shopping day

I've been pondering inponderables, like the fact my rabbits currently have moved to a diet that includes two types of romaine, green leaf lettuce, red leaf lettuce, green butter lettuce, curley leaf parsley, Italian parsley, spinach, and some sort of greens, as well as celery and carrots. Basically, the rabbits eat better than I do. Damn you Central Market, for your amazing selections and the addiction of weighing and labeling everything yourself!

AKA--shopping addiction. I have to admit, I could be spending my money on far less worhty objects. Their current hay selection is a four-type mix they seem to like and smells amazing, kind of like very fresh tea.

Which is partly the reason I walked out with Jamacian Blue Mountain and Kona coffee with no real idea how I got hold of them. Not much, as I am still a public servant, but--it's like, I really need to try it. I keep being told how wonderful and glorious it is, and by God, I need to know. Also my personal favorite, La Vida Dulce, and a truly fabulous Chocolate Mint. I'll update on how they work. I was staring at all the specialty coffees in the section behind the counter, wondering if I should go one by one and try them all. I really *like* coffee; I just don't know it very well. It's kind of a thing of like/don't like--I don't like the bitter acid aftertastes, hence my ongoing war with Starbucks, and I dont' mind bitterness, but I like mellow edges more. Espresso and cappuccino are social drinks--it's like alcohol for me. I drink it in groups. Home coffee is warmth and comfort and blankets and usuallly Folgers. I want my coffee to be that.

In the tea section, I did enjoy the look on my mom's face as she narrated the sixteen dollar per ounce oolong--collected by trained monkeys, the caption read, and you know, I'm just--seriously. Trained monkeys? They send out trained monkeys to collect tea? It reminds me vaguely of this beautiful but disturbing down comforter made only of down collected by hand from teh sides of mountains from these particular birds' nests in like, Iceland, and only in quantities that would not cause damage to the nest. It is nice to know that in this crazy, mixed up world, by God, anyone can find an obscure and strange job--how do you even put that on a resumee?--if you just think outside the box.

Bought a Halloween pumpkin, so that's nice, and also Christmas decorations, since I want to do two Christmas trees this year and started collecting from that pit of darkness, Wal-Mart, to do the front tree all in red. Yes, going to hell, darkness, strife, but matching reds. Everyone looks at me like I'm nuts, but honestly, Christmas. I don't think anything other than the turkey at Thanksgiving makes me quite so happy as Christmas. Plus, the ultra cool Christmas Store opens soon, in which I get my specialty decorations, which I have to buy in small quantities or risk bankruptcy, but one day, I will have a tree that will rival that of the many heads of state. I'm also thinking this year will have a new Christmas rug, a Christmas mat, and as many Christmas potholders and knick-knacks as I can get away with. I also really, really want an obscenely large, garish, and terrifyingly bright Christmas lawn decoration. Something that will preferably cause the neighborhood to boycott us. I have goals. I really do. Something--with a very large santa.

Happy place.

In other news, I'm staring at my WiP folder in horror. Okay, you know what? If you all stoned me at this point, it would be deserved. Jesus. I will have the next part of Entanglement Theory up tonight or tomorrow--I think. Assumign the electricity holds, today. It is raining.

Honestly, even congested and miserable and hating my genetics for making me this vulnerable to something as pedestrian as pollen? I have seriously not had a better day.

Comments

[auntiemeesh.livejournal.com]

All that talk of coffee sent me off to a happy place. I like Kona, but found Jamaican Blue Mountain a little strong and bitter for my taste. I hope you enjoy it though.

[amireal.livejournal.com]

There's a couple way to get Jamaica Blue Moutain (as well as to drink it) My parents get one of the mixes. So it's 1. not as ungodly expensive and 2. so it's not as strong and bitter as you say.

Personally my family and friends have been mixing coffee and tea forever coming up with interesting blends. The tea 'industry' has really started doing it themselves too. I found a lovely green and earl grey mixture a few months ago.

[nimnod.livejournal.com]

Yay for Entanglement Theory =)

And yay for Halloween actually - we're having a big, childishly dressed up party (along which lines if anyone knows wtf on Teh Intaweb one can order a Wraith costume I'd be eternally grateful!)

