So, food.

This is the most delicious desk-breakfast! It travels well in a small container, it's got protein and carbs and vitamins and antioxidants, and it's pretty.

First you strain your own yogurt. I learned this trick from executrix and now I use it all the time.

Buy plain, inexpensive yogurt in the fat-content of your choice (I make my own 2% by combining a quart of whole-milk yogurt and a quart of nonfat). Put a strainer or colander on a bowl, put a big coffee filter into the strainer, dump the yogurt into the coffee filter, and put the whole thing into the fridge overnight.

The result will be, in the bowl, a significant quantity of whey (which has a variety of uses); and in the coffee filter an almost cream-cheese consistency strained yogurt that is wunderbar. Decant this back into the yogurt container and refrigerate.

Now get some Trader Joe's dried wild blueberries. (Fresh and frozen blueberries have their place, don't get me wrong, but dried? Whole different order of wonderful.)

The night before, put a layer of blueberries in the bottom of your lunch-carrying container. Put strained yogurt on top. The next morning when you get to work, open, stir and eat.

The thick, snow-white yogurt turns kind of pinky-purple, the dried berries will have softened a bit and will form little sweet bites that burst with blueberry-ness in the tart/sour creamy yogurt, and the combination of flavors and textures is out of this world.

Graydie

Well, that was unexpected! I just had a knock on my door, and the guy who knocked said he used to be Sam the Stray Cat's person.

He told me which house they used to live in, and said that after two litters, Sam (who is evidently not a boy cat after all!) went kind of feral, and changed from a lap cat to a wild, untouchable thing almost overnight. She's been spayed (I figured--no pregnancy, which is kind of why I thought she was a he). She's about five years old, apparently, and has identical-looking offspring living around town.

Dean, the twin brother cat, was the neighborhood cat-bully, and not related as far as this fellow knew.

Sam--or Graydie, as he called her--ran away when they moved, about a year ago. They came looking for her for months afterwards, and left food near the rental house they'd moved out of, but couldn't spot her or get near her if they did. He's been asking around the neighborhood, and someone finally said, oh yeah, that big gray cat is staying with that big gray lady on the corner.

He was almost in tears to see her looking so well and actually wandering in and out of my front door as we stood talking. I was feeling strangely protective, and was sure he wanted to take her away, but no, his purpose in coming was to offer to help pay for her care and feeding, because he now lives where he can't have a cat.

Graydie seemed to remember the guy--at least, she let him pet her head, which she doesn't let anyone do.

So, it's not Sam-Sam-the-Kitty-Man anymore. It's Graydie.

Strange. Kind of nice.