I was reading my buddy Ben's blog, the person who is responsible for me blogging, and I realized that I hadn't ever linked over to him. Let me just publicly say thank you, this has been a really great addition so my life, and something I've come to cherish. I've also added him to the blog-roll

Ben has some really great stuff about greenify-ing his home. I try and make him a daily read.

Well this actually comes from a serious article about ice melting and the rising ocean levels that might result (NYT: In Greenland, Ice and Instability) and is actually quite interesting. I jut can't get over this picture

My wife and I spent some quality time this weekend getting ourselves taken off of spammy useless catalogs we got in the mail.  It all started when we just started going through the mail pile.  She had a catalog in her hand and remarked, "I need to get taken off this one".  I grabbed it and the phone and dialed the 800 number.  Then she handed me another and another until I had called 19 retailers.  At which point we were flabberghasted that we were recieving so much junk.  There are two others Dover Publications and Anthropologie that have no telephone number that I could find in the catalogs.  So overall there are 21 that I attempted to get us removed from (19 successfully). 

Here is the list of catalogs and the 800 numbers if you're thinking about removing yourself, although you will likely need the catalog to provide exact address and name information:

1. The Sharper Image (800) 344-444
2. Garnet Hill (800) 622-6216
3. Red Envelope (877) 733-6383
4. sundance (800) 422-2770
5. Urban Outfitters (800) 282-2200
6. Athleta (888) 322-5515
7. Wine County Gift Baskets (800) 394-0394
8. The Container Store (800) 733-3532
9. Eddie Bauer (800) 426-8020
10. J Crew (800) 562-0258
11. Woolrich (877) 512-7305
12. Uncommon Goods (888) 365-0056
13. Neiman Marcus (800) 825-8000
14. L.L. Bean (800) 221-4221
15. Space.NK (212) 941-4222
16. Fossil (866) 510-4460
17. The Territory Ahead (800) 882-4323
18. Title Nine (800) 609-0092
19. Sahalie (800) 458-4438 (this one deserves special mention, when I called the woman on the phone told me there were THREE catalogs she could help me with.  So, she took me off ALL three, the other two I can't recall and have never heard of)

There are 3 we decided to keep:

1. Archie McPhee
2. Crate & Barrel (we're in the market for some furniture)
3. Heifer International (which incidentally is a philanthropic organization dedicated to ending hunger and poverty)

We spread all the catalogs out on the floor and took some pictures so you could see how much stuff all this really is.

Joel on Software has a great post about a site called Walk Score that lets you put in your address and find out how walkable your neighborhood is. I have several friends looking for apartments right now and this is a pretty killer.

I was pleased to find my apartment has a 91 out of 100 walk score.


and my parent's house in Southern California has a score of 54 out of 100 - which is about how I remember it being in my pre-driver's license youth.