Ninja Poodles Local

The fam, along with a goodly portion of our church membership, caught an Arkansas Travelers minor-league baseball game at the super-fancy new ballpark in North Little Rock the other night, and had a great time. I think my favorite part was watching my mom explain the basics of the game to my daughter, who was fascinated.





I didn't care if we ever got back, but Alex got really tired around the 7th-inning stretch, so we headed home early. Travs won, in their first-ever game against Arkansas' other minor-league team, the Northwest Arkansas Naturals. (OK, it was only with typing that out that I realized the cleverness of that team's name--not just a reference to Arkansas as "The Natural State," but also a nod to the Robert Redford film, "The Natural." Nice.)

Posted by Belinda | Permalink | Comments (0)

On the way home from a recent trip, there were some flight delays. It was the day after tornadoes ripped through central Arkansas, and the weather front had moved all the way through to the East Coast. The worst weather had yet to reach that far, but it was causing problems with flights getting in to some places (like Nashville--just ask poor Jamie about that), so when I got to the Continental terminal at the Newark airport, I was greeted with at least 10 lines of people whose flights had been canceled and were being re-routed on later flights. I lucked out--my direct flight to Little Rock was just late enough, and Little Rock was just enough west of the worst weather (flights into Memphis were being canceled), that my flight wasn't canceled. Of course, other delays with other flights were having a domino effect, so my flight home was delayed a couple times and moved to a different gate, but it still left within 30 minutes of its scheduled time. I considered myself fortunate.


As is usually the case when I'm making my way through the enormous, sprawling, sometimes dirty airports in major "hub" cities, I could not help thinking how very much I love Little Rock's Adams Field. Yes, it's tiny. That can be an inconvenience at times, like when you can't get a direct flight to a major destination, and sometimes the pickings are slim as far as flight availability, but that smallness is also kind of the point. It took me all of 10 minutes to arrive, check in, go through security, and get to my gate on the morning that I left. I love that. It's also a clean airport, with free wi-fi and plenty of electrical outlets for the public (I'm looking at you, Newark--I saw all the black holes where the outlets used to be). Seriously, airports of the world, let's get rid of "Boingo" paid wireless, OK? If Little Rock, Arkansas can do it, then you certainly can, too.


So, back to my flight--it was on a very small plane, just like the one I'd had on the trip out, so I had one of those seats that is, by virtue of being the only one, simultaneously window, middle, and aisle. I was seated at the front of the plane, just behind the cockpit. A cheerful young(er than me) man in a Houndstooth tee and some very blue running shoes sat across the aisle from me, and a woman I'll refrain from describing, for reasons which will soon become obvious, sat behind me. The flight was uneventful, the hostess pleasant, the turbulence minimal considering the weather.  I had a great book to read, the plane was full of fellow Arkies, and I was feeling pleasantly nostalgic for home, despite only having been gone for two days. I'm sappy like that.  And then we touched down in Little Rock.

First, something happened that I've never experienced in air travel before. We were parked out a good distance from the Continental terminal, because there was another plane occupying the spot (remember, this airport is tiny). I didn't think much of it, because, as I said: weather, domino effect, many delays and cancellations. I was still feeling lucky to have been able to get home that night. Then, through the cockpit door, I hear the plane's Captain (who may or may not have been John McEnroe) yelling out the window of the plane, and some mumbled responses from a grounds-crew person with a pronounced foreign accent. I couldn't understand anything the groundsman said, but here is the gist of the Captain's end of the conversation:

"What's going on?"

"How long?"

"Twenty MINUTES? Are you kidding me?"

"Can't you bring out a hard-stand?"

"Are you kidding me?"

"Get me a manager I can talk to on this frequency!"

"Are you KIDDING ME?"

I have to admit, I was chuckling to myself. Because it was just funny to me, an airplane pilot communicating with the ground crew not on a radio, but by yelling out the window. I was smiling to myself, and thinking, "only in Arkansas." And it was only 20 minutes, and in the grand scheme of things, with the perspective of just having had a tornado ravage my hometown and surrounding areas, and knowing that my family was safe and that I'd soon be joining them, I just settled back in with my book. Not a huge thing. The captain was plainly upset, though, and announced the 20-minute delay over the plane's PA system, encouraging passengers to fill out a Continental "customer care card" and express our displeasure at not being able to get to the terminal when we landed. That kind of made me laugh inwardly, too, because honestly--on a day like this? I think the airline had bigger things to worry about. Again, just ask Jamie. 20 minutes? Well, it's not as good as right now, but it's no big deal.

