Patti O'Shea's Blog, page 93
February 14, 2017
Favorite Childhood Valentine's Day Memory
I was scratching my head, trying to come up with a blog post idea for Valentine's Day that hadn't been done six million times before. This is what I came up with: My favorite childhood Valentine's Day memory.
One of the things I liked in grade school was that everyone needed to bring a valentine for all their classmates, that way no one was left out. We also decorated shoe boxes into which the cards would be dropped. That's my favorite memory--the box I decorated in (I think) third grade.
Everyone usually just put construction paper over the shoe box and a few hearts and called it good, but in this particular year I did more. I made my box look like Snoopy's doghouse.
It turned out super cool and I even brought a plastic Snoopy from home and put him on top of the roof. Do I need to say that I won the contest for box decoration. I'm sure I have a picture of it somewhere among the huge stash of photos my dad brought from Minnesota, but I haven't been able to find it. I hope I do one day because I'd like to see it again. I'm sure it's much more impressive in my mind than it was in real life. :-)
I love doing artistic stuff, but sadly, wasn't gifted with a lot of ability. I think that's why this memory is a favorite of mine.
One of the things I liked in grade school was that everyone needed to bring a valentine for all their classmates, that way no one was left out. We also decorated shoe boxes into which the cards would be dropped. That's my favorite memory--the box I decorated in (I think) third grade.
Everyone usually just put construction paper over the shoe box and a few hearts and called it good, but in this particular year I did more. I made my box look like Snoopy's doghouse.
It turned out super cool and I even brought a plastic Snoopy from home and put him on top of the roof. Do I need to say that I won the contest for box decoration. I'm sure I have a picture of it somewhere among the huge stash of photos my dad brought from Minnesota, but I haven't been able to find it. I hope I do one day because I'd like to see it again. I'm sure it's much more impressive in my mind than it was in real life. :-)
I love doing artistic stuff, but sadly, wasn't gifted with a lot of ability. I think that's why this memory is a favorite of mine.
February 12, 2017
America's Small Town in Canada
This is a Minnesota story. :-)
February 9, 2017
Compulsive Yarn Buying
Why didn't anyone tell me that buying yarn is addictive?
I'm buying yarn for class projects--I signed up for a few more crochet classes on Craftsy and one of them involves making a blanket and a decorative pillow. This required I buy some blanket yarn, which is soft and beautiful and I'm in love with it and already trying to figure out what else I can use it for.
Then I went looking for easy and free patterns online. Most of the yarn manufacturers have these available. I found a ton of patterns I wanted to do, but I limited myself to buying yarn for only three of them. It was so hard. There is so much beautiful yarn available and so many cool projects to be made and I wanted to buy all of it. And buy and buy and buy. The emails telling me about yarn sales are not helping either. When I can save $3 a skein, how can I not buy it?
Sadly? Luckily? (I'm not sure which word I'd choose) my dad is living with me and he's the spending police. Every time I get something he starts interrogating me about it and asking why I spent money on it. It's held me on check on the yarn purchases. Barely.
Because I got a promotional email from Lion Brand yarn with this awesome kit that was on sale. It's for a shawl/stole/wrap thing that's just so incredible and would be perfect to keep at work. That way when it's cold, I could take it out and wear it. And believe me, the way they run the air conditioning in the office, it is frequently cold. This is why I bought fingerless gloves.
There's also a kit on Craftsy for a scarf that has the most incredible yarn ever. Want.
Seriously, I could list off like 50 more projects all with super cool yarn and I literally have finished zero projects at this point and have barely finished my first crochet class.
I never knew all these yarns existed. I never knew they'd be as addictive as buying books or shoes or office supplies or planner stickers would be. WHY DIDN'T ANYONE WARN ME???? Not that it would have made a huge difference, but maybe I'd have been better prepared to resist. In the meantime, I'll have to rely on my own personal spending police to keep me in check. At least until I finish all the projects I have in queue right now.
I'm buying yarn for class projects--I signed up for a few more crochet classes on Craftsy and one of them involves making a blanket and a decorative pillow. This required I buy some blanket yarn, which is soft and beautiful and I'm in love with it and already trying to figure out what else I can use it for.
