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A story: In which a lizard loses its tail

One time when I was taking out the trash cans, I got distracted by something moving erratically in my peripheral vision.  It was long and skinny and flopping around kind of crazily.  I was pretty sure it was a lizard’s tail, but it was flopping around and twisting so crazily that at first it kind of looked like a small snake.

Yes, a small snake.  Meaning, it was a rather long tail.  Meaning, it must have come from a rather large lizard.  Large enough that you’d think I would have seen a lizard running around.  But I never did.  There was no evidence of a lizard.  Other than its tail flopping around by the trash cans.

Anyway, I watched the tail writhe on the floor for a while because I was wondering how long it would keep that up.  My brother decided to come out and join me in watching the tail.  He expressed a moderate amount of disgust.  Yaris was very interested in the tail as well, but I told her she wasn’t allowed to go close to it.  So she went to do something else (in a huff).  The tail gradually ramped down its theatrics for about 5 minutes and was probably completely still after about 10.  I left it there.  I forgot to check on it the next morning but I’m going with the assumption that some animal carried it off for a snack.

I feel sorry for the lizard.  I’m sure losing one’s tail is quite stressful.  And then you have to expend the energy and resources to grow a new one.  And the new one is never the same as the old one.  If I had seen the lizard, I would have let it escape without any issues.  I had no intention of harming it.  I like lizards.  They’re friends.  Poor lizard dropped its tail for nothing.

Anyway, here’s a smallish article on lizards dropping their tails.

Popcorn: The dinner of champions

I recently found out, via the internet so it must be totally true because the internet never lies, that chefs who are too tired to cook at the end of the day will often just eat popcorn for dinner.  I would link you to the article I read, but I didn’t save it and I don’t feel like rooting around for it.

Anyway, I thought that was rather interesting.  If I’m too tired/lazy to cook for myself at the end of the day AND I can’t be bothered to go out to eat/pick up food, I generally just have cereal or a sandwich.  These are things I normally have on hand.  These are things I normally eat through the summer when it’s too hot to cook and I don’t have much of an appetite anyway.  Or sometimes I will just eat half a watermelon and be done with it.  But you’ll notice that all of these are cold foods.  What if I want a hot meal?  I guess it’s popcorn to the rescue!

The article took pains to point out that this wasn’t just normal microwave popcorn.  No, no.  This was stove-popped or air-popped popcorn that was tossed with things like fresh herbs and seasonings.  It was fancypants popcorn.  As you would expect.

I decided to give it a try.  Popcorn is relatively healthy, after all.  I mean, if you don’t drown it in butter or something.  And I’ve been wanting to give stove-top popping another go.  I tried it once with a mixing bowl and a foil lid, but didn’t really like the results.  This time I tried a chef’s pan since mine has a nice, tight-fitting lid.

It worked rather well.  I think I might like doing it this way over my microwave popcorn method when I want to toss in some seasoning or grated parm or something.  It’s easier to toss since it’s already in a pan.

In case you were wondering, I heat about a teaspoon of oil (grapeseed this time) and throw in a couple of kernels and wait for them to pop before dumping about a quarter cup of kernels into the pan and covering.  Then I shake it around and revel in the popping sounds.  This last time I tossed in some freshly grated parm, sea salt, and rosemary.

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