the food that you put down the disposal doesn't go straight to feed the fishies in the sea!  Au contraire - it puts a burden on sewage-treatment plant (or your septic system). This not only increases the load on our already overburdened sewage-treatment facilities, but also creates the need to use water to flush Aunt Edna's awfully inedible dinner down the drain (instead of strategically hiding it under that say recycled paper used napkin).

WhoWodaThunk?
Off to play with my super sexy NatureMill composter... Jen