Cheap bike basket 30 second how-to. If you even needed a how-to.

It's already August!  Where have I been? The Pharmacy.  Biking.  Job interviews.

After a stretch of 6 days at the pharmacy in a row, I had enough.  I decided to, just for the hell of it, throw out two job applications.  Seeing as how I applied to 100 jobs and just got rude rejection letters last year, I figured it would take several months to even hear back from any of them.

I was wrong.  The first application I sent invited me for an interview.  Then they hired me.  In less than two weeks.  So I am now a part time library assistant in for the Oregon City library.  I am kissing my pill-counting days goodbye. You know, forever.

I've also been volunteering at OMSI on their grant-writing team, and I've been having a great time at it.

Happy cats are not on the sidewalk!  Happy cats are just on the porch!  

What else?  After gaining 8 pounds since January, I decided to start biking again.  And I'm doing it in style.  I recently purchased a red Electra cruiser and I've had fun taking it all over the city.  My old bike, which needs a bit of work, had a basket on it; this bike didn't.  An easy fix:  Any square basket and some zip ties.  I've found so many of life's problems can be solved with zip ties.  Its not incredibly stable and/or weight bearing, but a few books, a purse or a bottle of water would fit nicely into this basket and leave my hands free for riding.  And if it breaks I could probably buy six more for the cost of a real bike basket.

Total cost: $1.99.

On to the bike seat...an easy crochet project.  I devised a way to keep it on the seat, but I haven't ridden with it on yet.  Most people just lace yarn through the bottom and tie it on, but I thought for whatever reason I'd try something else...If my method fails I can just take it apart and lace it through the regular way.

Directions later if anyone is interested.

Here's a video for you:

Book Review: The Messies Manual

In light of signing our next lease for what I would consider a "big girl" home, I have decided that my housekeeping needs some help.  We're going to be living here.  While I haven't been there yet, it doesn't strike me as a place where you should leave your socks in the living room, or your cake plate in the bedroom.  For months on end.  Plus we're going to be having roommates, and I really want to keep everything orderly. Last Friday I decided to grab some how-to books on housekeeping because, well, maybe its not as straightforward as just cleaning up all the time.  One of the books I selected happens to be a classic on housekeeping and organizing.  Sort of.

The first thing that you need to know about this book is that if you do what the author of this book says, your house will be clean.  She very thoroughly outlines some of the reasons why "messies" (or people who aren't natually clean, neat and organized) are the way they are.  I won't go into it here, but there are brief moments of genius, as well as brutal accounts of people who are probably just like you (if you're a messie).  You might be slightly embarrassed and/or shocked as she accurately describes the odd reasons you do what you do. She then takes you through several steps and presents very well thought-out ideas for organizing and cleaning your home.  Honestly, I'm ready to try it out when I get to Portland. 

The second thing you need to know is that the woman who wrote this book, published it for the first time in 1975.  After Twenty-three years of bad housekeeping AND reforming herself well enough to warrant writing a book.  That being said, some of her views struck me as a little archaic and pre-feminist.  The book is aimed at women, and even though she does state numerous times that husbands and children should put in their efforts to keep a house clean, clearly in her mind the woman is the default housekeeper.  Which is fine, it's a little like taking advice from your grandmother.  Great advice for cleaning but not really accurate at describing a modern lifestyle.  For example, she talks at one point about cutting daytime tv out of your life, describing the people on judge shows and soap operas as "immoral losers."  I wonder how she'd feel about people today with an internet porn addiction.  Or wasting time on Facebook.  Or Blogger. HAH!

The third thing you need to possibly consider is that this is technically a "Christian" book, and it is found at Christian bookstores.  While she doesn't talk overwhelmingly about religion, you are going to have to mentally snip out the parts where she talks about "the Lord" if you're the kind of person this is bothersome to.  Eh, just keep reading, its worth it.

