Did I mention that there are some jams and hot sauces still available?
So I had a dental appointment yesterday and they did all the fun things they do, including taking x-rays and picking at my gums with the metal pick o’ torture and lecturing me about my brushing technique.
(At least they lecture in a nice way. My brushing technique gets sloppy ’cause brushing your teeth? BORING.)
While the hygienist was flossing my teeth, the floss kept getting caught on one of my fillings, and they did another x-ray, and apparently the filling is attempting to come out and needs to be replaced. This makes the second filling in less than a year, and I think you can imagine how thrilled I am.
I left there with the intent of heading for Sam’s. I told Fred last night that I was going to go to Sam’s because we only had three buckets of litter left in the garage, and running low on things like litter makes me nervous.
(Fred’s response: “We have 120 pounds of litter in the garage. This is ‘running low’ to you?” When you have 12 cats in residence, yes. That IS running low!)
I ended up stopping at Target to look at their curtains, because Fred specifically requested that I buy some sort of curtain to put over the back door. It makes him nervous when he goes downstairs in his underwear and walks across the kitchen, knowing that someone could be in the back yard watching him.
(Why would someone want to watch him walking across the kitchen in his underwear? The aforementioned cute butt, of course. I don’t know how they’d be IN the back yard without George and Gracie sending up the warning call, though.)
I didn’t see any curtains at Target that would do the job, so I headed toward the front of the store, saw that their 28 pound buckets of Fresh Step were on sale for $12 each, reflected that I didn’t REALLY want to have to go all the way to Sam’s and deal with all the people, and loaded four buckets into my cart.
(Side note: a 40-pound bucket of Fresh Step from Sam’s is $14.28 (plus tax). That figures out to a bit more than 35 cents a pound before tax. A 28-pound bucket of Fresh Step from Target was $12 (plus tax). That figures out to almost 43 cents a pound before tax. I am single-handedly stimulating the economy, people!)
I grabbed a couple more things on my way to the register (stimulate! stimulate!), and then I got in line at the register.
So I got to the register, right? And I didn’t want to lift all four of the buckets of litter onto the conveyor belt, right? So I put ONE on the belt, and I waited until the cashier looked at me and we made eye contact, and I said loudly and clearly, “I have a total of four of these.” She nodded her understanding.
She rang up my stuff and I busied myself with running my card through the card reader, and I was juuuuust about to hit the “accept” button to accept the total when she said, all panicked-like, “Oh, I didn’t see that litter in your cart! Wait, I need to ring them up!”
Then that bitch gave me the accusing look, like I was trying to pull one over on her.
“As I mentioned,” I said through clenched teeth, “I have a total of four of them.”
She did not understand.
“I have this bucket here,” I said, gesturing to the bucket on the belt. “That’s mine. And I have three more.”
Too confusing.
I held up four fingers. “I. Have. A. TOTAL. Of. Four. Buckets. Of. Litter.” I said slowly.
Whaaaaa?
The woman standing in line behind me patted the bucket of litter on the belt. “This is hers,” she said. “And she has three more. That’s four.” And then she counted all four buckets.
The light went on, and the cashier managed to ring up all four buckets, I paid, and I went on my way (and I THANKED HER, EVEN).
Y’know, if there’d been a language barrier there, I would have been a little less peeved, but there was no language barrier, just apparently an intelligence barrier.
I really wanted to smack her upside the head and bellow “HELLO! ANYONE HOME?!”, but I didn’t want to get my ass banned from Target for life.
I did find curtains for the laundry room in Bed, Bath and Beyond. I put them up when I got home, and although it bugs me a little not to be able to see out the back door when I glance in that direction, they make the room look cozier.
I need to get serious about finding curtains (mostly valances, I think) for the rest of the house. I always forget what a difference they make. I mean, I like the clean look of just blinds, but curtains add a warmth to rooms and since we’ve lived here almost two years now, it’s time to make this house look like a home!
(If I weren’t such a slacking slacker, I’d get my damn sewing machine out and make some curtains, because I refuse to believe they can be all that hard to make.)
While I was at Bed, Bath and Beyond, I stumbled across the pillow section and then Twittered something along the lines of “Do real actual humans BUY $200 pillows?”
I’m into stimulating the economy, but not THAT much, thank you. (Except that when I got home, I read Rachael’s Twitter that she bought $100 pillows like 10 years ago and they’re like new and very much worth it. Hmmm.)
And then I went to the grocery store, picked up a prescription for Fred, and came home.
Exciting, no?
Lori, your wish is my command. Here’s a Stinkerbelle picture, snapped five minutes ago as she glared hatefully at me from her perch atop the kitchen cabinets.
Previously
2008: And then I went back for another one, and I tell you what, I could not lift a second 80-pound bag of cement mix to save my LIFE.
2007: No entry.
2006: Don’t call me paranoid – it happens to me ALL THE TIME.
2005: I feel like every time I run an errand in the Jeep I’m tempting Fate.
2004: I am blogrolling’s bitch.
2003: We figured if nothing else, we’d just start killing and eating cats.
2002: No entry.
2001: No entry.
2000: ***Warning! Adult language and situations ahead! Skip the first three paragraphs if you’re easily offended***
Maybe George and Gracie are staring at Fred’s butt and making him uncomfortable. Dogs have a way of staring at nakedness that draws your attention to it. 😀
Hi Robyn – Wow your jam is delicious!!!! I made a plate with whipped cream cheese on the bottom and the strawberry habanero on top, to be eaten with crackers for the Daytona 500 party we went to! Wow – was it hot and yummy. The more our nose would run – the more we ate! Thank you!!! This weekend I am going to open up the raspberry jam! I bought the trio and yummy – it is worth the shipping costs – I recommend that everybody try it out!
