I don’t even need to buy much when I do find one, it’s just the thrill of saying “I shopped at Trader Joe’s” and coming home with those reusable bags filled to the brim with stuff that you can’t find in Bloomington! Or, maybe you can find it but it’s more expensive.

So, as I sit here feasting on my Trader Ming’s Jasmine Rice with Green Curry and Vegetables, I cast my mind’s eye into my kitchen, where I see a bottle of Orangina, an empty package of chocolate covered peanut butter filled pretzels, a package of Israeli couscous (can’t find it anywhere here in Central IL!), plantain chips, lite popcorn, multigrain crackers, more in the Trader Ming’s Tasty Thai Meal range, and some Joe-Joe’s (same as Oreos) – I’m sure there’s more, but that’s all I can think of! These Trader Ming’s boxes are just delicious, inexpensive, and the perfect size for lunch (or a 10pm snack!)

The Children’s Museum in Indianapolis was wonderful … this was our second visit, and – unlike last time – it was PACKED! I remember on our previous visit we just walked up to the ticket office and bought tickets. This time, we lined up for a LONG, long time! We bought tickets for the King Tut exhibition – and it was well worth the money ($25/adult) and thought that we would eat before we went into the exhibition.

We lined up in the food court after picking out our food, and learned that the cash registers weren’t accepting credit or debit cards, so the staff were manually running the cards. We stood in line for about 20 minutes, and by the time we got to the register, the cashier had had enough and just waved us through!

We had bought food that was “portable” so we didn’t need to sit and eat it, we ate while we were lining up for the King Tut exhibit. I really didn’t expect the girls to be as interested as they were once we were in the exhibit. The crowd was thick, adults didn’t really have much respect for children trying to read the exhibit notes, and it was a big exhibit! We were warned that it would take about an hour to get through, and I think it was incredibly wise of the museum to put the exhibit notes at the top of the display structures as well as at the base!

The exhibit was truly mind blowing. We were actually looking at real artifacts from 4,000 years ago and older! The real thing. Stone that had been carved with tools by an ancient race who had a wonderful eye for detail. A race of people who really knew what they were doing when they formed gold into the most beautiful jewelry. A race with such a respect for their royalty that they buried all their earthly treasures along with the mummified bodies.

….. and then along came modern man and dug it all up.

I’m really not sure how I feel about that. I mean, in one way it is the ultimate sacrilege, and on the other hand we wouldn’t be able to appreciate it if they didn’t.

So, I’m sure I’ll post more on this, but right now I need to go take a shower and head to bed. I have a meeting to go to in the morning.

Oh, and do we love the chicken catcher from Kentucky on “America’s Got Talent”