the list.

the grocery list, as it reads now: vanilla toilet paper pretty much everything. aahh, but no longer, friends! it's such a relief to get out of squeaking-by-on-the-budget mode, then no-fresh-stuff-because-we're-going-out-of-town mode, then no-anything-because-we've-been-squeaking-and-we-just-got-back-into-town mode. today was the semi-annual bloomingfoods truck sale, which is a tent sale in the parking lot with good prices and case discounts if you need that much food. we don't, but i spent just over $40 on three grocery sacks. not bad! beans, canned tomatoes, apple cider vinnegar, frozen food, bread, etc. i'm starting to think that maybe i should take out a larger chunk of grocery budget the first week of each month, and just stock up on whatever's on sale that month at the co-op. then, each week, i just re-stock what we run out of and get fresh produce. speaking of which. today, at the market, there were strawberries. small, red, organic, local strawberries. tonight, we're having a salad with strawberries, oregon blue cheese (see below), red lettuce, red romaine, and basalmic vinnegrette. are you jealous? you're so jealous. also new this week at the market: new potatoes. the (mennonite?) woman who sold them to me was a little put out that i wanted to put them in my own bag. luckilly, she didn't take it on herself to be "helpful" and bag it for me anyway. like at the coffee people stand at the portland airport. i ask for my iced coffee in a paper cup. the cashier asks why. i explain it's to avoid the plastic. he thinks this makes me cool. the barista then hands me my double-cupped, plastic-capped iced coffee, which pretty much defeats the purpose. oh well. it's really hard to be exact about what you want in service situations without coming off as a jerk.