Born in the U.S.A.

This website offers some really interesting insight on what your life could have been like in another location.

http://www.ifitweremyhome.com/

Freeduce, Freeuse, Freecycle

Just this week I just started using this thing called Freecycle and I think it's a fantastic idea. I'm sure many of you have been using this forever, but for those to whom this is new, here's how it works. You sign up for a Yahoo account (if you're like me and didn't already have one established) and then you join your local area's Freecycle group. The site combines all the submissions ("Wanted" or "Offered") and sends you an email daily, or you can just check the site and opt out of the emails. It's surprising the things people ask for and offer- from TVs to bike wheels to furniture to sewing machines. I just started listing things I was hoping to part with this afternoon and I already got a taker within an hour or two of posting. A guy named Steve is coming tomorrow to pick up a duplicate pasta pot I had that was taking up our limited and valuable kitchen cabinet space. It's nice to know that someone who needs what you have is going to make use of it, and it feels good to cut back on unnecessary consumption if your neighbor happens to have just the thing you were looking to buy. I believe there's an old adage that addresses this perfectly: One woman's trash is another man's pasta pot. Something like that.

Treasure Island Music Festival

This weekend we went to the Treasure Island Music Festival. I had never been to Treasure Island before, but a quick google told me that it is an artificial island originally used as an airport and built from landfill that was dredged from the bottom of the Bay during the Great Depression. You can see it's absence on the 1915 map below. I guess one man's trash is another man's treasure... island.

Pat and Tom trying to figure out why The Decemberists sucked so much.

Courtney, thrilled about how good Grizzly Bear and Beirut were.

Tom, readying his mind for the Flaming Lips.

Puppy piling for warmth.

Flaming Lips, Flaming Lips, Flaming Lips.