Where has all the skim milk gone?

Why has it become so difficult to find fat-free milk, and when I do find it, why is it almost always very close to its expiration date?

Costco has stopped selling it around me (but keep white-liquid-fake-drinks that are shelf stable in the dairly cooler, wtf is with that?). TJs is often out of ff, Safeway as well.

I bought the last qt at TJ's on Sun Aug 11. Didn't realize until I got a mouthful of bad milk in my tea on the morning of the 12th that it... expired the day I bought it. That should have been pulled.

Found a half gallon -second to last one- of Safeway's store brand last night, they were all out of Dairygold ff, which is not unusual. The milk I bought? With the furthest out expiration date? 19 Aug. The Dairygold usually lasts a bit longer.

It's really getting old. I know a lot of people swear by whole milk and the like, but I find them disgusting, the "mouth feel" of dairy fat squicks me out. I do eat butter, but not "premium" ice cream, and will not touch the higher "crème" Bries, LOL. I prefer my yogurt or skyr ff as well, though 1% is ok, and yes, I can tell the difference. It's truly a texture thing.

Proud of my kiddos.

It started with a text from Perry this morning:

I don't suppose we can adopt a flightless seagull?

Further questioning revealed that it had a "fucked up wing". I pointed him to Paws, who does wildlife rehab and where, a quick check showed me, they had space for adult gulls.

The gull was in the canal, and since it could not fly and the walls are steep, it was pretty much stuck, paddling near the edge.

After coaching, Perry and Linnea went to see if they could trap it. They could not, so they went back to the boathouse to borrow a launch. Perry was able to get hold of it gently, though he did have to get into the water, while Linnea piloted the launch.

Box, towels.

They updated the wrong thread, sending the deets to our large family chat (my siblings and families etc).

This is what followed, and if I may say so myself... Linnea always cracks me up.










Perry will get an update on Earl when they have one. He doesn't seem too optimistic, but fingers crossed. I'm glad he noticed the poor bird, now it has a chance and if not, its end won't be as bad. I'm glad he did something about it, and that without prompting, made a $100 donation to the rescue (we'll probably go halfsies with him and I think Linnea wanted to contribute as well).

But still "His name is Earl" just cracked me up.