State of the valis union

I'll update about Grandma in a separate entry.

So the show in Ohio wasn't that great, except I did get to visit Jungle Jim's. Even Neil Gaiman knows about Jungle Jim's, I've found out. Jim's is an awesome place---it's a huge grocery store.

I do feel stupid, though, because last time I thought I saw it all, and I actually only saw 1/3 of the store--ha! Anyway, I've visited the rest, and found their international grocery section to be pretty fascinating. Five aisles of Asian foods, separated into Vietnamese, Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Korean, etc. Their Eastern European section was rather strange, containing only Germany, Poland, and Bulgaria. Maybe I missed the rest, methinks.

I was hoping to find Tim Tams, based on mortifyd's description of said treat, but no such luck. I did get my favorite Vosges candy bar and some strange fruit drinks, along with Australian honey, so I didn't leave empty-handed.

The show was bad partly due to my own mismanagement, I must admit. In the future I will have to remember what I've learned. Anyway, I'm home for two months now, unbroken, and I'm pretty excited. I see that plenty of wank has surfaced in my absence, as always, hee!

Coffee with Boris and Natasha

While I was in WI, I went to a coffee shop with my very dear friend. There are two coffee shops in the little town next to the township where her store is. One is well-established, in the heart of downtown, and it has a lot of good food. The other? Has character.

It's in an old house. It used to be in half the house, but recently the owner tore out the walls and now the coffee shop is the entire first floor. The kitchen is still the same size, but the seating area has more than doubled.

We've had some giggles there before--most notably a geeky guy on a computer who would not stop talking to us about his internet wheelings and dealings. (Best moment? When he called a company using his laptop, and had to keep repeating his name and what he was selling, even though this was supposedly a longtime customer of his.)

Then we happened to talk to the owner during the renovations. He revealed that he'd had a head injury, and had retired early from his former job in finance, and now owned the coffee shop.

( So while I was in town, we went there for coffee, because there's never a dull moment... )