It's past bedtime, and I hear "Mommy! Something broke!"
Huh? Why are you even up?
"What broke?"
"The lightbulb."
Oh crud. It's the curly lightbulb in the lamp.
"Girls -- go downstairs. I'll clean it up." Now their room is a hazardous waste area. Awesome.
So.... I had heard about the controversy about mercury being in the CFL bulbs. I have a house full of these bulbs. Haven't had to replace one yet. I heard that when they burned out, you can bring them to Ikea. Groovy.
I never thought about what would happen if one broke. On the carpet. Grrrr...
Here's what you are SUPPOSED to do:
1. Open the window and leave the room for 15 minutes.
2. Turn off the AC.
3. Use something hard to pick up the fragments -- put them in a glass jar or sealed plastic bag.
4. Use duct tape to pick up tiny fragments.
5. If you need to vacuum after all this, dispose of the bag in a sealed plastic bag.
This will prevent poisoning yourself & family with mercury. Also, keep it out of the groundwater (at least until the plastic bag degrades, which we know will take a LONG time...)
Did I do all these things? Uh.... Let's just say I found the handy EPA site after clean-up had taken place. But I knew not to vacuum first thing and I used something hard to pick up the fragments. Luckily the whole bulb did not shatter -- just the top part. At least, I hope that's lucky.
Really I don't know.
In the meantime, I'm looking for an adequate plastic bag I can seal because I don't have very many (any?) of those.
Good times.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Family Road Trip
This summer my family and I went on a LOOOONG road trip. We drove from Texas to Maine, camping and staying with friends along the way. Before we left, I searched and searched for people doing similar things, but couldn't seem to find quite the right combination of details.
Here is what we did:
My husband and I have 3 kids, ages 3, 5, and 7. We drove in a minivan (Toyota Sienna). We did not go to any theme parks :) We did go to state parks and national parks. We left June 24th and were back by the end of July. We actually cut the trip a little short at the end because we wanted to get home sooner. Here are the stops we made along the way:
Austin - Lake Ouachita State Park -- 2 nights camping
Natchez Trace State Park -- one night camping (extremely humid!!)
Smokey Mountains National Park -- 3 nights camping
Staunton, VA -- stayed in hotel because it was pouring rain. Visited Frontier Museum, which was amazing!
Highland Falls, NY -- stayed with friend -- 3 nights -- she is a saint
Portland Maine -- stayed with family -- 2 nights
Acadia National Park -- 5 nights -- lots of rain! Maine was amazing and disappointing at the same time. My memories of Maine in the summer involved lots of beach activities, but it was 60 degrees and raining. The grass was green -- everything was green! Texas is suffering a severe drought, so the green-ness was a real treat. But 60 degrees? In July??
Portland Maine -- 4 nights with family.
I really liked the way TO Maine better than the way back. This may be because it was the more planned portion of the trip. It also involved more camping and fewer large cities. We had intended to go to Cape Cod National Seashore, but I was sick and it was pouring rain, so we stayed in Portland a couple extra days.
Plymouth, MA -- one night in Governor Bradford hotel. This hotel is in front of the ocean, and you can easily walk to Plymouth Rock and the Mayflower II. It was nice to be close to the sights. The kids enjoyed seeing the Mayflower, but it's a pretty quick trip, especially with little ones who are too shy to ask the performers questions.
New Jersey -- some horrible hotel close to the ferry landing for the Ellis Island/Statue of Liberty cruise. The hotel was truly awful, but the breakfast was amazing. We had great weather. Ellis Island is super interesting. By the time we got to the statue of liberty, we were all tired of walking. Ellis Island has a great cafe with reasonable prices.
Washington, DC -- we stayed 2 nights in the burbs with a friend and 2 nights in the burbs in a hotel. We took the metro one day and drove into the city two days. On the last day, we couldn't face the traffic/walking/more museums, and we decided to hit the road. Even though we had read lots of advice about taking the metro, we did not save ANY money or time by taking it. We had to buy 4 tickets and pay for parking -- in all our metro experience was about 35 dollars and not really a time-saver. We drove into the zoo one day -- I think parking was 10 dollars. The other day we drove and parked at a meter at the national mall. We had to move the car at one point, but we only spent 4 dollars on parking.
