Shopping moment.

Buying supplies for my party tonight, I decided I'd use one of the quick vegetable mixes to create a chip and veggie dip. Looking at the directions, I saw that I needed some sour cream (obvious), some dried basil, some parmesan (which I had at home), some walnuts and two cloves of garlic. In the spices aisle, I picked up some basil, and I also saw a small container of minced garlic cloves. "How easy it would be," I thought as I looked at the little jar, "to simply use this preprepaed garlic for my dip."

Then, it was as though I could see veek standing beside me, saying nothing, but clearly telegraphing with her face and eyes: "I understand that you don't have much time and that you're going to use a dehydrated dip mix instead of using all fresh ingredients, but are you really, actually considering using this garlic that's been sitting on a shelf for weeks when there's some real garlic just across the room in the produce section that you can mince yourself?"

I put the jar back.