Not playing with a full deck, Moonlight bike ride

Day 6 of unstuffing:
A shoebox full of tapes -- I don't have a tapeplayer! I will Goodwill the tapes that have real music on them. What to do with the ones that have my mixes from 1998?
Several partial decks of cards -- I have found two full decks -- will get rid of 3 almost full decks. Again, not sure what to do with these. Would they be a good kid art project? I don't want them to end up in the trash.
Some excess bath toys
Spiderman party masks (Spiderman party was 3 years ago)

It's amazing how stuff piles up, considering how small the closets are. I will add more to the pile as the day goes on. This has been quite cathartic, but I can't wait to get rid of the huge pile of junk. Tomorrow I'm going to take a picture of it -- it's pretty scary.

Moonlight Ride
Last night was the midnight moonlight bike ride. It was totally awesome & empowering. We rode through the city -- hundreds of riders with blinking lights riding together. There was an amazing variety of people and even a couple of tallbikes. As we rode through downtown, people on the sidewalks shouted to us, waved, and even high-fived us :) It was a lot of fun.

Frugal Green
I'm a big fan of Amy Dacyzyn's Tightwad Gazette. One of her comments in the book is that sometimes the most frugal thing is to do nothing. This applies to being green, too, as so many times frugality and greenness go hand in hand. For example, C and I went for a bike ride to the farmer's market. We were late, so there was only lettuce and spinach left, neither of which we need. It was around lunchtime, so we tried to think of a place where we could study and have an inexpensive lunch. In the end, we decided to come home. Money saved = probably 15 dollars. Paper waste saved = at least a couple of napkins, probably more. Leftovers eaten = delicious.

Leftovers

I am the master of leftovers, and I think that it is a really important skill. This is something I have really perfected after marrying C. He refuses to throw out food, so if there's 2 spoonfuls of beans leftover, back in the fridge they go! I think that the key is 1)to serve the food in an appetizing way. I don't just throw containers of leftovers on the table. I serve the plates with the food already "arranged" on them. and 2) to "artfully" recombine the leftovers with new stuff. For example, the other day we had leftover sausage. This was cut up and sauteed with some vegetables to serve with pasta. Seems like a totally new dish.

Other fabulous combinations:
Two tablespoons of beans + some more beans + some veggie crumbles = taco filling
Leftover spaghetti sauce = pizza sauce
1/2 banana = cut off gross part, freeze for smoothie
1/2 eaten apple = cut off gross part, use in oatmeal
leftover broccoli = chop up, put in spaghetti sauce
leftover potatoes = add to breakfast tacos
leftover rice (almost constantly in our refrigerator) = mix with the beans; top with cheese

Amazingly, there are people who don't eat leftovers. It seems so sad to take a perfectly good meal cooked with love & then toss 1/3 of it (or more!) in the trash. Do you have a favorite leftover concoction?