Do You Zhu Zhu?

The call has been put out. Someone in my circle of family and friends wants, wait should I say, needs a Zhu Zhu pet. In case you don't have a person under 10 years old in your life, Zhu Zhu pets are this years "it" toy. You know, this year's Tickle-Me-Elmo, Wii, Princess Unicorn or Cabbage Patch Kid (okay I am dating myself here). Every year there is always a toy that is impossible to get, yet somehow it ends up on every kid's list. And parents go nuts trying to find that toy, paying 2, 3 even 10 times the value to get the item for their precious to open on Christmas Day.

Oh I mock because I have been there. One Christmas when Snake was 4 years old, all he wanted for Christmas was "Black Buzz". It was a special edition Buzz Lightyear Figure, that wasn't really black, it was silverish, kind of a plastic shiny chrome color but that is what he called it. He saw one in the Disney store and it was all he talked about. So of course, by the time I got to the Disney store to buy it , they were out of stock. It was hard to find. So I put the call out to the network of sisters, aunties and grandmas. And California was searched up and down the coast for a "Black Buzz". It was searched and it was searched hard. I tried to manage Snake's expectations. "You know sometimes you don't get everything you want for Christmas, but there is always your birthday just a little over 2 months away", in my cheerful it-doesn't-really-matter-if-all-of-your-Christmas-dreams-are-dashed, right? mom voice. I started to panic but Snake never did. He kept telling me "don't worry, Santa will bring it". Oh right, I forgot.

So I have been searching for Zhu Zhu pets. I have searched every store in about a 15 mile radius from my house looking for the toys. I can tell I am not the only one. The store clerks are just a little snippy. "Do you have---", I don't even get a chance to finish my question before several of them have cut me off "No. We don't have any Zhu Zhu pets. No. We don't know when we will get any in. No. We don't have any idea of when any kind of toy shipment will come in." (Apparently these boxes just appear like magic in stock rooms everywhere.) So I have taken to having them show me where the Zhu Zhu's will be, if and when they are ever in stock. So I know where to look without disturbing the toy department clerks who are too busy and important to answer my questions about . . . toys. And when I find them, because I have every confidence I will, I will buy as many as I can. And distribute them to my family and friends who need them. At cost. Because I understand.

Oh and yes, Snake did get the Black Buzz for Christmas. It was found about 2 days before and made its appearance under our tree on Christmas morning. Snake just said "See, I knew Santa would find it" and he was right. Then Kiki dropped it about two minutes after he opened it and his little shiny chrome foot broke off. We spent Christmas morning buying Scotch tape at Walgreens to tape Buzz's foot back on. And to all a good night!!

Nooooooooo! Say it Ain't So, Joe!!!!!!!

For the past few months, I have been missing something at my Trader Joe's store. I have checked for it over and over again, and it hasn't been in the freezer section. For a few weeks the sign was still there, so I thought perhaps there was a run on this product and eventually it would be back. But then, the sign disappeared. It wasn't there any more and I started to lose hope that the product would be restocked. So today I asked about it. (I hadn't asked before because until I got an answer one way or another, I could still pretend that the inevitable might not happen.) It was not good news. Trader Joe's will not be restocking the Cranberry Oatmeal frozen cookie dough. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

I loved the Cranberry Oatmeal cookie dough. Every store has chocolate chip dough or sugar cookie dough. Those flavors are common and pedestrian. But only Trader Joe's had cranberry oatmeal. Every adult that I made those cookies for, loved them. They were easy, just pop them out of the freezer onto a cookie sheet and 12-15 minutes later - viola! Yummy cookies.

So I emailed Trader Joe's and asked them nicely (I said please) to bring back the cookie dough. If not permanently, just until I can corner the market on the cookies and stock my freezer. You can email them too, here. Please. I asked nicely.

Mind if we watch while you spawn?

Chizz has been wanting to go up to Lake Tahoe and see the salmon spawn at Taylor Creek. A friend of his from work went a week before and had some amazing photos. We decided to take a drive up for the day. Snake needed freeway driving experience and we wanted to see the salmon spawn, so we figured we could get two proverbial birds with one big car shaped stone.



Taylor Creek is off the south shore of Tahoe. We don't often get to the south shore, we are more north shore folks. Each autumn, mature Kokanee salmon return to the streams where they hatched to get a mate, spawn and die. Wow!! And each year we humans come to watch. Not much privacy. It was a beautiful day in California. We had some pretty significant rain the week or so before, so we were happy to see blue skies and it was only a bit nippy. We really didn't need sweatshirts or jackets. We probably missed the optimum day for viewing by a week or so, but it was still pretty good and far as really getting to see a number of salmon up close and personal. The salmon go through some pretty amazing physical changes not the least of which is changing from their silvery kind of color to a brilliant bright red. When you walk along the creek, you just see all kinds of fish kind of swimming in place looking for a good place to lay and fertilize their eggs. Also there? The ducks - ready to eat freshly laid eggs and/or fish. They weren't really picky. The ducks did this amazing thing where they kind of scooted along the water really fast and chased the fish. I am not sure if they were trying to catch them, and I never really saw any duck catch a fish or if they were trying to stir up the bottom of the creek where the eggs were just laid to try and eat the eggs. But there was quite a bit of scooting going on.

Even though we were a few days past the prime viewing time. There were still quite a few people there that day. I am not sure if it was the beautiful weather that brought them out or the chance to see the salmon spawning. But I was amazed at the crowd. Most of the people were respectful of the process, the viewing of the circle of life so to speak. But there are always a few that let their kids try and touch or catch the fish for the cute photo op. I wondered how the parents would have liked it if someone was yanking on their fins while they were conceiving their little miracle, or, more morbidly, meeting their maker. Some people just seem to believe that everything is put on earth for their amusement, to do with as they please. No wonder our society grows up with such entitlement!

I will say US Forest Service does quite a good job of explaining what is happening. There were various signs around, explaining the differences the male and female fish go through physically, what each of their roles were, how many made it through(3 eggs from every 1000 laid will survive). You can walk down the path and see the various spots that a salmon might choose to spawn. There is an underground cutout you can go through and it explains the different terrain and animals that live nearby and how that effects the salmon process. At one point we walked over a bridge and we could look down on all the various salmon in the creek bed. This is a photo of Chizz and Snakes' shadows. I thought it was cool. I am easily amused.



The aspen trees are beautiful this time of year and accompanied by the gorgeous weather, one appreciates living in such a beautiful place.