Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Post Boxing Day Adventures

Early this morning, hubby-Eric took the car out to the shop to get the windstorm damaged fixed up. We have a rental now for the next week or so. Because Eric's been shifting furniture (and all the stuff on the furniture) to get his Oz room fixed up, we've got room in the garage to put the car again.

Hubby-Eric and I went on a post-Boxing Day shopping trip today. Our first stop was the British Pantry, a local speciality shop featuring lots of goodness from across the pond. I'm afraid Bully got me pining for some good British stuff. We got Jelly Babies, Lemon Curd, a couple of Christmas Crackers and a half dozen Custard Pies. We were hoping to find a chocolate orange, since the grocery stores around here seem to have stopped selling them, but they didn't have any. Oh well.

As we drove into Redmond we noticed that a lot of cars had snow on them. As we headed to our next stop we found out why. Lots of the Redmond/Bellevue area had snow on the ground, and even on the streets in some places. It wasn't a driving hazard, but it was a little surprising. At least I thought it was.

In Bellevue we went to Uwajimaya. I had to step over a pile of snow to get into the store, which amused me. Neither of us had ever been to Seattle's premier Japanese grocery before, and I think we still haven't. We need to go to the downtown store. The Bellevue store was great, don't get me wrong, but it didn't feel like the Uwajimaya experience that everyone talks about. In any case, our goal was to get some unusual flavors of Pocky. They didn't have the ones I was curious about, but we got some "Men's Pocky" (bittersweet dark chocolate), Melon Pocky, and a dark chocolate Mousse Pocky.

It was an interesting way to start the day. We went to two international shops, both of which featured a lot of great tea. It's actually a bit of a shame I don't drink much tea, because I could have picked up some fantastic flavors while we were out.

While we were at Uwajimaya, I also looked for some Bento box stuff, but found nothing. I saw "adult" Bento boxes, but not the cute kids' stuff I've seen on-line. When we go to the downtown store I'll look a little harder.

After our international experience, we headed out to Staples to get a postal scale (hubby-Eric is going to put much of his Green Lantern collection on eBay soon). It looks like the scale we got will double for a kitchen scale, which is great... because my little sister got me a wonderful low-capacity kitchen scale for Christmas that is pocket-sized and can do most of the weighing I'll need, but it only measures up to 16 ounces. Now I've got one that will measure up to 5 pounds if I need it.

We then hit Home Depot for a few pieces of needed hardware for hubby-Eric's Oz room. By this time we were feeling tired and stressed from the driving and the people and the snow and everything, so we went home to relax. Here's a picture of some of the stuff we got:

Pocky Day

We plan on opening the Christmas crackers tonight for dessert.

Ah... Christmas. I've been completely devoid of the Christmas spirit this year. Even the holiday itself didn't trigger it. I partially blame the windstorm, which effectively canceled our one party we were going to have at our house. We rescheduled it for Twelfth Night, which means I'll be decorating for Christmas sometime next year. *sigh* There are worse possibilities in life.

I did get some very nice presents. My niece gave me a plastic basketball from the one dollar store. I don't think she knows it, but I plan on taking it swimming with me next time I go to the pool. There's a basket in the therapy pool, and I think it would be terribly amusing for me to play with it in the water. I also got a very nice measuring tape and a big hardcover about modern comic book masters. Got some reading to do. I also got a pair of handknitted Norwegian wool socks. Ah... warm feet. Let's see... I also got more bottles of sparkling cider than I care to think about... some money and gift cards... the aforementioned pocket kitchen scale... another penguin to sit on the telly... And a Yoga deck. Another sister got a Yoga deck at the same time, and we considered playing against each other, until the sister that gave the deck explained that they weren't a CCG. I'm sure I got other gifts, but they integrated into my life so well I've already forgotten them.

But enough about me. How's your holiday going?

And, in case I'm too boring for you, have a Kodak moment:

0 comments: