Some facts this morning to bolster my instinct on paper towels, courtesy of Ideal Bite (a website with daily green factiods).  According to the "biters" (as they call themselves), Americans send 3,000 tons of paper towels to the landfill every day.  That's a lot of sopping up!

It's been fairly easy to switch from paper to cotton (and bamboo...more on that later).  I now keep a couple of towels out on the counter, one by the paper towel rack, and use those for wiping my hands, buffing up the counter, wiping up spills.  Then I toss them in the wash pile after a day or two's use (depending on the use).  I'm down to using paper towels for excessively dirty or unhygenic jobs.  Pretty amazing that I've had a partial roll of paper towels up for a week.  Normally it would be gone in a day or two.

One of the neat side effects of going green is that I discover cool new products.  I recently purchased some gorgeous, soft, absorbent kitchen towels made of 85% bamboo and 15% cotton.  I have a couple of light sweaters made of bamboo, but this is the first kitchen towel I've seen.  I like it at least as well as the microfiber towels I've been partial to in recent years.

On another shade of green, more of a khaki really, we head out today to visit our friend in prison.  It will be a grueling couple of days with driving, waiting in line, visiting while our hearts are breaking and our minds are shouting out that this is wrong, then coming home and collapsing.  And we're the ones that get to come home!  Imagine what it's like for him...or don't.  It's better not to.

Good thoughts appreciated.

You have to be careful about what you take, too.  I've been asked to change a couple of times in recent months.  I forgot that women's white, scoop-necked t-shirts look too much like inmate shirts.  And I was told that my light brown baggy sweater looked too much like the guards' uniforms.  (Yeah, I can see how a baggy, unbleached cotton sweater can look like a dark khaki uniform from a gun tower...sure.)

So the answer, obviously, has been to come up with a uniform of our own.  I think, after 3 years and 1 month of visiting various prisons, I've finally gotten the packing down.  A wild shirt and black pants for Dan.  An underwire-free bra for me (dangerous weapon, those underwires), black pants and a non-white, non-green shirt.  That's a lot to remember, so I'm considering getting a couple of wild shirts like Dan has and sticking with those.

23 more visits and then he's out...that's just under 23 months left.  Can't wait for that day.  First we spring him, then we celebrate...then I burn the bra.

And start buying green clothes again.  (Of both varieties.)

It's another.  A lesson reconfirmed during today's golf outing with Renee' Dobyns.  We're trying to get in a weekly 9-holes of golf at Lake Forest Golf and Practice Center, a par 29 course.  The good news is that I posted 1 stroke lower than last time (and my lowest so far on the course): a 7 over par 36. 

Woohoo!  I was striking the ball well--hitting six greens in regulation.  And wouldn't you know it?  I hit 5 more putts than I did on my prior best round.  Arghh!

Now, I could blame it on the fact that they were aerating the greens.  On five of the six greens I hit in regulation, I landed on the half of the green that had been poked full of holes and sanded earlier in the week.  So the sand and the bumps were, perhaps, a mitigating factor.  But it wasn't until the 8th hole that I figured out to take a longer club and hit to the back of the greens.

This is mostly because I'm usually just so thrilled to be ON the green that I don't spend a whole lot of time strategizing about the front, the back, the left or the right.  Hey, I'm not Tiger (or Annika)!  So I can be taught, but it's usually a slow process.

So, irons and 3-wood were smokin' today.  Putter?  Not so much.  Have you notice that about golf?  It's so rare for amateurs to put all aspects of the game together into one stellar round.  If it's not your irons, it's the yips.  If it's not the yips, you're yanking 'em or pushing 'em, or committing all manner of set up errors (too far forward in your stance, too athletic a stance, not athletic enough...the list goes on...and on...an on...often between the time you set up to the ball and the time you swing the club).

It got me to thinking about life, as golf often does.  How often is it that we experience life's equivalent of a perfect round?  Rarely, indeed.  A lot of my friends are enduring various trials at this moment.  Dan and I have our share as well.  Struggles, challenges, obstacles...the yips of life.

Blessedly, it's also not often that we have the life equivalent of a round of golf that makes one say, "That's it--these clubs have a home at the bottom of the lake and I'm gonna launch them there, right now." 

Thus today's observation about life, and golf, is this: the yips keep us connected with our humanity and fallibility.  The sweet putt?  That reminds us that life can be a beautiful thing...at least beautiful enough to keep us coming back.

