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My local market has an unusual name: The Berkeley Bowl. It is named such because the storefront it once occupied was previously a bowling alley that sported that moniker. Presumably to save on the cost of a new sign, the market kept the name. I guess the name didn’t deter folks, because it became so popular that a few years ago they moved to a new, larger location; they kept the name.

Today I was chatting with one-time maguffin, and now Real-Life-Speed-Scrabble-Pal, Yale, and she told me that Berkeley Bowl has the largest produce section on the West Coast. That did not surprise me, as I have always thought that their produce section alone is the size of an average Safeway/ Ralph’s/ Piggly Wiggly/ Alpha Beta store. When I find myself away from home, be it in some Podunk town or a major city like New York or Los Angeles, and I am cooking, I feel limited by the lack of freshness and variety in the ingredients available to me. I always ask the people I’m visiting to direct me to the best markets, and am always sorely disappointed.

I seemed to have more of a point to this when I started typing this entry. Oh, I remember– because they have such a vast amount of produce for sale, I, unlike said produce, am spoiled. They have just about every style and variety of fruit and vegetable known to man in there. I have sometimes encountered recipes that call for some very obscure and esoteric ingredients, and when it comes to fruits or vegetables I’ve always been able to find what I need at the Berkeley Bowl. You name it , they have it. Why, during my last visit there I counted nine different kinds of eggplant. Nine!

The best is when I bring some arcane vegetable to the checkout line and the clerk has to stop and look it up in the voluminous registrar of produce codes. I feel warm and fuzzy inside whenever I stump a clerk, especially if it is one of the old-timers that should know them all by now. I am weird.

Today’s Question: Is there a store or shop in your area that you could not live without?

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Sue and I have no plans for the Fourth of July. Usually we visit my parents, but nothing is happening at the homestead this year. What are the rest of you doing? Does anyone have a recommendation for fun things we can do?

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A few years ago I drove from New York City to Berkeley, by way of Charlotte, North Carolina. The drive was at times arduous, but for the most part enjoyable. At the time I’d only been to California, Nevada, New York, and New Jersey, so it was interesting and enlightening to see some other parts of the U.S.

Yesterday, a friend asked if I’d be willing to undertake a similar endeavor– she is moving from Los Angeles to Atlanta, but doesn’t want to drive her car out there. As the cost to have a vehicle shipped is significantly more than the cost to drive, she asked if I’d do the job for her.

Factors influencing my decision:

1. I’ve never seen Atlanta, and as the friend is covering all gas and motel costs, it’s a free trip.

2. I’m curious to make another long drive.

3. The car is a brand new BMW, the polar opposite of the sort of vehicle I drive, and a chance for me to see how the other half lives, so to speak.

I told her I’d do it, so on the 17th I fly to Los Angeles and start driving. I don’t know exactly how far I’ll make it each day, but I anticipate spending nights in Phoenix, El Paso, Dallas, and Birmingham. If you live in any of those fine cities, let me know and I’ll honk the horn at you as I pass through your town.

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The best part about having a birthday is that you can make people suffer. Wait, that came out wrong. What I mean to say is, when one’s birthday comes around, one can use that as leverage to make one’s friends engage in activities which they may otherwise not engage. Especially when the “one” in that sentence is me, that is a good thing. For my idea of fun seldom intersects my friends’ ideas of fun.

As my birthday is fast approaching, people have been asking me what I want, or what I want to do, and I have not been able to think of anything. A rousing game of capture the flag came to mind, but I don’t have enough friends in the area to facilitate such a game. Plus most of my friends aren’t as in shape as I am, and would balk at physical activity of that nature, so capture the flag was quickly dismissed. One can only convince one’s friends to suffer to a point, after all, and when the distinct possibility of myocardial infarction rears its ugly head, even the best birthday party can go sour in a New York minute.

I have at last decided what I will in fact do on my birthday, and any and all of you are welcome to come over to the Tiki Room I call a living room and join in. And what, pray tell, will we do?

We will watch old horror films. Lots and lots of old horror films.

