Dandelions Everywhere!

We have a lot of lawn. It has a lot of dandelions. A lot. And we won’t spray them. I have spent a lot of time digging them out. And bending the little digging tool. And buying a new one. And bending it. A few days ago, while riding home from work, I saw an old man (because that is who lives in our neighbourhood) tossing dandelions onto the sidewalk using a pogo-stick looking device. I was intrigued. While perusing my Canadian Tire flyer (what a great store – have I mentioned this before?) I saw the pogo-spade he was using. Turns out there’s no spring, but instead some penny-nails that dig down in the ground, and tighten around the dandelion root, all with one simple step down on the stick. What a deal. Easily the best $15.72 I’ve spent in a long time. However, once I am done de-dandelioning my lawn, I don’t think there will be much grass left. Not much at all. But at least I didn’t fill our groundwater with pesticide.

Ecoholics: Gardening…Biking…Flooring

We are planting our garden this weekend – and realizing how small our 20′ by 15′ plot is. Maybe next year we’ll expand it a bit, chopping out some of our lawn. We’re not too keen on lawn, as we’ve been reading Ecoholic and learning about all of the evils associated with, well, everything non-organic in the world, including using potable water to make grass grow green.

Continuing on the eco-front, I’ve been pretty good at riding my bike to work, so far. It’s usually around 0 Celsius (32 Fahrenheit) in the morning, so the ride is brisk, but by the time I come home, it’s usually closer to +15 Celsius. I have a speedometer (I’m a number geek, remember?) and have ridden 280km in the 5 weeks since I started. (I was in Minneapolis for a week, and didn’t get any riding done that week, needless to say.) According to the World Watch Institute, every day I ride the 16km round trip, I keep 20kg of pollutants out of the air. This isn’t fully accurate, though, as B and I carpool when I don’t ride. Still, it helps a bit.
And with gas at $131.9 a litre, every km helps.

For the flooring part of this post, check out my new blog — http://handymansdream.blogspot.com/2008/05/carpet-devil-in-disguise.html — I’m compiling my home renovation related stuff there!

Where’s that update? Oh, here it is!

Well, looks like I haven’t finished the updates from Minneapolis yet. Last week was busy, and this week is shaping up to be similar. Such is life as a teacher and student, I suppose. On the thesis front, I have lined up eight students to participate in my qualitative study of the Dinner Theatre Project. I am excited to see what I find out about students perceptions of the project, and how their experience in the project compares to their past experiences in schools. Hopefully the data I collect will help inform future project-based learning endeavors at our school. I have my first interview tomorrow after school, and so I spent some of the weekend reading up on Case Studies and interviewing techniques. Not exactly intriguing reading, but purposeful.

On the personal side of things, B and I spent Saturday afternoon and evening on a scavenger hunt co-ed pre-wed (the name courtesy of her cleverness, not mine) for close friends of ours who are getting married May-long weekend. We went for a long bike ride today, met up with some good friends from out of town for lunch, visited some other friends in their new house a few blocks away, distracting them from the painting they were doing, shaved our cats (sorry, no photos) and rounded out the day with family supper at my in-laws. I must admit that though I spent the winter cursing the cold weather and wishing for the tropical sun of Cambodia, it sure is nice to be close to friends and family again.