“Keep cool. Never freeze.” — Warning on Mayonnaise Bottle
Wednesday, May 09, 2007
Grocery Line Awareness
Maybe I need to start a new category of posts called “pet peeves”. I could go on for a long time about grocery lines. Like when there are none when you enter the store, but every line is backed up 5 deep when you are ready to leave. Or, how no matter which line I get in, it will be the slowest—even if I change.
But my biggest pet peeve about grocery store lines is when I have 2 or 3 items, I go to the express checkout, and the person in front of me has completely forgotten they need to pay. YOU HAVE TO PAY BEFORE LEAVING, FOLKS! Inevitably, I get behind someone who decides to write a check. Their balance is $2.40, but they want to write a check. And, do they start writing their check while their groceries are being checked out? No. The checker runs all their groceries over the scanner—which might take 15 seconds on an express lane—and then announces the total. THEN the lady in front of me decides to open her purse, scratch around for a while, recover her check book, scratch around some more to find a pen, then meticulously fills in the check (which can be done while standing in line, folks), finally signs it, and hands it over. Then, she has to go searching for ID…
Today, the lady was paying with cash, but she had forgotten her glasses. Again, she waits until the total is announced before opening and scratching around in her purse, finally finds her wallet, then has to hold each bill within 1/2-inch of her face to determine its size. IT IS $2.40, LADY! Just hand the checker a bill and hope for the best.
Posted under: Stuff You Gotta Know! • by Rick on 05/09/2007 at 03:25 PM
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Sunday, February 11, 2007
Men’s Problems
Last night, watching TV, we noticed an unusual amount of advertisements for drug companies. I’m not sure how I feel about drugs being advertised on TV, I think they may create more illness than they cure. Anyway, we sat through commercial after commercial and they all seemed to be about men who pee too much, or men who can’t pee enough, or men who have erectile disfunction.
And, it occurred to me that we men must have problems going and coming…
Posted under: Stuff You Gotta Know! • by Rick on 02/11/2007 at 06:36 AM
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Thursday, January 11, 2007
11 January
We got our first official snow of the season yesterday—a brief flurry that left only a trace of precipitation. At least it was acknowledged as a snow event by the weather service. This is the latest snowfall that has occurred since the weather service started keeping records in 1878.
Posted under: New Jersey • Stuff You Gotta Know! • by Rick on 01/11/2007 at 07:00 AM
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Wednesday, January 03, 2007
3rd January
Back to work yesterday. I’d been keeping up with my email and had gone in for a couple of short days last week. So, the “catch up” work was not too bad. Just a bunch of emails to follow-up on, a few phone calls, and some work in preparing for future meetings and presentations. January is going to be a busy month.
At the the first of the year it is so easy to be optimistic and it provides a good excuse to start some things and stop other things. I’ve decided to clean myself up some at work—so I got a haircut and plan to wear something other than jeans every day. Of course, that means I need a shopping trip to the mall, which I may do today or tomorrow. It is also a time to look at the family finances, see if we are on our plans, how are our investments doing, and thinking of ways we can accelerate the sale of our home in Fort Collins. I need to lose weight and start exercising, but don’t see much of either in my future.
I also need to finish unpacking in the basement, put up shelves, assemble my workshop, etc. I have a goal of having all that done within a year of moving—so I’ve still got until the 1st of May, but was planning on using the weekends in Winter for those chores. After all, it was to be dark and cold and snowy outside. However, NJ has just had the second warmest December in recorded history and the first December since 1877 that no snow fell.
I guess we’ll get started on the chore of tearing down Christmas tonight. What a mess. Lynne had the house decorated so nicely, but it needs to go. Then, we’ll probably sit down to a couple of episodes of 24. We never watched the show until we got the 1st season on DVD. We are now about half-way through season 2 and I think Lynne bought season 3. It would be nice to catch up and watch it live—although, being able to watch 2 or 3 episodes back-to-back is nice since every episode ends in a cliff-hanger.
Leftover stuffed chicken breasts last night were delicious, and we’ll finish up the leg of lamb from New Year’s Day tonight.
Posted under: Stuff You Gotta Know! • by Rick on 01/03/2007 at 07:36 AM
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Monday, January 01, 2007
1st January
It has been a lazy, foggy, wet New Year’s Day. I started a batch of Camembert cheese, but we’ve done nothing else I had hoped we’d do—like taking down decorations. We finally built a fire mid-afternoon, although it is really not necessary. It adds to the ambiance, but we don’t need the heat! I smoked up the house pretty good, but Lynne (fire woman) rescued us and we now have a cozy fire. It has been a day of video-gaming with each of us making some progress in our games.
We watched a little of the Rose Parade, but it has become so commercialized and self-serving that we stopped. We got tired of hearing about upcoming episodes of Desperate Housewives and Greys Anatomy.
This morning I started a leg of lamb marinating in rosemary, basil, garlic, oil and salt and pepper. I’ll roast it in a couple of hours and Lynne will make some mashed butternut squash as a side. We’ll serve it with a nice red wine from the cellar.
I also made a new batch of Camembert cheese. I hope this one comes out better than the previous one. It is an easy cheese to make, so did not take much time or care.
Ken, Loretta and Kenny came by. They were bear hunting, but the rains have probably driven the bears out of the drainage system under the street, so they had no luck. Instead, we shared a glass of wine and some good conversation with them.
I stuffed some baby food down Bart’s throat, so he has had some nourishment for the day, but not enough to sustain him.
Posted under: Stuff You Gotta Know! • by Rick on 01/01/2007 at 01:18 PM
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