Then I went looking for easy and free patterns online. Most of the yarn manufacturers have these available. I found a ton of patterns I wanted to do, but I limited myself to buying yarn for only three of them. It was so hard. There is so much beautiful yarn available and so many cool projects to be made and I wanted to buy all of it. And buy and buy and buy. The emails telling me about yarn sales are not helping either. When I can save $3 a skein, how can I not buy it?
Sadly? Luckily? (I'm not sure which word I'd choose) my dad is living with me and he's the spending police. Every time I get something he starts interrogating me about it and asking why I spent money on it. It's held me on check on the yarn purchases. Barely.
Because I got a promotional email from Lion Brand yarn with this awesome kit that was on sale. It's for a shawl/stole/wrap thing that's just so incredible and would be perfect to keep at work. That way when it's cold, I could take it out and wear it. And believe me, the way they run the air conditioning in the office, it is frequently cold. This is why I bought fingerless gloves.
There's also a kit on Craftsy for a scarf that has the most incredible yarn ever. Want.
Seriously, I could list off like 50 more projects all with super cool yarn and I literally have finished zero projects at this point and have barely finished my first crochet class.
I never knew all these yarns existed. I never knew they'd be as addictive as buying books or shoes or office supplies or planner stickers would be. WHY DIDN'T ANYONE WARN ME???? Not that it would have made a huge difference, but maybe I'd have been better prepared to resist. In the meantime, I'll have to rely on my own personal spending police to keep me in check. At least until I finish all the projects I have in queue right now.
February 7, 2017
Happiness Photos
The Happier podcast had a new challenge: Take a picture every day of something that makes you happy.
That's a cool idea, I thought. I have my phone with the camera and I'll just take pictures. And then I started thinking about it. I don't take pictures very often to begin with. A couple of years ago, there was some challenge out there to simply take one picture a day and I failed that miserably.
Frequently, I don't even think about taking a photo until well after the fact. Sometimes well after the fact. This has happened more times than I can count.
Sometimes I do think about taking a picture, but my phone is either 1) at my desk 2) in my bag 3) somewhere totally inaccessible in that moment. The desk one happens to me at work. Like every year Delta Technical Operations purchases and assembles bikes for Toys for Tots. There are all sizes from the tiniest child to young adult and these bicycles line the main hallway every December. I like to take a picture of it to share on Facebook or Twitter, but I don't think about bringing my phone with me until I see the bikes.
While the bikes certainly fall into the Things That Make Me Happy category, they're long gone now and children are (hopefully) happily riding them. That wouldn't have counted for the challenge anyway, though, since it's supposed to be 2017 things.
Sometimes I think we can too caught up in recording everything with a photo that we forget to experience the moment. Experiences should be felt, not merely photographed. But in all honesty the primary reason I decided not to do it was that I knew I'd fail and that wouldn't make me happier. Maybe someday I'll give it a shot, but for now, I'll just focus on things I have a chance of accomplishing.
That's a cool idea, I thought. I have my phone with the camera and I'll just take pictures. And then I started thinking about it. I don't take pictures very often to begin with. A couple of years ago, there was some challenge out there to simply take one picture a day and I failed that miserably.
Frequently, I don't even think about taking a photo until well after the fact. Sometimes well after the fact. This has happened more times than I can count.
Sometimes I do think about taking a picture, but my phone is either 1) at my desk 2) in my bag 3) somewhere totally inaccessible in that moment. The desk one happens to me at work. Like every year Delta Technical Operations purchases and assembles bikes for Toys for Tots. There are all sizes from the tiniest child to young adult and these bicycles line the main hallway every December. I like to take a picture of it to share on Facebook or Twitter, but I don't think about bringing my phone with me until I see the bikes.
While the bikes certainly fall into the Things That Make Me Happy category, they're long gone now and children are (hopefully) happily riding them. That wouldn't have counted for the challenge anyway, though, since it's supposed to be 2017 things.
