Produce, movies, and other consumer goods
Jun. 7th, 2009 11:42 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
avanta7The latest happenings here in Avantaland:
A couple of weeks ago, Marysville started holding a farmer's market every Friday evening downtown on D Street. This past Friday, I finally remembered to get some cash from the ATM after work so I could go. I came home with three pints of blackberries, six pounds of nectarines and apricots, a couple of pounds of cherries, and three zucchini. For $20. *beam* I also sampled some locally grown olive oil. Not bad, but not the kind of olive oil spouse and I prefer. The local oil is pressed from Spanish olives, and doesn't have enough peppery bite to it to please me. Too bad: I like to support local growers, but why buy something I won't use?
While downtown, I stopped in at The Sew-So Shop, which, despite the name, also carries knitting and crochet supplies. My favorite clerk was manning the store, so we had a nice meow-y gossip. Somehow I managed not to buy any yarn. (I kept thinking of the mountains of it at home in the yarn closet.)
Yesterday morning, at 7:00 AM, I discovered we had no coffee. We usually only make coffee at home on weekends, and spouse neglected to tell me he used the last of it last week. He narrowly escaped being murdered in his sleep. Thank heavens we now have a Walgreens less than two miles from us, and we no longer need to drive 17 miles into Marysville when we run out of essentials like milk or bread. Or coffee.
After getting home from the store, while waiting for the coffee to brew, I took advantage of the lack of caffeine in spouse's system and...How do I say this without it sounding like spouse has major money control issues? Not "got permission". How about "obtained consent"? "Reached agreement"? The deal is: if either of us wants to buy some non-essential something with a purchase price of over $100, we discuss it first. I wanted to buy a new sewing machine -- my 30-year-old Kenmore gave up the ghost a month or so ago -- and I'd found one on sale that suited my needs. Spouse perused the ad through bleary eyes and said "It sounds like a car lot come-on, but if that's what you want, go ahead."
So I did.
It's not a dream machine (which would come from Husqvarna Viking, Bernina, or Pfaff, AND cost nearly as much as a used car), but it's a decent basic sewing machine, all mechanical, no electronics, made by Necchi, and should serve me well for the limited amount of sewing I do these days. It will probably last about as long as that workhorse Kenmore.
Yesterday, I watched In Cold Blood, with Scott Wilson, Robert Blake, and John Forsythe. It was more than a little weird watching this film knowing that some 40 years later, Blake went on trial for murdering his wife. Still, it's a beautiful movie: the black & white cinematography, the perfectly composed shots, the chilling musical contrast between the harsh experimental jazz in scenes featuring the killers and the gentle orchestral pieces in scenes of their victims. The book has been sitting on Mt. TBR for a while now. I'll read it soon, I think.
This morning I saw Bringing Out the Dead, with Nicolas Cage, Patricia Arquette, and Ving Rhames. Not nearly as impressed with this feature. It wasn't awful but if, as I suspect, director Martin Scorsese was going for Taxi Driver in an ambulance, he missed the mark. But it served to interest me in reading Joe Connelly's novel.
Plans for the rest of the day include turning in these discs at Blockbuster and coming home with something new, some light grocery shopping, and a load or two of laundry. And the first items on that list require going out in public, so I guess I ought to get dressed.
A couple of weeks ago, Marysville started holding a farmer's market every Friday evening downtown on D Street. This past Friday, I finally remembered to get some cash from the ATM after work so I could go. I came home with three pints of blackberries, six pounds of nectarines and apricots, a couple of pounds of cherries, and three zucchini. For $20. *beam* I also sampled some locally grown olive oil. Not bad, but not the kind of olive oil spouse and I prefer. The local oil is pressed from Spanish olives, and doesn't have enough peppery bite to it to please me. Too bad: I like to support local growers, but why buy something I won't use?
While downtown, I stopped in at The Sew-So Shop, which, despite the name, also carries knitting and crochet supplies. My favorite clerk was manning the store, so we had a nice meow-y gossip. Somehow I managed not to buy any yarn. (I kept thinking of the mountains of it at home in the yarn closet.)
Yesterday morning, at 7:00 AM, I discovered we had no coffee. We usually only make coffee at home on weekends, and spouse neglected to tell me he used the last of it last week. He narrowly escaped being murdered in his sleep. Thank heavens we now have a Walgreens less than two miles from us, and we no longer need to drive 17 miles into Marysville when we run out of essentials like milk or bread. Or coffee.
After getting home from the store, while waiting for the coffee to brew, I took advantage of the lack of caffeine in spouse's system and...How do I say this without it sounding like spouse has major money control issues? Not "got permission". How about "obtained consent"? "Reached agreement"? The deal is: if either of us wants to buy some non-essential something with a purchase price of over $100, we discuss it first. I wanted to buy a new sewing machine -- my 30-year-old Kenmore gave up the ghost a month or so ago -- and I'd found one on sale that suited my needs. Spouse perused the ad through bleary eyes and said "It sounds like a car lot come-on, but if that's what you want, go ahead."
So I did.
It's not a dream machine (which would come from Husqvarna Viking, Bernina, or Pfaff, AND cost nearly as much as a used car), but it's a decent basic sewing machine, all mechanical, no electronics, made by Necchi, and should serve me well for the limited amount of sewing I do these days. It will probably last about as long as that workhorse Kenmore.
Yesterday, I watched In Cold Blood, with Scott Wilson, Robert Blake, and John Forsythe. It was more than a little weird watching this film knowing that some 40 years later, Blake went on trial for murdering his wife. Still, it's a beautiful movie: the black & white cinematography, the perfectly composed shots, the chilling musical contrast between the harsh experimental jazz in scenes featuring the killers and the gentle orchestral pieces in scenes of their victims. The book has been sitting on Mt. TBR for a while now. I'll read it soon, I think.
This morning I saw Bringing Out the Dead, with Nicolas Cage, Patricia Arquette, and Ving Rhames. Not nearly as impressed with this feature. It wasn't awful but if, as I suspect, director Martin Scorsese was going for Taxi Driver in an ambulance, he missed the mark. But it served to interest me in reading Joe Connelly's novel.
Plans for the rest of the day include turning in these discs at Blockbuster and coming home with something new, some light grocery shopping, and a load or two of laundry. And the first items on that list require going out in public, so I guess I ought to get dressed.
