The Cook Family

There is lots of talk about gas prices these days and those with guzzlers are wanting something that gets better mileage. Edmunds has a calculator to let you find out when the fuel savings will start making the trade in cheaper. Trading in the Cavalier for a Prius would start saving us money in 879 months! Thats only a bit over 73 years!

361 months for the Vibe. If I had an 03 Suburban it would start saving me money in only 94 months.

I got home tonight and though "Apple is supposed to release new iPhones!" So I was excited to learn that the price had dropped in half to $199. Then I saw that ATT was upping the data charge from $20/month to $30/month. So your phone that is $200 cheaper all of a sudden gets $240 more over the course of the 2 year contract. Good marketing, but still more expensive. I reckon I still won't get one.

So in the past couple years RSS has exploded and brought with it things like podcasting and the like. The problem is that it is easy to have a ton of RSS feeds to keep track of. You can add them to your browser, a dedicated RSS reader, or even some mail clients. The problem I was running into was that I had almost 60 feeds that I kept track of and some of them would easily have 30 posts per day. Keeping track of them between multiple computers was getting to be a big hassle. I had to remember to add a feed to all the computers I used and then had to "read" them on all the computers and remember which ones I had already read. It was a pain.

Then I discovered Google Reader. It is web based and easy to use much like all the other google stuff out there. It also gave me one place to go to read all the RSS feeds and it remembers which ones I have already read.

So Bridgit has been complaining of an oil smell when she stops in the Caviler. I drove it today and noticed the same thing. I opened the hood expecting a leak and instead the oil fill cap was just gone, vanished. I swear I put it back when I changed the oil last. The smell has only been for a month or so....weird.

Auto Jerks has a replacement thats pretty cheap so I will pick one up tomorrow, and do oil changes.

On a side note I have been using synthetic oil in the cars because it is better for them, and I can go way longer between changes. Less changes means the oil ends up being cheaper (even though the oil is more expensive per QT) and its also better for the environment. I have been doing about 10k miles between changes instead of the standard 3k. Some say you can go up to 50k with synthetic.

Last Friday-Monday I had a fever, allergies flaring, and soreness/acheing. Tylenol and claritin were able to get it at least partially under control. Towards the end I threw Belladonna into the mix for some hippie-opathic/real medicine double attack action.

Yesterday I felt better and that is great. I managed to get the lawn mowed for the first time in two weeks. Today our midwife is coming over for a prenatal, but I was hoping to do oil changes tonight.

It is nice that I will be better for the weekend. Abe is coming into town briefly, we haven't seen him since the holidays. I also aim to get some paddling in and we are doing my birthday stuff with my family since they will be in Pittsburgh next weekend for Annie's Law School graduation (Congrats!).

So this week it was announced that the Nissan GT-R (remember the Skyline) whooped it up and did 7:29 around the 'Ring. That is the second fastest time of any production car. The fastest being the Pagani Zonda F at 7:27. As you can probably tell by the name it's a fast/expensive car.

Well today GM has decided to uproot the new occupant for #2. The Chief Engineer of the Corvette says that they new Corvette ZR1 will be able to beat that time.

So today is Earth Day, so I thought that I would let everyone know what we have been doing around the house to save the earth.

Our old showerhead was cracked and didn't flow well, so when we decided to replace it we got a super low flow head that only puts out 1.6 gallons/minute. It is made by Delta and was less then $15. It is the only low flow that is available at the big box stores. It has great pressure, but you do notice that less water is coming out. It is also louder then our old head. The 30% less water that this head uses not only saves on the water bill, but also the gas used to heat the water.

We have already converted every light bulb that we can over to CFL already, so not much to toot our horn about there.

Currently we have a compost heap that is just a pile of some yard waste. I am thinking about a more active composter that we can use with kitchen waste.

We try to drive as little as possible, and have both cars average over 30mpg. We are currently facing the idea that our family is growing and we may need something larger like a minivan or crossover, but by doing that we will cut our MPG by a over a third just to have some extra room. Maybe will we just get a roof box instead and not have more then three kids (if we can even fit three in the Vibe).

