Update: Pan Amasado Experiment

Here is an update to my Pan Amasado Adventure:

Well, I DID get a response to my email within 24 hours but perhaps it was because they were anxious to tell me that I was wrong:

" Hi Aimee, I talk to Juana -the chef who made the recipes- and she told me that the recipe is ok. She suggests that maybe you used another kind of flour or there was another mistake in the process.

Kind regards, "

The recipe said "plain flour" and I don't think that is too hard to mess up. I guess it has to be me making a mistake in the process because anyone should be able to mix 8 cups of flour with one cup of liquids and get something that resembles dough >:( (at least I was right about me being wrong :P )

But yes, I am yet again left with the feeling that it's my fault. So I'm going to respond again by converting the measurements to metric myself and asking how that amount of liquid offsets 8 cups of flour. Anyone want to take bets that I won't get an apology or perhaps a thank you for bringing it to their attention?

Gringa Sahne-Nuss Obession?

Ok, 3 posts in one day is a little excessive but it's lazy Sunday and thought this would be fun. I was reading the LaChilenguita blog and read a post where she said Shane-Nuss chocolates were her favorite. I was going to comment that I was obsessed with them too and read a comment from Kyle that she loved them. I am wondering if this is yet another commonality between gringas and Chile and I think a poll is in order.

(P.S. The Sahne-Nuss ice cream is to die for too and if anyone knows where to get the can of Sahne-Nuss individual chocolate covered almonds please let me know. S's mom bought them for me one time and I couldn't find them in even in Jumbo last time I was there)

Why I'll Stay in Cincinnati

Now that I am done with my pan amasado I can work on the original post I was going to write today. After the group blog we had on What Drives Us To or From Chile some people have written why they won't or why they will stay in Chile so I decided to write on why I would stay in Cincinnati.

I was out with some co-workers this week and one person who I had not seen for a while said "You know, I am really liking Cincinnati". He is from the Pacific North-West and he used to complain about Cincinnati. He planned on being here 2 years and leaving but he told us that he is now happy here and wants to stay. My saying about Cincinnati is that there is not a lot of really really good but there is not a lot of really really bad and you can find a little bit of just about everything. It may not be the best of those things- but you can find it. For example, Seabass and I found a Capoeira class here. There is just one group but it is an actual instructor from Brazil who is good.

If Cincinnati were any smaller I would have a problem with it but all in all it's not bad. Cincinnati has Broadway Shows, a Symphony, an Opera, Ballet, a Choir, Contemporary Art Muesum, Natural History Museum, Children's Museum, the National Underground Freedom Center Museum, Aquarium, Zoo, a large Amusement Park, indoor and outdoor Water Parks, a River, many county parks, skiing (not Aspen Colorado by any stretch of the mind but it's still skiing with ski lifts), many great universities, NFL team, NLB team, professional hockey team, ATP Tennis Masters Series, 3 professional soccer teams, a Horse Track, 10 Fortune 500 companies (In fact, Cincinnati has more such companies - 4.85 per million population - than New York (4.48), Chicago (3.04) and Los Angeles (1.68)), and the list goes on. It does not compare to New York, Chicago, or LA but it is also a lot more economical and a lot less to deal with as far as crime, traffic, or population. One of the differences with Cincinnati is that there aren't a lot of people who live downtown in the heart of the city. There is an underpriviledged population that lives in or on the outskirts of the city and there are many projects going on right now trying to create more upscale living and lifestyle but it hasn't changed yet. Most everyone (like us) live in suburbs of the city and a car is a requirement.

Seabass commented when he was here for the first time that he really enjoyed the pace. You work and you have a family life too. We really enjoy that. Living is very economical which allows us to indulge and also be able to travel (which we do and are planning to do a lot of). This will also enable us to have a second home in Chile (on the beach is the plan). We would much rather vacation in Chile than vacation in Cincinnati (where my family is). Also, with having a child it makes a HUGE difference to be near family. All in all while Cincinnati is not the perfect place we do enjoy it and plan on calling this "home". Perhaps later on in life this will change but for now we are happy.

