Brain squeezin's from the trip and other stuff
Gasoline has gone effing insane here. I saw prices for regular at $4.29 to $4.69 on my way home Sunday night. I filled up this morning for $3.79, but the station had only regular to offer, they were out of mid-grade and premium, WTF? 10 miles down the highway it was $3.99. A station down the road from the office was at $5.39, that's five dollars and thirty-nine cents US Dollars for a GALLON of regular. My mom talked to someone she knows in Kure Beach and they said that prices hadn't changed at all. As of this evening there were still some stations with no gas to sell. They were trying to blame this on Ike, but nobody is buying it. I hope somebody has to finally answer for this crap and gets to be held accountable (hopefully several somebodies, including the media that has pumped this up all out of proportion).
I went to buy groceries tonight as the cupboard was bare. I pretty much cleaned all the perishables out before the trip because coming back home to fuzzy refrigerator stuff is bad. I wish I was one of those people that could just not know what was really out there in the world. Ignorance truly is bliss. The grocery store near my house that was previously almost tolerably adequate is now no longer satisfactory. After my new food adventures, I just cannot eat normal stuff (as in prepared, pre-made, or just plain blah) now. I went to Arby's for lunch with one of the engineers, and even though Arby's is one of the better choices if you have to eat fast food (and this engineer has zero sense of adventure in food, so it was going to be fast food or nothing) it's still fast food. I honestly stared at the menu and found nothing I wanted. It all just seemed bad somehow. Looks like I'm going to have to start traveling farther afield in search of suitable foods. Back to the Asian market this weekend, I guess.
Reality bites. I'm ready for another vacation. C'mon January 1, give me another two weeks to burn!
FYI - I sort of was able to use chopsticks this week. Nobody was harmed and the food was eaten successfully. I'm quite proud.
Foods eaten list:
Thai Ice Tea, Thai Jungle Curry, hot tea in both Chinese and Japanese establishments (made with actual tea leaves, and was most excellent), many items in the dim sum place including chicken feet (yes you read that right), shrimp roe spaghetti, a Locomoco (hamburger steak patty with mushroom sauce on rice with a fried egg on top), sushi sampler thing with seaweed salad (I remember shrimp, salmon, I think that one on the end was eel maybe?, and one with some sort of marine life eggs on it), fried sesame balls (quite tasty), clam chowder and two completely messed up chili dogs.
The chili dogs get their own thing - I ordered two chili dogs at the pier for lunch. What I got was two cardboard plate things containing a hot dog bun laid flat-open, a hot dog on the bun and all of that smothered in chili with beans. And a knife and fork to eat them with. I hate that I gave the nice lady a WTF look for a second, but WTF? I totally didn't see that coming. To me a chili dog is simply a normal hot dog with hot dog chili on it. No chunks of meat, no beans, almost a smooth sauce. Chili with beans is something you eat out of a bowl, possibly with crackers or cornbread, at least in all my experiences. I tried to explain this to Viv and Aaron, but they just looked at me like I was nuts.
I received an invitation to my cousin Stephanie's wedding the other day. Stephanie is pretty cool and grew up intelligent and well rounded. She's also way too young to be married, because if she's that old, then I'm getting way too old. The invitation was for me "and guest". Ha! There hasn't been "and guest" in a long time. Bite me "and guest".
Work sucks. I need to win the lottery and buy a jet to live on and just fly from place to place. That's my new dream. Bite me "reality".
I went to buy groceries tonight as the cupboard was bare. I pretty much cleaned all the perishables out before the trip because coming back home to fuzzy refrigerator stuff is bad. I wish I was one of those people that could just not know what was really out there in the world. Ignorance truly is bliss. The grocery store near my house that was previously almost tolerably adequate is now no longer satisfactory. After my new food adventures, I just cannot eat normal stuff (as in prepared, pre-made, or just plain blah) now. I went to Arby's for lunch with one of the engineers, and even though Arby's is one of the better choices if you have to eat fast food (and this engineer has zero sense of adventure in food, so it was going to be fast food or nothing) it's still fast food. I honestly stared at the menu and found nothing I wanted. It all just seemed bad somehow. Looks like I'm going to have to start traveling farther afield in search of suitable foods. Back to the Asian market this weekend, I guess.
Reality bites. I'm ready for another vacation. C'mon January 1, give me another two weeks to burn!
FYI - I sort of was able to use chopsticks this week. Nobody was harmed and the food was eaten successfully. I'm quite proud.
Foods eaten list:
Thai Ice Tea, Thai Jungle Curry, hot tea in both Chinese and Japanese establishments (made with actual tea leaves, and was most excellent), many items in the dim sum place including chicken feet (yes you read that right), shrimp roe spaghetti, a Locomoco (hamburger steak patty with mushroom sauce on rice with a fried egg on top), sushi sampler thing with seaweed salad (I remember shrimp, salmon, I think that one on the end was eel maybe?, and one with some sort of marine life eggs on it), fried sesame balls (quite tasty), clam chowder and two completely messed up chili dogs.
The chili dogs get their own thing - I ordered two chili dogs at the pier for lunch. What I got was two cardboard plate things containing a hot dog bun laid flat-open, a hot dog on the bun and all of that smothered in chili with beans. And a knife and fork to eat them with. I hate that I gave the nice lady a WTF look for a second, but WTF? I totally didn't see that coming. To me a chili dog is simply a normal hot dog with hot dog chili on it. No chunks of meat, no beans, almost a smooth sauce. Chili with beans is something you eat out of a bowl, possibly with crackers or cornbread, at least in all my experiences. I tried to explain this to Viv and Aaron, but they just looked at me like I was nuts.
I received an invitation to my cousin Stephanie's wedding the other day. Stephanie is pretty cool and grew up intelligent and well rounded. She's also way too young to be married, because if she's that old, then I'm getting way too old. The invitation was for me "and guest". Ha! There hasn't been "and guest" in a long time. Bite me "and guest".
Work sucks. I need to win the lottery and buy a jet to live on and just fly from place to place. That's my new dream. Bite me "reality".