I popped into my local Hancock Fabrics today in search of cord locks (barrel-shaped notions you squeeze to adjust along a drawstring closure, when you let them go, they lock and hold the cord) and learned they keep them under the front counter. I picked out a variety of neutral colored ones and one each in red and blue to see what will go best with the two bucket hats Laurel wears the most and to put chin straps on my two new sun hats.

While I was there, I found out they have open positions for part time sales associates and a window display specialist (sewing samples for their window displays), so I picked up an application. Don't cross your fingers for me yet, but I'm hoping for the best. With my shopping habits, the only better place I could think of to work would be at an independent bookstore and I haven't found any near me yet -- our nearest five BookSense retailers are one way in south Dallas, three in Fort Worth, and one in Ardmore, OK.

After a nice conversation with one of the ladies at Hancock Fabrics, I popped over to the grocery store since that was really why I went out: I used up the end of the olive oil we had making spaghetti sauce, so I wanted to get some olive oil to tide us over until Vogon buys another can, a loaf of French bread to go with tonight's dinner, and a few miscellaneous staples. I wound up splurging on garlic French bread ready to heat in the oven, a 500ml bottle of Da Vinci olive oil, a pack of plastic-handled paintbrushes, and the new Honey Maid soft-baked snack bars in blueberry and oatmeal raisin. (I saw a magazine ad for them last week and Laurel wanted to try the blueberry flavor. I would have gotten the banana flavor too, but there weren't any on the display.)

As I was writing about food in this post, I went to Central Market's site to look for a reference for the size of the can of olive oil I was trying to describe and found out that their annual Hatch Chile Festival is last weekend and this weekend -- one of Vogon's absolute favorite times to go there -- so I'm subscribing to their newsletter so I don't miss the beginning of it next year.