The environment vs. my health

I was putting some milk in my coffee the other morning in the office kitchen when someone I don't know (from another department?) said, "You know those are bad for you, right?"

I looked up and realized he was referring to my small Nalgene bottle which I fill with milk at the beginning of the week and keep in the fridge at work. 

I replied that I was aware of the issue but that I had never really taken it that seriously and since I have about 7 or 8 various sized Nalgenes, I hadn't really considered throwing them all away. He said a few other things about how the dangers are pretty cut and dry, etc and generally looked at me like I was crazy. I also said something about not really believing that the studies were that conclusive with respect to the level of exposure necessary to increase one's risk of cancer.

If you're not familiar with the issue, here's an excerpt from the Nalgene entry in Wikipedia:

"In recent years, studies have suggested that polycarbonate plastics such as the ones Nalgene used may leach endocrine disruptors. Nalgene denies that the quantity leached from their products posed a significant threat to health.[5] Among the secreted chemicals, Bisphenol A (BPA) is an area of concern as it binds to estrogen receptors, thus altering gene expression. Other research has found that fixatives in polycarbonate plastics can cause chromosomal error in cell division called aneuploidy. Nalgene claims these chemicals are only potentially released from Nalgene products when used at temperatures outside of the designed range.

In November 2007, Mountain Equipment Co-op removed all hard, clear polycarbonate plastic water bottles (including Nalgene-branded product) from their shelves and no longer offers these items for sale. In December 2007, Lululemon made a similar move. In May 2008, REI removed Nalgene-branded polycarbonate water bottles and replaced them with BP-A free Nalgene bottles.

On April 18, 2008, Health Canada announced that Bisphenol A is "'toxic' to human health". Canada is the first nation to make this designation. On the same date Nalgene announced it would phase out production of its Outdoor line of polycarbonate containers containing the chemical Bisphenol-A (BPA). Nalgene’s current product mix, includes the recently launched Everyday line and the original polycarbonate bottles made from materials that do not contain BPA."

Also, a New York Times article from this past April: NYT: Bottle Maker to Stop Using Plastic Linked to Health Concerns

So after knowing all that, it does kind of sound silly that I continue to use these bottles. I've tried to find out if there's a decent way to dispose of them if I were to come to that decision. So far, the only solution seems to be to find a recycling service that accepts plastics with the #7 on the bottom. I think that generally, your neighborhood recycling service doesn't accept those items. I REALLY don't want to just chuck them in the landfill. But should I be looking out more for the environment or my health?*

Would you throw yours away? Have you already?

Oh, and my replacement of choice at this point would be Sigg bottles.

*I realize that my personal health is in many ways tied to the health of the environment.

Duvet short list

I swear, this is almost over. We will soon be back to our regularly (and equally mundane) programming.

After lots of helpful input, we have this lovely short list. Feel free to weigh in again! I've tried to add one semi-negative comment for each one. Don't ask me why - that seemed like a good idea.

Fairhaven: No blue!

Twighlight: Matches our shower curtain. Is that good or bad?

Marimekko Ruovikko: Not enough color?

Zen: Color might not work in our bedroom

Sea Reeds: Too much blue?

Morning Bloom: Seems a tad cartoonish?

Branches French Blue: Afraid of getting sick of the pattern

Cove Organic: Hard to keep clean, EDITED: super expensive

Valerie: Hard to keep clean

Time to buy some bedding

When we got married, we didn't put any bedding on the registry. We were already happy with what we had (same goes for towels, bathroom stuff, etc). But over time, I've grown to loathe how haphazard our bedroom feels. Between the navy blue duvet cover and the various pillowcases on the bed at any time, we're looking at navy blue, black, white, and forest green. I don't like the furniture either but that's not something we can tackle in the near future.

So my first thought was to just replace all of the pillowcases with 1 fun print that has at least SOME navy blue in it to match the duvet. That hasn't been as easy as it sounds. So now I'm leaning towards replacing all of the bedding and getting a duvet cover with a print along with solid, matching pillow cases.

After checking out about 6 stores' online inventory, here is the short list:

CrateandBarrel "Marimekko Ruovikko"
BBB 1
BBB 2
Macys 1 "Sea Reeds"
Macys 2 "Morning Bloom"
Macys 3 "Glacier"
Overstock "Branches French Blue"
Pottery Barn 1 "Tatum"
Pottery Barn 2 "Koi Fish" (just the pillow cases)
Pottery Barn 3 "Songbird"

My mom and gram have a strong favorite from this list - I think I agree with them. I'll reveal which one in a couple days.

EDITED: This is so fun - thanks for voting ladies!

Here are a few more I just found - a couple seem to be out of stock and/or are probably too expensive. Man, do you see the common thread among all these? Who knew my taste was so specific. 

Bugheart - I KNEW you'd pick the Marimekko one. That's also my mom and gram's favorite.

Twighlight
Stanton
Cove Organic
Elysium
Fairhaven
Tranquility
Valerie
Zen

In a couple days, I'll probably post a ranked top 5 list based on your input. Can we say overkill?

Weather, a cold, and a cardigan - Fall's on the way

We went to a wedding last weekend - the bride and groom were especially thankful that their guests came out to celebrate despite the near hurricane conditions outside. Also, Erich and I learned that the quasi-salsa and semi-swing dancing we do impresses lots of people. I think the trick is to know about 4 different kinds of turns/spins and make sure the follower knows the leader's signals. Then when 2 or 3 of those turns are done in succession, you can impress everybody.

