Getting To Know The Grocery Stores

In excruciating detail.

Time to plan out the menu, restock the larder. There's Albertsons, the local big chain. Whole Foods, our old friend from when they were Fresh Fields and then Bread and Circuses (a personal favorite). And Wild Oats. There's also a co-op, but that seemed a bit ambitious for this trip.

Monica, somewhat foolishly, elected to come along on my scouting/shopping mission. It took about four hours.

Wandered through each. I know I'll catch grief for this, but created a matrix comparing prices at each of the places. (Last year, we discovered that certain things are actually cheaper at the yuppie-organic stores). Learned the layouts, compared. It was excessive, even by what I had planned. But now we've got a functioning kitchen, and know who's our buddies when it comes to particular items.

Then, more unpacking, of course. When I said things yesterday like "set up," I meant that the furniture was pretty much in place. The boxes are still all over the place.

And the first offical shopping trip to True Believers (where we left a pile of Raised By Squirrels to try and sell or otherwise dispose of).

Followed by sitting around outside and reading (after a wonderful, welcome call from Mel), after the sun set behind the building. First day of hot weather.