I've been traveling but now I'm BAAAACK!
Check out these indie perfumes I've got for sale (over 20 houses!) – loads of BPAL, Cocoapink, Kyse, MooScents and Solstice EDP decants, plus other wonderful houses! Shipping's a flat $5.50 for the US. If you are outside the US, I will need to quote shipping costs, Order minimum of $14. I will ship by Monday (5/20) and send tracking. Check out the spreadsheet for all the deets on fill levels, notes, and more. I've got some niche stuff too. Selling only for now (unless you have one of my ISOs)!
🌟Spreadsheet is right here: CHECK ME OUT! 🌟
ALL (Larger Sizes **)
Arcana Craves
· Cotton Candy **
· Garnet Grapefruit **
· Raspberry Whip **
· Strawberries Crave Summer
Arcana Wildcraft
· Afterglow **
· Dollface **
· Electra **
· Last Judgement **
· Mongolian Death Worm **
Astrid
· Abysmal Blush
· Acorns
· Obscura
· Pastel Black
BPAL
· A Doll's Doll **
· An Interlude after Sake (2017, Lupercalia) **
· Common Jezebel **
· Gingerbread Snek **
· Goldenrod Crab Spider (Halloweenie 2012) **
· Irish Coffee Buttercream **
· Red Rose, Black Pepper & Black Vegetal Musk **
· Schrodinger's Checkmark **
· Sugar Cookies & Bourbon **
· Vanilla Bean, Pistachio & Cacao **
· White Chocolate & Taro Cream **
· Western Diamondback **
· All night long
· Aunt Caroline's Joy Mojo
· Baobhan sith
· Brisingamen
· Darkness
· Deadly nightshade honey
· Depraved
· Dwarf
· Eat Me
· Elf
· Gingerbread Milk
· Hard Luck Lollipop
· Honeyed Pear Tart
· Mary shelley
· Oatmeal & Apple Spice Cookies
· Ouija
· Shanghai
· Shub-Niggurath
· The Antikythera Mechanism
· Twinkle, Twinkle Little Bat
Cirrus
· Parakeet
· It's just pears
· A Dog named Pam
· Maid Marian
Colornoise
· Jazz **
· Confidence **
CocoaPink (5mL EDP Decants)
· Cinderella's Carriage EDP**
· Fresh Strawberry EDP **
· Plums & Custard EDP **
· Boo Boo Lemon Noel EDP **
· Mad Hatter Cookies Noel EDP **
· Vanilla Bean Noel EDP **
· Pink Dragon EDP **
· Black Noel EDP **
· Violet Poundcake EDP **
· Faded memories
Crow & Pebble
· Bearer of Secrets
· Light That Endures
· Master of Bears
· Names Myriad
· Sea Wolf
Fae-tal Attractions
· Beedle
· Coquette
· Frog Princess
· GhOwOst
· Kunafa
· Luna Moth
Fyrinnae
· Alferous
Haus of Gloi
· Hex
Kyse (5mL EDP Decants)
· Cocco alla Vaniglia **
· Crema di Lime e Cognac **
· Delizia **
· Douceur Brulee **
· Frollino Lavanda **
· Jasmine Macarons **
· Macarons **
· Mandorlo Cioccolato **
· Oui Plus! **
Laurel & June
· Forever young EDP
Little Book Eater
· Southern Gothic
Moonalisa/MooScents (3mL EDP Decants)
· Abigail **
· Elspeth **
· Lemon Curd and Coconut Cream **
· Rose Petal Jam and Vanilla Cream **
· Vantasia **
Mythpunk Olfactive
· Paper Moon
NAVA
· Carpe Noctem **
· Cotton Candy Kashmir Crimson Marshmallow Musk **
· Cotton Candy Sandalwood Mallow Musk **
· Kashmir **
Nui Cobalt
· Kiss of Death
· The Quest
Possets
· Medusa **
Solstice Scents (5mL EDP Decants)
· Nightgown EDP **
· Cherry Vanilla Amberosia EDP **
· Violet Mallow EDP**
Sorcellerie Apothecary
· Mermaids Sing of Lost Lovers EDP **
· Stuck on You EDP **
· Witch's Valentine EDP **

Please note this is the original submission I sent Refinery29. In the current post,they have given me a second credit card with a 100$ balance, as well as generational trauma from World War II and cut context for other things. I am trying to get that fixed.
Per previous discussion in comments here: The espresso machine is a Bezzera, which ranges from 2-5K. We got ours on sale for 1.7K, it’s a work house and we use it everyday, still hurts that we spent that money on a coffee maker.
I do understand mortgage is debt but when you compare it to rent to a lesser value condo in Vancouver it feels like not debt at all, which is how I tend to think of it. Yes I owe my mortgage but also I get my house instead of renting-which may not have become clear.
Please see in full the diary, below (edit for formatting via mobile)
Occupation: Sr Business Analyst
Industry: Tech
Age: 30
Location: Vancouver Island, BC
Salary: 92,000$ (Spouse makes 60,000$ for a combined income of 152,000$ before tax)
Net Worth: ~ 1.2 Million ( house is valued at 989,000$ currently, we have a combined 150,000 in pension, and ~60,000 in various company stocks, and GICs)
Debt: 3,000$ in a zero interest credit card for a 10 month period. We balanced transferred and pay 400$/month. Debt was acquired in Q4 2023 when we had to buy Snow Tires, and do a full break replacement as well as Christmas. 480,000$ in a mortgage, we refinanced in September 2023 for five years fixed rate at accelerated biweekly, however I don’t consider our mortgage debt due to the equity we are gaining, and that our mortgage for a five bedroom, 3 bath single family home is less than rent for a two bedroom condo in Vancouver
Paycheck Amount (Every 2 Weeks): 2,555$ after taxes. (Just mine). Spouse makes 2,308$ after taxes. Our pay periods are alternating.
Pronouns: She/her
Monthly Expenses Mortgage: 1450$ biweekly (100$ extra to the principal).
Utilities: ~200$ (includes water [paid quarterly], hydro [paid bimonthly], gas, sewetrash [paid quarterly] phone [highly discounted due to work plans for spouse and myself] and car gas) Loan Payments: 400$/Credit Card
Car Insurance: 84$
Life Insurance: 167$ combined (67$ me, 100$ spouse)
Health & Dental Insurance: 60$ deducted from pay (coverage for myself and spouse from my employer. Spouse also has coverage for both of us deducted from pay)
Retirement Contribution: 400$ (Employee matches me), (Spouse has a defined pension through work and contributes ~200$ month)
Union fees: 70$ Spouse
Subscriptions: Crave 22$/month (Recent splurge for Binge watching the Rookie), Playstation Plus 100$ (annual bought on Black Friday Deal), Amazon Prime 80$ (Annual), BCAA 120$ (annual) Gym 30$/month (we both have one so 15$/pp)
Note: My spouse and I have completely commingled finances. I will be tracking both as it’s essentially I spent whatever they spent
Was there an expectation for you to attend higher education? Did you participate in any form of higher education? If yes, how did you pay for it?
There was always the expectation. My father was very clear, we were very smart. There was no way we’d be wasting our potential. He wanted me to be a lawyer, but unlike other immigrant parents, I got to choose my major and went into social sciences and got my masters in history. I deferred my PhD too much so I got dropped by the program.
I chose my university by where I got a full first year scholarship and then after that took about 15k in student loans for my undergraduate. My parents paid my rent and I got a part time job for food.
For my masters, I had a student line of credit and 5 k student loans otherwise it was all my savings and scholarships. With the line of credit, I had a total of 30K in student loans and paid it off in about four years.
Growing up, what kind of conversations did you have about money? Did your parent(s)/guardian(s) educate you about finances?
Save. We talked about how you get a dollar allowance and half of it goes into long term saving with 25% in short term and 25% in spend.
Investing came after I was eighteen. Family would like us to invest in property, however I don’t really want to be a landlord, but also we wouldn’t get to really enjoy profit of owning a rental property due to other family circumstances.
What was your first job and why did you get it?
Ice cream parlour I was twelve and my parents made me get it for responsibility. I lasted three weeks because I hated it.
Did you worry about money growing up?
I grew up thinking we were not rich, because we didn’t get big plane vacations (I didn’t count flying from Toronto to Vancouver every summer as a vacation since we were just seeing family but staying in a house my parents owned) and I had only been to Disney twice.
But we had a big new build house in the rich end of town, my mom stayed home to raise all of us. We had to work for things (like going to see a movie opening night or a new CD) but we always had money and got what we wanted. In retrospect, my family was/is fairly well off.
Both my parents grew up poor, with parents working multiple jobs and different shifts to make ends meet, the strive/drive to not have that childhood, and for my father to be able to retire his parents really impacted mine and my siblings and cousins lives. My father showed me the apartment he grew up in Chinatown a few years back. It’s light years away from the house my grandparents owned when I was a kid and how I grew up.
Do you worry about money now?
Of course. Inflation is real and we are actively planning a wedding for the next year, as well as a baby in the next few years. We also need to buy a second car, so we’re saving for that.
At what age did you become financially responsible for yourself and do you have a financial safety net?
Fully financially responsible? Twenty five. I lived in a family property where I didn’t pay rent in one of the most expensive cities in Canada, so even though I paid all my bills (food and phone), I didn’t have to pay rent. I in fact made money, as I rented rooms out and used the income for house utilities, and paying my student loans down faster. When I moved in with my spouse, I just paid condo fees until we bought our house two years ago which gave me plenty of time to save.
Our financial safety net is family, and our savings. I know my family would bail us out. My spouse’s father would as well. Conversely, we are my spouse’s mother's safety net and we have to keep all our plans in mind that we will be subsidising her.
Do you or have you ever received passive or inherited income? If yes, please explain. Yes, I received 50K from my parents once they sold my childhood home, as did both of my siblings. I have also received 10K from one set of grandparents which paid off my car and part of my student loans when I was 21. I will be receiving another inheritance when probate is done for around ~100K. My spouse also has received inheritance which allowed them to buy their first condo in their early twenties when the market was much better. That condo, 50k, and the subsequent upgrading helped us afford our house.
Day 1
10 AM: I drive to the pharmacy to pick up a prescription. Not how I want to start my Sunday morning but y’know. Normally I’d walk since it’s about 20 minutes but I have a UTI. I’m “lucky” that despite not having a dr because of the health care shortage, my work pays for the Maple app so I could get a dr to write the prescription and order the lab work at 1 am. I’ll do the lab work later this week when I can get an appointment but will take the relief now. Insurance makes the antibiotics free, but I also buy hydrogen peroxide because we’re out and we have a dog that thinks everything is meant to be in her mouth. We’ll buy a bigger one at Costco later. I also bought some oral wound mouthwash because we were out. I come home and my spouse made us breakfast.
Total: 15.90$ paid with debit.
1-2:30 PM: We do our taxes. I have a mini meltdown when I realize the part time bakery job I had for a few months didn’t take off income tax last year, so I owe 800$. Luckily, my partner is getting a refund so we net out positive 400$. The bakery took off income tax in 2022, so unsure why they didn’t in 2023. I made us lunch.
3-6:30 PM: We walk the dog, and watch the Rookie. Some time during that time period, a venue emails us back and is surprisingly affordable at 3k. I also get told that the tattoo artist I want to book with, has not chosen me.
6:30-7:30 PM: I explain what lazy girl dinner is to my spouse and make a lazy girl dinner. After not really grocery shopping since Feb for things besides fresh veg, we need to do a big pantry shop and neither of us want that. We debate about buying a food saver and if we should wait for a sale. My spouse is more frugal than me and has determined we should.
8-9:30 PM: We start season 3 of The Rookie, and then after two episodes we go to bed
Day One Total: 15.90$
Day Two
5:45-8 AM: Wake up and start work. I get up to date with what’s happened on the weekend and check that my automated reports. Sometime before 6:30, I get the kettle on for my spouse’s pour over before I go back to my meetings. There’s a twenty minute gap where I get changed and do my skin care and brush my teeth. I’d love to be a skin care person but honestly I’ve spent too much money on product that I don’t use and that just goes bad. Washing my face and using sun screen is a win.
I also make sure that Spouse’s lunch is in his bag and I get our travel mugs ready. Before, we used to go to Starbucks every day. Starbucks used to do free refills on coffee and tea if you were a rewards member if you bought a coffee or tea so it would cost us $5/day (2.5/pp), and we could get refills all day. While that’s 20$/week, 80$/a month and yes, we could have saved it but back then, that 80$ wasn’t turning the dial anywhere significantly for us—a privileged view.
But now, after COVID where I stopped drinking tea after one day working from home having like 10 cups and thinking I was dying, and Spouse has bought a good grinder and we recently splurged on a stupidly expensive espresso machine we call his Engagement Espresso since it costs the same price as my stupidly expensive ring, we bring our coffees.
8-8:30 AM: We drive to work. Prior to buying our house, we were both work from home and lived in a city with amazing transit. We only needed the one car. Since buying the house and moving to a city where public transit is a joke (the one bus goes past our house every 1.5h), Spouse changed jobs and is in office every day and I have to go in 3 days a week. We need a second car or the e-bike rebate to come through. We debate this in the car, since I’m done at 1 pm, and Spouse works normal hours, I either have to take the bus home, or go to the gym for three hours. Today though, I drop Spouse off. I will pick him up later as he has a half day because of the dentist
8:30-12:30 AM/PM: Work. I find a tech manager and ask them to get me more triple a batteries. Work won’t provide or let me expense batteries for my mouse, despite them replacing my usb mouse with a battery one. The poor admin had to tell me the decision is that we’ll all supply our own batteries. Luckily the tech managers have to have batteries on hand and give them out freely.
I ask my boss how the work from home tax forms work, and he is going to find out.
I run more meetings and work on a request for a dashboard and a business case for a new feature that I have to convince leadership to spend money on.
12:30-1 PM: I drive back to my Spouse because he has a dentist appointment.
While I wait for a spouse, I am incredibly hungry. I’m usually not hungry/don’t eat a proper meal until around 1 in the afternoon and my two granola bars I already ate at the office. I go to the bakery by Spouse’s work and buy a cheese bun for me (3.65$), and an apple pie scone (2.55$) for Spouse as a snack. Spouse points out he won’t be able to eat until after his appointment.
Total: 6.20$ debit
1-1:30 PM: I drop Spouse off, and the car stops working. The engine won’t catch. I try multiple times and then run into the dentist to dramatically announce to Spouse and the receptionists that the car won’t start. Spouse asks me what he wants me to do about this, since he’s about to go into an appointment. A very kind receptionist tells me it might be the alternator. I don’t know what that is.
I go back to the car to Facetime my father. He also asks what I think he can do to help since he lives 3000 km away. Weirdly, and sexistly, I thought a man who grew up at race tracks, in a racing family, or the man who has collected and worked on sports cars for forty years might be able to help.
Spouse texts me to remind me we have BCAA while my father also tells me that. I finally get the engine to catch and drive the very long way home, going the speed limit and getting stuck in traffic, construction and a bus. It takes me 20 minutes to get home instead of 10.
1:30-2:30 PM: I walk the dog, mail a (late) birthday card and then start researching what an alternator is. The car is over a decade old and until the house, the most expensive thing I ever bought at 12K back in 2015. We have the funds for the cost, but it’s my first car and the fact it might be the end of its life is scary.
Alternators can cost between 400-800$ repair with labour, so that’s fun.
My dad calls me back and apologises for asking me what he could do away. He advises me that there’s probably a bald spot on the alternator and advises me to go to the mechanic to check or replace it, if the car doesn’t start again.
I call the mechanic to book an appointment, and to also get the snow tires off and to buy new rims for the snow tires. The mechanic lets me know that the alternator part is 500$, and an hour of labour so with taxes we’re looking at around 700$
That future appointment next week (we’re going down a highway this weekend which requires snow tires) will cost ~1.5K, assuming we replace the alternator.
I make lunch and sigh.
2:30 PM: The car starts thankfully. I drive incredibly slow. I pick up Spouse by idling the car. We get an email back from a venue saying they cost 75,000$ minimum. The timing is hysterical.
Due to the nature of the dentist, Spouse owes 618$, as they haven’t flipped it under my insurance. They split it in half, as he has a follow up in two weeks. After the next appointment they will flip the whole amount under me and we’ll get reimbursed for the whole amount.
Total 309$/credit card.
3-10 PM: We walk the dog, make dinner (Spouse makes white sauce pasta, with chicken and peas) and watch The Rookie. There are thirteen episodes in season three, and we will be busy every night this week besides Friday and Sunday, and I would like to finish season three so we can start season 4 next Monday. I don’t want to pay for more than one month of Crave. We have five episodes left
Day Two Total: 315.2$
Day Three
1 AM: 100$ is automatically transferred from our account to the credit card debit. We have an auto transfer of 100$/every Tuesday to a Visa where we balance transferred both our cards. We have an offer for 0 interest for 10 months, so we did that for some of the bigger expenses (snow tires, break replacement and general Christmas) and are on track to pay it back within the next 6 months. That visa is our emergency card that we just have in the back end and utilise for promos like this. It allows us to keep our two cards balances manageable and lets us pay in an easier way than taking big chunks out of our various savings.
Total: 100$/direct deposit
5:45-9 AM: Work. Meetings, reports, trying to convince a colleague that the process does include them and refusal to follow it means that their requests won’t be done. Spouse has another half day so I can go into the office at my leisure—if the car starts
9-9:20 AM: The car starts, I get into the office and refresh a data flow before a meeting with a new stake holder. It takes longer to drive into work today because the tourists are starting to come and their van builds or campers are not exactly highway speed and with a two lane highway, if you don’t merge over fast enough you’re stuck.
10:05-10:20 AM: Meeting done, car starts again and I drive home for more meetings. The least amount of time in the office is preferable for me.
10:30-11AM : Meeting with my manager where we discuss future salary and promotion. I am due for a promotion in the start of Q2, which would push me to six figures. I’ll believe it when I see it but, I’m really excited at that possibility for my family.
11:15 AM: Spouse leaves for work, we discuss what groceries are needed, as well if he’ll go to Home Depot tonight to buy more clover seeds for the yard, as we need to reseed before it starts raining. I eat a muffin and my dog and cat decide to try and eat each other.
11:15-1:30 PM: Work runs late. There’s some issues with the data and we can’t figure it out. We call it a night, and I’ll record the video presentations tomorrow, once we fix the data.
1:30-4 PM: Nap time! It’s bad for me, but honestly I don’t sleep well during the night so naps are what keep me alive.
4-6 PM I prep dinner (smash burgers and fries), and get chores done and walk the dog.
6-7:30 PM: Spouse comes home, we eat dinner. Groceries come to 96.83 for two 7 pound pork loins, two packs of bacon, chicken nuggets, coffee, pop, 8 pack of peppers, milk, tomato, pickles, rice, avocado, mushrooms, sour cream and lettuce.
Not too bad, we average about 300$/month in groceries because we can buy bulk and have a second freezer.
For the month of March we are currently at 123.61$ for groceries and there is twelve days left. We went on a small weekend away, so we ate out a fair bit but even then our current food budget is 272.27$ today.
Total: 96.83/ debit
7:30-10 PM: Spouse makes a coffee and plays video games with his friends. They do it every week. I have a shower, fold and put away laundry and read in bed.
Day Three Total: 196.83
Day Four
1AM: Our biweekly accelerated mortgage payment comes out of 1450$. I’m tracking it here to be honest on our spending but I tend not to think of it as money spent because in my head it’s already money gone. To pay for a house equivalent in Vancouver, the mortgage would be over 6k. Renting a two bedroom condo would be 3K. It feels like the mortgage is just cheaper rent, even though each time I own more of my house.
5:45-9 AM: Work. I find out the limits of how many people I can invite to a Teams Meeting as well as that the Thursday before Good Friday is a catholic holiday when a few people ask me to reschedule a training forum for over a thousand people. Sometime in there I make us coffee, make sure Spouse has lunch packed (leftovers). Spouse has walked the dog and has the recycling and compost out for pick up. I drop Spouse off at work.
10-11:45 AM: I leave the office for home and more meetings. I walk the dog and go record training videos. I get an email that Amazon is doing their big spring sale. I send a link to a robot mop and vaccum that’s on a big discount to Spouse. We want one, but I’m not in charge of the research on it. I send links to play grounds to my friends with toddlers
11:45-12:30 PM : I shove lunch in my mouth, last night’s left overs. I’m running late, and decide to get myself later by collecting all the random dishes and mugs that just show up places and start the dishwasher. I get to the lab ten minutes early but need to buy gas on the way home.
I tell my team I’ll be MIA for a bit and leave the work phone in the car.
I buy 15.6L of gas for 30$ at 1.879/l it sucks. I don’t fill up because we’re going to my in laws this weekend and there’s a Costco Gas Bar there.
Total: 30$/credit card
12:30-1:30 PM: Work goes long again.
1:30-2:30 PM: Nap!
2:30-4:30 PM: Walk the dog and drive to the gym. I usually go three times a week but with last week’s weekend away and this week’s weird half days from Spouse, today’s the only day. I make it up by doing both upper and lower body and a 30 minute circuit.
4:30-7:30 PM: I pick up Spouse and we go to Costco. We pick up nachos, ham, cheese buns and some other items. We debate buying our friend’s kid a toddler set of clothes and decide no. We end up buying work pants for Spouse, and a garden hose. It comes out to 116.90
I order our Costco dinner of hot dogs and fries for a grand total date night of 6.41$
Total: 123.31/ credit card
8-9 PM: Dance class! We bought a series of six lessons of introduction to ballroom back in December for a new date night idea. We paid 60$/pp and this is the fifth lesson tonight.
9 pm: We’re home, we let the dog out. Spouse spends an undetermined amount of time watching ballroom videos while I sleep.
Day Four Total: 1603.31$ or 153.31 excluding the mortgage payment.
Day Five
5:45-9 AM: Work. All the meetings. Thursday is the meeting day. I debate with a friend what’s the earliest call we’ve had. 4:30 am still wins. I pack lunch for Spouse and his coffee and he leaves. I end up cleaning up cat puke as the cat decides to drink milk from Spouse’s cereal and vomit it up on camera in a meeting.
9-9:30 AM: I make myself a matcha and walk the dog.
9:30-1 PM: Work and I treat myself to a lunch of a cheese bun and ham sandwhich. We used to eat it every Sunday while growing up but the cost of ham has been outrageous. The deal at Costco yesterday was 1.5$/100 g which is really good.
1-1:30 PM: I seal the wooden deer Christmas decoration we bought last year. It sits outside our front door and needs to be weather proofed, and I’ve been putting it off for five months. But the weather is good and we have newspapers. We have left over wood sealer after the sign we bought a year ago so I use that. The dog and the cat both don’t like my wooden deer.
1:30-4 PM: Nap!
4-5 PM: I basically just watch youtube and drink a root beer. I have no energy.
5-6:30 PM: Spouse comes home, we walk the dog and I make dinner (Kraft Dinner and nuggets–I swear we eat veggies but today is not that day). We discuss the possibility of our dog at our wedding as a flower girl, and if she’ll be in a tutu or a cheongsam like me. I am now researching if they make dog cheongsams and if she can match us. The cat, despite all my heart wanting it, won’t physically be there because he will have an anxiety attack and probably die.
6:30-10:30 PM: Board game night! We go to a friend’s to repeat the same scenario we’ve lost two weeks in a row.
10:30-11 PM: I pack Spouse’s breakfast (oatmeal and frozen berries), lunch (spicy tuna and mayo) since he’s trying to go to the gym before work, and feed the animals before we go to bed.
Day Five Total: 0$
Day Six Friday
5:45-9 AM: Work. I have a deep focus block which means I can get the script for the training I have to run. Public speaking is not my strong suit and it’s a group of a thousand people so I’m not looking forward to it. Spouse almost makes it to the gym. I get an email that my new work phone has shipped. I’m surprised because they wouldn’t order us any for the past four years, but I guess my new iPhone will show up next week. I might give my old work phone to my mother in law, since she smashed the camera on the phone we bought her last year.
9-9:30 AM: I walk the dog, make a matcha and make a todo list for what we have to get done before we leave to my in laws tomorrow. I text my mother in law happy birthday, and hope that she got the card in time. She did.
9:30-11:30 AM: My last meeting for the week ends and I’m debating calling it a day so I can nap. Instead I make lunch (cheese bun and ham), text my other mother in law our plan for Saturday, and unload and reload the dishwasher and go back to work for at least another hour.
12:30-1 PM: I shower and do skin care
1-3 PM: Nap! Somewhere in this time FedEx comes and since I’m sleeping, we have to pick up on Monday. I’m not too sure what it is, I assume it’s our custom address stamp from Etsy because that’s the only thing I’ve bought recently but not too sure. I just realized in retrospect, this might be my new work phone.
3-5 PM: I prep dinner (nachos), unload the dishwasher, pack my overnight bag and confirm all our venue tours by email. I start a load of laundry and do a quick clean. I feel like this is not the best image of our diet. I swear we generally eat healthy but we both have been feeling really blah over the past two weeks so have been going for quick and easy over healthy and balanced. I do have three whole peppers and two whole avocados in the nachos though.
5-7 PM: Spouse comes home, we walk the dog, have dinner, and plan out next week. We have a big Wednesday next week (mechanic, I have a nails appointment, dance class), and we are having our friends over for Easter so we need to prep for that. We pack the car so tomorrow is a very easy start.
Spouse also gets paid today. We’re lucky that we’re on alternating pay periods, we used to be on the same and it always felt stressful. Spouse also lets me know his union has secured a 3% cost of living raise to start in Q3. I really like his union for negotiating a base 2% year of cost of living raise, with potential addition raises depending on inflation. It’s a bit away but that’s still good news.
7:30-10:30 PM: We finish The Rookie Season 3 and head to bed. Crave reminds me that I have 10 days until I’m charged again. Sadly, I think we’ll have to pay for 2 months.
Day Six Total: 0
Day Seven Saturday
8:30-9:30 AM: Wake up. No one (except the dog) slept well so we’re not in a morning mood. Spouse makes coffee and walks the dog, while I finish packing the car and give the cat a lot of attention. Our first venue tour is at 11 and the one that is the most expensive (8-10K), but also the one we probably want the most. We live about an hour away but the highway is two lanes and one accident can back everything up for hours.
10:40-1 PM: We visit our dream venue. We stay way longer than expected. Basically if the quote is under 10K, we’ll get it. Just waiting now.
1-2 PM: We get to our in-laws and have a lunch of egg salad sandwhichs. We need to buy gas. My in laws drive us to a pottery painting store.
2-4 PM: We paint pottery. My mother in law only wanted to do this for her birthday. They’ll pick it up in a week after it’s been thrown. I paint a vase (28$), Spouse paints an Easter egg (18$), father in law paints a mug (30$), and mother in law paints a plate (50$)
Total:143.36/credit card
4-5 Pm: We see another venue. It’s an instant no. My in laws decide they want to try Korean fried chicken. We call ahead for take out to get two fries and 16 pieces of half and half. It comes to 50.83$ that my in laws pay for.
5-10 PM: We come back and see that our dog has pooped in their house and also has gotten into their pantry and eaten an entire bag of dog food. It is not a fun night.
We spend the night drinking wine and discussing the wedding and watching TV.
10PM: We go to bed. That’s the end of this week, but tomorrow we will be buying gas and probably lunch for my other mother in law as we will be touring another venue.
Day Seven Total: 143.36$

