11:38 p.m. | 2004-06-06 As Much As I Hate Chores In General, I Hate Grocery Shopping Specifically. With The Intensity Of The Heat Of 43 Suns. On Fire. Cubed. Plus 2. Yes, matter of fact, I had to go grocery shopping this weekend. However, I took a moment to do some thinking, as I�m wont to do upon occasion. First, I realized that I�ve been boring myself with a rather repetitious menu of old-time favorite meals. Alas, I recently decided that I needed to throw some new recipes into the mix. See, I�ve pretty much become crockpot dependant. I certainly know how to cook using the stove, oven, electric frying pan, electric grill and microwave, but I really prefer just throwing some stuff in the slow cooker and flipping it on. Especially since my current kitchen is smaller than a breadbox and it�s almost summertime. I don�t need no heat in my kitchen, that�s for sure. Anyway, most of my crockpot recipes are of the meat-and-potatoes variety. Which is fine, since I�m a meat-and-potatoes person. However, over the years, I�ve developed a more varied and sophisticated palate. Yet, I haven�t updated my recipes. So, I added another project to my gigantic project, um, mountain. That being, to learn how to become a gourmet cook armed with, well, a crockpot. Of course, gourmet cooking and crockpots may have an inverse relationship, but I�m determined to give it a shot. That said, I set about on a hunt for new ideas. Imagine my glee when, amongst other things, I found not one, but many, recipes for crockpot lasagna. See, I didn�t know you could cook lasagna in a slow cooker. Oh, but you can. And, lots of other stuff. Who knew? Well, besides all you guys. That, of course, played into my whole grocery shopping adventure this weekend. Once I started that whole thinking thing, I realized that I need only shop once a month since the weekly Farmers Market is back. I�ve always gone food shopping every two weeks. Mostly because fresh produce doesn�t last very long. However, now that I pick up all my fresh fruits and vegetables every week at the Market, I only need to complete the ghastly chore of grocery shopping once a month. Praise the lord. Really. That�s actually pretty sad considering that I only spend about 2 hours a month in the grocery store. Which I�ve now reduced to 1 hour. I mean, it�s pathetic how something that takes so little time really yanks my chain so much. I should be celebrating the bounty of the market� and the fact that my water comes out of a faucet rather than a creek 14 miles away. That I�d have to carry on my head or shoulders or whatnot. I really should be grateful. And, I am. Except when I�m hating it. (Cross-reference: Cleaning the Bathroom.) Oh, and I washed my car this weekend too. Not a big deal, probably, to most of you I know. Big deal to me though. I can�t wash it where I live so I have to take it to a car wash of some kind. I prefer the magical wand, self-wash car� um, thing. As opposed to that pay $15 bucks for someone else to wash it deal. It�s a street car � so to speak � for goodness sakes. It�s chronically dirty. Yet, a funny thing happened on my way to the car wash. I was heading down a street towards one of the few self-wash car things that I know of when I had this sudden thought that there should be a car wash right "over there". I looked and there was a carwash right �over there�. Very convenient, I must say. That was either coincidental or it was contained in the subliminal messages I heard when I spun my Led Zepplin album backwards in high school. I think I�m gonna add a new element to my entries. Perhaps, I should add some entries to my entries before I get all bold like that. And, maybe I should take two steps backwards. I hate that I don�t update here everyday and I�m trying to change all that. It�s difficult at the moment though. However, I do have some ready material in some great �quotes of the day�. I�ll share them but they�ll all be anonymous. And, frankly, from out of left field. To wit. �Whenever I hear �astroturf�, I think of Bill Clinton.� your thoughts? seed flower