Significant Other and I have spent some time this week taking posters and flyers advertising The New English Crimebake, http://www.crimebake.org/ to local libraries. Sue Grafton is the guest of honor at our conference this year, and it unlike some writing conferences, we're actually ahead of last year with our enrollment. This year we even have a panel of librarians, all of whom took a poster and a handful of flyers.
This morning, before our weekly trip to the Norton Roche Brothers, we drove into town to drop off the materials at the Norton Library. Not having been theere for a year, I almost remembered where the building was. Suffice it to say, we missed the parking lot and parked on a side street and I had a short hike. A swap meet was the "happening" in front of the library, and I hurried on by.
Can you imagine my consternation to find the library closed at noon on a Saturday? The sign in the window stated they were open Monday thru Thursday and not very long hours either. They've been decertified due to loss of funding. So sad.
I read yesterday that traffic at libraries had increased from 10 - 30 % in the last year. So many towns in our area have had serious financial problems and voters have been swift to come to the polls and vote down everything. Short-sighted to be sure.
Support your local library, in all possible ways. I grew up in a little town with a Carnegie library, and I probably would have become a juvenile deliquent without the library.
Well, McAfee decided to some something to this machine and between AOL and using a very old Dell, I am about to set my hair on fire. Slower than molasses in January.
More anon!
Showing posts with label Roche Bros.. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Roche Bros.. Show all posts
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Saturday, October 11, 2008
The Supermarket Dance: Shuffle and Back Step
Note: this post is a whine.
Our supermarket is remodelling, which means no one can find anything anywhere. They had to go "out back" to get us a bag of charcoal today, and brought a big mother of a bag that would last half the summer and now it's October. Any season when you don't have to shovel a path along the deck and brush the snow off the Weber Kettle is Barbecue Season.
Small sirloins were on sale and that sounded good to me, with asparagus from Peru where spring has sprung and acorn squash grown more locally. With a Boston lettuce salad and a big fat mushroom to top each steak. Is that yum or what?
Of course we spent twice a much time in the store as usual, backtracking and trying to find stuff. Last week a woman said, "just think of it as a scavenger hunt and have fun." Some people always have a good attitude.
I remember when Roche Brothers in Wellesley remodelled years ago. I had to change my computerized shopping list, then I changed it again when we moved. Guess what? Another change will be required. In the new new Wellesley Roche Brothers I can't find anything either, except the produce and the cheese counter. And the take home department. Man, for $12-$1400 for dinner, you would never have to cook again. For two, that is. Four or more would be a pricey business, but they do have good looking prepared food to take home.
Of course if the economy continues to go to hell in a handbasket, everyone will be soaking their own pinto beans and making soup and rice and beans and growing herbs on the window sill and pouring the bacon fat into a coffee can in the fridge to reuse.
Our supermarket is remodelling, which means no one can find anything anywhere. They had to go "out back" to get us a bag of charcoal today, and brought a big mother of a bag that would last half the summer and now it's October. Any season when you don't have to shovel a path along the deck and brush the snow off the Weber Kettle is Barbecue Season.
Small sirloins were on sale and that sounded good to me, with asparagus from Peru where spring has sprung and acorn squash grown more locally. With a Boston lettuce salad and a big fat mushroom to top each steak. Is that yum or what?
Of course we spent twice a much time in the store as usual, backtracking and trying to find stuff. Last week a woman said, "just think of it as a scavenger hunt and have fun." Some people always have a good attitude.
I remember when Roche Brothers in Wellesley remodelled years ago. I had to change my computerized shopping list, then I changed it again when we moved. Guess what? Another change will be required. In the new new Wellesley Roche Brothers I can't find anything either, except the produce and the cheese counter. And the take home department. Man, for $12-$1400 for dinner, you would never have to cook again. For two, that is. Four or more would be a pricey business, but they do have good looking prepared food to take home.
Of course if the economy continues to go to hell in a handbasket, everyone will be soaking their own pinto beans and making soup and rice and beans and growing herbs on the window sill and pouring the bacon fat into a coffee can in the fridge to reuse.
Oh? You do that already? Me too.
It seems like the prices have risen since the store began to remodel. And I still can't find green salsa made with tomatillos. Maybe I'll make another attempt to grow tomatillos next spring. The prior effort was a disaster, but then I recall it took three tries to grow bleeding heart. The third one flourished and I even moved it and it still flourished. A reliable plant is something you can love.
So we're bringing in the houseplants that summered outside, and the geraniums I carry over from year to year and the little gew-gaws on the deck that make the outdoors kind of homey.
