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Last night Henry and I went out to get meat so I could make crockpot beef/veggie soup today (Dan’s favorite). I make it on Mondays, usually, but missed last Monday and Dan was yearning for his soup :) Up in Oceanside we shopped at Stater Brothers, a good no-club-card grocery store with a real butcher counter. I like being able to say, “I’d like about two and a half pounds of the flank steak, please” (or whatever is suitable and on sale) and then the nice butcher weighs it and asks me if it’s ok and then wraps it up. Very pleasant. There are no Stater Brothers stores in our part of town, so we tried Ralph’s. Yuck. No butcher! And a very bad selection of possible soup meat. I got something good enough, but it was smaller and more expensive than I’m used to. Also they do the club card thing, which I refuse to participate in. Also the store was FREEZING.

I figured the homeschool community could help me find a better source of meat (and whatever Trader Joe’s doesn’t have) so I posted to the yahoo list and got back some very helpful replies. They say that Henry’s Market (which used to be Boney’s) has a real butcher. There’s a Henry’s just past the Ralph’s, so I’ll try there first. They should also have some of the other things that I can’t get at Trader’s, such as barley and cabbage. There’s also a genuine butcher shop down on Morena Blvd, not very far away, which would be fun to try as well. And some folks get small quantities of expensive but, you know, organic/free range meats at Whole Foods. So I have a lot of options and I feel better.

Henry and I went to the laundromat today. It was clean and uncrowded, but very expensive. We left the laundry washing there (it was a front-loading machine, so I figured if anyone tried to steal our stuff they’d get soaking wet) and walked over to the nearby Longs for a few things. They have a touch-screen computer assistant to help you find what you want in the pharmacy. It worked great and was very entertaining! However, we will keep picking up our prescriptions at the Stater Brothers pharmacy. Howard and Jeff recognize my voice when I call them. How can I give that up? (At least as long as I still have to go north a couple of times a week anyway :)

Oh, and we got our Christmas tree today and set it up. Maybe I’ll post a photo tomorrow.