Hungry Birds

Robert sent me the following message posted on a Pacific Northwest birding listserve:

"It was a nice day today and I decided to take the top off of my Jeep and go out look for Burrowing Owls. I found my FOY [first of year] Franklin County Burrowing Owls North of Pasco. Two of them were standing watch outside their burrow. My girlfriend and I were taking pictures when one of them flew off. I went to the back of my jeep to get my scope out. Then, my girlfriend caught my attention silently and motioned me to look in the front seat of my jeep. The Burrowing Owl had flown into my jeep and had landed on the steering wheel!!!!! The Owl quickly grabbed my half eaten burrito from the taco truck that was on the dashboard and flew back to the burrow!!! We watched an awe with our jaws dropped as the owls went at the burrito finishing every morsel down to the last pinto bean!!!!"

As Robert noted, Burrowing owls love their little burrows. 

Amusing Food Site

Tam sent me a link to this food website, which is pretty funny.  While I do not endorse many of the specifics of the way of healthy eating encouraged on the site nor do I approve (for myself) a vegan diet at all, still, I certainly agree that Hamburger Helper is disgusting and wrong and think there's wisdom in not trusting a glove with a face.

In short:

More Thifty Goodness

I made a trip to Goodwill today and since it's been a while, I thought I'd give you one of my photo posts on my purchases.  (Click to expand the photos.)

Working from left to right, starting with the top row:
- Jones New York short sleeved knit shirt.  I like the neck detail.  My costliest purchase at $7.
- St. John's Bay [JCP] short sleeved knit shirt.  I'm a sucker for shirring.
- American Living [JCP] elbow length knit shirt with square neck.  Gotta love a sailor stripe!
- Ann Taylor short sleeved knit shirt.  Do I dare try pattern mixing with it?
- Ann Taylor LOFT short sleeved knit shirt.  A nice design on the fabric, I thought.
- A plain white short sleeved shirt with no tags; slightly gathered front.  Great condition for a white shirt.  It's pretty short and should work well with fuller skirts (which annoyingly look better with shirts that are significantly shorter than those I like with pants).  (I brought one of my previously-thrifted fuller skirts to try on with shirts.)  I wonder if someone washed it, it shrank, and they donated it right away.

I got kind of lucky with white/off-white shirts this time!
- Christopher & Banks sleeveless white knit shirt with a high neckline.  It looks basically unworn, and I think I know why.  The armholes are too big -- easily fixable, though, with a sewing machine.
- St. John's Bay [JCP] v-neck short sleeved knit shirt.  My cheapest item at 99 cents.  A handy neutral color to wear with some of the colorful skirts I've been purchasing.
- Adidas short sleeved athletic knit shirt.  I like getting these with the quick dry/wicking/etc. for walking or hiking outdoors, and I'll be packing them on our upcoming national park tour.
- Croft & Barrow [Kohl's] short sleeved cardigan.  I have been wanting to get some summery cardigans that can be worn alone (buttoned up) or over a sleeveless top, esp. with skirts.
- 212 is a brand I'm totally unfamiliar with.  This is a very basic short sleeved nylon/spandex shirt that looks fine tucked into a skirt (a rarity, in my experience).
- Sag Harbor [sold at Kohl's, Sears, Bealls, etc.] short sleeved lightweight sweater for wearing with skirts.  I have several light colored ones with faint patterns that would look good with a neutral color like this.  I like the metal neck detail (a sort of built-in necklace substitute).
- Champion short sleeved athletic knit shirt with a small amount of mesh low on the sides.

- Tommy Hilfiger lightweight long sleeved sweater with waist ties.  A shorter, skirt-compatible length and nice neutral color.
- Another item without tags.  A long, lightweight long sleeved cardigan with a single button closure.  I am the queen of long black cardigans.  I will switch this one for another one that doesn't have a front closure and is arguably a bit too small around the bust (that I bought at this same Goodwill last year and more than got my $3-$5 worth of wear out of).
- Chico's traveler short sleeved shirt and cardigan.  I really like this thin no-wrinkle fabric.  The cardigan is, to my eye, very similar to one my mom owns.  (Mine was only $3.50, though.)
- Two One Two New York (the same mystery brand as 212?) elbow length shrug/sweater.  I love the look of shrugs but haven't really owned one before for casual wear.  Another thing that looks good with skirts or over dresses.  (Although the only dresses I own right now are purple and black so... yeah, I don't think so.)