We're mid-month today, officially half way through the May boycott. We began a soft boycott in April, so I'd say we're roughly a month into this. We track our expenses and noticed our grocery spend is down $200-$300 compared to prior months (we review our finances mid-month and month-end).
We've started buying meat almost exclusively from our local butcher and noticed that we're getting better quality meat and prices are competitive with Costco.
Costco always has and remains where most of our grocery money goes (though our butcher has won over a large chunk of that spend). The biggest win for us has been becoming disciplined with Costco trips. We've been diligent about sticking to our list and not buying extra items we don't need.
We've swapped Loblaws/No Frills with Walmart, Food Basics, and Amazon, and have noticed the prices are superior. Some items are the same, but most other items are 15%-85% cheaper. $0.47 cucumbers at Walmart vs $2.99 (or $1.69 on sale right now). The brand of coffee we typically consume is 14-15% less at Walmart, and just last week Amazon had a great sale on that particular coffee. Even store brand bread which all tastes the same is 25% less. Oatmeal is ~30% less at Food Basics compared to No Frills.
So what's our conclusion? We plan to see the boycott through to the end of May. Past May, we continue to keep up our shopping habits with one small exception, and that is for small one or two item trips. Sometimes we forget to add something to our list, or suddenly need something. In those instances, the time and gas spent travelling to the further store is not worth the savings on those one or two items. We hate the wasted time going out for one or two things, so we've started a shared list on our phones and a physical notepad in our kitchen where we can each jot things down as we remember them to reduce those small trips.
In a household where we spent on average ~$500/mth at Loblaws stores, we anticipate future spend will be be maybe $20-$30/month for those small trips. All in all, congratulations to Galen, Per Bank, and the Food Oppressor. Unless Loblaws changes, and to be honest I don't think they have what it takes, guys have pushed us to permanently cut the amount of money we spend at Loblaws stores by ~95%.

