Here's to you, Mrs. Robinson....

If you’ve ever seen the movie The Graduate starring Dustin Hoffman and Anne Bancroft, you would know that there was one word that was supposed to change the world.

Plastic.

And actually, since the movie came out in 1967, plastic HAS been the word. If we had all listened to that party guest, Mr. McGuire, giving recent college graduate Dustin Hoffman advice and invested in plastic, we’d all be able to replace all the plastic around us now that is slowly killing us with something else, like glass.

But plastic is quite amazing stuff.

Heck, you could make an elephant out of it.

Or a pair of designer sandals. Abercrombie probably sells these for $150 plus tax. One size fits all.

You could make a pair of polyethylene pants to show off your assets.

Or outfit your pooch if you have a 16 oz. dog.

You could name your band after it. 

Some people have plastic surgery. Over and over again.

No comment.

But best of all, you can recycle it. Start by collecting a few plastic bottles. Store in your back yard until you have enough to make something with it. 

Like what?

You can make a polar fleece jacket from plastic soda bottles!

Here are the directions:

1.Cut up clean plastic bottles into a gajillion tiny, tiny, tiny itsy bitsy pieces. (See below.)

2.Put all the pieces into water to clean and remove all dust. 

3. Dry all the microscopic pieces of plastic thoroughly, one at a time.

4. Put into an oven proof container and melt in a gigantic oven at 482 degrees until it's melted thoroughly.

5. Then mix the old plastic with new melted plastic that has not been used before. (Called Virgin Plastic) (EBay probably has it.)

6. Force the melted plastic through your regular 'spinneret'. (The metal disc with holes in it you have in your cupboard somewhere) (see below)

    

                        This makes the plastic into threads which harden when cooled.

 7. Run the plastic through your thread stretcher-outer machine that stretches the threads to twice as long.

 8. Dry thoroughly.

 9. When dry, the threads are more like yarn rather than plastic. Roll into balls or wind onto a spool. (Sometimes the electric or cable companies leave large wooden spools on the side of the road.) 

10. Knit into a polar fleece jacket. (See below)

As wonderful as plastic is, there is current research out there that says that certain plastics are hazardous to your health. Especially using the wrong kind of plastic for your food or drink.

You see, the harmful elements in some plastics leach into your food or drink. This will probably do something bad to your body someday. I have no idea what that would be, but it probably is not good. 

Plastic containers have secret codes imprinted on the bottom of them.....a triangle with a number in it. Some plastics are OK and others are horrible. Look HERE to see what the codes signify.

So in light of all this information, my intention had been to purchase glass containers for storing food. Only thing is......I never did it. I meant to. But never did.

Friday night was my lucky day.

We met a couple of awesome, new friends....blogging friends....that we've had a blogging relationship with.....almost since we started our blogs.  Meeting someone you've never seen, had no idea what they look like and had never spoken to was quite interesting.

So after making a total fool of myself, going up to the wrong couple and acting like they knew why I was accosting them, we finally met Mr. and Mrs. Bratcat!

We had a wonderful evening, caught up on everything there is to talk about....

AND ! I got a gift!!!

Wonderful GLASS containers to store food in. What a surprise. Very clever, Ms. Cat.

Thank you both, so much.

Thank you for a wonderful time.