st. francis would have been proud. for a moment.

while petsitting at tony and rachels, i let their dog pal out into the back yard. i noticed the neighbor boys playing with a chicken in the house behind theirs. it sounds sweet, but what they were really doing is carrying this chicken around by the tail. being the defender of animals that i am, i asked them if that was their chicken.

'yes, he's ours.' so i told them they should be nice to their chicken.
'oh yes, we're really nice. he likes when we pet him' i encouraged them to only pet the chicken from now on, rather than dragging it around by the tail.

i went back inside and those little kids started chasing the chicken, grabbing it by the tail when it was cornered, then throwing it against the tree. that was the last straw. i came running out of the house, so angry, and told them i never want to see them treat their chicken that way again. it made me very sad to see them, and do they think the chicken likes being treated that way? to all this they said (keep in mind they are about 3 and 5 years old) 'you mean you can really see us?'

i took advantage of this moment and told them i could see EVERYTHING and they should never be mean to their chicken again. then they ran into the house, leaving the chicken in peace for awhile. i was feeling very self righteous and stormed back into the house wondering how i had so quickly transformed into a scary-neighbor-lady i'm sure! i told matt the whole situation) we had just sat down to eat before all this. i picked up my fork, and realized i had just stabbed a huge piece of sesame chicken! for all my efforts to save that one little chicken from suffering, i sure had a lot of his relative on my plate!

i think there is a verse about this...pulling a speck out of someone else's eye?!

so much salmon

yesterday was an early morning drive to curves, so it was nice to come home at 1 and have the whole afternoon free. matt and i had grilled cheese then drove up to the zoo for about an hour. since it's been so rainy, the animals were all out and playing in the cooler weather. one of the best 'animal times' at the zoo. one of the leopards had a cub a few weeks old, so they were playing together just feet away from us. i just wanted to curl up with them both and take a little snooze in the sun!

when we came back, we made our alaskan salmon 4 ways (thanks, elisha for the recipes!): smoked salmon fettucini alfredo, smoked salmon dip, sour cream dill and lemon baked salmon, and a sort of sweet and sour version. tony and rachel came over for the fish feast, then we watched the ohio state game until late.

now, i'm looking at a huge bowl of leftover salmon dip wondering why i made over a pound?? i'm not sure how long this kind of thing keeps....