Help the World and avoid work? Perfect!

I cannot remember how I came across this particular website, but I glad it came to me. It is Free Rice. The idea is that you match a word to its synonym and, for every answer you get correct, 20 grains of rice is donated to the UN World Food Program. The further into the game you get, the harder the words. It is the perfect game if you are on hold, as I am often finding myself these days, or need a mental break from whatever you may be doing that is unpleasant. So, learn a little vocab, play a little game, and earn a little rice for the UN!

Two for Six Dollars!

I had to go to the grocery store earlier this week to get a money order so I could get a NC license plate. Why? Because the DMV does not accept out of state checks, and Wells Fargo does not exist in North Carolina. Oh bother. After procuring my money order, I roamed a little, picked some things up that were on my list, and some that were not, as per usual. My best buys were two "two for six dollar" deals. Both guilty pleasures in their own right. First off...

Two lovely cartons of raspberries. If someone to look in my fridge right now, they must think me a berry-maniac. I have blueberries, raspberries, grapes, and cherries. All good and all something I could easily make myself sick on But back to the raspberries - how did they taste? Delicate and sweet and melt-in-your-mouth. Speaking of melting in your mouth...

Ice cream! North Carolina is sorely lacking a Blue Bell presence, so I have resorted to other brands. Haagen Dazs is the current front runner. While I wanted to get Mayan Chocolate and Sticky Toffee Pudding, both were unavailable, so I called for backups. Enter Cherry Vanilla and Caramel Cone. I have now tried both and are wonderful in their own way. The cherry is light and fruity with huge hunks of cherry. The caramel cone I was uncertain about given the presence of a bread product which can tend toward dry or mush. I am happy to report the chocolate coating protects the cone bits from mush and the caramel cuts through the creaminess of the ice cream well.

I like to think that the raspberries balance the ice cream intake. One bite of ice cream, one bite of berry. Two bites of ice cream, one bite of berry. Bite of ice cream, bite of ice cream, bite of ice cream...

Deceived by a berry!

I am currently eating lunch. The grocery store here has been running a special on blueberries (buy one get one free), so I have enjoyed approximately 1,000 blueberries in the past few weeks. Good alone, good with blueberry waffles, and good in salad with Brianna's poppy seed dressing. Back to the story...

Eating lunch. Popping blueberries in my mouth with abandon. Every now and then one of them has a little grit from the seeds, so I wondered how the seeds were arrayed in the berry. I bite one in half and I am shocked. Blueberries are not blue on the inside! They are albinos enshrouded in a robe of indigo! How has this blueberry lover gone 26 years and not known the true soul of the "blue"berry is white as lamb's wool?


I feel duped. My blueberry eating experience has lost its purity and innocence. Now I know the truth behind the berry.

Dracula

In my adventures in reading, I try to keep the genres changing so I do not fall into a rut and so I read things I might not normally. One of the more difficult genres for me to pick from is classics, not because I do not like classic novels, but because there are so many I want (or feel I should) read. Last week, I crossed another one off the list.

Dracula by Bram Stoker was a book I started reading online at my old job when I was on phone duty, but I did not finish it electronically. Before moving, I had a Half Price Bookstore gift card to use (no Half Price here - sadness!) and bought Dracula, among other things. I thought it would be much like Frankenstein in its build-up and execution, but it was less tense and foreboding. That is not to say there was not an element of darkness to it, only that it was infused with a hope from the characters.

Something I did not realize is that the book is epistolary. I thought it would make for a confusing read, jumping from character voice to character voice, but Stoker wrote each character with a distinctive voice and perspective, it was not difficult to follow in the least. The way each person is introduced and developed is smooth, with the exception of some of Lucy's suitors who seem like passing characters only to show up later in more significant roles. The novel never lags; each chapter is purposeful and moves the story forward, whether fully understood at the time or not.

The biggest "complaint" I have is that the story would have been so much cooler if I had not known the "punchline" already. It takes about half the book for the characters to figure out that (spoiler!) Dracula is the vampire. To have read the book before it was common cultural knowledge must have been surprising. However, since there is nothing I can do about knowing the twist, the method of "I know something you don't know" was employed when reading.

One of my tiffs with novels, classics especially, is that the end trails off. As a reader, I want the ends tied up, resolution to most of the major and minor questions and something that is not a "five years later..." scenario. Dracula wrapped everything up, not necessarily in a neat little bow, but the characters progressed in the short term and what each ended up doing suited them. They did not join up and become vampire hunters ala Ghostbusters. In fact, I would say that their lives returned to what they had (or were in the process of moving toward) before Dracula came into the picture.

Overall, Dracula was an excellent book. It kept me interested, did not bog me down with some of the writing styles many classic novels can do (sentence structure and verbiage), and was a lot of fun to read on top of it all. A book I would think about returning to on a rainy day...or a dark and stormy night.

