Do they have cats there?

Loots!
Originally uploaded by hellomizk

That was the most entertaining question I was asked while we were visiting friends and family back in the US last week. "Do they have cats there?"

It will probably take a couple entries to get through all the fun things about our trip and I need Mr K to upload his photos for some things, so I'll start with what I have photographic evidence of - our shoppings! This is mainly my loots - Mr K also got several DVDs and Wii games and things of that nature.

The day after we arrived, we hit Best Buy - Mr K was beyond thrilled. Among the gems from that trip are Veronica Mars Season 3 and Ren and Stimpy on DVD! I also got Cooking Mama 2 for my little Nintendo DS and it is the funniest little game. A few days after the initial Best Buy trip, we had to return after Miz J showed us two episodes of Flight of the Conchords and we were completely hooked.

Another important stop - the grocery store. I got the giggles, standing in an aisle of canned goods bigger than my whole grocery here. I picked up random dry goods like taco seasoning that isn't all "weird and Swiss" (no offense to our local buddies) and onion soup mix for onion soup dip - trashy comfort snack. I found bizarre flavors of Jello and I stocked up on a few spices I was missing - namely Old Bay and Chipotle Chili as well as a big emergency back-up chili powder.

Next up - Borders! I was good and only got 3 new books but now I'm wondering if I shouldn't have grabbed a few more. I also picked up, of course, a ton of new cooking magazines.

Last stop of interest: art supply shopping! I got plenty of watercolor paper, since I've been running through it pretty quickly recently. Also got some crazy new paper called "Yupo" that I have never heard of - it says it is good for watercolor, but has the texture of a really smooth bristol - I'm interested to try it out. I also got a box of cakes of my favorite brand of watercolor - opaque instead of the transparent I use now.

In upcoming entries I'll babble about:

• Seeing friends and family again (including my lil bitty niece)
• Food, of course (I'm looking at you, FT in Bern...)
• Western Sizzlin' (now I'm looking at Mr K)
• Visiting my old college
  
• Visiting my old place-of-employment-during-college

Post-link-including note: When I added the links of the pictures of Best Buy and Borders I was blown away again by how huge they are. To any non-US types reading this, Best Buy is all electronics, dvds, and cds. Borders is a massive bookstore.