By popular demand, I guess...
I was kinda just being a smart-ass, but some of you wanted more so here it is: epilogues for every NPC as if they didn't continue to travel with Gorion's Ward and instead just decided to live their own life. Obviously, there are some implied alignment changes here.
This turned out to be longer than I expected and I kinda just threw it all together while I was working. Please excuse any typos or sloppy writing.
I want to apologize for one thing, though. Viconia's epilogue really only works if GW is a male, so I had to make that assumption for the sake of her story. If it matters any, I easily play just as many female GWs as I do male GWs. In fact, I probably play more female GWs because I don't care for the romances, frequently play the canon party, and want to nip the lame Jah romance in the bud.
But, to have them all in one place, I included my original smart-ass epilogues with the additional ones I created. Now, every character from BG1 and BG2 has an epilogue. I don't have the EE characters, though, because I play the original games and don't really know them.
So, just for funsies, which one is your favorite and why?
"Anomen continued to wait at the Copper Coronet for a party of adventurers willing to travel with him. Maybe it was the grating sound of his voice, or perhaps the way he leered at women, but he continued to remain alone. Eventually, he needed to find work to make ends meet. With Gorion's Ward having disbanded the slave traders and pit fights, Hendak had to find a new form of entertainment for the patrons. As such, he invented an all male review ladies night, and Anomen found work as a 'dancer'. He left the Most Noble Order of the Radiant Heart to join the less noble order of the pole. He also renounced his faith to Helm and instead allied himself with Waukeen because if you wanna see some groin, you gotta have some coin."
"Despite Gorion's Ward clearing the trolls from her keep, Nalia was not able to reclaim her lands and instead lost her estate to Lord Roenall. The lord offered to let her retain residence in her family's ancestral home, but only in exchange for her hand in marriage. Nalia found the proposition to be repugnant. Instead, she salvaged whatever wealth she could from her family's keep and moved to Athkatla to start a new life. She no longer helped the less fortunate, as she was now among their numbers and had her own problems. Nalia's lack of any practical skills combined with her sense of entitlement sent her into a life of failure followed by drinking and debauchery. She now spends more time back at the Copper Coronet than anywhere else. It is hard to say where she squanders her wealth more, the alcohol, or on the dancers during Ladies Night."
"After the incident with the Planar Sphere, Valygar was finally free of his past, could retire to his cabin, and pursue his true passion: writing. Ironically, the only inspiration he found ended up stemming from his family's checkered past. Valygar's only works that even had middling success were 'Tuesdays with Lavok' and 'Dude, Where's My Planar Sphere', with the latter being made into a production at the Five Flagoons Theater."
"Haer'Dalis continued to work as a performer at the Five Flagoons Theater. Unfortunately, it struggled due to poor management. It might have turned out better if an outside agent with fresh ideas had stepped in, but Gorion's Ward had better things to do than be a bard. While the work was generally steady, the returns were not great and the material was a little low-brow for Haer'Dalis' liking. The tiefling realized he reached rock bottom when he was cast as the lead in a play about a buffoon who apparently lost a plane-shifting apparatus the size of a small castle and had to find it before his parents returned from Neverwinter. After the opening night, he took his own life in his dressing room. His body was found the next morning with a note saying, 'Art is dead and I am art, so I shall join art in death.' Biff the Understudy stepped in for Haer'Dalis despite never having an opportunity to read the script. Nevertheless, the production was a resounding success and launched Biff's career to new heights."
“A heartbroken Garrick found work as a character actor at the Five Flagoons Theater, but eventually gained more success as a writer and director. He found it to be a mostly agreeable situation, aside from a tiefling primadonna who would constantly belittle his work and call it ”trite" and “drivel”. Fortunately, that situation worked itself out in time and Garrick found Biff to be much easier to direct. With the tiefling gone, his ideas had room to grow. He invented a new kind of love story, one where the protagonist doesn't always get the girl at the end but the journey to that ending would be quite amusing. He labeled this genre “the Comedy of Romance” and the works were mostly based on his own life. His plays were quite popular among the commoners, with his top selling shows being 'Sleepless in Saradush', 'Silverymoon Linings Playbook', and 'Crazy Rich Aasimars'. He eventually fully transitioned off the stage into the director's chair. By the peak of his fame, he was married to none other than Queen Ellesime."
“Aerie continued to work at the circus and WOULD NOT SHUT UP ABOUT HER DAMN WINGS. Even Quayle eventually grew sick of hearing about it. This put strain on their relationship. Things took a turn for the better when Ribald Barterman acquired a new curiosity for his shop. It was a magical ring which he sold to Quayle at a reduced rate out of sympathy. This ”treasure" was actually a cursed Ring of Deafness, which Quayle found to be anything but a curse and wore it for the rest of his days."
“Xzar and Montaron were both slain at the hands of the Athkatla Harpers, but this is actually where their story begins. Xzar, as he had done so many times before, had a backup plan of an arcane nature should death befall either he or the halfling. Their mortal essences were pulled to a pocket plane he created. There they could be channeled into restored bodies cloned at his estate. With this particular round of ritual, Xzar had incidentally made a slight error in the incantation and the two found themselves in a time suspended state in Xzar's pocket plane. It was only five minutes for the rest of the world, but it was fifty years for them. This turned out to be a pivot point in their relationship. Having only each other's company in this shadowy void, they were finally able to work out their feelings for each other. When they had returned to the prime material plane, they discovered their mutual animosity was replaced with love. Rather than pick up their life where they left off with the Zhentarim, they decided to pack it all in, moved to Bryn Shander, and start a bed and breakfast. Montaron rediscovered his halfling roots and love for the culinary arts while Xzar would perform seances to connect guests with their late loved ones. Scones and Bones became an overnight success and was consistently listed as a “must see” in Volo's travel guides. In their golden years, the couple co-wrote a memoir of their journey, ‘Brokeback Montaron’, which is sold in bookstores everywhere."
“After briefly crossing paths with Gorion's Ward, Mazzy Fentan continued her crusade as a de facto halfling paladin. She eventually found herself petitioning for membership at the Most Noble Order of the Radiant Heart in Athkatla after she had singlehandedly saved a village from an ancient dracolich. Despite the extent of her virtue and accomplishment, her petition was denied on the basis that halflings could not possibly be real paladins. This inspired her next crusade, one to break down vocational barriers for all demihuman races. Why couldn't halflings be paladins or dwarves be wizards? And why did gnomes always have to be illusionists? It simply made no goddamn sense. She began to get traction with her quest when she attended lectures by the wizards of the (sword) coast in Candlekeep. With their help, she ushered Faerun into a new edition era where there would be no vocational barriers for adventurers based on their race. Soon, the world began to see roguish halflings that also venerated Helm, while tending to the wilds as a druid. Half-orc bards also studied as wizards while manifesting natural arcane abilities as sorcerers. Tiefling paladins took their crusades to the wilderness and served as rangers, while sidelining as clergy to Mystra. The world was now a liberated place, free to not make any goddamn sense in a myriad of new ways. At one point, Lady Mazzy Fentan of Trademeet (now formally a paladin) crossed paths with a dwarven shadowdancebard and in that moment she regretted everything. Seriously, just take a moment and picture that. It would look fucking ridiculous.”
“Yeslick's clanhome was flooded once again. Despondent and without options, he took work at a smithy in Baldur's Gate but never stopped dreaming of finding both a clan and a home. He found a way to bring this dream to life after a courageous halfling paladin broke down the barriers for, among other things, dwarves to be wizards. Yeslick had an idea. He studied magic diligently until he was able to cast two spells of great importance: Water Breathing and Permanence. He then searched the lands for other clanless dwarves who would be willing to try something new. With the new clan he formed, Yeslick permanently gave all his fellow clansman the ability to breath underwater. They then moved into the flooded Cloakwood Mines and built the first underwater dwarven stronghold. Using his arcane powers, Yeslick also developed the ability to speak with the marine life that shared this stronghold. And, with that, the clan Aquadwarf was born. At one point, Valygar visited and wrote a play based on Yeslick's story. However, he couldn't even get it to stage at the Five Flagoons Theater. The illustrious director Garrick was quoted as saying, “A hero that can breath underwater and talk to fish? Nobody would go for that!"
“Keldorn finally retired from the Most Noble Order of the Radiant Heart and looked forward to a much simpler life. He rekindled his marriage with Lady Maria and life seemed to improve. It was rather early on when the couple discovered that Maria had become pregnant again. It was also not long after that when Peony, the housekeeper, also became pregnant. Maria started to ask Keldorn about this, but Keldorn started to get defensive and asked, ”Hey, who's the Inquisitor here?" Then Keldorn started to do the math with her to track the conception of Maria's pregnancy. She certainly did not want him to get to the end of that equation, so she quickly changed the subject. She suggested getting a new maid, but Keldorn chastised her for abandoning someone in their time of need who had been like family for years. He forbade Peony's departure claiming that his god, Torm, would not stand for it. Maria then made a passive aggressive comment about Torm being the god of loyalty, but she was mostly just muttering under her breath to get the last word in. Eventually, both children were born and had probably the most awkward upbringing of anyone in Faerun."
“After Gorion's Ward helped Coran take down a wyvern, the rogue brought the beast's head back to the mayor of Beregost for the reward and accolades. He thought this put him in a position to be a hero of great renown and perhaps, just maybe, people would stop mocking him for his flashy attire and completely superfluous eye mask. They didn't. He only gained acceptance when he crossed paths with a ranger who seemed indifferent towards Coran's keen fashion sense. Coran traveled the Sword Coast with his ranger sidekick, righting the wrongs against the ‘little guy’ and taking the law into their own hands when needed. This partnership dissolved when he discovered that the ranger thought Coran was the sidekick. As if! Coran tried to correct the ranger, whose argument was, 'Really, man, if that outfit doesn't scream sidekick then I'm Elminster's twin brother.' The ranger was not related to Elminster and shared no resemblance.
“Kivan never was able to get his revenge on Tazok. Unbeknownst to him, that honor was taken by Gorion's Ward. His thirst for vengeance continued to eat away at him until he found himself in a bat infested cave in the wilderness. It was then he snapped. He turned the cave into his secret hideaway, put together a disguise and started wandering the sword coast looking for evil-doers to punish. He would leave his calling card wherever he saved the day, a token of a bat with longer ears like an elf. And bats already had rather long ears so these bat ears were almost comically obtrusive. Nevertheless, his deeds were generally appreciated and the people stared calling him Bat-elf. For a short spell, another elf tagged along with him and tried to help, but he was so flamboyantly dressed that one could pick his sidekick out of the shadows blindfolded. Kivan eventually had to send him on his way. Unfortunately, his vigilante crusade abruptly ended after receiving a cease and decist order from DC Comics. Kivan could fight both monster and marauder all day, but his 14 Constitution wouldn't hold up against a lawsuit for trademark infringement.”
“Skie was deeply affected by both the death of her brother and the assassination of her father. And yes, her father was actually murdered and didn't lol-jk back to life in some crappy DLC. In any event, through these traumas, she came to realize the puerility of what she thought was her brilliant criminal masterminding. Instead, she decided to settle down and live a more responsible life as an upstanding citizen of Baldur's Gate. She took the reins of her father's estate after his death and rose to prominence as one of the Grand Dukes of the city. She maintained her relationship with Eldoth for quite some time, inexplicably, as he refused to get a job because he didn't want to take attention from his band which he swore was going to make it. However, the bard spent most of the day either lounging at Skie’s estate or gambling away his allowance with games of three-dragon-ante at the Helm and Cloak. Eventually, inspired by the book “Men Are From Menzoberranzan, Women Are From Immilmar," she decided to call it quits with Eldoth and sent him packing. Shortly thereafter, she met a man who was nothing like Eldoth and they settled down together to start a family."
“Eldoth's dreams of being a world-famous musician fronting the greatest band in Faerun never reached fruition. This was partly because he didn't actually have a band and partly because he didn't have the talent to write music. Instead, he just had a lute he purchased at Lucky Aello's Discount Store that only had one A-string and was missing the E-string. Also, Eldoth could only play power chords and he couldn't really sing and play at the same time. Most of the time he would just strum a chord or two and then talk about what the song would do next, often describing a solo and half playing it on an ”air lute" (while he was still holding an actual lute, mind you) to give people the idea as to how the song would sound when it was finally written. Yeah, he was one of those guys. After Skie kicked him to the curb, he bounced between various barmaids who clearly had low self-esteem, but not low enough to keep him around for long. Eventually, he got one of them pregnant and was forced into a shotgun wedding by the barmaid's father. He now works in the kitchen at the same inn as his barmaid wife. She helps the customers up front and he cooks eggs in the back. Eldoth continues to tell himself that this experience will just provide inspiration for his music and that someday he was going to get the band back together."
“After being rescued by Gorion's Ward, Xan made his way to Baldur's Gate to regroup. He spent an inordinate amount of time beating himself up over his failures and trying to muster the gumption to continue his quest to unravel the political turmoil of the region. However, it took him months to get to this point, and by that time, Gorion's Ward already sorted out the problems in the region. Discovering this, he deemed himself a failure yet again and sunk into a deeper depression. He pulled himself out of it when he met a woman who lost most of her family to violent deaths during the iron crisis, yet she still kept herself together and became a local success in a few short years. Xan immediately fell in love with the recently single Skie Silvershield and began to court her. They eventually married and started a family. At Xan's insistence, and inspired by his wife's name, their two daughters were named Sunshine and Rainbow. Xan was a staunch supporter of his wife's career and stayed home to raise the kids. When they were older and needed less attending, he followed a new dream and became a motivational speaker.”
“Korgan had his revenge against his backstabbing crew and employer, but he felt...empty. It was done, but he felt no satisfaction. Disgruntled and disappointed, he decided to lose himself in his cups at the Copper Coronet. Even this did nothing to alleviate his malaise. One night, having passed out drunk in a peasant room at the Copper Coronet, he dreamt of that final fight but something was different. In the background of the battle, there was a glow coming from the door of a shack and he heard the whispering of a language that sounded like it was from Kara-Tur. When he woke the next morning, Korgan returned to the rooftop and found the shack from his dream. He knocked and was greeted by a priest of Illmater. Korgan told the priest of his dream and he was led into the backroom where he found a man from Kara-Tur infirm and huddled over a cup of tea. The priest explained that he had just reincarnated this man of the faith using a heart delivered by a passing adventurer. Korgan took this as a sign, converted to the faith, and the two paired up to help those in suffering as a result of the schemes of others. The tales of Korgan and Yoshimo were not only told in many of a tavern by the bards, but also collected in graphic serials that were popular among the children of Athkatla.”
“Ajantis' death sent him into an afterlife at Everwatch, the realm of Helm. For his honor and diligence, the devout knight was granted an audience with his patron. Ajantis then told Helm what utter bullshit the god was. I mean, c'mon, he's the god of protection, the Vigilant One, and he couldn't protect a group of knights from a dragon's cheap illusion spell that a mage even tried to dispel with True Sight? It was like Helm wasn't even trying. Helm was stunned by the confrontation but also had no valid defense. Ajantis called Helm to a trial that was mediated by Tyr. After careful deliberation, Tyr determined that Helm was sleeping on the job and the judgment was to demote him to a lesser deity. Now, Helm was the patron of guards, but not actual guards that ever see action, just the ceremonial ones whose weapons and armor are super shiny and probably not even real. Ajantis was then granted Helm's old portfolio and became a god that truly protected his followers.”
“Viconia left Athkatla's government district perplexed. She was rescued from burning at the stake by Gorion's Ward and then immediately dismissed. She found this to be unusual behavior for a male. She was accustomed to men either trying to bed her or kill her, but this casual indifference was completely new. Viconia came to be obsessed with Gorion's Ward from a distance. She spiraled into a fantasy where the two of them had a future together. It was pretty bad. There were some extremely embarrassing vision boards involved and that wasn't even the worst of it. When her mania reached critical mass, her obsession actually collapsed and she had an epiphany. She came to realize that she did not need this man, or any for that matter. She started on a journey of self discovery and took a moral inventory of her past relationships. She wrote about it in the book, “Men Are From Menzoberranzan, Women Are From Immilmar”. She then used the revenue from the book sales to open Athkatla's first feminist bookstore. In Her Words became a mecca for women, particularly those who felt trapped in bad relationships. The community that emerged here created the group, Friends of Galia, which strove to free women from abusive relationships. Eventually, the bookstore expanded to include an apartment block above that became a shelter for such women. Occasionally, the partners of these victims would come around to In Her Words in an attempt to drag their partners back home. You can probably guess how a confrontation between a drunken 0-level commoner and a Drow priestess of Shar ends."
“Faldorn was defeated by Jaheira in Trademeet and lost her title of Arch-Druid. In truth, she was relieved to be relieved of the position. Years of pushing forward the Shadow Druid agenda led Faldorn to realize that she had lost touch with the real Faldorn along the way. After some soul-searching, she reinvented herself as a lifestyle guru and developed an entire line of organic health and beauty products under the name, She-Wolf. Both her products and seminars were all the rage in Athkatla, specifically among noblewomen who clearly had too much free time. Faldorn eventually gave up her residence in natural environs for a lavish estate in Athkatla's government district. Her following soon pressured her to petition to join the Council of Six after the fall of the Cowled Wizards left the position open (aside from a short-term replacement). Her petition was a success and she soon found herself on the Council of Six. Under her leadership, she created created the FDAA, the Food and Drink Association of Athkatla. Now, instead of draconian rules governing magic in the city, equally restrictive rules and standards were applied to the food and drink that the people consumed.”
“Barely surviving being gravely wounded by Irenicus, Tiax left Spellhold for Athkatla where he intended to do what he did best: rule. Learning from his past campaign mistakes in Baldur's Gate, he changed his slogan from ”Tiax Rules!" to “Make Athkatla Great Again”. Of course, what he thought would make Athkatla great was putting himself in charge as a despotic leader. But, he toned down that aspect of his platform and instead focused on the history of scheming and backroom dealing of the Cowled Wizards (as if he was any less evil or scheming) and promised the people he would be different than all the other corrupt politicians. Miraculously, despite his obviously apparent character flaws, he succeeded in replacing the Cowled Wizards' representative on the Council of Six. He decided to take their stance on restrictive magic to the next level and banned magic entirely. Since he didn't study the arcane himself, it was no skin of his nose. This move undermined his support base leaving him with only the most backwards and ignorant followers. He was ultimately removed from his position when he insisted the city build a wall around the planar sphere and was expecting that the city's wizards would be the ones to pay for it. After his removal, his few remaining extreme supporters organized an invasion of the main government building under the guise of freedom of assembly. All nine of these “rebels” were rounded up, tried, and sent to prison. Tiax was convicted of treason and reincarnated in Spellhold, which was now just a common prison. After his eventual release, he was prohibited from seeking any position of power in Amn."
"Edwin Odesseiron continued to lay low with the Shadow Thieves for a while. The Cowled Wizards suffered a crippling blow as a side effect of the conflict between Gorion's Ward and Irenicus. Edwin decided to step in and finish the job. His thought was that he could wipe out the Cowled Wizard remnants and then take credit for their defeat, thereby gaining him more clout among the Red Wizards of Thay. After many conspicuous mage battles in the streets of Athkatla, he succeeded. However, the people who noticed his efforts the most were actually the people of Athkatla. They were tired of living under the Cowled Wizards' iron fist and Edwin was lauded as a liberator and hero. He even had a statue in his image raised in Waukeen's Promenade. Edwin was initially nonplussed over people finally giving him the credit he always felt he so rightfully deserved. But, he quickly came to accept their praise and bought in to being a champion for the people. Edwin continued his agenda of liberation when a clearly insane gnome who found his way on the Council of Six tried to ban magic entirely in the city. Edwin and his followers were primarily responsible for having the madman removed from his seat.
“Shar-Teel, Safana, Branwen, and Alora all happened to cross paths with each other at Elfsong one evening. Shar-Teel was looking to fight a man, Safana was looking to shag a man, Branwen was recently petrified by a man, and Alora was just excited to be somewhere new. The four got to talking with each other and, despite having wildly different personalities, seemed to hit it off. Shar-Teel was sarcastic and aggressive, Safana was self-absorbed and man-hungry, Alora was kind and sweet, and Branwen was the matriarch of the group. You wouldn't think this lot would get along, but they actually did, and their differences merely become the fuel for innocuous hi-jinks week after week.”
"With Gorion's Ward's help, Cernd was able to rescue his child that he then abandoned again at the druid grove near Trademeet. He promised that he would return to raise the child, he just needed to run to the general shop in Trademeet for some pipeweed. He never returned, but that was pretty obvious since he didn’t even smoke. Cernd continued to wander Faerun. It came to light in Cormyr that Cernd had actually married, and had children, with numerous women in Cormyr, Amn, the Sword Coast, Tethyr, Calimshan, Turmish, Halruaa, Icewind Dale, Chondath, Sembia, Impiltur, the Silver Marches, and even the Troll Hills (don't ask). Furthermore, it was discovered that Cernd was not actually a druid, just a werewolf that had a Ring of Goodberries. The druid con was so that he could have a reason to abandon his wives and children and move on to a new situation. You would be surprised at how many women could fall for a guy that can conjure an impromptu picnic in the park. Unfortunately for Cernd, Cormyr was not the kind of place to run afoul of the legal system. For the crime of bigamy, he was sentenced to life in prison. He never set foot near a druid grove again, but he was allowed to participate in a work-release program tending to the gardens of nobles.
“Kagain returned to his shop and grew even more bitter, but not over what the death of Entar Silvershield's son had done to his reputation and business. Instead, he resented that even the Enhanced Edition of the game didn't give him a remotely decent companion quest. By Moradin's hammer, Cernd even had a pretty involved companion quest and the story there both starts and ends with a deadbeat dad! Also, Kagain can regenerate! Korgan can't even do that. And another thing! He was sick of people confusing the two of them as if all dwarves look alike or something. Ok, granted, they're both old dwarves with greying beards, but Korgan's beard is tied while Kagain's beard is brushed out. Of course, none of this made sense to anyone, even to Kagain who never actually crossed paths with Cernd or Korgan. However, the dwarf had nothing to do with his time except stand in his shop, isolated and alone, until he was done in by insanity and plantar fasciitis.”
“The death of Khalid shook Jaheira to the core. She convinced herself that she could never love again, certainly not so soon after his death nor with anyone that would be a child in her eyes. That would be absurd and rather tacky. After her escape from Irenicus' prison and deposing Faldorn from the druid grove, she took over as Arch-Druid. Being a Harper just wouldn't be the same without Khalid. However, the grove would allow her to explore a new, but comfortingly familiar, phase of life. She had barely been installed as the Arch-Druid when Cernd dropped off his child and disappeared again. He did not even stay long enough to tell Jaheira the child's name. Knowing he would likely not return, she named the child Khalid after her lost love. Realizing there were other children our there without families to care for them, Jahaeira would send her subordinates to wander nearby lands and bring them to the grove for a better life. Perhaps not surprisingly, many of these children happened to be Cernd's. She eventually renamed the grove to Kinder Garden in honor of the grove's new purpose of giving these children a kinder upbringing. Jaheira's headstrong personality served her well with these lost children, who all loved her as they would any mother. The Kinder Garden became the most thriving druid grove in all of Faerun. Jaheira eventually died in 1547 DR, with hundreds of children haven been rescued in her lifetime, and a memorial was erected in her honor at the grove. The inscription read, 'Nature's Servant Awaits.'"
“After being freed from Irenicus' dungeon, Minsc put his boots on the ground at the Copper Coronet. Being the simple man that he was, he found himself unwittingly recruited into fighting in the gladiator pits (before Gorion's Ward was able to free the slaves). Yet again, Minsc took a blow to the head. But this time, its effects were something completely new. No longer was he the slow-witted evil-slaying ranger, armed to the teeth and packing a hamster. Instead, his intelligence and wisdom started to blossom and he explored, through dissertation, the impact of modern civilization on the overall ecosystem of Faerun. Indeed, before Minsc started his work, the people of Faerun didn't even have the concept of an ”ecosystem". He left Athkatla to pursue a residency at Jaheira's grove where he could study and work in peace. He published works like, “The Intersection of Geopolitics and Biodiversity: Living More but Dying Sooner”, “The Essential Symbiosis Between the Savage and Civilization”, and “Moral Urbanization: Seeking a More Comprehensive Prosperity”. Minsc continued his studies and writing and ultimately produced enough groundbreaking works to have his own annex in Candlekeep. It was shortly after the dedication of this annex that Minsc disappeared from Faerun, never to be seen again."
“Jan Jansen's fate was the most impressive of all as his endeavors shaped the very fabric of Faerun for centuries to come. His story truly serves as a moral lesson for everyone and we should heed its virtue quite seriously. Helping Lissa and Jaella planted a seed of regret in Lissa with regards to her marriage to Vaelag. Speaking of seeds, this reminds Jan of a time when he was helping his Uncle Scratchy with his turnip farm. However, Uncle Scratchy was hoodwinked and the seeds he received were actually purple carrot seeds. You can imagine Uncle Scratchy's surprise when they sprouted and he suddenly had a field of purple carrots. Well, as you probably know, you can't make turnip stew, or turnip casserole, or turnip pie with purple carrots. But it just so happened there was a mage tower nearby and the resident mage needed a vast number of carrots. Apparently, her plan was to animate them as a kind of vegetable army to combat a myconid infestation in cave system rather close to her tower. Of course, animated carrots are quite self-assured and were immune to myconoid's confusion spores. Anyway, Jan had a once-removed cousin, Bobil, that was lost in those caves when he was a young gnome. He had wandered so deep that he found himself in the den of a solitary xvart who was obsessed with a magic ring. Bobil happened to purloin that ring but it turned out to not be magic at all. However, it was still worth enough for Bobil to buy himself a nice cottage in Trademeet. He then started his own turnip farm and had better luck than Uncle Scratchy. Wait, what were we talking about, again?”
“Boo continued his mission to study the sentient life forms of Faerun and determine their potential impact on the metaverse. He preferred the continued company of Minsc due to the ranger's kindness and protectiveness. Boo found this to be quite valuable in his current miniaturized state. Even after Minsc's accident, where his intellect began to expand, Minsc never lost his good heart and inherent kindness and the two remained the best of friends. It was a number of years later that the term of Boo's mission was complete. A team of his fellow people arrived on a spelljammer to collect the giant miniaturized space hamster. Minsc (and Boo) were on a retreat in a remote part of the Neverwinter Wood when a vessel shaped like a giant acorn landed in a nearby clearing. A number of human-sized anthropomorphic hamster-like beings, who called themselves the Ysoki, emerged and met with Boo. One had a strange crystalline device which it used to restore Boo to his proper size. Minsc naturally remained composed while all this was happening. He and Boo talked often and he knew this day would be coming. Boo returned to the spelljammer with his brethren to debrief on the mission. The Ysoki wanted to bring a sample back to their homeworld for further learning and study. Boo offered Minsc for the task, as the exemplar human would fit in nicely with the Ysoki's advanced culture and society. Everyone was in agreement and made the offer to the ranger. Minsc felt like he had made every contribution he could to the people of Faerun, so he accepted and boarded the ship. Boo, excited to finally be on a spelljammer again, took the helm and plotted a course for his homeworld. At his side sat his friend and faithful companion, Minsc.”

