yay, popcorn!

My parents are the best!

public service announcement

This popcorn is really good. I've only had the blue one ("Kailey's Kernels") so far but I'm hoping my parents will pick up one or both of the others while they're in Colorado. Although I suppose I could mail-order it. But that seems kind of excessive somehow. On the other hand, it *is* really good popcorn....

that's not a hummingbird

My parents are in Colorado right now - in summer they like to rent a house out there for a couple of weeks so they can hang out, look at the mountains, and go for hikes. My dad always puts out a hummingbird feeder and a birdseed feeder so he'll have pretty little flying things to look at. Only check out what came to the hummingbird feeder one evening last week:


That railing is attached to a deck on the second floor. Behold the pink tongue:

After this the bear successfully grabbed the feeder, crunched it up, and enjoyed some sugary treats. Then it came back to snuffle at the birdseed on the edge of the deck. My dad encouraged it to leave with the help of a pot, a big spoon, and some yelling, and also decided that he should maybe take the bird feeders in for a while.

How annoying is it that I have to work instead of going off and having adventures like that? Darn retirees with their fun.

I have a lot of opinions about tea

On Saturday we went on a tour of the Celestial Seasonings factory. They're based in Boulder. The factory was cool (although it would be a lot cooler on a weekday with all the machines running), but here's the thing: Celestial Seasonings? They are the number one specialty tea company, but they don't make very good tea. I tried the five flavors of hot tea and two iced that they had out at the tasting bar, and I would be able to swallow one of them again, if it was offered to me.

You can also get a cup of any tea that they make, so I tried something from their new fancy line, Saphara. A bunch of smaller tea companies have started making whole-leaf teas in recent years - they have big teabags made of fancy materials, with space for the leaves to expand. They use whole leaves instead of the cut-up stuff in regular teabags, which means you end up with something that tastes like it was made from loose tea.

So Celestial Seasonings has now gotten on the bandwagon with Saphara. The genmaicha is tasty, although I have yet to meet a genmaicha I didn't love. (The blackberry something-or-other Saphara tea I tried was...less tasty.)

The coolest thing on the tour was the peppermint room. Most of the herbs and spices are in a big room, but the tea leaves (most of their "teas" are herbal and don't have any tea in them) have their own room because they're like sponges and will soak up any smells nearby, and the peppermint has its own room because, uh, I walked into the peppermint room and walked out again in five seconds with my eyes burning. That stuff is FIERCE. It's not even processed there - it's processed somewhere in Washington State, where it's grown.

To summarize: The Celestial Seasonings tour is cool, if you're ever in Boulder, but you should still buy Republic of Tea. Or Mighty Leaf. Or Stash. Or something else non-bad.

flatirons

This is the view from the front porch of the little cottage my parents are renting in Boulder. I expected a hovel from what they said, but it's really quite cute. And a lot warmer than their real house.

colorado

This weekend I visited my parents in Colorado. My dad retired at the end of the year so they're spending three months in Boulder. He's skiing every day and my mom's going to lots of meetings.

On Friday they picked me up at the airport, took me into Denver, and we went out for breakfast. Actually, for me, it was a hobbit-like third breakfast: a bowl of oatmeal at home, some greasy potatoes and sausages at the Baltimore airport, then some waffley goodness in Denver. Next stop: Denver Art Museum. The Denver Art Museum has a bunch of art, but it also has lots of things for kids to do. Or easily-entertained adults.


They project bubbles on the floor and if you jump on them, they pop. This is my mom trying it out. (My mom is now a blog reader. Say hi, everybody.)