shoppers' delight

We wandered beyond the Beltway on Saturday. The original plan called for a quick trip to a salon to pick-up some potions and elixirs and turned into some all day march that ended up including Target, Nordstrom Rack, and Wegmans . Wegmans was the most interesting layover of the day. I’d never been but the Easterners who call Wegmans ‘home’ swear it’s the greatest grocery store in the World. My initial response is this: it’s not. It is a very good store but a lot of the hubbub centers on the massive (a third of the store) food hall that has some great looking grab-and-go meals. They have an interesting gardening section that enthralled X. The grocery portion was pretty good with solid prices. But, as far a pure product is concerned, it can’t compare with Central Market (in Texas), Byerly’s (in The Cities), Waitrose (in England). I’d even say that the original Wild Oats (prior to the Whole Foods merger) was better on the ingredient hierarchy for me. Not that we didn’t enjoy the visit but I wouldn’t drive that far just to hit Wegmans.

Everyone came to the The Hilltop last night for an extended (food) pizza night. Corey brought borscht and dessert (crème brulee) and X made a great endive salad so we all ended up eating way too much. Not that anyone was really complaining. He also brought over the finished, handmade, table that runs behind our couch. Very, very nice. I pointed out that any attempt by me to make a table would not turn out even looking like a table – I have no skills.

L. made it back from Omaha yesterday and one boy has been sent off to England for the week. We had about two days sans children. Dare to dream.

More weather hitting over the next few days.

ol'd

Here’s how very little I get out, particularly to ‘eating’ places. I was early for class last night and hadn’t eaten much of a lunch so I decided to forage for some food before settling in for three-and-a-half hours of math. I spied a Chop’t across the street and knowing what little I do about lunch places decided that my limited knowledge (they do salads) would suffice. Not so. I had no idea which end of the bar to order from (I was the only customer at that point so there was no herd guidance), once I ordered my Caesar with shrimp I was asked – or the product was addressed whilst chopp’ting happened – if ‘this’ was okay, I was queried on dressing type (Caesar?), once again shown a bowl of chop’t with ‘dressed’ lettuce and asked again if ‘this’ was okay, and eventually paid. I didn’t mess up on the paying part – at the correct end of the bar. I was vaguely imagining a massive lunch crowd of macchiato-drinkers-transformed-to-salad-eaters who ramble on and on with things like “Give me a double-mesclun and romaine combo base with unsalted, dried, lite Caes, and a half-tom crown.” What? I would have been the crazy old man in the mix just trying to figure out whether or not it’s appropriate to mix my mesclun with eruca sative while still having enough charm to curse the damn kids. Salad. Who knew?

Does anyone else have an issue with ‘hallmark’ cards at work? I find it unnerving when someone hands me a manila folder with a card inside and whispers, “Can you sign this and then bring it back to my desk?” Sign what? For whom? I have to look at the card, read some mini-paragraphs, figure out who it’s for, what it’s for, and then come up with something? That’s a lot of pressure for someone I don’t have much connection to. Maybe I’m cranky; maybe I’m right.

I’m getting revved up again.

the return

Alrighty then.

The few weeks after the Holidays is always a sort of mash-up of not caring much about day-to-day events since the ‘big push’ is over and, trying to simply settle in for the long(er), dark(er) reach of winter. All’s well on The Hilltop, it’s just slow……

X is in the midst of her Barbri review course (M-F nights, 6-10pm) for her Virginia Bar Exam next month and I’m back in school (Tu-Th nights, 6-9:30pm) so time seems to be flying by with only the occasional holler from some teenager claiming to be both hungry and apparently unable to make toast. You know how they are.

My New Year’s resolutions are myriad but the basic tenor is not to be online in the evenings: Consider it a combo of doing more interesting stuff. X has been chuckling at my newly found reading time. By the way, I just finished Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes and it was spectacular. It’s a Vietnam War novel that probably isn’t up just about anyone’s alley that would be reading this blog, but if you can handle it then dig in.

The kids are no doubt sitting around the house today – snow/ice day school cancellation – making food and mopping the floors.

I’ll gather my thoughts and update everyone some more tomorrow.