Except to the woman behind me. First, she began just complaining out loud to no one in particular, saying intelligent things like, "Come ON--the weather hasn't even been bad here today." Nah, just tornadoes that flipped airplanes over a few hours earlier, followed by massive power failures and flash-flooding. You know, nothing major.

And then she got on her cell phone, and called some (presumably) loved one to advise them of the situation. Naturally, I only heard her end of it, but she was speaking loudly, apparently wanting the rest of us to hear her conversation. Try to imagine the intonation and nasal whine of Lovey Howell, without the class:

"Well, we're heeeere, but we're just sitting on the taaaarmac. For twenty miiiiinutes."

"This is reason number THREE to get OUT of Little Rock. I swear to Gaaaawd, I am sooooo OUT of here. I haaaate it."

"I don't know; typical Little Rock moronity. Everyone in Little Rock is a moooooron." (At this point I was biting my tongue so hard I drew blood, at the intense desire to inform this paragon of class and manners that if you're going to malign the intelligence of an entire community, including a good many of your cabin-mates, you might want to stick to using actual WORDS.)

The conversation went on for most of the not-quite-20 minutes we sat there waiting, and several things were discussed, but the overriding theme was other people, and how they are essentially wastes of skin. A couple of snippets I can't seem to cleanse from my brain:

"Oh, and when you saaaaaid it, did you just feeeeeel the biiiiiiile rising in your throat?"

"That probably makes me a bad mother, doesn't it? Well, I don't caaaaaare."

And then, excusing the person on the other end of the phone with "I don't guess you need to be entertaining meeeee while I waaaaait," she finally hung up, and began pontificating to the hostess and other passengers about the details of this particular flight, how she took it "aaaaall the tiiiiiime," and that the employees were "aaaaaaaall on a break," because it wasn't this much trouble getting in at 1:00AM, and besides, "they didn't even have any weather here today." That was the only time I broke my silence, since I'd sat up the entire night before and into that morning glued to KTHV's streaming storm coverage on my laptop in a faraway hotel room, worrying for the safety of the family I was unable to contact. I didn't say much, only that I considered tornadoes and flash-floods to officially qualify as "weather." She just sputtered a bit and answered, "Well, that wasn't todaaaaaay." Well, yeah, actually, it was, but I let it go. I could have spit some bile of my own by then, though.

About that time, we were able to taxi up and park near the terminal, and allowed to deplane. While the crew was bringing out the hard-stand so we could get out, my pleasant across-the-aisle flight-mate brought out his cell-phone, and called his wife. His voice was quiet, full, familiar and warm. His conversation went like this:

"Hey, there, Honey. We're here."

"Oh, there was a little delay, and I didn't want to wake you just to tell you I wasn't off the plane yet."

"No, no...don't do that. I'll be there in (checks watch) 20-30 minutes. You just go back to sleep. I just wanted you to know I was on my way."

"I love you."

If that is "typical Little Rock 'moronity'?" I'll take it. I'll take it every. Darn. Time. I only had a brief, small-talk-ish exchange with this sweetheart of a guy, and didn't get his name, but if you recognize these blue shoes, you might tell their wearer that he restored my faith in humanity, one 20 minutes upon a time.

Posted by Belinda | Permalink | Comments (1)

If you're plugged into the blogosphere, particularly the world of "mom-bloggers," you've heard more than enough about The Great Camp Baby To-Do of 2008.  If you've missed the dustup, you can bring yourself up to speed here, and a little Googling will turn up plenty more fallout.