Sometimes I think we can too caught up in recording everything with a photo that we forget to experience the moment. Experiences should be felt, not merely photographed. But in all honesty the primary reason I decided not to do it was that I knew I'd fail and that wouldn't make me happier. Maybe someday I'll give it a shot, but for now, I'll just focus on things I have a chance of accomplishing.
February 5, 2017
Why Doesn't the Queen Of England Need a Passport?
This was interesting.
February 2, 2017
It's Starting to Look Like Something
My crochet lessons are finally starting to produce work that looks like it could be something. Eventually. :-) We started out by chaining stitches forever and I was getting bored (even though I freely admit I needed the practice), but then we started making swatches!
Double Crochet:
Single Crochet:
Half Double Crochet:
Little squares of crochet might not look like that much, but I think of them as the beginning to a scarf. Just like a billion more rows and I can keep my neck warm. Although I'm in Atlanta and I never even wore a scarf in Minnesota unless it was below zero and it just doesn't get that cold in Georgia. So, yeah, probably not going to make a scarf.
There is a pattern for a little basket I'd like to make. It's labeled as a beginner pattern, which I need, and I could use it to keep my car keys corralled. I just have to master the lesson about crocheting in the round and that is proving to be tricky. I foresee much practice ahead.
Double Crochet:
Single Crochet:
Half Double Crochet:
Little squares of crochet might not look like that much, but I think of them as the beginning to a scarf. Just like a billion more rows and I can keep my neck warm. Although I'm in Atlanta and I never even wore a scarf in Minnesota unless it was below zero and it just doesn't get that cold in Georgia. So, yeah, probably not going to make a scarf.
There is a pattern for a little basket I'd like to make. It's labeled as a beginner pattern, which I need, and I could use it to keep my car keys corralled. I just have to master the lesson about crocheting in the round and that is proving to be tricky. I foresee much practice ahead.
January 31, 2017
Review: ClickList
***I was not compensated for this post and my opinions are my own. Kroger's ClickList is free the first three times you use it and I'm writing this after using two of my free trial purchases.***
Apologies to the people who don't have Kroger in their area. They're not up in Minnesota where I used to live, so I'm sure a lot of you don't have a store in your area. I want to talk about their ClickList anyway because I hate grocery shopping.
When I lived in Minnesota, there was an online grocery store that delivered to my house. I used it a few times and was a bit frustrated by the narrow choices offered. Still, when you loathe grocery shopping to the extent that I do, sometimes you grin and bear it and learn to like what they had available. :-) My greatest disappointment upon moving to Atlanta was learning that they had zero online grocery options down here.
Recently, however, the Kroger store near me opened ClickList in beta testing. What you do is order your groceries online and pick them up at Kroger, usually the next day. My heart rejoiced!
Creating the list was easy. The items I frequently buy were on my ClickList home page and I was able to simply click them to add them to my cart. The items I didn't buy were easily found by searching, and as far as I could tell, anything I could find in the store was available to buy online, too. Much better than the narrow assortment I had from the home delivery online grocery store in Minnesota.
The first time I used the ClickList service, I wasn't able to pick up during the hour window that I wanted to choose. That's what I get for waiting until late the night before, I guess, but who'd have thought that my time would be that popular? I ended up with the hour following the one I wanted.
You pull up to the specially marked parking area, choose a slot, and call the phone number on the sign. Both times my call was answered on the first ring. In a few minutes, a Kroger employee wheeled out a cart with my groceries. They spend some time telling you what wasn't available and required substitution. My first visit (ordered late the night before) had quite a few substitutes or not available items. My second visit had only one, but the second time I put together my order about four or five days before I wanted to pickup. More on this in a minute.
After they run your credit card, the Kroger employee loads your car for you. No need to even get out of the car. That's so cool! And that's it. After they load your car, you can take your groceries home. Both times it was less than 10 minutes. The first visit--when I ordered fewer groceries--was maybe around five minutes. This sure beats 45 minutes to an hour in the grocery store.
Putting in my order early had some pluses and some minuses. On the plus side was that I only had one substitution. I'm attributing this to the fact that they had more time to assemble the order, but I'm guessing on this. They might not assemble any orders early because of space considerations. This also allowed me to get my chosen hour for pickup. I really like mid-morning because it lets me sleep in and not waste the entire day killing time until my slot opens up.