Annie the cat escaped today, but too late for blogging. Thisbe went out and was horrified to find a) the UPS man and b) and neighbor's dog and c) the neighbor. Clawed at the door to get in with her tail as big around as a baseball bat.
I'm deep into my robot fish story and it's humming along swimmingly. :) I just need one more long adventure for the fish to have, then a clever escape and the end. The fish has hard exciting escapes from Somali pirates, sea snakes and a curious shark. Fish can have the most exciting adventures.
Onward and upward. How about those Red Sox?
Grapeshot
It seems like the prices have risen since the store began to remodel. And I still can't find green salsa made with tomatillos. Maybe I'll make another attempt to grow tomatillos next spring. The prior effort was a disaster, but then I recall it took three tries to grow bleeding heart. The third one flourished and I even moved it and it still flourished. A reliable plant is something you can love.
So we're bringing in the houseplants that summered outside, and the geraniums I carry over from year to year and the little gew-gaws on the deck that make the outdoors kind of homey.
Annie the cat escaped today, but too late for blogging. Thisbe went out and was horrified to find a) the UPS man and b) and neighbor's dog and c) the neighbor. Clawed at the door to get in with her tail as big around as a baseball bat.
I'm deep into my robot fish story and it's humming along swimmingly. :) I just need one more long adventure for the fish to have, then a clever escape and the end. The fish has hard exciting escapes from Somali pirates, sea snakes and a curious shark. Fish can have the most exciting adventures.
Onward and upward. How about those Red Sox?
Grapeshot
Thursday, July 24, 2008
People With Chaotic Lives and Starbucks Nation
A couple of posts ago, I mentioned "Checkout Line Rage," which is something that I apparently experience more frequently than most shoppers. Today at Roche Brothers in M., there checked out a woman so pathetic that my rage turned to sympathy. Well, kinda sorta.
We picked the shortest line, not noticing the the woman in front of us who was almost thru the line was on her cell phone. This appeared to be a super-important, life-changing, earth-shaking call, and when in the dim recesses of her brain she realized the whole process of checking out had halted because she had to, like, pay for the groceries, she went into high gear on the phone call, "I'm caught in a storm, yada yada, can I call you back, no leave a message for me, yada yada, ad infinitum.
Storm, my foot. It was just raining hard. We were all wet.
Damp and disheveled we stood, the clerk stood, the bagger stood, the woman stood. Finally she hung up and in a flurry (with this woman everything must be a flurry) of apologies wrote a check, dug out her Roche Bros. card, picked another card, yada yada, asked for $20 cash, and all the while I gazed at her handbag, a large, but not large enough affair, with money, a hair brush, a wallet so thick with cards that she must shop everywhere in Boston, a cell phone holder, natch, but of course the cell was jammed into the handbag, far from its holder. Wouldn't you know?
Then came another mysterious transaction, because somehow she had written the check for the wrong amount. Whatever. She needed to dig money out of the bowels of the handbag (not the visible money) and finally, finally, she was off to the parking lot. Hope she found her car keys. Wouldn't bet on it.
Meanwhile, I have gone from check-out-rage to extreme interest. Bleached blond with lots of roots, 40 pounds overweight, breathless, $25.00 worth of cigarette on the bill (which in Massachusetts is only three packs), living in total chaos.
I thought for half a second of offering to be her personal organizer. She obviously needed one. Badly. I mean, who makes a very life-changing telephone call in the check out line? Do you? I hope not. Do I?
I never use my cell in the store. What would I say? "I'm standing in the produce section." Or maybe, "do we have any scallions left in the fridge?" No, I make out my (computerized) list and check everything before I leave. Compulsive. Obsessive. Anal. Do not hold up lines pissing people off for ten minutes.
Then there is the other extreme. No not Grapeshot. The Wall Street Journal today had an article about custom built McMansions, or how the other 1% lives. Some people are really organized. A quilting room? I can just see the specialized storage cabinets for the fabric, a big narrow bin for the quilting hoop. Maybe a foldaway table. Likeway, sewing machine. A special thread case, so every color is evident. A place for everything.
And then there was the underwater sound system for the swimming pool. Who even has time to think these things up?
Our culture has become weird. Below is a link to a "Starbucks" post that tells more about the way we live.
A side note: We were in Berlin on a cold drizzly November day craving a cup of coffee, and found a Starbucks. Big line outside, no seating, natch, inside. Walked down the street and found a Dunkin' Donuts. No line, plenty of chairs, good coffee, even donuts. They had some local flavors you would never find here, like filled with plum jam. There did not seem to be any local coffee places like Tschibo in this neighborhood.
