Butryflynet, hello.

Hello there, Ms Butterfly!

I'm sending my best wishes & my hopes that this big change of location works out well for you!

Please keep us posted about how it's going for you.

I was at Sunflower Market today. Prices were a bit higher than what I paid for produce in the Sacramento area. About the only thing that was less were the yams and sweet potatoes. They're $1.69 a pound in Sacramento and $1.29 a pound at Sunflower. I bought a bunch of them. Bread was almost twice as much. Balloon bread was $1.25 a loaf in Sacto and $2.25 at Sunflower. Oro Wheat is $2.50 a loaf in Sacto and at Sunflower they were $5.00+ a loaf. I'll definitely be making my own bread rather than buying it here. Need to make a trip to one of the big chain markets to do some price comparisons there so it will be a more equitable comparison before I totally snub Sunflower.

On the way back I noticed that one of my absolute favorite restaurants is here. Sweet Tomatoes (aka The Soup Plantation in some areas) is a huge salad bar with every kind of soup, salad and pasta you could ever wish for. Their tuna tarragon pasta salad is to die for! We'll have to make a date for lunch there sometime in the near future. Here's the menu and location details for the one I spotted. Take a look at the menu items and you'll see why I was willing to drive way out of my way in the Bay Area to go to this place. I looked for any reason to make a trip to our San Jose office so I could stop off at the restaurant in Campbell along the way. This just lists the special dishes of the day. They also have the usual tossed green salads, and fixings. In some locations they also have build your own pizza stations.

http://www.souplantation.com/locations/restaurant.asp?store_id=47&store_name=Albuquerque_NW


Had the oil changed and fuel system cleaned out on my car today. It also passed the emissions test. Horray! Just need to get the brakes looked at and probably adjusted or replaced and I'll be all set. Michael says he'll be available to do that in a couple weeks.

Now I just need to figure out which box I packed all my documents in so I can show the MDV my social security card, passport and the title to the car and get the car registered and my NM license.

Things are slowly coming together.

I used to eat at the Soup Plantation once in a while in Marina del Rey. I wasn't as gung ho about it as you, but I don't remember why. But I'll try it here.

On Sunflower, I like it for two things, the olive oil gallon, and the paisano bread, and the occasional la brea bakery loaf, but I can get that elsewhere. Also coffee - their eco coffee 2 lb bags are the least expensive I've seen, and their non-eco coffee is well priced. Still, my key interest is the oil.

Re produce, before you give up, check the Pro Ranch market at Atrisco and Central, which you get to not by driving on Atrisco near us but by taking Central to the east from Coors.

Good re the car news.