Robin Edmonds

Sometimes when I take my dog outside at night we come across wildlife. I am always on the lookout for a skunk that might be rambling across my yard. But sometimes we startle other animals, too. Like, last night we walked up on an opossum and I don’t know which of the three of us was more startled than the others. My dog freaked out and started barking and the opossum ran off to neighbor’s yard really fast.

Sometimes we hear funny noises at night and if I have a flashlight with me I will try to track down the source of the noise. Last week I heard a strange crying sound coming from the backyard. I walked around with the flashlight to see if there was an animal trapped or hurt, but didn’t see anything on the ground or in the bushes. Then I saw a movement overhead and was able to get a glimpse of a huge brown owl that had been sitting in one of the trees.

It must have been the owl making that noise, because after he flew away the noise stopped. That was interesting – I never knew that owls make that strange crying noise. It was like nothing I have ever heard from a bird before!

In the winter months I like a bowl of hot cereal for breakfast. Usually I will cook a bowl of oatmeal, but sometimes I like a bowl of cream of wheat. I also like grits, but that is not something that I would eat by itself. Grits is more like a side dish to go along with eggs and bacon or maybe pancakes and sausage.

In the summer months I switch over to cold cereals. My favorite is the Mini Shredded Wheats. But they are dusted with sugar and sometimes I need to take a break from wheat, so I switch to either Rice Chex or Special K with berries. I have heard that rice is the best carb for mornings, but it seems that most breakfast cereals are based on corn or wheat.

Other than Rice Chex, the most popular rice cereal is probably Rice Krispies. But the Rice Crispies get soggy to quickly and I never really feel full or satisfied after eating those. The best part of Rice Krispies is making the scrumptious Marshmallow Crispy Treats. My mom used to make them for us once in a while and they are truly a treat for me!

Recently I became aware of a man who is very funny, Andy Borowitz. I don’t think you can correctly call him a comedian. I would call him a humorist, specializing in satire.

He does a few stand up comedy shows, but his career in being funny started in college, when he attend Harvard and was president of the Harvard Lampoon magazine. After college he went to Hollywood and got jobs writing for several different TV shows. Then he started writing fake by hilarious news stories that poked fun at current events and current social standards – or lack of such. Now he is known for his website and his association with the New Yorker Magazine and the Huffington Post.

I get daily one-liners from him by subscribing to his Facebook feed. I am sure he sends the same thing out on Twitter. Most of his snarky remarks are about politics, and everyone is fair game.

There is a new book out called the Funniest Men and he is one of those mentioned.

Today I had a craving for sushi but I don’t have time to go to a full service sushi bar restaurant for lunch. There are several popular sushi bars near my office and also near my home, but it always takes at least an hour to eat at a sushi bar. If you rush through eating sushi you spoil the whole experience. Sushi is meant to be eaten slowly and to enjoy every bite.

Instead, I drove across the highway to the Publix grocery store and bought a box of sushi from their fresh fish department. It is only about $6 for a tray of California rolls. They come with a little fresh ginger and a dollop of wasabi. Great deal and fast. And you can eat the rolls in the car on your way back to work, so you can still savor every bite but you have not lost at least an hour of the busy day at the restaurant.

This is funny because it is true. I know a lot of people who have a retouched or extremely out of date photo on their Facebook and MySpace profiles. And I cringe when someone asks to see my ID – I have the worst photo on my driver’s license. Why can’t the driver’s license people take a nice photo or maybe at least take 2 or 3 shots and let you pick the best of them?