Along with wild salmon and steelhead trout, the Pacific Northwest soon may have another endangered species — the driveway carwash.

Washing your car or boat in the driveway or street is a residential ritual as American as backyard barbecues. But the state of Washington is telling its local governments they must prohibit home car washing unless residents divert the wash water away from storm drains, where they say it causes water pollution.

“I understand this is something people have done for a long time,” says Bill Moore, water quality specialist with the Washington state Department of Ecology, which is requiring the ban. “It’s not something we should be doing any longer.”

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TOKYO - One after the other, the models strutted across the stage to bouncy ’80s dance tunes, all showing off designs of the same article of clothing — adult diapers.

Japan has one of the world’s most rapidly aging societies, and the fashion show Thursday proved the country’s diaper producers are intent on keeping the elderly clean and dry.

The Nikkei, Japan’s leading business newspaper, conducted a survey this week that showed sales of adult diapers have more than doubled over the past decade, reaching an estimated 52.5 billion yen ($500 million) this year.

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If you’re like me, the feat of drinking the recommended 64+ ounces of water every day is not very appetizing. In the interest of my health, I force myself to drink almost nothing but water. I used chug my 33 oz water bottle several times a day just to get it over with until a friend introduced me to a better way to hydrate.

Seltzer water? I have tried sparkling water, flavored and plain, and although it’s bubbly, I would rather drink a coke. But when I popped the top on a can of plain seltzer water, I couldn’t believe how satisfying it was. Now it obviously doesn’t taste exactly like soda (after all it’s still water), but the sensation is so fizzy that it actually tricks your taste buds — I swear!

Shortly after converting to seltzer, I discovered the Soda Club Soda Maker. You can make your own seltzer with this thing for pennies. And if you are still making the transition from soda to water, this gadget comes with syrup to make your own soda and the calories and sugar are only a fraction of canned pop. I keep mine right on my desk and make my supply of seltzer every day. Be warned that the odd sounds of the machine attract a bit of attention. See ya later Pellegrino…

I think one of the worst things about working in an office is the community rest room. And not just because of the typical public bathroom stereotypes. Office bathrooms reveal the odd habits of your coworkers, all of which are TMI. As strange as some of these practices are, I am even more appalled by the apparent lack of discretion.

The ever present failure to flush is of course one of the worst, but what about the items that accompany patrons into the room? I’m sure we have all been privy to the toilet phone conversations. Right, sitting in the stall giving your updates on a conference call, that’s totally normal. My cubicle overlooks the path to the bathroom, so I’m lucky enough to notice people heading in with their coffee and a newspaper. I mean it’s understandable that, as awkward as it may be, nature may call during the workday, but do you have to make it obvious that you are going to be in there for a while?

The most disturbing report to date is that of a friend of mine who recently saw a cereal bowl and spoon sitting on the floor of a stall next to a man’s feet…

Do you ever feel like you are doing a whole lotta work that is not actually your responsibility? Wait…you work in a cube. Of course you do. It’s a frequent occurrence in the office world. Or at least it has been at every cubicle I have inhabited. How does this happen? I can only handle it for so long and today I reached my breaking point.

I’m consulting on a graphic design project at the moment and over the past few months my tasks have grown to include coding, editing, and other miscellaneous left-overs that have to be corrected or completed before my design work can be added. I realize I should have pushed back early on, but as we all know, it is far too easy to fall into the mode of doing favors for others when your work is dependent on theirs. So I’ll take part of the blame and refrain from halting the whole project by refusing to clean up other departments’ messes. Instead I have chosen to leave a little parting gift of my own… sorry, I can’t reveal the details as I am still working on this account. But let’s just say the developers of said product will be putting in some extra hours at the office cleaning up the glitch.

For anyone who hasn’t heard, the Animal Rescue Site sponsors donate proceeds to rescued animals for every click. This small contribution is free and requires no registration. Leonard and I both have pets and love animals, so to show our support, we have added this button to our site. Please stop by and click once a day to help animals who have not been as lucky as our own treasured pets.

If you have more suggestions for supporting organizations like this, let us know!

As the competitive food drive donations are measured by weight, I was curious to see how this would be done. Needless to say, I was not disappointed. Our Executive Admin (God bless her - seriously) showed up with a bathroom scale that was well-broken in. She used her own weight as the tare, then would stand on the scale with as much groceries as she could hold. Subtracting her weight, she would then jot down the measurement. I would consider this approach reasonable with small groups of bags, but the company now has cumulatively several thousand pounds in cardboard barrels that are about 3 feet tall. As I said, God bless her. Oy vey.

Our company is having a competitive food drive and another department has taken the lead with 900 pounds of edibles (despite accusations of water bottles and sand at the bottom of the barrels). Not to be outdone, the Type A personalities on our team (which had less than a third of the leader’s weight) began to strategize. One suggestion was purchasing 600 lb drums of honey - I can just see the smiles on the hungry children’s faces when a 600 lb drum of honey is dropped at the foot of the apartment stairs. Better minds prevailed and a collection was taken for a Costco purchase. New, attractive groceries are now piled around the cubicles and there have been issues with pilfering by colleagues and their families. We are back in the game but another BIG purchase is necessary to close the gap.

An avid follower of Publisher’s Clearing House, my Mom gave me the scoop on the Blingo search engine. Recently acquired by PCH, Blingo awards prizes at random to those who search using their engine. Though I’m a low maintenance girl and typically can’t be bothered with the latest new internet thingy, I decided to check it out. Or well, was badgered into looking at it (thanks Mom). Come to find out it was the easiest thing I’ve registered for in a long time, maybe ever. E-mail, password, nickname - done. Now I’m just waiting for my prizes to start rolling in. Yep, I’m optimistic. My favorite thing is the referral feature that allows you to receive the same prize as any winner referred by you.

So I say why not? I may never win a thing, but it’s better odds than no odds at all. Try your luck with the button on the left of our site!

Okay, I’m hesitantly giving a peak into my guilty pleasure locker here, but is anyone else totally hooked on The Rachel Zoe Project? I know. It looks super annoying and stupid. Kind of like The Hills… which I also watch because it’s so stupid I just can’t help myself. Anyway, I accidentally caught the first episode because I was working out with my ipod trainer (podfitness, it’s awesome) and it ended and I was cooling down so I turned on the TV and there it was.

Now I can’t stop watching it. I love her assistant Taylor. She’s such a bitch. And the guy she hired from Vogue? Hilarious. Anyway, no point to this what-so-ever, just had to plug the show because it makes me die.

Check out her shoe fashion picks too… I wish she was my stylist… or that I had a stylist at all…