To combat that sadness I’ve come up with a list of my green goals for the new year. I have many small goals that I want to accomplish in 2010 but there are two major green goals that I am aiming to make sure really happen this year:

1. Compost! I kept saying all year long that I was going to compost. I waste way more food than I should. I tend to over-purchase produce and then have to get rid of it. I’m trying to get better about that but at least if I compost it won’t completely go to waste.
2. Get my LEED certification. I want to do LEED training early this year so that I can get my LEED certification. I really want to get better at implementing green business practices in my small business and these classes would teach me how to do that.

I am enjoying Christmas but I also think it’s a good time to set some green goals for next year since it’s such a wasteful holiday. What do you think about this?

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Some examples of this feeling cropping up in my own life include:

• The first time I walked home from school alone. I was only about eight but I felt so grown up because I didn’t need my mom to walk me those few blocks home.
• Driving my first car. What teenager doesn’t feel the freedom of being grown up when getting that first car and driver’s license?!
• Ordering properly at a French restaurant. I was on a date in my mid-Twenties and I felt totally comfortable ordering my food (including the wine). I felt like such an adult!
• Discussing decorative sconces with my friends. I remember pouring over catalogs with some friends debating whether we liked Murray Feiss or Schonbek better. Suddenly I realized that this was a really grown-up thing to talk about!
• Dating the first guy that I didn’t really fight with. I had done many years of dating but when I finally met a guy that I could disagree with and it wouldn’t turn into a drama-filled argument I knew I was finally in a grown-up relationship.

When have you felt the most grown up?

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Just a couple of days after he moved in, we found a strange Australian shepherd dog wandering around the alley.  We didn’t recognize the dog, but we knew the new neighbor had dogs, because we saw the movers take dog stuff (bowls, dog food, and a big dog bed) into the house.

Sure enough, when we walked past the new neighbor’s privacy fence, we saw an Aussie nose similar to the loose dog’s poke out between two boards, and the dog whined pitifully.  Obviously we had her buddy, and she wanted him back.

We helped get the lost dog back into his yard, and let the new neighbor know that the dogs could apparently get out.  The neighbor turned out to be kind of creepy — an older fellow who was confined to a wheelchair, and who constantly complained about his daughter abandoning him here.  (Apparently he didn’t want to move into this house…?)

Anyway, those darned dogs got loose several more times before he had his daughter figure out how to seal up all the spots in the fence where they were getting through.  They don’t get out anymore, though, which makes me glad — because I don’t have to take them back and deal with our creepy neighbor!

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I’m not the most outgoing person that you’ll ever meet. I don’t do things that shock a lot of people. Nevertheless, I know how to be just a little bit bold.

This boldness comes out in ways that are socially acceptable. For example, I found this great pair of ridiculous cowgirl boots in a thrift store a few months back. Now I wear them everywhere. They’re funky and they don’t always go with my outfit. I don’t care.

Another bit of boldness in me can be seen when you walk into my living room. I have a crazy rug with an Andy Warhol style design on it. It sits in the middle of my room and is topped with bean bag chairs. I am probably too old to have these things but I love them anyway.

Being bold doesn’t have to mean being loud or obnoxious or overly noticeable. Being bold can simply mean finding things that you love and loving them even if it’s a little bit silly sometimes. As far as I’m concerned, that’s the only way to really live.

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I know it sounds a little silly but I even bought tensabarrier system to mark off the food and candy area and the aisle besides the seats.  I know that it was a little over the top to get a post and rope system for my home theater but it really makes it look authentic.  My family and I have family movie night every week.  Plus, my wife and I have friends over once a month for a big movie night.  We love to watch movies and I really wanted to go all out with the home theater.

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No matter if you are looking for something by Richard Ginori or Gien, the internet is the place to look. The selection is going to be great and the prices are going to be lower than what you might find out in stores. This way, you can quickly look through lots and lots of products that might or might not suit your needs. Whatever the case, you will have seen them all, so there is no reason why you couldn’t make a good decision. Just remember to look at all the options and pick whichever set will fit you and your family for years to come.

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My family was one of those families that always had at least one pet in the home during the entire time that I was growing up. We mostly got our pets when they wandered into the yard as strays and then stuck around because we fed them. As a result, we had a mixture of mutts.

We did have one dog that we actually went out of our way to get, though. We hadn’t had a pet in a little while and us kids kept begging Mom and Dad to get us a new dog. We scanned the newspaper one day looking for free dogs and decided on an Australian Shepherd that was advertised.

She was a middle-aged dog and my parents thought that would be best for us at the time. Little did they know that she would rapidly become the neighborhood favorite for all of the male dogs in the area. Every morning we’d go outside to find a new dog in her doghouse with her - a Bernese Mountain Dog one day, a Boston Terrier the next … My parents weren’t responsible about spaying her so we had puppies around all of the time for the next few years. Us kids thought it was great but as an adult I think my parents must have been crazy!

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The reason that this is so important is because alcoholism truly is a disease that impacts the entire family. Although the individual is the one that is doing the drinking, the drunken behavior engaged in by this person has a ripple effect throughout the family. Each family member will develop coping mechanisms and behavior patterns that can impact their relationships with one another as well as their relationships with the outside world.

Alcohol treatment is first and foremost for the individual who needs to stop drinking but there is no less importance placed on the role of the family in treatment. Family members who opt to get involved and to get family therapy as part of the treatment center program will benefit far more than those families who send the individual to get help alone.

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The first thing that you need to do if you want to sell scrap gold is to gather together everything that you have. You can’t sell your stuff at a good price if you don’t know what you’re dealing with. If there are any items that are of real value, try shopping those around to local pawn shops separately.

The next part of selling your scrap gold is finding a buyer. Take your time to find someone who is going to give you a fair price. Choosing a shop that specializes in the purchase of scrap gold is the safest way to go. You may find these shops locally or online.

After you have a buyer, it’s fairly easy to sell your scrap gold. Just conduct the business transaction as you would any other time that you were selling something. Get a receipt for your sale, make sure that you get a reliable form of payment and then turn over or ship the item in a timely manner so that the sale is complete.

pawn shops, sell scrap gold

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In the Denver metro area, as well another growth area of Tucson Arizona, there are homes that are prewired for the home security systems.  A home security system in Denver versus a home security system in Tucson really is not much of a difference.  Costs are pretty comparative for most metro areas.  The security companies do take into account the type of neighborhood and home you have, but for the most part the country is pretty consistent price wise.  Most alarm systems feature both forced entry alarms as well as a fire alarm that is wired to contact authorities at the police department and fire department.  I think that having the back up of authorities is very important in the scope of installing an alarm.

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