The minus side was that I remembered things later that I wanted to get and decided to not get other things I'd already chosen. I was able to edit my order, so this wasn't a huge minus, but I was unfamiliar with the process and it took me a little bit of time to figure out how to add more than one new item to the existing cart. I'm sure if I use the service more, this problem will fade.
How'd they do on my order? Well, part of it was my learning curve on order one. I wanted 5 apples, but Kroger's ClickList wanted me to order in pounds! Gah! So I guessed three pounds for 5 apples on the theory that if I received more apples, it would be no big deal. As it turned out, I was given four apples weighing 1 pound and 13 ounces. This was a fail for me. The second time, I added in the comments field exactly how many apples I wanted. This worked perfectly! Mostly.
I said I wanted one potato in the comment field on that item. I received two, which I'm guessing weigh one pound. Maybe they couldn't believe I only wanted a single potato! :-)
One last thought--I believed that I'd prefer home grocery delivery, but as it turns out, it's super convenient to pick it up at the store myself. For one thing, I'm not chained to my house, waiting for the delivery guy to show up. And that window could be half the day. Kroger gives me a one hour window that I picked myself and I can show up anytime within that hour that's convenient for me. The first time I used the service, I was there exactly at the start of my hour. The second time, I got there about 20 minutes after the hour. Perfect each time.
Picking up at the store also let me stop and get gas at the same time and swing by the UPS store that was in the same shopping strip.
I have one more free trial pickup and then the $4.95 charge kicks in. Personally, it's worth $5 to me to save nearly an hour out of my life. Plus, when I go grocery shopping, I do my best to avoid the crowds and that means dragging my butt out of bed on Saturday super early. With the pick up, I didn't have to worry about crowds or lines in the checkout. This frees me because I can pick up groceries any time or day that's convenient and I can sleep in since I don't deal with parking issues or long checkout lines with ClickList.
It's not perfect because some things are open to interpretation (For example, my "little green" desire for bananas yielded a bunch of bananas that were mostly yellow in my opinion.), but it's pretty darn close and I'd love to continue to use it. The wrench in this desire is my dad. He lives with me now and he loves grocery shopping. It's also his big outing of the week and I'm not sure I'll be able to convince him to give it up.
So my rating of Kroger's ClickList is two thumbs up, five stars, super rave. I love it and highly recommend it to anyone with 1) a Kroger store that offers the service and 2) dislikes grocery shopping as much as I do. Highly recommended!
***I was not compensated for this post and my opinions are my own. Kroger's ClickList is free the first three times you use it and I'm writing this after using two of my free trial purchases.***
Apologies to the people who don't have Kroger in their area. They're not up in Minnesota where I used to live, so I'm sure a lot of you don't have a store in your area. I want to talk about their ClickList anyway because I hate grocery shopping.
When I lived in Minnesota, there was an online grocery store that delivered to my house. I used it a few times and was a bit frustrated by the narrow choices offered. Still, when you loathe grocery shopping to the extent that I do, sometimes you grin and bear it and learn to like what they had available. :-) My greatest disappointment upon moving to Atlanta was learning that they had zero online grocery options down here.
Recently, however, the Kroger store near me opened ClickList in beta testing. What you do is order your groceries online and pick them up at Kroger, usually the next day. My heart rejoiced!
Creating the list was easy. The items I frequently buy were on my ClickList home page and I was able to simply click them to add them to my cart. The items I didn't buy were easily found by searching, and as far as I could tell, anything I could find in the store was available to buy online, too. Much better than the narrow assortment I had from the home delivery online grocery store in Minnesota.
The first time I used the ClickList service, I wasn't able to pick up during the hour window that I wanted to choose. That's what I get for waiting until late the night before, I guess, but who'd have thought that my time would be that popular? I ended up with the hour following the one I wanted.