Got a great comment from Sally, my step-mother, about the green blogs.  Sally writes:  "About this "green" thing--Since I neither cook nor shop, why don't you just take my share of the credit and be done with it?"  I like it.  Sally Baldridge is my kitchen carbon offset!  

I also got an interesting comment from my brother-in-law, Ken, about yesterday's rant/blog (b-rant? ran-log? There's got to be a word to coin for that) regarding the California Correctional Peace Officers Association and their conflict with our Governator.  Ken asked for more in-depth information about the prisons involved...and he's right.  Yesterday's response to the article was shoot from the hip rather than a carefully researched and well-articulated point of view.

Ken wanted to know what level of prisons I was referring to and whether or not the guards are different at different level prisons.

The prisons I've visited our friend at have varied from Level 1 & 2 (minimum security) to Level 4 (maximum security).  It is my understanding from various news articles that guards get to select their assignments with relative ease, so I don't believe there's a correlation between experience, difficulty of the situation (say, assignment to a maximum security duty) and pay rate.

Which seems counter-intuitive to me...wouldn't you want your most experienced, highest paid guards at the most difficult position?  In that case, the guards would be able to draw on their experience to better handle the most difficult and dangerous prisoners; the state would have better allocation of its resources by paying more for more difficult jobs; the wardens would be able to actually manage their personnel.

One of my key objections to the status quo is that wardens, who theoretically should be in charge of their prison, are not able to manage their personnel.  How does one manage without authority?  The answer, as we see in our California State Prisons, is "not effectively."

Ken also referenced a book, Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing by journalist Ted Conover that I'm going to have to add to my reading list.  Conover became a prison guard in order to write about the experience of prison guards. 

I am sure it will be an interesting read.  I am not unsympathetic toward the guards and the difficulty of their jobs.  I have seen some amazingly compassionate moments from the guards at "our" prison.  I have also seen how the guards are inevitably jaded by their experience as guards and the resultant damage to the guard, the inmate and the visitors. 

What I am unsympathetic toward is the idea that the guards are not, in the current system, subject to substantive review, correction or management.  The system is broken and more of the same isn't going to fix it.  That's why I think Arnold's on the right track.

This from Dan Weintraub at the Sacramento Bee:  "A fully trained beginning officer who now makes about $60,600 a year would be getting $70,221, plus enhancements for physical fitness, language fluency and working in hard-to-fill jobs. A veteran officer would top out with a base salary of more than $85,000 a year."

Thus, with overtime, a number of guards would at least be approaching, if not topping, $100,000 per year.  Not quite as outrageous as the rumor mill but still pretty steep salaries with extraordinarily generous rules on overtime, sick time, transfers and grievances.

There's an excellent article in today's Los Angeles Times about the escalating tension between Arnold Schwarzenegger and the powerful California Correctional Peace Officers Association.  The story starts off powerfully, detailing how guards filed a nuisance grievance against the State over a 5' sunflower plant that was supposedly obstructing their view from the gun tower.

I'm surprised they didn't shut down visiting at the Lancaster facility while they paid some guard triple overtime to go home, get his clippers, put on protective gear, clip the sunflower, put it into hazmat disposal facilities and change back into uniform.  (If I sound cynical about this particular union, it's because I am.)

I wrote a letter to one of the State's prison wardens last week.  I won't specify which one because we want to keep our friend anonymous and safe.  The reason for the letter?  The State recently reinstated Friday visiting, a privilege they'd revoked (along with Thursday visiting) several years back when we were having the Davis budget crisis.  Dan and I went to visiting twice after the reinstatement.  Once on a Friday, which was wonderful because it wasn't crowded, lines were reasonable, guards were in a much better mood than usual.

The second visit was on a Saturday.  Again, it was much better than usual, presumably because Friday visits were taking some of the enormous pressure of weekend visits off of Saturday/Sunday.

As I wrote to the warden, "As you can imagine, it takes an extraordinary amount of dedication to regularly visit an inmate at any California prison facility.  The travel is difficult, the processing is time consuming and, despite the best efforts of visitor and guard, always tense."  What I didn't add, because I didn't want to be antagonistic, is that visiting is always demeaning for the visitor. 

You'll note that I did reference "the best efforts of guard."  As a visitor, I appreciate that the guards are in a difficult position.  They have to suspect the worst of every visitor and, at the same time, manage a pleasant demeanor and treat visitors with respect.  Many don't manage that tightrope, but all of the guards who staff visiting at "our" prison do at least make the attempt.  Not so at every California prison.  (We've visited at 3 now.)

