It's surprising how hard it is to get dirt out of greens. I cut just a few leaves of lettuce from the garden the other day and even using my fingers to rub at dirt stains, I couldn't get the stuff clean enough to pass supermarket muster.

Where are people? TALK TO ME!!!

Calculating the nutritional information for my day using Diet Sleuth. Oy. This should shame me into line pretty quickly. I was pretty damned good by American standards today but clearly not as good as I need to be. Nothing like seeing a pie chart of your day's intake of fat, carbohydrates and protein to wake you up.

Today, I went into the gourmet market that I'm sure is getting clobbered by Whole Foods, and they had free samples EVERYWHERE! It was awesome. I tried some olive oil on a little piece of bread, got a free sample bottle of the oil, had some cheese, a piece of some cured meat product, and I think that might be it. But it was practically a whole meal! I feel like my grandmother when they used to have samples at the grocery store and she would go for lunch.

Good for you, Spidra. I need to start doing something like that.

That sounds like fun, Jesse.

Hey, was that shrift before?? Are you all moved and shit???

A poster on another board I frequent works for Whole Foods. She's been talking about some of their policies in a thread where we all talk (usually kvetch) about our jobs. After reading some of the shit they pull, I'm going to try harder not to ever shop there. (I rarely do, but I'm going to try reducing it further.) Now I'm feeling the unions that picketed when they moved in there had it right.

One of the many nice things about web boards is getting a view of people who live other places. A number of other posters there have talked about Wegman's and it seems like a really interesting business success story at the very least.

In any case, congratulations on the grazing, Jesse. It's nice to fill up for free. My Catholic guilt usually prevents me from indulging. But I'll sample when I'm serious about buying. I sampled some Pink Lady apples at the farmer's market and was glad I did. They were too mealy for me. OTOH, other things I've sampled, like the Barhi dates, I bought on the spot.

and they had free samples

TJ's had artichoke and lemon pesto (wha????) on chicken and some cookies. I had to pass on the cookies cause I already wanted to buy some. I didn't need to know that they were delicious as well.

I totally tried and didn't buy! I have no shame. OK, I bought some merengue (that's not right --that's the dance. I mean the egg white thing. Edit: MERINGUE. Still looks weird) cookies for class, and a drink, but I did not buy any aged gouda or cured meat.

Edit some more: I just realized I'm not at all tired, and that's a bad thing. This is what I get for going to bed so early last night.