A Tool For Healthy Restaurant Dining

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Here's a great link to help you enjoy eating out without blowing your diet.

You can search by restaurant OR enter you zip code.

You are given a healthy menu item for each place, and usually more than one healthy option is available.

www.healthydiningfinder.com/

We need all the help we can get, yes?

Karen

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A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To Buy A Birdbath. . .

Monday, August 02, 2010

I came home with a new chair instead.

Lowes was out of birdbaths! So, sweet Joe catered to my whim to stop by a furniture store. I'd been look for a new comfy but firm chair for my living room for quite a while. Suddenly, there was one sitting on display that looked like it was designed for my living room.

We were in Joe's truck so we just loaded it up and in ten minutes it was in my house.

Now over the past years, I've bought several kitty beds for Rosie. You know the soft, cushy, plush things they make for cats. Those beds belong to various friends and relatives now and their cats love them.

Rosie, on the other hand, couldn't seem to even SEE them. They just weren't on her radar. She walked right by them, over them, around them. Never even put one delicate little paw in them.

The instant this chair was in the room, however, she was creeping up on it. (This is how we approach new items, just to be sure they aren't some monster in disguise.) The next thing I knew, she was IN it. And IN it she stayed. I didn't get to sit in it at all the first day.

She never gets on my recliner or my sofa. She's just not a cat that likes furniture. But I guess she's been wanting a high-end bed, lol, and this chair fit the bill.


Yep! This will do.


Purrfect place for a mid-day nap!

This wing chair is actually a high leg recliner. When you lean back a leg rest pops up.

The one time I was in the chair, with my feet propped up, Rosie came and took over the footrest. She's bigger than it is, and I dearly wish I'd had the camera in hand when she got up there. Let's just say there was quite a bit of Rosie hanging over the edges, but she didn't seem to mind at all.

Karen

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FLYING LESSONS PART 2

Sunday, August 01, 2010

This morning, before I even had my coffee, I opened the drapes in the front bedroom window. Rosie sits there in the early mornings and late evenings and does her Neighborhood Watch duties, lol, keeping an eye on what goes on in her part of the world.

Before I even opened the curtains, I could hear Mama bird using that same tone of voice she was using all day yesterday. Sure enough, she was sitting in the shrubs right outside the window and Baby bird was on the window sill!

Once I opened the curtains, Mama bird saw me and Rosie. She went into high volume, trying to get Baby bird out of there. He’s still pretty calm, because he’s still pretty dumb, lol, and not wise to all the dangers in his world. He wasn’t worried about me or Rosie one bit. I’m sure Mama bird will change his attitude pretty soon!

I grabbed my camera and got some pretty good shots, considering. But then I saw Mama bird with a bug in her mouth, back on the shrubs, trying to feed Baby bird. So I closed the blinds and shut the curtains. As much as I wanted a photo of that, I empathized with another Mother trying to take care of her offspring, out in the cold, cruel world, fraught with dangers everywhere, and thought I’d better remove myself and Rosie from her worries.


Baby Bird is right behind Rosie, out there on the window sill.


He answers Mama bird's shrieks with soft little chirps.


Through the window and screen with a little glare from the sunlight, but isn't he adorable?

Karen

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FLYING LESSONS

Saturday, July 31, 2010

Now and then I am privileged to witness a young bird on his first flight. It has happened several times in my life. Perhaps because I’m outdoors a lot, always feeding birds in my yard, and just have an eye and an ear for such things in nature.

This morning I went out to read my electric meter on the side of my house. As soon as I got there I heard a Mocking Bird raising hell! She was SO loud. I know there is always a nest in the burr oak tree there, and she polices the area well, always letting me know when I’m intruding and getting too close.

I happened to look down and see my garden hose coiled on the ground near an evergreen shrub planted in front of the window. Standing there, his little feet perched on the hose, was a young Mocking Bird with huge, round, frightened eyes!

