Green Gal

I got paid to eat spicy ice cream today. And I didn't have to pay for the two scoops, either. It was spicy because it was peach habanero flavor, and it was free and I got paid for it because of Rising Sun Energy Center and California Youth Energy Services . I'll rewind. Today was my last day of working for California Youth Energy Services for Summer 2011. All twelve cities celebrated the successful summer of changing lightbulbs and showerheads, among many other things, in a park in Berkeley. Buddy, the CYES mascot I played soccer for the first time in years, remembering after a few minutes why I hadn't played in so long. (I'm quite scared of getting kicked in the shins or having a ball knock the air out of my lungs, so I only kicked the ball when no one else was trying to gain possession of it. I stepped out of the game at the first opportunity, but I did have fun!) I also ate delicious food and had lunch for one final time with my awesome team of fellow Energy...

Thomas Fullam, who works for the City of Pleasanton, and two friends are riding their bikes from Oregon to Virginia, updating a blog about their travels along the way. They leave today, and plan to cycle into Yorktown, Virginia, on October 10. Read the full article that I wrote about the trip on Pleasanton.Patch.com here . Check back this weekend for a blog post about my experience working for California Youth Energy Services. Today was our last day of Green House Calls, and tomorrow we find out our totals and attend a barbecue to celebrate with all twelve sites. It has certainly been a fulfilling summer. To read more about CYES, click here .

Did you know that for the many uses we have for freshwater, and for the billions of people living on Earth, that we can only use 0.01% of all the water on Earth? Are you aware that the leaky toilet in your bathroom might be wasting 200 gallons of water daily? How about this: Energy Star rated CFL lightbulbs (the curly ones) use 75% less energy than incandescent lightbulbs because rather than produce heat to make light, they rely on a chemical reaction that takes far less energy to create. No, I didn't look these startling facts up online. I learned them today, among dozens of others, during training as an Energy Specialist for California Youth Energy Services , a program of the non-profit organization Rising Sun Energy Center . CYES provides free home energy & water consultations (Green House Calls) to increase the energy and water efficiency of homes in the San Francisco Bay Area, thus saving residents money on their utility bills. Founded in 2000, California Youth Energy Serv...