Oh, and my sister said that the cronuts at Happy Chicks were better than the one she had at the place that first made them. They only have them here on Saturdays, and they do different flavors each week. This week, they had orange chocolate chip and blackberry.

So I got a cinnamon broom from TJs today. First hung it on basement door,basement side. Too strong.

I found that the too strong smell went away very quickly, so I put mine in the garage/laundry room for a day or so, and then put them a few different places.

Oddly, I just realized that cinnamon brooms may actually get me to TJs tomorrow, even though the holiday cookies wouldn't have.

Cronuts are those croissant/donut mash-ups, yes? I've never seen one but I picture it like a koign amann (which I only know about because you can buy them at TJs).

I found some good news out of my undergrad. [link] I have a tremendous amount of respect for her.

She sounds very interesting.

So there was this weird thing this year where some Washington grocery chain came and bought out all the Albertsons markets in California and then they went bankrupt and now they are closing and trying to sell them all. So fricking weird. I suspect there was some sort of fradulent, or at least very suspect, business going on but the news reports just present it very matter-of-fact. Anyway personal upshot is that the closest market to our house, which used to be an Albertsons, is now closing and not slated to be bought by anything else, so we will have a big empty box lot instead. Not happy about that.

That would definitely suck, Burrell! Washington like the state or the city? I don't know of any bankrupt grocery chains! But then I mostly go to Trader Joes.

I really need a pedicure. But I keep putting off getting one. Hard to feel the urgency in winter, but my feet are ugly.

Washington state, Haggen is the chain. Are they closing in Washington too or just California? It was just weird because they made a big deal about how they had this ambitious plan to convert most of the Albertsons to the more high end Haggen, and then after like 4 months -- plbbbbt

meara, be sure to get out to Pablo Neruda's coastal home when you're in Chile! It was such a highlight of my trip!

I'm pleased that my cats just aren't body-heat vampires. Sometimes they actually prefer my lap to the electric blanket. That blanket doesn't have hands.

Closing in Washington too. Haggen claims that one contribution to the closing is cheating by Albertson's. Haggen claims that when Alberston turned over the purchased stores to Haggen that they lied about the prices they had previously charged, giving Haggen inflated data. So when people came into the stores that had been Albertons and were now Haggen, they saw a sudden price hike while Haggen was avertising price cuts. Also Haggen claims that inventory was transferred from the stores they purchased after the purchase but before they took possession - which would be outright theft if true. We won't know how factual that is until the court battle is settled.

Even if these claims are true, and I personally lean towards believing them, Haggen also took over the stores with insufficient capital to carry out the expansion successfully. The alleged dishonesty by Alberton's should not have been quite so fatal a blow in an edequately financed retail chain.

(Note both Haggen and Alberton's have parent companies - but I don't feel like googling them, so am using brand rather than actual corporate names.)

All the Albertson's stores in this area closed a decade or two ago in some corporate reorg, I think that's what the big empty spot across from Raleys used to be. It's been empty as long as I've lived here but when there's stuff like Xmas tree sales in the parking lot they call it the old Albertson's parking lot (there are smaller stores in the strip, including a Walgreens and Starbucks, so the whole thing is not deserted, but it's kind of dominated by the empty space). Or maybe Lucky's, but I'm pretty sure Lucky's was bought by Albertson's at some point. I can't keep track, I still have Skaggs-Albertson's as a thing in my head and that hasn't been right for ages. They are always buying and selling each other and changing names and rebranding.

In any case, it sucks to have your nearest grocery store disappear and having a big empty building isn't good.

Oddly, I just realized that cinnamon brooms may actually get me to TJs tomorrow, even though the holiday cookies wouldn't have.

Exactly what went through my head at sarameg's post.