a snack with a buzz

. . . or perhaps just a sting



Word on the web is that Tokyo is creating a buzz with its digger wasp rice crackers, or jibachi senbei. The inventive minds behind the snack belong to a Japanese wasp fan club hailing from Omachi, about 120 miles northwest of Tokyo. After catching the digger wasps in nearby forests, the insects are boiled and dried before being sprinkled over the cracker dough. The crackers are described as being " slightly more oily than the soy-sauce flavored traditional ones" and the fan club claims the insect addition "adds a waspish scent to the traditional fare," and lets face it, who doesn't find themself for want of more waspish scent in their life?
While not a hit amongst the young crowd, the wasp crackers are apparently a crowd pleaser with older folks. Output is said to be limited as wasps are caught in the wild for "optimum" flavor.

and now it's time for a youtube moment . . .

best buys

Though summer days may be fleeting, I'm still enjoying some of my favorite buys from the sunnier days gone by. Here are my top 5 summer purchase picks in no particular order:

Harry Potter 7

It was perfect timing as book 7's release coincided with the beginning of summer vacation. The book was consumed through 2 relaxing days spent curling up in comfy chairs at Starbucks.


Crocs

With Crocs Shops popping up all over town, the vastly popular footwear has finally become easily attainable on-island so I finally gave in and snagged a pair.


Ice Cream Maker

You scream, I scream, anytime is a good time for ice cream! For several years I've wanted one and this summer I spied this lovely ice cream/sorbet/frozen yogurt maker for a price too sweet to pass up.

Grey's Anatomy Seasons 2 & 3

An early summer care package from a friend happened to contain Season 1 and I was instantly hooked. I plowed through seasons 2 and 3 soon after.

Convertible Skirt

A camping trip led to this find, however, it wasn't until after the first wear that I discovered my straight, mid-calf grazing skirt could be easily gathered in an assortment of ways for a variety of looks. A skirt with options - I like it!

this morning i was attacked by a rabid raccoon . . . and then i woke up.

for the past few weeks i've not been sleeping well. i've been getting enough sleep, but not quality sleep and not at night but during some pocket of the morning. i realized today that with the kinds of dreams i've been having lately, it's no wonder i've been having a difficult time coaxing myself to sleep. there's no telling what i'll be waking up from next. each night seems to be in competition with the preceding to produce the most ridiculous, outlandish, or distressing dream, and for some of them, it actually takes awhile after waking to convince myself that it was indeed all invented in a dream and not a dream about something that actually happened.


the last day of my 2 week summer vacation was a sunday. i awoke from an afternoon nap that followed a busy morning, and went out for a walk to buy some bread. along the way, i thought about how vacation was coming to an end and tomorrow would mean a return to work. i also reflected on how i spent my vacation, mainly my trip to ecuador with friends becky and rick. we had had a great 2 weeks there and i wish we could have stayed longer. this continued for over a half hour until suddenly, like a glass falling to the floor and shattering into a hundred pieces, the reality broke over me that i had spent my entire vacation in taiwan. in fact, i've never even traveled to south america. yet how could i have so many vivid memories of the trip? how is it that the events of an afternoon nap had me convinced for nearly an hour afterwards that they actually occurred?

more than just a pleasant dream that i'd like to believe actually happened, my dreams lately have been accompanied with an element that makes them seem so convincingly real that they've kept me on my toes the past few months as though tip-toeing through a minefield of make believe and reality. with autumn's approach, i'm looking forward hopeful for a new phase with nights once again filled with sleep, lovely, restful, sleep.

morning person

I don't think I've ever been mistaken for a morning person. Mind you, I have no disdain for the a.m. hours. In fact, I love to see the early morning, however, I'd prefer to do so by staying up all night rather than waking early. I'm a night owl. I love the perceived peace of a world asleep.

Despite this, I started out my week with a noble goal, an attempt to change my ways. For a week, I'd try out the life of an early bird. The challenge: to get up between 5-6a.m. for a morning run and to have a productive pre-work day. I'm not fully sure why I decided to do such a thing, but decided to commit to the goal nonetheless.

I failed. Oh, I failed, I failed, I failed. Rather than waking early, I spent an entire week unable to fall asleep until somewhere between the hours of 4-6 a.m., so unless I'm planning to change my definition of "early bird" to someone who stays up until the wee hours of the morning, I failed.

Still, there's something to be said for the early hours of morning, for the coolness of night dissipating in a morning mist, for first light, for the changing colors of the morning sky, for the air of a new day, for the sounds of the world waking up.

So here is my tribute to a time when reality was better than I remember it, rather than remembering something as better than it was. Here's to something good, to something I miss, to a reason to be up before dawn no matter how you do it.

Today I . . .

started my day an hour earlier than intended compliments of the 8:00 a.m. construction work overhead

got sunburned on one arm while taking an afternoon joyride to the DMV with a friend - you know you've been driving a scooter too long when you give up a free afternoon to ride around in a car

consumed a pot of coffee and a pot of tea - my way of coping with the day after 4 hours of sleep

broke glass with a hammer- on purpose

rid my outdoor trashcan of a nation of maggots- totally gross

ate in reverse with noodle soup for breakfast and chocolate chip pancakes for dinner - perhaps adulthood has a few perks after all

finally made a blog entry!!!