Ideal Bite

Dearest Biters:

I wrote an article for The Huffington Post about my experience at the Opportunity Green conference, and I have to be honest - it is kind of a battle cry to go beyond small steps.

Don’t get me wrong: I do believe that all the changes that we collectively have made over the past 4+ years haven’t gone unnoticed, especially by companies.  I mean look, you’d be hard pressed to find a Fortune 500 company without a green product line or sustainability section in its yearly stockholder report. This is exactly what we set out to do… so, well done Biters!! We’ve truly made a huge impact with our collective small steps adding up. But I’ve really accepted the fact that we gotta think bigger, expect more, and just be bold if you love this earth and people and animals on it.  

So Read the full post... 

Last night I attended the ESPYs - which I recently learned is the red carpet event for Celebraletes. (That’s my poor attempt at making a Brangelina-esque term to describe celebrity athletes.) Not being what one might call a sports aficionado, I was given the following cheat sheet by a friend:

-- The really tall guys play basketball
-- The guys with no teeth play hockey
-- The fat guys play football
-- The cute, all-American boys play baseball
-- The lumpy older guys and gals play golf, except for Tiger Woods who looks more like a baseball player
-- The big goofy young guy with ears that stick out is Michael Phelps
-- Samuel L Jackson is host, he's an actor.

So, why was I going to the most unlikely of events? Idealbite.com, the company I co-founded over 4 years Read the full post... 

As most Biters know, I am not over-domesticated.  I end up ordering out more than cooking in (or heating up a pizza, etc), and well, of recent, with all my animals (dog, 2 cats, 6 chicks, and a horse), I had to get some help with the cleaning. The one thing that I love to do though is laundry.  I can take my time and sort colors, put pre-wash stain stuff on places where above-mentioned pizza may have dribbled down onto my white sweater, and just slow down a bit on Sunday am.  (This is one area where Heather and I are exactly the same - we both love doing laundry.) I then set aside some time to call friends while I fold.

Well, it took some convincing for me to use the cold cycle. I just love clean clothing, and I get dirty quite often (think: riding clothes!). 

But I did a test with two slightly smelly turtlenecks that I Read the full post... 

The birds are chirping, I had my old garage guttted (kind of similar to spring cleaning which I am too busy/lazy to do) and I am in an all-around better mood.  So the thought of patio furniture and such is fantastic... it means we have arrived at the time where you WANT to be outside.

YAY! I made it through a tough MT-winter. 

To celebrate my new edition to the lawn was not furniture but instead (drum roll please) - a CHICKEN COOP!  It was built green because I used scraps of siding that I found in my garage when above-mentioned-gutting.  And I will put a small solar panel to power the heat lamp that will be on inside at night and next winter. 

Pics of the chicks: http://www.idealbite.com/photogallery/photo_category/C10/

I am sure you will be hearing Read the full post... 

I will admit something that I probably shouldn't:  I cry when I see animals being hurt, but not humans.  

Now that is off my chest, I will confess something else:  I never had a crush on the zoo keeper as the tip said.  Heather was just in a snarky mood and wanted to pretend that I like men that shovel shitakes.

Here's the rub:  zoos do give children an experience with extreme forms of nature, and therefore hopefully an appreciation for it.  But my god I do hate the look in the apes' eyes as they sit behind the glass.  They are so FREAKING smart and we have them caged like a gold fish?  I even shed a little tear for fish in small bowls too.

So I don't know ... where would a kid from the Bronx be able to see nature if not a zoo? And would it be fair to take that away from them?  BITERS sound off.. I really don't know where I stand on this.  Thanks for your

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Ha! I would LOVE to see The Cricket carting around the cat or the whole herd of my six new baby chickens.  And although I do think I am slightly crazy, I am not officially crazy and so therefore will not pursue this wild little notion.

And in general, I bet this tip won't be adopted as readily as say changing out your lights and replacing with CFLs.  Just a hunch.

OKAY officially conducting a poll:  are ANY BITERS going to do this tip?  Maybe it is good to get people thinking about alt transportation, though, right?

Off to think about The Cricket mushing... aww... that WOULD be cute.  JB

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Not sure why, but I've always loved that story.  Maybe our green version is Princess and the Organic Pea.  I could at least afford one of those.  However, eco mattresses just seem too high of a premium.  I mean, I spend 30% more for organic food, no problem.  I spent $2K more for the popular diesel version of the Jetta so I could run bio-diesel.  I invested a few hundred bucks in a pretty piece of eco-wood for my kitchen bar.  But come on, more than a 100% price premium for a mattress seems egregious.  (I think the least expensive option is about $1500, including shipping.  And last I looked, you could get a decent non-eco mattress for about $750.) However, when you calculate what % of your life you spend in bed, you think, "well, maybe it is worth it."  And I am coming around to that.  I am. 

I wonder if I could find my eco-prince charming by getting one, and the moment he

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Why is that?  I get that they are powerful and could do damage to you if they wanted, but seriously, you'd be hard pressed to find an evil horse.  And if you did, I'd guarantee that it became that way due to an evil human.

Anyway, Miss Lou and I are doing well.... she and I are getting ready for the spring eventing season.  TG for riding... it is my yoga.  I would be a very pissy person without my horse (and wine / cheese / frequent snacks / fulfilling work).

A friend just wrote in about the tip...  looks pretty cool.

"Hey Jen - just got the idealbite today about natural horse care - I don't know if I mentioned before but I have two 1200 lb "kids" here on the farm - I don't know if you've tried the My Horse N' Me products but I really like them - the Juniper Fly Repellent is great as is the Carrot Cake Shampoo - here's their website: Read the full post... 

For Thanksgiving my girlfriend Jen Nash came out to visit and to teach me how to cook a few things.   Well, I definitely learned a few things:

1. I didn't like Tofurkey, really

2. You shouldn't put hot soup in a blender.  Yeah, we made this onion based soup and decided it was too chunky, so dumped it in a blender. I put the lid on and hit "blend" and wow did it ever.  It exploded all over my kitchen.  I am still finding chunks.

See why I am a bit leery about cooking? 

Off to heat up some Amy's soup (on low) and enjoy the 32nd snow storm here.... jb

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I have to admit, I have never been too into wedding "stuff."  I think they are beautiful and all that, but I do hope I will have the means to hire someone to take care of the details.  I mean, I am not even sure I know why Wedding Favors are necessary... isn't there enough "stuff" surrounding weddings? However, if I must get/give one, would love something that would pay it forward... you know, make a statement and help educate and be fun.  Like what?  What about a hand-help carbon calculator, with a gift-certificate code for offsetting their wedding travel?  Now there's an idea...  if one of you rich Biters wants to produce a prototype, just co-brand it with the Bite and you can keep royalties.  Yeah, I am in a good mood.

UNTIL JUST NOW.

I am back at this coffee shop, and was trying to enjoy a nice morning with music, change of atmosphere, etc.  And this woman just came

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