What happened was, Johnson & Johnson and their PR firm, in an effort to "connect" with what is becoming an increasingly powerful demographic, MOMS WHO BLOG, decided to host a 3-day "getaway" for moms, culminating, naturally, in a field trip to J&J headquarters for a product expo.  The hope is that the blogger attendants will return home and write (hopefully glowingly) on their blogs about the J&J products they saw, and how well they were treated by the giant corporation.  They invited 50 "influential bloggers" on this junket, and shockingly enough, Yours Truly was one of those 50.  I'm still trying to figure out quite how "influential" I am, but I registered for the trip based on a few key factors:

1. FREE.  The trip is FREE.  As in, all expenses paid, including airfaire, car service to and from the airport on both ends (though I excused them from sending a car for me here at home), great hotel accomodations, meals, a wine-tasting hosted by Ted Allen (fangirl squeeeee!), lots of pampering activities, a Wii-party and fine dining at The Frog and The Peach, etc.  Yes, apparently, I can be bought--although I have to give props to our sponsors at J&J for making it clear right up front that: a.) We are not obligated in any way to write about the trip or the product expo, and b.) If we DO write about any of it, they ask that, in the interest of total transparency, we reveal that we were there on THEIR dime.  I respect that.

2. The opportunity to visit with scads of my all-time favorite blogger-buddies from all over the continent!  And these are just a few of the ones who I know will be there--I'm sure I "know" a heck of a lot more of the 50 attendees, if only online.  If I had to guess, I'd say that MOST bloggers who accepted the invitation did so with this motivation high on their list of priorities.  That was smart of J&J.  I've heard lots of complaints that "the same group of bloggers gets invited to all these corporate-sponsored junkets," but this is the first time for me.  It will be interesting to see if my participating in this activity gets me on some kind of PR "list" in the future.  I do get PR pitches from time to time, but I'm certainly not inundated by them like some folks say they are.

3. TED ALLEN.  'Nuff said.  I'm a dorky, dorky Top Chef/Queer Eye for the Straight Guy  fangirl.  I'm not ashamed.  Much.

In preparation for this trip, in order to educate myself about exactly who was buying my attention, I did some research into the companies owned by Johnson & Johnson, and the products they make.  I was ASTOUNDED at the sheer number and variety of things made by J&J or one of their subsidiaries which have directly impacted my and my family's lives. They're not just Band-Aids and Baby Powder.  From psychiatric medications that have benefited my bipolar husband to the Interceed fabric that repaired my resectioned colon and protected me from adhesions during a lifesaving surgery in 2000, I've spent enough money with Johnson & Johnson that a plane trip and a few dinners are looking like a nice "Thank-You" note at this point!  Check here to see how much influence Johnson & Johnson has in your life--you might be surprised!

I'll post more on my trip (I leave tomorrow) here, if my editor approves it, and also, with a group of other attendees, on a group blog here.  Expect lots of pictures.

I'm looking forward not only to visiting and schmoozing, but also to doing my best at being a representative of wonderful folks like this amazing woman and others.

Posted by Belinda | Permalink | Comments (1)

I just got an email in my inbox announcing the grand opening of the new CABOT location of Tuesday Morning, on April 1.  I'm assuming it's not an April Fool's joke, and that now those of us out this way might actually be able to make it to the store in time to take advantage of some of the pre-announced sales.  Cabot is growing like crazy, with new restaurant and store openings almost weekly, it seems.  Are we in some crazy recession-proof bubble?

Posted by Belinda | Permalink | Comments (0)

I have been completely in love with the unlikely internet juggernaut that is Twitter for almost a year now, and I am still nearly always unable to describe it accurately to people who do not use it. Yes, it's like instant messaging, kind of. And kind of like a chat-room. And sort of like blogging--instantaneous micro-blogging, anyway. It comes from a wholly simple and straightforward place, asking simply, "What are you doing?" and then providing you with 140 characters worth of blank space to answer that question, as frequently or infrequently as you choose.


When I first entered the Twitter playground last year, most people simply answered the question, using the automatic placement of their username as the beginning of a declarative statement. As in, "ninjapoodles is waiting for the dryer to finish, awestruck at the glamor that is her life." For most folks, Twitter was pretty personal, and we followed mostly people we already knew, either in "real life" or online, and read their updates and posted our own. Then, a few months ago, the Twitter timeline somehow became a conversation. A live, constant, global conversation. New connections were made. In response to the ways that its users were utilizing the service, Twitter made changes to the way the application works. More and more, people were responding to each other directly, by placing '@' in front of another's username. Most of us added more and more followers, as we saw our friends responding to people we hadn't known about, and clicked over to their profiles and found that we liked them, too, and wanted to follow them.

