Building Green Games

Advice: if you're ever contemplating buying an office building ... don't. So, as a family, we all made "green" resolutions this year. Dayna and Elliott are going to try to buy the bulk of their foods from local sources to help reduce their carbon footprint. John and Linda are jumping into full-blown recycling of anything possible to recycle and also, not taking plastic shopping bags from stores. Harry and I decided that anything that goes down our drains will be safe for the water system. We have researched and tested products and have successfully found ones we like. But as you get into it, you start to realize how many things that includes. There's the obvious household cleansers. We have "green" dish liquid, dishwasher soap, tub and tile cleaner, toilet bowl cleaner, laundry detergent, etc. Then there's personal hygiene products: shampoo, cream rinse, body soap, and (bet you didn't think of these!) toothpaste and shaving cream. But the one thing I can't find is a green substitute for Downy. We live in a dry climate and static electricity is a major issue during the winter. Bounce just doesn't take care of it. I'm open to any suggestions .... Confession: I'm a 51-year-old gamer. I love my DS and am slightly addicted to puzzle and strategy games. Not into the action, shoot 'em up, blood and gore games at all. How did this happen? When the girls were young and had a Super NES with their brains all into Mario, I made sure to play with them to know what they were into. I guess I got hooked. Linda still has the original NES and games ... all still in good working condition! One of our favorite games (back then) was Lemmings. I just discovered they still make that game! Unbelievable! It's a PS3 game now, but it's still out there. Just goes to show you that to be good, a game has to have staying power. Hmmm ... maybe I'll go play a little Pipe Mania ....

A blog a month -- hey, that's pretty good for me. I've decided living in "Chinook" country is never boring. Yesterday the sun was shining, it was warm, snow was melting, I chatted with my neighbour over the fence. Today we had 3 inches of snow. Tomorrow it will be 10C (50F). The schizophrenic weather around here kind of grows on you. Linda and I are busy planning a trip to Toronto. Dayna landed a gallery show and we decided someone from the Fam should be there. So Linda, the boys and I are flying out to T.O. February 18th for a 5-day visit. Elliott is pumped to finally meet his nephews. Dayna is excited to have her sister visit. Dayna works on very large canvasses. This work-in-progress is about 4'x7'. It depicts the street where they live. I'm anxious to see this one finished. Truth be told, I'm just anxious to see D-'n-E and spend some time in Toronto. 4 weeks and counting ....