Even when I'm harsh about Cincinnati there is always something that reminds me that it's not that bad. When we returned from Chile a few weeks ago I was kind of down on Cincinnati since I love the food and scenery so much in Chile and I was imagining my life there. S and I were sitting in a restaurant here waiting for our food and heard a guy talking on his cellphone in Spanish. My husband is pretty good at quickly determining where someone is from based on their Spanish accent. He told me the guy was Chilean and a few minutes later we started hearing "Si Poh, and Ahhh Yeaaaa" so there was no denying it. After the guy hung up and as we were leaving we stopped by to say hello to him and his family. There are in general very few Chileans in the US, only a handful in Ohio or Cincinnati and none that we knew of in our suburb. It turns out that he was from Concepcion and his wife from Santiago and they moved from Chile to Miami 20 years ago. They visited our suburb 3 years ago and fell in love with it. He said it was "paradise" here. GO FIGURE!(Note: He did say that he had not been to Chile in over 20 years and it has evolved so his point of reference is a little old). This was a reminder that it's all about perspective and no matter where you are you can usually find the good if you look hard enough.

Pan Amasado Adventure

This morning I decided that I would try to make Pan Amasado using a recipe from a book that S's father gave to me which has Chilean recipes in English. It was really sweet of him and I was excited to try the recipes. As I was making it the measurements of the different ingredients seemed kind of "off". It also listed "2 tsp of salt" and "2 cdtas. de sal" so I figured the editing was probably a little lacking. Being the engineer I am, I am very careful to follow the ingredients and measurements exactly. 30 minutes into it I knew this was going no where. I ended up with what looked like a cake batter mix before you add any egg or water to it and decided to scrap the whole project at that point and throw everything in the trash. Here is a picture:

I then checked recipes on the internet and noticed that the measurements were way off. For fun (and in true gringa style) I'm going to send an email to the authors of this book to let them know about their Pan Amasado recipe and see what kind of response I get. I know that, of course, I am wrong to begin with and they will probably let me and everyone else around know that I am wrong. After they complain and investigate and figure out that I am right they will offer no apology and I will still be left with the feeling that it is my fault. OR maybe I'll be surprised and they will be nice about it and thank me for my feedback and maybe even offer a corrected recipe. I'll update the post after they respond :)

Famous Chile

I've had a few run-ins with "famous" people in Chile during my very limited time there. The first was in 2007 when I was going to visit Seabass. I was sitting in the Atlanta airport waiting for the flight in a section away from other people. Two men and two younger women came and sat near me. One of the guys looked very gringo and spoke English with a NY accent. The other guy was wearing a Crocodile Dundee hat and spoke Spanish. I was rather perplexed by him. For some reason I had the feeling he was one of those people who was really rich but you wouldn't know it. The 2 men were talking in English and Spanish at the same time. I couldn't figure out if the girls were Crocodile Dundee's daughters or girlfriend or wife or what. I was there for about an hour so observed this for a while. When I got on the plane I passed by Dundee who was sitting in first class. I thought to myself that he must not be too bad off and maybe my hypothesis was right. When I arrived in Chile Teleton was going on. Seabass explained to me what Teleton was and we were watching it one day on TV. I happened to look up and Crocodile Dundee was on the screen and everyone was cheering loudly. I said "OMG- that is the guy from my plane!" It turned out it was Jose Luiz Nazar who donated 1,000 million pesos (Dr. Evil comes to mind as I type that).

On the same trip the night before I was leaving Seabass's brother invited us to the Snoop Dogg concert, I am a big fan, but we decided not to go since it was my last night. The next day Seabass dropped me off at the airport. This time was really difficult leaving. We had just gotten engaged a few days prior and didn't know when we would be seeing each other again as he still did not have a job in the US. I was really sad and was crying as we parted. The lady that took my passport even asked if I was ok. I got through security and was standing in the duty free shop trying to gather my composure when I look up and through the window see the largest black men walking by that I have ever seen in my life. I thought to myself "are there NFL players here?" but that didn't make any sense. A few seconds later I see Snoop Dogg walking by and realized that they were taking him to a special security line that exited right where I was standing. Seeing Snoop stopped my tears. One of his security guards was standing next to me and I asked if I could get my pic with Snoop. He said "maybe if you hurry- we need to get to our plane". Snoop came out and I asked if I could get my pic with him. He nodded his head (I wondered if he even heard me as he had earphones in). I went to get my camera, turned it on, AND IT DIED. Sadly, I had to let Snoop leave without a picture. I walked around the duty free shop for a few minutes and then left. On my way out I saw that Snoop had stopped to shop for sunglasses. I remembered that my phone had a camera so I asked the guy standing there (in my broken Spanish) if he would take my picture and he said he would. Snoop was finished shopping and I asked him again if I could get my pic with him. He nodded yes again. I had a HUGE red purse and a HUGE black bag hanging from my arm. Together they must have weighed 20 lbs. I went to turn to pose with Snoop and SMASHED him right in the gut with my 20 lb bags. He made an "UMPH, OHHH" sound and bent over holding his stomach and shaking his head. His security guards (all of them) were staring at me. I apologized all over myself and he was very cool. I should have busted out with one of his lines that I knew by heart "it's the capital S oh yes I'm fresh N double O-P D-O double G-Y D-O double G ya see!" in order to show him that I really was a fan and not just a stupid careless blonde gringa. Anyway, Snoop was cool fo shizzle and still allowed me to get a pic and for that he is forever my nizzle :)