Now, Twitter has added a wonderful little swooshy arrow at the end of each update, so that you can simply click on it to reply to the poster, without even having to type in their username yourself. As of this writing, I have posted a total of 5,836 updates on Twitter, received several hundred "DMs" (direct messages), and I'm following what seems like an insane number of people--458--and adding more daily. I don't automatically follow everyone who follows me, but I do follow anyone who interacts with me directly. In the beginning, I tried to keep a lid on the number of people I'd follow, because I couldn't keep up with a cluttered "timeline," but with the '@' feature, I can easily click on the "replies" tab and see if anyone has addressed me directly, without scanning back through the timeline.

There's also a "favorites" feature, where you can click a star next to a post and mark it as a favorite, for Twitter to save. Tonight was the first time I opened my "favorites" file and looked back on all the posts I'd saved. Here is a samping of updates which I found, for whatever reason, worthy of saving over the last year or so.

This screen-grab is a perfect illustration of how the Twitter timeline can capture the mundane, the angsty, the humorous, and the profound at a glance:


Some of the "Tweets" I save are replies to something I've posted, that made me laugh or meant something to me so that I wanted to remember them. Some struck me as funny:



Others touched me (and probably now have meaning only to me):


And some I save when people speak to me in languages from other planets:


Some Tweets are two-parters (read from the bottom up):


Sometimes an exchange between others is so funny to me that I save the whole thing, like this one (yes, I am so good at screen captures that I left the cursor in the middle of the shot--that word is "idea"). Remember that the Twitter timeline posts the most recent updates at the top, so read exchanges from bottom to top:


But by far, the updates I "favorite" (one thing that really bugs me about the internet is the increasing creation of new verbs) most often are stand-alone posts, usually the ones that make me laugh. These, more than anything else, are probably what makes Twitter worth using for me. Forget "social media," networking, whatever...sometimes, I just want to see what other folks are doing, and hopefully have a chuckle.









So...What are you doing?

UPDATE: Edited to add a link to this video (thanks, Zach!), explaining the bare-bones basics of Twitter to the uninitiated.

Posted by Belinda | Permalink | Comments (0)

I've meant to write about Hulu before, because I've been loving it since Day One.  But while it was in Beta, and limited to invitation-only, I was hesitant lest it not make it.  But now, it's gone public and added a huge amount of content, including more full episode television and even a decent selection of full-length feature films.  Just a cursory glance at that category shows options like "The Big Lebowski" and "The Usual Suspects," so I have high hopes for the future of Hulu. 

Get on over to Hulu.com, sign up, and start browsing.  It's free, and, in my opinion, it's fabulous.  You even have the option of embedding their content on your own site, and the superior quality of Hulu video (compared to YouTube or Google Video) is impressive.

<object width="510" height="295"><param name="movie" value="http://www.hulu.com/embed/JK9tdpQPim1o-aujnb9cOA"></param><embed src="http://www.hulu.com/embed/JK9tdpQPim1o-aujnb9cOA" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="510" height="295"></embed></object>

Uh...if someone knows the secret to embedding video on THIS blog, hit me up right quick, wouldja?  That would be the code above, there.

Posted by Belinda | Permalink | Comments (0)

I don't know if this is a purely Southern phenomenon, but I see it all too often around here, and when I do, it makes me feel stabby. This is just BEYOND idiotic. I truly do not understand what people are thinking when they drive around with dogs in the bed of a pickup truck. Presumably, they "love" their dogs and want to take them for a ride. Bollocks.

If you LOVE your dogs, or even care casually about them, you don't set them up to become projectiles in even a minor traffic accident or just a "near miss" in which you must slam on your brakes or swerve. Even if you're the best driver in the world (and observing the judgment you're showing here, you're NOT), you can't predict or control what other drivers on the road with you are going to do.

And if the thought of your dogs going flying into the street only to then be hit by other cars is not enough of a deterrent to keep you from doing something this stupid, then consider something else: If you're involved in an accident, and your dog becomes a 60-pound projectile which causes injury to another person or persons, who do you think is going to be liable for that injury?

To sum up, THIS IS STUPID;  If you're doing it, please knock it off.  For all our sakes.

Posted by Belinda | Permalink | Comments (0)

...if the Cabot community will support it long enough for it to find its feet, anyway.


