Hard vs. paperback vs.ereader

I love books and I love reading often choosing it over other activities like TV. I've been traveling with my ereader and I love  having multiple books in just a few ounces of weight. Passing thru airports I still have a gut instinct to want to go into the bookstores. 

Clearly additional weight is not added by shopping, only by buying. I have to be disciplined or I will still succumb because I do love paper books, but my back doesn't like carrying them. 

All this looking got me thinking about the various merits of the different types of books and why over the years I have purchased various formats.

I love the way hard backs look on a shelf. There's a presence and definitely more majesty to them than worn paperbacks. Another advantage I like in hard backs is that they are easier to convince to stay open while my hands are busy, usually eating. I love to read while I eat. I have never been a habitual reader of hardback books mostly because of price. I was never sure what to do with the dust jacketeither Keep? I feel obligated to keep it. But if you want a shelf of black or leatherette books the dust jacket detracts, but I understand the books may be worth more with them.  I disliked the idea of discarding them, but they often tore and seemed less dignified then.

 If you read an earlier blog of mine,  I talked about finding books hanging around my parents' or grandparents' houses, so I didn't come into the idea of buying new until later and I was quite poor in that phase of life. Hardback purchases were generally only done if they were on sale and then likely only if it was a favorite author.

Since I mostly scavenged books for a long time, I was rarely up to date with an author's releases so buying the paperback was never a hardship of waiting for me. 

I love the way paperbacks can fit in a bag or sometimes a pocket. I used to feel really weird and insecure about leaving the house without a book so paperbacks fit my life easier. I learned the art of eves deopping  and people watching so it doesn't stress me out so much anymore to not have a book on me daily. Odd observations of people end up as bits in books I write later I find.

I like the friendly feel and the price of paperbacks, but they don't stay open as easily when your hands are busy, say eating. I don't break spines on books for me that's a no-no, so it's about finding random things and using the edge of plates trying to prop them open. It wasn't always tidy. 

I also like the colorful creative covers of paperbacks but those clearly don't lend the elegant look to the bookcase. I like owning a quantity of books and that was easier with the price of paperbacks. 

Size matters for me. That's why I recently switched to a mini ipad. The full size was too much weight for taking on the run or for a long day when you weren't sure of reading time. Like a hardback.  I'm very happy with the new size and I love that you can prop up ereaders (with the right case) for hands free reading, great for eating. Smile. 

The odd dilemma I have on ebook purchasing is my old price habits. I don't mind paying up to paperback prices but when we get up to $12-15 that starts to feel like hardback rates but without the sort of visual benefit of that book on the shelf. It's probably my old cheapskate ways. I know with my brain that $12 is not a hardback price, but so far I haven't been able to bring myself to pay that much. The virtual bookshelf I like well stocked, colorful and affordable. Oh but I love having many books with me and not worrying about coming to an end without a new book nearby. I WILL admit to worrying about wifi and fresh downloads though.

The art of procrastinating on food

Does everyone have major grocery purchasing aversions like I do? I've become the queen of substitutions for recipes -- assuming I even bother with a recipe for dinner -- in order to avoid stopping by a store.

In the last month, my significant other and I have achieved a new all time high or would it be stooped to a low(?) in avoiding food shopping. Today we had a conversation that went something like this:
I could eat a spoonful of peanut butter for breakfast.
Oh, you're out of cereal? Don't we have bread?
No.
Hey -- we have tostas. (Spanish pre-toasted crunchy bread slices. Think melba toast.)
Perfect, peanut butter, jelly, and tostas.
I've still got cereal.
Perfect.

This conversation took place on the way to get something out to eat for lunch, so the leftovers in the fridge could be lunch tomorrow.

Everyone does avoid the store on occasion (don't they?)  but we've really turned it into a game the last few weeks. I find great satisfaction in raiding a kitchen that seems to have nothing in it and coming up with dinner. Granted it's going to be dinner with not all the ingredients but dinner it will be.

It's funny there have been times in my life when this substitution or avoidance was due to financial constraints, but this time it's just shear stubbornness or laziness. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that it's "vacation" month in Spain and everyone is either at the beach or wishing they were, so my own personal take is avoiding the reality of grocery carts.

Now, if I'm honest this month of avoiding the store has had to necessarily require visits to the corner shop in our village. It tries to do an impression of a grocery story but it really only has two aisles and a VERY limited selection. I would say most US convenience stores are probably on par with the selection. So we have picked up a couple more liters of shelf milk there, a couple lemons, some lunch meat and bread when we decided to have sandwiches all last weekend, uh toilet paper, and a few odds and ends. We also buy a lot of random things that just accumulate in the cabinets that have aided this creative non-food-buying marathon.

I know we are probably spending too much buying the odds and ends like this rather than breaking down and going to the big store, but we've been one-upping the sensation  that you need to go to the store for a couple weeks now.

So last Monday we were going to grill and had thawed all the meat in the freezer. A freak storm came up that was glorious and humid for a few hours of relief in in our high desert, but no grilling. Hmm, but we do need to eat. So eggs to the rescue -- we had a revuelto frozen package and voila dinner. Revuelto is a veg mix of some sort that you mix with eggs in Spain. Tuesday we grilled all the thawed meat and proceeded to eat it for the next couple days. Thursday on the way to work with the last two burgers in a bag for lunch we laughed and said okay we have to go tonight that was all fun but time is up.

Oops. It's a holiday and the grocery store near us is closed. Now we could have driven 30 minutes and shopped elsewhere, but not us. We decided to push it further. We discovered some forgotten fish fillets in the freezer which my hubby creatively turned into fish curry with some also forgotten cranberries.

Enough fish curry for lunch on Friday! I had a revelation that I still had a lemon and could reproduce that lemon pasta dish minus the chicken. I mean really if there's rice and pasta in the house, you can keep the game going awhile, right?

Saturday we walked to the corner pastelleria (pastry shop) and got goodies and a liter of milk for breakfast and we're (eureka!) invited to a barbecue for dinner. So we have not achieved this non-shopping streak without the help of others and restaurants to be fair.

Breakfast is going to be our undoing I think. It's going to have to be this week. Or we could make a couple more stops in the corner store to make it to a full month of non-shopping. Like I said, we've still got rice.

Pros and Cons of Cruising from an indie traveler perspective

I just got back from a Baltic cruise. I don't have much experience with cruising. We are not the people that go a couple times a year. In fact, it's been twice in 25 years. The first time was a family outing and I did not make any decisions about it. I showed up when I was told to and it was Caribbean so quite different than this Baltic one. My impressions from that long ago cruise were few: everyone was seasick as we had bad seas, lots of different food I hadn't had before,  brief visits that were far too short to see an actual location, and expensive.

Normally we do independent travel. Plan our own tickets and hotels and go on our own, sometimes in the car and other times flying and pubic transport. Five years ago for example we the Amalfi coast of Italy. We stayed in four cities and used public transport to change cities every couple days.

This year was a special anniversary, so we wanted to do something out of the norm. We also had an exceedingly hectic six months prior to this opportunity to vacation, and really no time or maybe no energy to plan something. We found a last minute deal on the cruise, had a good tax return this year,  and decided to go for it. We needed to relax.

Pros:
We had free room service available and took advantage of it by having breakfast in our room nearly every morning. It was relaxing and easy. Two mornings we had to be up and moving early we didn't do it and I found the group dining room to be crowded, hard to find a table, and hassle ridden. God bless the wait staff hustling but it was crazy. A much greater selection of food was available in the dining room however, than what was on the menu for room service though.

I also took advantage of room service when we were deciding to eat later by ordering cheese and crackers, or cookies. It was wonderful to eat a light snack and watch the sea go by while sipping a hot tea. It was chilly up there so I enjoyed the tea service a lot. This was one of the more relaxing aspects.

No thinking needed. The agenda is laid out for you on the cruise. What things there are to do at what times and what time you can get off the boat to see the city. This is a season of my life I needed to not have to figure out what was next and this made it more relaxing. Granted I didn't take very much advantage of their offerings and mostly relaxed with my book.

Unpacking once and sleeping the same place. I think that made the trip much more relaxing. I think if you are trying to see a wide scope of places in a short trip cruising is probably much less harried than say a bus trip where you change hotels each night.