A few things I kind of disagreed with, but they are probably moot points.  In order to keep a clean house she sort of expects that people will make sacrifices such as not owning pets with long hair (fat chance) or even not baking a cake from scratch, which she describes as "old-fashioned" (side note:  I baked 2 cakes from scratch this week, it wasn't a problem).  I'm sorry, I'd rather be caught dead with a messy kitchen than with a BOX cake.  Yuck.  She also describes mixing your own cleaners as being too time consuming.  Excuse me?  How can pouring bleach or vinegar and water into a bottle together be time consuming?  In addition, making your own household cleaners is safer for the environment and pets and about 400 times cheaper.  I'd clean MORE if i had these quick and cheap cleaners on hand all the time.  

All in all, its a recommended read for anyone who wants to change their habits of being messy or a packrat or both.  The Messies Manual by Sandra Felton, Revell Books, 2005.  ISBN 0800759796

Aldi's: A European shopping Experience?

...Well not quite. Aldi's carries something of a stigma among Americans. Its that weird store where you can buy hilarious generic products. Basically, its for poor people. Zach and I, for the time being, are those people. Weary of Trader Joes and unable to afford neither Giant Eagle nor Whole Foods(which is iroically the cheaper of the two in my opinion), we ventured to our Nearest Aldi's grocery store.
So what is Aldi's? According to Wikipedia, (which even as a classically trained librarian, I trust a great deal) Aldi's is a discount store based in Germany. Oooh, swank, right? Before you agree, I'm actually sure some people over there make fun of it, too. Its name is short for Albrecht Discount, and according to the same Wikipedia article, 95% of blue collar workers, 88% of white-collar workers, 84% of public servants and 80% of self-employed German people shop there. That's not to say it's the only place they shop, but that is a considerable number. They even have competition! Aldi operates stores in such chic destinations as France, Denmark, Austria, and the UK.

So how about our experience? I'll break it down:

Who shops at Aldi's? Lots of people. Anyone who wants to save money on basics. Now that unemployment is at 10%, and has been for months, it appears that a lot of regular folks shop there. Certainly there were some very nice cars in the lot. In fact, my friend who happens to be an incredibly amazing cook shops there, too.

What do they sell? Aldi's had a lot of my normal foods. Trader Joe's is actually owned by the same company, and they have a lot of the same products...sometimes for cheaper, albeit they are in different boxes. The same box of cereal at T.J. is 1.99, but at Aldi's its 1.49. O-shaped cereal is O-shaped cereal is O-shaped cereal. Above you can see the sportsdrink Zach bought for his Hockey game tonight. It tastes similar to the national brand. They had boxes of pasta, even a whole-wheat variety. Milk, basic cheese, and weirdly enough the same type of bread they had in Albert Heijn, a grocery store in Amsterdam. On the label: product of Holland. Neat.

Lots of stuff I wouldn't eat too: Pringles, snack cakes and corn-flavored chips. Canned meat(a lot of it), cured hams, chocolate bars, and soda.

What don't they sell? I noticed a few things I'm used to buying weren't found here. No fresh herbs. No yeast packets. Nothing local. Don't look for organic products here, they don't have them, and don't be surprised. Its a discount store, and sometimes there's just no room to be a foodie. Sigh and carry on.

What is Different? To use the carts it will cost you a quarter. Indeed they are all chained together. Putting in a quarter unlocks the cart. You get your quarter back when you return your cart. The checkout is extremely fast, and you must bring your own bags or purchase ones there. This is not unlike grocery stores in Europe, in the Netherlands, I do think I remember that they cost something like 15 "euro cents". At Aldi's you must bag your own groceries, which is the case at other stores I've been to (Trader Joe's certainly appreciates your bagging skills, however they provide paper bags for free and will do it themselves if you don't want to). Aldi's also doesn't take credit cards, so like us, you won't be racking up skymiles here.

Do I recommend Aldi's? Yes. If you want to save money, there's no better place (except maybe Big Lots which I also love, but they do not carry produce or have nearly the same selection) Do use the same cautious behaviour you would use at any grocery: read labels, reject ingredients with allergens, products you adamantly avoid, and foods that are generally terrible for you. Bring your debit card, or cash and re-usable grocery bags, and one quarter. Our bill came out to 20 dollars less than usual, and that was enough to make me smile. Our first meal: Strawberries, spinach, and lettuce all came from Aldi's.