Our family ventured out on the opening night of the new Kopan Bulgogi & Sushi restaurant in Cabot.  We know it's conventional wisdom that you don't go to a new restaurant on its first night, but I have personally been on pins and needles waiting for this place to open--I'm still grieving the loss, a couple years ago, of the only sushi joint in Jacksonville.

Good news first:  Though the outside of the building is nondescript (it's the old Hunan), once you step through the door, the atmosphere is polished and pleasant, with much attention to detail (artfully folded napkins, decorative tableware, wait staff in long sleeves and bow ties, moistened finger cloths, etc.).  The layout is a dining room centered around a traditional sushi bar, with the chefs working furiously behind it. 


The food, almost every single thing we had, was excellent.  Our table sampled beef/asparagus and crispy crab appetizers, bulgogi (marinated and sauteed thin strips of beef and vegetables), miso soup, salads with ginger dressing, kim chee cucumbers, teriyaki chicken and broccoli kabobs, and a variety of sushi.  The only thing that disappointed in this dinner was the salad, but you don't go to a Japanese restaurant for salad, so I didn't hold it against them.





The sushi was exactly the way we like it--bursting with fresh flavor, tightly rolled, and of the ideal size for seasoning and popping whole into your mouth with wasabe and/or pickled ginger, via chopsticks.  We didn't get all the sushi we ordered, so we were unable to sample too widely that first time out, but my husband and I liked it so much that we actually ordered takeout sushi from Kopan the following night.  (I feel obliged to report that my sister's family did not share our good experience with the sushi a couple of days later, telling me of California rolls that fell apart and were difficult to eat.)


Like I said, all of our food was just delicious, which makes the service we experienced especially painful to report.  Hopefully it will get better over time, but it apparently didn't improve over the first three days.  The root of the problem seems to be the young, inexperienced serving staff.  I hate to even criticize them, but the teenage servers, while polite and helpful, just seemed to be in over their heads and very unfamiliar with the menu.  We got lots of blank, deer-in-the-headlights expressions in response to any questions, and the poor dears honestly seemed to be frightened to death.  I can't say I blame them--this place is an extreme departure from anything else currently available in Lonoke County or Jacksonville, with its more meticulous (but by no means formal) atmosphere and menu.


Adding to the confusion was the fact that the place was PACKED.  I'm hoping that this is a good sign, and that the community can continue to give Kopan a chance, though I was disheartened at the table I saw getting up and leaving after waiting in vain for 45 minutes after beverage service for someone to take their food order, as well as members of my own family who finally walked out after standing at the front waiting to be seated--or even noticed--for a good 15 minutes.  Incorrect orders were rampant, and people were frustrated.  At our table, our daughter did not receive her meal (chicken and broccoli kabobs) until at least a half hour after the rest of us had been served, and we're talking 30 preschooler minutes, here.  And even when her kabobs finally arrived, we had to ask for the accompanying rice noodles and then wait for those.  It was excruciating.

After reporting all that, let me reiterate this:  Despite all the problems--and there were MANY--with the service, our food was so good that we went back the very next night for more.  We just carried it home with us rather than suffer through the service again, and according to the later report from my sister, we chose wisely there.

The reason that I'm writing about this here is in the hopes that Kopan will make it.  I was kind of surprised to see such a packed house on opening night, and hope that the turnout meant that there is a market for good sushi in this area.  I mean, it's right there on the sign out front, "bulgogi & sushi," so surely everyone who went inside was expecting...well, sushi.  I hope that the owner/managers of Kopan will work out the service problems quickly, before too much negative word of mouth is built up about it.  If I could make a suggestion to them, it would be to maybe have a couple more "work days" with the staff, sans customers, familiarizing them with the menu and standardizing service so that the servers feel competent to answer questions and tend to their tables as best they can.

Kopan has the potential to really be something special in Cabot, if it doesn't collapse beneath the weight of its own high expectations.  I'm pulling for you, Kopan.

Posted by Belinda | Permalink | Comments (0)

If you know me even a little bit, you know that the coming of Spring every year is not heralded with glee in my household. When a loved one is dealing with bipolar disorder, it can be an emotionally exhausting time, and I tend to react by hunkering down in the bunker and concentrating all my energies on what's going on at home. Ironically, I'd probably be doing better for myself if I just forged ahead and kept writing during these times. Now that I've actually opened up the blogging software, I'm a bit stymied, so...I'm gonna post about groceries. You heard me.

