Step #1-Conserve more water-This is the first thing i have added. Being someone who tries to be as green as possible you would think i would have already adopted this huh? What was holding me back? I love love LOVE long showers. My average shower time used to be 35 to 40 minutes, twice a day, no exaggeration. How does one spend that long in the shower you may wonder? For people named Audrey Reed its way easy! Turn on shower, enter, stand and soak, brush teeth, soak, enjoy, sing (have you ever heard the acoustics in a bathroom? they’re awesome!), wash face, rinse face, rinse face again because we really don’t like citrus soap in our eyes, rinse once more for good measure (oranges in your eyes burns man!), day dream, wash upper body, get lost in thought, soak, rinse, sing again, wash bottom half, contemplate whatever occupies the mind, rinse, soak once more, turn off shower, exit. Id then do this all again at night, except no singing. Talk about waste hmm?

These days i’ve cut it down to 10 to 15 minutes, and while most would still say thats too long, its the best this lady will ever do. I cut it down by brushing my teeth at the sink without the water running, washing my face at night at the sink without the water running, giving up my night shower all together, singing while i wash (multitasking is a very important skill to have indeed), and trying to have self control during the “oh the hot water feels so good and its cold out i’m just going to stand here a while” moments. Not only do i feel better for wasting a lot less water, its cut down on the time it takes me to get ready. Thats something the dreamboat appreciates i’m sure.

In addition i’ve also cut down on the water i use to wash the dishes (washing them right after using them eliminates the need to soak and cuts down on water needed during washing) and i’ve started keeping cold water in the fridge. We live in the apartment right above the water heater and we would have to let the water run a good minute for it to get cold. Now cold water is available whenever we want it and its tasty in my new sigg bottle.

Small steps, big difference in the long run. Check out treehuggers steps for greening your water if you need ideas on jump starting your water conservation.

Those furs. The dreamboat and i went and saw the Handsome Furs on Monday of this week. They were AWESOME! I hadn’t heard much of the Handsome Furs stuff, just what the dreamboat would play every now and then, but he told me i would like them seeing i’m a big fan of Wolf Parade (the male half of the Handsome Furs is 1/4 of Wolf Parade). As usual, the dreamboat was right. I found myself stomping my feet and shaking my ass. Hooray ass shaking! They had serious energy, and the lady was making sweet love to her equipment and music makers. She was great.

The two opening acts were pretty good as well. The dreamboat picked up a local band by the name of Social Studies cd. He really likes them, even though we both agree that they don’t really know how to end a song. I can’t get really into em, but to each his own. Maybe they will grow on me.

I also picked myself up a cd by a band called Johnny and the Moon. Dante DeCaro, the lead singer of Johnny and the moon is also a member of Wolf Parade (ooo, i see a trend!). Mr. DeCaro can croon, and I can get with almost any band thats got a banjo somewhere in the mix. There’s only one thing i disagree with. Having a Myspace page is not, I repeat NOT, a suitable replacement for having a website for your band. Show some pride! Even if it looks like crap, it would be better than Myspace. I hate having to link to that damn website to tell people about some good music, they don’t need any more publicity. Geez. Other than that, Hooray Johnny and the Moon!

Go to an after holiday beach clean up - Well, it wasn’t after a holiday, but it was a large scale beach clean up none the less. On September 15, the dreamboat and I woke up, after much in bed pondering and debate on whether we could handle picking up trash at 9 am on a Saturday on only 5 hours of sleep, got ready and headed out. We first swung by Discount Builder Supply to buy some gloves (no point in picking up trash with disposable latex gloves, thats kind of backwards in my opinion). If you need a hardware store in SF I strongly recommend this one; they’re always nice and helpful. We then rode out to the beach. I was happy to see there were far more people there then I expected! A few hundred at least, versus the 15 to 20 i thought would show up. How naive I was! Everyone with blue and green bags coming together and helping out. It made my morning, I’m really glad we went out. The dreamboat and I decided that were going to try to get others involved and make this a yearly ritual. Beach cleaning in the morning, and getting together for friends and fun on the beach in the afternoon. Yay! For more info on California Costal Cleanup Day check out the CCC website. They already have the date for next year set! completed September 15, 2007

And i’ll swing my legs! Kings of Leon last night was amazing! The shows at the Warfield are always so good! They had a great line up of songs, each one just getting better and better. It was good to save “Knocked Up” for after then encore. After a slew of good songs and a break it was the perfect thing to get you back into it. And they played “Molly’s Chambers”! I had forgotten about that song, even though its one of their bests. YEAH!

KoL played with Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, who were, sadly, kind of boring. I was disappointed because i like BRMC, i can be found stomping around the house in my boots to them fairly often. oh well.

Sadly, I don’t have any pictures from the show because it was no cameras allowed, but i’m sure you can imagine it. Good looking boys in pants as tight as all get out dressed somewhere in between hipster and country boy rocking out to their hearts delight, and a drummer blowing impressively large pink bubbles with his gum while his hands fly about in front of him, keeping your feet and hips moving. Can you see it? I knew you could.

This puts me at 5 shows seen out of 10, the others being:

4. Laura Veirs at Cafe Du Nord, June 6, 2007
3. The Decemberists at the Warfield, Spring 2007
2. Mates of State at The Great American Music Hall, December 22, 2006

and

1. Hot Chip at the Mezzanine (i think), November 17, 2006

Five more shows to go!

Try Indian food- Since trying it, Indian has very quickly become one of my favorite foods. Have something with paneer in it? Send it my way! Indian is far easier to come by here in San Francisco than it was in San Diego where i first tried it, so its Indian two or three times a month these days. Oh yeah! We head over to Aslam’s Rasoi on Valencia when we want our fix. I miss the lentil soup at the Indian place in San Diego though. So good, so good. completed summer 2006