Convenient...But Expensive!

I'm making garden vegetable soup for dinner tonight. It's a weekly staple at our house during the colder months.

The recipe calls for 2 cups of broccoli florets. I would normally buy whole broccoli, but I was feeling kind of lazy today so I just bought the bag of florets.

Last week, while in Chicago, I bought a 3 lb. bag of broccoli florets at Costco. I paid $4.49 for the bag. The price stuck in my mind because I remember being amazed at how cheap it was. Seriously, it would have been enough broccoli to feed me and Mrs. TBF for five nights. And while I'm thinking about it...

If you're one of the many people complaining how expensive food is, here's my advice to you:

STOP BUYING JUNK FOOD! THEY ARE EMPTY CALORIES! YOU CAN BUY 3 LBS. OF BROCCOLI AT COSTCO FOR $4.49 FOR CHRISSAKE! IF YOU CAN'T AFFORD THAT YOU'RE IN BIG TROUBLE!

If you're somebody who doesn't complain about the cost of food...well...then just go ahead and keep buying junk food.

So, the 3 lbs. of Costco broccoli florets at $4.49 comes out to about $1.50 per pound. And the 300 gram bag of broccoli florets at my local grocery store? It cost CHF 3.50. After a little quick metric and currency conversion, that comes out to...$4.50 per pound.

Yes, broccoli florets cost three times more in Basel than they do in Chicagoland!

Of course, I'm not complaining. After all, I did also buy a bunch of roasted nuts and a large bag of tortilla chips. I mean, come on! It's almost Friday!

What We Did This Summer...

We've been on vacation for ten days now. We flew to Chicago on the 19th, then we flew to Norfolk, VA on the morning of the 20th, met up with some friends at the airport (btw...a very nice airport y'all have there in Norf-uck!) and then drove from Norfolk to Rodanthe, NC where we spent a week enjoying an Outer Banks vacation in a ginormous beach house with NINETEEN other people - a total of 11 adults and 10 kids!!!





Outer Banks vacation keywords: sun, sand, hot, humid, surfing, beer, wine, SPF 30 sunscreen, BBQ, Dairy Queen, Food Lion, and smuggled Cuban cigars (sorry, Dad!).

We flew back to Chicago this past Sunday, and now we're enjoying doing stupid things like going to Costco and being amazed by coolers that will hold 101 cans of beer AND keep ice up to 5 days at 90˚F. OR...if that's not enough fun for ya...picking up gigantic slabs of beef, and wondering how much more they'd cost in Switzerland.

Do we know how to have fun, or what?

Of course, we have our usual array of dental appointments (still no need for dentures or glasses...at the age of nearly 46!) and such, but most of the week will be spent wandering around aimlessly and just blending in anonymously as locals.

Oh...and the quote of the day comes from Mrs. TBF as we were walking around a Target store picking up a few odds and ends:

TBF: Ya wanna walk around s'more and look for somethin' else we might need?

Mrs. TBF: NO! I HATE this place! It's got a bad vibe!

I guess we'll just have to stick to Costco from now on.