Chocolat

A while ago, my friend Jen from Virginia had a little contest up on her blog. It was a guess-the-date-and-weight-of-the-new-baby contest. If you guessed closest, she promised to send chocolate! Mmmmmmmm.... Well, I guess I got closest on the weight--and so she sent me a most fantastic care package! Not only did she send me the promised Dove Dark Chocolate, but she sent me TWO packages of it! AND a whole ENTIRE box of Ho-Ho's, AND a package of Oreos!!!! Well, lately, my little friend has decided to turn up the heat. I am now to that point where it feels roughly 400 degrees hotter to me than to everyone else. So I have taken up a new pastime! I keep my wonderful box of chocolate goodness downstairs in the big pantry where I keep on an air conditioner 24/7--it is by far the coldest room in the house all the time, just for the storage of the food. So, while the kids are busy playing, I go downstairs, pull out a package of Ho-Ho's or a few Dove Dark, pull up a big white food storage bucket and sit right where the cold air from the air conditioner blows and drift off to another world for a time! Oh, it is so wonderful!!!! I get cooled off and enjoy a special treat just for me! :) Tonight, though, I broke out the Oreos!! I opened up the package and inhaled that wonderful Oreo smell...then I pulled one out, bit into it, and--get this--it was CRUNCHY!!!!! See, I've bought Oreos from the commissary here, but EVERYTHING at the commissary is WAY past the expiration date. One doesn't usually notice, because, well, quite frankly, it's just nice to have American stuff once in awhile, and after not having it for such a long time, you forget what it's really supposed to taste like when it's fresh!! But, after that first bite of FRESH Oreo cookie, well, I can never go back! :) I feel even more spoiled than usual--and Jen, MERCI MILLE FOIS!!!!!!