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So I learned to fly in a 70s era Cessna 152-a light and little two-seat contraption with nary a bell nor whistle. Navigation meant consulting charts, weather reports, and maps, and required tons of manual mathematical calculations. (Did I mention I majored in English Lit?)

Where was Google Mobile when I needed it?

-Jenifer Morgan...off to fly blind...

When we were brainstorming about category topics for our tip library, I was all on board to have a category called No Duh, a place for those complete no-brainer tips to reside. Because truly - sometimes tip ideas come in or come up, and all I can do is shake my head (at myself, usually) and ask: "Why on earth haven't I thought of that before???"

Today's tip perfectly epitomizes what would have become the "No Duh" category criteria. There's nothing really for me to say here to kick off this blog - we all know: takeout containers = unnecessary waste.

So why - knowing that - does it still feel like such a guilty little pleasure to have restaurant food at home?

-Heather... off to plan my home-cooked meals for, well, Burning Man...

When Proust dipped a madeleine cookie in his teacup one day, the scent conjured vivid memories of his grandmother's house. One of my most vivid memories is also linked to smell: A teacher's aide who I only encountered during lunch at my elementary school seemingly bathed in a heavy, musky perfume called Tabu - now whenever I smell it, I have a cafeteria flashback. I can see the cooks' hairnets, the orange and yellow walls, the speckled linoleum flooring, and every GMO morsel on my cafeteria tray (spinach from a can! What more could a 7 year old want?)...it's not a romantic memory (or a remotely appetizing one), but the power of smell and its connection to our memory is an amazing thing.

All of today's essential oil-based perfume options are truly terrific. I hope you find the perfect match for you, and get to inspiring more interesting and romantic memories than mine.

-Jenifer Morgan...off to do something taboo...

P.S. If you're interested in learning some aromatherapy basics, check out this site.

When I was little, I would spend entire minutes staring at the Starfield screensaver that came with Windows back then. Who knew my passion for faux-space flight was using energy, not saving it?

What some people might not know is that in addition to sucking power, screensavers are, in fact, unnecessary, thanks to new computer technology. Bite on that before your next trip on the Starfield Express.

-Toshio...off to book a Virgin Galactic flight...

I coveted my grade school friends' snacks - all gooey Hostess fruit pies and Ding Dongs and sodas.  Daily, I‘d unpack my carrot sticks and apple, with the occasional chocolate pudding and a little note on a napkin from Dad, and I'd wonder how I could somehow cobble together the makings of a decent trade - my fruit leather for their Snickers bar, perhaps?  Occasionally, Mom would make tuna salad sandwiches on whole-grain bread with sprouts, loaded down with pickles and hard-boiled egg, and a tiny bit of mayo (she called it "stretching" the can of tuna).

I'd gaze in envy at my tiny blonde Nordic-looking friends as they pulled out their thin little mayo-ridden, tuna-only sandwiches on soggy white Wonder Bread, wishing my lunches were more like theirs.

God, but kids are so stupid.

-Heather... off make a whole-grain sandwich...

The college I went to was pretty green. The administration paid to remove invasive English ivy from the lake on campus, there were recycling bins in all the dorms, and the cafeteria even offered a vegan option at each meal. But do those things qualify it as one of the greenest?

Recently, there’s been a commotion in academia surrounding the US News and World Reports college rankings – and I think any green rankings that come out could be similarly controversial. How do you decide what counts for more “points”: invasive species removal or a recycling program?

The brave ones at the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education are gonna have a go at answering that question. And I'm so glad I'm not them right now.

-Toshio...off to relish never having to take another biology final again...

Today's Guest Blogger: Jenny Grossenbacher

Inspired by a course on sustainability I took in Esalen, CA, I started working on an idea I had for creating a community sustainability center. The core focus kept coming back to food, and how we sustain ourselves and our communities at the same time. Coupled with that, I kept hearing my oldest daughter Mackenzie begging not to have to eat the school lunch. I finally put two and two together and realized how drastically we needed to change the system. 

