Molly and Zaphod are friends

Zaphod and our new puppy, Molly are getting along so well now. Zaphod was pretty weirded out by her at first but now they like to play together. Their favorite game is growling and play biting at each other. It's cute at first but eventually it gets on my nerves the way my brother's wrestling did when I was a teenager. They also like to play a game where Zaphod lays something down and Molly finds it and starts playing with it. Then Zaphod comes and takes it away from her. Sometimes she makes him chase her around the yard for it. She can actually run faster than him so when he finally catches up, I think it's really just Molly taking pity on him. She adores Zaphod and will sit and watch him chew on something like it's the most amazing thing ever. I also catch them nuzzling each other sometimes.

Molly is so cute. She looks like she is smiling and laughing all the time. When Zaphod knocks her back, it always looks like she is falling back laughing. When the fireflies start lighting up in the evening she chases them and trys to catch them with her mouth. She also scouts bugs in the grass. Sometimes I worry that she might be trailing something a little more dangerous like a snake. Hopefully her instincts would kick in. She is still a little afraid of shadows and her own reflection. She barks and growls.

I really enjoy snuggling with Molly on the couch. Sometimes, they get on either side of me and it double snuggle time. I am in dog heaven. I never knew I would like having dogs so much. I can't imagine not having Molly in our household. I even think she smells sweet. I am in deep.

The dark side of junk mail

Are you as bugged by all the useless paper in your life as I am? On Sunday I spent a few hours shredding paper from the last six months. Not all of it was junk mail. Some of it is was statements from my bank and from my mutual funds. There were also quite a few credit card offers despite the fact that I have opted out. Unsolicited credit card offers seem very irresponsible to me in the current climate of identity theft. A few years ago I started packing all the other offers into the return postage paid envelopes and mailing them back to the credit card companies. That gave me a little satisfaction for a while but, like all other paper management, it's time consuming to make sure that your little paper bomb is not traceable (meaning you need to make sure none of the offers you are sending back have your name on them!).

I have tried in vain to get my mutual funds people and my bank to stop mailing me statements. These two are really the worst offenders. I have put in requests with the mutual fund office here in Austin as well as all the corporate headquarters, going so far as to set up logins on their websites so I can check my statements online but the mail just keeps on coming. My bank is also pretty bad. On the website they offer paperless statements. I sign up for that but a couple of months later, it seems to reset and I start getting my paper statements again.

And while I am on the subject of useless paper, I also don't understand why I keep getting so many new yellow page phone books on my doorstep. I don't use them and it's pretty difficult to recycle them since (I think) you aren't supposed to put them out with curbside recycling. I haven't looked up a phone number in a book in years. I get all that info on the internet now. There seem to be more and more companies who make phone books. You should see the tower of books on top of my fridge, not to mention the ones that have fallen off and are now lodged between the side of the fridge and the wall.

There's lots of other useless paper like the the newspaper-y looking coupon circulars, etc. but I guess the bright side of the issue is that I am lucky to live in a city with so many options for recycling from curbside to Ecology Action downtown. At least I've got that!

New Digs!

I recently moved into a new studio, outside my home. It's in a really neat building that used to be a run down motel. It's been redone with all kinds of cool eco features. There is a lot of natural light which is nice.

I will have an open studio soon and invite everyone by to take a look! In the meantime, here are some pics...

Product Reviews

Damn, I did it again and I swore I wouldn't... recently when I was cleaning out my bathroom cabinet I made a vow not to buy anymore hair product at the salon. It's the same old story, they put all this stuff in my hair and I get convinced this is the next big thing but when I use it at home, I get lackluster results. So last time I bought this stuff called Re:Coil which is supposed to help curly hair. It kind of sucks. My hair looks straighter somehow and a little dry and frizzy on the ends. I don't know why I did it, just caught up in the moment I guess. What I really hate is that it's a bottle of something which I have to dipsose of somehow. I am going back to the store-bought Fructis Garnier leave-in conditioner that was working just fine for me before! I know it's not eco but, dang, it works.

Oh and while we are on the subject of hair product. I have been trying to move some of my beauty products over to eco. So far I really like the Mychelle face stuff. But, I tried out one of the natural brands of shampoo and conditioner called Jason, the stuff really sucks. It wouldn't lather and then it wouldn't rinse out completely. Is lather a bad thing? My hair had this heavy greasy type stuff in it for the entire next day. Bad. Recommendations for natural shampoos and conditioners happily accepted!

PS: My camera is back so pictures and new products to the website soon!!

monkey off my back

I am so happy to say that we recently finished paying off our credit card debt. It took us three and a half years to pay it off. It's such a huge relief to have it over with. We worked with a non profit, debt consilidation company called Consumer Credit Counseling Services. They go over your budget with you to determine what you can pay. Then they negotiate with the credit card companys to get the lowest interest rate on all your cards. Every month they draw one payment out of your bank account and make the payments for you for a low montly fee. While working with them you have to promise not to apply for or use credit cards.

Debt consilidation has been a really positive experience for me. It's taught me how to live within a budget. It changed my relationship to buying things and gave me a more realistic outlook on the whole consumer experience. I used to buy a lot of stuff that I really didn't need. It also made me realize how outrageous credit card interest is. It inspired me to learn more about financial issues and to pay closer attention when Suze Orman is on Oprah. And, the best thing is that it raised my credit score! The higher your credit score is, the better interest rate you get when you buy a car or a house or apply for a credit card.

I don't know if I will ever use personal credit cards again. I don't trust myself not to justify spending a little here and there. There were quite a few justified sushi meals in that lump sum. But, on the other hand, there were also some amazing things that we would never have been able to do either - like our wedding in Greece!

I really debated whether or not to blog about such a personal thing. Debt consolidation was recommended to me by a good friend so I feel obliged to pay it forward.