Sunday Digest

Stuff I like
My friend Andy: I'm lucky to have a good friend who shares my career and my values and reflects my sensibilities. My pal Andy and I have been friends for 11 years, and we have a friendship that is one of those pick-up-where-you-left-off-even-if-it's-been-a-year kind of friendships. And man, can he make me laugh. We have so much in common and we can waste away an afternoon talking about teaching, politics and other stuff. In many ways, I admire his abilities as an educator, and I enjoy hearing about his school and his experiences. So, although we don't get together much -- but we did have a great long lunch Saturday -- we always catch up, exchange anecdotes and curse the Republicans. It's time well spent.

Bi-Mart: I went to the Bi-Mart over in East Wenatchee today and was rewarded with a bit of nostalgia and a flood of memories. I confess that my tastes have changed a smidge since I have become so affluent on my teacher's salary (check that public records site to see just how wealthy). I mean, now I shop at Target instead of the Bi-Mart. As a small country/college town, Ellensburg lacked such conveniences as a Fred Meyer or Kmart. But we had Bi-Mart for almost everything. And it was cheap. Just a $5 lifetime membership got you buzzed through that little wooden gate and into aisles of amazing buys.

When I was a kid growing up in Ellensburg, Bi-Mart was the all-purpose store, a chain of Eastern Washington and Oregon stores that was recently purchased by its employees. You could get music tapes, fishing bait, plastic models to assemble, fuzzy posters to color and plenty of off-brand canned and dry goods. Could there be a better utopia of shopping? The only thing Bi-Mart lacked was the grease pencil to mark your own prices (I loved going to Pairie Market for just that reason). So, when I wanted a pair of binoculars to use for sightseeing on my upcoming road trip, I thought first of the sporting goods counter at good ol' Bi-Mart. Every Bi-Mart looks the same and smells the same.

I know now, since I have ventured to greener, brand-name pastures, that Bi-Mart is a little on the cheap side. But you just can't beat it for plain old stuff. The fact that it is employee-owned makes it even more attractive. I think I'll be using my green membership card a lot more these days.

Working in the yard: I love working in the yard. I made a yardcare mistake last week. When it was nice out last Saturday, I decided to do the late-spring fertilizing on the patch of grass I call the back yard and saved the mowing for Sunday. I should have mowed because the sun quickly turned to rain, a rain which continued well into this week and moisture retained for days. The fertilizer/no mow/rain combo produced a thick green lawn that I finally tackled Thursday night with my reel mower. Grass now under control, I pruned some of the tendrils from my massive willow tree that was blocking the sun from getting to the lawn. I filled the garbage can with prunings. Spent two hours out there today pruning, mowing again, picking up and sweeping. It's great a time to be outside.

Stuff I don't like
The Krispy Kreme apple fritter: I tried the Krispy Kreme apple fritter this weekend. I love a fresh KK glazed doughnut straight from the conveyor -- there is simply nothing better. My favorite KK, though, is the blueberry cake doughnut. It holds up better once you leave the comfort of the atmosphere-controlled display case. But the fritter? Hmmm. Not so good. Most people don't know that a fritter is made from the scrap dough mixed with apple filling into a big wad then fried. Heck, dump enough glaze on anything and it is bound to taste good. But the KK dough is pumped through some machine that shapes it before it is allowed to rise just enough and then fried. So, this fritter is composed of pieces of the regular doughnuts, which means there is no piece of dough that is large enough to be anything but chewy. Some parts are even kinda crunchy. So, while it was not a complete disaster, I think I'll stick to my regular KK faves, thank you very much.

-- Wenatchee, Wash.