With the recent release, and my subsequent purchase, of the 1945 classic House of Dracula on DVD, I at last have a complete set of the classic Frankenstein, Dracula, and Wolfman films Universal Studios made in the 1930s and 1940s. These are all fine films, and not the campy over-produced/ under-scripted mess that Van Helsing is reported to be. Sooooo….come one come all, and spend May 25th watching Boris Karlofff, Bela Lugosi, Lon Chaney, Claude Raines, Lionel Atwill, George Zucco, Basil Rathbone, John Carradine, Ralph Bellamy, Colin Clive, and a host of other stars of yesteryear, act spooky.

The probable line-up for Tuesday (don’t freak, a lot of these movies are barely an hour long):

Dracula
Frankenstein
Bride of Frankenstein
Son of Frankenstein
Ghost of Frankenstein
The Wolf Man
Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man
House of Frankenstein
House of Dracula
The Mummy

I’ll start watching at about 1:00 PM and should finish by about 2:00 am or so. I’ll make lots of food and snacks and what not. We can wear party hats if you wish, and have cake and ice cream. Somehow I doubt anyone other than Fizzy will show up, and she’ll only be there out of girlfriend obligation. Nobody digs the old horror films anymore, but just in case YOU do, you’re welcome to pop on by.

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During the week, I work at home. The benefits of this are numerous, but one of the drawbacks is that I have no co-workers. As I have never had a regular nine to five job I don’t necessarily miss having workmates, but I do notice that my peers all have them. One thing that I do to simulate interpersonal interaction during my workday is AIM chat. I keep AIM running during the day, and every now and then a chat buddy will send me a message and we’ll converse a bit; this makes for a nice distraction. Some friends I chat with almost daily, others but once or twice per month, if that. In all, I have 19 people on my buddy list, 16 of which are friends I know in my day to day life. The other three are people I only know through AIM.

Yes, I know three “people from the internet.” And yes, I know there is a stigma attached to having met someone online. People even refer to it as “online” vs. “real life,” as though things you say or do in chat don’t count, or take place in some kind of netherworld. I don’t understand the distinction. Pretty much everyone is online these days. People who defend the distinction are quick to point out that someone can pretend to be someone else online, or only put forth their best side, but how is that different than what people do face to face? If you meet someone at a bar, library, cafe, park, or any other supposedly “safe” meeting place, who is to say they aren’t putting on an act for you? Furthermore, those same people are likely online. Are they safe to their in-person friends but dangerous to their chat buddies?

The reason I’m writing about this is because just the other night one of my three internet-only friends (who, by the way, initiated our online friendship) decided that, since we don’t know one another in “real life,” we should cease chatting. Now, I have no problem with someone telling me “Peasprout, you are boring,” or “Peasprout you are always lurking outside my window with a big axe” as valid reasons not to be chat friends, but come on– in this day and age, when both George W. Bush and John Kerry have Friendster accounts, I think it’s a given that most of the world is online.

I imagine you could see it coming a mile away, but here is Today’s Question: Do you think meeting someone online is just as viable, and respectable, a way of making a new friend as meeting someone in person? My answer is pretty clear, but I’ll spell it out. I think that the internet is a great way to meet and interact with countless people with whom you would never have had the chance to interact in the past. Blogging is a perfect example of a place where strangers from around the world can come into contact with one another, and friendships based on similar, or opposing, interests or beliefs can flourish. You’re shooting yourself in the foot if you limit your friends to people you only originally encounter in person. A great friend, or maybe even the love of your life, may never be at your favorite cafe at the same time as you, but he or she just may be in the next chat room over. You owe it to yourself to go take a peek.

In case the aforementioned chat buddy is reading this, I want to be sure to clarify that I am neither bitter nor bothered or anything along those lines. I understand and respect other people’s feelings; her announcement merely made for a good blog topic. Alfred Hitchcock would refer to her as the maguffin of today’s post.

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Welcome to the official kick-off of the big bake sale. Let’s get Tammy her Xanga Premium, shall we?

As with any good bake sale, the entire community should join in and bake things to sell. But since a baked good probably won’t last too long, or stay too yummy when put into the post, and since many of us here probably can’t bake well, we’ll do it a bit differently. Each participant, and I hope that’s all of my faithful readers, will leave a comment about what they are going to “bake.” It’s Monday night right now, in a week, hopefully we’ll have lots of great “baked” goods. To give an example of what is being “baked,” I am cooking up a mixed CD. That will be my contribution to the bake sale. What will the rest of you offer??? I can hardly wait to find out. Come up with something you can “bake” and comment. I know each of you has SOME talent. Don’t you?