I've posted on this topic before, and I'm still at it. I get a lot of questions about couponing and store sales, and one of the most common is, "But aren't coupons always for highly-processed junk food? I try to eat healthy, so I can't really save money on groceries."

The short answer is, yes, most coupons are for crap. But your store sales will usually have lots of good deals on the "outer perimeter" of the store, where the nutritionally dense foods tend to be--your meats, produce, grains, dairy. And, believe it or not, many coupons are for staples that are not frozen pizza and cupcakes, and you can make the most of those. So, to answer all the, "What do you buy with your couponing?" questions, here are some recent examples. I shoot for an average of 60% savings, which I usually meet when averaging trips. In the examples below, two of the receipts showed around 53-55% savings, while the other got darn close to 70% saved.

Click on the pictures for notes and a closer look.


On this trip, the receipt total was $109, and once I'd applied my coupons to the store sales, I paid $53 for all this food, plus a couple of things that didn't get pictured because Alex had already taken them downstairs to the freezer in the basement. Here was the haul:

Wonton wrappers
Nature's Own Double Fiber Wheat bread
Several cans of store-brand veggies
Couple cans of Dole pineapple
T. Marzetti Fat-Free Ranch veggie dip
Fresh asparagus
Fiber One bars, 6 boxes
Milk & Cereal bars for Bella, 3 boxes
Organic carrots
Black table grapes
Packaged tart apple slices for Bella
2 Freschetta 4-cheese pizzas
10 Banquet chicken pot-pies for Bella (they're very small)
15 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breast, great sale price (these I opened, repackaged into single-meal size servings, and vacuum sealed and froze, so now we have enough chicken for 7 meals)

Yes, there are some prepared foods there (breakfast bars, bread, veggie dip), but also plenty of "real" food to show for that trip, where I paid for less than half of my groceries. It can be done. Next:


This trip included a good few non-grocery items, which, if you're paying attention, can REALLY save you some dough. This was the trip where, but for that roast, I'd have broken the 70% saved mark. As it was, this was $216 worth of food, for which I paid $74. YES. Here was the take:

14 cans Healthy Choice vegetable soup for one, for my lunches
5 boxes Kelloggs Frosted Flakes Gold, for Bella (I know, cereal, ewww)
20 Yoplait YO+ digestive health yogurts
5 Lloyd's barbecue chicken & beef (tasty and lean)
10 lbs. Riceland brown rice
1 bunch bananas (sliced & frozen for use in smoothies)
White seedless grapes
Frozen strawberries
7 boxes Garnier Nutrisse haircolor, MY actual preferred brand
7 Gillette Fusion Hydragel shave gel
2 boxes bandages
1 roll bandaging tape
3lb. English beef roast

It may look crazy to buy 7 boxes of haircolor or shave gel at a time, but look at it this way: You're going to need these things (well, I am, anyway) sometime, and if you wait until you run out, you're likely to have to pay full price. In the case of the haircolor, that would have been a $6-8 difference PER BOX. So you can see, it pays to stockpile while the sales are on, especially if you can combine those sales with coupons.


This trip, today's, was what we call a "cherry-picking" trip, in which, outside of my actual needs, I was ONLY buying things that were deeply discounted due to the combination of store sales and my coupons. What did I NEED when I went into the store? I needed bread and juice. That's it. And those things were not on sale, so they threw of my percentages somewhat, but that's OK. Here's what $99 bought me (the ticket total was $206):

3 bags Baked! Lays potato chips (shut up, they make my lunches sufferable, all 14 of them at a time)
1 large bottle pomegranate-blueberry juice (the base of my berry smoothies)
6 bags Kraft string cheese
10 boxes Orville Redenbacher light popcorn (*sighs* for Act II Kettle Corn)
4 packs Huggies wipes, for the car
6 tubs Kan-Doo pop-up wipes for Bella's bathroom
6 bags Welch's dried fruit
1/2 gallon Florida's Natural orange juice
10 Glade jar air-freshening candles (what--you don't stink?)
2lbs white seedless grapes, for the freezer
2 loaves Nature's Own Honey Wheat bread, for Alex
1 loaf Nature's Own Double Fiber Wheat bread, for me
48 Fiber One Yoplait yogurts. That's right, 48. Stored in the basement fridge until I finish the current stock of Activia and YO+ I already have.

