What are you doing today? (besides shopping)

That has to be frustrating, plus if you are shopping sales and the sale ads ends before your pickup date, that makes it even harder.

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Speaking of fresh produce... will farmer's markets be on or off this year (due to crowding or other COVID-19 concerns)?

Bach is not noise, Madam. (Robert, in Two's Company)

The indoor farmers' markets here are still open. Social distancing is not applied or enforced at the one down the street from me.

"I told myself to quit you; but I don't listen to drunks." -Chris Stapleton

My local indoor farmer's market has a curbside pickup only. They do not allow customers inside currently. You call in your order and go pick it up. Same day service, no additional fees.

The farmers markets here haven't started up yet but we have been notified that there will be new rules. No wandering around and touching everything. That's the only one I remember except for the 6 foot distance rule. I never get up early enough to go to those anyway and I sure am not going to now.

I used to volunteer at the outdoor farmers market before life went sideways. I enjoyed doing that. I'm going to see if I can do it again this year.

"I told myself to quit you; but I don't listen to drunks." -Chris Stapleton

Okay, so I know what kind of markets you are talking about, and those usually have a variety of vendors, right? This time of year we don't have those kind of farmers markets (June and later). The one I go to is a small family owned market where farmers sell their produce to the market. It's open daily until 5 p.m. They also have a deli and baked goods, with a limited amount of fresh meat from local farmers as well. The deli prices are pretty good but the meats are usually overpriced. There is another family owned market similar to this one in the north part of the county I used to frequent when I had work up that way. Probably won't be going there for a couple of months or more!

Most of our farmer's markets, both indoor and outdoor variety are closed this time of year, but luckily, since we're the Garden State, we do have fresh produce of some sort all year round. A farmer that had just been doing some small crops just started adding other household items and even some frozen seafood. All of this at a roadside stand with an honor box so it's extra no contact lol. It's pretty amazing and we popped by yesterday to get some stuff and was glad to see that others were doing the same. I'm curious to see how they'll work the markets once we start opening back up, I hope the open air ones and roadside stands aren't affected too much.

Shopping the South Jersey Shore

I am afraid that some people are going to get desperate when money gets tight and they have hungry kids. A $1200 stimulus isn't going to go very far. Honor might go out the window.

Bach is not noise, Madam. (Robert, in Two's Company)

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/18/2020 05:07PM by Shop-et-al.

SEA, it's always nice when people who have more than enough donate money, or time for that matter. You didn't have to edit that out of your post. My nephew volunteers at the food bank in his city. I don't mind giving money but it might be awhile before I can do any volunteer work where I am around people.

I made tuna egg salad for the first time in a very long time, maybe five years or more. I used some green onion clippings from my glass window garden. Wish I had a little celery for added crunch. I don't use celery often so it's not something I keep on hand. I am debating on whether to cook up a bunch of bacon. Bacon sounds kinda good on a tuna egg salad sandwich.

Guess I will do a little housework. It's a bit warmer today than it was yesterday and it's not rain/snow mix today, nice! I have seen some peeks of sunshine, enough for me to see the dust, LOL.

I usually have celery, onions, carrots and garlic on hand to add flavor and veggies to dishes.

"I told myself to quit you; but I don't listen to drunks." -Chris Stapleton

I have weekend duty at the laboratory. It’s normally very routine. One of the systems is out of whack, so it added an extra 2 hours of analyses for me. It’s not like I have anything else to do anyway. The house is clean. Everything is orderly and organized. I don’t have to cook at all, since DH is probably cooking up a storm already. Just eBay ... planning on doing a big launch on Sunday.
Day 6 out of 12 in a row. Halfway home.

I ALWAYS have onions, carrots, and garlic on hand. Celery is just not much flavor, it's more crunch factor and great for soups and stews.

@HonnyBrown wrote:

I usually have celery, onions, carrots and garlic on hand to add flavor and veggies to dishes.

If I buy a bunch of celery, most is wasted. So, when I just need some chopped, I hit the salad bar for just as much as I need. Of course, the salad bar is among the many things that are shut down right now.

Based in MD, near DC
Shopping from the Carolinas to New York
Have video cam; will travel

Poor customer service? Don't get mad; get video.

I am going to break down and buy a bunch of celery...I already ordered it for Monday's pickup. I plan on cutting off the root end and sticking it in a rocks glass with water on my windowsill to join the other cuttings. I will keep a few stalks fresh and will chop and freeze the rest for soup.

I was just remembering how much my two youngest stepdaughters loved my deviled eggs growing up, and one of them is particularly fond of radish. I was also thinking what a PITA is it to make deviled eggs. What if I just boiled and peeled the eggs, and put them along with the other ingredients into a food processor and whipped them, then scooped out a little hollow in halved gigantic radishes and filled them with the deviled egg mousse, sprinkled with paprika on top? Food for thought for the future when family gatherings will be a thing again and there will be a need to prepare appetizers.

