Fortunately, there are some things that help keep the chaos at bay. First, J Word is awesome, so there's always that to come home to. Secondly, this week I experimented with online grocery shopping, which you can read more about in my first Friday thought below. Thirdly, most of the 'chaos' is actually stuff that's fun and relaxing, so it doesn't feel all that overwhelming (until my alarm goes off at 6am the next morning!)
So weekends are always appreciated...and race weekends are always special...so this weekend is bound to be a memorable one in some way or another! And to kick the whole thing off, here are four things to be thinking about!
1. The aforementioned online grocery shopping experience: Here's the situation. We're not talking about Market Day, or the Schwann's man, or Peapod, or any of the online grocery/food delivery services that have popped up recently. The Hy-Vee chain, and the Hy-Vee that I shop at have a new program called "aisles," which is online shopping from the actual store itself, which you can then pick up after it's all been retrieved for you by a "personal shopper." I was curious. I mean...would I really never have to spend an extra 45 minutes wandering the grocery store buying things I didn't need and trying to think up my weekly menu based on what struck me in the moment.
Here's how it went down. I placed my order Wednesday morning before school started. I logged onto my grocery store account, and because I'm part of their customer shopping points card, they already had populated a list of my most frequently purchased items for me to begin choosing from. I could also search items from their full online inventory. All and all, I put my shopping cart together in about 5 minutes, and proceeded to the checkout where they asked for my credit card information, and what time I'd like to pick up my order. Easy peasy! I might never shop in a story again!
There were, however, some things I was leary about in this online shopping experience. First...produce. I'm picky about my produce. J Word hates having green bananas that have to ripen on the counter. Sometimes I want a peach that's ready to eat right now...other times I won't want/need it for a day or two. Sometimes I need a HUGE onion, other times a smaller one works fine. There aren't ways to specify these needs except for a "comments for your shopper" box on the final order page. And I feel like leaving a TON of comments for your personal shopper beyond, "Thank you!" just makes you that really needy, really annoying, really should probably be buying their own groceries in the store, kind of person.
Secondly, I was worried about gluten free shopping as I generally have to check over a lot of ingredients labels to make sure everything is safe. Fortunately, there was a gluten free filter on the product search, which was helpful. The one comment I did have to leave for the personal shopper was to please check that the box of Cheerios they selected was the new gluten free variety and not the old ones.
Lastly, I thought of about 5 things I should have added to my list after I placed my order. Hy-Vee says they can accommodate this if you just go into the store and purchase the extra items while your order is being loaded into your car...but that kind of defeats the purpose of not having to go into the store in the first place. I suppose you could also place a second order if need be and pick the up at the same time?
All and all...here are my final thoughts on the subject. I like the concept...and I'll probably use it again, but probably not every time I grocery shop. Unless I could get really efficient at meal planning, or really decisive in what I want to eat for a week in advance, I'll probably always feel a little compelled to run through the store and grab what looks good/in season/on sale/etc. However, when time is running short, and I need a few things in a hurry, it was SUPER convenient to drive up, call the service number and let them know I was here, and have the bags brought out to me. Very convenient. Kudos Hy-Vee!
2. This whole thing is about to go nuclear: There's been lots in the news about the Iran Nuclear Deal and whether or not it will (or should) be passed. can we all just pause for a moment, however, and talk about the really weird things that have gone on regarding nuclear science since the history of...well...nuclear science. The list (CLICK HERE) of the top 10 nuclear mysteries is spooky, and as an English/Humanities minded person, who only just got through high school physics with a B because I just wasn't that interested nor did I care about any class not AP or English at that point in my senior year, I think my current stance on nuclear weapons, warheads, Iranian deals, etc. is going to be, "Wouldn't you rather just go have a cup of coffee and discuss literature for awhile?"
3. Viva la bella vida, and other things I made up in Italian: This week J Word and I booked our plane tickets for Italy next summer!!!! This is super exciting, and I'm pumped to start planning the rest of the details (though we have a plane ticket, and an apartment rental in the Cinque Terra for a full week, so really all I need now is a swimsuit, bottle of wine, and some pasta!). I had this great idea this summer that I was going to use Duolingo to start learning Italian...and I did really well for the first couple weeks, and then things kind of went to the wayside. But I should get back on it because 1. Now our plane tickets are booked, and 2. Italian just has some amazing words in it that English can't match! CLICK HERE.