Read this. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121685606602379105.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Grapeshot
We picked the shortest line, not noticing the the woman in front of us who was almost thru the line was on her cell phone. This appeared to be a super-important, life-changing, earth-shaking call, and when in the dim recesses of her brain she realized the whole process of checking out had halted because she had to, like, pay for the groceries, she went into high gear on the phone call, "I'm caught in a storm, yada yada, can I call you back, no leave a message for me, yada yada, ad infinitum.
Storm, my foot. It was just raining hard. We were all wet.
Damp and disheveled we stood, the clerk stood, the bagger stood, the woman stood. Finally she hung up and in a flurry (with this woman everything must be a flurry) of apologies wrote a check, dug out her Roche Bros. card, picked another card, yada yada, asked for $20 cash, and all the while I gazed at her handbag, a large, but not large enough affair, with money, a hair brush, a wallet so thick with cards that she must shop everywhere in Boston, a cell phone holder, natch, but of course the cell was jammed into the handbag, far from its holder. Wouldn't you know?
Then came another mysterious transaction, because somehow she had written the check for the wrong amount. Whatever. She needed to dig money out of the bowels of the handbag (not the visible money) and finally, finally, she was off to the parking lot. Hope she found her car keys. Wouldn't bet on it.
Meanwhile, I have gone from check-out-rage to extreme interest. Bleached blond with lots of roots, 40 pounds overweight, breathless, $25.00 worth of cigarette on the bill (which in Massachusetts is only three packs), living in total chaos.
I thought for half a second of offering to be her personal organizer. She obviously needed one. Badly. I mean, who makes a very life-changing telephone call in the check out line? Do you? I hope not. Do I?
I never use my cell in the store. What would I say? "I'm standing in the produce section." Or maybe, "do we have any scallions left in the fridge?" No, I make out my (computerized) list and check everything before I leave. Compulsive. Obsessive. Anal. Do not hold up lines pissing people off for ten minutes.
Then there is the other extreme. No not Grapeshot. The Wall Street Journal today had an article about custom built McMansions, or how the other 1% lives. Some people are really organized. A quilting room? I can just see the specialized storage cabinets for the fabric, a big narrow bin for the quilting hoop. Maybe a foldaway table. Likeway, sewing machine. A special thread case, so every color is evident. A place for everything.
And then there was the underwater sound system for the swimming pool. Who even has time to think these things up?
Our culture has become weird. Below is a link to a "Starbucks" post that tells more about the way we live.
A side note: We were in Berlin on a cold drizzly November day craving a cup of coffee, and found a Starbucks. Big line outside, no seating, natch, inside. Walked down the street and found a Dunkin' Donuts. No line, plenty of chairs, good coffee, even donuts. They had some local flavors you would never find here, like filled with plum jam. There did not seem to be any local coffee places like Tschibo in this neighborhood.
Read this. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121685606602379105.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Grapeshot
Friday, February 22, 2008
It Ain't Easy Being Green
We are now a one car household, which demands communication and scheduling but we manage.
For the prior month, we had planned to drive to Wellesley today for 1) Dr., 2) barber, 3) Dentist, 4) Roche Brothers, 5) hair dresser, 6) lunch, and 7) over to Natick to pick up pants that were being hemmed. On the way home we would stop at Walmart for cat litter and get gas.
Things started to fall apart yesterday when the hair dresser called and had to re-schedule due to a funeral. Well, not happy, but okay.
This morning, the snow started at 7:00 a.m., not at 10:00 as forecast. Then the dentist called to change times.
Everything fell down like a house of cards, and after some fancy footwork, everything worked out except the hairdresser, where I go tomorrow, adding another 60 miles to the car.
Overnight, gas jumped from $2.97 to $3.15. Yikes!
While I waited for S.O. at the barber, I read a fancy-schmancy Wellesley-Weston magazine. All kitchens must have an island with granite counters. It's de riguer. I mean, that's what you have to have. We have no island and formica counters. Picked up a pair of kids shoes at Nordstrom. Double yikes! $150.00. Okay, they were Prada. Who knew? Small guest ain't gettin' none.
No other wisdom gleaned, except the new Roche Brothers still has traffic jams in the produce aisle just like the old store. Nice checkout guy let me into an empty 12 items and only line with approx. 15 items. Hideous mess in the snowy parking lot and I almost took out 2 kids, another car and the guy collecting carts.
Now the snow is coming down pretty good, and we are home. Stopped at Acapulco for a very reasonable and tasty Mexican lunch. $7.99 for a big platter of food. Can't beat that. Generous wine. I think the willows were a little yellower than last time I looked.