Cinnamon Rolls: Ditch the Cream Cheese, Embrace Frosting Bliss

Cinnamon rolls, those warm, fluffy spirals of cinnamon-infused goodness, are a beloved treat that has graced countless kitchens and satisfied countless sweet tooths. But what happens when you crave that irresistible cinnamon roll goodness but want to steer clear of cream cheese frosting? Fear not, for there's a world of frosting possibilities beyond the traditional cream cheese route. Read the original blog : Cinnamon Rolls Frosting Recipe without Cream Cheese

Sour Cream Frosting: A Tangy Twist on Tradition

For a tangy twist on your cinnamon roll frosting, embrace the magic of sour cream. This versatile ingredient lends a delightful tartness that complements the sweetness of the cinnamon rolls perfectly. Simply whisk together sour cream, powdered sugar, vanilla extract, and a touch of milk until smooth and creamy. For an extra burst of flavor, consider adding a hint of lemon zest or a pinch of cinnamon.

Whipped Cream Frosting: A Cloud of Sweet Perfection

Light and airy, whipped cream frosting is a cloud of sweetness that perfectly crowns your cinnamon rolls. Whip heavy cream until stiff peaks form, then gradually fold in powdered sugar and vanilla extract to taste. For a touch of indulgence, consider adding a dollop of mascarpone cheese or a drizzle of caramel sauce.

Coconut Cream Frosting: Vegan Delights Await

If you're looking for a dairy-free alternative, coconut cream frosting is your answer. This rich and creamy frosting is surprisingly simple to make. Just chill a can of full-fat coconut milk overnight, then scoop out the solid cream and whip it until fluffy. Gradually add powdered sugar, vanilla extract, and a pinch of salt to taste. For a tropical twist, add a touch of lime zest or a sprinkle of toasted coconut flakes.

Maple Cream Cheese Frosting: A Taste of Maple Heaven

For a taste of pure maple heaven, maple cream cheese frosting is a must-try. Start by creating a classic cream cheese frosting, then fold in pure maple syrup to taste. The result is a frosting that is both decadent and subtly sweet, perfectly complementing the cinnamon rolls.
Powdered Sugar Glaze: Simplicity at Its Finest
Sometimes, simplicity is all you need. A simple powdered sugar glaze can elevate your cinnamon rolls with a light sweetness and delicate crunch. Simply whisk together powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla extract until smooth and drizzle generously over your warm cinnamon rolls.
With these frosting alternatives, you can enjoy the irresistible goodness of cinnamon rolls without compromising your dietary preferences or taste buds. So, gather your ingredients, preheat your oven, and embark on a frosting adventure that will transform your cinnamon rolls into culinary masterpiece

I was the one that found Jake dead, Tucked in the dark corner of the parking garage in his idling pest control truck that vibrated minutely.
The parking garage always had a humming from stainless metal fans to circulate the humid and hot Virgina air. Walking closer to the truck I saw his chemical box in the bed of the truck was open with the top flap sticking straight up.I thought nothing weird about the open box because it's not just us in the pest control company that live there and from time to time we steal from other trucks. For the summer the company buys out dozens of rooms for the employees to stay. Most employees are door to door salesmen who make a living selling pest control as a same day service. Where Jake and I, with a few others, come into play is after the sale. The ones who actually spray your house, the ones who interact with the customers and bring them down to reality after the salesmen fluff our feathers, or are they fluffing their own? We are the ones who click the rap trap mouths in place, with black jagged teeth…waiting, with the delicious neon blue food for the rats to nibble on and share with their newborns. We had 7 other trucks in the parking garage and from time to time chem went missing. Sometimes us technicians didn't want to wake up early and drive 30 minutes to the office to pick up materials, truckers were closer, much closer. I'd be lying to you if I didn't steal a de-weber every now and then off a truck, but I always made no trace of the thievery. I can't speak for everyone though. So when that lid was pointing up to the rusty pipes and concrete ceiling above, I wasn't surprised, hell I might have had a smirk on my face.
With the swing of my arm I slapped the box closed, a whiff of chemicals spewed out and hit my nose which gave me a feeling of a stinging sneeze that never comes. I gave the window a knock to see if he would turn around.. Silence. I got closer to see if he was glued to his phone and didn't hear me or didn’t bother looking. I put my hands up on the window and smushed my eyebrows against my index fingers to get a better look. I saw the seat was fully reclined back, him laying there…still as a morning lake. I knocked on the smaller back half door. Tap tap TAP. No movement. It was too dark to see so I dug my hand in my pocket to get my phone light out and put it flush to the back oval airplane shaped window. That's when I saw this face—— god his face—— skin a purplish hue and pulled taught by swelling, eyes adrift and red which were bulging out like they wanted to leave, jaw open with dark fluid sitting in his mouth, escaping on the sides. The streaks of dark liquid rolled down his purple face, curving down the back of his neck, and dribbling down the strands of hair meeting the head rest. My eyelids opened so wide they touched my eyebrows. His fingers curled limply around a chemical bottle, cap off and the liquid color matching that of the pool in his mouth…
“Jake” I whispered, my voice feels like it was stolen from me, my skin is tingling like an unknown channel on tv as heat takes over… I begin to fall, the last thing I notice are my fingers streaking down the window. I passed out.
4 months pass
I'm moving out of the building where it happened. I’ve wanted to get out of this building since it happened, but didn’t have the financial backing. Now I plan to stay in Virginia for the winter and move in with roommates from the pest control company. The salesmen call this time their “off season” due to them all leaving and going back home, most to Vegas. My other two roommates run the regular technician routes which consist of stopping at 14-15 designated houses a day, spraying chemicals and setting traps to take care of the contracts those grimey salesmen sell.
I used to share a room with jake. All of his things were taken out either by investigators or the maid service. The other roommates in the building told me to combine the abandoned twin bed with mine but I never touched it, I couldn't.
I’m making this entry due to finding something. Something I believe was very close to Jake.The last day of moving I had everything packed but my mattress and box spring. While moving my mattress lazily with the sheet still on I lost grip and it hit his mattress sliding it off the box spring and hitting the wall. I let go of my mattress automatically and wanted to fix his bed…. Preserve it. I wrapped my hands around his mattress when a wave of dizziness veiled over me. My hands became clammy and I didn't want to touch his mattress anymore, like a kid that doesn't want to touch an old person. I had to put it back! If I didn't it would haunt me forever my mind yelled at me. Just as I forced myself to slide the mattress back, my middle knuckle dropped into a slight groove, and I stopped in place. I pushed the mattress to the right and traced where my knuckle had been and found a slit in the box spring.I hesitated, staring at the unnatural slash in the cloth, Thinking about when Jake and I would make fun of our manager who always had a bone to pick with jake ever since the first day they met, the new manager 2 years younger than us yelling at jake to tuck his shirt in while his own untucked, covered his belt and belly. A smile slowly disappeared from my face as I was brought back with my whole forearm now in the slit of the box spring. My fingers clutched an object that had to be a book. I pulled My arm out of the box spring like pulling a calf out of its mother, now half expecting to see red viscous liquid and tiny wet legs, my eyes shut slowly like elevator doors closing.
But My hand appeared dry and my fingers clenched around a book of sorts. The outside of the book was void of color, almost like it absorbed it instead. I sat down on my thrown mattress and the empty apartment surrounded me. I flipped to the first page as the spine creaked at me, I saw Jake's name and it clicked in me that this wasn't a book. It was Jake's notebook! I flipped page after page reading Jacob’s writings about days of killing bugs and missing home till I got to the page. Sometimes I wish I wasn't lazy, I could have taken the sheet off the bed, this would have never happened, I would have never found the notebook. The apartment seemed to be silently closing in on me now like I was in the digestive tract of some huge monster. God the page—— in big dark letters he had written “THE LADY IN THE BASEMENT IS THE REASON WHY I AM GONE.” I was stuck reading the words again and again thinking I was seeing things. My heart was pumping so vigorously I could hear it agitate the fabric of my shirt little by little each beat. There was a dark arrow so dark that seemed to suck in light and pointed toward the right of the page wanting someone to flip it or something to flip it, so I did. For the next pages he wrote why…. And I clinging to every word …began to read.
2 months pass
The warm thick air has passed now, leaving a cold grey in the air. Virginia feels less claustrophobic with the heat gone. Winter is stinging its way into the picture more and more, breath starting to become visible almost every day.
My new apartment looks over the town of Arlington which is a nice view from the 13th floor. Whenever people ask where I live I tell them, “it’s 5 minutes from the pentagon,” I’ve said it so much it numbs me.
There are 3 guys in total that live in this apartment so the decor is minimal at best. Our tv stand is an upside down plastic bin, with our coffee table another bin, at least its a set. The floor is thick and worn carpet, light tan in color. The walls have the same yellowish void look. My favorite part of the apartment is the balcony that spans the whole side of the living room to which I can see a sliver of the Potomac river, an icy cold thing this time of year.
I've marinated in Jake's notebook for a while, I think I’m ready to share some of what is inside. Jake goes into extreme detail about these situations so I’ll just copy them down for you all to read, I think that is what’s best. After reading this I wasn’t the same, you are warned.
Thursday July 18th 2020 (7 months ago)