You pull up to the specially marked parking area, choose a slot, and call the phone number on the sign. Both times my call was answered on the first ring. In a few minutes, a Kroger employee wheeled out a cart with my groceries. They spend some time telling you what wasn't available and required substitution. My first visit (ordered late the night before) had quite a few substitutes or not available items. My second visit had only one, but the second time I put together my order about four or five days before I wanted to pickup. More on this in a minute.
After they run your credit card, the Kroger employee loads your car for you. No need to even get out of the car. That's so cool! And that's it. After they load your car, you can take your groceries home. Both times it was less than 10 minutes. The first visit--when I ordered fewer groceries--was maybe around five minutes. This sure beats 45 minutes to an hour in the grocery store.
Putting in my order early had some pluses and some minuses. On the plus side was that I only had one substitution. I'm attributing this to the fact that they had more time to assemble the order, but I'm guessing on this. They might not assemble any orders early because of space considerations. This also allowed me to get my chosen hour for pickup. I really like mid-morning because it lets me sleep in and not waste the entire day killing time until my slot opens up.
The minus side was that I remembered things later that I wanted to get and decided to not get other things I'd already chosen. I was able to edit my order, so this wasn't a huge minus, but I was unfamiliar with the process and it took me a little bit of time to figure out how to add more than one new item to the existing cart. I'm sure if I use the service more, this problem will fade.
How'd they do on my order? Well, part of it was my learning curve on order one. I wanted 5 apples, but Kroger's ClickList wanted me to order in pounds! Gah! So I guessed three pounds for 5 apples on the theory that if I received more apples, it would be no big deal. As it turned out, I was given four apples weighing 1 pound and 13 ounces. This was a fail for me. The second time, I added in the comments field exactly how many apples I wanted. This worked perfectly! Mostly.
I said I wanted one potato in the comment field on that item. I received two, which I'm guessing weigh one pound. Maybe they couldn't believe I only wanted a single potato! :-)
One last thought--I believed that I'd prefer home grocery delivery, but as it turns out, it's super convenient to pick it up at the store myself. For one thing, I'm not chained to my house, waiting for the delivery guy to show up. And that window could be half the day. Kroger gives me a one hour window that I picked myself and I can show up anytime within that hour that's convenient for me. The first time I used the service, I was there exactly at the start of my hour. The second time, I got there about 20 minutes after the hour. Perfect each time.
Picking up at the store also let me stop and get gas at the same time and swing by the UPS store that was in the same shopping strip.
I have one more free trial pickup and then the $4.95 charge kicks in. Personally, it's worth $5 to me to save nearly an hour out of my life. Plus, when I go grocery shopping, I do my best to avoid the crowds and that means dragging my butt out of bed on Saturday super early. With the pick up, I didn't have to worry about crowds or lines in the checkout. This frees me because I can pick up groceries any time or day that's convenient and I can sleep in since I don't deal with parking issues or long checkout lines with ClickList.
It's not perfect because some things are open to interpretation (For example, my "little green" desire for bananas yielded a bunch of bananas that were mostly yellow in my opinion.), but it's pretty darn close and I'd love to continue to use it. The wrench in this desire is my dad. He lives with me now and he loves grocery shopping. It's also his big outing of the week and I'm not sure I'll be able to convince him to give it up.
So my rating of Kroger's ClickList is two thumbs up, five stars, super rave. I love it and highly recommend it to anyone with 1) a Kroger store that offers the service and 2) dislikes grocery shopping as much as I do. Highly recommended!
***I was not compensated for this post and my opinions are my own. Kroger's ClickList is free the first three times you use it and I'm writing this after using two of my free trial purchases.***
Review: Quick List
***I was not compensated for this post and my opinions are my own. Kroger's Quick List is free the first three times you use it and I'm writing this after using two of my free trial purchases.***
Apologies to the people who don't have Kroger in their area. They're not up in Minnesota where I used to live, so I'm sure a lot of you don't have a store in your area. I want to talk about their Quick List anyway because I hate grocery shopping.
When I lived in Minnesota, there was an online grocery store that delivered to my house. I used it a few times and was a bit frustrated by the narrow choices offered. Still, when you loathe grocery shopping to the extent that I do, sometimes you grin and bear it and learn to like what they had available. :-) My greatest disappointment upon moving to Atlanta was learning that they had zero online grocery options down here.