The bride and groom at the after-party practicing the Dirty Dancing running-jump-catch-thing. This was one of their weaker attempts, though a couple were quite good.

Cold all week - which has meant sleeping on the couch a few times because either my coughing or nose blowing would have woken Erich up. The rotation he's on right now has him up every day at 4:45am and on-call (overnight at the hospital) every 4th night.

Finished Tangled Yoke cardigan! - With Erich on call Mon. night and my cold getting going, there was nothing left to do but weave in ends and sew on buttons. I still don't know how I got the blocking done so fast. I LOVE it. I wore it to work once this week and I know it will get a lot of wear. The buttons that I picked out during my last trip to NYC are perfect and I'm sure they no longer mind the many many weeks they sat in the bottom of my knitting basket.

2 things I learned through this project: buttonholes and 3 needle bind-off.

Labor Day weekend

The following was supposed to just be an outline for a more interesting post. But too much time has past so this is all you get.

Context is that our good friend Darragh had been visiting for nearly a week and went home to England on Wednesday afternoon. Erich had the next 4 days off with only his personal statement for the residency application on his to-do list.

Wednesday

• champagne and photo organizing for scanning
  
• I realized I took a lot of photos my freshman and junior years of high school

Thursday

• Natl. Building Museum
• Ayoti (Indian food for date night; we'll definitely be going back)

Friday

• Work
• Grocery shopping
• Madness of King George and Short Circuit (thanks to Netflix Instant Watching which we JUST discovered)
  

Saturday

• Garden
• Wonderland Ballroom w/ A & M, Wii time

Sunday

• Bike through Rock Creek Park to Trader Joes (7.2 mi.)
• Made mozzarella, basil, tomato salad
• Knitting at Teaism
• Building-wide BBQ on the Roofdeck with chicken kabobs, naan, and salad

Monday

• Bike through Rock Creek and Capital Crescent Trail to Fletcher's Boathouse. BBQ-going-away party (11.8 mi.)
• Knit tangled yoke cardigan in party room while watching Bread & Roses
• Target
  

I love weekends like that!

There are so many other weekend updates that I had planned for you. But you'll have to settle for just this one for now.

Friday
Red Derby - E* and I met up with a friend we hadn't seen in awhile. Red Derby is about 6 or 7 blocks north of us and they've been open less than a year. I think they're known for their crazy selection of canned beer. That might be all they have - beer in cans. Also, we learned they don't accept credit cards. The beers were good, the food might have been good but I can't say for sure because I've been kind of sick for several days. So like, I feel really sick about 3 bites into any meal. I knew that on Friday, but I kept thinking that the worst was over and that I could start eating like a normal person. I think I ate about 1/3 of the burger and some sweet potato fries. Couldn't finish the beer either.

Saturday
Goodwill - We've had a box of housewares and a bag of clothes taking up a ton of space in our closet since we moved in. It's just hard to donate this stuff because there's no Salvation Army or Goodwill that's close to anything in the city. It has to be a special trip. So after lazing around Sat. morning, I headed out to the Goodwill in NE that's close to nothing except the Maryland border. But the trip was shorter than I expected so I decided to take a detour on the way home to...

Value Village - a few of my friends make nearly-weekly pilgrimages to Value Village but somehow, I'd never been. I took several passes through the housewares aisles, specifically looking for a key rack for our entryway (it must have a shelf!) but I struck out. I did however score a new-looking mini-muffin tin to augment the one I already have so I can bake off a whole batch in one step (the current tin is just a tad too small).

Garden - Immediately after coming home, I drove out to the garden (opposite direction from everything else) to water and weed. Things are looking better in there - I'm ahead of the weeds, things are finally ready to start harvesting, and there haven't been any deaths of late. I took home a perfect cucumber and a green bell pepper. The tomatoes still aren't ready - maybe this means I'll be eating tomatoes well into the fall unlike last year...? E*'s hops still look good, but no buds yet.

Tonic - We met up with 2 other friends we haven't seen in awhile. We had to keep it a little short however because E* is taking his Step 2 Board exam on Thursday and is in full study mode. Because he's strapped for time, he's following a very aggressive study schedule. Tonic is right between our place and our friends' apartment, about a 5-7 min. walk. We immediately liked the vibe and decor. The food was so-so but we'd heard that about them before. Once again, I barely ate and STILL ended up feeling miserable. Seriously, I haven't had a regular sized meal since Wednesday afternoon. That usually means I'm ravenous when I go to bed, when I first wake up, etc.

Sunday
Calvert Cliffs - Since E* was taking an 8-hr. practice exam, I escaped the city with a friend to hunt for fossils at Calvert Cliffs. Unfortunately, she's a big liar and there are in fact, no fossils or shark teeth to be found there, but we had a good time nonetheless. It was so nice to smell the sea and play in the sand.


Solomons Island - After a few hours at the Cliffs, we drove 6 miles down the road to Solomons Island. It's just a cute, sleepy seaside village which of course reminded me of Wickford and Block Island. As we approached the main street, I realized I had actually been there before. A couple of years ago, a group of us headed to a beach somewhere on the western shore of MD, got lost, and had to ask for directions in Solomons Island (it actually doesn't feel like an island at all..I don't think it is). Anyway, we stopped for ice cream and looked out across the Patuxent river at more of Maryland. It was such a relaxing day and welcome break from the city. I wish the day could have ended with vegging on the couch due to a sun-coma instead of packing for a work trip.

Trying to Reason with Hurricane Season

Look at my view! Aren't you jealous?

Flew in to Miami this morning just in time for Tropical Storm Fay.