whenI’ve thrown off the weight of this crazy stone

title: orange sky – artist: alexi murdoch

So, it would seem that when you have some deadlines, involving things like knitting and book reading, in order to get Christmas packages mailed in a timely manner, that spare time you thought you had for entry writing kind of dwindles down to nearly nothing and then you don’t get to writing that entry you thought you were going to write.

And then you go to pick up your reserved fresh turkey for Thanksgiving, from the only grocery store chain in town, only to simultaneously find out that their idea of "fresh" is "we already thawed it for you!" and that they didn’t reserve your turkey afterall. So you go and buy a frozen turkey from a Super Target instead. While this works out since it’s not a turkey injected with 3-8% of a mysterious sodium solution (a bad thing since a.) it is mysterious and b.) you have plans for brining, which is one of the reasons you wanted a fresh turkey to start with) it’s a slightly more defined 6% of salted butter. But, seeing as it is frozen and there are plans for brining, you will find yourself spending the wee hours changing out its bucket of water every 30 minutes so you can then free it from its plastic encasement, play "turkey handpuppet" as you shove your hand inside the carcass to dig out that curious bag of innards, rinse it and get it a soakin’ in its briney bath.

I still have knitting and reading to do. But having to stop every 30 minutes to change the water in the turkey tub is making that seem less desirable. Also, I promised you an entry. Additionally, given the current turkey adventure, it’s actually perfect timing for this entry I was already intending to do. Are you ready? I think you just might be.

The ever effervescent and fabulous Miss [Aglow] asked, many months ago, what made Wegmans so worthy of swoony, piney affection (I am, in fact, paraphrasing). Well, around that time period, after having spazzed about seeing Wegmans products in several episodes of The Office, I Googled to see if others shared my enthusiastic appreciation and longing for a grocery store that has, thus far, been the only grocery store that has left me pining, hardcore, for nearly a year so far. You guys, I am not alone! Even Alec Baldwin’s mother refuses to move to LA because it would mean leaving Wegmans. Then there are the Flickr photo groups. There is also the fact that, on a day in late October last year, I took photos of my beloved Wegmans (and a few other things/places in downtown Corning) while I had some time on my hands and nowhere to be. I’ll get to those shortly. (They’re actually just of the outside, since I was nearing the end of my "nowhere to be" time frame.) See, this explains that others share a rabid devotion to a grocery store chain, but it doesn’t really explain why.

The why is that they are AWESOME! Let’s say you find yourself on a marathon viewing of some Food Network programming and you are suddenly inspired to prepare all of the fabulous things you just saw. If you go to Wegmans, you are quite likely to come back home with everything you need without having to go anywhere else. Unless it called for wine or hard liquor. But that’s because of New York State liquor laws. However, Bottles & Corks was nearly across the street and they would have what you need. They are always lovely stores, filled with amazing produce, all kinds of natural and organic products, of the food and baby/beauty/home/pet care varieties, their bakery departments are AMAZING, and while I wasn’t wild about the restaurant in the Corning store, the restaurants in the larger stores are pretty rad. The employees are always really friendly and kind. And it was really rare to go to Wegmans for something and leave without finding it there. Also, you could readily buy the store brand with confidence that it wasn’t going to taste weird or be of inferior quality. Well, you’d probably notice a difference in the store brand soft drinks or other products like that, where the brand name has a very distinctive flavor. But that wasn’t a quality issue, really.

And… they had fresh turkeys. Not "fresh" turkeys. When I related my turkey adventure, my mom recalled that last year (and perhaps this one, as well, but I’m not there to confirm) Wegmans even offered the option of male or female turkey, if you wanted to get that specific.

Really, they are full of the win. Wegmans was where I came to appreciate the grocery shopping experience. They make it so pleasant, it’s hard not to fall in love with it, at least a little.

And, just because I mentioned it, and I also have some photos of it, Bottles & Corks:

And here is a shot with a modified truck in front:

And now, I’m off for more turkey tub fun times!

Love y’all!