Tainted Tea & Delicious Unpredictability

My favorite tea, Candy Cane Lane, which only comes out during the holidays, made its appearance this weekend at the Co-op, only the shelf was bare. By the time I got there, shoppers had snatched it all up.

After Dominic, Daney, and I bought our other stuff and packed it into the car, the kids told me they'd found a big box of groceries just sitting on the Co-op floor, which included three boxes of Candy Cane lane. So they'd grabbed one.

That was the first surprise.

Then, they went on to say that when a man picked up the box, they'd realized the tea was his. Instead of giving it back to him, though, they shoved it in a rack of raisins.

And that was shocking!

The mom in me was sad. I thought I'd raised kind, honest kids. I sent them back into the Co-op to get the tea for the man.

But the writer in me was thrilled. While I sat in the car waiting for the kids to straighten out the situation, I was thinking what a good story this was. That Dominic and Daney were usually pretty level-headed, that they always did the right thing, but that this was the very opposite of anything I'd expect of them.

It's exactly what I need to do in my writing!

This week, I am going to think of surprises I can put into my story: unexpected things the character does, or says. The root of those decisions. How she recovers.
I'm going to work on plot twists that keep the reader interested, excited, perplexed.

I'm going to drink Candy Cane Lane and taste irony and imperfection and regret.

Yum.

How I Know For Sure It's Summer

Because my kids are going a thousand miles an hour in a thousand different directions.

Because there are kids I've never seen before eating pizza and Popsicles in my kitchen.

Because the grocery bill has doubled.

Because the water bill has doubled.

Because there are paint ball splats all over the front lawn.

Because Reesie is barefoot -- even in the bank.

Because I'm blogging about every five days.


How about you? How do you know for sure that it's summer?

Fun Food

My friend Kim and I went to our first cooking class last night. We're lucky to live in Ashland, where our Co-op has all kinds of classes, and where the shelves are filled with local beef, bread, dairy, and produce.

Joel Salatin from Polyface Farms in Virginia, who was featured in "Food, Inc." and in Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma, was just here, too!

The class Mary Shaw taught was insightful -- and delicious!

Kim and I feasted on carrot/parsley/poppy seed/sunflower salad, tamari almonds,and kale and French lentil salad.

Here are my favorite tips:

* The biggest sellers at the Co-op are consistently Fugi apples, bananas, avocados and almonds.

* The biggest frozen food seller? Blueberries, by far.

* Red wine vinegar is $5.50 a pound by the bottle, $.77 by bulk.

* To get more calcium from nuts, roast them lightly first.

* Lentils are high in fiber, iron, and folates (which regenerate tissue).

* Acid aids calcium availability in greens; Add lemon or vinegar as dressing.

* Federal stimulus money for creating poultry processing plants is available -- and Ashland is snatching it up!

* And my favorite? The best oatmeal raisin cookie recipe ever comes from The Joy of Cooking.

Car-ma

Ouch.

This, only 12 days after my uppity "Co-op Smackdown" blog:
Yep.

Took the Prius to the store, and got run over by a big ol' honkin' truck.

If it all wasn't a total insurance nightmare, I'd probably be laughing hysterically.

Co-op Smackdown

When I drive this to the Co-op:







I get all kinds of smiles and waves and thumbs-up.

But after losing my key today, I had to wedge this into the same parking lot:







Which garnered all kinds of head-shaking and finger-pointing and scowls.

Leading me to this thought:

Don't mess with me, people. I can run right over you. Don't mess with me.