So those are cicadas!

I'm an idiot. I was driving to work today and I saw this little creature buzzing about and thought, "wow, that's a hummingbird... amazing!" I smiled to myself and felt a little bit of magic. About 20 minutes later I saw another one and thought... WOW. ANOTHER HUMMINGBIRD! Then promptly forgot about it for the rest of the day.

Until I was driving home on the Edens, and I noticed another little buzzing thing, the same as whatever I had seen that morning, then another. I started to get really curious and finally when I was stopped (not too hard to do in stop and go traffic), I saw one flying repeatedly (oddly) into the median and thought, "oh! oh! that's not a hummingbird, it must be a cicada!" I hadn't seen one yet despite constantly hearing about them in the Illinois media (for those of you who don't know, the 17-year cicadas have emerged from the ground this summer), so I was pretty excited. I'm not even into bugs and I was excited.

But it was so strange, on this stretch of the highway, I saw a new one flying around the cars and then toward the median every 30 seconds or so. Then I noticed something. I looked at the ground around the median (next time I stopped I looked more closely) and noticed that there were hundreds of dead cicadas along this stretch. (at this point I figured out they really must be cicadas b/c of their red legs that I could see from my car. Plus they are really big bugs!) The bugs flying into the median were also looking like they were about to drop any minute.

So, I thought about it.... after living underground for 17-years, hundreds or thousands of cicadas crawled out, flew across the expressway traffic, crashed into the median, and died. How odd and depressing is that? I'm not sure what it means for mankind, but it's gotta be a letdown for the poor cicadas.

Salad a la Buffalo

When we have a really nice, hot summer day like today, I sometimes don't know what I want to eat. I got home sort of early today (for me, 5:30 is early!) and decided I needed some exercise, so I walked to the store to get something for dinner. Once I got there I realized I had no idea what I wanted to eat but I was very.very.hungry.

Then, inspiration struck! My "famous" (at least to me, I don't think I've made it for anyone else but my husband) buffalo chicken salad. So good! And so easy! And you feel like it is somewhat healthy, even though it is so not!

So here's what I got at the store:
3 ears of sweet corn (this ended up being too much corn, but oh well)
Bag of Tyson's frozen buffalo chicken boneless "wings" (really little chunks of breaded chicken breast, i also had some leftover Target brand at home that was actually even better)
Hearts of romaine bagged salad
2 small tomatoes
Light blue cheese dressing

So once I got home, I boiled some water while pre-heating the oven and cooking the chicken according to package directions (for the stuff I got it was 400 degrees for 20 min).

Once the water came to a boil, I throw in the husked corn for 3-5 minutes, then drained and cooled. Took a sharp knife and cut off the kernels into a bowl. Then chopped the tomatoes.

I arranged the romaine on a plate, and sprinkled the corn and tomatoes on the top to taste. Once the chicken is done, I placed it liberally on top of the salad and drizzle with blue cheese dressing. (you can use more or less of the chicken & dressing depending on your appetite, I generally have more chicken than I should, but usually just a nice light drizzle of dressing)

I really freakin' love this salad - to me it tastes like summer. You really need to use fresh sweet corn if at all possible to counteract the spice and processed-ness of the frozen chicken. If you want, you can also add shredded carrots or chopped celery. That's all.

4-Hour Workweek?

I just finished a book called, The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss. My dad actually sent it as a gift to my husband and me - I had to laugh when I opened up the Amazon package. His message said it made him think of us... hmmm, what are you trying to tell us there, Dad? ;)

But, to be honest, it could quite possibly be the most interesting book I've ever read. Ferriss' philosophy is that by taking simple steps to increase your productivity, simplifying your life, and outsourcing as much as possible, you can maximize your non-work life experiences while still making quite a tidy income.

I agree with a lot of his philosophy of taking control of your own destiny, and not becoming a slave to a corporate job which requires you to postpone living the life you really want to live until you are too old to enjoy it. Instead, Ferris proposes planning "mini-retirements" of six months or so throughout your working life so that you can do the type of things you have always dreamed, all while maintaining your business and/or job remotely with minimum time yet maximum productivity. He even gives tips for employees to propose a flexible work schedule that allows them to travel to China for a vacay without the boss even knowing. Well, not quite sure I buy that bit (or at least my company wouldn't), but the part about working for yourself, if you can establish the right kind of business (recommended: products, not services, generally online, and only focus on the types of customers - if this is possible - who spend the most money with the least amount of hassle - in other words, the 20% that generate 80% of your business and require the least work possible), was very intriguing. He has a lot of quizzes, activities, etc. that I want to go through now that I've read it, and see if any great ideas start to flow for me.

I'll keep you posted, but in the meantime, this book is worth checking out. Who knows? If you do, maybe we'll bump into each other on a 6-month "mini-retirement" through Southeast Asia!