As I begin to dabble more in cooking I've been spending much more time at the grocery store. Not more trips necessarily, but I'm just there WAY longer. I have no idea where anything is.
For the last couple years, I would generally buy the same things every time I went. I'm know realizing the reason I would always eat the same thing. It had nothing to do with how much I liked what I was purchasing, it was simply because I knew where it was.
For some reason, I just really dislike grocery shopping. Maybe it's the stereotypical man thing of just not wanting to shop, period. Just like the stereotype, when I buy pants I never try them on first. When I get home, if they don't fit, whatever. The less time I have to spend in that store, the better. Same goes for groceries. I just REALLY don't want to spend 20 minutes walking around looking for kumquats (yep, spell checked).
I'm actually assuming most families are similar to this. Sure, you might have a "special" meal every know and then, but I think generally growing up, we'd usually have the same stuff around the house most of the time.
So, what happens when you start experimenting with cooking new things? What happens when you decide to make a special dish for the family? I think it can take an unnecessary amount of time looking for food. We live in a world of now. Freaking toothbrushes are digital, yet are grocery stores still have those massive signs hanging above each aisle that tells you about 0.4% of what items actually reside in that aisle. Why are they so far behind?
My solution.......
a Dewey Decimal System for FOOD!
Here's the sell. You're just coming off a hard days work and on your way your spouse calls your cell and says the kids want something special tonight. You want to say, "Tell the kids to plant a garden!! I'm making a detour! Pick me up at the bar around 11," but instead, because you made some crazy vow to honor your spouse, you say, "Sure, honey. I'll make something super special for you and all of our lovely children!"
You obviously want to make this trip as quick as possible because you really want to get home and you mouths to feed when you get there. Spending 25 extra minutes trying to find a handful of carbs in this food haystack is not efficient.
Luckily, THIS store has "FoodFinder" (yeah, whatever, you think up a better name), an interactive touch screen (it will work better than Red Box. Seriously, how hard can a human possibly have to push to....forget it) that allows to search for several specific ingredients OR brand new recipes online.
If you just want a couple items, you can print off (or get the iPhone app coming in Spring) all the junk your looking for and it will give you specifics to wear those items are located.
If you are in mood for making something special you've never made before, for example our anonymous family man/woman mentioned above, you search the database for specific recipes. Then, once you find a winner you print off that list giving you the exact locations of each item you need to purchase.
TA-DA! Those mouths get fed sooner and you get home that much sooner to enjoy the peace and quiet of your own home while your kids run around spitting on each other or whatever it is kids do.
Maybe this is a horrible idea, but I'm kinda surprised I've never seen anything like this at least attempted. Doesn't it kind of seem, though, the grocery stores haven't really changed in the past 20+ years....at all? Unless you count Cub Foods and their thumbprint payment thing. What a massive train wreck.
Anyway, please someone steal this from me and make it happen. I don't have time to actually develop this further. I have to return a pair of jeans.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Friday, September 10, 2010
a close shave.
Many of you know by now of the epic debacle that is my left shoulder. For those that don't, recap:
Towards the end of July, I began having some discomfort with an occasional shooting pain through my left shoulder when I would lift my arm. I honestly didn't give it much thought for a couple weeks since I get hurt doing anything that involves running, jumping, rowing, diving, juggling, bending, and breathing. I assumed it was just another muscle pull or bruise and it would heal up on it's own.
Welllll, after week two I realized this was not going away, but actually getting worse. I took a trip to my family doc and he did the ol', "Does it hurt here?," "Here?," "Hmmmm," "What about....?," "And THIS!?," "What? Lawsuit?? What?." He tells me it's "probably" tendonitis, although it could be a torn rotator cuff.
My reply. "Is there any other test we could do, like an x-ray or something to rule out the whole rotator cuff tear?"
"Yeah, but I'm pretty sure it's tendonitis. Go do physical therapy for 4-6 weeks."
And off I went to physical therapy or P.T. if you like to keep it real.