[ratcreature]

Wow, I don't think I could afford feeding rabbits. Specialty hay mixes? Half a dozen kinds of gourmet salads? I mean, I have never even heard of some of these kind of lettuce (green butter lettuce? Italian parsley?). I'm so glad that rats are content with getting scraps of everyday fruits and vegetables I eat anyway for their fresh food.

[green-grrl.livejournal.com]

Trained tea-picking monkeys and Icelandic birds-nest down collectors -- it's like an exotic and wonderful planet in a mission fic which would enchant me to read, but would never seem within the realm of possibility. Thanks for that magical trip to the grocery store. :-)

Mmm, Entanglement Theory...

[akacat]

It won't win for 'bright', but my local grocery store (Kroger) is selling a delightfully garish (but somehow cute) lawn decoration: a 6' tall snow globe. With Santa inside, and 'snow' actually whirling about him. It's one of them new-fangled 'constantly inflating' decorations.

[lorraine-gayley.livejournal.com]

I'm totally with you on the Christmas thing--my mother has an entire room called the 'Holiday Room' in the basement, and she has decorations for the different holidays/seasons (mainly from working at a store called Holiday Fantasies several years ago). Christmas, however, takes the cake in my family, and when I and my siblings lived at home, we would take an entire day to drag out the boxes, decorate the entire house, and make everything shiny and holiday-ready. We would take turns every year and let a different person decide what color the tree lights would be (still do). You'd love my brother's neighborhood--he and his wife have neighbors who each year put up a 6' inflatable snowman and Santa Claus. Last year a wind storm knocked Santa off of his feet, so that they (his feet) were pointing straight into the air, leading to a very unfortunate position--and they never fixed it! Santa was mooning everyone for three weeks! Can't wait for Entanglement Theory!

[lillian13.livejournal.com]

For the yard:
http://www.yardinflatables.com/

Boy, CM is a dangerous place, isn't it? I was in the neighborhood for an appointment at lunch on Friday, and before I knew it I'd dropped $14. (Chicken-apricot-almond salad on a croissant, dolmas from the salad bar, cookies...) Made me feel all virtuous at the HEB this morning, I tell ya!

[calligrafiti.livejournal.com]

Have you tried Sumatran coffee? That's my current favorite. It's dark and rich, without too much of a bitter edge, but still strong. Celebes Kolasse is similar, and sometimes a buck or two a pound cheaper.

[jade-dragoness.livejournal.com]

Seconding sumatran coffee. *works as a barista* My fave at the moment is this blend with sumatran beans that make smile entirely too much as I drink it. And when you get free coffee? I'm hyper within the hour. I don't even want to describe what I'm like at the end of my shift but I'm sure I scare people.

Re: Chrismas decorations
I don't know if you have a chimney but I've always been amused by this house that put an upside down Santa so only it's legs stuck out, in their chimney. Only I'm sure Walmart, or a similar pit of evil, will have those hilariously tacky inflatable snowmen and Santa Clauses. Cheap, and easy to store for next year.

[boniblithe.livejournal.com]

Jamaica Blue Mountain is my husband's favorite coffee; he gets a bag for his birthday every year and hoards it.

[spring-1970.livejournal.com]

For the Christmas type thing, PartyCity has this inflatable haunted house which also blows little white pieces of paper around. Now this is for Halloween right now but PartyCity is well known for its over-the-top-ness and I am sure they will have the same thing come Christmas, but with a Santa in it. It'll be big and round and red and have a light in it (did I mention there was a strobe light inside the Halloween one? There is!). You might even get very lucky and there is a Rudolph with a light up red nose. :)

Good luck.

[fyrdrakken]

Ah, I remember when they started selling those rainbow chaser Xmas lights. It was back when Mom was still having fun decorating the house for the season, before she got sick of it, and we would use the lights to outline A) the gutters and rooflines of the house, B) the front windows, C)the "flowerbeds" (actually filled with pebbles) in front of the house, D) the teardrop of grass at the center of our looping driveway, and E) one of those "trees" made from strings of lights running up to a black pole we erected in the point of the teardrop. Dad complained that it was bright enough to use as a landing strip, but it was great fun.