This year I was in Miami during Teleton. Seabass had to leave our vacation in Miami to fly at the last minute to Chile because his grandmother passed away. There is a small Chilean restaurant in Miami and I read that if you went there on Saturday they were donating proceeds from the food to Teleton so I thought I would go. As I was sitting there watching Teleton on the TV a cute guy and his hot wife and beautiful child walked in (which I was glad hoping that it would take away some of the gringa stares I was getting). The guy walked over to the phone next to the cash register at the restaurant and started talking. Everyone from the kitchen came out and I noticed that the Spanish I was hearing on the phone came across the TV a few seconds later. I have no idea who the guy in the restaurant was but he was talking to Cristian De La Fuente about the money that was being raised in Miami :). I have no idea who he was but thought this was a cool coincidence.





Also on this same trip to Miami but the day before Seabass left, we were shopping at a huge outlet mall and walked into the GAP. Seabass and his mom looked over and noticed that a previous President of Chile and probably future President (Eduardo Frei) and his wife were in the checkout line buying a ton of stuff. Seabass didn't want to bother him but I insisted that he get his picture with him. We went up and talked to Eduardo and he was very nice. He even started talking to my 5 year old son and asked him "como estas? muy bien?" I said "ehhhh- bien :) " He tried to say more but my son turned away and said "WHATEVER!" (I'm not sure if the President heard him but I wanted to hide somewhere).






If you have had any brushes with fame, I'd love to hear- post it!

Serendipity...Our Story

I thought that the group post on why I was drawn to Chile would be a good segue into the background on how I met my Chilean. After reading through all the group posts I realized that I am really coming from a different angle than the other bloggers. Not only am I not living in Chile but also never studied abroad. That is something that I regret now that I'm older and wiser- not studying abroad or traveling more when I was younger. I almost went to Russia for 2 weeks with a school program when I was 14 but I backed out. I think traveling internationally more might have opened a lot more doorways for me but regardless it all worked out and I'm happy with my life :)

Here's the story on how I met Chile:
I was in charge of the Latin American region for the project I was working on. Seabass and I worked together for about 2 years off and on before we saw each other face to face. In those 2 years it was mostly all business at first and then some small chit chat about "weas" (TV shows, music, Chile, laughing at people during meetings, accents, cars, etc). I didn't know his age or what he looked like but thinking back I really was drawn to his voice. He speaks english better than anyone I've worked with (and work with people all over the world) and he has an amazing grasp on the language and gringoness in general. He had only been in the states for 6 months as an exchange student and lived in England for 3 months. I never had to filter anything when talking to him and actually he would use words that I had to look up. All I knew is that he was really sweet, 5'7", lived with his mom, liked American muscle cars, listened to standards, and was uber smart. I actually liken him to Wikipedia and at first thought that he was just making up things to sound smart until I actually researched whatever subject it was to find out that he really did know what he was talking about. (Side note to stress my point- he scored the maximum possible on the PAA which is the Chilean equivalent to the SAT). I also would listen to some of his girl problems and him telling me that he never really has much luck with girls. Anyway, you can imagine the picture I had in my mind... (think Geek) but still I liked him and wanted to be his friend forever. (I didn't realize at this point it was "normal" in Chile to live with your mom). He told me later on that he was really attracted to me but he thought I was the sterotype gringa (which I found out meant extremely overweight, unkept, bad complexion, etc.) or that's at least what his mind made him believe in order to try not to like me.

