Holy Guacamole

I just read that we lost 1/3 of the state's avocado crop.....

Good night....

Laguna Beach with a smokey sunset.

Tomorrow will be a better day.

Fire

Well, today is a lot different from yesterday. It is still very hot outside, but the winds have almost died down to nothing. As I look outside today, it looks like a June Gloom overcast type of day..only these are not clouds. It is smoke. A lot of smoke today and the wind is not blowing it by, it is sitting here. The front and back yards are covered in ash today...a thin, brown layer of dust.. I went outside to sweep a little and gave up- it is still falling from the sky. There is a faint orange glow coming in through all of the wondows. The 5 freeway northbound is closed between the 78 and Christianitos rd.. I guess Camp Pendleton is now on fire and the smoke makes for very bad driving conditions. Day 3 of staying in doors....

Yet another map with fire information.

It's hard to think about being "artful" these days when I worry about my friends and family. I am working on the Carry-On's vampire cape..but that's about it. Not too much seems important with this disaster taking place.

San Diego Fire Coverage

(above: Picture of the wind on my street, Air quality is also horrible.)

Click here.

Click here for more news.

edit: Updated News

We are not in danger here but are thinking of our many friends in San Diego, Orange and Los Angeles counties. Stay safe.

edit: you know it's bad when the automated emergency telephone system starts calling employees... it is SO windy here. Mr. Luggage's SD based company is asking for help for families evacuated. Very scary!

Live Earth...a tribute

green atc

This is an ATC I made using Stampbord, Distress Ink and justjohanna images. The white areas on the piece are where I used my scratch tool to carve into the Stampbord.

You can calculate your carbon footprint by clicking here. Do it. You owe it to our mother. With all the blog fun that travels around, I hope some of you may put the footprint calculator on your blogs too. Spread the word. It's not only about buying a Prius...it's the little things.

Don't rely on your neighbors to do these....you have to change!

Do your part to ensure a healthy planet by incorporating these ten simple actions into your everyday life.

1) Replace your incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent lights (CFLs). Look closely at labels when buying light bulbs. Those marked as CFLs last 10 times longer and use 66 percent less energy than incandescent bulbs while delivering the same light levels. As a result, CFLs accrue net savings between $30 and $45 over their lifetimes, depending on your cost of electricity, the wattage size of the CFL, and the lamp's lifespan (manufacturers make CFLs that last 6,000, 8,000, or 10,000 hours). The return on investment is 15 times higher than leaving your money in a bank account or the average return on Dows-Jones stock investments. CFLs also reduce the release of greenhouse gas emissions and are safer because they burn at a lower temperature (160° F or less) than incandescent and halogen lights, which can burn at temperatures up to 500° F.

2) Turn down the thermostat just three degrees in the winter and up three degrees in the summer. You can prevent the emission of nearly 1,100 pounds of carbon dioxide annually.

3) Inflate your car tires. When walking or biking isn't feasible, you can do something to better protect the Earth while driving. Take a step in the right direction by inflating your car tires. Pumping them up can improve your gas mileage by about 3.3 percent -- a savings of about 7 cents per gallon. It's the right thing to do for your wallet and the right thing to do for the Earth.

4) Turn down the hot water heater. Set your water heater to 130° F. While you're at it, turn down your house thermostat during the winter to 55° F when you go to bed or leave home. These simple actions can have enormous positive consequences, preventing the emission of more than 1,100 pounds of carbon dioxide over the course of the year, while cutting your energy bill by more than 10 percent. And that's just from you! Get your friends on board, and the benefits will multiply.

5) Choose your seafood wisely. We can't afford to wait until 2008. The world's seafood will be entirely depleted by 2048, according to an early November report in the journal Science. That means the moment to shape up is now. By buying and eating certain types of seafood, you can discourage harmful fishing practices and avoid the more depleted or threatened species. Take a look at Seafood Choices Alliance or Seafood Watch to make smart choices.

6) Purchase EnergyStar-labeled appliances. EnergyStar products are among the top 25 percent most efficient and can provide a 30 percent return or better through lower utility bills.

