Soup's on!

I just made myself a pot of beef barley soup. I'm indulging in a bowl of it as I type this entry.

Today I spent the morning in bed, first talking on the phone with Mom and then watching some stuff my TiVo chose to record for me (yes, they can do that). It was an E! True Hollywood Story about Karen Carpenter, which I felt was fitting as I begin a new diet. For me, it's a reminder of what I don't want to become. My friend Katie was afraid I'd develop an eating disorder because I've been on diets almost as long as she's known me (we met when we were 6.5 years old). "If I had an eating disorder, I wouldn't look like this," I told her. It's true: no disorders, just fat.

My friend Aahz is recuperating from cochlear implant surgery and had requested visitors, so when I found out there was a dog show in San Mateo today I told him I'd stop by afterwards -- "mid to late afternoon."

The dog show was small, but I got a handle on a couple of bichon frise breeders and met one I'd corresponded with on the net. I think I need to find a small-time breeder. The two bichons in the show were adorable; one male, one female. I struck up conversations with other dog owners and with other wanna-be dog owners. There were lots of really cool dogs there. The place was dog-lovers' heaven. :-)

Afterwards I stopped by a discount appliance store en route to the highway to look at stoves. The salesman was not very helpful. I then continued onward towards Aahz and Stef's house, suddenly realizing I'd left their address at home. I got off the highway in San Carlos and looked for a phone book, but they weren't listed. I stopped at Long's and picked up some bowls on sale that I'd wanted to pick up, then went to the public library a block away to try to get to my rahul.net account to get it. Unfortunately, the San Carlos Public Library doesn't let you telnet unless you click on a link from someone's web page. Note to Self: Add telnet link to web page.

I knew my friends Ruth Anne and RJ would know their address, so I tried calling, but they weren't available. Oh well.

I started driving in what I thought was the right direction when my memory got jogged by a street name. It was still daylight, so I kept driving till I found what I thought was the right house; the two cars with Darwin fishies was a good sign. Their mail was in the mailbox, so I checked it, and indeed I had the right residence. I gathered the mail and brought it in (the door was open because they knew I was coming). Stef greeted me, Aahz came out for a little while (he was in horrible pain), and we visited. Aahz then went back to take a much-needed nap, and Stef asked me to watch the place while she went to pick up his prescriptions at the drugstore, so I did. Another Note to Self: Learn how to put those people-ish icons with the LJ username into your text.

I left, called Diana as I was driving home, and she was too tired to go out to dinner after all. I was too. Instead, I decided to continue shopping for the Elusive Frookie Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies. I hit Mollie Stone's in Palo Alto; I didn't get that, but I got a lentil with bacon soup mix, some medicinal teas on sale, Nutter Butter cookies (ONLY to be eaten before bed!), and some frozen kishka. They didn't have kreplach this time. Sigh. I've been dying for chicken soup with kreplach, but nobody has it, and the canned Manischevitz stuff doesn't count. I want real kreplach I can drop into real homemade chicken soup (like the brick I have in my freezer). The store is still the best place for Kosher goods in the area.

Next I stopped at Piazza's, a yuppified healthy grocery store. I like them. Unlike the health food stores, Piazza's isn't afraid to carry sugar-free items. Piazza's had a mix for beef barley soup. That sounded good. They only had the canned Manischevitz chicken soup with kreplach (that look more like raviolini), but they had nice-looking ground beef and organic crushed tomatoes. They're also the only place I've seen selling any kind of lime sorbet. I bought that and some mint ice cream with mint candies in it that looked good. The final thing I bought was some sake to numb my throat.

I got home, realized I'd never picked up the frozen stuff or the tomatoes from Piazza's, so I started the soup with some cut tomatoes I had and then drove back to the store, stopping on the way back to top off my gas tank for tomorrow.

The bowl of soup is gone and was delicious. My throat is killing me. I've avoided the sake up to this point, but I'm getting ready to indulge. Meanwhile, I need to figure out how to get up the energy to put the soup away. I can't leave it on the stove all night because I won't be home till late tomorrow because Warren and I are going to go to the San Jose Auto Show (I have free passes) after I'm done with my radio shift (guess where the free passes come from? :-) ). Another Note to Self: Take a container of soup to the radio station. You'll need it.