Veronica in her Rice Bag Dress

I wanted to get some shots of Veronica modeling her rice bag dress before she no longer fits into it. She is 3 years and almost two months old and growing vertically with amazing speed.

This is just a Zebra brand basmati rice bag with the bottom cut open. The handles act as shoulder straps and there is even a nifty zipper at the neck.

I think somehow this qualifies as even more frugal than dressing your children in hand-me-downs. Our baby girl wears recycling!

Why Does it Cost More to Ship Nothing?

So, my Aperture trial period has expired and I'm ready to buy the software.

If I buy a boxed copy from Amazon, it costs $239 with free shipping.

But it would be nice if I could just buy a license and not have to get anything shipped -- just buy a key that doesn't require that anyone ship a physical box and media around.

From the Apple Store, that costs $299 -- $60 more for the privilege of shipping no physical artifacts around whatsoever.

OK, so I'm determined to do the right thing -- not use fossil fuels needlessly and all that.

Then I get to the checkout on Apple's site and they are going to charge me tax, which Amazon won't. So that's $316.94 to buy a license key as opposed to $239 from Amazon.

I had budgeted $250 for Aperture. That's $66.94 over my budget.

Why am I punished for trying to save carbon?