Fish Tales, Kid Congrats, and poor Dear

My staff photographer has taken a few shots of the garden and my personal favorite so far is the wild cherry. It's probably part of the reason that none of us can breathe right at the moment but it sure is lovely.

I have been celebrating the graduation of our son James from college and we are now awaiting the moment when he will have a full time, health benefits job since we are paying his medical insurance to the tune of $500. monthly. I can hear an audible intake of gasping breath when Roger writes out that check but we love the kid and we would wind up paying anyway if, God forbid, he gets sick.

Sorry for the lack of posts-life just seems to be getting in the way and I haven't anything quilty going on right now. It is the birthday season here and Roger's is on Friday. We will be having lobster rolls as requested and a possible lemon blueberry cake from the bakery in the village. You know the one, where you stop at the bank and take out a loan first. Good thing they make a really good lemon blueberry cake-and everything else as well. Mercifully, something happened to them in the bagel dept. I suspect because they are Danish they can't make a bagel to save themselves but in the scope of things-Meh! We are awash with bagel places here-some good. Some really bad! Some have lost the basic concept of the bagel all together. NY is bagel heaven-and bialy's as well. A real bialy is a lost art. There are few places where they actually make a real bialy anymore and what passes for them in grocery stores tastes o.k. if you've never had a real bialy all chewy and centered with real sweet onions. On that note, I never really write complaints to businesses but today I took the time to send a lengthy and concise diatribe to Stop & Shop. They opened a Super S&S right around the corner and it was, by far, a welcome relief from the other grocery stores around here, one of which is so dirty and has deli people who are full of tattoos and look like they need to be dipped. Dirty haired misanthropes that even the rubber gloves can't improve. I don't even want them breathing on my food-UGH! ANYWAY, So here comes this new store-all clean and sparkly and they have everything-flowers, drugs, health food, good and unusual meats, Japanese take out(futomaki, etc.) and deli and a seafood dept. Now, let me just say that I don't get mad easily about this stuff cause by now at this point in life I have come to realize that, 1. they really don;t care what you think in the long run, 2. Complaining only works for the first few months and then everything starts to slide downhill anyway. So in that vein-I don;t complain unless there's something so egregious that it just slaps you in the face. Also let me make a disclaimer-Stop & Shop contributes a goodly amount of money to the Food Pantry-really goodly. They believe in contributions to the neighborhood and civic whatever.

Again, ANYWAY....it's about part way into the 2nd year and last week I go shopping making my final stop the fish dept and futomaki for lunch. I am stopped in my tracks by the fish guy loading up a floor to ceiling case with prepackaged cellophane wrapped fish pieces. Fish in plastic people!! Plastic. and to make matters worse, my Japanese guy who makes the futomaki has been relegated to a tiny case where there are some pre-made rolls languishing and he is no-where in sight. Much grumbling and commiserating with the fish guy later I vow to send them an e-mail to corporate headquarters in Mass. Yesterday I get a coupon in the mail for 33% off of one fresh fish purchase from S&S which explains that my purchase will now be conveniently wrapped in self-serve packaging for my betterment. Who the hell do they think they are kidding. In this village there are no less than 3 fresh fish stores in a walking radius-what idiot thinks that anyone would buy FRESH???? FISH???? in plastic for any reason. So there you have it-my fresh fish rant. They fish guy told me they fired the manager of the fish dept and he's down to a few hours just to load up the case. UGH! fish in plastic...unspeakable little bits of indefinable fish in plastic trays. What the hell is this? It's a coastal island fishing community. The best part is the note on the coupon say, and I quote "Right off the boat, help yourself to first quality"

O.K. If you're still with me-fish rant over....

I'm still in the Curves groove and really enjoying it. I can't believe I actually look forward to it. There must be something to that "craving the burn" thing or wanting the endorphins to kick in. I can't wait to get there. Still a few issues with the right knee so I take that a bit easy.

I must go now and try to clean up the living room since I went out and bought a new recliner for Roger for his birthday. He is still in so much pain from the shoulder injury. Yesterday they made him go for an MRI and the position that his arm and shoulder had to remain in was very painful. He came home in terrible pain. After some Vicodin he was better but that stuff can knock you on your ass if you don't watch it. I hope things improve soon. He's like the rest of us-no patience for debilitating stuff and he can't sleep well with this. Thing is, before he went to the Orthopedic guy last week, the PT guy had him starting to get a glimmer of feeling better. Then the Dr. jerked around the arm and pulled or pushed something too much and now he's miserable again. Poor guy.

Off to get out the vacuum and dust stuff.