"zxcvbob" > wrote in message
...
> The 5 pounds of sausages I ordered from Green's Sausage House in
> Zabcikville, Texas arrived today!
>
> Warning: Long disjointed story ahead, but it all ties together
> eventually.
>
> Before moving to Minnesota, I used to live in Temple, Texas (about 15
> miles from the tiny little town of Zabcikville.)
>
> Green's is the local Czech grocery store/restaurant/bakery/butcher
> shop in Zabcikville. We would occasionally drive out there for the
> best kolaches in Texas -- perhaps the best in the world. After we
> moved to Minnesota, my brother in Houston once drove all the way to
> Zabcikville (about 350 miles round trip) just to buy one of Green's
> country hams.
>
> In July of this year, DD and I took a 5000+ mile road trip; we went to
> Houston to visit with grandparents, then all over the Great Southwest.
> We saw the Rocky Mountains, Grand Canyon, southern Utah national
> parks, and Yellowstone. On the way from Houston to Colorado, we
> stopped in Zabcikville and got ate some fresh kolaches and bought some
> sausages for the trip. We also stopped in Temple and I showed DD the
> house where we lived when she was a baby and where DD's big sister
> that she doesn't really remember had lived until she died at the age
> of 3.
>
> The sausages were really good, and a kind I had never had before.
> They were about 6" links, fully cooked, with tiny cubes of jalapeno
> jack cheese mixed in. I only bought a pound of them, and that plus a
> loaf of bread is about all we ate for several days.
>
> After we got back home, I was talking to my dad about the trip and I
> mentioned that we'd stopped at Green's and ate kolaches and bought
> some sausages for the trip. He asked if we got the wieners, you know,
> those really good wieners that the sell. Whenever anyone mentions
> Green's he goes on and on about the great wieners there.
>
> [jump ahead about 4 or 5 months]
>
> I was trying to figure out what to get my parents from Christmas, and
> it dawned on me. I'll get them a ham from Green's! I mentioned it to
> Wife and to DD and they both thought it was a good idea -- but later
> DD (who has a lot more sense than I do sometimes) said that a ham is
> nice gift, but not really a good *surprise* gift, in case they had
> plans already for Christmas and/or New Years dinner. So I called my
> dad and asked if it would be OK if I bought them a ham from Green's
> and had it shipped to them. He said, "you don't have to do that, we
> were thinking about driving out to Temple and buying a ham" (My dad
> *hates* to drive; is almost phobic about it since he retired because
> the traffic was so bad for his long commute when he was working) Then
> he started going on and on about the wieners again. Eventually we got
> back to the ham, and he agreed that I could buy him a ham. I asked
> what size and he said "Medium. They'll know what size I want." We
> talked about other things, and at the end of the call he wanted to
> make sure that I was getting him a ham -- otherwise he was gonna have
> to go get one, but he didn't want to accidently end up with two.
>
> Last week I called Green's and asked about the hams. They pretty much
> just have one size; they don't sell half hams, just whole ones, maybe
> 16 pounds (but that makes it easy, you don't have to decide between a
> shank and a butt.) I told them to pick a smaller one because a whole
> ham was a lot for 3 people. I also told him to send a couple of
> pounds of those wieners (Mr. Green know which ones I was talking
> about), and a couple of pounds of the jalapeno picnic links that DD
> and I had gotten on our journey. Then I ordered 3 pounds of the
> picnic links and 2 pounds of the wieners for myself. Did I mention
> that they just got here today? They taste just like camping in
> southern Colorado.

I loved your story Thank you for sharing