Another trip back to Esalen for a workshop with Amory Lovins provided me with an arsenal of info and contacts. I was blown away by the enthusiasm and support that the Farm-to-School idea garnered when I first started talking about it in Bozeman. I don't know if I would have made it a step further if a handful of mothers at our elementary school didn't jump on the bus with me. They were right there to support and add great ideas.

One short email to farm-to-school expert U of MT professor Dr. Neva Hassanein and Grow Montana, led to a community gathering of more than 65 people, and the program continued to grow quickly from there. The support of Bozeman School District's Food Service Director, Bob Burrows, was huge. Add to that the volunteer support that Grow Montana granted us (in the form of a full-year Food Corps volunteer), and we were off to a great start in a state where folks said Farm-to-School would never work!

School lunches often include fatty beef from industrial cattle operations, genetically modified corn and soy products, and heavily processed grains. Tell your legislators you want our kids eating healthier food. The Farm Bill, a massive piece of legislation that is reauthorized every five years and dictates what our kids eat for lunch, will be on the floor of the Senate this September. Call your senators about this very important topic - or visit http://healthyfarmbill.org to send them an email.

-Jen's friend Jenny Grossenbacher...off to the co-op...

Even after our school district started issuing kids two sets of textbooks (one for school, one for home, so we wouldn't have to lug them back and forth every day), the too-heavy backpack issue was still a problem with me. I was too lazy to go to my locker between periods, so I regularly ended up carrying 20 lb or more around my high school campus.

One not-so-good friend made fun of me for it - he'd catch me bent over under the weight of my books and call me "hunchback." (And I had horrible posture even without the extra weight.)

There's a good solution. Digital textbooks are becoming more and more common. Weighing in at around 5 lb (for the laptop you'll need to view them), not only are they lighter than paper textbooks, they're dogear-immune, and they're tree-free. A totally innovative way to end the textbook-induced hunchback problem...

-Toshio...off to walk with a textbook on my head...

Shame on you!  I signed up for a tip on green living, and you filthy beasts send out a tip promoting porn! I'm unsubscribing. - Not-Prudish-Just-Proper in Pennsylvania

Dear Not-Prudish: Um, it's supposed to be a little tongue-in-cheek. The tip is actually about curtailing your use of paper and packaged products when there are digital versions available. It's not really about porn. Well, then again, porn can be sorta fun, so maybe you should actually check some out before passing judgment. - Ideal Bite

"Really?  Is this the best you can do? Are you running out of tip topics? Can't you guys come up with better ideas than this?" - Bored in Bedford

Dear Bored: We have hundreds more great ideas ready to publish and would love for you to spend some time in our tip library, checking out our past tips. We also enjoy getting tip submissions, so please visit our submission page , and send us some other topics you'd like to see us write about. - Ideal Bite

I don't read or watch porn - why can't you publish something that is relatable instead of just bad attempts at cleverness? - It's All About Me Me Me in Maryland

Dear Me Me Me: Well, I don't have a dog. Or a kid. Or a weakness for beer or a craving for tofu. I do, however, have many friends who fit those bills. On days when I can't see how the tip applies to me, I generally pass it along to those friends who could use the information to help the planet. My guess is that you probably have some porno-luvvin' friends. Spread the love. - Ideal Bite

-Heather...off to, um, er...

A few years ago, I had a bad work experience. After spending a year traveling, I found myself in a horrid job - back in dodgy Internet advertising, selling crap to businesses so they could sell crap to people, and I found myself crying in my car, trying not to crash on the West Side Highway as I sobbed to my brother about how unfulfilling my work life was. His answer?

“So leave.”

The very same day, a dear friend forwarded a NYT article to me on the NY Botanical Garden’s Landscape Design program, saying, “You should really quit and start taking these classes.”

Within a month, I’d stopped working full time in Internet advertising and decided to go to landscape design school.

LD school led me to a fascination with green roofs. Which led me to Earth Pledge. Which led me to sustainability. Which led me to green consulting, which led me to Jen, which led to the Bite.

The world works in crazy ways.

One of the last classes I took at NYBG was a course on microdrip irrigation - easily the best way to maximize your water usage. If you are in the NYC area, you should seriously check out its program. (And if you want more local NYC green tips, sign up for our local edition, which launches September 25th).

