The sun’ll come out tomorrow!

Actually, the sun is out today.  We’ve already walked to Home Depot and back, scoping out herbs to buy to grow in my container garden.  The wind makes it a little chilly, but the sun is oh so nice.  I love weather like this.  I know it’ll eventually get hot, but I really don’t see why temperatures should go above 70º or so.

I think I have finally realized I am not a hot weather type of person.  I figured this out when I realized that I am not miserable when it’s cold and gloomy and rainy, and that I am not impatiently praying for the heat to arrive.  My other friends here, all natives of Florida, are all desperately unhappy with the cold and the wet and only regain their cheerful natures when the sun has warmed the neighborhood a bit.  There’s a reason New Englanders can be a dour bunch.

I suppose I should never ever move to the desert southwest, eh?

How was your Mother’s Day?  I hope it was a happy one.  Mine was fabulous, thanks for asking!  Kurt got together with my friend’s husband, and the two of them ordered a couple’s massage for us.  It was a 70-minute massage, but it really felt like maybe twenty minutes.  I was flabbergasted that time had moved so quickly!  I sort of went to another place while I was being worked on.  I wasn’t asleep, but I wasn’t exactly awake either.  It was a very odd, yet pleasant, feeling.  But I kept thinking throughout the massage, “Who massages the masseuse?”  Good question.

After our massage, the two of us had a blueberry ale, a pale ale in which they float dried blueberries.  I know that sounds a little odd, but it’s actually very delicious.  And what goes best with beer than hot wings?  Mmmm yum.  Later on, Kurt made a late dinner of shrimp and scallops that was really delicious.

So overall, I’d have to give my day an A+.

I was kind of surprised that my friend wasn’t tired of me.  We spent most of Saturday together going to “Warrick” to do some shopping, you see, and just getting there and back chews up at least an hour and a half.  We stopped in at Target, one of my absolute favorite stores, but she warned me before we went in that we wouldn’t have a lot of time to shop; it was getting time for us to head home.  I’m one of those people who likes to take my time poking around to see all the new items and products and things to spend my money on.

Even with the time limit imposed on me, I still managed to find a cute dress and a new shirt for Mary Ellen, plus two shirts for Grace and a pair of slippers for me.  All told I spent a whopping $16.

And then as I waited in line to purchase my items, I saw this in the mini-fridges in the check-out lane:

I swear the clouds parted, the sun shone down, and the angels began their heavenly singing.  I am a huge fan of Pepsi, though my favorite way to drink it is straight from the can.  I will drink it from a 20oz bottle, but it seems to taste better from the can.  And no, Coke is not okay, so don’t try to tell me it’s the same thing.  If I ask for Pepsi, I want Pepsi, and if you don’t have it, I will drink something else.  Not Coke.  Coke is what you use to clean the rust off your chrome.  Yuck.

So what is this “Pepsi Throwback,” you ask?  It is Pepsi sweetened with real sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup, the way all soda was sweetened in the US before 1984.  It’s cheaper to use HFCS, but it doesn’t taste the same.  This is why Kurt doesn’t like soda overseas when he’s on deployment; most other nations use sugar in their soda instead of HFCS.  Sure enough, he wasn’t too keen on the taste of the Pepsi Throwback, but I think it’s delicious.  It’s not as sweet as regular Pepsi, and it doesn’t have that artificial taste.

If you are a fan of Coke and would like to try sugar-sweetened Coke, I suggest you see if there is a Mexican grocery near your home.  Mexican Coke is sweetened with sugar instead of HFCS.  I tried it when I was in California last year, and even though I don’t like Coke, it was far better than the HFCS-sweetened American Coke.

So run don’t walk to your nearest Target and get some Pepsi Throwback for yourself.  Apparently there is also Mountain Dew Throwback, but I haven’t seen it yet.  I probably won’t try it; I seem to have grown out of Mountain Dew after it was nearly my sole source of substenance in the ninth grade.  If you do try it, let me know what you think.  If enough people like it, maybe Coke and Pepsi will keep sugar-sweetened soda on the shelves.  I’d at least like the option.