The Aerie
No, that's lunch AND boogers, not "luncheon boogers." Isn't that better.
Lunch was nice, a stroll through the City Center's decimated "mall," and down Nicollette past the Farmer's Market.
>SNNNNNORRFF< *gurgle*
In the mall I stopped in to Sam Goody, which used to be a music-and-electronics store, but which has now devolved into a near-perpetual "Going out of business" store. Honestly, it has been going out of business since March. I've saved hundreds of dollars on the discounted merchandise, mostly by not buying any.
>SNNNNNORRFF< *gurgle*
I go in, I browse, I collect together a discounted batch of DVDs and CDs and video games. Then I look at it all and say "I don't need any of this, really," and put it all back. Added together, I've probably not-spent hundreds, even thousands of dollars.
Today it was tempting because the prices are marked down 80-90%. Of course, this is the stuff that wasn't purchased during the 50-70% markdown last week, the 40-60% markdown last month, or the 10-30% markdown during April. >SNNNNNORRFF< *gurgle* So the prices are very good on items such as the uncensorced, director's cut, alternate-ending edition of "Dickie Roberts", the subtitled version of "Mobile Suit Gundam 0083", or the soundtrack CD of Tom Green's "Road Trip". Only $3 or $4 apiece!
I gathered up a number of great selections that I just couldn't live without, then piled them in an empty wire-rack shelf ("For sale, $100, see manager") and headed out to the sunlight. >SNNNNNORRFF< *gurgle*
The weather could not have been nicer outside, sunny and warm, breezy, not too muggy. I head out for lunch late so it wasn't very crowded. I wandered down to the Target North building on 10th street peering at the tables of fresh fruits and vegetables. SNNNNNORRFF< *gurgle* A street musician was playing "Tangled Up in Blue" on his guitar. I tossed a little change in his case before I realized he was faking it...
"I got a job at Rainbow foods,
Working as a cashier for a spell (>SNNNNNORRFF< *gurgle*)
But I didn't like it all that much
And one day the job went to hell."
Done well, that could work out clever... but it wasn't done well. He did sound a little Dylan-esque, however. And he had authentic early-Dylan hair...
Finally I saw the table I had not realized I was looking for. On the left was a table of fresh vegetables, glowing with nutritional goodness; on the right, fresh bread baked with grains hand picked this morning and ground by virgins using white marble pestles. >SNNNNNORRFF< *gurgle* In between: strawberries dipped in milk chocolate, tennis-ball-sized macaroons, pretzels dipped in caramel and then dipped in mini chocolate chips. I want to work this farm!
"What's that?" I asked, pointing.
"That's a layer of dark chocolate, then a layer of cocoanut, then another layer of dark chocolate, then a layer of roast almosts, and then another layer of dark chocolate." >SNNNNNORRFF< *gurgle*
"You had me at 'cocoanut'."
I had to head back to the office at that point because pressing issues regarding the Endless Home Remodelling Project demanded my attention. We're coming down to the final details, which means it should wrap up in only two or three weeks. Or four. Maybe five. But DEFINITELY not six. No way. Not a chance. Well, unless something comes up, but what's the chance of THAT happening?
>SNNNNNORRFF< *gurgle*
Oh, and you may have been wondering about the green text. Well, for reasons I can't fathom, both my cubemate AND my neighbor in the cube next to my right shoulder have decided to form a booger-snorfing band. Pretty much every minute or two one of them snorfs their boogers. >SNNNNNORRFF< *gurgle* In fact ,while I was typing that last sentence, they went off in series, first the guy two feet to my left, then the guy two feet to my right. >SNNNNNORRFF< *gurgle*
This is a guy thing. >SNNNNNORRFF< *gurgle* It must be some kind of instinctive territorial call that has set them off like this. Still, wouldn't one get sick snorfing all day long? I don't know, I don't do that. On those occasions when snorfing might be an option, I use this amazing invention called Kleenex - a product so successful that the owners of the trademark have nothing better to do than complain that people use their product name to define the entire product category. We should all have such problems.
>SNNNNNORRFF< *gurgle*I have no idea why one would prefer to snorf instead of simply blowing one's nose.
Since I love this job (and despite the snorfing I do indeed love this job which is paying me to blog this afternoon) I thought I would try, with these >SNNNNNORRFF< *gurgle* green snorf-gurgles, to convey to you, the reader, some measure of the joy I experience in a given afternoon. Shopping, strolling, listening to music, and buying hilariously expensive home-made Almond Joy bars... these factors help balance out the >SNNNNNORRFF< *gurgle*, even as I continue to bill by the hour.
And a good thing, too. Otherwise I know a couple of guys who would be getting frequent slaps upside the head with a box of Kleenex.
Posted by Albatross at June 15, 2006 2:34 PM | TrackBack