One day Seabass informed me that he would be traveling to London for some group meetings. I was originally not going to be at these meetings because from my group it was higher level people attending. A little more than a week prior to the meetings my boss asked me if I would be interested in going to the group meeting and I said yes (who wouldn't want to spend their 30th birthday in London?). Also, Seabass almost did not go until the last minute due to visa issues. This chance meeting came so close to not happening.

I arrive in London on Sunday morning and find a note from Seabass that says "I'm either at the gym or at the pool." I check the gym- no one there. I walk into the pool area which was rather crowded. I start looking for dark headed men (prior to the trip he did send me a few pictures but they each looked so different I didn't really know what he looked like). I kneel down to call out to one of the guys in the pool and then I hear someone calling my name. I look and it's Seabass who just got out of the steam room and I said "Hi!" and give him an air hug (because he was dripping wet). So it was a quick and slightly awkward exchange and then he decided to get ready and meet a coworker and I for lunch. It was really weird at first putting a face to a voice that I had been hearing for a long time but we both realized that our mental pictures were way off. That week we were always with other people but had a blast. We did have a lot of chances to talk and walked nightly along the Thames. One night we were sitting in the lobby (everyone else had gone to their room for the night) and we talked for a long time about life. At one point in the conversation I looked into his eyes and I can't describe this feeling but thought I could literally see straight through him. This had only happened to me one other time with a boyfriend that I was very close to (and it happened after we had been together for a year or more). I had totally forgotten that feeling until that moment. We did spend the last day together as friends walking around London, going to St. James park, saw a show, and went out for a drink. We both had feelings for each other but never shared them. I left London the next day with a hole in my heart never knowing if I would ever see Seabass again or if anything would become of us friendship or otherwise. I think it was one of the most sad days of my life because I felt like I was leaving something amazing. I was in a relationships and things were complicated. What he did show me was what it was like to be connected to someone and what love should feel like. I never believed in love at first sight but thinking back even though I didn't know it at the time it was almost love at first sound as I was attracted at some level even hearing him.

We continued working with each other and IMing and eventually shared our feelings with each other. I was going through some very tough times in my life with decisions I had to make with the relationship I was in. Seabass and I parted ways for a while while we both figured things out. Through most of this time I honestly thought never thought that things would work out with us and we would be together. Even if things did I thought it would be extremely difficult. This part is heart wrenching and would take a long time to explain so I'll keep it very short for blog sake. Over the span of the next year and a half I had a trip to Chile, he came here for a month, I went back to Chile and we got engaged and the rest is history. He applied for a job here and things ended up working out perfectly. Seabass is the most amazing person I've met and I have never felt more loved in my life nor have I loved someone so much. So there you have the Cliff Notes version of our story and our saga continues in Cincinnati Chile.

Group Blog: What Draws Us To (or Drives Us From) Chile

Link to Original Group Post

When I met Seabass I knew nothing about Chile and had to look at a map to remind myself of the location. I had stopped in Caracas, Venezuela once on a cruise and the feeling when I left was “ok, I’ve been to South America and never want to go back” which was very narrow-minded and gringa of me. I’m sure there are great places in Venezuela. I consider myself to be somewhat traveled. I’ve been all over the US, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Granada, Barbados, St. Lucia, Dominica, St. Barts, St. Martin, Aruba, Bahamas, Mexico (Cancun, Cozumel), Chile, Brazil, Argentina, Peru, the UK, Poland, and India. Although I’ve been many places and seen many beautiful things, I’ve never fallen in love with anywhere like I have with Chile.

I was actually hoping when I went to Chile for the first time that I wouldn’t like it and it would make things easier for us and be an added reason to just remain friends. It happened though that there was something about Chile that I couldn’t resist. Places like Mumbai and Santiago I would rather not explain because I feel like no matter what I say I don’t do it justice. It’s just something you have to experience. People usually already have preconceived notions of South America and it’s hard to describe anything different to them. Mumbai I couldn’t even wrap my own mind around it when I was there (Slumdog Millionaire- highly recommend it- gives you some insight as it’s a very true to life representation).

