Blind in One Eye and My Ears are Ringing But I Survived

We went to the Gilroy outlets this afternoon. A fun drive up and over Hecker Pass and then down into the oven-set-to-high that is Gilroy. I can't understand how people can survive there, the heat is just so oppressive.

I'm sure it is fantastic at night, much like Phoenix in the summertime at night. What a blast it was, out until four in the morning wearing shorts and a tank top, drunk as skunks, of course. But that was a long time ago in a state far, far away.

Today was Gilroy and the same dry heat. And that's fine, it makes you want to stay in the stores longer, oh, the lovely air conditioned stores. Of course, with a fidgety three year old, one place isn't going to do for too long. Unless that place is Chuck E Cheese and then its the adults that aren't going to last too long.

I felt like I was a ball in a pinball machine in the place. Actually, the best metaphor I can think of for Chuck E Cheese is that its Las Vegas in Training. The noises, lights and decorating scheme are all focused on getting those tokens out of your pockets and into the machines.

The tokens (which are worth a quarter or so, depending on how many you buy at once) are gobbled up with alarming speed. Granted that each game only costs a token but some of the games are pretty piss poor really. Not that it really matters all that much.

Because kids love the place. That is, until they have meltdowns from not getting a nap today. Up until that point, Grady was running around and really enjoying the heck out of himself. And the pizza wasn't bad at all. Overpriced for sure but pretty decently edible.

But I was happy to leave and start to let the ringing and flashing lights clear out of my brain.

And I did get a cool new pair of swim trunks that were on sale so that's something!

Why Do I Need To Use Coupons at CostCo?

My wife raised a really good point as we were driving home from a successful, albeit annoying, trip to CostCo. Why do we need to have coupons to get deals on stuff that's on sale?

We pay for a membership, why should we have to clip coupons to get the deals as well? That just seems unnecessarily stupid and an extra step.

CostCo would be much better served by just putting a sale tag on the item and letting everyone who wants to buy it, buy it at the sale price. As it is, we were annoyed because they gave us the coupons on our way out, the coupons expired the next day and we could have and should have saved a small chunk off our bill. But now we have to remember to take the coupon and the reciept back in with us to get the damned money.

CostCo should be working for its members, not making them work harder to get a few extra bucks off their bills. I think I'll drop a short note to CostCo to let them know that.

Nice Work ProFlowers, Or Not

I ordered some flowers for today's Valentine Day holiday from ProFlowers.com because it was pretty easy and a pretty good deal.

I'll leave my annual rant about the mad run up on rose prices in the last few days for next year. The annoying profiteering just pisses me off. A dozen roses last week was ten bucks or so, this week, that same damned dozen roses will cost you forty or fifty bucks easy.

Anyway, I put my order in to ProFlowers which included a vase and chocolates, since what is Valentine's Day without chocolates, right?

When the box arrived yesterday, the roses looked fabulous and the vase wasn't broken, which was a nice touch. But there were no damned chocolates in the box and that annoys the hell out of me. I called them and the chocolates are on their way but they won't be here until next week. Will I use ProFlowers again? It depends on what kind of a deal they have and I'll make for damned sure to remind them that I'd like everything in one shipment all at the same time.

Tags: Valentine's Day, ProFlowers, roses, chocolates

Shopping Carts Got Teh Cooties

Shopping Cart Handles Have More Germs Than Public Restrooms which is why many places of business are setting up a cheap and easy to use moist towellette station just inside the doors of their markets. Its a simple thing to grab a wipe and murder all those nasty germs.

Its not that people didn't know shopping carts are germ-machines, its just that there wasn't a news story proclaiming what we already knew.

And now that you know, protect yourself and murder some germs the next time you go shopping.