On hold...

I am on hold with an insurance company right now. Been on hold for about 15 minutes now, which begs the question - when do you hang up? I need to speak with them, so if I hang up now, I will have to go through the holding again at some point. I feel like Phoebe on Friends - I will get the next available operator, but how long must I wait for him/her to become available?

After about 10 minutes, I begin to ask myself things like "Is my life, like this phone call, on hold? How long have I been on hold? Do I simply need to know the correct 'extension' for life fulfillment? Why can't people on hold choose what kind of music they like? What hold music would I be if I had to choose? What if I have been placed in an 'on hold' vortex where my phone call will never be answered and 'they" (you know...them) are sending me subliminal messages, reprogramming my mind to only eat Burger King or shop at TJMaxx?" Holding is dangerous.

(26 minutes and counting...)

***Update*** I hung up the phone at approximately 32 minutes. I am sure that, had I not hung up, I would still be on hold. It was a difficult decision, but I think it was the right one. Eventually, an alternate phone number was found that provided me with an actual human. But first I was put on hold...

Saturday in Raleigh

A Saturday or three ago, I went off on a grand adventure, the likes of which have never been seen. I roamed Raleigh. I know, I am such a sojourner. I had met a church friend for coffee at Third Place (fabulous cinnamon chocolate chip cookies) about a month in to me living here, and absolutely loved the coffee, shop, and area. It is in an area of Raleigh called Five Points (because five roads converge and one large and confusing intersection). There is the coffee shop, Lilly's Pizza (renowned throughout Raleigh), antique stores and NOFO at the Pig, a cafe/cute gift store. The store is a converted Piggly Wiggly and, in homage, they have cute pig sculptures around the parking lot...

Goal for NOFO: to eat on the patio there on a breezy sunny day and to buy something unique and fun at the store...or at least some fudge.

After wandering around there, I decided to see what was going on at the Farmer's Market. I wish I lived closer to the market, because I would go there for all my produce instead of the grocery store. It is nice to taste before you buy, talk with the people who grow and pick the food, and build a relationship with some vendors beyond "that will be $21.56."

When I went, there were tons and tons of strawberries. If one wished to, one could gorge oneself on strawberry samples. Come June it will be peach samples...mmm. There is always a great selection of veggies - from Vidalia onions to turnips to lettuce to peppers. I think the Farmer's Market is one of the few places where dirt on produce is a comforting sight.

Further down in the same produce building is a little garden/nursery where people can purchase decorative plants and trees and herbs. I looked for some basil, but it had already been sold out. Another day.

There are three buildings behind the main Farmer's Market area. One is where people can buy ready-made food - fried stuff and pulled pork type things, I believe. In the main building, there are vendors selling painting, crafts, candies, desserts (pies and cakes), parts of cows - I wish I had gotten a picture of the list - shanks and shoulders, butts and briskets. However, what brings me to this building every time is the vast selection of jams, jellies, preserves, sauces, dressings, and honey. Oh the honey. Clover, wildflower, with the comb, without the comb. It truly looks like nectar of the gods...

Also in the jam building are a few other selections, as can be seen below in example and on banners (fresh rabbit, anyone?). The cast iron items are huge and extremely heavy. Not sure who would want to get a loaf of bread out of an oven when the pan weighs as much as a 4-year-old child.



So far, the only things I have bought in the jam/honey area has been as gifts, so one of these days, I am going to stock up on some North Carolina preserves (think of a fruit and they jar it), sticky honey, and part of a cow.

The third "second level" building is a pork market.

I was wary entering here thinking I would come face to face with whole hogs hanging from hooks. (Alliteration is my friend!) Thankfully, all the whole hogs had sold by this point, or they are kind enough to house them behind the fridges. If you want anything that is from a pig - they are your people. Bacon, pork skin, loins, chops, and these, the closest thing to a whole pig they had...

It is a fun place to be whether you are looking to buy things or not. The vendors are kind and helpful both with what makes a good rutabaga and what produce is coming in and going out of season. All the food I have bought there has been top notch and perfectly ripened. In fact, one vendor even told Aaron and I when we went last summer to wait a day or two to eat a certain kind of peach because it needed to ripen a little more. They know what they are talking about and have oodles of proof to show and taste from.

For the curious who think if they visit they will miss out on the fresh Carolina food because there is no stove in the hotel room, fear not! There is a Farmer's Market restaurant across the street that serves food directly from the market. I have heard it is top notch. Or, if you are more interested in some seafood, how about the NC Seafood Restaurant?

Do you see why I want to live closer to the market? Fresh picked strawberries and seafood could quickly become a nightly dinner if I lived close.