A Tiny Little Spring Running Nuisance

Why is it that those tiny little flying bugs that like to hang out by the water in the spring time, which is where local runners like to hang out too, seem to know exactly where your mouth is? And why is it that they always hang out in packs on the uphill, its like they know when you are going to be sucking in more air?

I think I have swallowed a bug on every single run for the last week.

Oh, and PS why is it that inevitably someone you know will happen to drive by right when you are taking a walk break!?

Market Find of the Week - Cafe Yarmarka

So I haven't really been faithful to the whole notion of a once a week market find. But, nonetheless, I was in the market this week with a friend who was shopping for a catering gig, she loves buying fish from her fish boyfriend!

Anyhow, we were both hungry with a hankering for something different. We had both been to Cafe Yarmarka before but it had been a while.

Unlike its Russian, more polished cousin around the corner, Piroshki, Piroshki this place has a more homey feel. It just so happens that my mom used to make cabbage rolls growing up and I have fond memories of the warm, saucy, meaty rolls on a cold winter night. Since then I have grown up to be a vegetarian so I have forgone the notion of cabbage rolls. But, this place, now, this place speaks my language. Not only do they have amazing pierogies but they have vege cabbage rolls. Served with tomato sauce, steaming just like I remembered it, minus the meat of course.

They have recently changed their menu, now when you order a main dish you get a choice to get any and all sides that you desire, from sour cream to potato salad to beet salad to spicy carrots. What a deal.

It's worth a hunt around the Market to find, go to Post Alley and turn in at the Seattle's Best.

Couldn't find a website for them but here is their Yelp page:
http://www.yelp.com/biz/cafe-yarmarka-seattle

A Lesson in Nature

This falls into the category of 'Who Knew'! I recently visited Larabee State Park, was peacefully watching the tides come and go on a gorgeous day and a seagull came and sat on a flat rock. It was playing with something, on closer inspection it became clear it was a starfish. It had plucked a good size, innocent, starfish off the ocean floor. Now why would it do that? I had never seen a seagull play before, their lives usually consumed with pestering diners on the Seattle Waterfront and leaving their signature on your newly washed car.

Soon this particular seagull took the starfish into its mouth and just stood there for a few minutes. What was it doing?

A few minutes later the seagull started to choke back another leg of the starfish. What the what!?

Then it just stood there, a starfish half in its gullet. Was it trying to eat this poor thing? Now, I know from my childhood visits to the aquarium's touch tanks, that starfish are not soft, they are rigid creatures. How could this seagull be attempting this feat? Was it digesting it as it went? Was it like a snake that it could unhinge it's jaw? I was enthralled.

Sure enough a few minutes later it looked like it was choking back another section and pretty soon it had about half of the creature down.

This process repeated itself over the next 15 minutes or so. Sure enough, this seagull managed to ingest the whole damn thing. It was fascintating and disgusting all at the same time. It made me gag just to watch.

Then, as if nothing at all happened, the seagull pooped, and flew off, happily sated, I am sure.

Nature fascinates me!