It seems the older I get, the earlier I like going to bed.  I would ideally like to be awake at all hours when the sun is up.  So if the sun is up at 6am, I would like to, too.  Last night, I went to bed about 10:30, and meant to set my alarm for 8ish, because that way I wouldn’t get too much sleep.  I forgot, and stayed in bed until 9:30.

I have a lot going on in my mind - wedding planning, Barny coming to visit, Aunt Kathy and Uncle Dan coming to visit at the same time, dad losing his job, me graduating with my Master’s and needing a new job…. there’s too much going on that It would just take forever to talk about it.  And so, I just write nonsense that you won’t enjoy reading.

Maybe I’ll be able to have the strength to write about at a later date, but it’s 10:25, and I’m ready for bed.

I do have some big news - I am getting married!

I’m marrying Barnaby Peter Lanman.  He is a wonderful, hilarious, kind, darling person.  He cooks dinner, and I do the dishes; we sit quietly together while he plays video games and I read; and I scrub his back, and he scrubs mine.  We make a perfect pair.

We have been dating about seven months, but knew within a month that we were going to marry.  I’m not sure exactly how, but we just knew.  When I arrived home, I told my parents, and a few weeks later, I even told my uncle Dan, aunt Michele, and friends Dan and Beth who I visited in Ohio.  ”I have found the guy I’m going to marry,”  I told them in late August.  Nearly a month after meeting Barny for the first time.

We’re already applied for his Fiance Visa, and we’re hoping it will be approved by May.  We’re planning on having a British wedding celebration on 6/6/10, and a proper wedding ceremony in America on 8/8/10.  He proposed on 1/1/10, by drawing me a little comic book.

The book described things we had done during the Christmas and New Years holiday, and ended with this page.  When I got to it, Barny got down on one knee in real life, and produced my ring.  My speech bubble was left blank, and I had to fill in my answer.

Barny and I are both ecstatic, and can’t wait until we can finally live in the same country!

Plastic trees will last a very long time, while a real tree supports a local business (for us, it supports Lotti’s Tree Farm, or a church that is selling trees as a fundraiser).  Crunchy Chicken wrote about the tree farmers and whether or not they use organic means.  It is definitely something to look into, and I will be sure to ask when we go pick out a tree this year.

I was beginning to think about how awful it is that we use a tree for a month (at the longest), and then we simply put it outside to be picked up like garbage.  But then I remembered that is what we do with flowers, and they last for a lot less time.  And when was the last time you saw a plastic Jack-O-Lantern sitting on someone’s porch, or being sold in stores?  And I don’t mean the plastic buckets that hold candy.

It is a long honored tradition to grow things, use them for decorative needs, and then discard them.  Our Jack-O-Lantern is sitting out in our garden, where it will be squirrel food, and eventually compost.  All flowers we buy also go into the compost.

Some people even decorate with pussy willows and reed mace.

I’ve also heard about a lot of people buy potted trees that they then plant in their yard.  I know Trader Joe’s sells them. Megan had expressed interest in doing that, but she believes that she can’t have the tree indoors.  My mom said she did that when she was younger, and that tree is still in her home town to this day.

We always get a real tree at the ole’ homestead, and even in my two apartments, we got two very small trees (the tree got bigger as the apartment got bigger).  I like going to get a tree, and I’m always very picky when picking it out.  My parents know not to get one without me.  I also like the way a real tree smells.  My mom has been interested in a plastic tree for years, but has never purchased one.  When I have my own family and house, I’m sure I will do a real tree as well.  It’s just a tradition.

Mix the alcohol with a bit of water, and use a cotton ball to clean the screen of your laptop or touch-screen phone.

Use the alcohol with a cotton ball to remove makeup. (dilute it a but if it makes your skin too dry) - and always apply lotion afterward.  I’ve even used this to remove the sticky Band-Aid residue left over.

Remove stickiness from things! When you purchase a frame with a sticker on the glass - the alcohol will get the stickiness off.

Wipe down your remotes, phones, and anything else with alcohol to kill all germs.  (Purel is just 62% isopropyl alcohol)

Clean your eyeglasses with diluted alcohol.  We have that expensive Pearl Vision spray stuff…. but looking at the ingredients, it’s simply isopropyl alcohol!

Does anyone else have any interesting uses for things we have tucked in our cupboards?  I’ve tried hydrogen peroxide as a mouth rinse (I think I had a cut in my mouth) - and boy did it get really foamy!  It was very weird.

My parents and I watched the two Christmas VHS tapes that we have.  One from 1987 (kids aged:5, 3, and 6 months), and one from 1991 (kids aged 9, 7 and 4).  In the 1987 video, Megan and I both expressed that we wanted a Barbie and the Rockers doll.  I know we had loads of Barbies growing up, but I don’t specifically remember this one.  But for two little just to just want a $10 Barbie, I think that’s pretty good! There are some kids that want ponies, or computers, or cell phones (well, not in 1987).  We just wanted a simple little doll.

