Darkoshi

In between 5 different stores, I spent $250 while grocery shopping yesterday! Thankfully, I can afford to spend that much, but the amount still shocks me. When I was a teenager, and my parent's total at the cash register came up to $100, I thought *that* was a lot.

Included were 2 containers of detergent (~$20), 24 rolls of toilet paper (~$20), and a bottle of B12 vitamins ($10). But that still leaves about $200 that I spent on food; food that will last me maybe 3 to 4 weeks, although some items last longer and some shorter.

If I were short on money, there are many items I would have not gotten, or gotten cheaper substitutes for.

However, I now have 2 magnificent mangos, 2 lovely lemons, 2 awesome avocadoes, colorful rainbow chard, green collards, a large cauliflower, a beautiful butternut squash, the makings for pizza, dark-chocolate covered pistachio nuts, cinnamon-vanilla almonds, and other good stuff.

Out of sheer curiosity, I got a bottle of coconut aminos, which is made from the sap of coconut tree blossoms, and is somewhat similar to soy sauce.

Last time I was grocery shopping, I bought some raw cacao butter. I'm going to try to melt it and make vegan white chocolate from it. I'm not aware of any stores here which sell vegan white chocolate.

The snow from last week still hasn't all melted yet.

Money, Money, Money - by patriciaet colette

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0xnHJEkLW8

Gah! I ate the whole chocolate turkey. What was I thinking? I wasn't thinking! That's what happens when you munch on something while doing something else.

The chocolate peanut butter cups turned out very goooooooooooooood. I made them partially based on this recipe, except for not measuring the ingredients, and not using the freezer. I also used silicone mini baking cup forms instead of paper muffin cups. Note: Don't remove the chocolate cups from the forms until they are filled, topped and cooled. Otherwise, the bottom chocolate shell may start melting from the warm peanut butter filling and the top layer of melted chocolate.

The first 2 days of the trip were a bit rainy/drizzly, but not enough to keep us inside. Overall, the weather in Germany was quite good.

The pay-phones all took coins so we didn't need to buy a phone-card to make calls (a few years ago I recall most of the pay-phones only took cards).

In Munich, we went up the one tower of the Frauenkirche, which has an observation area, giving a good view of the city.

In Berlin, we went up the television tower, which also had a good observation area.

We went and saw various things, and met with a friend and some family. Qiao bought souvenirs to take home as gifts; I bought mostly chocolate.

One vegan restaurant in Berlin had vegan white chocolate bars for sale (Bonvita Reismilch Tafel Weiss); I bought 2. (Yay! Vegan white chocolate!) That made up somewhat for them not having the (as advertised) vegan cheese-spaetzle available on that day.

There are so many flavors of chocolate bars for sale in Germany. Of the non-dairy ones I found, I bought the following flavors:
Ginger
Lime-Ginger
Sour Cherry
Dark Chocolate with Olive Oil
Pepper
Green-tea Mango
Cherry-Tomato Salt

There was an intriguing "Absinthe Truffel" flavored bar, but unfortunately it had dairy in it.

On the plane-trip back, Qiao and me lost each other in the Atlanta Customs area. While waiting in the first line, picking up our luggage, and waiting in the next line, I was disheartened that we stood a good chance of missing our connecting flight since it was already past the time when it would normally be boarding. I hadn't realized until the flight back that we only had an hour and a half in Atlanta... normally one schedules the flights to allow more time to get thru customs.

I had been flagged to go through the extra agricultural search section, and while I was waiting for Qiao to get through the previous checkpoint, the guards kept telling me to go onward to the agricultural area. So I reluctantly walked that way, and when I saw Qiao heading past, I yelled to him twice. He turned his head and I thought he saw me, but apparently he hadn't. When I exited the other end of the agricultural section, he was no longer to be found. I didn't know if he was still waiting for me back near the other side (the guards didn't seem amenable to anyone walking back that way) or if he had gone on ahead. After dithering about for a bit, I eventually went through the last security screening on my own, even more disheartened now.

When I checked the departure screens for our flight, it said "At gate". That meant it hadn't left yet! Maybe Qiao had gone on ahead, and we could still catch the plane! I started rushing toward the terminal and gate, running in some places, asking people to let me by on the escalator, hurrying past people... naturally, the gate was one which was all the way down at the end of the long terminal, huff-puff, puff... When I got there, I was relieved to hear Qiao call my name and to see him there. So we made it onto the flight; Qiao had got there only a few minutes before me and the flight personnel had told him if I didn't make it there in the next minute, the plane would be leaving without us.

Our checked baggage unfortunately didn't make it to our plane on time. It came on the next flight in.

In Berlin, the light-athletics (?) world-championships were going on. In the Berlin airport, we were sitting for a bit next to someone wearing a nice-looking African-style outfit. I decided to be friendly (good for me!) and asked him if he had been there for the championships. He said that yes, he was the president of the delegation from Burkina Faso and that he had attended some meetings, but had to go back now even though the competitions were still going on.

Flying in airplanes, the occasional turbulence scares me. It seems so easy for a part of the wing or some other important part on the exterior of the plane to break off... and falling from such a height... smashing into the ground... seems scary. I don't remember feeling this fear when I flew as a child.

Doing sit-ups is similar to swinging on a swing... you get into a rhythm... back and forth, back and forth; air rushes by your ears - swoosh - on the forward swing.

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Are Greek pepperoncini peppers - the mild pickled ones that come in jars - roasted? I was looking for a brand without artificial preservatives, and found one in the health food store - the ingredients were only peppers, vinegar and salt, I believe. There were some black specks/crumbs in the bottom of the jar (similar to the black things in the bottom of the nearby jars of roasted red and yellow peppers), and I was wondering what the black stuff could be from?

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I wrapped a metal chain belt twice around my neck and fastened it, this morning, so that one end was left hanging slightly down in the center. I wasn't wearing a shirt. When I looked in the mirror, I felt that I looked quite sexy.

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I have 64 colorful balloons in my cube at work. They are pretty. And bouncy.

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I saw a youngling hawk of some sort at work last week. The shadow of a big bird fluttered over the ground before me, as it flew from one tree-branch to another. I looked up, and saw it... a fluffy short-tailed thing... it peered curiously down at me, and I peered curiously up at it. And after a bit, it flew away.

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Terra Nostra organic has come out with a vegan milk-chocolate style chocolate bar called "Ricemilk Choco". It has a sweet mild flavor, a nice change from the more intense dark chocolate bars I've gotten used to.