In general, I don't object to individual guards (although our friend has some stories that would raise anyone's hackles).  What I do object to is the unfettered power of the prison guard's union and some of the ridiculous concessions they've won from our government in contract negotiations.

The article lists several examples.  My personal favorite is that sick time counts toward overtime. (!)  Their rumored pay level of over $100 K for the average guard (including overtime, sick time, etc) is also beyond comprehension.

I've long said to Dan that the government needs to get out from under the prison guard union.  Now that they've official withdrawn from negotiations, maybe we'll have the chance.

Don't get me wrong.  I'm not against unions in general (too many family members in unions for one thing...and for another, there are many times that management over-reaches).  What I am against is a powerful union, running amok with political contributions, overpaid workers on the State payroll, and contributing to the inefficiency, cruelty and inhumanity of California's prison system.

I'll be interested to see if Arnie is strong enough to bring the union into line before he leaves office.  If he does, I'll have to retract my anti-Arnie sentiments (at least in part).

I continue to tiptoe into the green world.  This week my intent is to find out as much as possible about the pro's and con's between using paper towels versus washing kitchen towels...and using glass containers for storage versus baggies.

My initial thought is that there's not much "need" for a paper towel unless I'm cooking bacon.  A RARE occurrence in this household!  I think we cook bacon on Thanksgiving and Christmas or New Year's and that's it. 

Other than catching the grease, I think kitchen towels and multi-use disposable towels should be the better alternative.  I only reach for a paper towel out of habit, not out of necessity.  I'll do a post if I find out that there's some downside to a slightly bigger load of laundry due to towels and rags, but I'm dubious.

Baggies are the other kitchen convenience I'm debating about.  I know the hundreds of plastic ziplocs (and other brands) that I use each year cannot be good for the environment.  In the past, I've resisted washing and re-using the bags because it seemed like a wast of time.  And kind of nerdy, to be perfectly honest.  But now it seems like an awful waste to throw plastic bags out after one use.  So I think I'm going to migrate to using multi-use containers and give up on the baggie habit. 

And I will give in, seem like a nerd, and wash the baggies I do use.  I don't want to create a lot of new rules about when I can use a baggie and when I can't, so it will be interesting to monitor this habit change and see where the sticking points are.  I suppose I'll also check to see if there's a greener source of baggies than Ziploc.  Anyone got any hints?

Had a good session with my trainer today, talking about food plans.  Perfect timing after going to San Diego for Donna's 50th birthday buffet at the Balai Hai.  Yummy food and now time for the food plan to kick in.  <grin>

Happy birthday to one smokin' 50 year old! 

It's a gorgeous rainy day here in Southern Orange County now that the promised storm has blown in from the ocean.  The plants and trees seem palpably excited to drink the fresh water and the breeze is so soft and cool it seems like a caress.

I suspect we will spend the day enjoying each other's pleasant company and watching at least a few episodes of Stargate:SG1--Season 10.  I downloaded the season from I-Tunes a few months ago and have been enjoying watching it while working out on the elliptical climber at the gym.  It's like a little reward for getting myself there and it makes the time go must faster.

I must confess, I am a sci-fi fan.  The love affair began with Star Trek.  I was entranced by the Trek universe's optimistic culture, diversity, and the sheer adventure of space travel.  Star Trek also holds a special place in my heart because one afternoon in 1979, my friend Erik Kieser and I bonded over talk of copper-based blood and favorite Trek episodes in the stairwell of dorm Rho at Pepperdine University.

It's a little know factoid that Dan and I attended a Star Trek convention in the mid-80's.  He loves sci-fi nearly as much as I do and we've watched quite a few sci-fi series together.  We've seen all of the Trek movies often enough to be able to quote lines from our favorites.

I've seen quite a few of more recent TV sci-fi as the love affair has continued.  I watched all of Farscape on DVD and found it to be the most creative of recent sci-fi.  I was enchanted by Firefly's campy mix of the western and sci-fi cultures (and will remain ever grateful to Dan's brother, Steve, for introducing me to the series one Christmas). 