Atlanta, GA -- we stayed 2 nights in the burbs with family. We didn't see Atlanta at all, but my husbands' family is very nice :)
**car incident along the way** -- we lost the tread off of one of the tires. The only place willing to repair it at 6:30 on Saturday evening was Costco. I brought the kids in, bought some slices of pizza, and the car was ready by the time we were done with Dinner. Love 'em.
Dallas, TX -- after a long night drive, we got into Dallas at 6 am. The kids were well-rested. C and I had not slept AT ALL. But it was worth it to get all the way back to Texas without hours of whining. 2 nights with family.
Austin, TX -- home sweet home. But I'm pretty sure the grass is dead.
Looking back on our trip, here is what I would change:
*fewer hotels. We didn't stay in many, but they were not very enjoyable.
*more camping. This was our favorite part.
*more time in Arkansas. It's SO beautiful. We would probably need to leave earlier in the summer to maximize our camping in the south.
*I would skip Plymouth.
* I would not bother with the metro. (sorry... I know that doesn't sound very green)
*I would not try a day trip to NYC. I was very stressed out about losing one of the kids. My daughter has not recovered from missing the train on the way back -- she seems to have some sort of stress issue about missing trains/buses/rides to the store...... about being left.
*I would not order a lobster roll -- I discovered I don't really like them.
*I would not buy a special cooler that purports to keep ice frozen for 5 days. What a bunch of bologna!
*I would bring a heavier jacket or sweatshirt.
*I would count the sleeping bags before we left -- my husband left his behind :(
*I wouldn't bring a gas lantern. It was a pain. The globe broke. We barely used it. I really like to look at the stars when I'm camping, so as soon as dinner was over, we generally turned whatever light we were using off. The lantern was a waste of precious space.
What was awesome:
*camping in Arkansas.
*bears in the Smokies. My husband saw 5!
*drinking local beer everywhere we went.
*ice cream in Maine
*staying with family and my kids meeting/playing with cousins
*my aunt's cooking
*the farmer's market in Highland Falls, NY
*fireworks at West Point
*the frontier culture museum in Staunton, VA. It's probably worth double what they charge -- we spent the WHOLE day there. (But please don't up the price!)
*not bringing a DVD player for the kids. We listened to books on tape or I read books out loud. We heard a lot of books as a family & it was great :)
*our Garner GPS (aka Map Girl) -- she was a BIG help. I was kind of anti-GPS before this trip, preferring to use my amazing map skills, but Map Girl got us out of trouble a few times and was able to lead us to grocery stores and parks along the way. She also saved us from a MASSIVE Cape Cod traffic jam. She still needed a skilled Assistant Navigator (me) because sometimes she suggested strange routes.
What was fine
*driving -- surprisingly enough, there were only a couple of desperate days. We were able to have a lot of flexibility, bring our camping stuff and stop at grocery stores to get fresh supplies.
Here is what we did:
My husband and I have 3 kids, ages 3, 5, and 7. We drove in a minivan (Toyota Sienna). We did not go to any theme parks :) We did go to state parks and national parks. We left June 24th and were back by the end of July. We actually cut the trip a little short at the end because we wanted to get home sooner. Here are the stops we made along the way:
Austin - Lake Ouachita State Park -- 2 nights camping
Natchez Trace State Park -- one night camping (extremely humid!!)
Smokey Mountains National Park -- 3 nights camping
Staunton, VA -- stayed in hotel because it was pouring rain. Visited Frontier Museum, which was amazing!
Highland Falls, NY -- stayed with friend -- 3 nights -- she is a saint
Portland Maine -- stayed with family -- 2 nights
Acadia National Park -- 5 nights -- lots of rain! Maine was amazing and disappointing at the same time. My memories of Maine in the summer involved lots of beach activities, but it was 60 degrees and raining. The grass was green -- everything was green! Texas is suffering a severe drought, so the green-ness was a real treat. But 60 degrees? In July??
Portland Maine -- 4 nights with family.
I really liked the way TO Maine better than the way back. This may be because it was the more planned portion of the trip. It also involved more camping and fewer large cities. We had intended to go to Cape Cod National Seashore, but I was sick and it was pouring rain, so we stayed in Portland a couple extra days.
