Christmas Shopping and Chinese Lead Belly

We were doing our consumer duty and we hit W. Leb, the shopping capital of the Upper Valley Universe. It generally involves horrible traffic, parking nightmares, and malls. In fact, I was expecting traffic to be ugly, but lucky for us, it wasn’t so bad. I was relieved. Of course, we had a plan.

We needed to get a birthday present, and while we were at it, there were assorted gifts to buy for assorted individuals, not to mention some practical matters.

We had to stop at Auto Zone to get a headlight bulb for our car. I had replaced the passenger side light less than a month ago, and lo and behold, the driver side just went out. How’s that for timing? Of course, like the scatter-brained loser that I am, I forgot the darn jump box that I needed to return. It’s a pain getting out to W. Leb, and and even bigger pain simply being there, so it’s best to get everything done in one shot, if you can plan properly. Oh well, looks like we’ll going back.

Anyway, we headed over to Walmart’s neglected cousin, Kmart, and got the necessary presents, and then had to get some pics made at Walgrenes. For the record, they do a really good job at making prints. They’ve improved their system so they upload much more quickly, and the print quality is outstanding. However, our order wasn’t ready by the time they said it would be, so they lose a few points on that front, but not many.

From Walgrenes, we grabbed a bite to eat at a Chinese take-out restaurant. This was an interesting experience. We never eat Chinese food, it’s too heavy and clearly not good for you, but it sure is cheap. My friend had heard of a health inspector who examines restaurants and he said the only Chinese restaurant he would eat it was this one. It’s called Men at Wok. Funny name.

We went in and it was as you would expect any Chinese take-out to be. The prices were reasonable, the portions huge. We chowed down, and were excited to get fortune cookies. Of course, about an hour later, I began to feel like I just ate a cord of wood, my stomach was so stuffed, and I realized why we don’t eat a lot of Chinese food. The stuff is just too heavy, not to mention salty and greasy. I had a headache, too.

So we probably won’t be eating Chinese food in a awhile, though I liked the place, and the guy working there was nice.

After food, we went got our pics, then headed home. We had about one hour before we had to go the birthday party, and then, after that, to the solstice celebration at our neighbor’s house. How’s that for a crazy holiday schedule.

Until the next time, thanks for reading, and thanks to Gisela Royo and Linnell Esler for the pic.