sampling

Neal and I occasionally (well, lately it seems like quite often) have time off together during the week. Running errands in the middle of a weekday is optimal. Not that I'm the first one to have figured this out, but it seems a lot more consistent around here. I remember many a weekday that I randomly had off while living in the Bay Area (having spent most of my adult life thus far as a student, I'm no stranger to the flexible schedule) and being shocked - each time - at how many other people were at Target, Berkeley Bowl, Trader Joe's, you name it. That's the dark side of flex-time and telecommuting, both popular working options in the Bay Area. The Monday through Friday, nine to five gig seems to be a lot more common in the Boston area, however, which means you can pretty much bet on an empty Ikea or Costco in the middle of a weekday.

And the other great thing about hitting Costco in the middle of a weekday - around here, at least - are the samples. The samplers are positioned at the end of nearly every food/freezer aisle, their wares divied and ready to be snatched up by the student, housewife, small business owner, or general slacker there at noon on a Wednesday. Rarely were there many samplers at the Costco nearest to our Oakland apartment, and when there were samplers set up they were either mysteriously out of samples, fiddling with their little microwave ovens, or offering something boring and non-edible like Clorox wipes.

No, the Costco closest to us now boasts of many a hard-working sampler with tasty sausages, big bites o' cheesecake, and to wash it all down, perhaps some vitamin water. Here's what we sampled today:

* bite-sized Snicker's bar
* slice of Italian sausage
* wedge of whole wheat quesadilla
* a chunk of London broil in BBQ sauce
* an entire chicken nugget (in the shape of a dinosaur) with a drizzle of honey mustard sauce
* a forkful of New York style cheesecake
* a spoonful of raspberry sorbet
* half of a mini chicken egg roll
* and a slice of dried apple

It's like a free buffet.