Recently, however, the Kroger store near me opened Quick List in beta testing. What you do is order your groceries online and pick them up at Kroger, usually the next day. My heart rejoiced!
Creating the list was easy. The items I frequently buy were on my Quick List home page and I was able to simply click them to add them to my cart. The items I didn't buy were easily found by searching, and as far as I could tell, anything I could find in the store was available to buy online, too. Much better than the narrow assortment I had from the home delivery online grocery store in Minnesota.
The first time I used the Quick List service, I wasn't able to pick up during the hour window that I wanted to choose. That's what I get for waiting until late the night before, I guess, but who'd have thought that my time would be that popular? I ended up with the hour following the one I wanted.
You pull up to the specially marked parking area, choose a slot, and call the phone number on the sign. Both times my call was answered on the first ring. In a few minutes, a Kroger employee wheeled out a cart with my groceries. They spend some time telling you what wasn't available and required substitution. My first visit (ordered late the night before) had quite a few substitutes or not available items. My second visit had only one, but the second time I put together my order about four or five days before I wanted to pickup. More on this in a minute.
After they run your credit card, the Kroger employee loads your car for you. No need to even get out of the car. That's so cool! And that's it. After they load your car, you can take your groceries home. Both times it was less than 10 minutes. The first visit--when I ordered fewer groceries--was maybe around five minutes. This sure beats 45 minutes to an hour in the grocery store.
Putting in my order early had some pluses and some minuses. On the plus side was that I only had one substitution. I'm attributing this to the fact that they had more time to assemble the order, but I'm guessing on this. They might not assemble any orders early because of space considerations. This also allowed me to get my chosen hour for pickup. I really like mid-morning because it lets me sleep in and not waste the entire day killing time until my slot opens up.
The minus side was that I remembered things later that I wanted to get and decided to not get other things I'd already chosen. I was able to edit my order, so this wasn't a huge minus, but I was unfamiliar with the process and it took me a little bit of time to figure out how to add more than one new item to the existing cart. I'm sure if I use the service more, this problem will fade.
How'd they do on my order? Well, part of it was my learning curve on order one. I wanted 5 apples, but Kroger's Quick List wanted me to order in pounds! Gah! So I guessed three pounds for 5 apples on the theory that if I received more apples, it would be no big deal. As it turned out, I was given four apples weighing 1 pound and 13 ounces. This was a fail for me. The second time, I added in the comments field exactly how many apples I wanted. This worked perfectly! Mostly.
I said I wanted one potato in the comment field on that item. I received two, which I'm guessing weigh one pound. Maybe they couldn't believe I only wanted a single potato! :-)
One last thought--I believed that I'd prefer home grocery delivery, but as it turns out, it's super convenient to pick it up at the store myself. For one thing, I'm not chained to my house, waiting for the delivery guy to show up. And that window could be half the day. Kroger gives me a one hour window that I picked myself and I can show up anytime within that hour that's convenient for me. The first time I used the service, I was there exactly at the start of my hour. The second time, I got there about 20 minutes after the hour. Perfect each time.
Picking up at the store also let me stop and get gas at the same time and swing by the UPS store that was in the same shopping strip.
I have one more free trial pickup and then the $4.95 charge kicks in. Personally, it's worth $5 to me to save nearly an hour out of my life. Plus, when I go grocery shopping, I do my best to avoid the crowds and that means dragging my butt out of bed on Saturday super early. With the pick up, I didn't have to worry about crowds or lines in the checkout. This frees me because I can pick up groceries any time or day that's convenient and I can sleep in since I don't deal with parking issues or long checkout lines with Quick List.
It's not perfect because some things are open to interpretation (For example, my "little green" desire for bananas yielded a bunch of bananas that were mostly yellow in my opinion.), but it's pretty darn close and I'd love to continue to use it. The wrench in this desire is my dad. He lives with me now and he loves grocery shopping. It's also his big outing of the week and I'm not sure I'll be able to convince him to give it up.