 -Jake’s notebook- 

Today I am changed. It was right after lunch when my work phone notified me a house was booked. Usually I disliked the salesmen but the one that booked me was just alright, tolerable. I pulled into the neighborhood as the sun dimmed from clouds rolling in, storm maybe. Multiple groups of six townhomes were placed throughout the neighborhood with tall trees and bush linking them. The small homes shared walls only separated by a slight offset in depth, looking like crooked teeth. Porches stuck out a measly foot from the homes which were more for decoration than enjoyment. The porches all had different faded color variations that staggered from each house, blue, red, orange, green, and back to blue. The peeling wood porches had the style of a western movie set which I thought interesting, but I knew the webs were going to be a bitch to get out. I rolled up to the address the app told me as the salesmen popped out of some trees to greet me, probably pissing. Wind whipped his hair, yes a storm. I rolled down the window and stopped the truck, wheels stopping the popping of gravel underneath. He gave me the rundown of the house while leaning on the windowsill of my truck, where the smell of sweat leaked in from him. He mentioned the old woman that lived in the townhome and said she was an oddball but kind. I thought nothing of it, just another job before getting off. As I parked the car, I asked the salesmen, “interior?” He replied, “yes.”
My shoe covers zipped on the asphalt as I walked toward the door, pump tank in my hand. KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK. The old woman opened the splintered door as I introduced myself and got all the signatures I needed to apply the pesticides, legal reasons. The first thing I noticed about the woman was her eyes, they looked worn, tired as if she stayed up all night… or something was keeping her up. I smiled as I slipped the signed papers in the back pocket of my jeans, she reciprocated the smile and pushed the door open wide as creaks escaped the henges. Right before I stepped in I saw the salesmen grab a deweber from my truck, he is an alright one this salesmen. I looked back and the old woman kept her eyes on my face, I smiled again to break the slight awkwardness. The smell of wet concrete hit my nose when I stepped in the home, it started to sprinkle behind me, it cut off as she closed the door behind me.
The old woman’s home was tight like lungs that never sucked air back in. The layout was like a strip of gum, the start was the door I walked through and The end was the living room which had a step down. She offered me water which I politely declined, I could see the kindness the salesmen were talking about. The home was filled with random knick knacks but not messy, organized chaos. I asked her the routine questions about bugs like where she was seeing them to which she replied almost everywhere, thank god this was a small home. I started to spray in the kitchen which was directly left of the door I walked through. Spray shot Around the sides of the refrigerator and the baseboards and the woman followed me almost attached to the hip or like an obedient dog. I didn't think it weird, she kept conversation and genuinely looked fascinated about where I sprayed while listening to my little tips I replayed from the back of my mind on how to keep bugs away. We rounded the kitchen and stepped down into the living room where carpet met my boot covers with peppered static zaps. I sprayed the sliding back door focusing on the bottom track where bug highways usually gravitated. Then I traced the baseboards around the living room, avoiding wires powering lamps and televisions.
I heard quick stomps coming down the stairs to which I gave a glance of curiosity toward the bottom of the staircase and temporarily lifted my hand off the spray trigger. A child rounded the corner and ran to the old woman yelling, “grandma!” Must have woken up from a nap or something. The child then looked up at me and asked who I was and she explained in young terms, “he is here to make the bugs go away.” I smiled at that to reaffirm the old woman's version of me she gave, I was a version who told the bugs to go away, not kill them by the thousands. I liked that version of myself.
I had finished treating the main floor and now followed the old woman and child up the stairs, her veiny hands scratching her grandson's head. I went through every room, closet, bathroom, and windowsill spraying with the old woman still following me everywhere I went, pointing out the hotspots, her close presence becoming normal, almost warming as she reminded me of my grandmother. The child seemed just as interested as his grandmother about how I spray and I thought it wholesome.
After this point things took a dark sinister turn.
My job was now finished I thought. We were all on the main floor now and I began to reach for the front door and tell her we would finish the outside service now when she for the first time broke her distance from me. This made me feel, for lack of better words, alone. She steadily glided toward the living room not looking back and she stepped down the dip heading for the couch. Did she forget I was still in the house? Did she imagine opening the door and letting me out? The kid then followed her and jumped off the small dip in childlike fashion into the living room and landed on the carpet, gracing his tumble. The old woman never sat down, and her back was facing me as she stood there…. Her Body was still. Why didn't she sit down? She broke the silence right as my fingers touched the front door knob, her voice was colder now, “won't you come here for a second?” The knob rang numbly for a split second as my hands slid off. I then took a step toward the living room patiently, waiting for.. what? The rain now beat on the old woman's back windowed door, with the flash of illumination, lightning struck close, then thought of the salesmen with the metal deweber pole, that combination like brushing teeth and orange juice. The thought was erased as the tip of my boots hung off the step to the living room. I looked at the woman's face and dropped down in the living room, her wiry hair now covering some of her face with a blank stare. The kid now hugging her legs hiding his whole body except the right side of his face, the eyeball piercing me. Her hair was delayed as she snapped her head at me, then the hair caught up and fell. Her face then shook like when a student tries to stay awake in class, she then looked around, lost and took a deep breath. She said, “sorry sometimes I get these headaches, they just take over me,” as she laughed it off dryly. I told her “it's fine, I get them too,” I get them too? Are you stupid jake? She then raised her old saggy arm pointing to a door. I knew what this door led to. Being in hundreds of townhomes with the same layout, they led to the basement. Pairing with my thought she forced out, “Dear please spray the basement too, will you?
Before I could answer the kid somewhat loudly asked, “wait grandma… he is going into the basement? Grandma! Why the basement?” My neck chilled to goosebumps. I stepped back up onto the wood and stopped at the tooth white door expecting the old lady to open it for me, she had done this the whole way through the house, opening cabinets, windows, doors, flipping on light switches for me but here I am with the old woman standing firm in the same spot and the kid saying the same question, starting to cry. I looked back at the door as she said, “yes that door, the light switch is on the left, close the door when going down… we don't go down in the basement.” My heart started to pump faster and my fingers and forearm twisted the knob, opening the door, my mind replaying, “we don't go down in the basement, we dont go down in the basement,” What the fuck does that mean! I took one last look at her and saw only a part of the woman, due to the kitchen wall, she sat down now and grabbed something off her neck and started sifting it through her hands. She then did something my ears will never forget, she started to pray in spanish… and I took my first step down.
I shut the door behind me as then I switched the light on. It was very dim, only giving me the bare minimum brightness to reach the bottom. The walls were different as I descended, the light didn't bounce off them, instead the walls seem to let the light in. The old woman's prayers and childs crying muffled the creaks the wooden staircase gave off. The prayers were getting louder. I dreadfully got on the floor of the basement now. To the left, a wall, to the right, a long hallway leading to complete and utter darkness. My body felt a shiver like flying to a cold part of the world and the airport doors exposing you to the weather for the first time. My head naturally looked down at my feet for some reason. There was a door to the right of me now which I saw coming down the stairs. I shifted toward it with my boot covers scraping the carpet tips, uneasily, I opened it. The boiler room was dark as the swing of the door brought a string to my vision. The light for this room of course is a fucking string light. I pulled on it hard and light struggled to do its job. The light reminded me of when my 7th grade science teacher, mr. Crutcher, told us what would happen if a light bulb traveled the speed of light in space, “you will see the light, yes! But it will reflect no light! Precisely! what is a light but more than a mere tool that reflects light off of other things!” The memory should have put a smile on my face. I then sprayed around the water heater and cotton candy pink insulation sticking out from the room’s walls. My heart pounding and a veil of sickness came over me. The cold got stronger. This place… was pure sickness itself. Holding my hand up I wrapped around the string but paused, something deep inside of me telling me not to shut the light off, I almost felt as if someone with a remote was controlling my movements, I was separated from myself. I let the string slither out of my hand as I walked out of the room. My head fell back down at my boots, as if something didn't want me to look up. What would I see if I looked up? The exposed insulation made the old woman's prayers fuzzed, but now I was back in the hallway and I could hear the extent of it. She was screaming now. I imagined her old neck veins popping like blue miniature rivers flowing up to her wrinkly face.
I faced the hallway now, the walls darkening the further they got from the top stairway light. My brain was yelling at me to hurry and go as fast as I could but my body did not listen, we were disconnected. I took my first step still looking at my feet seeing the dark entrance from the hallway get closer, another step I go, I get closer, step, closer, step. I now know the sick thing in this home is in the dark void I approach with every step… waiting. I finally reach the end of the hallway and my body stops. The old woman's screams reach a pinnacle. The kid crying and yelling accompanies it. I am all alone. Even my brain is alone. I can do nothing. The darkness is all around me. I twitch my head to the right, it reminds me of the old womans movements, and reach my hand out to feel for a light switch, nothing. When I do this I can see in the dark room slightly with my hat hiding me from most, not all. My head comes back down to the center. I feel like throwing up now, my sickness is terrible. My head is spinning and so is my stomach. All of my extremities are ice now. I twitch my head to the left, my hand grazing the sandpaper wall and I feel A switch! My heart relaxes from the touch. Finally I'm not alone! the light switch accompanies me! Click…my finger flips the switch. My stomach drops. Click.CLICK.CLICK. NOTHING. My breathing is like a car engine that just turned over. The only thing that was with me for even a second is gone. No light. I won't move. I can't move. My hat doesn't cover it all. The ceiling now shakes from the old woman screaming as my eyes… my god damn EYES…. glance into the darkness and see the lady in the basement…. everything goes black.

Have a great weekend! 🙂
AROUND TOWN

• Farm Babies (MN Zoo - All Weekend)
• Beautiful: The Carole King Musical (Chanhassen Dinner Theatres - All Weekend)
• Love and Other Things that Ruined My Life (Dudley Riggs Theatre - All Weekend)
• Sadie Barnette: The New Eagle Creek Saloon (Walker Art Center - All Weekend)
• Black Citizenship in the Age of Jim Crow (MN History Center - All Weekend)
• FASH Spring Horse Show (MN State Fairgrounds - All Weekend)
• Friends School Plant Sale (MN State Fairgrounds - All Weekend)
• SPRING (Southern Theater - All Weekend)
• The Spitfire Grill (Hennepin Avenue Church - All Weekend)
• The Rink (Arts Center on 7 - All Weekend)
• Blended (Harmony): The Kim Loo Sisters (History Theatre - All Weekend)
• Paw Patrol Live! (Orpheum - All Weekend)
• The Sound of Music (Bloomington Center for the Arts - All Weekend)
• Matilda the Musical Jr. (Hopkins Center for the Arts - All Weekend)
• A Year with Frog and Toad (Children’s Theatre Co. - All Weekend)
• Urinetown (Hanifl Performing Arts Center - All Weekend)
• Men on Boats (Theatre in the Round - All Weekend)
• Minnesota Tango Music Festival (Parkway Theater - All Weekend)
• 9 to 5: The Musical (Lyric Arts Main Street Stage - All Weekend)
• Seven Keys (Yellow Tree Theatre - All Weekend)
• Sea Cabinet (Elision Playhouse - All Weekend)
• The Lilies of the Field (Open Window Theatre - All Weekend)
• Jumping Off Point (Jungle Theater - All Weekend)
• Rasputin (Open Eye Theatre - All Weekend)
• Schubert’s The Great C Major Symphony w/ Richard Egarr (Ordway - Friday & Saturday)
• Rainy Days and Mondays (Chanhassen Dinner Theatres - Friday & Saturday)
• Thunder from Down Under (Grand Casino - Friday & Saturday)
• Who’s Live Anyway? (Pantages - Friday & Saturday)
• Raanan Hershberg (ACME Comedy Co. - Friday & Saturday)
• ‘Til Beth Do Us Part (Plymouth Playhouse - Friday & Saturday)
• Mandee McKelvey w/ Shyloh Blake + Randall Reid (Laugh Camp Comedy Club - Friday & Saturday)
• Aaron Berg (Rick Bronson’s House of Comedy - Friday & Saturday)
• Happy Apple (Berlin - Friday & Saturday)
• Skeleton Crew (Guthrie - Saturday & Sunday)
• Minneapolis Sculpture Garden Art Fair (Walker Art Center - Saturday & Sunday)
• Spring Festival (Orchestra Hall - Saturday & Sunday)
• John Pizzarelli (Dakota - Saturday & Sunday)
• La boheme (Ordway - Saturday & Sunday)
• Torch Song (Six Points Theater - Saturday & Sunday)
• May Market (MN Landscape Arboretum - Saturday & Sunday)
• Coppelia In Paris (Ames Center - Saturday & Sunday)

FRIDAY, MAY 10

• Arcade Day (Boom Island Brewing 12pm-11pm)
• Bach Society Mobile Mini Concert (Landmark Center 3:40pm)
• WASTE EP Release Show (Amsterdam Bar & Hall 4pm)
• Charlie Bruber + Jack Barrett (Berlin 5pm)
• DECAPITATED (Green Room 5:30pm)
• Runaway Ricochet (Day Block Brewing Co. 6pm)
• Cornell 77 Turns 47 (Under the Canopy 6pm)
• Morgan James (Dakota 6:30pm)
• Watermelon Man - The Music of Herbie Hancock (Dunsmore Jazz Room 6:30pm)
• Gunna (Armory 7pm)
• Teezo Touchdown (First Ave 7pm)
• The New Standards (Crooners 7pm)
• Neil deGrasse Tyson (State Theatre 7:30pm)
• Richard II (Guthrie 7:30pm)
• Trey Anastasio and Classic TAB (Palace Theatre 7:30pm)
• Skating Polly + Lord Friday The 13th + Surly Grrly (Uptown VFW 7:30pm)
• Wild Child (Cedar Cultural Center 8pm)
• Tchaikovsky Korngold and Chin (Orchestra Hall 8pm)
• Skating Polly w/ Lord Friday the 13th (Uptown VFW 8pm)
• Muerte (Skyway Theatre 8pm)
• METZ (Turf Club 8pm)
• The R Factor: Michael Jackson Family Review (The Belvedere 8pm)
• Scottie Miller (Maggie’s Lounge 8pm)
• Takin’ It to the Streets (Medina Entertainment Center 8pm)
• Dedicated Enemy (Cloudland Theater 8pm)
• Julia Holter (Fine Line 9pm)
• Kashd Out (7th Street Entry 9pm)
• Cumbiatron (Varsity 9pm)
• Spring Flowers & Showers (Can Can Wonderland 9pm-12am)

SATURDAY, MAY 11

• Model Railroad Show & Sale (MN State Fairgrounds 9am-2pm)
• AAPI hMong Artisan Market (Maple Grove Community Center 10am-6pm)
• Y2K Drag Brunch (Union Rooftop 10am)
• A Brunch of Drag (LUSH 11am)
• Minneapolis Vintage Market (SLP Rec Center 11am-4pm)
• MN Artisan Pop-Up Market (Can Can Wonderland 12-5pm)
• Mother’s Day Makers Market (Boom Island Brewing 12-5pm)
• 56 Brewing 9th Anniversary Party (56 Brewing 12-10pm)
• Open Season (Falling Knife Brewing Co. 1-10pm)
• Henry IV (Guthrie 1pm)
• Twangfest 2 (Palmer’s Bar 3pm)
• Minnesota Met Gala (American Swedish Institute 4-6pm)
• Tony Andreason (Icehouse 5pm)
• Kevin Kling + Victor Zupanc, Your Ultimate Troubadours (The Belvedere 5pm)
• Zacc Harris + Chris Bates (Berlin 5pm)
• Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 2 (Orchestra Hall 6pm)
• John Pizzarelli (Dakota 6pm)
• Garret Nasset + Oceanographer + Kate Malanaphy (Day Block Brewing Co. 6pm)
• John ‘Papa’ Gros + Paul Cebar Tomorrow Sound (Under the Canopy 6pm)
• Kruelty (Cabooze 6:30pm)
• The 1940s Songbook w/ Maud Hixson (Dunsmore Jazz Room 6:30pm)
• STRIPPED: A Depeche Mode Burlesque Devotional (Amsterdam 7pm)
• Kamasi Washington (Fitzgerald 7pm)
• Better Than Ezra (Varsity 7pm)
• Andrew Cushin (7th Street Entry 7pm)
• Better Lovers (Fine Line 7pm)
• ZEP (Green Room 7pm)
• The New Standards (Crooners 7pm)
• Henry V (Guthrie 7:30pm)
• Joyner Lucas (Uptown Theater 7:30pm)
• Bone Thugs-n-Harmony (Skyway Theatre 8pm)
• Hermanos Gutierrez (First Ave 8pm)
• Kiran Ahluwalia (Cedar Cultural Center 8pm)
• Terry Chambers & Friends (Parkway Theater 8pm)
• Stiff Little Fingers (Turf Club 8pm)
• Erin Livingston + Rick Carlson (Maggie’s Lounge 8pm)
• 1974 AD (The Pourhouse 8pm)
• Monica La Plante (Cloudland Theater 8pm)
• Hush Victoria (Can Can Wonderland 9pm)

SUNDAY, MAY 12

• Mamma Mia Drag Brunch (Crave Minneapolis 10am)
• Mother’s Day Market (Surly 11am-4pm)
• 5k Beer Run (Nouvelle Kitchen & Brewery 11am)
• St. Paul Civic Symphony’s Mother’s Day Concert (Landmark Center 1pm)
• Dot Operator (Cloudland Theater 3pm)
• The Gustavus Jazz Ensemble Mother’s Day Concert (The Belvedere 4pm)
• John Pizzarelli Trio (Dakota 4pm)
• Mother’s Day Cabaret (Crooners 5pm)
• The Music of Django Reinhardt w/ the Ryan Picone Quartet (Dunsmore Jazz Room 5:30pm)
• EMERY & THE ALMOST (Amsterdam Bar & Hall 6pm)
• Alexz Johnson (Green Room 6:30pm)
• Carmen (Granada Theater 7pm)
• The New Standards (Crooners 7pm)
• TaikoArts Midwest (Ordway 7pm)
• Elvis Mother’s Day Tribute (Parkway Theater 7pm)
• HALEY w/ Portal iii (Berlin 7pm)
• Improv A Go Go (HUGE Theater 7:30pm)
• Larry and Joe (Cedar Cultural Center 7:30pm)
• Violent Femmes (Palace Theater 8pm)
• Mariah the Scientist (Varsity 8pm)
• He is Legend (Fine Line 8pm)
• Garcia Peoples (7th Street Entry 8pm)
• Beyond the Blinds Live (Turf Club 8pm)

SPORTS

• Toronto Blue Jays VS Twins (All Weekend)
• Toledo Mud Hens VS Saints (All Weekend)
• Denver Nuggets AT Wolves (Friday 8:30pm)
• Albany Firebirds AT Myth (Saturday 3:30)
• Rochester FC AT Crows (Saturday 6pm)
• Dallas Elite AT Vixen (Saturday 6pm)
• Chicago Union VS Wind Chill (Saturday 7pm)
• Denver Nuggets AT Wolves (Sunday 7pm)

MOVIES (released nationwide in theaters)

• Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
• Not Another Church Movie
• We Grown Now

LINKS

• Reddit Twin Cities Social Meet-Ups: https://www.reddit.com/twincitiessocial
• Trivia Mafia Schedule: https://www.triviamafia.com/schedule
• Music Mayhem Schedule: http://www.musicmayhem.net/live-show-locations.html
• Get a Clu Trivia Schedule: https://www.getaclutrivia.com/home/#weekly-trivia-schedule
• Racket MN Event Calendar: https://www.racketmn.com/category/events/
• Meet Minneapolis Event Calendar: https://www.minneapolis.org
• MPLS Art Events: https://www.mplsart.com/calendaupcoming
• Minnesota Monthly Event Calendar: http://www.minnesotamonthly.com/Calenda
• MSP Magazine Event Calendar: http://mspmag.com/search/event/events-calenda#page=1
• Minneapolis Northwest Event Calendar: https://www.minneapolisnorthwest.com/events/
• Minnesota Parent Event List: https://www.minnesotaparent.com/calenda
• Family Fun Twin Cities: https://www.familyfuntwincities.com/family-fun-events-calenda
• Minneapolis Park Events: https://www.minneapolisparks.org/event-calenda
• St. Paul Parks & Rec Events: https://www.stpaul.gov/calendaparks-and-recreation-events
• Three Rivers Park District Event Calendar: https://web2.myvscloud.com/wbwsc/mnthreeriverswt.wsc/search.html?display=Calendar&module=event&_csrf_token=cU716Z6D0C1B2B2C3C2L454I5R604U581V665Z566H046Q3U595K0B5U4U6L4N1F0E3S6K4U055R5P4J576D734L5C576Q73535P6D015S4R504J09664Q5G5708564N5S

If you have any events to add, drop them in the comments!