And, although we had Barbie’s, we did not grow up with a distorted sense of self-image.  I think my mom’s Ms. Magazine took care of that!

I had once heard that a good thing to do with children with too many toys, is to pack up half of them, and hide them away.  Then, switch the toys every six months or so.  Children have such short term memories, that they get the boxed up toys, and are excited about them all over again; as if they had just received them for the first time.

As with last year, I am trying to do most of my shopping with second hand, or home made items.  My mom is paying me some money to help cover my trip to England, and besides that, I told her I didn’t really want or need anything.

• that I found an internship at a wonderful site with incredibly kind people.  I get the honor of working with people when they are in their last days of life, and when their family members are going through the hardest times of their life.
• that I have wonderful parents who love me no matter what, and are incredibly supportive.  We can sit at the dinner table and talk about anything and everything.
• that we bought a $48 turkey.  14 lbs, and $3.09lb.  It’s local, antibiotic free, and free range.  I am cooking it myself!
• that school is almost done.  I am so close to the end - now I just need a job, and will enter the working world.
• for Honey Bunches of Oats.  It’s still the best cereal in the whole world.
• forThe Office, and Evan for introducing me to the American version
• for Fringe, for being the new X-Files
• for having an internship that is so much fun, that I don’t want to leave at 5pm
• for having a boyfriend who makes me laugh, smile, and writes songs about me.
• for all my friends, even the ones I don’t see very often

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving.  I will be sure to let you know how the turkey tastes.

I’m going to do most of my Christmas shopping from handmade, or used items.  I say most because I’ve already bought two items for my parents over the summer that were new.  But I have several ideas that are handmade or used for other people.

I’m doing a lot of shopping on Etsy, which is an amazing hand made shop.  I think the best part about Etsy is the reasonably priced (or free) shipping costs.  I just had something delivered that was shipped for free, and last year, I’ve had to pay 75 cents for other items.  It’s not like eBay where you purchase something for $3, and they make you pay $9 in shipping!!

I also have the good news that I ordered our local turkey for Thanksgiving yesterday.  $3 a pound, but it’s from Bob’s Turkey Farm in Lancaster, MA (two towns over).  It’s raised right on a farm there, and I go to the farm to pick it up.  I’m supporting a local farmer, and will have a delicious bird for Thanksgiving, and not a cheap 49 cent frozen bird from Market Basket. To get birds to cost that little money, I don’t even want to think about how they are raised, and how they can get them so mass produced that they are practically given away.  No thank you!

Of course, I just watched Food, Inc. It’s the movie version (almost) of Michael Pollan’s book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma. I highly suggest you watch it.

I’ve also decided to eat less meat, as I did back in the Spring.

Now - if you’re unsure what the Nestlé boycott is all about, here’s an abbreviated explanation. Nestlé donates huge amounts of their infant formula to poor countries in Africa. The mothers are led to believe that the formula will be better for their babies than their breast milk would be.  The women then mix the infant formula with their dirty, contaminated water, and feed it to their babies.  Once they realize that their children are getting sick, the mother’s milk ducts have dried up, due to lack of feeding, and they are stuck feeding their children contaminated formula.

This boycott started back in 1977.

Other problems besides the contaminated water:

Many poor mothers use less formula powder than is necessary, in order to make a container of formula last longer. As a result, some infants receive inadequate nutrition from weak solutions of formula.

UNICEF estimates that a non-breastfed child living in disease-ridden and unhygienic conditions is between six and 25 times more likely to die of diarrhea and four times more likely to die of pneumonia than a breastfed child.

Below is the list of all the things that you shouldn’t use.  Of the HUGE list (Nestle is a huge company!) - there are only a couple things that I use, or that we use is my household.  We eat Häagen-Daz and Dreyers ice cream, and I wear Maybelline Cosmetics.  We also sometimes buy Lean Cuisine meals when my mom needs a quick dinner.  We also use Libby’s Pumpkin for making pumpkin pies and pumpkin bread.  I will start purchasing the store brand only.

THE NESTLE BOYCOTT LIST

Candy and Chocolate:
Baby Ruth
Bit-O-Honey
Butterfinger
Carlos V (”the authentic Mexican chocolate bar”)
Chunky
Gobstoppers
Goobers
Laffy Taffy
Lik-M-Aid Fun Dip
Nerds
Nestle Abuelita chocolate
Nestle Crunch
Nips
Oh Henry!
Oompas
Pixy Stix
Raisinets
Runts
Sno-Caps
Spree
Sweettarts
Wonka
100 Grand

Frozen Foods:
Lean Cuisine (frozen meals)
Lean Pockets (sandwiches)
Hot Pockets (sandwiches)
Stouffer’s (frozen meals)

Baking:
La Lechera (sweetened condensed milk)
Libby’s Pumpkin
Nestle Tollhouse Morsels and baking ingredients

Ice Cream:
Dreyer’s (ice creams, frozen yogurts, frozen fruit bars, sherbets)
Edy’s (ice creams, frozen yogurts and sherbets)
Häagen-Dazs (ice cream, frozen yogurt, sorbet, bars)
Nestle Delicias
Nestle Drumstick
Nestle Push-Ups
The Skinny Cow (ice cream treats)