So my rating of Kroger's Quick List is two thumbs up, five stars, super rave. I love it and highly recommend it to anyone with 1) a Kroger store that offers the service and 2) dislikes grocery shopping as much as I do. Highly recommended!
***I was not compensated for this post and my opinions are my own. Kroger's Quick List is free the first three times you use it and I'm writing this after using two of my free trial purchases.***
Apologies to the people who don't have Kroger in their area. They're not up in Minnesota where I used to live, so I'm sure a lot of you don't have a store in your area. I want to talk about their Quick List anyway because I hate grocery shopping.
When I lived in Minnesota, there was an online grocery store that delivered to my house. I used it a few times and was a bit frustrated by the narrow choices offered. Still, when you loathe grocery shopping to the extent that I do, sometimes you grin and bear it and learn to like what they had available. :-) My greatest disappointment upon moving to Atlanta was learning that they had zero online grocery options down here.
Recently, however, the Kroger store near me opened Quick List in beta testing. What you do is order your groceries online and pick them up at Kroger, usually the next day. My heart rejoiced!
Creating the list was easy. The items I frequently buy were on my Quick List home page and I was able to simply click them to add them to my cart. The items I didn't buy were easily found by searching, and as far as I could tell, anything I could find in the store was available to buy online, too. Much better than the narrow assortment I had from the home delivery online grocery store in Minnesota.
The first time I used the Quick List service, I wasn't able to pick up during the hour window that I wanted to choose. That's what I get for waiting until late the night before, I guess, but who'd have thought that my time would be that popular? I ended up with the hour following the one I wanted.
You pull up to the specially marked parking area, choose a slot, and call the phone number on the sign. Both times my call was answered on the first ring. In a few minutes, a Kroger employee wheeled out a cart with my groceries. They spend some time telling you what wasn't available and required substitution. My first visit (ordered late the night before) had quite a few substitutes or not available items. My second visit had only one, but the second time I put together my order about four or five days before I wanted to pickup. More on this in a minute.
After they run your credit card, the Kroger employee loads your car for you. No need to even get out of the car. That's so cool! And that's it. After they load your car, you can take your groceries home. Both times it was less than 10 minutes. The first visit--when I ordered fewer groceries--was maybe around five minutes. This sure beats 45 minutes to an hour in the grocery store.
Putting in my order early had some pluses and some minuses. On the plus side was that I only had one substitution. I'm attributing this to the fact that they had more time to assemble the order, but I'm guessing on this. They might not assemble any orders early because of space considerations. This also allowed me to get my chosen hour for pickup. I really like mid-morning because it lets me sleep in and not waste the entire day killing time until my slot opens up.
The minus side was that I remembered things later that I wanted to get and decided to not get other things I'd already chosen. I was able to edit my order, so this wasn't a huge minus, but I was unfamiliar with the process and it took me a little bit of time to figure out how to add more than one new item to the existing cart. I'm sure if I use the service more, this problem will fade.
How'd they do on my order? Well, part of it was my learning curve on order one. I wanted 5 apples, but Kroger's Quick List wanted me to order in pounds! Gah! So I guessed three pounds for 5 apples on the theory that if I received more apples, it would be no big deal. As it turned out, I was given four apples weighing 1 pound and 13 ounces. This was a fail for me. The second time, I added in the comments field exactly how many apples I wanted. This worked perfectly! Mostly.
I said I wanted one potato in the comment field on that item. I received two, which I'm guessing weigh one pound. Maybe they couldn't believe I only wanted a single potato! :-)
One last thought--I believed that I'd prefer home grocery delivery, but as it turns out, it's super convenient to pick it up at the store myself. For one thing, I'm not chained to my house, waiting for the delivery guy to show up. And that window could be half the day. Kroger gives me a one hour window that I picked myself and I can show up anytime within that hour that's convenient for me. The first time I used the service, I was there exactly at the start of my hour. The second time, I got there about 20 minutes after the hour. Perfect each time.
Picking up at the store also let me stop and get gas at the same time and swing by the UPS store that was in the same shopping strip.