Have a great weekend! 🙂
AROUND TOWN

• Farm Babies (MN Zoo - All Weekend)
• Beautiful: The Carole King Musical (Chanhassen Dinner Theatres - All Weekend)
• Love and Other Things that Ruined My Life (Dudley Riggs Theatre - All Weekend)
• Sadie Barnette: The New Eagle Creek Saloon (Walker Art Center - All Weekend)
• Black Citizenship in the Age of Jim Crow (MN History Center - All Weekend)
• FASH Spring Horse Show (MN State Fairgrounds - All Weekend)
• Friends School Plant Sale (MN State Fairgrounds - All Weekend)
• SPRING (Southern Theater - All Weekend)
• The Spitfire Grill (Hennepin Avenue Church - All Weekend)
• The Rink (Arts Center on 7 - All Weekend)
• Blended (Harmony): The Kim Loo Sisters (History Theatre - All Weekend)
• Paw Patrol Live! (Orpheum - All Weekend)
• The Sound of Music (Bloomington Center for the Arts - All Weekend)
• Matilda the Musical Jr. (Hopkins Center for the Arts - All Weekend)
• A Year with Frog and Toad (Children’s Theatre Co. - All Weekend)
• Urinetown (Hanifl Performing Arts Center - All Weekend)
• Men on Boats (Theatre in the Round - All Weekend)
• Minnesota Tango Music Festival (Parkway Theater - All Weekend)
• 9 to 5: The Musical (Lyric Arts Main Street Stage - All Weekend)
• Seven Keys (Yellow Tree Theatre - All Weekend)
• Sea Cabinet (Elision Playhouse - All Weekend)
• The Lilies of the Field (Open Window Theatre - All Weekend)
• Jumping Off Point (Jungle Theater - All Weekend)
• Rasputin (Open Eye Theatre - All Weekend)
• Schubert’s The Great C Major Symphony w/ Richard Egarr (Ordway - Friday & Saturday)
• Rainy Days and Mondays (Chanhassen Dinner Theatres - Friday & Saturday)
• Thunder from Down Under (Grand Casino - Friday & Saturday)
• Who’s Live Anyway? (Pantages - Friday & Saturday)
• Raanan Hershberg (ACME Comedy Co. - Friday & Saturday)
• ‘Til Beth Do Us Part (Plymouth Playhouse - Friday & Saturday)
• Mandee McKelvey w/ Shyloh Blake + Randall Reid (Laugh Camp Comedy Club - Friday & Saturday)
• Aaron Berg (Rick Bronson’s House of Comedy - Friday & Saturday)
• Happy Apple (Berlin - Friday & Saturday)
• Skeleton Crew (Guthrie - Saturday & Sunday)
• Minneapolis Sculpture Garden Art Fair (Walker Art Center - Saturday & Sunday)
• Spring Festival (Orchestra Hall - Saturday & Sunday)
• John Pizzarelli (Dakota - Saturday & Sunday)
• La boheme (Ordway - Saturday & Sunday)
• Torch Song (Six Points Theater - Saturday & Sunday)
• May Market (MN Landscape Arboretum - Saturday & Sunday)
• Coppelia In Paris (Ames Center - Saturday & Sunday)

FRIDAY, MAY 10

• Arcade Day (Boom Island Brewing 12pm-11pm)
• Bach Society Mobile Mini Concert (Landmark Center 3:40pm)
• WASTE EP Release Show (Amsterdam Bar & Hall 4pm)
• Charlie Bruber + Jack Barrett (Berlin 5pm)
• DECAPITATED (Green Room 5:30pm)
• Runaway Ricochet (Day Block Brewing Co. 6pm)
• Cornell 77 Turns 47 (Under the Canopy 6pm)
• Morgan James (Dakota 6:30pm)
• Watermelon Man - The Music of Herbie Hancock (Dunsmore Jazz Room 6:30pm)
• Gunna (Armory 7pm)
• Teezo Touchdown (First Ave 7pm)
• The New Standards (Crooners 7pm)
• Neil deGrasse Tyson (State Theatre 7:30pm)
• Richard II (Guthrie 7:30pm)
• Trey Anastasio and Classic TAB (Palace Theatre 7:30pm)
• Skating Polly + Lord Friday The 13th + Surly Grrly (Uptown VFW 7:30pm)
• Wild Child (Cedar Cultural Center 8pm)
• Tchaikovsky Korngold and Chin (Orchestra Hall 8pm)
• Skating Polly w/ Lord Friday the 13th (Uptown VFW 8pm)
• Muerte (Skyway Theatre 8pm)
• METZ (Turf Club 8pm)
• The R Factor: Michael Jackson Family Review (The Belvedere 8pm)
• Scottie Miller (Maggie’s Lounge 8pm)
• Takin’ It to the Streets (Medina Entertainment Center 8pm)
• Dedicated Enemy (Cloudland Theater 8pm)
• Julia Holter (Fine Line 9pm)
• Kashd Out (7th Street Entry 9pm)
• Cumbiatron (Varsity 9pm)
• Spring Flowers & Showers (Can Can Wonderland 9pm-12am)

SATURDAY, MAY 11

• Model Railroad Show & Sale (MN State Fairgrounds 9am-2pm)
• AAPI hMong Artisan Market (Maple Grove Community Center 10am-6pm)
• Y2K Drag Brunch (Union Rooftop 10am)
• A Brunch of Drag (LUSH 11am)
• Minneapolis Vintage Market (SLP Rec Center 11am-4pm)
• MN Artisan Pop-Up Market (Can Can Wonderland 12-5pm)
• Mother’s Day Makers Market (Boom Island Brewing 12-5pm)
• 56 Brewing 9th Anniversary Party (56 Brewing 12-10pm)
• Open Season (Falling Knife Brewing Co. 1-10pm)
• Henry IV (Guthrie 1pm)
• Twangfest 2 (Palmer’s Bar 3pm)
• Minnesota Met Gala (American Swedish Institute 4-6pm)
• Tony Andreason (Icehouse 5pm)
• Kevin Kling + Victor Zupanc, Your Ultimate Troubadours (The Belvedere 5pm)
• Zacc Harris + Chris Bates (Berlin 5pm)
• Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 2 (Orchestra Hall 6pm)
• John Pizzarelli (Dakota 6pm)
• Garret Nasset + Oceanographer + Kate Malanaphy (Day Block Brewing Co. 6pm)
• John ‘Papa’ Gros + Paul Cebar Tomorrow Sound (Under the Canopy 6pm)
• Kruelty (Cabooze 6:30pm)
• The 1940s Songbook w/ Maud Hixson (Dunsmore Jazz Room 6:30pm)
• STRIPPED: A Depeche Mode Burlesque Devotional (Amsterdam 7pm)
• Kamasi Washington (Fitzgerald 7pm)
• Better Than Ezra (Varsity 7pm)
• Andrew Cushin (7th Street Entry 7pm)
• Better Lovers (Fine Line 7pm)
• ZEP (Green Room 7pm)
• The New Standards (Crooners 7pm)
• Henry V (Guthrie 7:30pm)
• Joyner Lucas (Uptown Theater 7:30pm)
• Bone Thugs-n-Harmony (Skyway Theatre 8pm)
• Hermanos Gutierrez (First Ave 8pm)
• Kiran Ahluwalia (Cedar Cultural Center 8pm)
• Terry Chambers & Friends (Parkway Theater 8pm)
• Stiff Little Fingers (Turf Club 8pm)
• Erin Livingston + Rick Carlson (Maggie’s Lounge 8pm)
• 1974 AD (The Pourhouse 8pm)
• Monica La Plante (Cloudland Theater 8pm)
• Hush Victoria (Can Can Wonderland 9pm)

SUNDAY, MAY 12

• Mamma Mia Drag Brunch (Crave Minneapolis 10am)
• Mother’s Day Market (Surly 11am-4pm)
• 5k Beer Run (Nouvelle Kitchen & Brewery 11am)
• St. Paul Civic Symphony’s Mother’s Day Concert (Landmark Center 1pm)
• Dot Operator (Cloudland Theater 3pm)
• The Gustavus Jazz Ensemble Mother’s Day Concert (The Belvedere 4pm)
• John Pizzarelli Trio (Dakota 4pm)
• Mother’s Day Cabaret (Crooners 5pm)
• The Music of Django Reinhardt w/ the Ryan Picone Quartet (Dunsmore Jazz Room 5:30pm)
• EMERY & THE ALMOST (Amsterdam Bar & Hall 6pm)
• Alexz Johnson (Green Room 6:30pm)
• Carmen (Granada Theater 7pm)
• The New Standards (Crooners 7pm)
• TaikoArts Midwest (Ordway 7pm)
• Elvis Mother’s Day Tribute (Parkway Theater 7pm)
• HALEY w/ Portal iii (Berlin 7pm)
• Improv A Go Go (HUGE Theater 7:30pm)
• Larry and Joe (Cedar Cultural Center 7:30pm)
• Violent Femmes (Palace Theater 8pm)
• Mariah the Scientist (Varsity 8pm)
• He is Legend (Fine Line 8pm)
• Garcia Peoples (7th Street Entry 8pm)
• Beyond the Blinds Live (Turf Club 8pm)

SPORTS

• Toronto Blue Jays VS Twins (All Weekend)
• Toledo Mud Hens VS Saints (All Weekend)
• Denver Nuggets AT Wolves (Friday 8:30pm)
• Albany Firebirds AT Myth (Saturday 3:30)
• Rochester FC AT Crows (Saturday 6pm)
• Dallas Elite AT Vixen (Saturday 6pm)
• Chicago Union VS Wind Chill (Saturday 7pm)
• Denver Nuggets AT Wolves (Sunday 7pm)

MOVIES (released nationwide in theaters)

• Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
• Not Another Church Movie
• We Grown Now

LINKS

• Reddit Twin Cities Social Meet-Ups: https://www.reddit.com/twincitiessocial
• Trivia Mafia Schedule: https://www.triviamafia.com/schedule
• Music Mayhem Schedule: http://www.musicmayhem.net/live-show-locations.html
• Get a Clu Trivia Schedule: https://www.getaclutrivia.com/home/#weekly-trivia-schedule
• Racket MN Event Calendar: https://www.racketmn.com/category/events/
• Meet Minneapolis Event Calendar: https://www.minneapolis.org
• MPLS Art Events: https://www.mplsart.com/calendaupcoming
• Minnesota Monthly Event Calendar: http://www.minnesotamonthly.com/Calenda
• MSP Magazine Event Calendar: http://mspmag.com/search/event/events-calenda#page=1
• Minneapolis Northwest Event Calendar: https://www.minneapolisnorthwest.com/events/
• Minnesota Parent Event List: https://www.minnesotaparent.com/calenda
• Family Fun Twin Cities: https://www.familyfuntwincities.com/family-fun-events-calenda
• Minneapolis Park Events: https://www.minneapolisparks.org/event-calenda
• St. Paul Parks & Rec Events: https://www.stpaul.gov/calendaparks-and-recreation-events
• Three Rivers Park District Event Calendar: https://web2.myvscloud.com/wbwsc/mnthreeriverswt.wsc/search.html?display=Calendar&module=event&_csrf_token=cU716Z6D0C1B2B2C3C2L454I5R604U581V665Z566H046Q3U595K0B5U4U6L4N1F0E3S6K4U055R5P4J576D734L5C576Q73535P6D015S4R504J09664Q5G5708564N5S

If you have any events to add, drop them in the comments!

9th instead of 9nd lol Sorry ! It's your friendly neighborhood deal hunter back at it again with your weekly grocery deals.
This week's got some seriously good finds to keep your wallet happy and your fridge stocked. Here's what caught my eye:

Farm Boy

• Atlantic Snow Crab: $7.99/lb - Looking for a fun seafood option? Snow crab is a delicious treat that would be perfect for a special dinner!
• Boneless Skinless Chicken Thighs: $5.99/lb (Save $2.60): This is a great deal on chicken thighs! Save money on this versatile protein.
• Vidalia onions: $1.88/lb - Ugh, this Vidalia onion price is a bummer. While they're my favorite onion too, almost $2/lb is pretty steep, especially when regular onions are much cheaper.
• Cucumber: $0.99 each - This is a great price on cucumbers! Just be sure to keep an eye out for even better deals.
• Deli - Chicken breast roast (Maple Lodge): $2.49/100g - This is a good deal on pre-cooked chicken breast from the deli. Perfect for easy meals!**
• Liberté Greek Yogurt All varieties: $5.88/each Save $2.11- Liberté Greek yogurt is on sale, but the price isn't dramatically lower.
• T-Bone Grilling Steak: $17.99/lb, save $4 - There's a discount on T-bone steaks this week, but they're still a splurge.

Food Basics

• Chicken breast (boneless skinless, Maple Lodge): $4.98/ lb - This is a good price for chicken breast! Stock up while it's on sale.
• Atlantic salmon: $10.88/lb - This is a fair price for salmon, not a steal, but not outrageous either.
• Carrots & Onions: $1.25 2lb/bag - This is an awesome deal on both carrots and onions! Great for stocking up on these kitchen staples.
• Broccoli: $1.25/crown: This is a great price for broccoli! Perfect for adding some greens to your meals.
• Mini cucumbers: $1.99 6-pack - This is a good price for mini cucumbers!
• Apples (various): $2.98 3lb bag - This is a fair price for apples, but be sure to choose a variety that stores well.
• Lemons: $2.98 2lb bag - This is a fair price for lemons.
• Oranges: $1.88 3lb bag - This is a fantastic price for oranges! Only 60 cents a pound!
• Blueberries: $1.88 half pint - This is a good price for blueberries!
• Mango: $0.67/each - Wow! This is an amazing price on mangoes! I haven't seen them this cheap in months. Stock up if you love them!
• Cantaloupe: $2.98/each - This is the typical $3 melon price.
• Mini watermelon: $3.98 each - This is a great price for a small watermelon! Perfect for a refreshing summer treat.
• Corned beef (Hereford): $2.98 340g/can - This isn't the most exciting ingredient, but it's a good idea to have a can or two on hand for a quick meal.
• Tofu (Fountaine santé): $5.00 for 2x 400g packs - This is a good price for tofu! At $2.50 per pack, it falls right in the "nice average" range.
• Silk plant bev: $2.88 1.74-1.89L - This is an excellent deal on Silk plant-based beverages! Usually these cost around $4-5, so under $3 is a steal.

Freshco (price matcher)

• Chicken breast (boneless skinless): $10.00 4-pack - Be careful with this chicken breast deal! The price per pound might be higher than advertised. Make sure to weigh the package before you buy it.
• Sweet peppers: $3.99 4-pack - This is an average price for sweet peppers. It's not a steal, but it's not a bad deal either.
• Hothouse tomatoes: $0.99/lb - This is a fantastic price on hothouse tomatoes! Stock up while they're on sale.
• Corn: $2.00 for 5 ears - This is an excellent deal on corn! At only 40 cents an ear, it's much cheaper than usual.
• Celery: $2.99 per head - This is an okay price for celery. Some places charge more for larger heads.
• Bok choy, Napa, Flat Cabbage: $0.99/lb - This is an amazing price for bok choy and napa cabbage, and a fair price for flat cabbage. I recently made a delicious bok choy salad, you should try it!
• Green onions: $0.99 per bunch - This has become the standard price for green onions.
• Ginger: $1.99/lb - This is a good price for ginger, which often costs around $3 a pound.
• Garlic: $1.29 5-pack - This is a nice deal on garlic!
• Asian pears: $1.88/lb: This is a good price for Asian pears, especially for a more unique fruit. You can find them even cheaper in season.
• Apples (Gala): $1.49/lb - This isn't a bad price for Gala apples, but it could be a little better. Ideally, you'd find them around $1.25 a pound.
• Brick cheese (Armstrong): $4.44 400g bar - This is a nice deal on brick cheese! You can get it for under $5.
• Silk Beverage, select varieties: $3.49 1.74-1.89L - This is a nice discount on Silk plant-based beverages! They're down from around $5 this week.

No Frills (price matcher)

• Chicken drumsticks: $1.87/lb - This is an okay price for chicken drumsticks. While I'd prefer whole legs at this price, it's still a fair deal.
• Atlantic Salmon: $9.77 per lb - This hits that sweet spot of around $10 per pound for salmon.
• Corn: $0.33 per ear - This is a fantastic price for corn! Stock up and enjoy some fresh summer corn.
• Potatoes (Red, Yellow, Russet): $4.99 10lb bag - This is a fair sale price for potatoes, especially considering they can easily cost over $7 these days.
• Blueberries: $1.99 full pint - Another great deal on blueberries!
• Pears (Bartlett): $0.88/lb - This is an awesome price for Bartlett pears!
• Milk (Neilson): $4.88 4L bagged - This is a great sale price on milk, considering the usual price is around $6-7.
• Canned tuna (Ocean's): $0.99 170g - Heads up! There seems to be some confusion in the flyer this week with multiple canned tuna options. This Ocean's brand is only 99 cents, but there's also a Clover Leaf and another Ocean's brand at different prices.

