You know how I love the re-using and the reduction of stuff, but given my current situation and all that I've read. I strongly encourage anyone who gets ANYTHING from freecycle or craigslist or anywhere used to do one of the following depending on the item:

have it HOT stream cleaned
run it in a HOT dryer for an hour
wash it in a HOT cycle and the dry it in a HOT dryer until it is dry and then for 20 more min.
seal it in something airtight and plastic for 12-18 months.

Say, do you suppose I could temporarily be like a komodo dragon, where I could bite someone and just wait a few days for the bacteria in my mouth to cause the person to die of infection?

I bring you komodo dragon news: turns out it's venom after all. Scientists from the University of Melbourne have this year reported that they've found large venom glands in their lower jaw. [link] The venom prevents blood clotting and dilates blood vessels, causing blood pressure to plummet. This makes them one of the largest venomous creatures ever.

This is how bad of a day today is... I am in the living room and can see my trash can. I just went and yelled at a middle school aged kid to take the GIANT bag of trash that he dumped into our trash can out.

Oh, I hate that. At my last apartment, one of the other apartments did that to me all tht time. I wound up with overflowing bins, and all sorts of crap in the recycling bin. So happy I don't have to deal with it anymore.

"But ours is full."

Might want to figure out how to reduce the amount of trash you're producing. We do fill our container up every week, but it's about three of the kitchen-sized garbage bags worth of trash in it. I'm always amazed at how much we manage to recycle. We have one container for cardboard, one for newspapers and paper and one for glass, cans and plastic.

Whoa, really? I think that might make Komodo dragons even awesomer.

Panda cake!

THat was not what I expected. It's better!

Like Komodo dragons.

I bring you komodo dragon news: turns out it's venom after all.

Yeah, I knew that. But I didn't mention it, as it would have detracted from... stuff....

In my neighborhood -- on Wednesday night people can add to whatever cans are not full -- usually we ask first. sometimes we offer if there is a project going on . We have green bin for green stuff, blue for garbage, gray for all recycle. Green bin space is premium. The neighbor we share a hedge with -- he trims it and gets to use our bin .

When I lived in Georgia, they were going hard core on trash. Recycling was unlimited but actual trash had to be in special blue bags that cost a buck each. Anything not in the bag, not picked up. [ETA: this was in Decatur - didn't apply elsewhere.]

Buying the bags at the hardware or grocery store was a bit of a pain, but you better believe you got serious about recycling, and fast.

A friend's dog has recently gone blind, and she does all of that. According to my friend's research, dogs have very good spatial memory, so their house is all laid out for her still in her mind.

Yeah, well, I've seen an elderly sheep dog do a header off the porch a few times in a truly horrifying (once you stop laughing) manner. So I don't know that they totally shake it off.

Roommate informs me that the Salvation Army across the street takes clothing donations. Yay.

Getting my life into more than a semblance of order continues apace. The amount of shit that I am getting done today actually makes me tired when I think about it.

Whoa, really? I think that might make Komodo dragons even awesomer.

I know! The fun part: these venom glands are not small. How did people not notice before?