Adventures in grocery shopping

Friday, I went out to do some grocery shopping. First, I went out to the Ultra-Super-Duper-Gigantico-MegaMart (USDGMM) as I had some things on my list that the other smaller stores in my area don't always carry. While there, I decided to go ahead and get some bay leaves for a recipe I planned to make. I was dismayed to find that the only container of bay leaves I could find was $5.64 (USA) for .18 ounces! I stood there muttering to myself when I remembered that USDGMM is one of those stores that plays dirty. By that I mean that there is another cheaper spice area on another aisle and this area is not mentioned on the overhead signs. I looked up and down the aisles until I finally found this area of spices on the international aisle. There I found a bag of bay leaves priced $1.12 (USA) for .25 ounces. I muttered an obscenity about USDGMM hiding the cheaper spices like that and then let out a small [Sandra Lee] Whoot![/Sandra Lee] as USDGMM hadn't fooled me.


Then, I went over to another smaller grocery store to pick up a few of this week's sale items. While there, I noticed that the store had some bakery items that were marked down and placed on a rolling cart near the dairy case. I saw that there were a few bags of rolls, a couple of loaves of bread, and two decorated cakes on the cart. I looked a bit closer at the decorated cakes and discovered that one of them was some unknown Muppet-like character and the other one was actually a pair of cupcake cakes. These cupcake cakes were the kind where after the cupcakes are arranged in the desired shape, the whole thing is frosted and decorated like a sheet cake.

The top one was made up of five cupcakes, heavily coated in purple frosting, and had "I love U" written on it in pink frosting. The one below it was also made up of five cupcakes but heavily coated with pink frosting and had "Sexy" written on it in purple frosting. The frosting was inexpertly applied, and the lettering was poorly done. In other words it was well... ugly. I stared at the cakes and wondered to myself if the person who ordered "Sexy" had seen it and refused to pay for it, or did "Sexy" and his or her beloved break up after the cakes were ordered?

I pondered for half a second if I should buy "Sexy" because for some bizarre reason, I felt sorry for the unfortunate pair who had been banished to the bargain cart. I soon nixed that idea as I really didn't think I would enjoy the cakes at all. Still, I felt a little sad and hoped that someone would buy "Sexy" before time was up for the pair. It was Friday so maybe some college students craving sugar bought the two cakes and devoured them. I know it's strange but, I really hope "Sexy" went home with somebody.