Strange urges

We went out to eat the other night at one of our favorite restaurants. I ate enough of my dish to be full but not in danger of bursting. Then I packed up the rest to bring home for a lunch later in the week. For whatever reason, as we were leaving, I had the strongest urge to grab a spring roll from the plate of some customers we walked by. Strong as in I seriously had to restrain myself. I've had their spring rolls. They're fine, but nothing special. And without the dipping sauce (which I had no desire to grab), they are nothing. But I wanted that lady's food! So, a note to anybody who goes out to eat with me.... You might want to blindfold me before we leave the restaurant as I obviously have little self-control.

Mindless fun thanks to a touch of jet lag

You are The High Priestess

Science, Wisdom, Knowledge, Education.

The High Priestess is the card of knowledge, instinctual, supernatural, secret knowledge. She holds scrolls of arcane information that she might, or might not reveal to you. The moon crown on her head as well as the crescent by her foot indicates her willingness to illuminate what you otherwise might not see, reveal the secrets you need to know. The High Priestess is also associated with the moon however and can also indicate change or fluxuation, particularily when it comes to your moods.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

Entitlement, Part 1

(Not originally meant to be a series, but by the time I got home after this experience, I realized that this likely will be a series. Oh well.)

To the guy at the library who got a call on his cell phone and announced to his caller (rather loudly) as he was leaving the library that he "HAD" to leave the library to take his phone call--Get over yourself!!! If you don't like the library's rules and expectations for customers, then maybe you should go to an Internet Cafe and pay for your Internet access rather than complain about having to leave a building to take a call, particularly when that building is providing you a service for free. I highly doubt that you are so much in demand that you couldn't have turned your phone off for the one hour that you are allowed to be on the library computer. I have no doubt that this man went back inside after his call and tried to get the librarians to extend his computer time because he had to step outside for a minute. Computer access at the libraries is a privilege, not a divinely given right.

1,000 Miles

Early this year, I set a goal to bike 100 miles per month. I am happy to report that I am ahead of schedule and that I hit 1,000 miles while out riding last Saturday. And the more exciting part is that over 700 of these miles have been real, outside riding and not sitting on my bike on my trainer in the living room. Go me!

My cat is a bigger freak than your cat, Part I continued

Let's add Pop-Tarts to the list of foods Thrasher eats. But raw carrots he's afraid of. Kind of like the reaction I get to pickles. Go figure.

My cat is a bigger freak than your cat, Part I

(what I'm afraid is going to be the first in a series (a long series) of posts about my cat)

If you know my cat, you know that he eats some really strange things--at least things that are strange for a cat. Ok, some are just strange for any sentient being. These things include, but are not limited to: apples, broccoli, chick peas, cantaloupe, lentils, Doritos (all flavors), yogurt, applesauce (a favorite), green beans (canned only), peas, pop ice (but not usually Popsicles), bread, Rice Chex, dryer sheets (we only use liquid fabric softener now after a near death experience with these), mandarin oranges (see photographic evidence), cheese doodles, ice cream, soap (ok, he just licks that), Pup-Peroni, potato chips, cooked carrots, and some types of poppadoms. Again, this is not by any means an exhaustive list. And somehow, he has an uncanny ability to know when anyone in the house is eating or is about to eat any of these things (except soap, dryer sheets, or Pup-Peroni--we humans don't eat those).



Among the list of things he does not eat or eats only under great duress: fresh meat and my husband's odd dried Chinese seafood products.

So tonight, I feed the cat and am trying to find something for me to eat. I can hear Thrasher crunching his kibbles in the background. I look in the fridge. I find the plastic container with part of a can of chick peas. Still more crunching in the background. As I am opening the plastic container, I hear the cat start running toward me in mid-crunch. The little beast actually left his cat food and followed me around the house until I gave him some chick peas. And you don't even want to know what would have happened if I had opened a container of yogurt. This is what I have to live with. On a daily basis. Why me?

I don't want to scan

I hate U-scan lanes. I really do. To me, they are just another sign of the depersonalization of society and the on-going death of customer service. Supposedly, they are there to make our lives easier and get us out of the store faster. Most of the time when I've used them, just the opposite has happened. Like, for instance, the morning a Kroger employee basically pushed my into a U-scan lane. So, I had an entire shopping cart full of groceries, including stuff that was on sale and a couple clearance items. And coupons, of course. So first of all, there wasn't enough space for all my bagged stuff on the little shelf, so the machine kept getting mad at me. And then for the clearance items, I had to summon the U-scan helper to key in the price. And then some of my sale items didn't ring up correctly. Another summoning of the U-scan helper to correct it. Except she actually entered the exact wrong price, which I had no knowledge of until after I paid. So then it was a trip to the customer service desk to fix that. Three hours later (ok, it was more like 30 minutes total), I'm finally walking out of the Kroger. Had I stayed in the regular lane that I had chosen, I would have been out in 10 minutes. So, they don't really save us time, unless maybe you're buying two items at regular price and paying with a credit card (don't get me started on feeding cash into those things--or coupons for that matter).

I also hear rumors that they are supposed to 'save money.' Well, they may be saving the stores money, but I sure am not seeing those savings passed on to me. My proposal is, if you voluntarily use a U-scan lane, you should get an immediate discount off of your total. Doesn't have to be much, just a little something. And if you have to use a U-scan lane (and it is becoming more frequent these days that at certain times, the only lanes open are do-it-yourself), then you should get a bigger discount. Until that day comes, I will continue to avoid those U-scan lanes.

As a side note on saving money, what the heck has happened to the price of milk? The soymilk I buy is now cheaper than the store-brand lactose free cow milk. It's jumped like $.60 or more in the past two months! I'm going to have to get a goat or something.