With spring just starting to peek its head (today several of the lakes we passed on the highway had started to melt around the edges, which wasn't the case a week ago), nobody was fighting with me in the sweater aisles but I could not resist these items.  The lightweight, button-up cardigans should go well with skirts or pants and can be worn alone or over another shirt.  I like that flexibility.  And I need more cardigans so I have an excuse to buy some bad-ass cardigan clips.  (I'll show you some at the end of this post.)
- St. John's Bay [JCP] long-sleeved open cardigan.  I like this style a lot and think the grey should go with a lot of colors underneath.
- Unity World Wear [also JCP?] long-sleeved cardigan.  A semi-gaudy design on the front (rhinestones!) but I think it looks fun and helps mitigate the boredom factor of wearing a grey and black sweater. 
- Eddie Bauer long-sleeved cardigan with a few buttons and a kind of long mild peplum at the bottom?  It's an unusual silhouette.
- Willow Bay [sold at Shopko, a Wisconsin-based retailer I am unfamiliar with but that looks similar to JCP] long-sleeved cardigan with a classic argyle design.
- Lands End long sleeved cardigan.  Finally, a pop of color!

These are some warmer sweaters I won't be wearing until next fall, but they were pretty nifty (and cheap), so I got them anyway.
- Luxe 360 by Designer Originals [???] long sleeved cardigan in a convenient short length.
- Talbots long sleeved wool cardigan.  And it's not black!
- Jalate [???] long sleeved polyester/spandex short cardigan-style top.  Does it work with skirts?  Check.
- Eddie Bauer long sleeved wool sweater with a v-neck.  Very basic, yes, but it fit so well.

OK, bring on the skirts.
- Larry Levine [Marshall's] knee length denim skirt.  New with tags -- $30 originally, $3 to me.
- Ann Taylor LOFT above the knee skirt with a somewhat full silhouette.  New with tags -- $60 originally, $5 to me.
- Ann Taylor knee length skirt.  An A-line skirt with an interesting fabric, I'm all over it.  A bargain at $1.50.
- Old Navy above the knee knit skirt.  With big-ass flowers.
- Axcess by Liz Clairborne knee length slinky-knit (you know what I mean?) skirt.  Such a basic garment but what can I say.  I think I now own two of this type (the other I bought new at Target a couple years ago).

 And the piece de resistance -- Talbots knee length silk skirt in a wonderful color that Robert looked at with great linguistic confusion.  (Yeah, I don't know what it is either.)  Note that it does not actually have weird crinkly fabric; those are just wrinkles.  New with tags -- $118 originally, $6 to me.  I really don't know where I'd wear this, or what I'd wear with it, but it fit like a dream and at the price, I couldn't resist it.   Maybe I'll never wear it anywhere at all, but occasionally will put it on and stroke it, saying, My precious.....

Not pictured are three more items:
- A men's belt, identical to the one we purchased on our last outing but in a larger size.  Robert is now covered from 30-38" in oxblood leather belts.
- An ivory scarf (lightweight but voluminous)
- Franco Sarto black, low vamp shoes with an approx. 1" heel, good for wearing with pants when really casual shoes are inappropriate. 

Total cost for this crazy haul of stuff: $146.42. 

Meanwhile, I'm trying to decide among 6 pairs of Salomon trail runners/hiking shoes from Zappo's, ranging in price from $100 to $150.  I would like to have two pairs to take on our upcoming 2-week adventure in national parks.  I'm 85% sure of one pair but there are two others I'm not sure about yet.

OK, here are some bad-ass cardi clip options (gathered from a google images search):

Octopi

Classic owls

Angry-looking owls

Goofy bunnies with chicks on their head

Steampunk clocks

A sweet birdy

Feeling Like a Wimp

Today I did a pretty serious strength training session (about 45 minutes) for the first time in too long, and man, I feel like a wimp.  I hate doing core exercises because my core is weak and the exercises are hard, which is all the reason I should be doing them.  About 15 minutes after I finished, I had this weird achiness that was like a stomach ache only not; it took me a moment to realize that what I was feeling was sore abdominal muscles.  Well, I guess the upside of this is that when you start at a wimpy point, it's easy and quick to start seeing improvement.

Sally's Wolf Salmon

This is the easiest, yummiest salmon recipe I know -- I really like that it requires no prep work and no perishable ingredients (I start with frozen salmon filets and usually put one down into the fridge to defrost as soon as I use the one that's already defrosted).  I eat it several times a week.  It's based on the salmon recipe from Robb Wolf's paleo book.

