A Trip to the Safeway

This afternoon, the kiddo and I headed out to the Safeway for a few ingredients necessary for the baking of King Cakes, as I plan to make at least 2 of them, perhaps 3, this weekend. On the way to the car I was fishing around in my purse for my keys and found the Borders gift card that Santa gave me. I've tried to use the thing 2 times already but not found any books that really struck me. But, seeing as how I was in the mood to be out of the house and the kiddo was happy, I figured it would be nice to take a trip to the grocery store via the bookstore. (They're on opposite sides of town, but whatever.)

Happily, I found two books that were of interest. I recently read An Irish Country Doctor and enjoyed it thoroughly. It's got a James Herriot feel in both subject and narrative voice, though this doctor is for people and not animals. Still, it was delightful. So it was nice to find that there are 2 more in the series (unlike Herriot, these are fiction), and thus I scooped up An Irish Country Christmas and An Irish Country Village. I think that there will be many enjoyable hours to be found between the pages of each.

By this time, however, the kiddo was beginning to be cranky. So I loaded him back into the car and assured him that the trip to Safeway would be a surgical strike. I needed exactly 5 items, so it should be in and out with no big problems. Still, to keep him happy in the cart, I handed him my car keys as they never fail to hush any whining and I figure a little slobber isn't going to kill them.

We zipped up and down the necessary aisles and slid into a checkout line that actually had no one waiting. I think our whole trip was about 10 minutes. As I gathered the kiddo and the bags just outside the door (so as not to have to deal with the cart and trying to make it to the cart corrall - I'm still not sure how to do that with a kid unless I can park right next to the thing...otherwise it's just a pain and I hate to abandon my cart in a parking spot, so if I can do without dragging the thing in the lot, I do.) I shook my head at the incessant bleating of the car alarm that had started just after we scooted into the store and wondered why no one had turned it off.

Imagine my chagrin when I got to the car and realized that the car incessantly honking was my own.

I'm going to need another suggestion for failsafe child distraction I think.