-Heather…off to help Mom chart out her microdrip project…

It's no wonder that coffee didn't appeal to me until I met with a highly unusual bout of insomnia. My dad always blended together the lowest-grade (read: cheapest) variety available with some kind of clove-infused holiday blend we'd received as a - dare I say it? - obligatory gift, or some exotic vanilla blend a coffee shop happened to send for free. He preferred it cold. Um, yuck.

And while I still usually go the way of tea (we'll do a tea roundup soon!), sometimes the java jive is worth a jitter or two. It's also central to grandpa's migraine quick-fix - two aspirin and a stiff cup actually works sometimes. In addition to the blends in today's tip, I like Allegro (esp. Organic French Roast) - at home, instead of a plastic drip contraption we use a ceramic drip one (these can be hard to find but last forever), which allows you to masterfully control coffee strength and is a snap to clean.

-Jenifer Morgan...off to move in Allegro tempo...

There's nothing in the world that doesn't get somebody excited, sneakers included. I've been obsessed with some pretty weird stuff (witness my delirious love for the band Ace of Base like eleven years after they were popular), but I wouldn't consider myself sneaker-obsessed.

I have seven pairs of sneakers in my closet, which some think is a lot for a guy. But that's not even close to an obsession when you compare it to the people in this Washington Post article. Basically, some "sneakerheads" are willing to wait in lines in the same way Harry Potter maniacs waited outside bookstores in droves last month. Lucky for the earth, with shoe brands as big as Nike jumping on the eco-bandwagon, soon this'll be one obsession that doesn't have to hurt the earth as much as my Ace of Base obsession hurts people's ears. What's your weird obsession?

-Toshio...off to listen to an imported, deluxe remix album of previously unreleased Ace of Base B-sides in Swedish...

Principled, charismatic, well-spoken, bright, charming, undeniably nice. Unlike other game show hosts (OK, I won't name names...ahem, Alex Trebek), he never subtly jabbed a contestant who gave the wrong answer. His reaction was always more "Too bad you had an unlucky day" than "Whoops, too bad you're not smarter!"

He had me at hello.

Then came his classy, do-don't-just-talk-about-doing animal rights advocacy. First he became a vegetarian. Next, he started saying to viewers at the end of The Price Is Right, "Help control the pet population; have your pet spayed or neutered." Other game show hosts followed suit. He founded the non-profit  DJ&T Foundation. He stepped down from hosting high-profile beauty pageants because they insisted on including fur coats as prizes.

As of last June, we can no longer tune in to watch Bob, but here's a chance for Biters to WIN a different kind of inspiration for doing the right thing. And the price is right: free!

The first person to answer the following question in the blog comments will win a copy of Paul Hawken's new book Blessed Unrest:

How many Emmy Awards did Bob Barker receive for Outstanding Game Show Host?

The first person to answer the following question in the blog comments will win a copy of A Slice of Organic Life:

Big Boy and Tiny Tim are varieties of which fruit or vegetable?

And if you don't give the right answer, it's OK...you're smart, you just had an unlucky day. Thanks for playing, and good luck!

-Jenifer Morgan...off to guess the price of something or other...

Until yesterday, my only Delaware experience was watching Wayne's World back in the day - the scene where Wayne's doing his cable access TV show and the topic of Delaware comes up. And he has absolutely nothing to say.

I thought it was kind of sad that there were no National Park Service sites of any kind in DE (no national cemetery, no national battlefield, no nothing). So I figured at the very least the state deserved its own blog entry, but I didn't know what to write about.

Well, guess what? One of our newest team members, Carleigh Bell (photos to come), was actually born in Delaware. (I know, I was like "What?!") And she's here to inform the world that Delaware does have parks - state parks - and some very nice ones at that, thank you very much. She recommends Cape Henlopen, where she spent many summers growing up.

Which brings me to my next point - even if you haven't got a national park near you, there are plenty of state and regional parks that are absolutely worth a visit. So go!

-Toshio...off to hum "Bohemian Rhapsody"...

They do, don't they? Get more, bigger, better food out of the same little old, tired, overworked patch of land? Sign me up!

