Washington State Department of Health has added additional quit smoking support for pregnant women just in time for Mother’s Day.

The free services (no insurance required) include extra follow-up calls from a supportive quit coach and easy-to-follow materials to help improve a woman’s chance of quitting successfully and staying tobacco-free after the baby is born.

All Washington residents can call the toll-free quit line (1-800-QUIT-NOW, and in Spanish, 1-877-2NO-FUME) for free help quitting tobacco. (Link)

MSN Money mentions Seattle in an article about reducing cars per household. An interesting read. Here is the relevant portion:

Local governments around the country are encouraging residents to ditch their unneeded vehicles. Arlington, Va., Denver and Dayton, Ohio, are all starting programs designed to take cars off their roads. Under Seattle’s “One Less Car Challenge,” residents who successfully go on a monthlong car diet get discounted memberships to bicycle clubs and — for those who actually get rid of a vehicle — up to $600 in credit to a car-sharing program.

Metblogs author Patricia posted about the “One Less Car Challenge“. If you’re interested in saving an average $8,580 per year (or $715 (average) for the month), check it out. It’s not too late.

Zipcar
Metro
Sound Transit
Rideshare

I was tipped off to this post by a friend of mine. The Ballard Food Bank could use your help!

Here are the details of the full post:
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3 years ago, I started to teach myself to cook. It’s been a long process. I picked up cookbooks from Half Price Books, started reading online cooking blogs, created one of my own, joined a co-op, and found myself buying book after book after book. What to eat has become more like an obsession instead of a mere hobby in my household. It was no surprise that when I saw the article titled “Pinning Her Hopes For Weight Loss and Health On ‘Real Food’ Philosophy of ‘In Defense Of Food’“, I had to read it.

The article mentioned many things that I’ve discovered in the past few years: don’t eat food your great-grandmother wouldn’t recognize, avoid foods with more than five ingredients or with ingredients you can’t pronounce, and stay away from food products that make health claims. (as stated by Michael Pollan).

It wasn’t until I reached the end that I realized I knew the author. Rebecca Morris is more than a freelance journalist for the Seattle Times. She is also an English instructor at Bellevue Community College and I am one of her students this quarter. I swear, Seattle is just too small sometimes.

Rebecca has started a blog detailing her commitment to eating real food. You can find it here. Check it out-offer words of encouragement, ideas, or find inspiration for your own goal of eating better.

This weekend has firmly confirmed that spring has arrived to the Pacific Northwest region. To me, this brings anticipation of asparagus, fresh spinach, and many varieties of lettuce. Then the real fun begins with an explosion of fresh produce and the re-opening of many farmer’s markets (not counting the ones open year-round). A few friends have been asking if I had any idea when local, seasonal vegetables will be available and after a bit of searching, I found a fantastic website called Puget Sound Fresh. Not only does it have an easy-to-comprehend chart showing which months a wide variety of vegetables will be harvested, but if you click on the name of the vegetable, it shows you which local farm should grow and sell it.

Asparagus:

(click photo to be redirected to the original link)

The website contains a lot of information for those who would love to eat more local fare, including information about CSA’s, co-ops, and a list of recipes.

Seattle City Light has subsidized the price of CFL’s in order to get more people to use them. My husband and I stopped by Home Depot for a few items and picked up a few 4-packs. The original price: $6.88. Current price: $2.88. Each bulb is under $1.00 now. See the full list of locations, type of CFL’s, and store locations at the Seattle.gov website.

Other info:

The Take it Back Network now provide options for collecting burned out fluorescent bulbs and tubes! Visit their website for a list of retailers that will accept the products and recycle them safely.

About CFL’s.

Last night, I was propositioned by my cab driver, and failed to get the information necessary to report it.

Now, I take a lot of cabs. I sold my car in 2005, and resolved at that point not to let carlessness curtail my activities too much. I didn’t used to take cabs home as often, but a few months ago I got followed home by a shouting dude in a truck, and ever since then I have taken a cab if it’s after 11 or so. It would not be too difficult to pick me up and stuff me in a trunk, and so far cabs have felt less risky than the alternative.

Mostly, I love taxis in this town. The drivers are frequently nice and interested, and some of them even wait to make sure I make it in the door alright. Some have tried to convert me, but until last night, none of them have ever tried to sleep with me. I left a bar in Capitol Hill around 11:15, and a friend hailed me a cab. When I got in the driver asked if that was my boyfriend, and if it was, why wasn’t he coming with me? This is the sort of interest that is largely normal for cabbies making conversation, so I told him that that boy was gay, not my boyfriend. And how was his night going? Is it much busier when it gets colder? We rode in silence until my apartment in Eastlake, when again the cab driver asked if my boyfriend was home. This happens sometimes with the cab drivers that are making sure I don’t get murdered before my front door, so I told him no, no boyfriend, but that it was fine because I lived right there.

And then things got creepy. He asked if he could park in the lot under my building. I said no, that was for tenants only. He asked if he could park on the street, because he would only be coming in for 30 minutes. Coming in where? I asked. To my house, he answered, because there was no boyfriend. I declined, and he asked for 15 minutes. I said no. 1 minute? Still no. Creeped out, I fled the cab and locked all of my front door’s locks.

When I got home I mentioned the incident to my friends, and everyone who was still awake answered immediately–that was inappropriate, report it.

So I tried, and it didn’t work, but what you need to know if your cab driver ever assumes you want to sleep with him is: his driver number itself, or if you’re too busy running away, the number on the side of the cab. It is three digits, and each taxi has its own. The only way they can track a cab is if you call it to your place, so if it is one that you hail on the street, that three-digit number is essential. The man at Yellow Cab was sympathetic, and a little skeeved out himself, but it seemed like there was little he could do without actual evidence. Had I kept my head and considered the situation I might have realized that identification was going to be necessary, but I didn’t, and that gross cab driver is still out there trying to sleep with people.

And that’s my little PSA for today: if a taxi driver tries to harass you, get the three-digit number on the side of his car and report it.

I subscribe to a wide variety of blogs. One in particular, TreeHugger, provides a wide variety of information about greening your lifestyle. The other day, I ran across this post about a new service popping up in cities across the U.S: NeighBorrow. The premise is that there is no reason to buy everything you need, when you can borrow those things you need once in a blue moon.

For example, if I was throwing a party and needed a large capacity food processor for a day, the theory is that I would join a neighborrow-hood and look for someone in that neighborrow-hood who had a large capacity food processor. I’d borrow it from them for a day, clean it, and return it when I was done.

More after the jump.
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New to Seattle?

Some would tell you “go home” but the Discover Seattle Newcomers Fair wants to show you how to make Seattle your home by giving you tips and an introduction to Seattle’s “resources, neighborhoods, and culture” via demonstrations, workshops and discussions. There will also be live entertainment, children’s activities and prize drawings to enhance your experience.

Participating in “Discover Seattle” are City of Seattle departments, non-profit organizations, cultural groups and regional businesses. The event runs from 10 am to 5 pm at the Seattle Center and is totally free. Click [here] for more info.