We were advised by several experienced cruisers to get a balcony and this turned out to be very good advice. It was really nice to watch the ports come and go or to step out and watch the sun or check the weather. It made our room much more appealing, a good refuge.

If you are a nervous traveler, cruising is a good option. The food is there and you don't have to second guess much of anything. You can even sign up for shore excursions  and be hand carried to see the important sites. It can be a no brainer.

Variety and Service. Our boat seemed full of people from all over the world and in the evenings we chose to randomly eat with different people which was very interesting. We ate with people from Denmark, South Africa, Ireland, England, and even a couple from the USA. A lot of the boat was people from the U.S. actually and because of that or the cruise company policy customer service was more like I am accustomed to in the U.S. and that was pleasant.

Cons:

Feeling herded like cattle. At the first embarkation I noticed it, we were in rows and rows of wrap around lines and lots of people were complaining. I mean we're essentially going to grown up Disneyland, so we should expect lines, right? Getting off the boat for the ports of call was definitely a herd feeling too. If you had an organized tour, you generally had a tight schedule to keep and for some that means fighting the other cattle to get ahead. The cruise people did a good job of efficiently unloading the boat but it was still 2,000 people to move.

We chose open seating for dinner and generally eat later so we never had to wait, but I noticed others waiting on occasion and wondered if you could run into the same crowded sensation with the food too if you weren't careful.

Expensive. All this hand carrying is not cheap. You get good value for your Euro or your Dollar but this was not our best value trip. Other than the buffet style restaurant and one other restaurant on board, the other eating places required a supplement between $10 per person all the way up to $89. We did not eat at the supplement locations and had good food throughout minus some soggy shrimp, but not as exotic as the first cruise I took. Perhaps though I am just a more seasoned traveler now. The food seemed heavy toward the American side but was generally good quality. The only beverages included were coffee, tea, and water. Soda, gourmet coffee, and cocktail drinkers beware. They would offer drinks at times that were like part of the show and after people took them the servers would come around and ask for your room card to charge you.

The excursions were, for me, shockingly expensive. I saw after the fact that you are paying quite a few people to help you handlers and tour guides, not to mention pre-planned private transport to very specific sites and entry tickets. So it has all been done for you - and that doesn't come cheap. We did two excursions and I will blog about those later.

Still under expensive: tips are not included and there are a ton of people waiting on you. They are doing a very good job and deserve to get paid properly and that involves tipping. The cruise company we went with charges you $130 per person for all the tips for everyone. This is after you get on and in addition to your cruise price. So it's all taken care of, but if you've never been before it might hit your budget if you didn't know.

Sales gimmicks. Everywhere you turned on the boat something was being sold or pushed. Paintings. Jewelery, Faberge Eggs, Russian nesting dolls, t-shirts from past and present cruises, photographs, photograph sittings, spa visits, drinks etc. I guess they must make some good money on all the extras or they wouldn't do it, but it felt a little shopping channel to me. Of course, you don't have to participate but it's always there.

We had a good time and for certain kinds of trips I would do a cruise again. The Norwegian fjords for example I think would be good to see from the water or anytime you are trying to get a lot of countries or a big country like China into a 10 day trip, a cruise would be an easier way to do that. You only dip your toe into the culture with say an 8 hour day trip to one city, but it's a nice taste and let's face it not all travelers are cut out for the deep immersion travel so this is a good way to visit on the lighter side with some hand carrying.

Viva la difference!
 

Foodies, gourmaunds, and wanna-bes

Have you known a foodie? Are you a foodie? Do you disdain the chains for local places? Have you ever driven out of your way because the "fill in the blank" is so good at a particular place? Do you make things you've seen on the food channel?

I think we all have our foodie moments where we like something more from somewhere else, but there are people that are much more serious about this. I don't think it is a flaw at all. In fact, I have a touch of regret that I'm not a more adamant gourmet follower.

I do like things I make sometimes better than something I might get out. That will NEVER stop me from eating out though. You want to stop at Sonic? Okay, sure! It means I  don't have to cook.

I know people that don't order pizza from the standards (Papa Murphys, Ceasars, Pizza Hut, Dominoes). They have that good pizza place where they get it, usually actual Italians are involved.