Or, well... no. Don't. 'Cuz nature's kind of fine-tuned this whole gorgeously balanced gene thing, no? It's had millennia of trial and error to get that one right. Not quite sure I trust something that's only gone through seven years of testing by a government body quite as much as I trust natural selection. God only knows what one misplaced spliced gene will do to us, the oceans, the world.

-Heather...off to read more of The Moral Animal...

Yep, I worked at the Dairy Queen.

I was 15. Brian Crawford worked at the Dairy Queen. I had a crush on him, on and off, through high school, so working at the DQ seemed like the right thing to do. (For some reason, the owners of our little Libby, MT, DQ only once let us work our hormone-laden shifts together. True tragedy.) I worked there for a whole month until I got the much more coveted job of working at the video store. Free VHS rentals = assumption of giant increase in popularity. (Not really sure that worked.)

DQ? I made a lot of root beer floats during that month. I also accidentally made a lot of unordered Blizzards that I needed to eat instead of letting go to waste. Bummer.

-Heather...off to buy some Ben and Jerry's...

OK, so my friends are fun, interesting people doing interesting things. And most of my friends' friends are fun, interesting people doing interesting things.

So why are we all sitting around fishing diaper pins out of bowls of rice with blindfolds on?

Let's get it out there: I hate going to baby showers. Call me crazy, but I would so much rather spend an afternoon with my soon-to-be-parent friends in the park, make dinner for them while they relax, or shuttle them to a day spa post-birth, than spend an afternoon seeing how adept I am at molding a baby bottle out of clay or guessing the contents of my purse for a slice of the diaper-shaped cake. Of course, baby still gets cute bamboo outfits from Aunt Jeni-I'll just pass on playing Pass the Dirty Diaper.

-Jenifer Morgan...off to take a shower...

The first time I saw Breakfast at Tiffany’s, the thing that most charmed me about Holly Golightly (besides her love for Cat) was her mailbox. It contained no bills, no catalogs, just perfume, lipstick, and a mirror.

Of course I’ve long wished to do the same. Getting off junk mail lists got me halfway there, and with online bill pay (just one more left to set up!) I’m even closer to making my way. The invitations, postcards, and letters will just have to squeeze in between the bottles.

-Jenifer Morgan…off to Sing Sing…

Until I moved into my current place, I'd always had fans in the shared bathrooms at home.

But now, in addition to being fanless, our bathroom is really echo-ey, so if you happen to be hanging out in the hallway while someone's in the bathroom, you're gonna get an earful. I was shy at first, waiting for opportune moments when the place was empty to take care of business.

Then, the topic of the bathroom came up in conversation with my roommates. We all joked about our bathroom broadcasts, which helped us all get over it, and now I've got no fear, echoes or no echoes.

-Toshio...off to eat some beans...

I was a victim of dirty car graffiti. The thing is, I deserved it. Only it didn't make a difference.

Between the time I bought it in 2004 and sold it last November, I washed my Corolla all of two times. Once during an extended stay at home one summer, I washed it as a concession to my parents, who were (understandably) embarrassed to have my dirtier-than-dirt car parked in their driveway.

The other time was when Heather borrowed my car for a week when she moved to SF, just before she bought her biodiesel, Trixie (RIP). Although Heather and I are friends, she's still my boss, and I was slightly concerned about what she'd think if I pulled up in a Dirtmobile and tossed her the keys.

So if any would-be graffiti artists are reading this, don't bother telling me what I already know. Chances are, I'm only gonna clean up if my parents or my paycheck's involved.

-Toshio...off to take public transportation...

In 2002 I ended my eight-month stint as a vegan with a Del Taco Bacon Double Cheeseburger. It was overcooked, oily, and delicious.

Since then, I've only had veggie burgers here and there, but a couple weeks ago, my roommate made me try a Trader Joe's Marsala Veggie Burger at a BBQ. Maybe it was the fact that it was grilled, or maybe I'd had too much Coors, but with a little chutney on top, the Marsala Burger was so good that if I ever wanted to go back to being vegan, I think I'd have a much easier time, thanks to TJ's. The burgers aren't available at all locations (which is why we didn't include them in our Wanna Trys), but if you can find them and you like samosas, definitely pick some up.

-Toshio...off to drink a Coors...