End of a busy, busy, busy week

The third week of the month is typically busy for me, but this one was especially so. I led a boisterous East CAC meeting Monday, bringing me home around 10 PM. I had Tuesday night “off.” Wednesday night was the Raleigh CAC meeting, which began at 7 (allowing me to eat supper with the family) and got me home about 10 PM.

Upon returning home Wednesday night I discovered my home computer server was wheezing and apparently on its last legs, so I spent another three hours moving it all to a new server. Bedtime was at 1:15 AM.

Thursday evening was my Parks board meeting, beginning at 5:30 PM and ending around 6:45 PM. That night, I spent over an hour picking through and explaining some new zoning issues for a nearby neighborhood, an effort which went largely unappreciated, sorry to say.

I took the day off of work Friday to spend it at the Growing In Place Symposium. Friday followed by the Healthy Cities presentations most of Saturday. Oh, and we also squeezed in a visit to Rolesville to visit our friends and former neighbors for dinner.

Now I feel sleepy. Is it any wonder?

Peanuts, and more

I decided to enjoy a snack of peanuts after taking Rocket around the neighborhood. The label says “Harris Teeter Peanuts – Dry Roasted, Lightly Salted.”

They are indeed dry roasted and lightly salted. Unfortunately, they are also a few other things, too. The ingredient list:

Peanuts, Salt, Cornstarch, Sugar, Maltodextrin, Monosodium Glutamate (Flavor Enhancer), Yeast, Dried Corn Syrup, Paprika and Other Spices, Extractives of Paprika, Hydrolyzed Soy Protein, Natural Flavor, Garlic and Onion Powder.

I really only wanted peanuts and some salt, though its good that they slipped in the “natural flavor” at the end of that list – as long as it’s natural. Don’t want anything that isn’t natural, you know. Also, I’m not sure how “extractives” differ from “extracts,” either. It might be like the way some people say “utilize” instead of “use,” as if the extra two syllables somehow add importance.

At least salmonella wasn’t on the list.

Healthy Cities Symposium

I’m at the NCSU College of Design’s Healthy Cities symposium, co-sponsored by the Raleigh Planning Department. Its a two-day conference on such topics as making sure kids have the chance to get outside time as well as how to design cities for a healthy population. Should be good stuff, and apropos to my service as East CAC chair and Raleigh Parks board member.

Being a geek, I’m also busy hacking the network here at Marbles Kids Museum, naturally.

Sleep? What’s that?

It was a busy day yesterday. I awoke before 6, worked until 5, had dinner with the family, and headed back out to my RCAC meeting. I got home at 10 to realize our home fileserver was about to croak. Fortunately, I just upgraded the server I’d hoped to replace it with, so I spent the rest of the evening decommissioning the old server and setting up the new one. Bedtime was after 1 AM.

Ain’t life grand?

Record stores

I woke up with The Police’s Born In the Fifties on my mind. That got me thinking to my early exposure to The Police – in a music store of all quaint places. I vividly remember browsing through The Record Bar in a Columbia, S.C. mall and seeing the Ghost In The Machine logos everywhere. Must have been 1981.

That got me missing the glory days of record stores. My kids may never grow up to know the joy of browsing actual, physical records in racks. There was a kinship there with other customers: just being around would often lead to someone suggesting a band to you you would’ve not otherwise heard. Its not so easy doing that in the age of iTunes (though Pandora comes close).

CAC

I conducted another CAC meeting last night and came home buzzing. There were 42 fired-up neighbors there: one of the largest CAC meetings I’ve seen anywhere. I’m continually amazed at how passionate people are about their neighborhood. It’s like a jolt of electricity to me to be in that room.

I may one day stumble into political office but I can’t imagine I’ll ever have as much fun as I’m having now as a CAC leader.

Salvia

How could a pediatrician-turned-lawmaker be so ignorant about drugs? Laurinburg Democrat Bill Purcell compares salvia to meth as if the two are remotely similar: a plant versus a caustic mixture of chemicals (including drain cleaner) – with drastically different effects.

Think the good folks of Laurinburg are running around crazed, knocking over convenience stores to get money for more salvia? Think again: even he admits there’s no problem with salvia.

Hey Rep. Purcell: that budget shortfall? Remember that? That’s the problem you should be trying to solve. How about putting the celebrity bills aside and getting back to fixing our state’s real problems.

No kidding

Poor Richard said “early to bed, early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.” I say “sleeping late makes me stupid.”

This morning I can’t seem to get my brain in gear.

A leaky idea

wal-mart-case_less_milk_jugs-smallWe like shopping at Costco because it’s convenient and has great prices. There are occasions where an item we like to buy sometimes vanishes from the shelves but overall we can usually find what we need.

One staple that has remained the same (infuriatingly so, actually) at Costco is milk. Costco’s Kirkland-brand milk (as well as Wal-Mart’s) comes in containers that are by far the worst-designed I’ve ever seen. Rather than the traditional milk container with an angled spout, the Creative Edge Design Group-designed “milk pitchers” are squarish with a minimum of curves (so as to maximize their stacking ability). The result is a container that buckles when milk is poured, resulting in the milk running down the side. In all the many Kirkland milk containers I’ve used, not once have I avoided spilling milk all over the place.

I discovered a message now being stamped on the top of the milk. “Tilt and pour slowly,” it says. So, now spills are apparently our fault because we’re not doing it right.

Yes, the new containers allow big box stores to get more milk into their trucks and freezers. The downside is that the extra milk often winds up on the buyer’s table or countertop. So who is it really seeing the savings here? I’m all for making the process of milk delivery more efficient (and more green), but this container is too flawed to make it worthwhile. Back to the drawing boards, folks!

(I see the New York Times, Huffington Post, and various blogs have covered this. )