The draw to Chile for me is just a general feeling when I get when I’m there. To try to put it in words it’s the beautiful landscape, the mixed cultures, the food, the simplicity, and the European influence mixed with the Latin vibe. Being clean and relatively safe is an added bonus too. I know that living anywhere will have its negatives too. I agree with other Gringa posters that it’s hard to blend there especially if your blonde hair and blue eyes scream gringa. While it’s funny at first to be piropoed I can imagine it would get old quickly and especially if you were alone. Also the lack of customer service would irritate me to no end too. Asking to alter something on the menu slightly and being looked at as if you were asking them to change Newton’s 1st Law is something I am not used to. Also the perils of big city transportation if living in Santiago would be challenging.

I know it’s hard to tell people in an infatuation state that the feeling will change or go away but I really feel it’s a little more than just infatuation. The things I’ve read about living there would be something I would have to deal with but while it might be tainted a bit I don’t think that it would completely take away the overall feeling that Chile gives me.

At this point in our lives it doesn’t really make sense for us to live in Chile versus Cincinnati. A major factor is my 5 year old son- it’s difficult for us to move because we are in a shared parenting situation. Even if it weren’t for him Seabass and I would still live in the US. There are a lot more opportunities with our company here and our salaries are better which gives us more flexibility to travel and enjoy life. He also blends here more than I would blend there. We are not limiting Chile from our future plans and even would like to have a beach house there in the near future. I guess I’ll really never know unless I live there what my feelings would be but for now I really enjoy keeping this feeling as a visitor to Chile.

What's in a name?

So I chose to name my blog "Cincinnati Chile" as a play on words because if people from where we live hear the word Chile the first thing that comes to mind is Cincinnati Chili. It is one of the things Cincinnati is famous for and something that I am personally not fond of. Cincinnati chili is very thin in consistency, contains chocolate and cinnamon as spices, and usually served on top of a hot dog or spaghetti noodles and gives you the lovely feeling after consuming it stronger than a supersized #5 from McDonald's would. I think Anthony Bourdain put it best when after trying it he said "if you were really stoned you would enjoy this stuff".

I work for a company who brings in people from all over the world all the time. I can't count the number of times I've been into a situation where we are taking the person from out of the country to lunch and someone says "Hey! Let's take them to Skyline Chili!" I cringe every time. I don't like to subject people to that.

Seabass wanted to try it and decided to when we were at an amusement park here. It left him with a headache and the sensation that he wanted to throw up so we exited the park early.

In the middle of typing this I went to pick up my 5 year old from his dad's house and when I asked him what he had for dinner he replied "Skyline Chili" (how appropriate). When he goes there he only eats about 3 bites of the actual Chili but fills himself full of the oyster crackers that they serve with the meal.

So, hopefully my blog is more enjoyable than the "famous" Cincinnati Chili and doesn't leave you wishing you didn't partake.

If you want to see more of Anthony Bourdain's coverage of Cincinnati Chili- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxWEP6WB8hU

Food Cravings

In one of my earliest conversations with Seabass (shortly after I had re-educated myself as to where Chile was on the map) he was telling me that they have tea time in Chile. I half jokingly asked if that meant tea and tacos :). Since that point I have learned a lot more about South American food and have grown to love it. In fact, I have yet to have a bad meal in South America.

I grew up the little blonde haired blue eyed gringa with a diet consisting of mainly peanut butter and jelly and I never liked to try new things. In fact, I think the first time that I remember being exposed to any ethnic food besides Chinese was Taco Bell when I was about 14. Since then a lot has changed with me. Now, I’m willing to try just about anything as long as it is served to me in some sort of fashion separate from which it came (except for these http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balut_(egg) which I can barley even think about). When on a trip in Brazil someone commented that they liked me because I’m willing to try eating anything and not only do I try but I REALLY try it as he was looking at the size of the portion of unidentifiable “other meat” that was on my plate.

I just returned from a 2 week trip to South America (Santiago, Buenos Aires, and Lima). Seabass and I swear that our bodies are now rejecting food from North America after eating the good, fresh food we had there. We’ve tried to eat at several different restaurants here over the past few days and wound up with a “blah” feeling afterwards. Even after stuffing ourselves in Chile with multiple courses of drinks and food orchestrated by Seabass’s father who is an excellent cook we had the feeling of being full but without our stomachs feeling sick. Even my friend from the US who was visiting with us was eating a salad at a restaurant in Santiago and exclaimed with a piece of avocado in her mouth that it was the best avocado she has tasted (and she lived in California- avocado capital USA). Also, at his mom’s house we had some take-out Lebanese food and it was outstanding. I had tried Kibbeh(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kibbeh) on my previous trip to Chile and didn’t like it but I think the meat was bad. I reluctantly tried it a second time and I swear the raw meat tasted better than the same thing on my plate that was cooked. My gringa mind was still screaming at me “you’re going to get deathly ill from consuming raw meat!"

