Though complaining is my forte, you will not hear me complain about the snow. I freaking love it. It's true that several factors allow me to love it (no driveway to shovel, no kids to entertain or bundle, a building with good heat, a spot in the city where I can walk to a grocery or the drugstore, no loss of power, a snowless stint in SF that made me appreciate it all the more), but in general I'm disposed to love it regardless. It's beautiful. It's the only weather you can play with. It enables skiing, snowball fights, igloos, snowmen, sledding, angel shapes on the ground, and whooping. It smells good. It brings out people's kindness and sense of humor.
Snow also brought me to Dean & Deluca last Sunday. I'd walked from Dupont Circle to Georgetown and all around the waterfront, and was ready for a break in a heated area with pretty food. I took my time walking through the aisles, inspecting all of the overpriced items and wishing (just for a moment) that I were coming here from my posh townhouse with not a financial care in the world.

I expected it to be sort of like smooth calamari in olive oil, even though I don't have a lot of experience differentiating between squid and octopus. This was more like tuna than anything else, and definitely fishier than I expected, and a tad slimy. I still think it's worth trying at least once.
In my mind, the tin was a splurge, not only because of the price, but because it was being flown across continents and was therefore not environmentally defensible. Buying a pricey tin of Spanish seafood is far from eating local, which I try to do whenever I can.

Fairly or not, I associate Germans with putting excessive photography of humans on its food products. To me, a photo of a woman jogging is not going to sell me on bread. Even if the bread is supposedly healthy, I would rather see a pic of a Buddhist temple or a blue sky with cirrhus clouds -- something suggesting freedom from earthly ties, rather than the penance required in order for me to enjoy a carbohydrate.
That said, Mestemacher bread is awesome. It's "healthy," it keeps for a long time, and it goes great with cream cheese and salmon.

Other furrrn things popped up in my pantry when I inspected the labels (Green & Black hot chocolate, England; though my Near East couscous, as it turns out, originates in Massachusetts) surprised me. Up until now, I'd focused on produce, but not prepared foods, in terms of buying as local as possible. I can't say I'm going to stop buying all these things tomorrow, but at least I'll feel guiltier about it.
Music: "Sardines & Pork & Beans"