I have one more free trial pickup and then the $4.95 charge kicks in. Personally, it's worth $5 to me to save nearly an hour out of my life. Plus, when I go grocery shopping, I do my best to avoid the crowds and that means dragging my butt out of bed on Saturday super early. With the pick up, I didn't have to worry about crowds or lines in the checkout. This frees me because I can pick up groceries any time or day that's convenient and I can sleep in since I don't deal with parking issues or long checkout lines with Quick List.
It's not perfect because some things are open to interpretation (For example, my "little green" desire for bananas yielded a bunch of bananas that were mostly yellow in my opinion.), but it's pretty darn close and I'd love to continue to use it. The wrench in this desire is my dad. He lives with me now and he loves grocery shopping. It's also his big outing of the week and I'm not sure I'll be able to convince him to give it up.
So my rating of Kroger's Quick List is two thumbs up, five stars, super rave. I love it and highly recommend it to anyone with 1) a Kroger store that offers the service and 2) dislikes grocery shopping as much as I do. Highly recommended!
***I was not compensated for this post and my opinions are my own. Kroger's Quick List is free the first three times you use it and I'm writing this after using two of my free trial purchases.***
January 29, 2017
29 Spin-Offs That Never Happened
Probably a good thing. :-)
January 26, 2017
Adventures With Rice
Since I talked about my cooking win, it's only fair that I talk about my cooking...not loss because it didn't turn out badly, but it was a lesson. I wanted to say lesson learned, but this isn't the first time I've made a mistake like this so I have no hope that I've learned it this time either.
I have this slow cooker dish that I've made a few times--successfully! It's a riff on a stove top recipe that I really like. I call it Chicken Salsa Verde. What I do is put in about 4 pounds of chicken (usually a combination of breast and thigh meat), a can of chicken broth mixed with corn starch, and a jar or two of salsa verde. I cook on high for about 5.5 hours, then I add a can of sliced olives and cook for another half an hour. It's always turned out yummy.
This time, though, I had a brainstorm. Why don't I add rice to the slow cooker? That way, I can have my Chicken Salsa Verde with rice and not have to cook it on the stove. Brilliant, I decided.
At about the five hour mark this time, I added rice. I had it all figured out. I'd put in 3/4 of a cup of rice. It might be too much, but I wasn't sure half a cup would be enough. Only after I added the amount of rice I'd decided on, it didn't look like enough. I added another quarter cup. Hmm. It still didn't look like much. I added more. Without measuring.
Um, yeah.
When I came back an hour later, there was no sauce left in the slow cooker. The rice had sucked up every inch of moisture. I added more salsa verde mixed with some water. And then added more water. I had a pretty solid mass.
I was able to get it mixed up enough to lose the clay-like consistency, but I had a hell of a big container of leftover Chicken Salsa Verde with Rice in the refrigerator. It's going to be a long time before I make this one again.
I have this slow cooker dish that I've made a few times--successfully! It's a riff on a stove top recipe that I really like. I call it Chicken Salsa Verde. What I do is put in about 4 pounds of chicken (usually a combination of breast and thigh meat), a can of chicken broth mixed with corn starch, and a jar or two of salsa verde. I cook on high for about 5.5 hours, then I add a can of sliced olives and cook for another half an hour. It's always turned out yummy.
This time, though, I had a brainstorm. Why don't I add rice to the slow cooker? That way, I can have my Chicken Salsa Verde with rice and not have to cook it on the stove. Brilliant, I decided.
At about the five hour mark this time, I added rice. I had it all figured out. I'd put in 3/4 of a cup of rice. It might be too much, but I wasn't sure half a cup would be enough. Only after I added the amount of rice I'd decided on, it didn't look like enough. I added another quarter cup. Hmm. It still didn't look like much. I added more. Without measuring.
Um, yeah.
When I came back an hour later, there was no sauce left in the slow cooker. The rice had sucked up every inch of moisture. I added more salsa verde mixed with some water. And then added more water. I had a pretty solid mass.
I was able to get it mixed up enough to lose the clay-like consistency, but I had a hell of a big container of leftover Chicken Salsa Verde with Rice in the refrigerator. It's going to be a long time before I make this one again.
