Another week. Earth Day is coming up in two days. Honestly, I’ve never paid it much attention. I didn’t begin Fake Plastic Fish until June of last year. In the past, I’ve probably felt like Earth Day was a nice idea, but not much more. This year, Earth Day holds more significance for me. But I don’t have anything special planned except to continue with what I’m already doing… blogging here, being mindful of my plastic and other waste, and continuing with the “Take Back The Filter ^[1]” campaign. At the end of this post, I’ll announce the winners of the children’s book drawings. In the mean time, here’s the weekly tally:

Items purchased before the plastic project began:

• 1 plastic pen. I have switched to using Lamy fountain pens ^[2] with converters ^[3] that allow them to be refilled from a bottle of ink. I bought my pens at a local stationery shop here in Oakland and keep one at work and one here at home. But occasionally, when a fountain pen isn’t handy, I reach for whatever pen is nearby, and I used up this disposable plastic pen this week. Looks like maybe I could refill it if I tried. I may test and see if I can get it open and fill it up using one of the syringes I got from the vet to give the cats medicine. But more than likely I’ll just add it to my collection.
• 1 pair headphones. Sad. Sad. Sad. Someone chewed right through the cord. Now who do you suppose it could have been? I suspect one of these hoodlums:
  But I’m not naming names. Just hoping the guilty party will step forward and fess up. Or certain punishments might be in order. For example, Corporal Cuddling, as illustrated in this Engineer’s Guide To Cats ^[4].

Now for the new items:

• 4 Refresh Endura single use eye drop containers. I’ve had a cold for the last few days, and I think my eyes are worse when I’m sick.
• 1 unexpected piece of plastic wrap from a take-out sandwich. On the way to a zen retreat last Sunday, we stopped at a local grocery store to pick up food. When I saw that sandwiches were being wrapped in brown paper, I ordered one. It was too late when I noticed they were wrapping them in a layer of plastic before the brown paper. *Sigh.*

A funny thing, before I get to the book winners. Beth Terry ^[5] emailed me this week! I’ve always known there was at least one other Beth Terry out there on the web because I come up with her web site when I Google my own name. And she scooped up www.bethterry.com ^[5] before I did. Anyway, Beth Terry is a motivational speaker who has a lot of energy, wants to make the world a better place, and signed the Take Back The Filter petition ^[6]! She is doing our name proud and just tonight wrote about Fake Plastic Fish on her blog ^[7]. (She wrote about me. I wrote about her. Is this like one of those never-ending mirrors you could get lost in forever?)

And on a sad note: The judge in Oakland’s plastic bag ban case has just ruled that the city “should have more adequately studied the environmental impact of the ban before passing it into law.” The city now must decide whether to challenge the ruling or pay for an environmental impact study that could cost upwards of $100,000! We don’t know yet what the city will decide to do. More from the Oakland Tribune story here ^[8].

And now, (drum roll) the winners of the totally random (and Michael can confirm how random it was because the randomness came from his brain) drawing for the children’s books: Owen & Mzee ^[9] goes to Rachel Reinyday and My Bag & Me ^[10] goes to Monica Duke. Please send me your mailing addresses and I’ll get the books right out to you.

So, has everyone signed the Take Back The Filter petition ^[6]? I’ll let you know about my meeting with Clorox later this week. Suffice it to say, we still need signatures!