This is one of the things I’ve learned about food in NA versus SA- food is good for longer than we have been trained in NA. I think the FDA scares us into them keeping their job. When my mother in law was in town she had cooked a chicken one night for dinner and the next night we decided to eat the leftovers. I went to the fridge and the chicken was not there. To my horror she opened the oven which had been “off” since the night before and pulled out the chicken. On another occasion Seabass had put a package of chicken in the sink one night in order to thaw for dinner THE NEXT NIGHT. In both instances I ate the chicken and it and I’m still here.

Side note- I've also learned that Spanish tortillas do not require tortillas at all.

So, Seabass and I are really missing the food in Chile. We have decided to eat out less and start eating at home more and preparing more South Americanish food. The produce at the local chain grocery store here is “ok”. Lucky for us there is an Oasis in mid-America here which is a store called Jungle Jim’s (http://www.junglejims.com/). This is a very unique grocery store (there is only one location) which has food from all over the world. They have “50,000 imported grocery items from more than 75 countries and regions around the world.” They don’t have a Chilean section but they have great produce and even carry the Tuna fruit. We will probably be visiting it this weekend to curb our hunger for good produce.

On top of good produce I have been craving empanadas. Last night I attempted for a second time to make empanadas but it didn’t turn out so great. It was like eating ham and cheese through 3 layers of thick pie crust. If anyone reads this and has any empanada recipes or empanada making tips PLEASE let me know as mine were not very pretty. Gracias!

First Post in Cincinnati Chile (or any blog)

About 2 years ago I didn't even know what a blog was and found myself googling the word "blog". I still didn't grasp the concept of a blog (and I work in the IT field) until I read Kyle Hepp's blog (ohquepasa.blogspot.com). After reading her blog I understood. The purpose of this blog is to give a perspective of a gringa married to a Chilean and living in the US.

Background: I was a gringa in love with a Chilean who was living in Chile. I had been to Chile twice and had also fallen in love with the country. It was hard for me to understand some of the things that I felt for Chile or heard about Chile from my Chilean boyfriend. I found myself surfing for info on Chile and I stumbled upon Kyle's blog where I really felt like I got a lot of insight into Chile from a gringa's perspective. It validated a lot of what I felt and at the same time gave me different perspectives and new information. At that point I read most of her blog but didn't continue to follow it. Fast forward a year later and my Chilean boyfriend is now my Chilean husband and we are living in Cincinnati, Ohio USA. We were planning our wedding reception in Chile and trying to pick flowers for the tables. I was googling trying to find pictures of typical flower arrangements in Chile and came across Kyle's blog again. She had a link to her photography website and I took a look and thought her pictures were some of the coolest I've seen. Seabass (my husband) and I were not even going to have professional pictures taken but once we saw Kyle's pictures we REALLY wanted her to take some. I felt weird about contacting her after having felt like I was stalking her by reading her blog and life stories and her having no idea who I was. She was really sweet and I ended up signing up for just about all her sessions. After meeting her and sharing stories with her and also reading more of her blog and other blogs I felt like giving this blogging thing a try.

Writing has never been one of my fortes. In fact in college english class I struggled because I didn't "elaborate enough" and I also work for a company that doesn't like any fluff in their communications and wants everything short and to the point using the least amount of words possible. I see that even in this post I'm following the company rules of giving the top line in the first few sentences. Hopefully I can overcome this in the blog so that it has enough elaboration to make it enjoyable.

I also worry about having enough material to make people even read it once let alone come back again. I talked to a friend recently explaining how I met the photographer of my reception and we started discussing blogging. We were joking that our lives weren't interesting enough for blogging. Our blogs would consist of "today I went to the grocery store" or "today I took my child to preschool". I'm taking this on as a personal challenge to see if I can come up with anything remotely interesting :)

All that said.....here it goes: