More of the Same

It's been hot, and the mission is to find a cool place to be. Since there is no pool at my disposal, and we're not at the beach, it makes for very little activity. Even the cats are all laying around like dead things.

Obbie's miserable, because he's used to A/C. Can't have A/C here in the old house because of the fucked wiring. (Just having the laser printer on causes the lights to dim) So we've got fans. And thats about it. In a couple days, the heat will break, and all will be right with the world again.

Saturday we had planned on going West, and doing this thing called 100 miles of yard sales. A 100 mile stretch of road thru all kinds of little communities, and yard sales galore. The plan was to end up up at a state park for a night of camping before we headed home.

So Saturday, at the unGodly hour between 6:00 and 7:00 am, we hopped in the truck and headed out. I had a not so good feeling about the trip, but I didn't say anything (yet). Obbie was really excited about the yard sales and camping, and I do so hate to be a party pooper.

We stopped at Sheetz for coffee and bagels. There were idiot mouthbreathers running the place and apparently it was just too hard to wait on any customers or make coffee. Nothing irritates me more than bad customer service. Except ambivelent customer service. I don't think that two toasted everything bagels, with lite cream cheese is exactly rocket science. We left, grumbling about 'kids today' (we're so old) I unwrapped my bagel and took a bite. BLECH!! Cold, stale, and horrible. They nuked it. Who nukes a bagel? Jeezus! So I made Obbie turn around and go back. I wasn't going to pay for shitty bagels. (I realize that bitching about crappy bagels bought from a high end convienence store is like bitching that you got a shitty steak from McDonalds. But still.) Anyway, I complained to the shift supervisor who promptly yelled, "I DIDN'T NUKE ANYTHING!! and got all defensive. Luckily, before I beaned her with my hard, nuked bagel, another manager came up, intervened and gave me my money back. He saw how the bagel was, and didn't offer any resistance. It's not like I was bitching without merit, people. And I don't send food back on a regular basis. If you lose a tooth biting into your bagel, theres a serious problem. After the bagel incident, we continued Northeast.

After awhile, we became hungry, and were both doubting our trip. We decided to find a diner and have a meeting over breakfast. We stopped at the first open place we came to. Another bad choice. It's always a bad sign when the coffee is served in foam cups that sodas are supposed to come in. Then the breakfast came on a styrofoam platters with plastic utensils. Blech. It was then we decided to change our plans. The food gods hadn't been smiling upon us, and that was a bad sign.

So we headed South. I'm fixated, no, OBSESSED, with a grocery store called Trader Joes. Probably because there isn't one 'locally', we have to go to Philly or DC to visit. It's a marvelous shopping experience with all manner of wonderful things. If you've never experienced a Trader Joe's grocery store, I recommend it highly. All kinds of beautiful cheeses, fruit, veggies, meat, seafood, the works. I was in my food snob glory, and ended up bringing home whole wheat cous cous, polenta in a tube, little tiny balls of mozzarella cheese, chicken sausages, guacamole, an organic dark chocolate bar (with raisins and PECANS) and two bagfuls of other joy. I was happy.

After Trader Joes, we started to head home. At a rest area, we had picked up a bunch of tourist brochures, and one of them was about Frederick, Md. I'd been there years ago, and thought it pretty cool. Obbie had too, and since it was on the way back home, we thought we'd stop for lunch. We cruised thru a couple antique malls (and we're secure that all the junk we're sitting on is going to pay for our retirement) and decided to have lunch at Brewer's Alley. We were enchanted by their Black and Bleu salad, (check the menu on the link) but ended up getting pizza instead. GOOD CHOICE! The crust was just perfect. Light, crunchy, but chewy inside. Probably the best pie I have had in a long time. It's the wood fired oven you know. Whatever it was, it was perfect.

We walked around a little more and did some window shopping (did stop in an odd little gifty store for some anti-Bush material) and then headed home. I drove, and Obbie went to sleep about 3 minutes outside of Gettysburg. I don't mind driving, I can turn up the music and jam a little while I exceed the speed limits.

Home. Naps. Keeping cool. That sums up the rest of the weekend. I'm up to my own devices this weekend because Obbie is working the bike show at the fairgrounds. Theres a bead show down the road, so I might have to go visit that.......