Hot damn, people - the midwest looks like a scene from Day After Tomorrow and there are 200 posts about Trader Joe's??

Priorities, we failed to prioritize them.

I'm gonna be a Trader Joe's heretic and say that while there are great things I like there, for regular grocery shopping it just does not work for me. We don't eat much in the way of pre-made foods, and I end up buying a lot of treats when we go there (expensive cheeses, candy) and I still have to go to the Kroger for staples anyway. So I am on a "once a month" TJ's schedule.

I am opposite this. There are definitely treat things that occasionally hop into my cart but mostly TJ's is staples stuff. Not their pre-mades, just actual staples. I am loving how they've gone to having fresh fruits and veggies and omg meat and ... yeah, I do almost all my shopping there. I remember when they didn't have cleaning stuff or paper goods. My list of things I have to get elsewhere keeps shrinking. It means I can make those a once a month thing at most. Which is awesome.

But I have a friend, P, who does TJ's as the occasional place. She buys things I don't, does lunches for her children and she also really wants to have a specific brand. I don't care if the crackers don't say Carr's or the chevre isn't labeled as made by Laura Chenel. Also I don't *want* to buy Tide and Dawn for the cleaners. So it works. However I do miss the whimsical prints on paper towels. Those I tend to stock up on whatever store brand does the whimsical prints.

That was tl;dr, but the gist is that I am glad there are different kinds of stores so people can shop in places that work for them. Kinda like I like how some car companies are finally designing some interesting cars. I may personally hate them but I prefer having variety to choose from than just cookie cutter same.

I gotta say -- and I am in no way a shill -- buying a fizzy water machine was a fantastic investment, because I, too, drink fizzy water like it's...well, water. After about a year, it paid for itself, and there's the liberal-hippie-greenie good feelings about not contributing to the plastic bottle waste (not all places recycle them), AND it's a freaking joy to not lug full bottles of water home every week.

Oh, so much this. I felt honestly uncomfortably frivolous when I ordered my machine but I use it soooo much and I don't lug home bottles and then drag them to the recycling bin. Best purchase for me. I happily drink fizzy water.

(I miss the old-fashioned glass bottles)

I AM thrilled that I used some gift money and upgraded to the penguin with the glass bottles. I love them lots. They look like Lego soldiers with their tops screwed on too. So there's often Fizzy Water Theatre.

I haven't been able to determine if fizzy water tastes just like fizzy water or if it tastes like soda water or something. Because I don't like soda water.

I find it tastes like fizzy water, not soda water to me. I like both but I can taste the diff.

msbelle, I think your snow days are actually power shortage days. Seriously, what's going on in Texas and NM is BANANAS. Rolling blackout because coal generators' water pipes burst, low gas pressure (citywide in LC, patchwork across the whole state) due to above affecting delivery into the state and too high demand. Mexico stopped selling them extra power because THEY were running low. Water mains and pipes bursting everywhere. Oh, and cable is going out because of the blackouts and the UPS batteries being so cold as to be useless.

It's illustrative of how fragile the utilities infrastructure down there is. This is sort of a once-a-century thing, but still.

Liese, you think maybe your propane tank got so cold as to not have enough pressure? Or a valve froze?

I find it tastes like fizzy water, not soda water to me. I like both but I can taste the diff.

Thanks. I may consider the investment.

I would totally do that via hulu.

Does hulu have chatting capabilities? I've never used it.

I told Calli we should have a watch-n-bitch.

And we totally should. When's the next episode? I'll tivo it and we can watch it with bourbon and ginger soda. Only instead of making the show itself a drinking game we can play ourselves. Every time you say, "Oh, that's totally bullshit," we'll drink. Every time I say, "Seriously? Public health in resource limited countries doesn't work like that," we'll drink. Every time one of us goes into completely inarticulate "arrrrrgh" territory, chug!

No. Just commercials that are timed differently to tv ads, so it would be hard to sinc up for a w&b on different media.

I make mine with filtered (Brita) tap water and the only hint of anything I taste is the bit I can taste in the unfizzed water. But I am totally a water snob, I know.

home improvement update:

This was the closet doors my room had: [link]

These are the new closet doors I installed today: [link]

YAY!

Oh, and the curtains in that first pic, I have enough of those for 2 double windows and one single if anyone is interested. I know we have had a few people move into new houses in the last year.

Also, the panels in this pic are available: [link] I think there are 4 of them.

I make mine with filtered (Brita) tap water and the only hint of anything I taste is the bit I can taste in the unfizzed water. But I am totally a water snob, I know.

This is totally me, except that I have a counter-top Honeywell filter. I've taste something subtle in the unfizzed water, but the fresh stuff doesn't taste like anything but yum.