Shopping

A Chance Encounter With A Neighbor Most Unique

/ Ally Bean / 18 Comments

Some of you will remember this neighbor from previous posts…

While shopping at Kroger late in the afternoon on a rainy summer day, I happened to be in the International Food aisle.  There were three shoppers with carts in front of me, and the same number behind me.

I was trapped in the middle of the aisle, waiting, staring off into the distance, waiting, not thinking about a thing, when I heard a woman shouting as she came around the corner into the aisle.

Her voice sounded familiar.

“PASTA.  I need pasta!”

Then *clank, clank, clank* as she bashed into the carts of the shoppers in front of me pushing them aside as she grabbed pasta off the shelf.

~ ~ • ~ ~

Could it be, I wondered?  Was this determined person none other than the neighbor woman who lives on the other side of the ravine?

The bird hater.

The neighbor who I’ve never seen up-close in real life?

It sounded like her.  Loud.

~ ~ • ~ ~

To make this chance encounter even more memorable, I saw in front of me a this loud woman dressed in a way that set her apart from the rest of us suburbanites quietly shopping in Kroger.

‘Twas a sartorial look one does not often find around here.  It was unique, with a certain insouciance that made me smile.

~ ~ • ~ ~

Naturally I wanted to follow her around the store.  My inner Nancy Drew was on high alert.  I needed to know more.

But I was unable to do this because I was trapped in the middle of the aisle, which now had carts + shoppers scattered at all angles.

So I had to watch as she walked away from me, leaving me amazed, and with no one to tell.

Until now.

A Glimpse Into Life With The Beans, Mid-Summer Edition

/ Ally Bean / 24 Comments
The Good

Zen-Den went to the grocery and bought everything on the list, including cornstarch.  This, as he pointed out to me, was a big deal because, as he said: “even five years ago I wouldn’t have known what cornstarch was– and would have bought corn meal instead.” 

Congratulations, darling.  You’ve passed GROCERY SHOPPING 201, an intermediate level course in advanced shopping techniques wherein husbands learn to buy exactly that which is written on the list.

Isn’t he something? Let’s give it up for the Z-D.

~ • ~

The Bad

Influenced by Mad Men [and a bit of nostalgia for my parents], I had a hankering for an Old Fashioned.  So I got out the bourbon and the sugar bowl in which I keep sugar cubes and the Angostura Bitters.  Then I made myself an Old Fashioned using the last of the bourbon.

While my drink sat on the counter below, as I attempted to put the sugar bowl back onto the cupboard shelf above, in a horrible moment of miscalculation, I knocked the lid off the sugar bowl.  It fell onto the counter, shattering into 3 gazillion + 1 pieces, many of which landed in my drink.

Leaving me distraught and drinkless.

~ • ~

The Ugly

Because of the excessive rain, we’ve not used our screened-in porch as much as we usually do in the summer.  However, the other evening there was no rain, so we decided to go out there to sit.

Almost immediately we both noticed that there were ants walking around on the rug in the screened-in porch.  This is amazing because the porch is up a story from the ground below, but those miserable, icky, sneaky, destructive ants were on. my. porch.

I took off one of my Birks, grabbed it with my hand and started hitting the ants until they stopped moving.  I put the sandal back on when I thought that I’d killed all the ants, but I hadn’t.  So when I saw one last ant moving, in a fit of anger, I stomped down really hard with my sandaled foot on the last ant… and twisted my left ankle in the process.

I hate ants.

~ • ~

A Soggy Summer: How Bored Can A Bean Get?

/ Ally Bean / 28 Comments

Things I have done in the past week to try to entertain myself while it rains almost non-stop outside during July, a month when accomplishing things on my “Save It For Summer” To Do List is a top priority.

1)  I rooted for Zen-Den to burn up a waffle while he was making some for breakfast yesterday morning.  I thought that the smoke might add a little excitement to the day.

He, however, didn’t burn anything, made delicious waffles, and even cleaned up the kitchen afterward, thereby depriving me of things to complain about here in a blog post.

Yes, I’m bored enough to feel defeated about not having a cooking mishap to start the day.

2)  I watched hours of TV shows about buying property in Alaska.  Alaska is a state that I adored in Northern Exposure, but after watching these shows, I dunno about these people.

While watching these shows I learned that 33% of the homes in Alaska have outhouses.  And that people there seem ga-ga over views of mountains that all look the same to me.  And that moose wander around free-range style in Alaska’s largest city, Anchorage, population 300,000.

Clearly, no matter how much I loved Maggie and Joel, this is not a state for me, a woman who thinks staying at a Motel 6 is roughing it.

3)  I sorted through all the catalogues that are in this house.  I ended up with a 14″ high pile of catalogues, unwanted, in my way, yet here, for reasons most varied.

Some were catalogues from companies that I have bought things from online, while other catalogues, unsolicited, seem to magically appear in our mailbox.  Then like a ninny, I bring them inside the house.  

My conclusion?  Catalogues are a plague of locust, impossible to stop.

4)  I researched perfumes online.  I want a new fragrance, but when shopping in the stores I can’t find one that suits my fussy nose.  So I sat here, at the computer, reading online descriptions of fragrances, knowing full well that perfume is something that needs to be sniffed and dabbed before buying it.

Yet all because I cannot accomplish anything around the house like I want to do, I was bored enough to read about perfume, as if that was a good use of my time.

I mean really?  Reading about fragrance?  I’m doomed.

We Went To Nashville, Y’all

/ Ally Bean / 25 Comments

Like just about every post that I write about our travels…

Zen-Den was in [fill in the blank] for work and I decided to join him.

In this case he was in Nashville, TN, aka Music City USA.  So I flew down there for a goof-off weekend in a city that is cheerful and easy to navigate.

Nashville is fun, y’all.  Here are the highlights of our Weekend.

::  We went to the Parthenon.

Built for Tennessee’s 1897 Centennial Exposition, this building has INCREDIBLE detail, a small art museum in the basement featuring regional American landscape art, and is located in a large, somewhat uncared for, city park.

I learned how little I know about Greek mythology while here, y’all.

::  We went to a fancy part of town called Green Hills.

There we wandered around a mall, and adjacent lifestyle center, that had many of the same stores that we have here, BUT they were twice as large with FRIENDLY sales help.  As much as I don’t usually enjoy shopping, this I liked.

I bought a Coach purse, y’all.

::  We went to the Country Music Hall of Fame.

This museum was amazing.  FASCINATING.  Curated to tell, entertain and engage everyone with music, videos, instruments, album covers, photographs, costumes, interactive displays and tasteful decor, we enjoyed this museum more than we thought that we would.

I saw Elvis’s gold Cadillac, y’all.

::  We ate at Ted’s Montana Grill.

This is a chain restaurant, owned by Ted Turner, that features beef and buffalo, along with salads and fish and milkshakes.  The restaurant was beautifully decorated in a 1970s steak-house style with lots of dark wood and shiny brass.  The food was DELICIOUS and the service was attentive.

I ate a bison burger– and I washed my hands with Boraxo powdered soap, y’all.

::  And finally, the answer to the question that everyone asks when you go to Nashville: Yes, we went to the Grand Ole Opry.

It was GREAT. We saw lots of older performers who we’d never heard of [Connie Smith?], but eventually, as the evening progressed, we saw performers who we knew, like Vince Gill and Pure Prairie League.  Then, in true Opry fashion, two superstars stopped by the Opry on a whim– and the crowd went crazy.

I saw Tricia Yearwood AND her husband, Garth Brooks, perform together, y’all.