Can spring be far behind?
Grapeshot
For the prior month, we had planned to drive to Wellesley today for 1) Dr., 2) barber, 3) Dentist, 4) Roche Brothers, 5) hair dresser, 6) lunch, and 7) over to Natick to pick up pants that were being hemmed. On the way home we would stop at Walmart for cat litter and get gas.
Things started to fall apart yesterday when the hair dresser called and had to re-schedule due to a funeral. Well, not happy, but okay.
This morning, the snow started at 7:00 a.m., not at 10:00 as forecast. Then the dentist called to change times.
Everything fell down like a house of cards, and after some fancy footwork, everything worked out except the hairdresser, where I go tomorrow, adding another 60 miles to the car.
Overnight, gas jumped from $2.97 to $3.15. Yikes!
While I waited for S.O. at the barber, I read a fancy-schmancy Wellesley-Weston magazine. All kitchens must have an island with granite counters. It's de riguer. I mean, that's what you have to have. We have no island and formica counters. Picked up a pair of kids shoes at Nordstrom. Double yikes! $150.00. Okay, they were Prada. Who knew? Small guest ain't gettin' none.
No other wisdom gleaned, except the new Roche Brothers still has traffic jams in the produce aisle just like the old store. Nice checkout guy let me into an empty 12 items and only line with approx. 15 items. Hideous mess in the snowy parking lot and I almost took out 2 kids, another car and the guy collecting carts.
Now the snow is coming down pretty good, and we are home. Stopped at Acapulco for a very reasonable and tasty Mexican lunch. $7.99 for a big platter of food. Can't beat that. Generous wine. I think the willows were a little yellower than last time I looked.
Can spring be far behind?
Grapeshot
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
ABNA Hell
No email from Amazon. Most, but not all, got theirs yesterday, and my mailbox and spambox wer empty. Still empty. This really sucks. Everyone who was not notified has morale in the toilet.
This should not have been a surprise, because many never heard from Amazon as to whether their entries had been accepted or not. I really had high hopes for World of Mirrors. First the Gather SNAFU which was mostly a popularity contest, now the ABNA SNAFU which is just a SNAFU.
God knows, I worked in IT for a donkey's age and know how these things happen. Actually, under my watch they happened damned seldom and when they did they were fixed ASAP. A few days ago I was actually recalling my days in IT, or trying to recall them, because this was such a big part of my life and I can't recall anymore why is was so important to work a gazillion hours a week. It was like I wore blinders for twenty years.
Writing is for those with nerves of steel and guts of granite, egos the size of Everest and the eye always, always on the prize.
Screw it. I'm working on my California book and actually wrote a few pages last night. Feeling my way into it. Kind of fun. Nice to be writing again, even if no one will ever read it.
Snow still beautiful on the trees. We were in Wellesley this morning and took a stroll through the new Roche Bros. Holy Christmas! What a fancy store! Takes ones breath away. One's wallet, too. I paid $4.99 for some bean dip. Couldn't find the $1.99 that used to come in a can in the potato chip aisle.
Every kind of fancy pesto and gourmet goodies known to shopper. They had smoked trout, which I usually despair of finding anywhere. But no more doughnuts. We asked. Leave it to me to ask for the one old thing that is no longer carried. I am starting to feel like that that old doughnut nobody wants. Sigh.
Well, off to do more writing chores. I didn't stop writing. Probably couldn't if I wanted to. Blogging away, starting a new novel, working on a short story.
Imagine me waving my middle finger at the ABNA contest. Sticking out tongue! Making crazy faces involving crossed eyes. Shouting you-know-what! You know what? Shame on you. This is a clean blog.
Grrrrapeshot, sucking it up as is her wont
This should not have been a surprise, because many never heard from Amazon as to whether their entries had been accepted or not. I really had high hopes for World of Mirrors. First the Gather SNAFU which was mostly a popularity contest, now the ABNA SNAFU which is just a SNAFU.
God knows, I worked in IT for a donkey's age and know how these things happen. Actually, under my watch they happened damned seldom and when they did they were fixed ASAP. A few days ago I was actually recalling my days in IT, or trying to recall them, because this was such a big part of my life and I can't recall anymore why is was so important to work a gazillion hours a week. It was like I wore blinders for twenty years.
Writing is for those with nerves of steel and guts of granite, egos the size of Everest and the eye always, always on the prize.
Screw it. I'm working on my California book and actually wrote a few pages last night. Feeling my way into it. Kind of fun. Nice to be writing again, even if no one will ever read it.
