"I'm too lazy to come up with a title and actually forgot one initially...."

Hello, lovebugs.

How's life? Marvelous, I hope.

So...remember a few weeks back when I posted that huge long post where I talked about a buuunch of stuffs, including my ventures to Town Talk and a quick brush-over on fair trade vs. ethical trade? Well, if not, you can refresh your memory here. My amazing big brother who is much more well-versed in these topics than I am gave a little more insight into Celestial Seasonings as a company. Here's what he had to say (very good to know):

As for celestial seasonings, it really depends on how deep you're willing to go. celestial seasonings is owned by the hain celestial group, which is a publicly traded company with majority ownership going to heinz, and other large shareholders being exxon-mobile, phillip morris, monsanto, citigroup, walmart, and lockheed martin. all of these companies are unethical. that means that every product you buy from hain celestial puts money into the pockets of big tobacco, the war industry, the (arguably) most insidious agricultural company in the world, one of the largest oil companies (environmental destuction much? talk about the opposite of stewardship...), a company responsible for the collapse of of the u.s. small business domain and the transference of work and vast sums of money out of our local economies and directly to china, and a financial institution that received enormous bailout monies (to the tune of the u.s. government covering 90% of it's losses on it's $335 billion portfolio), who's largest single shareholder is the prince of saudi arabia, and who awarded approx. 1200 employees bonuses ranging from $1 million to $10 million *EACH* after it received bailout money. on the surface celestial seasonings may seem like an ethical choice, but you don't have to dig too deeply to see some of the problems with supporting this company. but like i said, it really depends on how deep you want to go with it.

So, for those of you who were wondering, there you have it - a run-down of who Celestial Seasonings is...kinda depressing, but good to know.

Let's see, what else is there to say...

OH! The J-Man did an outstanding job opening night of Anybody Out There? The kid was pulled into the show last minute and had a week to learn an entire role...he's awesome...just sayin'. The entire show was a hit, but my did that thief steal the show?! (It's funny cause he played a thief...hahaha...ok, I'll stop now) All the kiddos did a great job. I love that they all know me now and always come see how I liked the show or if they see me before the show starts come say how excited they are that I'm there to watch it and hope I enjoy the show - they -- are -- awesome! I also get lots of hugs from them, which is always a plus :]

{I'm not ridiculously proud of my little brother or anything...}

And, tomorrow, Fariz has a trumpet competition that the public is allowed to watch! Who's excited?!?! =] I'm pumped to see (er...hear??) how he does - he tells me that he has a solo in the first piece and a duet and TWO solos in the second one!! Yeah...he's kind of a big deal.

I am officially done getting all of my TB tests out of the way for the U, I sent my final transcript in, have all of my letters, now it's just a matter of filling out some final paper work and finding a place where I, BigBoy, Jakers, Little Bubba & Tevye, and Squishy (if he's still around...) can crash...that won't break the little bank of this future grad student, haha. I'm optimistic, for sure. I've found quite a few places that allow cats and doggies (the kicker on the dogs is the weight limit...Jake is not under 25lbs, hmmm...)....and the roaches and beetles....well, we just won't tell them about those dudes - they really don't need to know ;)

Nothing new on the car search front...contemplated looking at a **little** Toyota Echo, anyone familiar with them?? The estimated gas mileage is AWESOME!! We'll see, I'm taking this as slowly as possible. While poor old Cornelius is in no condition to brave the frozen tundra with me he is still running, so a "new" car is not imperative at this moment in time.

Welps...I'm hungry, so I'm outty. Lata!

Shalom,
~MW

P.S. - here's Josh's latest Man Talk post.