Grocery Shopping

Confession time.  I hate grocery shopping.  I hate it with a white hot passion.  There are so many other things that I could be doing with my time besides hunting and foraging in Safeway.  What makes the overall shopping experience even worse is the number of people who have to have loud personal phone calls on their cell phones and are oblivious to others trying to reach items on the shelf.  I am not a big shopper in general, but grocery shopping just sets me free.  

I will do anything to avoid going to the grocery store until absolutely necessary.  I will use up everything, or start improvising meals or having a sandwich for dinner.  Then I might even pick up take out on the way home.  Today, however, the jig was up.  I had no more improvising to do, I was out of the staples, and it was time.  I had to do that really ugly Costco trip.  Ugh.  

Now if you hit Costco just right when there is no one else there, it can be somewhat fun.  Costco has wonderful things besides food, so it distracts me from my misery.  So along with my garbage pail sized box of Cheezits, I can also get a coffee maker, garden shears, and a spiffy new blouse for work.  

What I truly like about Costco is that everything comes in that big size, making it unnecessary for me to go to the grocery store for two to three weeks.  If I feel like it I can run by Trader Joes for a couple of delicacies, but I have the basics to build on over the next month.  

So I am basically ready for the weekend.  Yay.  It is almost here.  T minus 8 and counting. 

The big thing on the agenda this weekend is Liesl's follow up vet visit with her regular vet.  When she saw the cardiologist, the cardiologist did an EKG and an ultrasound.  The vet has to do some x-rays and a blood screening.  I am trying not to stress about it, since the news was mostly positive from the cardiologist.  I am trying to see this as just another step in establishing a baseline.  But you know how much I love this sweet little dog.  I have the bestest best friend ever.  She is coming with me to the vet visit.  She is a nurse practioner and can help to ask questions and help to refine some of the broader information.  Since the heart function of a dog shares a lot of similarity with the human heart, she can also help explain some of the medical terminology to me.  I think it will also be good to have her hear what I hear with some of the emotion taken out.  This way, if I start worrying she can help to go back and separate fact from my worrying.

If you could please keep Liesl in your prayers this weekend, I would be so grateful.