Brian Rice

Right on! Your bird qualifications far exceed mine so I hope I didn’t come across as argufying. It’s a relevant topic for me because I am fortunate enough to have Anna’s and rufouses peeing all over my deck.

Do Birds Pee? Hummingbirds Do—a Lot Unlike most other avians, hummers urinate in a stream much like mammals, releasing liquid waste often and out of necessity.

Except for hummingbirds! www.audubon.org/magazine/do-...

A flame captioned “100 Days Streak!”

I wish I had paid attention sooner when they said that American Sign Language is lots of fun. I am really enjoying the #Lingvano app.

The Wordle equivalent of a land war in Asia
Wordle 1,409 X/6

⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛
⬛⬛🟨⬛⬛
⬛🟩🟩⬛🟩
⬛🟩🟩🟩🟩
⬛🟩🟩🟩🟩
⬛🟩🟩🟩🟩

A store shelf with a empty area where Rufina brand patis should be

Hey @marsosudiro.bsky.social , looks like shoppers here agree with your contention that Rufina brand is the best

On the left, the Duolingo app's display of a streak of 1000 days, and on the right, the Lingvano app's of 77 days

Still not fluent in Spanish! My non-owl tutor says that #Duolingo, in these 1000 days, has gotten me to B1-B2, which ain't bad. Because soon I will be done with Duolingo Spanish, I recently started learning #ASL with #Lingvano, which I love.

Who could blame Secretary Burgum for reasoning that his department’s purview of “the Interior” also includes the interior of his belleh?

I get this a lot. Apparently there is something wrong with me

2025 March Challenge Join me and make a gift to the 2025 March Challenge

My high school, the North Carolina School of Science and Math, meant a ton to me. Because NC, its annual giving campaign is in March and called "March Madness," and I try to participate every year. giving.ncssm.edu/2025-march-c...

Usually the Wordles are studiously not-topical, but today’s sure felt relevant

Because I live in a nerd-burg, I see more than my share of Cybertrucks. Today I saw one that had been painted my favorite color. Am squicked

Cost of fancy Pitaya brand = 1.9 cents/gram.
Cost of frozen avocados made by me = 1.8 cents/gram (plus mess cleanup). Home economics is a harsh mistress.

Because of taking the kiddo to his favorite boba shack, I’ve become an avocado-smoothie fiend. I make them at home, which is a little less profligate, but frozen avocados are pricey and only available at the foofoo grocery stores. So I did a price/weight comparison! Drumroll please…

Whoa, that is not right purty at all. I promise we do not have any Stalinist architecture on our outdoor deck

2. Separating words correctly when listening. Just this morning I heard “Qué tonta soy” (“How dumb I am!”) as, instead, “Qué tontas hoy” (“What dumb things today!”).

1. Training my brain to use the right gender when speaking. Stuff like “los fruterías” comes out of my mouth even though I know dang well that is wrong.

I’m getting close to finishing Duolingo Spanish. Two things it is definitely NOT helping me with, though:

Well this is right purty

Turns out Walter Sobchak was incorrect in his assessment of the threat posed by nihilists

Low winter sun over Saratoga Passage

The teenager did not like what I cooked for dinner because the carrots were too consolidated

La guinda del pastel: durante su vida, Newton también fue conocido por no atraer a nadie

Interesting! We usually have Thai or Vietnamese fish sauce in the house. But I just looked up and read about patis. Thank you for the tip!

Sir Isaac Newton looking disappointed with you because you do not attract any bodies

One of the things I still enjoy Facebook for is following Spanish-language meme accounts. They are teaching me all the idioms the owl isn’t, and they are either very funny or very dreadful or both. This one though is perfect academic Castellano. Translation in the alt text

I coulda made it more authentic if I had added whole peppercorns, and the Instant Pot does fine with those but my loved ones don’t like that so out it goes

Chicken adobo over rice in front of the Instant Pot that made it

Recipe for chicken adobo in my poor handwriting. Basically, chop a big ole onion and a lot of garlic, mix together soy sauce and vinegar and table sugar until it’s about a cup total, then throw it all in the Instant Pot and quick release after 8 minutes

One of my favorite things to cook is chicken adobo, and the Instant Pot makes it easy and super inauthentic. 🤷‍♂️

Ever since the pandemic I’ve been baking granola. I first encountered granola that didn’t come out of a box while I was at Oberlin College, a fact many will consider hilariously on-the-nose.

Sunset over Puget Sound with silhouette of trees in the foreground

Here we are in 2025. I am still semiretired although doing contract curriculum-development projects for fun. Edmonds WA continues to have the best sunsets.