7) Wash and rinse in cold water. If everyone in the United States alone switched to cold water with their washing machines, we could save about 30 million tons of carbon dioxide each year -- and more than $3 billion in energy costs, collectively. And what's more? Cold water cleans your laundry just as well as hot water.

8) Buy locally produced meats and produce. Sounds like a good idea, but you don't know where to start? Just type in your zip code on Local Harvest's website to see a list of farms and farmers' markets close to home, as well as nearby restaurants committed to supporting their neighbors. Buying locally produced food cuts out the middlemen and the vast amounts of energy required to get your products onto store shelves. Most produce in U.S. supermarkets travels an average 1,500 miles before it is sold!

9) Drink more water from reusable glassware. It's great for your bank account, your health, and your planet. The average American consumed more than 400 beverage bottles and cans in 2006, leaving behind wasted glass, plastic, steel, and aluminum. That adds up to excessive amounts of fossil fuels and hydropower for mining, processing, refining, shaping, shipping, storing, refrigerating, and disposing of those materials. Of course, changing your drinking habits both at home and at work is applicable to just about every other habit, as well. You've heard it before and you'll hear it again: Reduce, reuse, and recycle.

10) Walk, bike, and carpool. In the United States, the car represents one of the largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions. However, you don't have to give up your car for a healthier planet, just expand your transportation options. You can significantly reduce your emissions by commuting to work. Try combining trips to minimize emissions, which are greatest at the beginning of a journey before the engine has reached optimum temperature and efficiency. When purchasing your next car, make it a fuel-efficient one. Hybrid cars can get twice the fuel efficiency of the average new car, cut greenhouse gas emissions by half or more, and reduce urban air pollutants. Carpooling saves energy, cuts on additional pollution, and allows you to take a turn as a passenger instead of driving everyday. Car-sharing (not pooling) is available in numerous U.S. cities. Car-sharing enables you to rent a car just when you need it. Each car-share vehicle displaces four to eight privately held cars, requiring less parking area and creating less road congestion. If you live within an hour's bicycle ride to the office (~10 miles), consider biking to work one or more days a week.

Related Links
What You Can Do -- Top 10 Things You Can Do At Work
What You Can Do -- Top 5 Things You Can Do Outdoors
Calculate your carbon footprint

Down with Toys R Us!

I knew I wasn't the only one... there is hope!

10 Women Who Make Us Cringe© MICHAEL CRABTREE/Bloomberg News /Landov

Bratz Dollz

Many mothers worry when their daughters start to play with Barbie. The moms fear that their daughters could develop a skewed sense of body image thanks to Barbie’s unnatural proportions
But for parents worried about that, Barbie’s got nothing on the Bratz Dolls—a big head, skinny body with the lips of Angelina Jolie and overly made-up come-hither eyes. And these are dolls that girls as young as 5 years old want to play with.
For heaven’s sake, girls don’t need dolls that look like streetwalkers. The social and behavioral cues girls get from the sleazy Bratz dolls are far from empowering—at least Barbie has been a doctor and an astronaut.

Joanne Cronrath Bamberger is a freelance writer based in Washington, D.C.

yah, yah...I made a card too~

Rosie's Road Show and justjohanna images.

This makes me crazy...

Oprah, Angie, Brad, Madonna....focus on problems within your own country!
Click here

Perez for President...

Are you keeping up with the developing Britney Spears news? What a train wreck! I can't keep my eyes off of Perez Hilton's site! The site is in overdrive these days with many many updates all day long. What is your favorite story??

Quote of the Week

Former NBA Miami Heat Guard, Tim Hardaway:

"You know, I hate gay people, so I let it be known," Hardaway said Wednesday, according to a transcript on the Miami Herald Web site. "I don't like gay people and I don't like to be around gay people. I am homophobic. I don't like it. It shouldn't be in the world or in the United States."

Hardaway was a guest on the show and was asked at the end of the interview how he would handle having a gay teammate.

''First of all, I wouldn't want him on my team,'' Hardaway answered. "And second of all, if he was on my team, I would really distance myself from him because I don't think that is right. I don't think he should be in the locker room while we are in the locker room. But stuff like that is going on and there's a lot of other people I hear that are like that and still in the closet and don't want to come out of the closet, but you know I just leave that alone.''

Well done, moron.

See the complete article here.