What's For Dinner?

Yesterday I spent the day with John & Dana's girls. Dana is in Seattle with her family and John will be joining her with their girls sometime today.

The girls and I had a wonderful time while John was at work! Tammy had the day off and came for the day as well. We played games, listened to Kimberly's piano solo, braided Alicia's hair and watched Natalie smile as she ran and played. We even got to watch a creative "dance" program given by the girls and their friends complete with leaps and somersaults!

As it got close to dinnertime, I commented to Tammy that it would be wise to use some of the leftovers in the fridge since the entire family was leaving and would be gone the rest of the week. She followed me into the kitchen and we began to explore dinner options. We started with the freezer where, much to my surprise, we found two glass bottles, the first with a giant frozen bumblebee inside! Apparently, my oldest insect-loving granddaughter, Kimberly, had "saved" some of her bug collection in the freezer! Tammy and I laughed together about the possible dinner use for bees. :-)

Moving to the main portion of the fridge, I began slowly pulling out containers, each time trying to determine if the contents could be used for dinner. As Tammy and I stood there discussing possibilities, I pulled a container out and bent down to smell the contents just as I removed the lid. To my shock, I found myself staring at three dead white mice! My shock and my scream were instantaneous! In fact, Tammy almost got the container thrown at her when I came close to flinging it across the room. The girls came running and when Kimberly discovered what the commotion was about, she gave me a disbelieving but fairly patient look as she explained the mice were in the fridge to thaw and were for Orion (John's bird) and then she calmly placed the container back in the fridge.

At that point in time, my grandmotherly frugality was thrown out the window and I sent Tammy to Wendy's for hamburgers! :-)



NOTE: In the last couple of years John has become extremely interested in falconry and is licensed by the State of Utah to work with wild birds of prey. He is also deeply involved with bird rehabilitation at the Ogden Nature Center.

Although John has a small freezer where he keeps the food for his birds (rodents, starlings and quail, etc.), the birds can't eat them frozen and they're apparently brought in to thaw in the fridge. According to John, everyone knows to leave the container with the BLUE lid alone. That is, everyone but Grandma! :-)

John feeding his hawk.
If you look carefully, you can see the feet and tail of a
mouse hanging from the beak!