Below you can see my skillfully crafted counter thingee for our target of $100. As you can see, I am a master of graphic design. And in case you can’t tell, it is one of those thermometer things that rises as the donations approach the intended goal. I will update it as we go.

The lovely graphic segues nicely into the fun part, albeit likely also the tricky part. All you bakers must not only bake, you must sale. By that I mean, you must buy a baked good. The minimum purchase is $1, but feel free to spend more if you can afford to do so.

Soooooo…during the next day or two, each of you will (hopefully) go to Paypal and contribute the cause. Once we’ve all bought, I will randomly assign each of you a recipient for your baked good, and it is up to you to send it his (or her) way. Doesn’t this sound like oodles of fun? Of course it does.

To recap:

1. Comment here as to what you plan to bake.

2. Mosey on over to Paypal and send your donation to swimtammy@aol.com. Be sure to include your Xanga name in the subject line there, so we here at Peasprout’s Dept. of Xanga will know just who has purchased a baked good.

3. Wait for a message from me, in which I will tell you to whom you need to post your baked good, as well as from whom to expect one.

Let the fun begin!

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Update on 4/19/2004: Hurray! We made $89. Not quite $100, but super close. Good job everyone. Let’s hope Tammy makes proper usage of her newfound Xanga super-powers!

Shameless plug: If you are in New York and need a wedding DJ, well– I am a New York wedding DJ.

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Fellow blogger and occasional commenter Tammy recently wrote a plea for someone to buy her Xanga Premium. Many moons ago, I gave the Powers-That-Xanga $100 for a lifetime’s worth of Xanga Premium and I never looked back. I can’t exactly recall what all came with it, but I do know that Xanga Premium is absolutely wonderful and I most certainly could not live without it. Why, it changed my life, it did.

So if I, the wonderful Peasprout, cannot live without it, how can we expect Tammy to go without? The answer is simple– we cannot. As such, tomorrow I will officially kick off Tammy’s Xanga Premium Bake Sale. Stay tuned for details.

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One time, I was playing Scrabble, see? There were no tiles left in the bag. I had 7 tiles, my opponent had but 5, and it was my turn. Sadly, I was trailing 231 to 340, a difference of 109 points. That’s lots in any game, but darn near insurmountable in the late stages of a Scrabble match. In other words, I was pretty sure I was all for the can.

Before me on my wooden rack lay the letters UUERQS, and a blank tile. I stared and pondered, and lo and behold, discovered a word amidst my tiles. I played BRUSQUE across a triple-word-score square, and with the word I created going down, plus 50 points for using all my tiles, I earned 103 points. On top of that, as the bag was empty, I earned an additional 6 points for the tiles my opponent had left, and said opponent lost 6 points for those very same tiles.

The end result? I won the game 346-334; the once-certain thumping had become a narrow victory at the last moment. I felt pretty cool that day, let me tell you, because only the cool kids play Scrabble, right?

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My friend Tracy is involved in a singing competition, and she’s made it all the way to the final round. Curiously, the competition’s winner is selected in part based on votes cast online by people need not have heard her sing. As that is the case, I want to urge each and every one of my subscribers (a mind-boggling to me 55 at last count) to click on the link below and vote for Tracy.

VOTE FOR TRACY

In unrelated news:

QuizDiva: Are You Dominant or Submissive?

You Are Dominant!

If you’re giving out whippings, then this is no surprise to you, but being dominant doesn’t necessarily mean you are a sadist. You might just take the lead, call out positions, or decide when it’s time for sex. Bottom line: The bedroom is your domain, and anyone who gets with you knows it!

Well dog my cats, I never knew. Now go vote. For Tracy. I COMMAND you to do so.

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Happy Halloween everyone! I have no costume. What are YOU going to be? In unrelated news, Fizzy says she wants long underwear. It’s not THAT cold in California, is it?

Here’s something funny. Have you ever seen one of these ads in an old comic book?

Here’s a modern version, satirizing the RIAA’s corrupt methods: