Yesterday we went to the grocery story and ensured that the Pink Tornado will not go to college. Perhaps it was the limburger. Perhaps it was the grossly overpriced coffee drinks. But at least ~$8 of it wasn’t our fault. We’d bought some leeks. Three fat leeks to a bundle. Our earnest cashier looked at the bundle, nodded, and charged us for the leeks. Three times. This is $12 leekage here. These ain’t no ordinary leeks. They’re not even organic. We’d stumbled into the rare corner of the grocery store between Nectar and Ambrosia: THE LEEKS OF THE GODS.

Went to customer service. They refunded us the money. And tried to tell us that they were not leeks of the gods.

But we know.

#

Made the announcement that Wasteland will drop on March 19. Not intimiated by my ambitious planning. Not at all. Nope. Not me.

#

Got a fantastic email from Ivy from The Writing Cast about green cleaning, and she gave me permission to reprint here:

Vinegar, tea, baking soda, and dishwashing liquid. Technically you can wash dishes with baking soda (I use that for the really stuck on messes and it’s fabulous) but it’s harder on the hands. I tend to mix vinegar in the water with the soap to break up grease.

Mix 50% vinegar with 50% water in a spray bottle. You can use this for anything you’d use Windex for. It does a brilliant job on glass and it works on counter tops. You can also use it to remove stains from a carpet, but as with any carpet cleaner, test an inconspicuous area first. For tough stains on counters, use the vinegar straight or make a paste of vinegar and baking soda, never mind the foaming. Lay a bowl of vinegar in any room that’s picked up a smell (say a kitchen from cooking odors) and leave it overnight. In the morning the smell is gone and the vinegar can be use to clean something else.

You can use a mix of 1 cup vinegar in a gallon of water to mop the floors and it does a better job than ammonia. Spray pure vinegar on the tiles of the shower as a no work cleaner.

Pure vinegar is also a great toilet cleaner.

A paste of 3/4 baking soda and 1/4 water makes a fine tub and tile cleaner. Baking soda cleans the sink. Lay baking soda on the carpet and let sit for fifteen minutes before vacuuming to pick up residual odors.

Tea brewed half strength is a great wood cleaner, but use sparingly. You don’t want to get the wood too wet. A damp, well wrung cloth will do the job. You can also use it to clean hardwood floors.

Baking soda + sugar is a great bug poison, and it’s safe for kids and pets if used in small amounts.

Baking soda is known for being a great tooth paste. I’ve used it like that in a pinch or when I’m really not in the mood for anything overpoweringly minty.

Vinegar removes stains from clothes.

I soak my hand knit socks in baking soda and then wash them out to make them naturally odor repellent.

There are plenty of online resources that can tell you more tricks like this. Really, these work a lot better than the popular chemical cleaners, and they’re non-toxic and environmentally friendly.

Oh, I know you knit. If you spin and clean your own fleeces, vinegar does a great job of scouring a fleece. Put the fleece in the tub. Fill with hot water. Add 1/4 cup vinegar.