These are the people you want with you if you want to eat good stuff. Maybe not cheap but it will be good eating. I want to be these people. I do; it's just that ultimately convenience is a stronger pull than my inner gourmand.

Our gourmand friends do not buy prebattered chicken at the grocery store, or frozen entrees. They are ring shoppers. They circle mostly the outside ring of grocery store where things are fresh and have to be assembled to create the perfect meal.

I have often one of these ring shoppers (not lately) but rather than out of pure foodie motives, it's because I'm cheap. But all that making things from scratch takes a long time. It does taste good usually, I have to admit.It can be cheaper depending on the ingredients. I wonder if the foodies always enjoy cooking  or just the results? Is it the yummy food or do they enjoy the journey?

One of my more guilty cooking escapes the last couple years has been....prechopped onions. Excessive I know. Cost ineffective as well. It just jump starts that homemade meal and helps me get off square one. Well, that is, if I'm actually cooking something REAL. See? I have foodie genetics recessed somewhere deep within me that prepared foods (boxed soup? fake potatoes anyone?) don't qualify as REAL. The difference between me and a foodie is I'll eat 'em anyway.

Shopping legends

I heard an advertisement for a shopping area in KC that opens at midnight Thanksgiving night for shopping. Now that is a weird sale time I could get into. I can do midnight, but 5 am you've lost me there.

The idea of getting up at 3 am to stand in line just doesn't do it for me. I'm not a hard core shopper I guess. I also don't like the idea of fighting for the particular items in question.

I once went to Tuesday Morning (the shop) on their opening day. I had seen a flyer and I wanted a tiffany-style lamp they had advertised and it was on the way to work. I had no idea people lined up to get stuff that first day, and I had no idea they were after the same lamps. People pushed and shoved and ran! At Tuesday Morning in MIssion Kansas on a weekday morning!! I calmly walked down a separate isle found a lamp that was $10 more but the same style and vowed never again. I'm just not a shoving, fighting type shopper. I know it's suppose to be all in the hunt, can't do it.

The odd thing is I do like to go to crowded group events, like the Plaza lighting ceremony in KC with half a million of my closest friends. But at those type of events, I'm just there. I'm not trying to fight anyone in the crowd for a sweater.

Several of us went to London at Christmas back in the mid 90s. I can't remember but I think we arrived the day after Christmas. We decided to go shopping on Oxford street, a major shopping street with big department stores. It was really crowded. Insanely crowded. Not 5 am or anything, just the middle of the afternoon the day after Christmas. They had barricaded the sidewalks so that we couldn't spill over into Oxford Street. We reached a point where no one could walk on the sidewalk. You couldn't get from one store to the next to look around. Finally the police came and moved barricades or something. The next day we say a headline in the newspaper, "Oxford street experiences human gridlock."

So maybe you want to mock me. I don't get up at 5am to fight for deals, but I'll go into a crowd of 100,000 for the heck of it. And just maybe, I'd go to a midnight sale - to watch the crowd!

Back from the IKEA wars

We are celebrating Labor Day this weekend, but our car is in the shop so we didn't travel. We took a newcomer to IKEA today to get some stuff and just to check it out. The problem is that it was an uncharacteristically sort of rainy day. And vacation month (August) is over. This is two MAJOR strikes against the mall. The third is that it is Saturday.

So we joined everyone else in Madrid at the San Sebastian de los Reyes IKEA. We chose the small yellow dolly rather than a full size cart so it would be easier to negotiate the crowds. So did everyone else!

A crowd challenge you face here, and I'm afraid I'm developing this habit, is that people just stop where they are and have discussions. Doesn't matter that their bodies and baby stroller and or cart are blocking the entire aisle and that there is no way for you to pass around. You get to wait until their conversation is finished. So that makes it interesting.

I got bumped a lot by people's carts or yellow dollys and I know I bumped a few people as the load got wider than the mini-dolly. But one lady took the cake. She pushed so close and so abruptly close to me that a large box protruding from her dolly drew blood on the back of my neck! It's a good thing I wasn't facing her or it might have been my jugular. I'm being facetious somewhat but, man, I've never had a shopping injury before.