Well, after 7 weeks (yep, threw in that extra one cause I just didn't feel like I needed that extra $100), I still get a massively strong shooting pain through it if I move it just right. And, I am not bragging at all but I feel like after nearly a handful of kidney stones, I have a pretty good understanding of what hurt feels like.
And this brings us to today. I just back from a return visit to the family doc for the x-ray I requested almost 8 weeks ago. The result??? Nothing...which leaves us with three possibilites:
1) The rotator cuff is torn (found out this cannot be detected with an x-ray, only with an MRI, which doc says is "very expensive").
2) The inflammation is severe enough I need to start doing cortisone injections.
3) (my personal favorite) An injury has thrown off my shoulder gear (I just made that up) enough that my muscle is catching on the bone when I rotate my shoulder in a certain direction. The fix? Shave off a portion of my clavicle.
Sign. Me. Up.
I know I'm still obviously joking around about all this but it is becoming very frustrating. When I was filling out some backround info in the waiting area for the physical therapist, there was a question that asked, 'Is your condition causing depression and do you feel like you need to seek counseling' (or something like that). I laughed when I read it because I'm thinking if you're getting depressed over a sprained ankle, you need real problems.
But, to be honest, this really does get you down. I've had a very difficult time sleeping for nearly 3 months because I'm so restricted to what positions I can sleep in without pain, I get pain every time I take a shirt on or off and I really can't do any type of athletics without causing extreme amounts of pain.
I'm just praying for a simple fix. My checking account can't handle a clavicle shave...and neither can my brain.
Towards the end of July, I began having some discomfort with an occasional shooting pain through my left shoulder when I would lift my arm. I honestly didn't give it much thought for a couple weeks since I get hurt doing anything that involves running, jumping, rowing, diving, juggling, bending, and breathing. I assumed it was just another muscle pull or bruise and it would heal up on it's own.
Welllll, after week two I realized this was not going away, but actually getting worse. I took a trip to my family doc and he did the ol', "Does it hurt here?," "Here?," "Hmmmm," "What about....?," "And THIS!?," "What? Lawsuit?? What?." He tells me it's "probably" tendonitis, although it could be a torn rotator cuff.
My reply. "Is there any other test we could do, like an x-ray or something to rule out the whole rotator cuff tear?"
"Yeah, but I'm pretty sure it's tendonitis. Go do physical therapy for 4-6 weeks."
And off I went to physical therapy or P.T. if you like to keep it real.
Well, after 7 weeks (yep, threw in that extra one cause I just didn't feel like I needed that extra $100), I still get a massively strong shooting pain through it if I move it just right. And, I am not bragging at all but I feel like after nearly a handful of kidney stones, I have a pretty good understanding of what hurt feels like.
And this brings us to today. I just back from a return visit to the family doc for the x-ray I requested almost 8 weeks ago. The result??? Nothing...which leaves us with three possibilites:
1) The rotator cuff is torn (found out this cannot be detected with an x-ray, only with an MRI, which doc says is "very expensive").
2) The inflammation is severe enough I need to start doing cortisone injections.
3) (my personal favorite) An injury has thrown off my shoulder gear (I just made that up) enough that my muscle is catching on the bone when I rotate my shoulder in a certain direction. The fix? Shave off a portion of my clavicle.
Sign. Me. Up.
I know I'm still obviously joking around about all this but it is becoming very frustrating. When I was filling out some backround info in the waiting area for the physical therapist, there was a question that asked, 'Is your condition causing depression and do you feel like you need to seek counseling' (or something like that). I laughed when I read it because I'm thinking if you're getting depressed over a sprained ankle, you need real problems.
But, to be honest, this really does get you down. I've had a very difficult time sleeping for nearly 3 months because I'm so restricted to what positions I can sleep in without pain, I get pain every time I take a shirt on or off and I really can't do any type of athletics without causing extreme amounts of pain.
I'm just praying for a simple fix. My checking account can't handle a clavicle shave...and neither can my brain.
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