When Money is No Object

Today is the birthday of B's physiotherapist so I went to Karstadt to find her a birthday gift to present her with on Monday. I like this lady a lot but I never know what to buy her. This time I opted for a nice bottle of French red wine. I know she and her husband like red wine and I chose the bottle based on the fact that it was from France and that it cost 15€. France is known for their red wines! 15€ sounds like enough for it to not be incredibly cheap crap! Obviously I don't know shit about wine if those were the two factors in my decision making. I just hope it doesn't taste like red battery acid.

I also bought a Christmas gift to give to B's dermatologist. He'll make his final visit for the year next week and so I have to give him his gift at that time (the man comes to our home on his own time to check on B's skin and he's never charged us or the insurance company a cent). Now I know exactly what to buy Dr. N - booze. Over the years I've bought him very fine scotches, whiskeys, and cognacs and you know what? I have no idea if the man even drinks. However, he and his wife do a lot of entertaining so I'm sure someone's drinking that Glenlivet and Rémy Martin we've presented him over the years. This year for his gift I chose a bottle of champagne - Veuve Clicquot. Know how I chose that brand? I once saw the name in a book and remembered it.

Anyway, getting to the real part of this story and not just this side tale of how I don't know my ass from my elbow when it comes to buying hooch (I think my drinking a bizarre concoction of goodness-knows-what while I was in Memphis proves that as well) I thought about the demise of my beloved American foods section (beloved only now that it was gone - oh, sweet American foods section, we hardly knew ye!) and wondered if they had merely taken those items formerly sold in that section and merely mixed them in with the other grocery items. You know, popcorn in the snack foods section, pickle relish in the pickle section, the Hellmann's mixed in with the swill other fine brands of mayonnaise for sale. When I had been in there previously I didn't have time to look around very much except to get the specific item I was there to purchase but this time I had more opportunity to poke around to see what I could find.

And there it was and pretty much in front of my eyes as well. With a big ol' sign that said "American/Mexican" over the section. I'm such a dork that I nearly whooped when I spotted it and I scooted over as fast as I could fearing that it was merely a mirage and would disappear within seconds. But it was real. And there was my beloved Hellmann's. I became so giddy I nearly lost control and bought a 5€ box of cake mix that I don't need but I settled for a couple squeeze bottles of Hellmann's and a jar of pickle relish and a jar of peanut butter. Oh! And a couple packages of strawberry Twizzlers. I love strawberry Twizzlers when I'm watching a movie.

And you know what? I spent more on those American luxuries than I did on the bottle of Veuve Clicquot. Perhaps Dr. N would like some Twizzlers next year. They're great for parties.