You may be wondering things like, "Where's the veggies? Where's the milk?" Well, I already have pretty good stores of most things, and I even freeze milk when it's on sale--it thaws just fine, good as new. Cheese also freezes well, as does bread. And we buy MOST of our vegetable frozen, which actually means that you're usually getting a fresher product than by buying "fresh" produce, since frozen veggies are flash-frozen on the spot shortly after being picked, instead of being shipped from wherever they're harvested to your grocery store.

The meat that we feed our dogs, and most of our own meat, we get from a small, wonderful, local butcher, where we're able to pick it up on the day the cow is processed (the only do one cow at a time), and it actually winds up costing less than grocery-store meat.

And of course, our larders are full-to-bursting with canned goods, pastas, rice, and beans.

The only thing I can add is that I AM now using The Grocery Game, which only became widely available in Arkansas this year. I can't say that it saves me more money than what I was managing to save going it alone, but it saves me HOURS of time, which is worth a lot.

So...any questions?

Posted by Belinda | Permalink | Comments (1)

I just posted my "review" of the fabulous (AAA 5-diamond rated) Victoria & Albert's restaurant, located in Disney World's Grand Floridian Resort and Spa, in Orlando, over on my personal blog.  Check it out, if you're considering a trip to Orlando sometime in 2008--it's well worth the necessary 180-days-in-advance reservation and the hefty price tag per meal.

But there is another reason that Victoria & Albert's has been buzzworthy among travel-bloggers this month, and that is due to Disney World's recent (and in my opinion, good and proper) decision to "ban" children under the age of 10 from the restaurant.  The howls of protest went up all over the internet, but interestingly to me, they all seemed to be from people who had never actually been to the restaurant.  Disney World has 97 OTHER fine restaurants to choose from, so why anyone would get upset at not being able to take their young child to a 3-hour, 7-course, $125-per-person (minimum) dinner is beyond me.

I think that the disappointment of the protesters is ill-placed in this instance, having just returned from a Disney World vacation last month, which included an amazing anniversary dinner at Victoria & Albert’s. As I said in the post on my own blog, I cannot imagine ANYONE wanting to bring a child of any age to this particular restaurant, when there are 97 other restaurants to choose from, including several in the resorts themselves!

Honestly: Our meal, for the two of us, cost around $400 with gratuity (thank you, Mom-In-Law for the anniversary gift!)–and we do not even drink.  I can only imagine the cost if you include wine pairings with each course, and/or other drinks.  The seatings last about 3 hours, with lengthy pauses between each of the 7 formal courses (and the 2 or 3 “mini” courses like the amuse bouche, coffee, and final sweets). It’s so quiet you could hear a pin drop, even with the gentle harp music. The food is very upscale, and caters to a far more sophisticated palate than children have. Seriously–take a look at the menu, and imagine the response of the typical kid. Our daughter likes a lot of different foods, and we do frequently expose her to "finer" dining and new things, but there is nothing that we ate that night that she would have enjoyed–not even the desserts.

I think that Disney World has done all their patrons, especially the children, a favor with this rule, and I even wish they’d extend it farther, not necessarily with more “bannings,” but perhaps with some warnings/guidelines about some of their other upscale restaurants’ suitability for young children. For example, The California Grill atop the Contemporary Resort was splendid for us, but as I looked around the dining room at the many children who were there, including our daughter, it was plain to see that they were antsy and miserable after the first hour, and that meal is designed to go on a long time, too, being built around the fireworks shows. It’s not about not knowing how to behave–our daughter is very well-mannered at restaurants–it’s a question of what is appropriate to require of a young child.

Our daughter was much happier staying in our rooms at the Grand Floridian with her grandmommy, eating chicken-noodle soup and sandwiches from room service in her bathrobe and slippers, than she would have been with us that night, believe me.

I suspect that most, if not all, of the people who are getting up in arms over this move by Disney Resorts have never set foot inside Victoria & Albert’s. Give it a try–it’s a memorable experience that you’ll recall fondly for a long time, and you’ll quickly see why it’s “not for kids.”

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