Place a small piece of aluminum foil on a cookie sheet (to make for easy clean up).
Brush a small amount of coconut oil onto the foil, big enough for your salmon filet.
Lay down the salmon filet, skin side down (if it has skin; mine often doesn't).
Sprinkle with sea salt and dried rosemary (I don't measure, but perhaps about 1/2 t. of the herb).  (Feel free to substitute any other herb or herb blend you like.  I'm crazy for rosemary.)
Sprinkle about 1/2 - 1 T. diced walnuts (or other nuts; Wolf uses pecans).
Cook in 350 degree oven for 12-15 minutes.  (I go 15 minutes but do not preheat my oven; this produces a cooked-through fish in my oven, which runs a bit cold.)
Eat and enjoy!

I often follow this up with a Tours Salad (see link for slight update to the recipe).

I've successfully increased my omega-3 intake over the past couple weeks to good effect.  I start the day with 1 T. of flaxseed oil (as recommended by Seth Roberts) and because despite the label professing it to be good in smoothies or salad oil, it tastes nasty, I drink it mixed with some water while wearing a swimmer's nose clip, which completely eliminates the taste.  I swish with (and drink) a bunch of lukewarm water afterwards and then I'm good to go.  I have also started taking 3 krill/fish oil tablets with breakfast (up from two).  And I'm eating salmon more days of the week than not.  (Some weeks, like this one, I'll probably eat it every day.)  The other morning, I woke up after sleeping for 11 hours (!!!) and was really surprised that the joints in my legs weren't hurting, as they often do after only 7 hours and almost always do after about 9 hours in bed.  Then I realized that I hadn't had joint pain for the last week, despite getting a lot of sleep.  (It's easier to get a lot of sleep when you don't wake up after 7 hours from pain.)  So my regimen seems to be working for me so far.  I've been thinking of upping my flaxseed oil to 2 T. per day, adding an extra one at bedtime.  We'll see.

A Weird Brand Partnership

Robert alerted me to this little piece of insanity:

Yes, your eyes do not deceive you -- this is tofu ("protein from soybeans") co-branded with The Croods, an animated film featuring a prehistoric family on humanity's first road trip.  Because nothing screams primal/paleo diet like tofu, right?  When I think of prehistoric man hunting down something to eat, I imagine them opening a nice container of tofu and making a stir fry.  (Hey, at least it's organic tofu in this photo, but they're co-branding on the non-organic tofu also.)

Most most modern (neo-) paleo eaters avoid tofu for a variety of reasons, the most compelling to me being that they contain lectins like other legumes.

It appears that the marketers involved are trying to get consumers to associate tofu with family fun times, etc., but the co-branding effort here is pretty hopeless in my eyes.  The disconnect, nay, the contradiction, between "tofu" and "prehistoric man" is just too big.

Hi-Lo Shopping Weekend

Yesterday Robert and I took the light rail (and also, for a short distance, a shuttle bus due to a disruption on the track) to the Mall of America so that I could get a bra fitting at Nordstrom and he could look at new shoes for work.  $318 later, I had purchased 4 bras.  $170 later, Robert had purchased a pair of shoes from Bostonian. 

Today Robert and I drove to the suburbs so I could buy a bunch of craft supplies at Wal-Mart ($96), he could buy some hiking shoes at a sporting goods store ($??), and I could check out the new Goodwill location, where I purchased 7 skirts, 8 knit shirts, and 3 button-up shirts (and Robert got a brand-new looking belt, which he really needed).  Total price: under $64.  Average price per item: $3.37.

Most of the brands I was familiar with -- Merona (Target), Croft & Barrow and Apt 9 (Kohl's), Old Navy, H&M (the Swedish brand that looks/feels a lot like Target to me), Style & Co (Macy's), Lands End, Liz Claiborne, Talbots.  I have also purchased Studio Works at Goodwill before -- apparently it is sold at the Bon-Ton chain of stores, with which I am unfamiliar (the Studio Works clothes I've purchased seem like Kohl's type things to me).  My google fu is not up to the task of identifying "Bass" as a brand of clothing.  I have purchased Christopher & Banks items at Goodwill several times before, and they are a very common brand there.  I wondered why this brand has such a large presence here (more so than other places I've lived) and ... oh, their headquarters is located in a suburb of Snow City.  (As for the fact that the brand targets the age 40-60 demographic?  I guess I'm just ahead of my time.)  Finally, I was previously totally unfamiliar with the brand Monsoon, which turns out to be a UK brand; their cheapest skirt is 45 pounds (i.e., $68.50) so I can feel happy that I bought this whole set of clothing for less than one of the skirts brand-new.

I'm also happy that any of several of the skirts I bought should work well to form the basis of the outfit I will need to put together for my cousin's wedding in early June.  If all else fails, I can always walk over to the Neiman Marcus on the pedestrian mall and buy a $250 blouse to go with the $3 skirt.

Check out the lovely stripes on the mysterious Bass shirt!