Being a Nut Beats Going Nuts

I'm having a love affair with pine nuts. It all began when I got an impossibly big bag of the little suckers from Costco. I started with the expected: fresh pesto. I love that stuff. Then I moved on to adding them to stir fry, which was also unexpectedly delicious. These jewels are tender and a little sweet and crisp. Perfect for stir fry. I'm not going to Google this idea and just pretend that I made it up. I sprinkled them on oatmeal...yummy. I poured them in a smoothie...nice and nutty. And I baked them into brownies...not bad.

I even fed some to the cute duck couple who have taken up residence in my back yard. I'm not sure they were as thrilled with the pine nuts as I am. I think they were under the distinct impression I was throwing the tiny nuts AT them instead of TO them. They scurried out of their private pond and started hiking up the snow bank. So I quit raining down pine nuts and backed up quietly.

Which brings me to another subject that's unrelated, but on my mind. What do I feed wild ducks? I've heard you shouldn't feed them bread. I've read something about cracked corn, but I don't know where to get that and I don't know where Jimmy lives. (Okay, bad joke, but bonus points if you get it.)

Maybe tomorrow I'll hit the feed store. And Costco for more pine nuts.

Just Another Day in the Snowglobe

Holy cow! Check out this freaky tax-day snow. I can't bear the thought of shoveling or snowblowing. I think I'll just let it be. I'm beginning to think I live in Narnia.

I Dreamed a Dream

You have to watch this video all the way through. I promise you won't be sorry. Susan Boyle is an unemployed 47-year-old lady who has a dream to be a professional singer. Never been married (or kissed for that matter), she lives in a flat with her cat called Pebbles. Her audition is something to see!

If the embed feature is blocked, go to this Britain's Got Talent link.

Race for the Money

Sometimes I think I'm some kind of cross between Anne of Green Gables and Bridget Jones.

This afternoon my friend, Julie, and I decided to wander down to the new Red Mango that just opened a few blocks from where we work. It was a blustery afternoon, to say the least. We could feel the building swaying in the wind and had to hold on to our skirts when we got outside.

We enjoyed our delicious fro yo by the fireplace and watched the wind pick up even more, bending the new little trees and whipping the grand-opening flags with abandon. I carefully stashed my cash in my bra for the walk back and we set off down the street. As we were crossing the four-lane road, a big gust of wind came up and blew my money right out of my bra. There I was, chasing $15 down the middle of the street in my billowing black skirt and fluttery top with my hands outstretched, reaching for the bills that were always tumbling just out of my reach. They rolled and flew, getting run over by passing cars and skipping through intersections. I galloped along after them, over grassy medians and through turning lanes filled with cars, and people wondering just what the hurry was and why I was sprinting crazily like Phoebe from Friends down the middle of the road.

This spectacle, of course, was also in embarrassingly full view of our 5-story building filled with co-workers and window offices.

Luckily, Julie, who is much younger and sprightlier, realized that I wasn't going to give up, so she powered ahead and grabbed the $10 and the $5 just as it was about to blow under a big truck.

We got back to the office with pink cheeks stained with tears from laughing, forever bonded by our impromptu track and field event.

April Showers

I could be wrong, but I was almost sure it was April. Isn't it?