Tuesday, July 27, 2010 Day 27
Another lazy day – two in a row! More laundry – I’m about to catch up from my trip. Roger’s back is bothering him when he stands up, so he has been lying down a good deal. We went out first to Office Depot for a dual purpose. Roger had sent an e-mail to our bank asking them to arrange payment of our August rent, since we have not gotten a password from them yet to facilitate our on-line banking. He got a response yesterday from the bank instructing us to fax the name and banking information of the recipient and the amount, and sign the fax, and they would take care of it. Additionally, I wanted to get four flash 2G drives. We were able to take care of both of those matters at the OD, which is just around the corner from us. From there we went on to the market, and today seemed to be jewelry day – there were many more jewelry booths than we have ever seen before. Indeed, there was a scarcity of food booths – probably less than 10 in the 60-80 booths that make up the market. We bought fish, vegetables and fruit. We have determined that the fruit and vegetables are less expensive at the market than from the shops along the streets, but I also discovered that they are not as tasty. I got some apricots today and they were only okay. They were still better than what I could buy in grocery stores in the U.S., but not as tasty as those sold by my favorite fruit vendor. Oddly enough, I will buy his fruits but not his vegetables. Most of these shops are open-air affairs, and their vegetables look tired, I think from not selling fast enough. The peppers are wrinkly, the cucumbers limp and most of the other vegetables kind of sad. The fruits seem to move more quickly so they are fresher. When he runs low, he brings out more from the back.

We forgot to get milk and cheese, so we went out again to mail a letter and go to the grocery store. We mailed the letter first, and this time I conducted the transaction without a hitch. It costs about twice the U.S. postage to send a letter from here to Boise – .78€. We had discussed in the past whether to buy refrigerated milk or shelf milk, so we checked the price of cold milk versus ultra-pasteurized shelf milk and bought the latter, as there was about a .40€ difference – not a lot but there doesn’t seem to be any difference in taste. Roger bought some orange cheese while at the store. It looks a lot like cheddar. It’s not too bad, but it doesn’t have a cheddar taste to it.

Cheese – I forgot to mention last week that we bought some really raunchy cheese on our trip to the grocery store in Jerzens. Most of my sisters have pretty catholic taste in foods – we love our fruit and vegetables but tend to enjoy a broad spectrum of foods and are moderately adventurous in trying new foods. But this cheese was beyond the pale! It tasted like someone’s grossest gas smells! Ugh!!!!

The last of the laundry finally finished drying – it takes about 24 hours to dry blue jeans and heavy pants, and the red-striped shirt I bought for Bastille Day is also pretty heavy and takes its time. Tomorrow we will wash towels, which will also take all day. Roger said it may rain tomorrow, in which case we will have to dry them in front of the fan.

Saturday morning on the way to Vipiteno, I copied everyone’s camera picture cards onto my computer. Today I spent the afternoon transferring pictures of our Sisters Reunion to the four flash drives for my sisters, one for each sister. In this way, we have shared all our photos with one another. I didn’t get pictures of Vipiteno nor of the Tyrol show on Saturday, and I didn’t take any myself, but that only leaves a few for us to share by email or otherwise.

I fixed fish for supper, along with a potato, onion and pepper dish, fresh green beans and salad made with half a mango, lettuce, bell pepper and balsamic vinaigrette dressing. The fish we didn’t care for too much – we are experimenting with fish from the market and we don’t always know what we are buying. This was another bland white fish - I don't remember what it was called, but the flakes were quite large. I am going to have to learn more ways to cook fish than to broil it with butter. The salad was outstanding. I guess it should have been – I bought two mangos from my favorite fruit vendor and paid 10.72€, or about $13 for the two. Ouch! But the first one was really good, and I am sure the second one will be equally tasty.