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 ....