Fruits and Vegetables

first, continued from yesterday:

Called the doctor's office at 10:30 to speak to Yoni about this bill.  I was told Yoni won't be in until 11:30.  I am ready to start taking bets for A) will Yoni ever show up today  B) If she does show up, is she going to be able to help me?  I'll just wait till 11:30 and try again.  I called and got to speak to Yoni, who told me to call the anesthesiologists billing department and tell them they have to accept my insurance payment as payment in full.  I call and speak to the Account manager, Bill, and what do you know, he pulled up both our accounts and made the notation that we owe nothing.  Nice to know things go right once in a while (but let me knock on wood!).

Fruits and Vegetables...

Meanwhile on to other important matters...fruits and vegetables.  Usually, every summer, there is no shortage of delicious fruits and vegetables here in NYC and at very reasonable prices too.  This summer has been the absolute pits!  First of all, my favorite summer fruit is cherries.  I was able to get a couple of pounds of quality cherries ONE time this summer, around mid July.  All the other cherries I saw were overpriced and awful looking.  Strawberries and blueberries were pretty decent, but you have to inspect the boxes very closely.  Mixed in with the good ones are fuzzy, mold riddled berries.  The grapes were great for a short period of time, nice, big juicy and sweet.  Then they got smaller and more sour!  You never get what you pay for.  The peaches were the best fruit of the summer.  They were sweey and juicy, but as soon as summer ended so did their reign; they got drier and a stringy texture inside.  Green peppers ugh!  I can never seem to find decent green peppers any more.  I used to make stuffed peppers, but now all I can do is find the best of what is offered, throw out the bad parts and cut up what's left to make with onions for pizza toppings or with sausage.  There are many days I walk into the vegetable store, have a look around and walk out in disgust.  There are two stores near me, one is supposedly organic, but the quality is still the same.  Maybe next year I will have to drive out to the farmstands and buy fresh grown fruits and vegetables.  It's kind of far, but it may be well worth the trip!