Settling In
Our bookshelves are assembled and filled with our books and DVDs. Our art is appearing on the walls! Nearly all of the kitchen things are set-up, in the kitchen. Things are coming together.
But not without hiccups! It was my birthday last week, and a gift from my parents, a digital pen!, went missing. FedEx claims they delivered it, but we did not see it at either door. Furthermore, we were home at the time so shouldn't they have rung the doorbell? I think they just screwed the pooch. In the meantime, after many phone calls, we've been told to buy one at Target (they were previously only available online through LiveScribe) and we'll be reimbursed when FedEx completes the investigation. Hrmph.
People always ask us about the weather, so it's fitting that I'm writing this in the middle of a thunderstorm. It was so loud, it woke me up from an early afternoon nap on the couch. The wind was whipping the trees back and forth, lightning piercing the sky, and the power was already out! I pulled on some jeans and ran outside to rescue my inaugural batch of sun tea. Thrilling! It is really cool, but it never fails to remind you that it could hit your tree, your house, your car by it's fierce proximity. It's also 101 degrees, so that should give you an accurate picture.
Didn't do much for the b-day, although Aaron bought me loads of flowers (which is good, since I have loads of vases), a couple DVD's including Hot Fuzz 3 disc extravaganza, and he found my favorite ice cream: lemon custard by Baskin Robbins (really hard to find). Ok, I'm going to digress with food.
Southern style food means a lot of fried, sweet things. There are racial connotations to fried chicken and watermelons, but I think it's more of a Southern thing than a race thing. Chicken is the dish. There are more chicken places than burger places BY FAR. Chick-fil-a has the lunch lines that In-n-Out has in California. For a big college town, there are practically NO pizza places. Berkeley was crawling with them! The big thing here: sandwiches. I have yet to find a bakery that makes fresh bread, but there's a deli or drive-thru sandwich place 'round every bend.
I have never seen a pack of strawberries for less than $7 that was worth eating. What does that mean? It means that sure, you can get strawberries for $2, but they are overripe and deserved to be tossed out. I suppose shipping them from California is pricey. Of course, blueberries and raspberries are really reasonable. The blueberries I've bought have been from N. Carolina or Florida. Plums, peaches, asparagus are less than CA prices, but little else (fresh) is. Except okra. We only have pickled okra in CA, but people buy it here fresh and fry it up! It's really really good.
Wal-Marts all have grocery stores, but the produce there is not worth buying. Yuck. We buy our cheap, boxed, generic items there and our produce at a Whole-Foods-style place. Maybe more like Andronico's than Whole Foods. It's a pleasant experience: I just bought my first mango-nectarines. Have yet to try them. Thanks to Jeannie and Nick, we've been having a lot of "parfaits" for breakfast. Greek yogurt, honey granola, and fresh fruit. I also bought my first golden kiwi for this express purpose.
I should supply pictures or sound to make this come alive.
But not without hiccups! It was my birthday last week, and a gift from my parents, a digital pen!, went missing. FedEx claims they delivered it, but we did not see it at either door. Furthermore, we were home at the time so shouldn't they have rung the doorbell? I think they just screwed the pooch. In the meantime, after many phone calls, we've been told to buy one at Target (they were previously only available online through LiveScribe) and we'll be reimbursed when FedEx completes the investigation. Hrmph.
People always ask us about the weather, so it's fitting that I'm writing this in the middle of a thunderstorm. It was so loud, it woke me up from an early afternoon nap on the couch. The wind was whipping the trees back and forth, lightning piercing the sky, and the power was already out! I pulled on some jeans and ran outside to rescue my inaugural batch of sun tea. Thrilling! It is really cool, but it never fails to remind you that it could hit your tree, your house, your car by it's fierce proximity. It's also 101 degrees, so that should give you an accurate picture.
Didn't do much for the b-day, although Aaron bought me loads of flowers (which is good, since I have loads of vases), a couple DVD's including Hot Fuzz 3 disc extravaganza, and he found my favorite ice cream: lemon custard by Baskin Robbins (really hard to find). Ok, I'm going to digress with food.
Southern style food means a lot of fried, sweet things. There are racial connotations to fried chicken and watermelons, but I think it's more of a Southern thing than a race thing. Chicken is the dish. There are more chicken places than burger places BY FAR. Chick-fil-a has the lunch lines that In-n-Out has in California. For a big college town, there are practically NO pizza places. Berkeley was crawling with them! The big thing here: sandwiches. I have yet to find a bakery that makes fresh bread, but there's a deli or drive-thru sandwich place 'round every bend.
I have never seen a pack of strawberries for less than $7 that was worth eating. What does that mean? It means that sure, you can get strawberries for $2, but they are overripe and deserved to be tossed out. I suppose shipping them from California is pricey. Of course, blueberries and raspberries are really reasonable. The blueberries I've bought have been from N. Carolina or Florida. Plums, peaches, asparagus are less than CA prices, but little else (fresh) is. Except okra. We only have pickled okra in CA, but people buy it here fresh and fry it up! It's really really good.
Wal-Marts all have grocery stores, but the produce there is not worth buying. Yuck. We buy our cheap, boxed, generic items there and our produce at a Whole-Foods-style place. Maybe more like Andronico's than Whole Foods. It's a pleasant experience: I just bought my first mango-nectarines. Have yet to try them. Thanks to Jeannie and Nick, we've been having a lot of "parfaits" for breakfast. Greek yogurt, honey granola, and fresh fruit. I also bought my first golden kiwi for this express purpose.
I should supply pictures or sound to make this come alive.