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Friday, April 18, 2008

El Jefe Reforms


Back when Bush the Elder was Prez, there was a minor flap over a visit he made to a grocery store. Bush 41 was ridiculed for not being familiar with the scanning systems at the check-out counter.

Ahem. That could have been El Jefe. About the same time as that story ran in the media, I had some minor surgery. We needed some things from the grocery store and because the girls were too young to drive, I sent El Jefe. I had to send him with a drawing of the grocery store aisles complete with directions of how to find the items on the list. He had some trouble with it. It was not a pleasant experience. El Jefe has always resisted any effort to get him inside a grocery store.

Fast forward to 2007, and the opening of the Whole Foods store near our house. One weekend in January I took him with me to pick up some soup for lunch and suddenly his life was transformed! Now he is all about going to the grocery store--well, not just any grocery store, just Whole Foods. When we went in there recently he said he just loved the smell of grocery stores. He loves poking around, especially at the seafood, meat and prepared food counters and will even go over there all by himself!

I never ever thought I would see this day! Yippee!

So there is hope for Bush 41. Barbara, here's a tip: send him off to Whole Foods.

15 comments:

  1. On the Saturday after my late first wife came home from the hospital with our second son, she sent me off to the Commissary with a list of items to be purchased and a hand-full of coupons.

    I cleared the list, paid for my purchases and went home. As we were unpacking and putting things away, she suddenly asked "Wher is the _______?"

    I quickly and astutely replied, "Huh?"

    (How many wives have already figured this one out?)

    "It wasn't on the list," I continued.

    "Why would I give you a coupon if I didn't want you to buy it?" was her rejoinder.

    Moral of the story for wives: Do not expect left-brained husbands to stop being left-brained just because we were wise enough to marry you.

    Mac

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  2. "... especially at the seafood, meat and prepared food counters..."

    Raw animal flesh you can take home and burn over a fire. Get's guys every time!

    :)

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  3. El Jefe domesticated? A true Presbyterian, reformed always reforming!

    I concur with him regarding Whole Foods. I love the place, thought I had died and gone to heaven when I first shopped there. No more food from mystery locations and Texas produce as well. The fish and cheese selection are wonderful. Our sil, the philistine, suggested Fergus get a bumper sticker saying "my wife and my money go to whole foods"... Somethings are worth being poorer over.. good food and good wine.

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  4. RB,
    "Somethings are worth being poorer over..."
    I couldn't agree with you more!

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  5. Good grief, imagine what will happen if you get a Trader Joe's !!

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  6. Whole Foods and Trader Joe's must be dating destinations in my part of the world; I see sooo many couples shopping there. However, we need to train the new grocery shoppers to do the aisle dance properly so we can get by! (I'm sure El Jefe is not an offender on that front.)

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  7. Never heard of Whole Foods.

    Too bad!

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  8. Yea for El Jefe!
    Life is filled with wonderful things! Even grocery stores...

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  9. Singing Owl,

    Whole Foods is a grocery chain specializing in organic meat, diary and produce. It is Texas based (began in Austin) but has some stores outside of the state.

    Don't feel bad--I never heard of Trader Joes. Must go look it up!

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  10. QG:
    Here in California Whole Foods stores are what used to be Mrs. Gooch's. Whole Foods bought out Sandy Gooch's chain. And I have to say, as nice as Whole Foods is....I miss Ma Gooch's. The produce was actually better. If you can imagine.

    And good for El Jefe. A new world revealed!!

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  11. PG--
    I didn't know that, PG.

    It seems to be hard to have consistently good organic produce. The Sugar Land store has a lot of "traditional" produce in it, albeit from local growers.

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  12. I miss all of them, living in small town Wyoming - Mrs. Gooch's, Trader Joe's, and Whole Foods. When they opened a Whole Foods near seminary, many starving students made meals out of the samples that were placed liberally throughout the store.

    Amen to RB's comment!

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  13. Anonymous11:39 AM

    Here in Maryland Whole Foods was called Fresh Fields...We also have Trader Joes and a nice big Wegman's

    PresbyG

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  14. LOL!
    My dad became enamored of grocery shopping in his later years, so there is hope for anyone.

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  15. Anonymous4:35 PM

    Well I must say I can so relate to El Jefe BEFORE he discovered Whole Foods and I am female. My husband does the shopping and cooking. I would be totally lost in a grocery store. Thank goodness I married someone in the restaurant business.
    HE also will ask for directions if lost driving.....I won't. I would say this is a classic case of role reversal. LOL :o)

    Christine R.

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