Pet food:
Alpo
Beneful
Cat Chow
Dog Chow
Fancy Feast
Felix
Friskies
Frosty Paws (dog ice cream treats)
Gourmet
One

Pro Plan
Purina

Beverages:
Coffee-Mate
Jamba (bottled smoothies and juices)
Milo Powdered Beverage and Ready-to-Drink
Nescafé
Nescafé Café con Leche
Nescafe Clasico (soluble coffees from Mexico)
Nescafe Dolce Gusto
Nesquik
Nestea
Nestle Juicy Juice 100% fruit juices
Nestle Carnation Malted Milk
Nestle Carnation Milks (instant breakfast)
Nestle Hot Cocoa Mix
Nestle Milk Chocolate
Nestle Nido (powdered milk for kids)
Taster’s Choice Instant Coffee

Specialty items:
Buitoni (pasta, sauce, shredded cheeses)
Maggi Seasonings
Maggi Taste of Asia

Infant Formula:
Nestle Good Start
Gerber Pure Water (for mixing with formula)

Baby Foods:
Cerelac
Gerber (cereals, juice, 1st Foods, 2nd Foods, 3rd Foods, etc.)
Gerber Graduates (snacks, meal options, side dishes, beverages, Preschooler meals/snacks, etc.)
Mucilon
NaturNes
Nestum

Accessories:
Gerber - cups, diaper pins, pacifiers, bowls, spoons, outlet plugs, thermometers, tooth and gum cleanser, bottles (all of these are made by Gerber)

Breastfeeding supplies:
Gerber Seal ‘N Go breast milk storage bags, bottles, nipples, nursing pads, Breast Therapy warm or cool relief packs, Breast Therapy gentle moisturizing balm (all of these are made by Gerber)

Bottled Water:
Arrowhead
Deer Park
Gerber Pure Water
Perrier
Poland Spring
Pure Life
S. Pellegrino
Vittel

Breakfast Cereals:
see joint ventures below

Performance Nutrition:
PowerBar
Boost

Miscellaneous:
Jenny Craig

Joint Ventures (in which Nestle is partnered with another company):
Nestlé SA has several joint ventures. These are some of the larger ones:

Beverage Partners Worldwide, formed in 2001, is a joint venture between the Coca-Cola Company and Nestlé S.A. It concentrates on tapping markets in the beverage sectors, particularly ready-to-drink coffee and teas, such as Nestea.

Cereal Partners Worldwide is a joint venture between Nestlé and General Mills. From what I understand, in the USA, the cereals are made by General Mills. In the UK, they are made by Nestle.

Laboratories Innéov is a joint venture between Nestlé and L’Oréal, formed in 2002. Cosmetics included in are:
L’Oreal
Maybelline
Garnier
Lancome

Dairy Partners Americas is a 50/50 partnership between New Zealand dairy multinational, Fonterra and Nestlé and was established in January 2003. The alliance now operates joint ventures in Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela, Ecuador and Colombia.

Wife # 1 - Leslie Manville (87-90)  born in 1956.

Wife # 2 - Uma Therman (90-92) born in 1970

Wife #3 - Donya Fiorentino (97-01) born in 1967

Wife #4 - Alexandra Edenborough -(08-present)  born in 1977

#3 is a bit off, at three years older than wife #2.

Anywho - not that this has anything to do with me, I just found it interesting.

If it was me, I think I would say, “You’ve been married HOW many times?”  And I probably wouldn’t continue to date them.  Much less marry them, thinking “Well, maybe I’ll be different than the other three.”  Yeah, right.   I’m one to think that marriage is for life.  And you should work at it - and you can’t just say, “Right, well, this isn’t working.  See ya!”

But is expecting to be married only once suddenly old fashioned?

6 - the number of dollars I spent this morning at the flea market on fresh produce. Apples, Red potatoes, garlic, and butternut squash

20 - the number of minutes I spent outside raking leaves.  I got tired of it quickly!

3 - the number of mini wine bottles I scored from Steph & Mike’s wedding because two were forgotten in my car by other people

4 - the number of scarves I’ve knitted so far for the Nancy Project.  A fundraiser we’re doing for the library.

7 - the months pregnant that Stephanie is (who got married last night).  I found out she was pregnant on Friday!  I’m a bad friend, and haven’t seen her in ages. (she moved from 10 minutes away, to 45 minutes away)

6 - the number, in hours, I spend on Skype with Barny today.  That included time when I was knitting, doing things around the house, or watching TV with my parents.  I’ve been awake for 14 hours so far.

10 - the number of old magazines I gave away using FreeCycle.  I LOVE when people “want” things, and I have the things they need!

400 - the number on the back of my dad’s new Dodge 400 Convertible that I got to ride around in today - with the top DOWN!

10 - the time at which I am going up to bed.  It is nice and warm up there under the many covers.  G’Night!