Kirsten Mortensen's blog

Too nice to play dead, either!

Spring weather brings out the critters — my daughter spotted this fella “scurrying” across our yard and around to the back of the garage. He paused here, against a brick bbq chimney, long enough for me to get a great pic!

He doesn’t appear to be sick, so hopefully he’s just out for an early spring stroll :-)

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my melancholy baby . . .

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Wegmans — Rochester’s iconic supermarket chain — has rubbed me the wrong way a couple times in recent months. First, they completely rearranged their Pittsford store, where I do my shopping. I’m sure they have perfectly good business reasons for doing so. But weeks later, I’m still uncertain where various products are shelved. It bugs me that a chore that ought to be fairly routine was — without my being consulted, imagine — made more complicated, albeit only until I’ve finished learning the new arrangement.

My irritation at the whole-store makeover pales, however, in comparison to how I felt when I discovered they’d changed how they display their organic produce. I’ve been buying organic produce from that store for probably twenty years, and it’s always been displayed in a dedicated section of the store’s produce department. Now all of a sudden they’ve dispersed their organic produce throughout the department. So instead of going to one place to shop for produce, I have to go hunting — not just to shop, but to even figure out what organic produce they have in stock.

My solution: buy less produce from them. I simply don’t have the time to figure out where the organic peppers might be this week. Much simpler to just go to the Genesee Co-op [which doesn't seem to have a website] or Lori’s [which does have a website but don't click it if you find their theme song unbearable because their home page blasts it at you full volume] and stock up on produce there.

Anyway. The organic produce thing still burns me, but I was pleased yesterday to discover that the store is now selling reusable grocery bags.

Here’s a pic. I bought two yesterday. Only 99 cents apiece if you’ve got a Wegman’s shoppers club card.

Besides being better for the environment rah rah rah the new bags look like they’re going to behave better than plastic ones. They’re gussetted and have a bit of heft to them. Presumably they won’t be as prone to sliding around in the car and disgorging their contents. They also look like they’ll hold about as much as a paper bag, but have handles like plastic bags, which means it may be easier to lug the groceries from the car to the house. Fewer trips. And less time spent retrieving spilled groceries that have rolled out of reach in the the car. Get back some of the time I wasted learning where the canned olives are now.

It will be interesting to see how things go from a workflow perspective at checkout. Are the grommets on the bags there so clerks can slip them onto the same racks they use to hold plastic bags open while they scan purchases? Will it take longer for the clerks to position the reusable bags, compared to just pulling open a plastic bag from the rack like they do now?

It will be interesting to see how this catches on as well. I expect that at this store, at least, the bags will become hugely popular. I know I didn’t hesitate to switch the first time I saw them.

Technorati Tags: Wegmans, Rochester, New York

Hi there!

I had a revelation a couple months ago about a mental mistake I’d made that was impairing my ability to train my dog to walk nicely on leash.

Since correcting the error of my ways, my dog’s on-leash behavior has improved enormously.

Today I used my new digital camera to film a clip of the technique, which I’ve published on Youtube. I also wrote up a kind of longish “how to” piece to elaborate on what I’ve done and why, which I published here.

Technorati Tags: dog training, leash walking

That just struck my funnybone.

“Your privacy is very important to us. Now do tell us all about yourself.”

LOL

(Okay, okay, maybe you had to be there!)

More London photos, hooray!

On Friday, we started out at the Tate Britain, which runs a ferry up the Thames between it and the Tate Modern. So after browsing art for awhile we ferried up the river. Didn’t go into the Tate Modern but we did make a stop at the reconstructed Globe Theater. Here’s a pic of it from the boat.

We took the Globe tour, which was fantastic. I’d just finished reading Ackroyd’s biography of Shakespeare, so it was thrilling to see in three dimensions what his theater was like. Here’s a couple of pictures of the exterior. This is where the seats are — wooden benches.

Here’s the stage —\/

My only regret is that they don’t stage productions there in February (the season runs April to October). On the other hand, now I have an excuse to go back ;-)

From there we ended up in Knightsbridge. We found a pub for a Guinness, and when we came out the sunset had turned the sky pink. It was gorgeous.

I had one more literary thrill before the day was over, as it turns out. London puts plaques on buildings where famous people have lived, and we happened to notice this one that evening. P.G. Wodehouse, hooray!

Here’s the house :-)

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I had quite a pile of work awaiting me after my trip, so I’ve spent this week churning out Corporate Prose. I’ve got more to write this weekend, but in the meantime here’s a few more pics.

The day after Paris my Gracious Host agreed to my suggestion that we try a tour bus. We set out by foot to Trafalgar Square, passing Cambridge Circus . . .

and Chinatown.

We began the morning walking through The National Gallery, which faces the square.

And then found a bus. We sat on the top — the weather was just warm enough to make it bearable — and were on our way.

We passed many familiar landmarks, and while it wasn’t always easy to get decent shots from a moving vehicle, the tour guide was a font of interesting trivia (my Gracious Host even admitted to picking up a few previously-unknown tidbits, native Londoner though he is) — altogether, a very enjoyable experience and definitely worthwhile if you’re new to the city and need to get a tourist’s bearings.

Here’s the Tower Bridge.

The Tower of London.

Christopher Wren’s monument commemorating the Fire of London in 1666.

Technorati Tags: London