1. The aforementioned online grocery shopping experience: Here's the situation. We're not talking about Market Day, or the Schwann's man, or Peapod, or any of the online grocery/food delivery services that have popped up recently. The Hy-Vee chain, and the Hy-Vee that I shop at have a new program called "aisles," which is online shopping from the actual store itself, which you can then pick up after it's all been retrieved for you by a "personal shopper." I was curious. I mean...would I really never have to spend an extra 45 minutes wandering the grocery store buying things I didn't need and trying to think up my weekly menu based on what struck me in the moment.
Here's how it went down. I placed my order Wednesday morning before school started. I logged onto my grocery store account, and because I'm part of their customer shopping points card, they already had populated a list of my most frequently purchased items for me to begin choosing from. I could also search items from their full online inventory. All and all, I put my shopping cart together in about 5 minutes, and proceeded to the checkout where they asked for my credit card information, and what time I'd like to pick up my order. Easy peasy! I might never shop in a story again!
There were, however, some things I was leary about in this online shopping experience. First...produce. I'm picky about my produce. J Word hates having green bananas that have to ripen on the counter. Sometimes I want a peach that's ready to eat right now...other times I won't want/need it for a day or two. Sometimes I need a HUGE onion, other times a smaller one works fine. There aren't ways to specify these needs except for a "comments for your shopper" box on the final order page. And I feel like leaving a TON of comments for your personal shopper beyond, "Thank you!" just makes you that really needy, really annoying, really should probably be buying their own groceries in the store, kind of person.
Secondly, I was worried about gluten free shopping as I generally have to check over a lot of ingredients labels to make sure everything is safe. Fortunately, there was a gluten free filter on the product search, which was helpful. The one comment I did have to leave for the personal shopper was to please check that the box of Cheerios they selected was the new gluten free variety and not the old ones.
Lastly, I thought of about 5 things I should have added to my list after I placed my order. Hy-Vee says they can accommodate this if you just go into the store and purchase the extra items while your order is being loaded into your car...but that kind of defeats the purpose of not having to go into the store in the first place. I suppose you could also place a second order if need be and pick the up at the same time?
All and all...here are my final thoughts on the subject. I like the concept...and I'll probably use it again, but probably not every time I grocery shop. Unless I could get really efficient at meal planning, or really decisive in what I want to eat for a week in advance, I'll probably always feel a little compelled to run through the store and grab what looks good/in season/on sale/etc. However, when time is running short, and I need a few things in a hurry, it was SUPER convenient to drive up, call the service number and let them know I was here, and have the bags brought out to me. Very convenient. Kudos Hy-Vee!
2. This whole thing is about to go nuclear: There's been lots in the news about the Iran Nuclear Deal and whether or not it will (or should) be passed. can we all just pause for a moment, however, and talk about the really weird things that have gone on regarding nuclear science since the history of...well...nuclear science. The list (CLICK HERE) of the top 10 nuclear mysteries is spooky, and as an English/Humanities minded person, who only just got through high school physics with a B because I just wasn't that interested nor did I care about any class not AP or English at that point in my senior year, I think my current stance on nuclear weapons, warheads, Iranian deals, etc. is going to be, "Wouldn't you rather just go have a cup of coffee and discuss literature for awhile?"
3. Viva la bella vida, and other things I made up in Italian: This week J Word and I booked our plane tickets for Italy next summer!!!! This is super exciting, and I'm pumped to start planning the rest of the details (though we have a plane ticket, and an apartment rental in the Cinque Terra for a full week, so really all I need now is a swimsuit, bottle of wine, and some pasta!). I had this great idea this summer that I was going to use Duolingo to start learning Italian...and I did really well for the first couple weeks, and then things kind of went to the wayside. But I should get back on it because 1. Now our plane tickets are booked, and 2. Italian just has some amazing words in it that English can't match! CLICK HERE.
4. The people running for president should be called "hopeless" not "hopefuls: This week the Republican conglomerate held their second debate...and I resigned myself not to write about politics on my blog because, "If you can't say anything nice..." So instead I'll talk about a political story I do like: Stephen Colbert, who's actually doing far less politics now that he's moved over to the Late Show...but still has excellent quotability in regards to all things human! CLICK HERE
That's it! On to the weekend. The weather here looks perfect as fall is coming into full swing! Enjoy, and as always...
Happy Trails,
No comments:
Post a Comment