I've got WAAAAAY too much time on my hands.

wales, I like to buy whole celery (not hearts) so I can save the trimmings for stock.

JAS, I forgot about windowsill celery! That will be my next project.

"I told myself to quit you; but I don't listen to drunks." -Chris Stapleton

So far, so good. People around here have had honor boxes for decades without any incident. I imagine that there will be a few that aren't honorable, but there's also been stories of people leaving extra. I hope it all works out..for everyone, karma is a @#$%&, right?!

@JASFLALMT wrote:

I am afraid that some people are going to get desperate when money gets tight and they have hungry kids. A $1200 stimulus isn't going to go very far. Honor might go out the window.

Shopping the South Jersey Shore

I was very, very good at the honor box today. (Didja' hear that, Santa???) There were two boxes of free books. I looked into one, found something, and ignored the other box. Now, I am on another mission.

I loved the first season of SeaChange. I really, really wanna look like Sigrid Thornton, the lead actress of this Australian drama. I will settle for finding the other episodes of the show. They are elusive. It might be easier for me to be transformed into a Sigrid than find those shows! *sigh*

The weirdest thing happened this week. I was all programmed to merch early in the week and train for a job on the weekend. A shipping delay pushed all work into Friday and Saturday. I tried valiantly to finish the merch and be on time for training. That was impossible. I apologized and asked for a second chance at any future trainings. It is just strange that when there is so little work, all of the scant work glommed together and squeezed out a future opportunity. Oh, well.

My masks arrived today, just one day after the initial delivery date. I have them. This is the most important thing.

Bach is not noise, Madam. (Robert, in Two's Company)

I love celery and always have to have fresh on hand for peanut butter and celery snacks. Also for soup and fried rice and all kinds of things. I was thinking about having an honor system yard sale. Just put everything out with box for people to put the money in. It looks like we might move so am gonna have to get rid of a lot of stuff.

CQ, you and Ann are moving?

"I told myself to quit you; but I don't listen to drunks." -Chris Stapleton

Oh no. That's not good, sorry to hear.

Early job is a bit late today, so I have a free hour now and the last hour of work will be late. But the first three hours will be on time! Hmm. I didn't get around to sorting socks the other day, so I can do that later today when I am finishing off the dregs of yet another project. The great thing about all these project is, they are like job security for staying at home. There is always something to do, even if it is catching up on old tasks that should have been completed seven months ago.

On the sillier side, I learned that silly should still mean happy, light, and blessed. But it is one of the words that has evolved over centuries from upbeat to pejorative. Humans are so silly; they drag good and uplifting words down to their own base level and depress the tone of language for all. Will we ever get to a church and hear this? This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice, and be silly, and be glad because we have a day of life and a chance to use it well!

Probably not. But hope is eternal, and all that...

Bach is not noise, Madam. (Robert, in Two's Company)

Well we have been wanting a smaller house. We weren't exactly looking but accidentally found a perfect house so we are going to make an offer on it. Our current house is a almost 4000 sq ft 1895 built beast of a money pit that has beaten us up and drained us dry from day one. I cant clean it by myself and the high ceilings are a nightmare. We just want a normal ranch on a basement for storage. We are getting too old and cant keep up with all the work this place requires. So if we do move Ill be ecstatic.
However the seller wants more than the market shows the house is worth so theres a good chance we wont get it.

I hope the seller comes to their senses. Moving is a pain, but it sounds like a good thing in your situation.

Good luck. Keeping the seller at the bargaining table can well work out for you. Or, if you walk away, that might snap them back to reality. The choice is yours. Plus, very few people are actually looking for homes at this time, and many who would like to now cannot qualify for a mortgage, due to unemployment.

Based in MD, near DC
Shopping from the Carolinas to New York
Have video cam; will travel

Poor customer service? Don't get mad; get video.

This is true. The current crisis definitely works in our favor. They have priced the house way too high for anyone to flip it, and I would think that flippers would be using some common sense and keeping their cash liquid anyway. Nothing is updated in the house and that doesn't bother me, I am amused by that type of thing, there is a large selection of recently flipped houses in this area for buyers to choose from. I hope her realtor can get that through her head.
Anyway, thanks everyone, for the good thoughts. I am hopeful this will work out although I can't imagine how we will manage the logistics of social distancing while dealing with moving.
BTW it seems Realtors have it all worked out. Our realtor went and unlocked the house and went in and wiped down all the doorknobs. Then she waited in her car while we toured the house. We came back out and discussed it via phones and then she went in and wiped all the doorknobs down again prior to locking up. She says we can do the whole transaction via the internet and telephone.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/19/2020 03:26PM by CoffeeQueen.

CQ when I found my house, I offered a little under asking and it was accepted. I had the appraisal done, and the house appraised at far under asking. The seller dropped to that price. It was a good deal for me.

"I told myself to quit you; but I don't listen to drunks." -Chris Stapleton

Good luck, CQ! Moving is so stressful; I give you credit for taking on the challenge. Stay safe!

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