before and after

Or rather, after...

And before.

(and during)

Laura's March: A Walk to End Violence Against Women

On Saturday, September 6, Rogerdog and I will participate in the Laura Kate Winterbottom Memorial Fund's second-annual "Laura's March: A Walk to End Violence Against Women."

The LKW Memorial Fund is a non-profit organization created in the wake of Laura's murder in 2005. This year's 5K march will benefit two vital Vermont organizations: Women Helping Battered Women and the Women's Rape Crisis Center.

Please support Roger and me as we join the Kelliher Samets Volk team and the Burlington community at Laura's March. Every little donation helps!

Thanks for your support!
Laura Lou & Roger too

KSV's Commuter Challenge!

I'm excited to announce that the KSV Commuter Challenge is upon us! We're already in the thick of it, with Week 1 behind us and Week 2 under way...

Here's how it works:

●Outside the kitchen there's a star chart sign-up list. (Gold stars are motivating no matter what your age!)

●For every day that you alterna-commute (anything other than single person in a vehicle), you get to put up a star. If you totally leave your car at home, it's a gold star. If you drive a carpool, it's a green star.

●At the end of the week, each star earns you entry into the prize drawing. We've got a $25 gift certificate for each week, two from Skirack, and two from Outdoor Gear Exchange.

●In addition to the weekly drawings, at the end of the four weeks we will calculate an MVP. This will be the person who cuts the most driving miles from their commute.

The commuter challenge is brought to us by the green group, Skunkworks. We've been working on behind the scenes projects like making sure everyone has a blue recycling bin, switching all paper to FSC-certified, and urging people to make the switch to electronic instead of paper archival methods (job bags, open job lists, emails, etc).

In preparation for this project, Kate developed a Google map showing each employee's location and bus stops. The map is mounted and resides in the Diner. At our July company meeting, we had assigned seating in clusters of people who live near each other to facilitate carpool discussion. The following week was our official kick-off event, complete with green food (key lime cookies, guacamole) and drinks (appletinis and margaritas!).

We received great support and energy from our prize sponsors, Skirack and Outdoor Gear Exchange. Skirack even chipped in a bonus gift certificate and a bag of runner/cyclist give-aways! OGE runs a commuter challenge for their employees as well, with a prize every month.

There are 25 participants (27 if you count Edith and Rogerdog), and already this week 13 people have earned stars! Way to go KSV, keep up the green work!!

Gonna make this garden grow

Here's tonight's tomato harvest!!

I think I'll harvest some of my basil and make bruschetta for my guests this weekend!

Roger and the Lock

Oh, Roger! Why do you do these things?!

I came home for lunch today. I don't get to do that every day, so I was pretty happy about it. That quickly changed when one of my more random, less probable fears was realized: Roger had locked himself into my bedroom.

As you can see, to lock the door is a simple flick of a switch and presto, privacy. However, to unlock it, one must turn the porcelain knob from the inside. On my side, the living room side, there is only a hole above the knob for a "key." Now, I know from my many years as an amateur babysitter that responsible parents keep the key on the frame above the door for just such an occurrence. However, I am not one of those responsible parents. Also, I don't even have a key for it.

After trying such genius materials as a pen cap, paperclip, and screwdriver, I ran down to Marla, who once again saved the day, this time by lending me a wire coat hanger. I was able to pop it open, and Roger smiled and danced, oblivious to the peril he had so recently been in, wondering only why I had waited so long to open the door.

And that, Matt, is why I go home at lunch.