Fozzils are fun.

Fozzils are fun.  Fozzils are flat.  Fozzils are for food.  Fozzils are flat-out ingenious.

Fozzils are plastic dinnerware that snaps together, unsnaps, and folds completely flat.

It comes with a plate, a bowl, a cup, and a spoon. I acquired my set courtesy of Backwoods, when I asked the manager if she had any new things she'd like me to try out. I would live in the Backwoods store if they would let me.

It took The Whee about .07 seconds to figure out what was going on with the Fozzils and put them together. It took Philoboy about 12 minutes to realize that if he wanted to eat, there was 'some assembly required'.

Look Ma, it's  so easy I can do it with my eyes closed!

The spoon worked great for oatmeal, and ok for noodles. We found that liquids had a tendency to run back down through the handle and onto your hand. And it wasn't very comfortable in your mouth. We chucked the spoon.

The dishes, however, broached no complaints. Since it's a plastic polymer material, and isn't insulated, you can't hold a bowl full of boiling hot soup in your hand, but the bowls are sturdy enough you can hold the sides without fear of it collapsing or unsnapping.

I took them backpacking this last weekend, when the night temperatures hit 48 degrees. They fit flat in my food bag, and were a "snap" to use and clean (sorry, I've been poor pun deficient for a while now).

But I wanted to know what would happen when they got really cold. Would the plastic get brittle and break? Since there was no blizzard in sight, and I have an aversion to camping in the cold anyway, my solution was to put them in the freezer for 30 minutes. My whole life is just one big laboratory.

They worked just fine. The material was stiffer, but not brittle. I snapped and unsnapped them several times. That will be the final test that only time will tell- how long will the snaps hold up with frequent use? The only way to find out will be for me to go camping frequently. Oh darn.

The Fozzil set retails at Backwoods for $17.95.  I think it makes the cut for backpacking, for your picnic basket, and the Whee thinks it works great in her lunch box. I think I want my Fozzils back!

Did you hear it?

Did you hear it this morning?  The scream of absolute anger, anguish and fury when I accidentally erased the 80-some pictures I took this morning on my sunrise paddle? Followed immediately by some words that can't be printed in a family blog.

You'll just have to imagine the herons, the egrets, the cormorants, the fish, and most of all, the gorgeous sunrise I saw from my kayak.

I don't know which to throw out the window first- the computer or the camera. An hour's worth of paddling history gone forever. This calls for history histronics of historic porportions.

In lieu of the beautiful photos you would have seen this morning, I'm going to take deep, slow breaths and talk about the future instead of the past.

In my future is a bag of goodies that looks like this:

Backwoods of Norman has graciously provided some items for me to test and review next week. It's kind of like an early Christmas.

There's an inflatable pillow-I've never slept with a pillow when camping before. I love the fabric...

There's a porta-potty so small it fits in my hand.

There's some fun dinnerware that will keep the Whee busy for a while...

and more.  I can't wait!

Whew. OK, I feel a little better. Take some Valium. Eat some chocolate. Maybe try for some more photos tomorrow. 

Girls' Night Out

It started innocently enough: a dainty succulent for the first twenty folks in the door...

and ended with people dancing in the aisles. Really dancing. In the aisles.

This is what happens when you take a major outdoor gear retailer,

invite a lot of fun-loving outdoor women into your store,

serve them a gorgeous spread of delectable desserts and appetizers, soft drinks and wine,

give away lots of super-cool doorprizes...

You end up with a party called Ladies Night at Backwoods!

I attended this event Tuesday night, and boy, was it fun! No boys allowed!  (Although I saw one poor guy wandering through with a confused look on his face. I think he must have stumbled in by accident, because I didn't see any female directing him.)

Manager Pam Cherek and her crew put on this great evening once a year, prior to Mother's Day. This is Jim. Jim celebrated his 60th birthday by hiking the Grand Canyon.

Jim is always working when I go in the store (which either means Jim works too much, or I go into Backwoods too often, or both). Jim has a fantastic talent for convincing me there's "just one more thing" I need from this store.  Philoboy would prefer Jim not talk to me; the mass in my gear closet grows in inverse proportion to the mass in Philo's wallet.


The event also included free chair massages. The longest line in the store was in front of these smiling folks.  Ahhh, heaven with hands.

The second longest line in the store was through the dessert table, which included chocolate, and delicious mango salsa, and chocolate, and cheeses and nuts, and chocolate. I might have made more than one trip through this line.

An instructor from Sonders Music dropped in to give us a Zumba and hip-hop demo, and soon had people dancing along with her. I am decidedly unchoreographable. Trust me, if that isn't a word, it IS a concept you can grasp.

And plenty of good deals, steals and shopping of all sorts. I love these boots. I think I will trade one of my children for these. I just haven't decided which child goes yet.

Of course, I didn't leave there empty-handed (sorry, Philo honey. You don't mind working a few extra hours this week, do you?  Philo says, "Thanks a lot, Jim!").  I'll be sharing pictures of my bounty (and it being used) in the coming days. 

In the meantime, drop in the Norman Backwoods store and say hi to Pam, Jim, Blossom and the rest of the crew. Surely there's just one more thing you need for your outdoor adventures, even if you don't know it yet.