addicted

This week I am addicted to:

• Google everything
• GMail - LOVE, LOVE, LOVE
• GTalk - I need more people to get on this so I can waste time at work.
• GoogleReader - I have stopped reading my Bloglines account because GoogleReader is sooo much more efficient. They just rolled out this new thing where it gives you statistics on how often you read your feeds, which feeds haven't updated, etc. It's perfect for my nonstop quest for information overload. I can tag the posts I like, star the ones I want to read later, even share them if I want on a separate page for other people to use. (Not that I've used that feature.)
  
• GoogleNotebook - I just started using this seriously today, as a to-do list. It's easier than using the Google Homepage, which I find overly fussy.
• rice crackers - I just bought some over at the Nijiya Market in San Mateo. It rocks - not only does it have all my required snacks, it contains a ton of unfamiliar vegetables and fresh sashimi and mochi ice cream. The Bay Area does not get better than this!
  
• crossword puzzles - I am in the middle of reading an Umberto Eco book, and I can't help it; the book is not that compelling, so I read a chapter or two and then finish the rest of the train ride with the crossword puzzle book.
  
• stationery - I wrote a few cards to people. You know what I'm really tempted to do? I'm tempted to make up one of those holiday letters that normal suburban people send out to everyone on their address book telling them what happened over the year. Mark got a couple from some family friends, and they are so cheery! Stuff like "I got elected president of the local photography club" and "we toilet-trained our kid really early and let me tell you it was tough!" I don't know why, but I find it adorable. It's not like we hear from them otherwise, but it's just nice to hear from people. Also, Daiso, a Japanese discount store just opened in the Serramonte Center, which means that there is more cute stationery waiting for me.
  
• good food - I finally convinced Mark to stop shopping at Safeway for our produce and start shopping at Lunardi's, which has more expensive stuff, but is way, way, way fresher than anything we get at Safeway. I don't really have anything against Safeway; it's just that Safeway, despite its attempts to compete with places like Whole Foods and Trader Joe's by stocking nicer stuff, has an awful produce section. Both of us are trying to eat healthier, but we kept finding that we would waste a whole week's worth of mushrooms if we didn't eat them all in three days. With Lunardi's produce, we could keep stuff up to two weeks, because everything was much fresher, even the non-organic stuff. So maybe we're actually saving money in the end.
• askMeFi - I am fascinated by a lot of the questions asked here - ranging from the blunt "How do I tell my wife she's fat?" to the more whimsical "What's the deal with French book spines?" to the philosophical "Why should I follow the news?" - there's always something of interest. And occasionally I find something that helps me.