We try to not use chemicals for cleaning. Vinegar for windows and cleaning the bathroom. Baking soda for scrubbing. There are some good recipes here.

We try to eat local/organic. Almost all of our bread comes from the River Street Bakery here in town which gets the flour from a place about 50 miles away. We make our own yogurt, granola, and sometimes granola bars (we need to make more).

Cloth diapers have worked well for us. We try to use ones that require as little dry time as possible. We also use gDiapers with cloth insides instead of the biodegradable insides. When possible we line dry (all laundry)

and that means that it is time to go canoeing. Also that it is time to do some maintenance that I have been putting off. Earlier in the week I oiled the wood on the Kipawa. I don't think that Birdgit will want to do any solo canoeing this year. Her center of gravity is off and the water isn't warm yet and later in the summer we will have a newborn to deal with in the canoe.

I got the rack on the car and bought some replacement bolts for ones that end up missing. The paddles needed some love too so I got some varnish and have been touching up spots where it has worn off.

We did get to go out at Bandemer for a paddle. Eli is much more mobile and inquisitive this year. He is able to walk around the canoe and was enthralled with the ducks, geese, and muskrat that we saw. He also really wants to paddle, so I will be making a paddle for him (hopefully this week). He kept picking up a paddle to put it in the water. I have started teaching him the proper way to hold the paddle, but his stroke needs some practice.

This year should be a lot of fun, but it will be challenging with 2 kids and 2 adults. We may just have to tie up and sit in the canoe.

Also other canoes are out. We saw a number of nice canoes: a Merrimack Tennessean, a Kruger Seawind, and Mad River Eclipse.

Well yesterday we got back from the Rutz Colorado Family Ski Trip. It was a week of skiing and family. Read more for the blow by blow. We are getting all the pictures together and I will post a few.

After his grandmother got him some bear paw mittens he learned that he should growl like a bear when wearing gloves/mittens. Here is a video of him wearing my ski mittens.

So normally today would be St. Patrick's day, but because it falls during Holy Week is has been moved. Most churches have moved it to Saturday (also the Solemnity of Saint Joseph.) Most secular celebrations drunkards are still celebrating it today though

It is kinda weird. I left for a few years, but for some strange reason came back to Ypsi. Now that we are planted it is nice to hear that things are getting better. Ypsi has always had a bad rap, but some of it is where in Ypsi you are. There is a strange blend of all sorts of socio/racial/economic backgrounds.

Don't forget that we have a kick ass radio station WEMU, which is where I heard about the meetings results.

I totally agree about the RAC. I have only been there once to see a MCRT play there.

I have already ranted about a commuter rail .

I remember checking out the Water Street Project on a trip with my Economic Geography class. It is still doing nothing.

Mark Maynard had really good point about the lack of comment on Wireless Ypsi, Shadow Art Fair, and the Farmers Markets.

Ann Arbor News has a wrapup and the DDA has the report.

So we have had a nice number of snow days this year that have been spread out. The nice thing is that it gives me a chance to shovel the driveway.

The most important thing about a snow day is to start out with a great breakfast. The last snow day we made blueberry muffins. This morning I made myself a Triple shot of expresso with some vaguely frothed chocolate soy-milk while Bridgit and Eli were still sleeping. By the time they got up around 7:45am I had cherry almond pancakes going. Diagnosis: delicious.

I try to blend to goals on a snowday: get caught up on stuff and do fun stuff. I don't want to offend the snowy part of God by wasting a snow day exclusively on one or the other. I feel that it is a chance to get caught up on household chores, but that we also need to do something fun that we wouldn't have done if it wasn't a snow day. XC Skiing is one of our favorites.

So we have got a ton of snow this year. That I love and have no complaints with. My beef is with the fact that we will get a good helping of snow this year and then it all melts. There is usually one or two good thaws, but this is ridiculous. We keep getting snow then a few days later it gets into the 40-50 range for a day or two and all the snow disappears.