Plymouth, MA -- one night in Governor Bradford hotel. This hotel is in front of the ocean, and you can easily walk to Plymouth Rock and the Mayflower II. It was nice to be close to the sights. The kids enjoyed seeing the Mayflower, but it's a pretty quick trip, especially with little ones who are too shy to ask the performers questions.
New Jersey -- some horrible hotel close to the ferry landing for the Ellis Island/Statue of Liberty cruise. The hotel was truly awful, but the breakfast was amazing. We had great weather. Ellis Island is super interesting. By the time we got to the statue of liberty, we were all tired of walking. Ellis Island has a great cafe with reasonable prices.
Washington, DC -- we stayed 2 nights in the burbs with a friend and 2 nights in the burbs in a hotel. We took the metro one day and drove into the city two days. On the last day, we couldn't face the traffic/walking/more museums, and we decided to hit the road. Even though we had read lots of advice about taking the metro, we did not save ANY money or time by taking it. We had to buy 4 tickets and pay for parking -- in all our metro experience was about 35 dollars and not really a time-saver. We drove into the zoo one day -- I think parking was 10 dollars. The other day we drove and parked at a meter at the national mall. We had to move the car at one point, but we only spent 4 dollars on parking.
Atlanta, GA -- we stayed 2 nights in the burbs with family. We didn't see Atlanta at all, but my husbands' family is very nice :)
**car incident along the way** -- we lost the tread off of one of the tires. The only place willing to repair it at 6:30 on Saturday evening was Costco. I brought the kids in, bought some slices of pizza, and the car was ready by the time we were done with Dinner. Love 'em.
Dallas, TX -- after a long night drive, we got into Dallas at 6 am. The kids were well-rested. C and I had not slept AT ALL. But it was worth it to get all the way back to Texas without hours of whining. 2 nights with family.
Austin, TX -- home sweet home. But I'm pretty sure the grass is dead.
Looking back on our trip, here is what I would change:
*fewer hotels. We didn't stay in many, but they were not very enjoyable.
*more camping. This was our favorite part.
*more time in Arkansas. It's SO beautiful. We would probably need to leave earlier in the summer to maximize our camping in the south.
*I would skip Plymouth.
* I would not bother with the metro. (sorry... I know that doesn't sound very green)
*I would not try a day trip to NYC. I was very stressed out about losing one of the kids. My daughter has not recovered from missing the train on the way back -- she seems to have some sort of stress issue about missing trains/buses/rides to the store...... about being left.
*I would not order a lobster roll -- I discovered I don't really like them.
*I would not buy a special cooler that purports to keep ice frozen for 5 days. What a bunch of bologna!
*I would bring a heavier jacket or sweatshirt.
*I would count the sleeping bags before we left -- my husband left his behind :(
*I wouldn't bring a gas lantern. It was a pain. The globe broke. We barely used it. I really like to look at the stars when I'm camping, so as soon as dinner was over, we generally turned whatever light we were using off. The lantern was a waste of precious space.
What was awesome:
*camping in Arkansas.
*bears in the Smokies. My husband saw 5!
*drinking local beer everywhere we went.
*ice cream in Maine
*staying with family and my kids meeting/playing with cousins
*my aunt's cooking
*the farmer's market in Highland Falls, NY
*fireworks at West Point
*the frontier culture museum in Staunton, VA. It's probably worth double what they charge -- we spent the WHOLE day there. (But please don't up the price!)
*not bringing a DVD player for the kids. We listened to books on tape or I read books out loud. We heard a lot of books as a family & it was great :)
*our Garner GPS (aka Map Girl) -- she was a BIG help. I was kind of anti-GPS before this trip, preferring to use my amazing map skills, but Map Girl got us out of trouble a few times and was able to lead us to grocery stores and parks along the way. She also saved us from a MASSIVE Cape Cod traffic jam. She still needed a skilled Assistant Navigator (me) because sometimes she suggested strange routes.
What was fine
*driving -- surprisingly enough, there were only a couple of desperate days. We were able to have a lot of flexibility, bring our camping stuff and stop at grocery stores to get fresh supplies.
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