weekend recap

Saturday evening, we had dinner over at the Plambecks in Issaquah along with Matt and Asayo. It was like...a real adult-like dinner in the sense that Suzanne went all out with great appetizers (like apricots topped with goat cheese and roasted pistachios) and serving delicious grilled shrimp and rack of lamb with arugula pesto. It was great to catch up and also see their kids, Matthew and Thomas, who are quite energetic lil' boys! We walked in around 7pm with the 2 boys running around like crazy and yelling...Chris turned to us and said "this is what it's like every day I come home from work. It's insane!" Ha Ha. Anyhow, great evening.

Today, we headed over to Pierre's for a Superbowl get together. He and Matt Joe went all out with a meal fit for carnivores: cocktail shrimp, pate, beef tri-tips, and a delicious pork rack of ribs. The game was crazy exciting to watch even though it ended with a shocking upset (not surprisingly, the Sousa household is a Pats one). I have to admit--even though I'm not really one to watch football, my eyes were very much glued to the TV in those last 5 minutes of the game. My jaw dropped when the Giants made that touchdown with only 30-something seconds left. I couldn't believe it...I thought for sure the Pats had it. Boo.

Tonight, I decided to try out Amazon Fresh. We had talked about the service a little bit over at the Plambecks and it peaked my curiosity. It's a little odd for me to use this service considering we're all of 1 block away from the nearest QFC. I guess it saves the hassle of waiting in line at the store. I can't really tell how comparable the prices are--one savings was that Amazon paid for the sales tax, which was super cool. The delivery is tomorrow morning so we'll see how it all turns out. Meanwhile, I'll comment on my first shopping experience thus far---first the good:

• As mentioned, they pay for the sales tax. It seemed to be an "introductory period" sort of thing so I don't know how long this will last. For the mean time though, I like it
• Delivery is free after spending $50 -- that's because I need to have an in-person type of delivery living in a secured access condo; otherwise, if they could drop it off, the price point for free delivery would drop. Either way, this wasn't hard to reach as there were a ton of things I could buy.
• Overall, site usability was great. Adding items to the cart didn't require a refresh of the page.
• Explanation of the potentially-confusing delivery service was clear.
• I liked how after I made my purchase, I could keep adding to my order if I wanted to. This made it convenient when a couple hours later, I remembered something else I wanted that cost maybe $2. It was nice to just add it to my existing order.
• I think the prices are fairly comparable.
• Decent selection...reminded me of what I could get at QFC but not at Whole Foods.
• It seemed somewhat hooked to my Amazon.com account in that it automatically pulled in my credit card information when I checked out. That was convenient.

Things I would like to see:

• Better selection of cheese. I mean, I want a Whole Foods sort of selection. That's part of the reason I go to Whole Foods.
• No wine. Boo.
• The ethnic food section sucked. I looked at Asian foods and it was the basic run-of-the-mill Joyce Chen type of stuff. I'd be impressed if this went beyond the QFC selection.
• I wish I could buy things in bulk, like my cereal or paper goods.
• I wish it would list the price breakdown based on unit (i.e. $0.57/oz.) so I could comparison shop
• Why not add reviews? Good way to expose myself to new foods...especially the deli or pre-prepared meals from Amazon Fresh.
• I'd like to see Nutrition Information since I often look at that when grocery shopping.