A Long Reflection

I've been away in South Africa for work for the past week or so. Being away from my office and my regular work gives me a lot of time to reflect on my life and what's important (like food, food is good). One result is that I'm taking the Wardrobe Refashion pledge (see the new button). I'm pledging to buy no new clothing, with the exception of shoes, for the next two months starting July 1st. I'll be posting my creations to the Wardrobe Refashion blog. I probably have a dozen sewing projects waiting to be started or finished, not to mention that I have a seriously short supply of nice-looking, short-sleeved shirts, and I'm hoping this will keep me focused. Speaking of which, my list of sewing projects keeps getting longer. I wandered into a fabric shop in Cape Town, so now I have 7 meters of brightly colored fabric. I think there's a skirt and a quilt in there. I'll post pictures of my travels later, maybe I'll even start a Flickr account for that purpose.

Green Soup

I just wanted to make a quick mention of this very green (literally, and I suppose figuratively, since many of the ingredients came from the farmer's market) soup. It's tasty. It's easy. And it uses vegetables that are in season together. I got the recipe from a blog I've been browsing called Orangette. The recipe is here. The beverage is cold oat grass tea (the oat grass is from my CSA share) with some pineapple sage thrown in for artistic effect. I was somewhat suspicious at first (I mean I'm boiling grass in a pot and then drinking it), but it has a pleasantly herbal flavor and I'm told a lot of nutrients. More interesting than plain water, at least.

Soda Tabs

I am fascinated by garbage. In particular, I wonder about what other uses it could have.

So, as I'm riding my bike and wondering to myself what good deed I've done lately, I come to a section of road that looks like the sun is scattering off a thoroughly pulverized window-sized quantity of glass. Not so good for bikes. Not so good for tires in general. When I get closer, I realize it isn't glass. It's soda can tabs. A lifetime's supply (or a year's worth for a small number of partying undergrads) of soda can tabs scattered over this section of road. I wonder what you could do with that many soda tabs. Someone should really clean them up. Oh. Right. Ok. I grabbed a plastic bag that was blowing down the street, one of the locals lent me a broom, and I am now the proud owner of several (?) thousand soda tabs (and 3 cents).

Now the question is what to do with them:
Sell them for scrap metal? I don't thing the market is good enough for me to get more than a few dollars.
Make a chain mail suit?
Make them into a sash such as the one sported by Worf Son of Mogh?