For Marijean

Marijean, I have searched high and low for lard ever since I became aware of your search for the perfect pie crust. I frankly was a bit ashamed that lard is so hard to come by here in Central Virgina.

Happily, my Virginia credentials have returned because I found LARD (ok cut the snarkiness) while on vacation in this store in Burkeville, VA (cleverly the store is called Burkeville Market) the only market for 20 miles. I found lard in almost any variety. So Marijean- thank you for your wonderful posts/tweets and for all of your efforts I offer this photo of lard and the store where one can find it (road trip). :)

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Maddening/Funny post from ACCT

See what unravels when someone rides her bike to WalMart and cant find a place to lock it up. Read the post here.

Twitter/WF and Sonic Drive In

Because of Twitter and Jim Duncan I now follow Whole Foods tweets which led me to their blog and now I must go shopping. It is impressive how this store is using social networking to maximize their branding. I am really looking forward to earning more money so I can afford to go to WF when the store opens in the city (fingers crossed), for now I will stick with the items that are in fact cheaper at WF than at other stores (milk for one).

One of the latest things I want in Charlottesville is Sonic Drive IN. I discovered it in Waynesboro a few months ago, and found it again in Virginia Beach and Hampton. Honestly I know very little about their food, I enjoyed the breakfast sandwich I bought there in May. But in my mind, the place is all about drinks and desserts, whatever type of you can possibly think of.

Look at this fun map of where Sonic's core and developing markets are. If you are interested in a franchise check out that part of the website too. Perhaps if they were on twitter I could be the first to know when the next one is built near us.

I know - why would I want to promote drive in places when less vehicle will help our energy crisis NOW? It is a good question, but I dont want to have to drive over the mountain for my blackberry sprite fix (j/k I prefer the malteds and coffee drinks).

Ice Cream

Ice Cream is a delicious spring/summer/winter/fall treat. It is also one of my favorite songs by Sarah McLauchlan "you're love is better than ice cream..."

I have been paying close attention to prices lately, and I only really buy ice cream when its on sale (2 for $5; buy one get one free, you know the drill). So I was thinking of buying the first ice cream of the season last week :) and I am reviewing the Breyers options- and I notice some containers look smaller than others. And sure enough the cartons of the fancy Breyers are 1.5 quarts; while the mundane (but equally delicious in my mind) are 1.75 quarts.

All of us remember when ice cream was sold in half gallon containers right? It wasnt that long ago. No way was I going to be ripped off my .25 quart so I opted for two 1.75 quart cartons, and the flavors are still delicious and there may be .25 quart left for Chris in the one in the freezer. Luckily I did get two and one is still in the deep freezer (he wont know though because he doesnt read my blog often enough- and none of ya'll are going to tell-right?)

Did I mention I have been eating ice cream instead of dinner lately? I have been getting home late, having not eaten since lunch, so I figure instead of dinner then ice cream, I will just have ice cream. Its the ice cream dinner diet. No just kidding, I am making up for Lent when I didnt eat any dessert.

MP3 Uploads

I love the one-click at Amazon for mp3 downloads- anytime I am reminded of a song-I can buy it. I am kind of embarrassed by my purchases so I will not reveal them at this time. Let’s just say I am not a snob about music.

Nascar Clothes

Grandma took the boys to a store yesterday to buy short sleeve shirts to keep at her house, seeing as she babysits weekly for me she likes to have extra clothes for them and since I am a completely unreliable source for clothes she purchases them herself (thanks mom).

Apparently the boys were amazed and delighted at a hanger full of two piece NASCAR outfits(shorts/shirt sets). Imagine my surprise when I pick them up and they have new Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart sets! They are soo excited by the outfits, both are wearing them today (Jeff is red, Tony is orange). Jeff Gordon's outfit looks like Lightening McQueen a bit, Tony Stewart is sponsored by Home Depot, so it has a Bob the Builder, construction worker orange about it.

I have been watching racing lately. I like jr. and Edwards, even J. Johnson and Stewart. Gordon would not have been my first choice (a couple of years ago maybe, but then he dumped his wife, got himself a new family, I thought he had a bit more character than all that). The races have had great finishes so it has been easy for me to get into the competition and sport of it.

I will get a photo later, they look so cute and are so happy with their new clothes, I cant be complaining about their choice of racer, since they have no idea who Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon are (I am teaching them).

Rant milk prices

So I confess, I occassionally read The Rant section of Cville Weekly. I know people protest it is trash- whatever, it is base but has some truths to it.
First, a caller mentioned the prices of milk at Food Lion. The caller complained that FL is supposed to be for poor people but that the price of milk is over a dollar more than at other more toney grocery stores. I checked the prices at a lot of grocery stores in the area- and do you know that ranter was right? FL has milk at $4.59 a gallon- that is outrageous compared to Giant/Kroger which is $3.49-$3.89ish. However, I went to Kroger today and I was thinking about buying something... Quaker Oatmeal Bars (the apple cinnamon are delicious)- at FL it costs $2.89/box, sometimes 2/$5 which is when I like to buy them. At Kroger the same box cost $3.89.

I like what Patience has discovered in her shopping local experience, she has lessons for us all, but I think I would rather pay $1 more for milk if the rest of the prices are comparably lower than other stores (which in this limited survey means FL). I shop carefully nowadays but I dont feel like I have to so much at FL which is kind of a relief.

A Facebook Christmas

This guy buys his wife/girlfriend/mistress a Christmas gift on overstock.com and then Facebook reports it to all his friends as news. Not good facebook. Facebook has since stopped that aspect of its newsfeed.

I enjoy Facebook (are you my friend yet?). I do have the sense it is evil. Whenever I add a new application there is a list of things that you 'ok' to let the application go onto your Facebook page, I find the most scary one "gather information and data about you" I think we should all uncheck that one and see what happens.

Also- even if this guy got a good deal, I doubt that his wife/GF/mistress wants everyone to know where he got that gift (the commercials are ridiculous- "the O" pleeze).

I am glad Facebook has taken it down, but I suspect after Christmas Facebook will try to do it again- I have an idea, lets all get multiple email addresses, one for facebook, one for shopping, then they wont be able to find us-right? I know- you can run, but you cant hide...

Surreal Kmart

The boys need new toothbrushes (today) and we need a few other items. Head over to Kmart around 6:00- David says excitedly from his new CARS booster seat "Kmart is having a party!" I look over and sure enough balloons are hanging near the entrance way. David suspected it had something to do with Christmas.

Cautiously we approached the Kmart, it was dark and it is difficult to navigate with two children, that awful crosswalk and balloons awaiting us. The greeters (was there such a word prior to WalMart?) said "WELCOME to our grand re-opening celebration, have a bag of Hershey kisses" the boys were immediately won over.

I looked around and this is not the store I remembered from a month ago (the last time I ventured there), I had seen the 'primer' on the outside, but what changes could Kmart have possibly made that it didnt 4 years or so ago when they changed last? Turns out quite a bit of cosmetic changes have happened this time.

All the shelves are lower, more red is in the store (instead of gray- this is a nice change). The aisles are wider AND KMART sells appliances now (think Sears).

This weekend Kmart is having its grand reopening- the boys enjoyed more free food as we left (cheese, crackers, cookies, soda etc.) and Andrew loved listening to the harpist. Yes a lady played the harp. Surreal indeed...

Check it out and tell me if you think this is a fundamental change or cosmetic?