Bourbon and bags...

Out into the germ infested world ventured I, dragging myself about to three stores for prescriptions, groceries, and candles.  Finding candles was a bit of a boon to me, but only one store had them (I guess Christmas makes the candle supply low) and of the scents available, the only one I thought remotely pleasant had but three candles.  The good news is that I remembered to get everything on my list.  The bad news is that I forgot to finish making my list.

This cold has me not all that interested in eating, so I've consumed a lot of oatmeal, Nature Valley granola bars, and Honey Nut Cheerios.  It is the latter which I forgot to replenish my stock.  I care not to venture back out anytime soon, but I will be out of Cheerios soon.  SIGH.

The firework nutters here in Fort Wayne began their activities last night.  Thus far, this evening, there have been great big booms that have Amos and I jumping out of the GREEN chair.  I guess the long displays will start later.  I am grateful for days on which there are absolutely no reason to set of fireworks.

I thought I had checked the weather.  I guess I misread the forecast or something.  For the entire time I was out, I shivered from head to toe.  I kept trying to figure out why the 30s could be so cold.  It was in the teens.  And the wind chill was 3.  So, I came home, put away most of the groceries, and built up a ginormous fire.  I have been roasting myself before it for hours.

Whilst I was gone, Mr. UPS Man came and left me my box.  It was part of my bi-monthly subscribe and save order, as well as the heating pad.  So whilst there was no embarrassing outpouring of emotion over the heating pad, there was quite a struggle to get the box inside. I do so appreciate the steep savings I get on Amos' natural dog food, but I do wish a two month bag were not quite so heavy.  I also received my bi-monthly stash of Apple Cinnamon Nature Valley Granola bars and a six-month supply of pasta.  This was an order that had the natural honey from Colorado in it, so just about everything was heavy, heavy, and heavy.  Sadly, the toilet paper has not yet arrived.  I hope it comes soon.  As in Friday.

I bought cold medicine whilst I was out and promptly took the day-time version once I got back home.  I ate some food, fed Amos, and fell asleep.  I am not sure if it was the medicine or being more active than I have since this cold started.  My pharmacist said I looked awful.  How kind of her to notice my misery!  She had called to let me know that two of my prescriptions could be squeezed in at the catastrophic rate today.  I needed to go pick up the free one at the other store, so I was happy to pick up the two from Target.  Next month, picking up prescriptions is going to be a cardiac event again.  I shall miss the catastrophic pricing.

At Meijer, where they have the free statins, I finally remembered to see if they carry tostada shells. I found some online for a decent price, but I would have had to buy 15 double containers.  Happily, I discovered that Meijer had some and promptly bought six boxes.  Given that I go there monthly for the free prescription, I did not exactly need to buy six boxes. However, Walmart and Target both used to carry tostada shells and no longer do.  Neither does Kroger.

Becky tried to help me understand what bourbon is, but I confess it still does not make sense to me.  Given that I have honey whiskey, I considered trying the new recipe with that.  However, I am a firm believer that you shouldn't go mucking about with ingredients on untried recipes, or directions for that matter.  The only time this belief is broken in when someone clearly has a poor sense of culinary practice.  For example, there are surprisingly a whole host of folk out there who recommend roasting vegetables at 350.  That is not a roasting temperature.  So, I ignore such insensible directions and dial up the oven to at least 425.

Anyhow, despite not understanding the difference between bourbon and whiskey, I bought some bourbon for that recipe I wish to try.  And some chicken. I don't know what it is about me that invokes great panic whenever my milk or chicken supply is low.  I will not admit just how un-low my chicken supply was, but I do now have additional chicken in the house for things like new bourbon mustard recipes and grilling, aside from another batch or three of the Chipotle Chicken Chili.

I did really well at the grocery store, spending under $100.  I will have plenty of room for mid-month milk and cucumbers and whatever else might need fetching.  That total also included the bourbon and four long-use cleaning supplies (such as Comet and Oxiclean).  I have about decided that, since I am utterly unable to eat down more than half of the meals in the freezer, I will never really have a month where my grocery bill is practically non-existent.  I mean, into my cart leapt sour cream and cheese, even though I still have some in my refrigerator. I might possibly have gotten two gallons of milk when one could have done.  I guess I just have an odd classification of what should be deemed staples of whic to always have a surfeit on hand.

Speaking of the word "surfeit," the other day I read an article where the author used "surfeit" when clearly he was trying to say there was a "dearth." I meant to save the example of errant vocabulary, but I forgot. I gave the author brownie points for effort.  And I found the error humorous, given that the words are opposites.

I should clarify the candle status.  All three stores had a plethora of those ridiculously expensive ginormous jarred Yankee candles.  All three stores had small, scentless votives.  Two stores had flameless candles.  I cannot understand the point of the latter two types.  Just one store had scented votive candles to fit in the glass holder.

One final note:  I highly recommend that if you decide to toss your Taco Bell order into the oven on warm so that it will remain tasty whilst you put away your groceries, FIRST take it out of the plastic bag.  Plastic bags will melt if you place them in the oven.  Melted plastic bags will render moot any tastiness left in your food once you discover that plastic bags are not meant to be in the oven and hastily pull it from the oven.