hillvalley

The "mediums" of today were the smallest of the small 20 years ago. I checked the crabs out this morning and was disappointed by their size. Was there any meat in them? Despite their pathetic size, $1 a crab still is a great deal.

I had my first bowl this afternoon at a local tea house. It is cold, gray and rainy so it was a perfect meal for a lazy Saturday. I have added a new comfort food to my repertoire. It was served with salmon and umeboshi. How perfectly wonderful. From reading the descriptions above I think it was topped with an ochazuke packet. Can't wait to make this on my own.

It looks like I am not going to be able to join you next weekend. I have an unexpected family obligation that I must attend. Have a great time. Someone take lots of pictures.

So do they. Ever seen it? It's like two trailers, back-to-back in a straight line, coupled at the hitch, motionless, providing a deeper meaning to the notion of the cicada cocktail. And then there's this. Come to my playground at recess. Or check out the cicada thread (where you can see two cicadas "stuck" together). Today I had a kid come up and show me a "cicada being born." I didn't feel like explaining the birds and the bees, or the cicadas and cicadas. Trust me, at least in Rockville they are having sex everywhere.

I was there tonight, with two older gentlemen, and they got the same service. Apparently they are very strict about the not seating until the whole party is there. I suppose that if they were crowded I would understand, but there were at least half a dozen tables empty when I arrived. Derek (who is still my favorite) apologized profusely, but still wouldn't seat us. That being said, the fries and lemons were still fantastic and the cheeseburger and chicken are the best around.

Now I want your job!!!! Last year Tako Grill in Bethesda had them as tempura. They were delicious.

They were $5 a pop at the Dupont Market on Sunday and well worth it even if they were tiny.

Late night, well early morning, dinner: scrambled eggs with basil, onion chive blossoms and Parmesan

I have butt envy

Eastern Market!!! Hopefully your friends know to stand by the cheese guy and get samples.

Mr. Clarkbar I'm pretty sure that 3 Musketeers are distributed nationally in the US. 3 MUSKETEERS® Product Locator - US only At some point in the 80's the company was going to stop making Clark bars. Students at Clark University in Worcester, Mass. started a PR campaign to save the candy bar that worked. During the primaries I had a friend who worked for the Clark campaign. When they were doing door to door campaigning on Capital Hill (the residents, not the govt.) they passed out Clark Bars with their campaign literature.

Yeah! What's the point of having a Y chromosome if you aren't going to eat bugs?

My kids are 8-10. The level of peanut awareness is different at every school. This is the first time in six years of teaching that there is a student who has an alergy to peanuts. His classroom is peanut free. I am in his hallway and we are allowed to have peanuts but we have to keep the door closed and can't go near the student. We did "Find the M&M" outside anyway, so there was less of a threat. Each kid had one Shrek peanut m&m covered by a plate full of whipped cream. They had to eat the plate of whipped cream and find the m&m without using their hands. It was great. I wish I could post the pics from the whipped cream eating. Everyone should do that at least once a year. The Shrek M&M's were a huge hit. They liked the colors (green was the hands down favorite) and the extra chocolate. Some of my kids have dull tastebuds and they couldn't taste the peanuts. We finished off the bag while watching Shrek which was great. The kids decided that the green matched the Shrek on the box better than the Shrek in the movie. I highly recommend enjoying Shrek M&M's while watching Shrek 2. They taste even better.

I couldn't even read the whole article.

Do I need to contract some cicada hunters for you? They get paid in chocolate and bonus stars

A pathetic one at that.

I had to go to 2 Giants and a CVS before I finally found the peanuts at Blockbuster. I got ripped off but they are well worth it. (By the way, there were black and white at every store.) I love the colors. The green is so vibrante, especially next to the reddish brown. I like the size, but the peanut gets lost in all the chocolate. It's the right amount of chocolate but too little peanut. I wonder if it would be better with a larger peanut. Do peanuts come in sizes? I bought a bag for my students. We are having Field Day and the peanut Shreks are the perfect size for 'Find the M&M in the Whipped Cream.'

What does Leah think of the cicadas? If you pick it up by the wings and blow on it's belly it will sing for you. Edited to add: Of course your being read!!!

I had a cone of "Puss in Boots" ice cream at Baskin Robbins today. White chocolate, chocolate mouse and chocolate ice creams with chocolate covered pretzels.

Over spring break I found a store that sells Mallow Cups and Sky Bars. I'm down to one Sky Bar and two packages of Mallow Cups

First, my sincerest apologies for not posting back sooner, but I've been a little busy. We did a small Australian feast, admittedly not up to my usual standards. Instead of tasting passion fruit, which I couldn't find, we made passion fruit popsicles. Unfortunately they did not freeze until the next day, which I had taken off. I hear they went over fine, but the kids haven't asked to make them. That's usually a sign that they did not love them. Lamingtons, on the other hand, were huge. I bought an Angel food caked, got choocolate icing and flaked coconut. What's not to love? We ended up icing just one side of the cake due to time, but it still tasted delicious. Thanks for all of your help. My kids walk around saying G'Day mate and singing "Waltzing Matilda"

Arrrggg. At Target this weekend I picked up a bag but in a sudden moment of strength against the powers of chocolate I decided to be good and put it down. Now I have to go get some.

Everyone always has chamomile or mint. If you want to stand out among your tisane drinking friends, go for something more unusual, such as a rose or lavander tea. Tazo makes a brew called Passion that I love.

You people must be really bored at work

Welcome redfish. Excellent bump. My favorites are white tuna, ikura (salmon roe), uni (sea urchin) and amaebi (sweet shrimp).