Real Canadian Superstore (price matcher)

• Beef sirloin tip roast or steaks: $4.99/lb - This is a great price on sirloin tip! It's not clear what grade the meat is, but the reviewer thinks a roast would be a better choice for a more tender result than steaks.
• Chicken breast (bone-in, skinless): $3.99/lb - This is a good price for bone-in, skinless chicken breasts. The reviewer actually prefers bone-in chicken because it adds flavor and moisture during cooking.
• Asparagus: $2.99/lb - This is a good price for asparagus, although it can sometimes go even lower.
• Mini cucumbers: $4.00 11-pack - This isn't the best deal on mini cucumbers. You're basically paying for an extra cucumber compared to the smaller packs that are on sale elsewhere.
• Sweet peppers: $3.50 4-pack - This is a great deal on sweet peppers!
• Vidalia onions: $5.99 3lb/bag - Cheaper At Farm Boy but I’m not impressed with the price.
• Potatoes (Imperfect): $6.00 15lb/bag - This is an excellent deal on imperfect potatoes!
• Grape tomatoes: $6.00 907g shell - This is a great price on grape tomatoes. The reviewer recommends freezing any extras you don't use right away and using them for stocks or soups.
• Strawberries: $3.98 2lb shell - This is a great deal on strawberries!
• Pineapple: $3.00/each - This is a good price for pineapple, although $2 is a better target price.
• Cantaloupe: $3.00/each - This is a decent price for cantaloupe, and it's not worth going out of your way to find a slightly cheaper one.
• Honeydew and Mini Watermelon: $4.99/each - These melons aren't a terrible price, but there are better deals out there.
• Brick cheese (No Name): $4.99 400g bar - This No Name brand brick cheese is a bit pricey at $5.
• Deli - Ziggy's Beef deli: $2.50 per 100g - This is a consistent price for decent quality deli meat from Ziggy's.
• Canned tomatoes (PC Blue Menu): $1.59 796ml can - This is a good price for canned tomatoes, although you can sometimes find them for a little cheaper.
• Flour (Robinhood, Five Roses): $11.99 10kg bag - The reviewer recommends keeping a 10kg bag of flour and some quick rise yeast on hand for making your own bread. It's a great skill to learn and can save you money in the long run.

Sobeys

• Chicken breast or thighs (boneless skinless, Compliments): $5.88/lb - This is a fairly typical price for boneless, skinless chicken breasts or thighs. It's not the cheapest we've seen, but it's still a decent price.
• Chicken breast or thighs (boneless skinless, no antibiotics, Compliments): $6.99 per lb - It's interesting that the antibiotic-free chicken is $1 more per pound. It would be good to see if this price difference is consistent across other stores and brands. An extra dollar for antibiotic-free doesn't seem like a bad deal.
• Beef brisket: $5.99/lb - This is a good price for AA grade beef brisket.
• Beef eye of round: $6.99/lb - This is a large cut of beef that can be versatile if you know how to cut it against the grain. You could easily get cubes, strips, and even marinating steaks out of this.
• Scallops: $21.99/lb - Scallops are usually a pricier item, and while I wouldn't normally recommend them at this price, Farm Boy's price is actually pretty good compared to others which can be as high as $32/lb. Here, you're basically paying $3 for 2 scallops.
• Cucumbers: $0.99/each - This is a good price for cucumbers, although it's not quite the best deal we've seen (some sales have them as low as 50 cents).
• Red vine tomatoes: $0.99/lb - This is a fantastic price for red vine tomatoes!
• Brick cheese (Compliments): $4.99 400g - The classic $5 brick cheese! This is a good price for Compliments brand brick cheese.

Walmart

• Whole chicken: $1.94/lb - This is a great price on whole chicken! It brings the price closer to what you'd pay for those pre-cooked chickens at other stores.
• Vine tomatoes: $1.94/lb - This isn't the best deal on vine tomatoes, we've seen them for under $1 a pound recently.
• Green peppers: $1.94/lb - This is a fair price for green peppers.
• Zucchini: $1.94/lb - The price for zucchini is a little high, but it's the same as most other stores this week.
• Eggplant: $1.94/lb - Similar to zucchini, the price is a little high, but in line with other stores.
• Green onion: $0.94 for 2 - This is a fantastic deal on green onions! They're usually around $1, so this is half price!
• Cilantro bunch: $0.94 for 2 - Wow, this is a great price for fresh cilantro! Bunches can vary in price, but this is a steal.
• Mango (Red or Ataulfo): $0.94 for 2 - This is an awesome price on mangoes! Stock up and make some delicious mango salsa!
• Brick cheese (Armstrong): $4.94 400g bar - This is the classic $5 brick cheese!
• Frozen veg (Great Value): $2.47 500-750g - Here's a reminder to keep an eye out for frozen vegetables at this price point. Frozen veggies like corn, peas, and string beans are a great value and often just as nutritious, if not more so, than fresh produce because they're frozen at their peak freshness.
• Olive oil (Sapurito): $11.94 1L bottle - This isn't a huge discount, but it's still 20% off the regular price, which is like getting one liter free when you buy four!
• Butter (Gay Lea): $4.94 454g bar - Butter is still expensive, but at least it's not $7-8 anymore.

Costco

• Previously Frozen Sockeye Salmon Fillet ( Wild):. $5.00 OFF
• Australian Rack Of Lamb: $5.00 OFF
• Mini Babybel Original: $13.49 - Save $3.50
• The Laughing Cow Cheese 535 g: $7.59 - Save $2.00
• Blackberries - Sweet Karoline 340g: $5.99 - Save $2.00
• Gain Cold Water Liquid Laundry Detergent with Oxi: $17.49 - Save $3.80
• Finish Quantum Ultimate Plus Dishwasher Detergent Pack of 96 tablets: $17.99 - Save $6.00
• Ecos Earth Friendly Liquid Laundry 225 Washloads : 16.99 - Save $5
• Purex Cold Water Ultra Concentrated Laundry Detergent 250 wash loads : 17.49 - Save $4.50
• Cashmere Premium 2-ply Bathroom Tissue 40-pack: 19.99 - Save $5
• Cascade Power Clean Dishwasher Detergent 115 ActionPacs : 18.49 - Save $4.50
• Finish Quantum Jet-Dry Ultra Rinse Agent 315 washes : $9.99 - Save $4.50
• OxiClean Max Efficiency Stain Remover 275 loads : $16.99 - Save $5.50
• Dawn Ultra Platinum Advanced Power Dishwashing Liquid 2.66 L : $10.99 - Save $3.00

P.S. Let me know if you find any other amazing deals at Costco – always happy to share the savings!
Same list on Google Drive https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NyO9pEeccnbhYv6_XL9gcvf7odkkGhRzClWs9g1hKhg/edit?usp=sharing