Funny you should mention the curtains. I have not sewed in at least 10 years and never really did much anyway. Come to think of it, I can’t remember completing anything since Home Ec in school. My sewing machine has been out of commission since I can’t find the foot pedal and have been procrastinating about getting a new one. I borrowed my MILs fancy schmancy ($2500 fancy! *gasp*) Pacesetter to make a blanket for my neice. Once I got the blanket done I decided to try to make some valances since we have no curtains upstairs except in the bathroom. I must say, to make a simple valance takes virtually no effort and looks quite nice actually. No measuring except the width of the window (fabric for straight valance should be 2.5 x width)or anything too difficult. Just ironing to fold the fabric back on itself and stitch! Super simple. Although, getting fabric at WallyWorld at a maximum of 4.44 a yard and most of it is all 2.00 a yard, it doesn’t do much to stimulate the economy… but you can have all kinds of fun prints that you would never find premade in the store. If I knew what you wanted, I would whip up a few right quick for you.
Robyn,
Like last spring or probably the winter before (so at least a year ago), I got a new comforter for my bedroom. I immediately went out and bought $35 worth of fabric for a valance (boy that seems high), but it was a lined with 2 colors fancy one. The fabric is still in the bag on the dining room table next to my sewing machine (which is gathering dust). I now dislike the conforter (not very good quality) and have the same valance from my old comforter that I loved and had for more than 10 years. My favorite comforter company now only makes towels – how dare they!
RE:Not too bright cashier. When I worked retail employers were offered a tax credit to hire handicapped employees. Our store resisted because they knew it would not be very workable. They did so -under pressure and it was pretty much a nightmare. Understaffing and now this person can’t pull their weight. I am a compasionate person but some situations just aren’t workable. I hope they (Taarget) wouldn’t put a challenged person on a register- she’s probably garden variety not too bright. They don’t train cashiers very well either. You know how the standard litter bags will have the upc code in BIG letters so you don’t have to lift it 20 times? I have had to teach almost every young cashier I encounter about it and they are amazed.
Intelligence barrier. Brilliant
A rod pocket valance would be easy to make, but how boring is that?? I would suggest you try having some custom draperies/valances made. More expensive but well worth the money and then you don’t have to settle for a silly old rod pocket!! As in the pillow example you most definitely get what you pay for!
Ditto on how incredibly easy it is to make simple curtains, and here’s another suggestion. For bedrooms, you can get a flat sheet that matches your bedsheets and use that fabric, or if it’s a small window, a pillowcase. Sometimes flat sheets come with the sets but you don’t use them — I don’t — and then it’s like getting the fabric for free, sort of. Also nice in the bathroom if you can get towels to match, and you can make a shower curtain from a whole flat sheet (and use it with a liner.)
Last summer, my husband & I went to H0me Dep0t to get some plants for our apartment “garden.” We had 3-5 each of 3-5 plants, so we put one of each on the belt, and told the cashier, “We have 3 of these. We have 4 of these.” He nodded, and then proceeded to ring each one up as a single plant, so we ended up sighing and putting ALL of the plants up on the belt.
We still talk about how dumb that guy was and how annoying the whole process was.
Question for Friday. Do you clean your walls and ceilings and if so, how and how often?
And how often do you clean the blinds, and how do you do that? Your house is always so clean, I thought I would ask the expert.
It’s not /always/ the cashier (although I suspect in this case it was). I’m an art student and use craploads of those foam paintbrushes. Normally their 39c, but every once in a while Joann’s or Michael’s will have them at 20 for $1, so I usually buy 80 or 100 when they do. In both places, can I tell them I have 100? NO! The registers won’t do that (cashiers have told me this in BOTH stores). They have to SCAN the brushes 100 times, and I get a receipt a mile long (because it has to print on one line that NORMALLY they’re 39c, and then another line to tell me that TODAY their 5c. EACH! How retarded is that?
My brother and I were in Walmart the other day. When we were checking out, I grabbed a couple of Dr Peppers from the cooler and we discussed the fact that they were making and had released a DP with cane sugar instead of corn syrup and how much better it tasted. The cashier was clueless and looked at us like we were nuts; he really didn’t understand what we were talking about. A teenage guy who has no doubt never had a soda without corn syrup.
How many buckets was that? Bwahahahahahaha! I do the food/litter shopping at Costco – similar prices to Sams for the litter. I can buy 3 at Costco for less than 2 at Petsmart. And the food is a heck of a lot cheaper and better than the other stores sell.
Clearly, I’m behind. You got DOGS??? I thought you were not a dog person. 😉
Apropos of nothing you said, here’s the pork marinade I promised you weeks (months?) ago.
2 cups full-bodied coffee
~1 cup brown sugar
1 T. mustard (yellow or brown)
green pepper corns (opt.)
Marinate pork for about a day. I’ve done chops and loins and both were good. Cook as usual.
To reduce the sauce, simmer on the stove and add 1/2 wedge of gorgonzola (I used cheap bleu) cheese stirring ’til melted. Adjust to taste.
It does not taste like coffee, nor brown sugar, nor mustard nor bleu cheese. It just tastes good.
THANK YOU for the pic! It just seemed like she had disappeared. That’s one serious look of het.
I made my own valances with a piece of lumber (maybe it was about 3 feet long) that I sawed off about 2 six inch pieces and glued them to make a U shape. Then I glued on some batting over it all (to make it slightly puffy), then I stapled fabric over it all and hung it up with some of those metal L brackety things. I didn’t need nails because once the batting and fabric were on tight they held the thing together. In fact, I think I bought curtains at Target, and bought two extra panels and used them for the valance so it all matched. It really made by brother’s family room look very interior-y decorat-y.