Pioneer Diva's adventures in shopping!

hi friends!

happy hump day.

it was a VERY exciting evening here on the frontier...denis is chillin' in our old hood tonight to be there for a contractor VERY EARLY tomorrow morning so i'm going it alone for the first time in the new place. naturally a storm is on its way!

once i finished my work day, i got all fancy - well, small-town fancy (jeans and runners) and made my way into town to run some errands.

my first stop was to pick up a package from purolator. to do so, i had to go "downtown." i'm really excited to see the growth and change downtown in the next few years. it has great potential - could be almost as good as Merrickville - with a little tlc. i had to go to this scary basement "stationary" store to get the package - EEK. i parked in a no parking zone and wasn't even worried - do small towns even have parking dudes?

my next stop was Canadian Tire. we've had a few minor things break on us already and others we just want to freshen up. our home store options are very limited. there are a few country hardware type places and CT. i've been SPOILED in orleans. we had mega stores. our local canadian tire? OLD SCHOOL. the aisles are barely wide enough to get a cart down and options are limited. i did manage to get one of the items i was looking for, but options are the other were so limited, i had to call in the big guns - D is in orleans tonight, he can pick it up!!!

i want to clarify that i'm not complaining. i actually LIKE it. everything feels like an adventure right now. i had this same feeling each time i lived in europe. part of the greatest part of moving to a new city/country was getting to discover everything it had to offer, both big and small!

my final stop of the evening was the grocery store...if you can call it that! it felt more like an oversized convenience store. i have to admit, i had a hard time bringing myself to buy the produce, after my first trip to the farmer's market, that is where i'd prefer to buy all of my stuff from now on. no such luck!

our choices in stores are limited so i think i'll try a few on and see which one i like best. worst case, i can drive to the "big city" once a week to do a big shopping and d can pick up little things on his way home. i chose this particular store today because i was told they sell garbage bag tags. get this - we need to pay per bag for garbage removal. yep, that's right! i think it's a great idea. i'm all for paying because i believe it will make us all more environmentally aware. we have a large composter here that we've started to use and then we'll recycle as much as we can. the rest will go into a garbage bag.

so i had a few interesting finds at the store, starting with

who knew you could find those here???

i also found these marshmallows on steroids

Giant doesn't even begin to describe these puppies! it's hard to tell from the picture, but they are HUGE. I'd say roughly the size of a lemon!!!

I had a wee chuckle because the variety was fairly limited and yet there was this little "foreign" section where I found these

My mom's good friend Herma always served these when I was young so it was like a little piece of home!

And finally I was SHOCKED to discover this

I have been wanting to find this magazine since it came out. As recently as two days ago I was trying to see if I could get a subscription because it is not offered in Canada. WHO KNEW i'd find it in our local store!

overall the store was ok...not great in terms of selection, but i loved the friendly staff and small town feel!

in other news today is one of those days i'm trying to get acquainted with the new house noises. i've been convinced more than a few times today that this place is haunted! the fact that there has been thunder off and on most of the afternoon and evening doesn't help!!!

this morning i heard a fairly loud noise. i figured it was the shower rod in the bathroom (we had issues with it last night) so i didn't pay too much attention. i was rather surprised when i went upstairs to change and notice that in fact the shower rod was still intact. turns out it was the closet rod in one of the spare rooms that let go! oooops. i guess we are doing to have to install something a little stronger.

about 10 minutes ago i was SURE i heard the garage doors opening and closing. i thought denis changed his mind and decided to come home early. i waited and waited but he wasn't coming through the door - ohhhhhhh there is the noise again. now i'm pretty sure (and REALLY HOPING) it's the washing machine.

let's hope i get some sleep tonight...fingers crossed.

i wonder what tomorrow holds for me!!!

if all goes well, friday one of my very best friends and our first out of town guest will be arriving from winnipeg...JODI!!!!! she is flying stand-by with her aunt so it will depend on whether or not there is space on the plane!

fingers crossed :)

'night lovelies