Food Snob

It seems I am a bit of a food snob. Or as Mike told me today, really neurotic about food.
A week ago I would have disagreed, but after almost buying dog food yesterday because I thought I had found some healthy meat I'll admit he's right. Strolling down the meat aisle looking for reassuring words like natural, healthy, hormone free or even maybe, grass fed, and having no luck I suddenly stumbled on packages upon packages of just that. Yippee! I was slightly curious as to why it was all chopped up as I threw several packages in my cart. Then I noticed all the packages had pictures of dogs on them. What?! People eat dog here!? OMG! It finally registered that it was all dog food. A entire section, three rows of refrigerated real estate in the meat aisle, for natural raw dog food. You have to go to Ballard for that in Seattle.

There is more shelf space devoted to dog food than Mac and Cheese in fact.
How many different kinds of Mac and Cheese are there on the aisles of grocery stores in America? A least ten, right? And until now Nola has never met a box of Mac and Cheese that she didn't like. Maybe it's because  here it doesn't come in a box. Or because Australians know you don't actually need a million choices (but two is sometimes nice) but Nola finally met her Mac and Cheese match and it's name is Ready Mac. It comes in a bag and it's the only Mac and Cheese I have been able to find here and she won't eat it . "It's yuck!" So Nola hasn't really eaten anything since we arrived except a mango.

I realize there is much I don't know. Like what exactly are "Regulators"? They must be important if they are listed as the third ingredient on almost every box of crackers in the store. I may not know much, but I don't think I want my crackers regulated.

So if am neurotic or snobby when it comes to food, well, maybe this country will cure me of it.
But my husband has cooked dinner twice since we arrived and that's two more times than in the decade we've been together so that helps me look on the bright side of this regulator mess. He is so innocent, tooling around in a kitchen not even equipped with salt and pepper or a knife that will cut bread.

Many of you have asked how the girls are doing. I would say they are doing ok. Thankfully they are still young enough to think that we have everything totally under control. They remain positive and excited and their enthusiasm for small miracles like a parking place makes me so happy. That said, this is rocking their world .

Nola has been carrying her stuffed animal dog, Ginger, with her everywhere and back in Seattle she just slept with it. When the nightmare is sufficiently behind us I'll be able to share the story of Ginger's epic rescue from a locked rental house yesterday.
There have been more tears, crossed arms and foot stomping than in 7 seasons of the Brady Bunch. And that's just Mike and me.

We put in applications on two houses yesterday and with any luck we'll be renting furniture next week for one of them. I think it will help them to be settled somewhere snuggling in with the contents of our air shipment - where the frack is that btw? And to be back in school!

We took Rosie to St Peters to pick up her uniform yesterday. She is now the very proud owner of a totally maroon wardrobe. Except for the shoes. Those are brown and what a pair of shoes they are. You could travel to moon in these guys. It seems Australians take their school shoes very seriously. No messing about. After a nuclear holocaust these shoes will still be around to keep the cockroaches company. I'm not sure Rosie actually has enough strength in her legs to walk with them on. Fortunately during term one they are allowed to wear sandals. Unfortunately they are brown industrial strength uniform sandals. I am starting to wonder just what exactly goes on at school here that the children's feet require such protection. Rosie was a real trooper when she realized her uniform contained not a single sparkle, bauble, ribbon or pink embellishment, but when she saw the shoes she crumpled a little bit and wondered if I might be mistaken and could those actually be the boys shoes.

Not sure what is going to happen today, there is still a lot to do; drivers license, library cards, Mike needs a haircut and a dry cleaners.....Davis family will be on search and destroy, I'd better tell Rosie to put her school shoes on.

Love,
Julie, Mike, Rosie, Nola and Ginger