Something Else To Chew On

I went to the market this morning and realized when I reached the last aisle my cart was woefully empty. I actually stopped short before I turned the last corner and headed down to the ice creams and frozen veggies. My nephew Bill, age 50, is arriving tonight for a five-day stay in paradise with me; seven freaking humans, all adults, will be at dinner tomorrow night; three people LIVE full-time at my home yet the bottom of the cart wasn't even fully covered.

WHAT??

Something had to be missing - I must've forgotten significant numbers of things on my way to the end of the road at Publix.

Bill likes cheese - I have 5 different kinds. Dinner tomorrow is steak (check), corn on the cob (check), baked potatoes (at home), salad (check), biscuits (check), and dessert (check). I've got fancy bakery bread (that smells great and feels squishy - yahoo!), Black Forest ham and Country French turkey for sandwiches. I've got four kinds of India Pale Ale and enough appetizers and spreads at home to feed the whole subdivision. I've got an angel food cake mix and plan to experiment with cupcakes of that variety maybe Tuesday; I've got the confectionery sugar I need to make homemade frosting.

I've got it all. This'll get me through till Monday night for sure when we'll all go to Olive Garden, Bill will buy dinner Tuesday and he's leaving Wednesday.

Throw in a lunch or two at Siesta Beach or in the Village and that's the whole food agenda in a nutshell.

$109.00. Just doesn't seem completely baked!? Can losing one person from the human equation make that huge a difference shopping-wise?

Amazingly, I think the answer is, "Yes."

Since Tom died on January 24th I have been to the market twice and one of those two times was specifically to get what I needed for the open house last Sunday in Tom's honor.

I generally went marketing for SOMETHING every single day before 1/24/09. I never figured it our per se but I'm guessing I spent close to or better than $300.00 a week on groceries - that's not including our restaurant forays for lunch or dinner, you understand.

Looking at my pathetic cart this morning I can only wonder what the heck I was buying???

I knew Tom's being gone would change everything but... this? This is astounding.