Beer Without Brats

Tree shrew lives on beer. The researchers observed seven mammalian species feeding on the [bertam palm] nectar. The pen-tailed tree shrews guzzled the stuff longer than they did any other food source, for an average of 138 minutes per night, in the process helping to pollinate the plants. Yay science!

Sunday I modified a pork recipe to "work" (not be inedible) with ribs, and lo, it was pretty good.

( Pork and Potatoes with Rosemary )

Cars

( Saturday I roadtripped. )

I have been completely spoiled by my auto experiences. I drove a Ford Windstar twice in my teen years. However the real formative driving experiences were norabombay's Mazda Millenna, a Toyota Prius, and a Saab 900. Then I drove a Ford Focus, and learned that my abstract musings that I was completely screwed for the "less thank $25k new" car market were an excellent extrapolation from concrete experience. (Seriously: the Focus I drove explained why people don't like driving. If I had to drive an economy car every day, I'd hate driving too.) So this summer I measure my grocery runs by how much I can carry on a bicycle, gauge my plans by how long it'll take to get me there on public transit - thanks, WMATA, for running that track maintenance, what, every weekend? Or just most of them? - sweat on buses with broken air conditioners - thanks, Ride On, two out of three times today, thanks so much - and count every mile I'm not driving in a $1,000 clunker as another fraction of gas, insurance, maintenance, repair, and car loan payments I'm not making until I can afford something pre-owned (complete with "oh, was that a support beam?" dents) and zippy. With working A/C.

(The first person to say, "why don't you get Zipcar?" will be bludgeoned with a my c.Jan 2008 driver's license, strapped around a handy brick, and the eligiblity requirements until January 2009 or they get the hint, whichever comes first.)

( I also looked at headphones. )