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.

Best regards,
Bob