2015-07-15: Practicalities Must Be Addressed

As evinced by our romp through The Happiest Place On Earth we have dirty minds. We also have dirty clothes because we had a vague idea that clothes were cheap in the US and we could buy throwaway type clothes when we arrived. We've been here a month and we must really get around to implementing this idea.

Dumpling Chain, has some michelin stars at one of it's places.

Ewa is probably better at, and certainly enjoys more, doing the laundry than shopping but I feel guilty now that most of my normal domestic duties are relatively tricky to perform (I make fire, make food).
I have been informed that we can go shopping in a suburb called Commerce. I am a Weak (and Susceptible) Man and am hoping that Ewa will display the same malleable brain state.

Superb Sauce gives power and vitality.

If so we might actually buy more clothes than a token amount intended simply to get us a plastic bag of I Am A Consumer camouflage.

I think of it like Orange. Which was named first? The colour or the fruit.

I read a book about supermarket / shopping mall design once. Actually I read a few of them. Given the unusual subject matter I probably read all of the books that exist on this topic.

Does look weirdly similar to car parks in my hometown which could be considered a village in many ways.

One of the recurring themes was that the American Shopping Malls of The Dawn Of The Dead mindset were on the way out and the new thing was an artificial village. Given my prior experience of shopping malls (not much), proven root in reality (not much) and sobriety (not much) when reading the books I had, shall we say, a slightly inaccurate mental image of these artificial villages.

Not as similar to my hometown.

We did buy quite a bit of stuff. This could be because

1. We were practical regarding our requirements
2. We succumbed to the influence of the design
3. They forced us to. Every time I went to the cashier he mentioned that if I selected one more shirt I would pay less than I would pay currently.

I still do not understand how a t shirt can be manufactured half a world away, shipped here, displayed and sold for $5 and still make a profit. We feel a bit dirty.

A roll of cleanup paper at the beginning of a meal is a strong statement

If our minds are dirty and our souls are soiled then it makes sense to filthy up our physical aspect as well.

Bibs also a strong statement, fashion wise as well.

James, an old co worker and our current host, has a go to place for when he has visitors from foreign climes. He has a bunch of people visiting over the next few months and we are going to do a sanity check on the place.

Waiter for scale

In theory they do a great seafood boil. In theory this is a giant bag of seafood, sausage, spuds and spices. In theory I am able to eat seafood now.

Ewa thought these only had food in the front claws like a crab and had no fear of food at this point.

In practice all these things are true for varying degrees of true. It is a great seafood boil. It is a giant bag. The volume of seafood is slightly larger than expected due to James egging us on to grabbing an extra crayfish and extra sausage.

All 3 types of dirty achieved

I can eat seafood now. But not that much. Ewa made a majestic effort and we finished creditably.

I made a tidy and alphabetical stack of carcases. James and Al do not suffer from obsessive tendencies as much

In practice James can now easily wait for the incoming visitors knowing full well that after they eat this they will quietly go and snooze somewhere.

Contemplating the revenge he will wreak on the visitors.

The Kickin' Crab is a franchise, http://www.thekickincrab.com/locations.htm, it has cajun spice mixes and is really good. Don't order extra lobster _and_ extra sausage if only sharing between two people.