Is this a quiz?

As I had mentioned previously, James and I are in the process of slowly converging our belongings. He doesn't have much in his house, other than the TV, fish tank, and couches, and the decorations that are already hanging on the walls were mine to begin with.

If it were up to him he would continue living like this, because, hey, if it ain't broke... right? Well, maybe I'm just a little bit fussy but I do enjoy some style every now and then. I like things hanging on the walls. I like the house to look more like a house and less like a campsite. But then again, that's just me.

So we took the day, yesterday, to peruse some furniture stores and hardware stores, getting ideas for the living room, guest bedroom, office, and bathrooms. There will be a lot of construction going on in the next two months, and hopefully it will all be completed by the time I actually take up living there.

We also took some times yesterday to go to the grocery store. That, alone, is a task. James doesn't visit the grocery store very often, again, if it ain't broke...

He needed some basic items like paper towels, laundry detergent, garbage bags, etc. We have gone to the store together before, mostly when we needed one or two items to make something specific for dinner, but I don't think we had ever been to get non-food items together. This was a learning experience.

He made a list, of course, before we left the house. It had a number of things on it... garbage bags, drano, scrubbing bubbles, fabric softener, built in entertainment center, and copper band butterfly fish... to name a few. Walmart only has a few of those things, so we started there first.

We walked through all of the aisles. He would point something out and ask if he had it or not. Since I had spent the day before cleaning around his house I knew what was there and what wasn't. 

I have mentioned before that James is very particular. He likes things a certain way and he likes to do things a certain way.  Grocery shopping is apparently one of those things. 

I live by the motto that, "Done is better than perfect", James, on the other hand, strongly believes, "Perfect or it isn't done". This is where most of our trouble comes from.

So we walked through the aisles... pulling things off the shelves, crossing them off the list... and it wasn't too much of a problem... until we get to the garbage bags.

"Do you know what size garbage bag I need?"

"Is this a quiz?"

"No. I just don't know what size I need."

So I grabbed some standard kitchen garbage bags and tossed them into the cart. No biggie. Paper towels are another issue though.

We stood in the paper towel aisle for a solid 12 minutes. He walked from one brand to the other... comparing prices, thickness of the roll, and pattern. This was serious. I have never debated about paper towels before. 

"This one says it is six rolls, but it is thicker than those six rolls... and these ones tear off in smaller sheets... Is this a good brand?

"They are paper towels."

Finally, after a long debate, I selected some regular plain white paper towels for him and we were able to move on. We grabbed some laundry detergents and dryer sheets, some cleaning supplies, and then we got to the furnace filters.

"Do you know what size furnace filter the house uses?

"Is this a quiz?"

"Yes."

So, needless to say, we spent a good portion of our errand running debating in the grocery store aisles. We visited many couches and bedroom sets, tables and bookcases but wound up empty handed. We sat in the aisles of TJ Maxx for about 30 minutes looking at cookie sheets. We pondered over pots and pans but ended up without.