I fell hard for the new Battlestar Gallactica and have been suffering withdrawals while waiting for their new season to start (in 2008!).  It's interesting that this series intrigues me in the opposite way from Star Trek.  It's a dark vision of the future.  Machines made to imitate man that do their job too well and become genocidal.  Men fleeing for survival but taking all their worst traits with them into the struggle.  I'm not sure it would have appealed to me in the 60's, but it works in today's world with this adult woman.

Stargate SG1 is a series I originally loved, then grew disaffected and bored with, and have been pleased to rediscover in its last season.  They've taken some of the best aspects of the genre, included a wink or two to a knowledgeable audience, and created a mix of danger and optimism that harkens back more to Trek than to its competitor, Battlestar.  The writing is top notch, the acting is full of energy and wit, and the addition of Ben Browder and Claudia Black to the cast was a win for the series.  Too bad it's over...but maybe a movie?

Anyway, I'm off to make lunch and hunker down with cross stitch and sharing the season with my favorite man. 

Phew!  I feel so much better!  I got my hair cut today and I feel like I've lost about 20 pounds.  (Not that I look that way, just feel it.)  It's cut pretty short because I'm trying to get the gray hair out from under the dye I've been using for the past several years.  I still have about 1 1/2 inches to go before I'm completely au naturel, but it's coming along.  Not too shocking, imho, but we'll see what everyone else thinks.  Dan hasn't noticed yet.

I also had a heck of a workout today with my trainer, Calin.  Calin is of African descent, has dreadlocks down to his booty and has a take-no-prisoners attitude about training.  He had me do the usual warm up, stretching and core exercises...then he got me to do --among other things--100 crunches (100!) and 35 push ups on the cable machine.  (I'd have to show you but believe me, it's harder than a regular pushup because you're balancing in midair on cables).  Then it was a super set of 30 overhead tricep thrusts and 20 bicep curls with an added 15 bicep curls using a 30 pound bar instead of a 20 pound bar.  This girl's gonna be sore tomorrow.

That's good though...because if I keep going like this, and implement my eating plan just a little bit more faithfully, I'll be "taking a load off." 
Other than that, not much to blog about today.  Just errands, appointments and a meeting to start the last phase of the Great Landscaping Project of 2007.  The only thing left to do is the "art"--copper cut outs of monstera leaves and a honu to go on top of the patio.  Oh!  I'll post some new photos below.

Can't wait till that project's done.  It will be (you guessed it) a big load off my mind.

I've added a couple of poems to the Poetry page.  Check 'em out.

Dan and I attended the first of our "Wine Lovers Series" of plays at the Laguna Playhouse.  The wine tasting was fun, if done on a shoestring.  We nibbled on various cheeses and hors d'oeuvre while tasting chardonnay from New Zealand and Australia and a rather indistinguished cabernet better left forgotten.  We met a delightful couple, Frank and Darlene, while waiting for the performance to begin.  They've lived in the area (Laguna Hills) for 30 years.  We had a fun conversation about the Playhouse, mixing the perfect martini, and other pairings put on by the Playhouse.  We were disappointed to find out they're not regular "wine lovers" participants...but they do go to the matinee/luncheon pairings...so maybe next year.

The play we saw is called Art, a comedy about three male friends and their reactions to one of the trio purchasing a hugely expensive, extremely minimalist white on white painting.  Originally written in French by playwright Yasmina Reza, the play translates well to a modern American audience.

Alas, the audience was sparse for this mid-week performance, so there was a lack of some of the usual frisson that passes between audience and performers.  Some of this lack was perhaps due to the uneven performances of the actors.

Best of the trio was John Herzog in the scene-stealing role of Marc, the people-pleasing man in the middle of the debate over the painting's merits.  His mid-play monologue was wonderfully modulated between hysteria and angst and its dead pan reception by the other two actors was spot on.

The other two actors, Steve Vinovich as Serge (purchaser of the painting) and Kyle Colerider-Krugh as Yvan (who calls the painting "shit" upon first viewing) had moments of brilliance and pathos.  Unfortunately, they both also fumbled their lines on occasion.  Colerider-Krugh also seemed to struggle with fully inhabiting his character on a physical level.

Overall, a B plus, I'd say.  Dan's rating was a B for the play and a C for the wine tasting.

The play was still enjoyable, and I'd recommend it for the balance of its run, because of the themes explored using "Art" as a metaphor.  Male friendship, faith, honesty, trust, and ultimately our frail, momentary inhabitance of this planet are all touched on with humor, insight and grace.  

By the looks of last night's audience, tickets are still available now until the play closes on October 14th.