Wednesday, June 4, 2014

Abandoned Nest

A few weeks ago I noticed that the mockingbirds weren't screeching anymore and the only bird I saw flying to the nest site was a scrub jay. The mockingbirds have not come back so I can only assume that the scrub jay found their nest and maybe stole any eggs that had been laid. I'm sorry to not see the mockingbirds raising their little family but it is a lot quieter out there and Lucy is not afraid to get back up into her perch in the tree. It took her a few days before she figured out that it was once again safe to venture up the tree.

Speaking of trees, the one sugar maple that Keith didn't take back to walmart was planted in the backyard in the spot formerly occupied by the plum tree, the plum tree that I'm glad to see gone because no more green plums laying on the ground to step on and twist your ankle on and no more hundreds of ripe plums falling onto the ground to deal with either. We thought the sugar maple might die, it seemed to kind of shrivel up after it was planted, but we do see new buds and leaves forming so maybe it might just survive. I'd rather rake up leaves in the fall than rotting plums in the summer.

It's a nice morning here so far, the cats are all in the back yard taking their morning constitutional. We did treat them with the cheaper form of topical flea stuff so that they hopefully won't bring fleas back inside with them. Genie cowers in her basket until they all come back inside and it's safe for her once again. She is terrified of the indoor cats but will go after Lucy with a vengeance when she goes into Genie territory. I guess one interloper can be handled, but not five.

It's going to be a long hot summer I think, we are supposed to have triple digit heat this weekend. Yesterday I decided to make this baked bean recipe for lunch, why I decided to heat up the house by baking beans for an hour in the oven I don't know. I'm trying to think of things to eat, once again being totally bored with food and nothing sounds very good to eat. I liked the beans, but they were too sweet for Keith. I also made some coleslaw from this low sugar recipe magazine that I got and it was totally inedible. I'm not a huge fan of coleslaw unless it's really fresh, too many memories of soggy nasty school lunch coleslaw, but my fresh coleslaw was even worst than the soggy stuff. What a waste of time, energy, and cabbage!

We did go out for dinner the other night, I was wanting to go back to the Rice Bowl restaurant where you get good food for about the same amount of money you would spend on ingredients for a dinner at home, but we decided to try the Chinese restaurant right next door to the rice bowl. Well, actually not right next door, there is a street in between them so technically they are on different blocks. But still, if you come out the side door of the Rice Bowl, you are looking at the side door of Bill Lee's Bamboo Chopsticks or whatever it's called.

We should have gone to the Rice Bowl. I ordered orange chicken, just like I do at the Rice Bowl, but this orange chicken was definitely not as good, and it wasn't cooked long enough so that it was kind of soggy and slimy and my stomach is turning just thinking about how soggy and slimy it was. Keith got some kind of shrimp chow mein and his wasn't very good either. It was also a few dollars more than the Rice Bowl, so lesson learned there.

I do think it odd that two Chinese restaurants would open up right next door to each other.

1 comment:

Mom said...

Sorry about the mockingirds, but perhaps just as well, so poor Lucy can go back up in her tree.

I found a really good soup the other day with brown lentils, black beans, corn, tomatoes, onions, red peppers, and a few other tasty things...one of those in a carton. Probably too much sodium, but everything else was good for me. A similar thing shouldn't be too hard to make....it was more like a lentil "stew" being fairly thick.
I'm with you on the cole slaw....I want my cabbage just lightly cooked so it's not quite crisp but not soggy, and I don't care for it raw at all.