So There I Was At Aldi

Schlepped across town to Aldi today, because I had a wallet full of cash. I was only going to "buy a few things," but of course wound up spending $100 -- three cases of sparkling water, three cans of coffee, five cartons of cottage cheese, 3 quarts of half and half, 6 blocks of cheese, etc. They don't call it "the stock-up store" for nothing.

So there I am in line, waiting to check out, and I overheard the nice young man ringing the register explaining to the elderly lady ahead of me in line that the reason she can't use her credit card is because Aldi does everything they possibly can to keep prices at rock-bottom levels -- no credit cards (they do take debit), no baggers, no people out in the lot rounding up the shopping carts -- heck, no shelves, stuff is just stacked on pallets.

When my turn came, I told the nice young man that the last time I'd come to Aldi I had written about it at my blog, posting all the prices from my receipt. Cool, he said. I wrote?, he asked. Yep, I told him, I write about nutrition and cooking and stuff. Interesting, he replied, he was into nutrition. Well, I said, I'm kind of the anti-vegan. He liked that, said he ate a lot of meat, too. I'm one of those Atkins people, I said, I eat low carb. He lit up -- had I heard of a documentary called Fathead?

Hah! When I told him that Tom Naughton is a friend of mine, that I know him from the Low Carb Cruise, you would have thought I said I knew Jack Black or Will Ferrell. He thought that was the coolest thing ever -- he'd seen Fathead, gone low carb, and lost fifty pounds. I told him he needed to start planning for the cruise, and he, too, could hang out and sing karaoke with Tom Naughton.

Sure made a routine trip to the grocery store more fun. And I hope he comes on the cruise! (You should too, of course.)