I was poking around On Demand earlier this week, and stumbled across the Travel Channel's 5 Takes episode on Alaska. One evening, they all head over to the grocery store to get supplies to cook at the hostel, and they showed the price for the smallest container of rosemary (which I can get at the local Jewel for about $2.00)--it was $4.98! Scary prices up there for stuff they can't grow locally.

collect the different Starbucks cards.

I have one that I bought in Hawaii that I love and keep refilling. I would be ashamed to admit that, but i'm not.

Scary prices up there for stuff they can't grow locally.

The biggest indication that tourist season has begun up there (other than the motorhomes clogging the highways) is people complaining about having to pay $1.50/lb. for bananas. I felt SO DUMB last time I was up there - it was June, I swooped up a watermelon for the family dinner, and was promptly shocked at it being $5/lb. I used to laugh at people who did that!

That one doesn't have any toy boats.

While reading up on paraphilia on Wikipedia, I found Suit and Tie fetish which included the following text:

The effect on particularly masculine men can also be a factor if one looks at the suit as “civilizing” him; to see a man replete with bulging muscles, body hair and stubble being juxtaposed with being attired in elegant, formal clothing can be stimulating to some with this fetish.

And then I blushed as I remembered the stubble/suit request some days back.

Wait! I found the toy boats!

Excellent.

Of the things on there I don't understand, the most perplexing has got to be the cars stuck in mud. I mean, a lot of those things are lost on me, but I can see where they get, I dunno, some sort of reaction other than irritation and an urge to call AAA.

Scary prices up there for stuff they can't grow locally.

Which is almost everything!

I used to laugh at people who did that!

Hee.

Hey! we had an awesome garden. I remember beets, turnips, peas, tomatoes, turnips, beets, potatoes, and more turnips. Maybe cabbage, too.

Earthquake?

Consuela, are you saying there was an earthquake in your area?

On the assumption it wasn't serious, I had a minor Christmas miracle just now! In my building's basement the laundry room has a bookshelf with cast-off books from residents. I always scan this bookshelf for its entertainment value-- clearly these are books with no other value to anyone else, as it typically consists of Stephen King and Tom Clancy hardcovers, 20-year-old college textbooks, similarly out-of-date travel books, and what I suspect are the books setting out the founding principles of a now-defunct money-based cult. But tonight, I found a book that has been on my Amazon wishlist for years, but out-of-print-- got Pauline Kael's essay collection For Keeps for free and in good shape and in hardcover!

Sweet!

Man, I wish my building had a cast-off books shelf.

Suela, it looks like a quake. Magnitude 3.7. You okay? Other Bay Area-istas?