He still had lots of baby fuzz among his feathers. His head, especially, was fuzzy, lol, but the head is the last part to fully feather out on most birds. He was still as a stone statue. Of course he was, Mama was screaming “Don’t Move! Don’t Move!” and hoping I would go away, lol.

He was so precious, I dearly wished I had my camera with me. I went back into the house right away and straight to the window by my computer that looks out on that spot. He was already gone!

Good. That means he CAN fly. He’s just so new at it he’s scared and Mama has to keep urging him on. I went about my business and returned to the window about 5 minutes later.

Now I hear Mama again. Saying the same thing over and over. I look in the bush and see Baby sitting on a tiny twig. Mama is above him in the big tree, yelling words of encouragement. His head, his entire body really, is bobbing up and down as he tries to get the feel of it all, the perfect post to launch into flight.

He loses his balance a lot, flaps his little wings and then settles down again and starts over. Now he just squats down where he is and rests a while. This flying stuff is hard work. And scary! Landing is even harder and often quite funny to watch.

Now Mama is right above him in the shrub. He opens his wide baby bird mouth and she puts a bug in there. Courage is hard to come by on an empty stomach, lol, so she’s helping him keep up his strength. She’ll do this all day. Constantly chirping encouragement and motivation. Eventually she’ll take him to the back yard and show him the birdbath.

We all know how hard motherhood can be. No rest for busy moms. Kids come first.

She’s letting him rest, but we know she’ll be back at it shortly, because none of us can live in the world without taking that leap. It’s a leap of Faith. Hope. Trust. Life. Love. We’ll repeat it constantly as long as we live. Real leaps always take courage. And often need some encouragement from others, even a shove like the one Mama bird no doubt gave Baby bird this morning.

+++++++++++++++++++++++

Ok, it’s 4 hours later. Joe and I just came in with a new wing chair I bought. (Couldn’t find a birdbath which is what I went to buy.) As I propped the door open so we could carry in the chair, Mama bird was sitting in the crepe myrtle right by the door. I didn’t see her but I could HEAR her, lol. Still prodding Baby bird to fly one more time. I hear her loud shriek and his smaller answering chirp. Over and over.

See, she takes him from tree to tree and bush to bush. He flies. He lands. She feeds him. (Or rewards him?) He rests a while. And then off they go again. It’s so cute!

Have you taken a LEAP lately? Or do you have a fear of flying?

Karen

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Reading the (Health) News

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Every morning I take my coffee with me and sit in front of my desktop pc and read the news.

I read the local newspaper online and visit CNN, which is becoming more of a gossip site than a news site, IMHO. Looking for more substantial fare, I found the New York Times online, accessible and free..

The NYT has a lot of really interesting (to me) items every day. They even cater to a little hidden passion of mine, correct grammar. I know that's a weird thing to be interested in for most people, but hey, that's my thing. It's called AFTER DEADLINE and addresses all the improperly structured sentences, etc. that were used in their own publication. There's quite an archive of these items and it should be required reading for every school grammar class. In fact, it should be required reading for all local newspaper editors, lol, who are notorious for bad grammar in their publications. Book reviews, travel tips. All sorts of goodies.

But I digress. The really important thing I look for while reading the news is the HEALTH news. I love to hear what new issue is being discussed; another new story about people fighting the weight battle and succeeding or not; scientific discoveries that help me hang on to a healthy bod just a little longer, etc.

The NYT doesn't disappoint. They have a RECIPES FOR HEALTH section, too, as well as all sorts of articles on every aspect of health. I can always find something that applies to me or someone I know.

What's YOUR FAVORITE daily source for news, health news, especially?

Karen


After Deadline (scroll way down for all of it)
topics.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/after-d
eadline/

Recipes for Health
topics.nytimes.com/top/news/health/s
eries/recipes_for_health/index.html?sc
p=1&sq=healthy%20recipes&st=cse

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