The Salty Blog

Went to Sunday River with “the vets”, Kevin and Danielle, this past weekend – they make for incredible company and lots of laughs. We had our own fun little Easter on the icy, sunshiney slopes.

It was the kind of skiing where you wake up whenever, make coffee and a nice breakfast, take time to change and adjust the gear properly, take funny photographs along the way, and quit as soon as wings at the brewery start to enter your mind. Had it dumped a foot of snow the night before and warmed up, we might have felt a little differently about it. Sunday was a longer ski day in the sunshine.

This weekend we’re off to Vermont to ski Sugarbush and Mad River Glen, so the plan states at least. The Pashby Orphanage will be in FULL effect.

THEN it’s spring.

Last year, Norway declared it would be “carbon neutral” by 2050 - generating no net greenhouse gasses into the air. In January, however, it upped the ante to 2030.

As reported in the International Herald Tribune today, this kind of commitment will likely require real sacrifice closer to home, such as driving less, flying less and putting restrictions on business. It might also be a lot of financial and political talk. Norway is a wealthy country and the third leading exporter of oil in the world.

For the right reasons or not-entirely-selfless reasons, Norway, Wal-Mart, the Vatican and more are making great strides in the right direction. The vision is right, and I think we’ve all seen this tone spread greatly over the last couple of years - mostly across the corporate world.

Yeah, I love that Patagonia reserves 1% of its sales for the planet, but what that does most is “strongly urge” others to do the same. When Wal-Mart “suggests” its suppliers aim to be carbon-neutral, sure as heck they’re gonna have to budge. And whatever Norway wants to do to achieve its goal, the country is now placing its flag on the peak for every other country to climb.

No one wants to be the last shopper at the grocery store with a plastic bag.

Another yurt-terrific adventure weekend! Thanks to all who organized the event and provided scrumptious food and entertainment!

Bromley didn’t make it… he had a tough time in last year’s snow with his arthritic hip, so we had to make the responsible decision of leaving him home (and by home I mean with my parents, not alone in the house with a 40-pound bag o’ dog food and a pee mat).

The weather was decent enough for some hiking and sledding - or “sliding” as some parts of the country seem to want to call it ;-) The full sun even came out long enough for us to catch some rays in this photo! …And Shakedown Street turned out to be the weekend’s theme song.

We saw a bumper sticker on the way home that gave me a good chuckle, so I ordered a few of them today: “At least the war on the environment is going well.”

Two ski weekends ahead before what looks to be an April R&R period! Gary’s on PetFinder.com daily now that the days are longer…

While out with friends a couple of weeks ago, the subject of vacations came up. It seems to be coming up a ton these days - everyone making big plans and eventually coming around to “hey, what are you guys doing for a vacation?” I never have an answer.

That particular night, my friend BG immediately pointed out that Gary and I seem to treat every weekend as a vacation… and you know what? It’s kinda true! I’ve been thinking about it a lot ever since she said that.

It’s not that Gary and I don’t go anywhere. In our four years of relationship-parte-dos we’ve circled the country by car, honeymooned in Costa Rica, skied the Lake Tahoe region with friends, jaunted down to Amelia Island and Jacksonville FL, and visited great friends in the DC/VA area for a week. But on the weekends we’ve hiked, camped, yurted, skied, explored, constructed, photographed, fished, bike-toured, toasted, road-raced, and laughed with almost every one of our dear friends and family.

Whenever I tell someone we’re “just chillin” this weekend, it usually means a combo of three of the above and only crossing one State border. And I’m okay with that (should I ask G?). Never seems odd to me until someone suggests we slow down. Huh? And do what?

To answer that question -
Next flights: Chicago, Arizona
Next international: St. Kitts
Next conventional “vacation”: Costa Rica 2010
Dream vacation: Greek Islands

Happy 1st Birthday to Jake!

The map below - originally from research firm Datamonitor - appeared on Mashable.com last week. It shows the number of hours (in millions) users spend on social networks across five major worldwide regions, and which site reigns supreme within different countries.

I must admit I’m wildly confused by the white spaces where many of my international friends live…

I just came across a witty blog today called “Whole Foods for a Whole Year.” A woman my age in Maine is documenting her attempt to completely overhaul and eat no refined, processed, hormone-boosted, chemically enhanced, genetically altered, etc., foods in 2008. A great real-life example and a fun way to learn about what “whole” really means.

I spent a good three years eating as “clean” as possible, and I was actually darn successful at it when living between Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s in Newton, MA. I went all the way, cutting out most coffee and booze too. I drank obscene amounts of water, and my energy levels were through the roof.

(What changed? I fell in love, and with love came wine and ice cream…)

Well, I didn’t actually stray that far over the last few years of marriage - many of you know how I can be sometimes, particularly about the Purdue brand and grocery-store baked goods. But it’s not always easy to find meat free of growth hormones or to have to toss milk and bread that last less than a week because it doesn’t have preservatives.

2008 has marked a gradual upgrade in our kitchen cabinets, however. I’m walking the extra distance to pick up the right groceries during work days in Boston and commute home with them. We’re trying new food options (thanks to Mom Hedman for the quinoa tip!), and always making everything we can from scratch.

I encourage everyone to go whatever tiny distance you can. A great resource is: http://www.whfoods.com/