Food and Stuff

My ladyfriend Nuria and I went grocery shopping today. Naturally we had to go to three grocery stores. First we went to Walmart where we bought over two hundred dollars worth of food. That was just a warmup. Then we went to Publix, because I wanted to have pastrami on rye bread with Dijon mustard and with dill pickle on the side. Then we went to Food Lion for some other items. 

We bought fresh fruit and veggies to make juice drinks. The drinks we make are really tasty. We use carrots, celery, cucumbers, strawberries, apples, pineapple, and oranges. They could be healthier, but I don't think they could taste any better.

I say the juice drinks could be healthier because we could add leafy greens like spinach. But that would require a different kind of juicer than the juicer I own now.  There are three kinds of juicers. I have what is called a centrifugal juicer. It's the most affordable and the fastest. To juice leafy vegetables you would need a masticating juicer (slower and more expensive) or a cold press juicer. Cold press juicers are the most expensive and the hardest to operate, but they make the most nutritious juice.

So the pantry is full. Actually, my house doesn't have a pantry, but you know what I mean. All homes used to have pantries. Where else would you put all the jars of food that you canned during the summer and will consume during the winter? There had to be a pantry. But like home canning, pantries have largely disappeared. 

For lunch, we ate pizza. We bought a Walmart extra-large pizza. I ate one slice, and Nuria ate three slices. I can eat one slice and gain a pound, and Nuria can eat half a pizza and not gain any weight. Every day when the weather is good, she gets up early and goes for a long walk. She has a pedometer and she told me she walked 5500 steps this morning. I felt like I had walked 5500 steps by the time we finished shopping, but for Nuria, all those grocery store steps were on top of the 5500 she had already walked today.

Now Nuria has begun studying English on Duolingo. She has been speaking English for more than fifty years, but she wants to improve her English. There are certain phrases that are tricky for people who are not native English speakers. Such as, which is correct: "I will stay in a hotel at Paris" or "I will stay at a hotel in Paris." Native English speakers know the second phrase is correct, but how do they know? Is there a rule? What is the rule? Learning Spanish is just as problematic. Do I use this word or that word? A Spanish speaker like Nuria can tell me the correct word, but she can't tell me why it's correct. It's frustrating, for me.

It's 5PM now. Time to quit blogging and do something useful with my time!