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From Texas Monthly:
The Battle of Big Taco
With their anything-goes approach to ingredients—and deep-pocketed investors—Torchy's Tacos and Velvet Taco have ambitious plans to expand nationally.
Something stops Clay Dover cold as he strolls behind the restaurant’s counter. The CEO of Velvet Taco has been all smiles and high fives since he entered the chain’s location in the Grandscape shopping center, amid the suburban sprawl north of Dallas. But now, staring at a few chicken strips in a bin under a heat lamp, he cuts off his friendly patter midsentence and pulls out one of the little brown hunks. He turns it over in his hand, tears it apart, takes a bite, and throws the rest in the trash with a faint trace of a pucker on his face. He’s not going to call anyone out on the spot, but he’s clearly not pleased.
Dover happens to be one of the world’s leading experts on chicken strips. As a former executive with Raising Cane’s, a Plano-based restaurant chain whose entire menu revolves around chicken strips, he knows instantly whether they’ve been made with tenderloins, a narrow cut found on the underside of the breast—“It’s the filet of chicken,” he says—or from an oversized breast that’s been sliced. He can detect whether a strip is crispy on the outside and moist on the inside or has devolved into a bumpy slab of rubber.
Today the strips in question were too small and too bready, suggesting that the crew had been serving customers the better pieces out of a batch and leaving the remains too long under the heater. The chicken didn’t pull apart with the telltale ease of a fresh tender. “Thirty-five percent of the protein in our tacos has chicken tenders in it,” he explains. “So if it’s not hot and juicy on the inside, if it’s not perfect—if you screw up the chicken, you’re done.”
Velvet Taco, which launched in Dallas thirteen years ago and now runs 46 locations in seven states, numbers among a handful of chains with the potential to redefine what a fast-food taco looks and tastes like. Sixty-plus years after Taco Bell turned a regional staple into a cheesy drive-through treat, there has yet to emerge a serious challenger with national reach, besides Chipotle, where tacos are a menu afterthought. But Velvet faces stiff competition for that prize position, and nowhere more than at home in Texas.
A few days after Dover’s Grandscape chicken-strip discovery and 220 miles south, Mike Rypka pulls on a fashionable knit blazer over his black T-shirt and heads into a conference room at the headquarters of Torchy’s Tacos, in East Austin. It’s headshot day at the chain Rypka founded in an Austin food trailer, in 2006, and which now operates 127 locations in fourteen states. “Sometimes I have to look professional,” he mutters, before stepping in front of the camera and transforming instantly from a 48-year-old tattooed dude into a corporate executive with thousands of employees.
Torchy’s started as the kind of lovably quirky local outfit whose devoted followers treat it like an extension of their personalities. But as the chain conquered city after city, it began to mirror the experience of a beloved local band that signs with a major label and lands a radio hit only to see its fans cry “sellout.” Rypka at one point stepped aside to make room for a seasoned CEO, but then he stepped back in to lead a changed company—one that’s poised to become a household name in every part of the country.
In phrasing that many taqueros might take umbrage at, Velvet’s and Torchy’s offerings have been described as “elevated” takes on the taco. What that means exactly differs quite a bit between the two chains, but each offers creative combinations of ingredients and an irreverent brand identity that trades on hedonism. Both have taken large investments—hundreds of millions of dollars—from coastal private-equity firms aiming to grow them into enormous publicly traded companies.
Mexican restaurants are on a tear in the U.S., recording some $50 billion in sales in 2022 and growing by more than 9 percent annually, far outpacing the overall economy, according to food-service consultancy Technomic. Meanwhile, Latinos have grown into the second-largest ethnic group in the country, accounting for roughly 20 percent of the population (and double that in Texas, where they constitute the largest ethnic group). As the U.S. absorbs the effects of changing demographics, opportunities for multiple national taco chains will only increase.
To be sure, other players are scrambling to claim a piece of that emerging mega industry—call it Big Taco—but Velvet and Torchy’s share an important advantage in being headquartered in Dallas and Austin, two of the best places anywhere for building food brands. “Both companies are expected to grow much faster than their competitive set,” says David Henkes, a senior principal with Technomic. It’s not surprising that the future of the taco business is being invented in Texas, but the reason has less to do with the state’s Mexican heritage and 1,200-mile international border and more to do with its proclivity for shrewd business.
Turning tacos into cash has been a Texas tradition since the late nineteenth century. Though tortillas emerged as far back as 10,000 BC, it wasn’t until the eighteenth century, according to the prevailing theory, that a stuffed tortilla became a “taco”—a word that Mexican silver miners also used to describe the little explosive paper-and-gunpowder wraps that they stuck in rock walls. When a group of women who came to be known as the Chili Queens of San Antonio started selling food from pushcarts and colorful stalls in the city’s plazas in or near the 1880s, they ushered in a blending of Mexican and American flavors that grew into Tex-Mex cuisine. Among the dishes that took off as a result—chili con carne, enchiladas, tamales—the taco was the most convenient.
It took a Californian, though, to build the first big brand around the taco. Into a crisp-fried tortilla, Taco Bell founder Glen Bell essentially stuffed a deconstructed cheeseburger—ground beef, iceberg lettuce, and shredded cheese. It was 1962. McDonald’s had revolutionized restaurants just a few years earlier with a quick-service concept that Bell adopted for his chain. By 1978, Taco Bell had nearly one thousand locations—including stores throughout Texas—thanks to an aggressive franchising model also borrowed from McDonald’s. With Mexican food still considered somewhat exotic in much of the United States, Taco Bell didn’t face as much competition as its burger brethren. But after it helped usher tacos into the mainstream, the differences between its food and that of mom-and-pop taquerias suggested an enormous opportunity to build something fresher and more authentic.
Enter Felix Stehling, the owner of a bar called the Crystal Pistol, who opened the first Taco Cabana in a decommissioned Dairy Queen in San Antonio in 1978. While Taco Bell emphasized assembly-line speed and precooked ingredients, Taco Cabana offered house-made tortillas, sizzling fajita plates, and a salsa bar. Taco Cabana’s success prompted a Minnesota entrepreneur to copy its formula almost exactly, in a Houston-based chain called Two Pesos. The resulting trademark lawsuit went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, in 1992. Taco Cabana prevailed and eventually bought Two Pesos. But after Stehling handed the CEO reins to a former Fuddruckers executive, the emphasis on fresh ingredients began to slip, and ultimately, so did sales. The chain, which had at one point expanded to seven states, has 149 locations today, all but six of them in Texas.
As Taco Cabana’s fortunes waned, a new entrant called Chipotle was rising in Colorado with a message about ethically sourced ingredients and an investment from McDonald’s. Chipotle was the first Taco Bell challenger to take a serious bite out of the market. By the time it went public in 2006, the chain had nearly five hundred locations in 21 states. Today it has more than three thousand, compared with Taco Bell’s eight thousand, and hauled in about $10 billion in 2023. By emphasizing the quality and freshness of its food, Chipotle popularized the fast-casual dining concept and ignited an industry revolution, an upscaling of fast food without sacrificing the “fast.” Workers chopped onions and lettuce by hand every day. Customers could see raw chicken being grilled on a flattop in the back of the kitchen. Some Chipotle items—such as carnitas and barbacoa—are prepared in a central kitchen and show up in big plastic bags, but none of it arrives frozen.
Amid the stampede of restaurant concepts that then attempted to re-create the Chipotle phenomenon in countless other formats in the first two decades of this century—burgers, grain bowls, pizzas, salads, sandwiches—Shake Shack stood out. Not only did the chain started by New York fine-dining impresario Danny Meyer create a better burger—a melty pile of guilty pleasures packaged in a spongy potato roll—but it charged two or three times as much as McDonald’s for a meal. While McDonald’s and Chipotle report some $3 million in annual sales per location, Shake Shack pulls in $4 million or more.
Shake Shack also showed how an aggressive private-equity investment could grow a restaurant brand as if it were a tech firm. Leonard Green & Partners, based in Los Angeles, had funded the expansion of other companies, such as the Container Store, based in the Dallas suburb of Coppell. It invested in Shake Shack in 2012, when the company operated only a handful of restaurants, and took it public less than three years later, with 63 locations. By then the goal for investors had shifted from finding the next Chipotle to finding the next Shake Shack—and it did not go unnoticed that in the taco space, there were fewer large competitors than in burgers.
Taco Bell delivered lower annual sales per location—about $1.6 million—than burger chains. And as much as Chipotle had changed the game, its menu emphasized burritos, not tacos. Meanwhile tacos were becoming a national obsession, with tiny trailers turning out Mexican-style street tacos, Netflix commissioning taco shows, and one storied magazine even hiring a dedicated taco editor (ahem, Texas Monthly; ahem, the James Beard Award–winning José R. Ralat).
The door was open for a new taco giant—if it had a novel concept.
There may be no metro area in America with more headquarters of mass-market restaurant chains than Dallas–Fort Worth (though Orlando offers stiff competition). It only makes sense, considering DFW’s low $7.25 minimum wage and dearth of natural or political barriers to suburban development. Chili’s, Cici’s, Which Wich, Wingstop—Big D dining concepts go on and on, their towering signs punctuating the view from North Texas highways while mirrored office buildings just beyond house their executive suites. Before Clay Dover took over as the CEO of Velvet Taco, the company was run by its founder, Randy DeWitt, among the most prolific Dallas restaurateurs.
A former commercial real estate salesman who developed strip centers around Walmarts and other national retailers, DeWitt has arguably passed even the late, legendary Norman Brinker as a restaurant savant. (Brinker brought the world Bennigan’s and Steak and Ale—brands that not only created the casual-dining category and established Dallas’s dominance but also ushered in lasting innovations, such as the salad bar.)
DeWitt, 65 years old with an eye-crinkling smile and a flourishing head of politician hair, first fell in love with restaurants as a bartender in Waco while he was a student at Baylor University. He got his start in Dallas in the nineties with a coffee bar and then a seafood chain called Rockfish, whose expansion was financially backed by Brinker’s company, Brinker International. In 2005, DeWitt came up with the concept for a racy sports bar called Twin Peaks. The now infamous chain, he says, unapologetically, would “do everything better” than breastaurant pioneer Hooters, from its double entendre menu items to the acreage of skin displayed by its all-female waitstaff to the not-so-subtle innuendo in the brand name.
By 2013, Bloomberg described Twin Peaks as the fastest-growing chain in America, and DeWitt was an abundantly wealthy man. He moved a few years ago from exurban Frisco to exclusive Highland Park, where he rebuilt a home to include underground parking, a turret, and various Spanish-inspired architectural details that match those of the glittering Highland Park Village shopping plaza a few steps away.
As his empire took shape, DeWitt determined that his strengths lay in spinning up new restaurant concepts and getting them started, not in operating vast chains. So he built his company, Front Burner Restaurants, as a kind of incubator aimed at selling its creations once they proved viable. At the Ranch at Las Colinas, a Texas-themed restaurant he’d opened in Irving in 2008, he noticed the line cooks were experimenting with tacos at the end of each week, combining unexpected ingredients and feeding the staff. DeWitt began looking forward to tasting their latest creations: a rotisserie chicken taco one night, a shrimp-and-grits taco the next.
Light bulb. He’d seen plenty of new and old taquerias that focused on traditional street tacos or Tex-Mex flavors. But what if he could build a restaurant around the idea of the “liberated taco”? He originally planned to call the chain Taco Libre, but when that name turned out to have been taken by a caterer in California, he settled on Velvet Taco—“implying this is luxury and refined and something more upscale,” he says now. On the menu: a fried-oyster taco (since discontinued), a chicken tikka taco (still the chain’s best-seller), and a smashburger taco that one-ups Taco Bell’s deconstructed cheeseburger by reconstructing it.
For the logo, DeWitt chose a design that evoked a royal medallion. Or perhaps both the name and image slyly evoke a part of the female anatomy that Twin Peaks hadn’t. He has a hard time denying that. “We like playful names,” he says with a shrug, before insisting that any innuendo is accidental.
Clay Dover, boyish at 52, has the ambiguous logo embroidered into nearly every piece of clothing he owns, including shirts he wears out for date nights with his wife. He joined Velvet Taco in 2017, when it operated just four locations—in Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, and Chicago. DeWitt had just sold a majority stake to a private equity group called L. Catterton that’s based in Greenwich, Connecticut, and affiliated with the family of Bernard Arnault, the French luxury kingpin who runs the LVMH conglomerate and regularly trades places with Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos as the world’s wealthiest person.
Before his seven years at Raising Cane’s, Dover led a Dallas restaurant group that owned a passel of once successful chains that had lost their edge—Norm Brinker creations Bennigan’s and Steak and Ale, along with steakhouse rivals Bonanza and Ponderosa. He’d met DeWitt, and they’d talked about working together (though not at Twin Peaks—“My wife would kill me,” Dover says), so he’d watched the early growth of Velvet Taco with great interest. The idea was fresh. It reflected a changing Dallas—and a changing country. The restaurant kept its purple neon lights on until four in the morning, to serve revelers in need of taco therapy before calling it a night. Dover spent a full day and night watching the scene at the Fort Worth location before he agreed to join. “It’s a rockin’ place,” he concluded.
Private equity investors tend to come in two flavors: the ones that strip a company for parts and sell them off and the ones that help a promising brand grow to the next stage before selling it to an industry giant or taking it public. Catterton is the latter, and in the five years that it was the majority owner of Velvet Taco, it expanded the chain from 4 locations to 31—before selling it in late 2021 to another private equity company, Leonard Green & Partners—the same $70 billion fund that took Shake Shack public in 2015.
Velvet’s headquarters occupies 10,000 square feet on the second floor of a building overlooking the Dallas North Tollway. There Dover oversees a staff of several dozen who work on everything from marketing campaigns to real estate development. The business end of a taco brand that aims to conquer the world looks more like a 2010s-era tech startup than your typical taqueria. In the Velvet office, a Ping-Pong table stands amid a row of cubicles near a mural of Marie Antoinette sensually eating a slice of the brand’s signature red velvet cake.
When Dover joined Velvet, he was the sole corporate-level employee; everyone else worked at one of the restaurants. Rather than tinkering with the menu, he took his first year to “understand the brand and what it means to consumers”—which involved developing a kind of handbook of catchy slogans meant to encapsulate the culture and principles of the workplace and the food the company hoped to offer. Out went “temple of the liberated taco,” for instance, and in came “tacos without borders,” a more sensitive phrasing that avoided the suggestion that the taco’s Mexican heritage was somehow holding it back.
Today the corporate team’s priorities are more tangible, including how to maintain quality standards at Velvet’s first airport outpost at Houston Hobby. Self-service touchscreen-order kiosks are another priority, but where to place them in a restaurant is a big debate. It’s one thing to figure out where they’ll get the most use, but will cost savings on labor come with trade-offs? How will average order size change? Will diners be more or less likely to explore the menu?
Perhaps most important, there’s the matter of where to expand. Dover plans for eight more locations in 2024, and then a growth acceleration in 2025. In September, Velvet opened its first restaurant in Florida—in Fort Lauderdale. Arizona is next. At some point they’ll likely expand to Southern California, home to the headquarters of both Chipotle and Taco Bell, along with a million tiny taco stands that measure up just fine against their Texas counterparts.
A team from Velvet that included DeWitt recently spent several days scouting SoCal locations and testing tacos from local chains. One restaurant served “almost exactly the same taco” as Velvet’s popular chicken tikka, DeWitt says with a nervy grin. “We know they were inspired by Velvet Taco. But what are you going to do? I came away reassured that if and when we go to that market—” he stops himself. “I shouldn’t say ‘if.’ When we go to that market, we are going to be very successful.”
On a busy weeknight near the southern end of the hypergentrified South Congress shopping district, in Austin, a steady stream of families and teenagers and a single pair of old South Austin hippie types fill the tables of an architecturally ambitious Torchy’s location designed to evoke a fifties roadside attraction. With a ridged metal roof and a series of bright red X-shaped support structures lining the front, the restaurant functions as something like a flagship location for Torchy’s—its most distinctive building, on Austin’s most iconic avenue. Runners scurry about delivering trays of tacos with names such as the Democrat (brisket, avocado, and onions on a corn tortilla), the Republican (jalapeño-cheddar sausage and pico on flour), the Tipsy Chick, and the Trailer Park, along with beers and ranch waters.
If Velvet Taco is the consummate Dallas chain—from its flashy branding to its corporate lineage—Torchy’s is as Austin as it gets. Rypka’s original Torchy’s trailer anchored a gravel lot just a few blocks from today’s flagship, on a then-scruffy stretch of South First Street across from a ramshackle botanica.
Rypka grew up in the Washington, D.C., suburbs amid the eighties punk scene—an only child of divorce whose dad, a celebrated photojournalist, was living on another continent. He picked up drugs and alcohol by age eight, developed a crack habit by fourteen, and spent two years in and out of rehab before getting clean at seventeen. Less than a year into community college, where he’d hoped to train to become a drug and alcohol counselor, Rypka woke up one night with a bolt of inspiration to drop out and become a chef.
By the time he finished culinary school a couple of years later, he knew all too well how rampant substance abuse was in professional kitchens, so he sought a straitlaced job with a company that ran in-house dining halls for large corporations. He started at the World Bank, in D.C., before working at Enron, in Houston (“I literally served the last supper there,” he says), and then at Dell, where he fell in love with Austin and decided to stay. Then an opportunity arose to repurpose a friend’s old barbecue trailer.
In 2006 food trucks were still a novel concept, but Rypka envisioned a path from those humble beginnings to a proper restaurant or even a small chain. He just needed the kind of bold flavors that make a lasting impression. From his World Bank days, where he’d run a food court with stations representing various global regions, he’d developed a wide palette of preparations to experiment with. And when he took a tour of Texas taco joints to assess the competition—in San Antonio, in the Rio Grande Valley, in Houston and Dallas and the east side of Austin—he saw his opportunity. “They were all good, but they were kind of in the same genre,” he says. “They weren’t doing anything to sort of flip it on its head.”
Authenticity wasn’t what he was after; he was a suburban East Coast white guy with a creative streak, so he built a menu accordingly. “Not everybody in the world uses serrano peppers the same way they use them in Central America,” he says, “so you can take ingredients like that and do fun things with them. Our playground is kind of limitless when it comes to food.” Each month Torchy’s offers a different limited-time special. Its first was the Trailer Park, which put hunks of fried chicken in the starring role, alongside pico de gallo and green chiles. Ordering it “trashy” style meant dousing it in queso, turning it into a celebration of gluttony that would make Guy Fieri proud. It was a home run that soon joined the regular menu.
The early years of Torchy’s coincided with the peak of Austin’s capitalizing on its “weird” image. The city hadn’t fully succumbed to the forces of Big Tech, and it still represented a kind of laid-back lifestyle mecca, even if the old-timers were already fearing a corporate takeover. Torchy’s fit right in, with graffiti-inspired bubble letters in the logo and a little red devil mascot flanked by the words “Damn Good.” Austin was a party town, and this was indulgent party food. With taco names like the since-discontinued Dirty Sanchez (a reference to . . . well, you can look it up), it also flirted with the bounds of decency (or gleefully trampled right over them).
After the taco trailer took off, Rypka opened a brick-and-mortar shop down the street, and then another location, and another, and by 2010 the chain had expanded to Dallas. Torchy’s hadn’t just drafted on Austin’s vibe; it had become something of an Austin icon itself, popular enough that even then-president Obama stopped at the South First restaurant on his way downtown from the airport before attending an event in 2016. The company had just opened its first location outside Texas, in Denver. The world awaited.
Rypka, who shaves his head and road trips in a lowrider Volkswagen bus, tells his story in a hexagonal sitting room that juts off the back of his three-story home built into the side of a steep slope above Lake Austin. In the past decade plus, the start-up boom that accompanied Austin’s explosive growth transcended tech and began to turn out trendy new consumer brands. Some of these have blown up into international icons—Kendra Scott, Tecovas, Yeti—but most of the restaurant chains born in the capital—including another beloved taco shop, Tacodeli—have remained local or regional cult phenomena.
In the far more populous Dallas–Fort Worth area, by contrast, where new chain eateries can draw from a large pool of back-office talent with deep industry experience, growing quickly by running a proven playbook is more readily achievable, even if the results don’t always inspire a passionate following.
As Torchy’s began to expand beyond Texas and exceeded forty restaurants, it needed money to fund its next phase. General Atlantic, a New York–based private equity group, bought “a significant minority stake” in 2017—and three years later added to its stake with a $400 million second investment. Among the first moves when GA came on board was to bring in the professionals—big-time executives with big-time experience who could turn Rypka’s promising little project into a global giant.
Rypka stepped aside, while G. J. Hart, who had most recently served as the CEO of California Pizza Kitchen, took over. Hart had made his name in the industry overseeing the expansion of Texas Roadhouse from $63 million to more than $1 billion in annual revenue. (Texas Roadhouse, alas, is not a Texas brand; it’s based in Louisville, Kentucky.) During Hart’s four years in charge, the Torchy’s restaurant count shot up from 45 to 96, even though the COVID-19 pandemic decimated the office lunch rush and dine-in traffic in general.
Meanwhile, Rypka, who had been eager for a break from the business, grew frustrated by what he regarded as the new management’s unforced errors. Some of the new expansion cities, he felt, were questionable choices. “They’d pick markets where Roadhouse did well,” he says. Shreveport, Louisiana. Wichita, Kansas. “But we’re not at all the same customer as Roadhouse—which is a pretty blue-collar, red-state type of deal. I mean, I’m not afraid to say that we’re a f—ing liberal brand. You know what I mean?”
The corporate playbook that might make sense when Torchy’s has hundreds of locations didn’t work for a brand that was still relatively unknown outside Texas and Colorado, Rypka reasoned. Bloomberg reported in early 2021 that the chain was exploring an initial public offering that would value it at $1 billion in its stock market debut. But by the end of that year, the IPO had failed to materialize, some of the new locations were underperforming, and the staff at headquarters had ballooned to nearly two hundred. Hart stepped down.
Tired of what he terms “farting around at the lake,” Rypka returned as CEO with a newfound energy and focus. The company needed to get scrappy and entrepreneurial again, and that was his comfort zone. “I always do better when things are a little bit on fire,” he says. He laid off 65 employees at headquarters, closed three restaurants (including the two in Wichita), and started upgrading some ingredients— making fresh tortillas in the restaurants, for example. Now, from a one-story, metal-sided headquarters building in East Austin, he’s back to fanning out across the country, this time aiming to expand to cities such as Atlanta, Chicago, Nashville—and his old haunt, D.C.
It’s hard not to notice that the founders of both Torchy’s and Velvet Taco are non-Hispanic white men. So are the industry-veteran CEOs each company hired. So was the founder of Taco Bell. And the founders of two long-established, Texas-based Taco Bell copycats: Abilene-born Taco Bueno and Fort Worth’s Taco Casa. And the founder of Irving-based Fuzzy’s Taco Shop, a fast-growing franchise that’s aimed at a lower-priced tier of the market than Torchy’s and Velvet. Add Chipotle and California-based Del Taco to the list, for that matter, and on down through the ranks of Big Taco giants and aspirants.
Even the founder of San Antonio–born Taco Cabana fit the Anglo profile—and if there’s one large city in Texas that ought to be the birthplace of a Latino-founded taco giant, it’s San Antonio. Taco Palenque, which began in Laredo and has started to spread north into other parts of Texas, is an exception [see sidebar], but so far, it’s still a regional play. (Its founder, Juan Francisco Ochoa Sr., also started California-based El Pollo Loco.)
The taco has become as much an American staple as pizza, so it’s not surprising that its mass-market brands reflect corporate America’s boardrooms more than the culture that gave rise to the food in the first place. As Texas Monthly’s taco editor, José R. Ralat, puts it, “I’m not going to say that so-and-so shouldn’t open a business because it might represent cultural appropriation. But it’s worth noting that a popular food is always going to attract the type of entrepreneurs who already have the wealth or connections to gain access to investor meetings or consultants. And who is that? Not an immigrant.”
Ralat notes that Taco Cabana might be the one chain that historically “got it right”—by which he means emphasizing fresh ingredients, at least at first. Some of its locations still do an excellent job, he maintains, such as the one near where he lives, in the Oak Cliff section of Dallas. But the chain’s history is a cautionary tale, as it eventually prioritized growth over maintaining its standards. It became a publicly traded company, beholden to shareholders above all. Then it was acquired by a large New York–based restaurant group, then spun off into another outfit, the Dallas-based Fiesta Restaurant Group. Over the past several years, Taco Cabana’s sales plunged 20 percent, and the chain closed 23 restaurants. Now it’s poised to grow again, but with a new risk factor.
Taco Cabana was purchased in 2021 by a company called Yadav Enterprises, a Northern California–based operator of hundreds of franchise locations of Denny’s, Jack in the Box, TGI Fridays, and a few other brands. Franchising is a risky business model but a common one in the fast-food industry. It can enable rapid expansion because the franchisees—independent operators who buy the rights to open locations—take on the financial burden of building out new markets. But no matter how stringent a chain makes the process and guidelines for its franchisees, it inevitably loses some control over quality and branding.
Franchising tends to work best with the simplest operations, such as Taco Bell—or more recently, Fuzzy’s, where a whopping 98 percent of its more than one hundred locations are franchises. Anil Yadav, the owner of Taco Cabana’s new parent company, announced that he hoped to expand the chain to one thousand locations all over the country—naturally, by franchising.
Both Velvet Taco’s Clay Dover and Torchy’s founder Mike Rypka say they understand the hard realities of the franchise model and vow to keep their chains growing at a more measured pace, with the companies owning every location they open—much as Shake Shack and Chipotle have done. “We’re going to keep it real tight and ‘core’ because we want to maintain the control,” Dover explains. “The details, the quality of the ingredients, the prep that goes into things ahead of time—it’s hard to go, ‘Hey, we’re just going to whip out fifty of these.’ ”
As Torchy’s and Velvet continue their national expansions, they will bump up against other challengers. Ohio-based Condado, for instance, has locations in several Midwest and Southeast states, with a creative-tacos concept that sits roughly at the culinary midpoint between those of Torchy’s and Velvet, with Korean gochujang sauce and Thai chiles mixed in among more traditional Mexican American flavors. Florida-based Capital Taco has begun selling franchises to operators in other states eager to serve its self-described “Tex-Mex” menu that oddly includes a cheesesteak taco and something called the South Beach Hot Chicken.
At some point, the word “taco” can become a questionable description of the items on these menus. Velvet, for instance, serves a chicken-and-waffle taco that involves fried chicken wrapped in, you guessed it, a waffle, topped with maple syrup; it makes Taco Bell’s Doritos Cheesy Gordita Crunch taco look like a Oaxacan street-food classic. “The tortilla is just the vessel,” Dover told me one afternoon over a tableful of his tacos. “You can do anything you want”—including, apparently, replacing the tortilla.
In any case, the caliber of investors and number of dollars that have backed Torchy’s and Velvet make it obvious to anyone in the restaurant industry that they’re onto something big. “Tacos Are Poised to Take Over Fast Casual,” the trade publication Restaurant Business declared last year. Can Torchy’s or Velvet ever equal Taco Bell’s 8,000 stores? Not a chance, say the leaders of both companies. The menus are simply too complicated to work in that many locations, because lower-traffic spots just wouldn’t be able to turn a profit—whereas Chipotle and Taco Bell can because they require far fewer ingredients and employees. But 1,000 Torchy’s restaurants, or 1,500? “That’s the fully mature version, yeah,” Rypka says.
Early in a restaurant chain’s growth, the executives will choose expansion locations based largely on gut instinct and what’s available. But at a certain point, companies begin to rely on real estate consultants who weigh a complicated matrix of factors. A Taco Cabana might make sense in a Walmart parking lot, for instance, whereas a Torchy’s or Velvet works better in the shadow of a Target. They look at satellite images to understand whether an area’s crowds coincide with a chain’s top selling hours. They look at cellular data to profile demographics that match a chain’s strong suits. At Velvet Taco, a concentration of Indian Americans is a positive indicator—perhaps explaining the popularity of the chicken tikka taco, Dover suggests.
When all of those factors come together, sometimes the result is a Torchy’s and a Velvet sharing the same parking lot. In Lubbock, in a shopping center one short block from the campus of Texas Tech University, the two direct competitors sit not one hundred yards apart, with nothing but a Potbelly Sandwich Shop between them. In North Dallas, Torchy’s and Velvet occupy kitty-corner strip malls at the intersection of Preston Road and Forest Lane. The future of Big Taco might not be Torchy’s or Velvet, but both.