Grocery Shopping Hell

Chautauqua Morning: One Year Ago

It's 7:43, and I've been up for an hour. I looked for Kaia, but apparently, we had a bad storm last night, so Beth, who just got up, let him into her bathroom. Today — Saturday, I think — will be much like yesterday: a chance of rain, highs in the 80s, and humid. And since I forgot to take many photos yesterday, I decided to put on a couple from a year ago. 

One Year Ago: Daughters And Granddaughters In Italy

Yesterday followed the same pattern as the days before it. I was up early, then Beth, then Tyler, Marisa, and finally Evie. I got the blog written before Beth woke, and we talked for a good while until everyone stirred and started wondering about breakfast. I had a scone, but Beth offered to make fried eggs, so I had a couple of those as well while we planned out the day. The chimney guy arrived around 11:30, worked until 2:30, and will be back in a couple of weeks with the chimney cap to finish the job.

Meanwhile, Beth and Evie put together a grocery list — one for Tom Thumb, which is cheaper, and one for Central Market, which is not. While they worked on that, I took the dogs for a walk down to the lake. It was already hot and humid, and all three of us were happy to get back.

View Of Dallas From White Rock Lake

Evie volunteered that we'd handle the shopping, so off we went, following the GPS along busy, mostly three-lane roads through strip malls and neighborhoods. Driving in Dallas is no fun, especially when I thought Tom Thumb was on one side of the road and it turned out to be on the other. I had to turn around in a residential neighborhood and double back — the beginning of a minor ordeal, since we're unfamiliar with Tom Thumb and had no idea which aisle might carry gluten-free bread crumbs, etc, or whether they carried them at all. We searched the entire store for various items, which ate up a good half hour.

We then drove across the street to Central Market, which was packed — it was Saturday, after all — and parked as far from the entrance as possible because of the crowd. We know Central Market a bit better, but we still wound our way through crowded aisles hunting for things. We checked out quickly, and the bill at Central Market is always a pleasant surprise. I pulled the car around to the end of the parking lot, where Evie was waiting with a dozen Krispy Kremes, and that was that for the shopping spree. We found an easier, quicker way home and wondered why the GPS hadn't sent us that way in the first place.

We got back around 1:00 and were never so happy to be home.  Beth and Tyler were on the phone, so Evie and I put things away and thought about lunch — but neither of us was hungry. I was worn out from walking the aisles and decided to skip lunch and nap instead. I was up around 2:00, just as the chimney guy was leaving and explaining to Beth what he'd accomplished. Lunch for me was chicken soup with rice; Evie had another Krispy Kreme. We didn't do much the rest of the afternoon — hung out, helped where we could, and Evie started prepping dinner: salmon, rice, asparagus, and a salad. Happy hour ran from 5:00 to 6:15, with talk of what we'd gotten done and what was still on the list. Beth is selling a lot of items, so they've been advertising and scheduling times for people to come take a look.

Dinner was great — teriyaki salmon, rice, and salad, with Krispy Kremes or gluten-free brownies for dessert, the brownies courtesy of Beth earlier in the afternoon. We watched a couple of episodes of 1923, then Malcolm in the Middle after Evie went to bed. As with the previous evenings, I had the NBA game going on my computer alongside the TV. The four of us called it a night around 10:15, having had our fill of television.