Mother******

Food has gotten expensive.

Thus far we've been pretty well insulated from the rising food prices. We buy almost everything from Costco where the prices have been relatively stable everywhere but the meat section. However, I avoid buying bread, milk, and popscicles at Costco because of the size of the packages and the fact that we will NOT make our way through the dairy or baked goods before they go bad.

So this morning I made my weekly visit to Safeway for the items that we either buy in smaller quantities or go bad fairly quickly.

This week Safeway is having a massive meat sale, including the household favorite, NY strip steak (boneless of course). At just under $6/lb, that's over $3 less than COSTCO is charging at the moment. So I pick up a family pack of strip steak and a family pack of round steak ($2/lb right now) and added the meat to the usual order.

The usual order ends up being $40. This time I paid $90. $40 of that excess belonged to the beef.

That's only 5 meals worth of beef. WTF?

On top of the beef increase, the price of milk has risen 50%, ice cream 25%, and chicken and pork 25%, and soda 50%. What do all of these items have in common?

Corn.

Whose bright idea was it to turn a food crop into a fuel crop? Who thought increasing the market for corn would NOT have an effect on the price?

Oh, and as a bonus since more farmers are cashing in on corn, less wheat is being planted, so now WHEAT is more expensive as well. Bread prices have risen 50% around here.

So how is ethanol going to save all of us again? By making food prices so high that no one can afford to eat?

Why can't we develop alternative fuels from sources we don't need in order to live? Why can't we make ethanol from sugar, or from grass clippings? Why can't we choose an alternative fuel base that won't transfer the high cost of gas to a high cost of food ( not that the price of gas is exactly falling due to ethanol either)? We have the smartest scientists in the world and this is what we come up with?

Wednesdays

Tonight is testosterone night, aka Wednesday.

Wednesday night is the traditional night chosen for the express purpose of getting all of the friends together for dinner and whatever, usually Smash Lab, Mythbusters, and Master Blasters. The food is male, the entertainment is male, and the participants are male. Well, all except me.

I feel the distinct need to grab some mommy friends and head to Applebees for some margaritas.

It's not that I don't like Wednesdays, I do. But for the past few months the need for something more... feminine has been pressing upon me.

So I'm in the bedroom watching the A&E Romance Collection, specifically Victoria and Albert.

I'm tired. I'm tired of being one of the guys, of living in t-shirts in jeans, of following mostly male pursuits. I need to feel like a woman every now and then.

Next week I will make better arrangements.

Why?

Why start a new, markedly open blog?

Because much of what occupies my thoughts doesn't play as well to the audience at the other blog. I want to write about life, domesticity, motherhood, and the trillion details which make up that existence.