Today is Valentine's Day. What better way to celebrate than to drive to the Army base in Daegu and eat at Taco Bell! I'm romantic like that. Actually, Carol and I are not into Valentine's Day at all. We don't need a commercialized day with overpriced chocolates and roses to show our affection to each other. We try to go to the base about once a month to stock up on groceries at the Commissary and grab household items at the Exchange. The base also has the best price for gas.
Our trips to Daegu are usually an all day affair. It's about a two hour drive each way, traffic dependent. We'll arrive around lunchtime, eat some Taco Bell, Burger King or Subway and then do some shopping at the Exchange. Next is the gas station and then on to the Commissary. Exciting stuff I know. One of the best parts though is just having the four of us together in the car talking about whatever is on our minds - that's four hours of good family quality time. You can't beat that with a stick.
Here are some pics from a typical trip to Daegu:
Valentine's Day at Taco Bell. Whooh! Mexican food isn't that prevalent here in Korea, not that Taco Bell is real Mexican food. Jake is licking the sour cream off the lid of the sour cream container. We once caught Jake eating spoonfuls of sour cream at home. On another occasion, he was eating butter straight up like it was candy. Tonight, CJ caught Jake eating toothpaste. One of our parenting goals now is to make sure Jake doesn't end up on the Biggest Loser. 
Sometimes CJ and I chill out in the car while Carol shops for groceries in the Commissary. We get some guy time in like this. Today we talked about girls in CJ's class and what it's gonna be like being a teenager. I also told him what a BFNR is. 
Sometimes Jake knocks out on the ride home from Daegu. When he woke up today, he really had to go to the bathroom. Since there was nowhere to stop, we broke out an empty water bottle for him to tinkle in. Coincidentally, as he was tinkling, there was an old Korean man on the side of the road peeing in the bushes. 
It's always an adventure lugging our stockpile of groceries from the garage to our apartment on the 29th floor. It usually takes a couple of trips on the elevator. Koreans usually buy groceries in small quantities. Not us! We buy the motherload of groceries once or twice a month. Our neighbors probably think we're crazy. We've learned to load the groceries up in boxes and then place them on the baby stroller that we don't use anymore. I usually end up carrying the ice cooler of cold foods. The grocery runs make the Cruz's feel like camels, donkeys or other beasts of burden.
During one camel run, I was overzealous in loading up the baby stroller. Carol told me I had put too many groceries on the thing, but did I listen to her? No. The groceries came crashing down to the floor. Dumb man that I am, I tried to reload two more times and the groceries came crashing down two more times. Carol gave me that look. You know, the Fred G. Sanford, "You Big Dummy!" look.
My Valentine's present for Carol this year? I didn't bust up any groceries today. Until the next camel run -- C2
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