Animal Crackers in my Soup...

I was overjoyed this week to discover that a single serving of Animal Crackers equates to 13 cookies. Thirteen!! After having already made the everyone-knows-better mistake of filling a small bowl with them and stashing them away in my desk drawer for easy access, I now feel less like a glutinous junk food eater and more like someone who prefers a double portion. Twenty-six cookies is just two servings, I can say and prance off into the distance singing my Shirley Temple song through bites of buttery animal-shaped goodness.

PS, and not that this is news to anyone, but you should never go grocery shopping hungry. You should especially not go when hungry and having eaten nothing but Saltines and Shredded Mini Wheats® like a hobo for the preceding three weeks due to what should have been an imminent move. Enter me, heedless to both aforementioned no-nos, skipping through Harris Teeter like I desperately needed those four bags of shredded cheese that somehow found their way into my mini-buggy. I saw more than a few buy-one-get-one-frees that had me grabbing things off the shelves like the nation was about to go on rations and I was solely responsible for feeding the army as opposed to just my own tiny fist-sized stomach (that may or may not have grown two sizes bigger at the sight of Hint of Pepper Jack Tostitos. FEED ME.) Not to mention my picking up of items that never EVER make it onto my grocery list.  Jars of pickles? Yummy. Breaded frozen fish filets? Tacos, holler! Turkey pepperoni? What else am I gonna eat with my bag o' shredded Italian blend cheese? Surely you can slap those two things together on something and call it pizza.

Despite the plethora of items that ended up making it to the register (including one bottle of blush champagne... What? It's Saturday), I still managed to come in under $70. I have to confess to this being my most pleasant solo trip to the grocery store EVER. Running halfway down the aisles and riding my mini-buggy the rest of the way may have contributed, but word to the wise: in parking garages, the wheels on those babies lose all sense of alignment, so steering capability is key. Otherwise you may find yourself having to explain to a bewildered car owner how you wrecked their vehicle with a grocery cart. Lucky for me, I've got years of experience in maneuverability.