A Sad Stat

Our little local paper recently reported that six percent of the people in Lee's Summit, MO, recycle. Six percent. That means that 94% of the people in this town find it prohibitively difficult to throw their pop cans and water bottles into a recycling bin instead of the trash can.

Now, I'll admit that I'm not a great environmentalist. My house is too big, and from the looks of my utility bills, not terribly efficient. I get plastic bags at the grocery store (although I do reuse them as trash bags) and when we need or want something, we tend to buy new instead of used. But I find this statistic a bit horrifying. I mean, it's not like we have to actually turn our garbage into new products. We just have to place them in a different container. Is it really that hard?

This pathetic number is particularly disturbing to me because our town has curbside recycling. It costs an extra five bucks a month--a Starbucks. Big deal. I place a bin full of my aluminum, plastic, newspapers and cardboard--I don't even have to separate it--out with the regular trash. Once a month or so I haul my glass and magazines to the local Resource Recovery Center, about five miles away. Not difficult. (And as a side note, I have to say that beer drinkers are excellent recyclers. The brown glass container is always full.)

The most challenging part for me has been training the people I live with to follow my lead. But I know that if I nag, rag and bitch long enough, they'll do what I want just to shut me up. Actually, I've found this to be an excellent strategy for getting just about anything done in my household.

Keeping Up With The Neighbors

In the suburbs, we care very much about the appearance of our homes. We obsess over it. The street on which I live is no exception.

I live in a cul-de-sac with seven homes...all of them (including mine) are in a perpetual state of updating. All the homes are about 15-20 years old, so maybe it's just time for the first wave, but it's really quite amazing to watch.

And I do watch. Since I work at home, I am the Mrs. Kravitz of the 21st Century, peeking out my front window several times a day to keep track of what's going on with the neighbors. It's obvious that we are all doing our part to keep the economy--or at least in the construction and home improvement industries--alive and well. Here are just a few things that have happened in just a last year or so:

All seven of our homes have gotten either new or extensively repaired roofs. Four have been painted. One had a complete landscaping overhaul, complete with full-grown plants and a koi pond. Another ripped out and replaced what I know was pristine carpeting. And the appliance and furniture delivery trucks are in and out of here with staggering regularity. You can bet that when that happens, I am looking for a reason to visit and see what they got.

This is the house three doors down from mine. In the past year they've replaced all the windows, installed an underground sprinkler system, replaced the cedar shingle roof with a tile one, and just a few weeks ago they replaced the driveway with this fancy colored one. (I hope they are planning to repaint their plum-colored front door because it now clashes with the roof.)

And this house, which sits behind mine but is obviously in a different neighborhood, is truly the home that we're all watching. The proverbial Joneses that we're all trying to keep up with. The owners purchased the home three years ago for just under $1 million. For the first year after they bought it, they lived somewhere else while the interior was completely gutted and renovated. They moved in and started on the exterior, including a new two-story, two-car garage--apparently the existing four-car garage was not quite enough. (The garage doors have been brown for quite a while. I hope they aren't leaving them like that.) Now, three years later, there is still a steady stream of construction vehicles and heavy equipment driving through the circular driveway. I can't see the backyard, but I suspect they are putting in a pool.

It's fun to live in the suburbs! I'd love to go on, but I have kitchen cabinets to paint.

Back to the Kitchen...

The kitchen remodel is in full swing. The granite countertop, sink and faucet is in, the backsplash is up, and this weekend we started the long, tedious process of painting the cabinetry:


At first I was nervous about choosing backsplash tile; the sheer volume of tile, in every shape, size and material imaginable, was enough to make me think it would take years to pick something. But once we set our budget, the options quickly narrowed from a million choices to about three. So that was easy.

We decided to save $1,000 in labor and tile the backsplash ourselves. I think we did a pretty good job!

And now, even though the dining and living room is filled with the contents of the kitchen, and the garage has become an assembly line to sand, prime and paint--count 'em--29 doors and 13 drawers (not to mention all the hardware that needs to be cleaned and spray-painted), I'm looking ahead to all the other parts of the house that need to be UPDATED. Why? Why am I devoting so much time, energy and money to this cause? Apparently, I'm just trying to keep up with my neighbors. More on that tomorrow...

America the Casual, Part 2

I'm not done ranting about people wearing pajama pants in public (see below), but before I continue, here's some related food for thought: Do your clothes influence your behavior?

This is the question that has been raised around here as an upscale entertainment and restaurant district called the Kansas City Power & Light District, imposes what has become a controversial dress code. From their website:

"The dress code prohibits the following: profanity on clothing; sleeveless shirts on men; excessively torn clothing; undershirts; excessively baggy or sagging clothing; work boots; sweat suits or athletic attire (jerseys are permitted in conjunction with Chiefs or Royals games or sporting events in the Sprint Center). Management reserves the right to refuse admission to or eject any person whose conduct is deemed to be disorderly or who fails to comply with the terms of entry. Please note that the dress codes of individual venues may vary."

Now, some people have gotten themselves all worked up about this with comments that range from how stupid it is to believe that you can spot (and then exclude) a troublemaker by his/her clothing to more serious allegations of discrimination and racial profiling.

I'm not sure how I feel about this. On one hand, the district is privately owned. So really, the owners are within their rights to have a dress code--just like private schools and business offices. And as a suburbanite who rarely leaves the house, going into the city for a night out is a big enough deal to warrant getting all dolled up--so the dress code is not a problem for me.

On the other hand, does it really matter? In a country where people wear pajama pants to the grocery store and jeans and shorts to weddings, can dictating appearance do anything to keep patrons safe?

Our friends on Wall Street have already shown us that you can commit plenty of crimes in a suit and tie. So, one has to wonder if this dress code is just to exclude those that may be perceived as criminals. Hmm...

And back to pajama pants...

My sister-in-law sent me this picture of a woman in pajama pants attending a Sugarland concert--in Germany. Apparently, this is a worldwide epidemic.

The Domino Effect

The Domino Effect is defined as "a chain reaction that occurs when a small change causes a similar change nearby, which then will cause another similar change, and so on in linear sequence." This phenomenon certainly takes place when it comes to home improvement. And it is out of control in my kitchen.

It started when we replaced the old appliances that began to die, one by one, shortly after we moved in. Once we had all shiny, new, stainless steel appliances, the rest of the kitchen looked shabby.

So we replaced the countertops; with those came a new sink and faucet. Then the cheap, contractor-grade backsplash tiles had to go; while we were tiling we went ahead and updated all the electrical outlets. Now the dated oak cabinetry isn't working. Ditto the bad lighting and popcorn ceiling. Then there's the tacky window coverings and ancient kitchen furniture...where does it end?

Home improvement is a $300-billion-a-year industry. I smell a conspiracy.

America the Casual

In terms of the way we dress, I think it's great that America is a casual society. I love my Levis and t-shirts and am as thrilled as any woman that pantyhose have all but vanished.

But during a quick trip to the library the other night, I was reminded once again of a disturbing trend that may be pushing the casual thing just a bit too far--people wearing their flannel pajama pants out in public.

Now, I love my flannel pajama pants. They are warm and comfy during these long midwestern winters, and since I work at home, there are many times that I wear them all day. But I don't leave the house in them.

Listen--I'm not suggesting that people spend an hour getting dolled up to run to the library or the grocery store or the gas station. I'm talking about five minutes to throw on a pair of jeans. They can even be those dirty ones that are in a pile on the floor. Please. Because seriously, unless I'm sleeping with you, I DON"T WANT TO SEE YOU IN YOUR PAJAMAS.