Not an Emu

Yesterday I said I was an emu because I weighed much more than I thought I did. That wasn't kind to the emus. Upon further research, I have found that emus don't even weigh 100 lbs so clearly I am not an emu. I want to clear this up so I don't start getting a lot of emu hate mail. Emu just came to me while I was writing and trying to think of a really big bird.

When I was 12 and my sisters were 6 (and my brother was 11 but he doesn't really have a role in this story), my family went to Vancouver, B.C. for a long weekend in the summer time. I started the trip by sailor diving into the Hyatt hotel pool (diving with arms at my side) and smashed my face into the bottom of the pool, which I think is why my neck is so screwed up to this day.

I digress. During the trip, we went to the Stanley Park zoo. My family has a series of photos taken by my mother (clearly a concerned parent) showing an emu grabbing my sister, Molly, by the palm tree (pony tail) on the top of her head and trying to pull her into the emu cage. True story. My mother did not stop taking pictures and grab my sister from the emu. I am in the background with scabs all over my face from scraping it off on the bottom of the pool and I am clearly aghast. Molly looks a little alarmed, surprised, as well.

So naturally when trying to think of a big bird, I went with emu because I have a history with them.

Also, last night I was doing a crossword puzzle and the clue was "Birds that have green eggs". I initially went with "owls" b/c that is a 4 letter word but it didn't work and then I thought of my blog post and changed the answer to "emus" and I was right! See how the resolutions are all coming together?

Crosswords/weight loss/emus.

I looked up emus and they do have green eggs. Not the pale emu's egg green (a la robin's egg blue) I envisioned but a deep dark forest green. So now I will not want to paint a room emu's egg green.

I don't have any inspiring or motivating diet/nutrition/fitness tips today ("did she ever have any?") so I thought this could be an educational interlude and we can all learn a little something about emus. 

• First emu fact: Maggie is both taller and fatter than emus.
• Second emu fact: Emus lay very large dark green eggs.
• Third emu fact: Emus like pony tails.

And there is today's lesson.

As I researched large, flightless birds I found that I should have categorized myself as an ostrich. At least ostriches weigh more than I do. Well, adult ostriches do. And ostriches don't have colored eggs. AND a human (even me) could stand on an ostrich egg and not break it.