Snow still beautiful on the trees. We were in Wellesley this morning and took a stroll through the new Roche Bros. Holy Christmas! What a fancy store! Takes ones breath away. One's wallet, too. I paid $4.99 for some bean dip. Couldn't find the $1.99 that used to come in a can in the potato chip aisle.
Every kind of fancy pesto and gourmet goodies known to shopper. They had smoked trout, which I usually despair of finding anywhere. But no more doughnuts. We asked. Leave it to me to ask for the one old thing that is no longer carried. I am starting to feel like that that old doughnut nobody wants. Sigh.
Well, off to do more writing chores. I didn't stop writing. Probably couldn't if I wanted to. Blogging away, starting a new novel, working on a short story.
Imagine me waving my middle finger at the ABNA contest. Sticking out tongue! Making crazy faces involving crossed eyes. Shouting you-know-what! You know what? Shame on you. This is a clean blog.
Grrrrapeshot, sucking it up as is her wont
Friday, August 17, 2007
Cat BLog Day
Running errands in Wellesley today. At Roche Bros. supermarket, I was behind a woman who spent $495.00 on groceries. She mentioned having company and grandkids. Gosh, I hope they eat all those red peppers she bought. That's even more than we spent at Raley's Supermarket in Reno before a trip to Burning Man. This week, all the movers and shakers are at the gun show in Reno. Stuff happens in the damnest places. www.burningman.com
I know one retired dot.com millioniare who travels across the country in a motor home with 4 cats. The mind boggles. I would be so paranoid that the cats would escape (freedom now!) that--well, I don't know what. The mind just boggles. Thisbe heard the dog next door bark on the deck and retreated inside. I'm not sure she knows what a dog is. Annie has been under the weather and hurled on the coffee table. A bulemic cat is a troublesome cat, but we love her. Life without cats is lonely.
The beautiful skinny woman was at Roche Bros again today. Must have traded her Mercedes in for an SUV. Of course, it might have been a Mercedes SUV or a Cadillic or whatever. I noticed the umpteen plastic bags (bad!) going into the trunk. Today she wore a long-sleeved shirt and slacks which made the stringiness less noticeable. Why isn't she on the Cape or the Islands? Inquiring mind want to know.
Significant Other remarked that the Wellesley store has a "better class of women" than some of the far flung less upscale suburbs. Of course he was speaking strictly of their physical appearance, not their kindliness or characters.
I posted a book review on Amazon of the latest Furst novel, The Foreign Correspondent. Yesterday I found a review of The Shadow Warriors which was pretty bad, but the reviewer sounded like she was having a bad time. Talk about generalities. She said good stuff too, but although I wrote the book, I still had no idea what she was talking about. Not a clue. So the criticism was not helpful.
Another rejection today for World of Mirrors. Since this was a non-MWA approved publisher, I didn't cry any rivers. We went for a long walk and I puttered around in the garden. We get a nice big tomato every day, and what could be better than that?
Insalata Capreses again tonight. The basil is stupendous.
Onward,
Grapeshot
I know one retired dot.com millioniare who travels across the country in a motor home with 4 cats. The mind boggles. I would be so paranoid that the cats would escape (freedom now!) that--well, I don't know what. The mind just boggles. Thisbe heard the dog next door bark on the deck and retreated inside. I'm not sure she knows what a dog is. Annie has been under the weather and hurled on the coffee table. A bulemic cat is a troublesome cat, but we love her. Life without cats is lonely.
The beautiful skinny woman was at Roche Bros again today. Must have traded her Mercedes in for an SUV. Of course, it might have been a Mercedes SUV or a Cadillic or whatever. I noticed the umpteen plastic bags (bad!) going into the trunk. Today she wore a long-sleeved shirt and slacks which made the stringiness less noticeable. Why isn't she on the Cape or the Islands? Inquiring mind want to know.
Significant Other remarked that the Wellesley store has a "better class of women" than some of the far flung less upscale suburbs. Of course he was speaking strictly of their physical appearance, not their kindliness or characters.
I posted a book review on Amazon of the latest Furst novel, The Foreign Correspondent. Yesterday I found a review of The Shadow Warriors which was pretty bad, but the reviewer sounded like she was having a bad time. Talk about generalities. She said good stuff too, but although I wrote the book, I still had no idea what she was talking about. Not a clue. So the criticism was not helpful.
Another rejection today for World of Mirrors. Since this was a non-MWA approved publisher, I didn't cry any rivers. We went for a long walk and I puttered around in the garden. We get a nice big tomato every day, and what could be better than that?
Insalata Capreses again tonight. The basil is stupendous.
Onward,
Grapeshot
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