There was still a lot of time to kill, nearly two hours, so 
we cleverly took a couple wrong turns despite her having
visited this Costco probably half a hundred times, it being
across the road from her doctors' office building.

As usual, the parking lot was full, but as happens since the
epidemic started, the store was nowhere near capacity, which
makes one wonder.

I just wanted meat; she had other agendas that ended up taking
a fair amount of time. In the Choice section were some of the
largest briskets (up to 20 lb) and tri-tips (up to I think 5)
I've ever seen. The tri-tips were $7.99/lb, a bit high, but
Lilli instructed me to pick one up, but I noticed that beautiful
marbled Choice sirloin strip steaks were available in 4-packs for 
the same price (per pound and per package!), and so I held out 
for one of those, and so it was.

She had this bee in her bonnet about shortcake and went in search 
of strawberries (found) and pound cake (not found). The latter 
I'd tasted and deemed mediocre at best, but she likes them and 
noted that they were cheaper here than making them yourself, the 
kind of argument that sways me. So she marched up to the in-house
bakery and asked the help, who gave her the (un)welcome news
that the product had been discontinued.

On the way to finding coffee and cleaning supplies, we walked 
past the motor oil department, where they were well stocked with 
0W-20 and 5W-30. Whoa, thought I. Back in my day, I thought
people were cautioned to get thick oil in the summer, and in
southern California even the winter can be summer, so who's 
going to put 0W-20 into anything down here. Maybe it was a 
shipment destined for Anchorage or someplace that somehow got
misdirected.

There were enticing deals on Scrubbing Bubbles in bulk, and as the 
cleaning lady had recently used all the Clorox bathroom cleaner, 
we got some. Note: all the brands now trumpet Kills up to 99.9% 
of germs. Guess what - so will plain old soap and water.

Being out of things to do, and as it was nearing rush hour in
earnest, we headed home to find that the cleaning lady had 
recently left, thank goodness. There was still some gukka on
the floors and in the carpets, but the bathrooms smelled like
cleaner. My bathroom smelled worse than Lilli's.

Still being parched, I opened the strawberries and found them
distinctly subpar, some smashed, some just bruised, some okay.
I tasted one and found it decent but recommended that as it would
double the effective cost to pick out the good ones, it should go
back, which Lilli did next day between doctor appointments.

-
We sucky bagged a couple of the steaks, I put one on to age for
when we got back next week, and I cooked one. It was thick enough,
as are most Costco steaks, to stand on end, so all the edges could
get properly cooked without doing the faces more than rare. Superb. 
A giant potato nuked for her, and life was good. By the way, she
continues to buy huge potatoes despite eating less than half of
one, which leaves me with the responsibility of not wasting food,
causing me to eat more carbs than I am comfortable with. The
remaining half potato and its skin await my ministrations when we
get back in a few days.

Dessert - ice cream, of course, the choices being Stater's Rocky
Road and Kirkland "super premium" vanilla. The problem with
Kirkland is that it used to be branded Humboldt, and I enjoyed it
a lot, but now, despite being very close in appearance and being
in the same kind of carton, it says Kirkland, and I fear that
corners are being cut - the vanilla flavor is bland and awkward,
the texture is gummy rather than rich. Lately I have been choosing
the alternative whenever an alternative is available. Stater is a
reliably average house brand, the Rocky Road having substantial
quantities of almonds and marshmallows in your generic chocolate
base; Lilli slathers Hershey's syrup all over it (and over the
Kirkland as well).