Walmart

I must be getting old.  I’ve noticed that lately whenever things start getting busy that my mind turns into a piece of swiss cheese.  I can’t keep a single thought in my head for more than five minutes at a time and balls are getting dropped all over the place.  I find myself flitting from one activity to the next to the next and NOTHING is getting done and I’m falling further and further behind.  Come on, Marilyn.  FOCUS.  

Ahem.  That aside… 

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Kile is out at WALMART.  No, not groceries (we did that last night and I am still recovering from the LINES).  Not presents either.  No, he’s getting a new tire for his van.  So, you know, we can go to church this evening.  OY.  Nothing like the last minute, eh?  He went with his dad and the two boys so I’m at home with my mother in law and Evie and Evie is napping so… woo hoo!  

I will be putting up a more meaningful post at some time, either later today or tomorrow.  But right now I seem unable to keep a thought in my head for long enough to make anything make any sense.  (Please tell me I’m not the only scattered one today!)

Right now, while I’m waiting for snow that I’m still not sure will ever come (hello, it’s SUNNY outside right now!), I’m hoping that all of you are having a lovely holiday.  Stay safe, drink some booze for me and enjoy your families and friends.  Open a present or two and think of me.

Yep, it’s that time of year again, folks.  That time when bloggers tear their hair out, trying to come up with something to post every single day for the entire month of November.   I (foolishly?) felt confident, because I’ve been posting every day without fail for the last couple of months.  PIece of cake, right?

Well here we stand, on Day 1 of NaBloPoMo (which stands, in case you’re wondering, for National Blog Posting Month) and it’s after 4 in the afternoon and I haven’t posted a darned thing.  FOR SHAME.

It’s been a busy morning and afternoon, which is my excuse.  We didn’t do our grocery shopping yesterday, instead chosing to go to Whole Foods and Sam’s Club instead.  So that meant we had to do grocery shopping today.  But first, we needed to go to Kohl’s because they were having an EVIL sale, complete with Early Bird specials if you shopped before 1pm.  So we picked up some (matching) (aww!) outfits for the kids to wear tomorrow when we get their pictures taken (Sears Portrait Studio: Take 2!  I’ll let you know how it goes).  I think it’s safe to say that by the time we hit Walmart, we were already pooped.

And apparently, not only is November 1st the Official Start to the Holiday Season (complete with holiday decorations and MUSIC) (OMG, I’m not even kidding), but apparently it’s doubling as Black Friday too.  If the Early BIrd sale at Kohl’s didn’t tip me off, then the oodles of people clogging the aisles at Walmart sure did.  WHAT THE HECK, PEOPLE??  Let’s at least get the election out of the way and eat a couple pounds of Halloween candy before we get into the Christmas stuff, OKAY?  Holy crap.

Our collective faith in humanity was not bolstered by this particular shopping trip.

Though there were those nice people in the line next to us at checkout who felt bad for us and one of them even went to get us an extra cart when it became apparent that our bagged groceries weren’t going to fit in the cart we had.  (I have mentioned that our monthly shopping trips are Out of Control, haven’t I?)  So this meant that we had THREE carts we pushed out to the car: one containing Evie in her carseat in the basket and Liam in the seat and two baskets with bagged groceries, pushed by Kile and Harry.  WHEW.

So I think you can forgive me for not posting earlier.  And if you can’t… well…  I don’t know what to tell ya.  Except maybe to get used to it because that’s how things roll around here.

Peace out!

Mondays sure do suck, don’t they?  I hate to use the word “hate” a lot, because it’s such a strong feeling and to use it too often is to a) dilute it’s potence and b) foster a lot of unwanted negativity in your life.  But… it’s Monday.  And if you can’t hate Mondays then what can you do?  So I decided that for one day a week I would just embrace the hate and make a list of things that are ticking me off.  Some Mondays I might not run this feature.  After all, not every Monday sucks and there’s only a finite list of things to hate each week, right?  But gosh, I’ll bet getting some negativity off my chest (and ever-so-helpfully spewed into the Internet!) will help get me through the day.

• I hate freecreditreport.com commercials.  I hate the message that the most of them send (which is that someone else is often to blame for the dude’s poor fortune… the one where he rants about his wife’s poor credit and wishes he’d known about it so he wouldn’t have married her is the worst).  I also hate the stupid songs the guy makes up.  This is more true for the more recent commercials.  The only one that is halfway decent is where he’s working at the restaurant and is dressed up like a pirate.  The rest SUCK.  Especially the “rap” one.  Makes my ears bleed.  So not only do I like the image they’re trying to put forward, but I hate the songs.  HATE HATE HATE.  Plus, (as if I needed more reason to hate them) it’s all a lie anyhow.  NICE.
• I want to kick McCain and Palin and their stupid campaign in the ass.  I don’t want to vent too much, and disturb whatever Republican readers I might have, but DAMN.  The more I hear, the more I want to not only tear my hair out but theirs as well.  I’m so tired of the lies, half-truths and the manipulation of the public.  Why can’t we stick to issues instead of hinting at some nebulous (and pretty much untrue) associations with racial overtones?  SERIOUSLY?  Honestly, it’s obvious to me that McCain is just lashing out because he knows Obama has the upper hand right now and it’s just sickening.  This month can’t pass quick enough, as far as I’m concerned.
• Charter cable is really pissing me off.   For the last week we’ve had really spotty service.  Anything over channel 100 is hit and miss these days.  Which really sucks on a MONDAY when I really wouldn’t mind some NOGGIN to keep Liam happy.  I don’t want to watch Nickelodeon because of all the obnoxious commericals.  And since the service is spotty, I can’t even call up Blue’s Clues on On Demand.  AAARGH.  At least the box isn’t overheating every 30 minutes anymore but COME ON.  We pay for this service and we should be able to watch HBO whenever we damn well feel like it (thank god it was working last night so I didn’t have to miss “True Blood”!).  I’d have them send a service technician out but I’m scared to death that they’ll deem the problem is on “our end” and bill us up the wazoo for it.  NO THANKS.  Right now, I’m just counting the days until our contract is up and we can switch back to satellite.
• I hate pretty much anyone who shops at Walmart (myself excluded, of course).  I swear, that store has the RUDEST shoppers of any store on the planet.  I’m talking about the clumps of people who are always in your way when you want to get something off the shelf, but then if you are in THEIR way then you get the Glare of Death.  I swear, I think there’s a new syndrome out called Walmart Rage.  Everyone in there is just so MAD all the time.  And yes, that includes me.  I swear, my blood pressure was through the roof when we were in there on Saturday.  WTF?  God, I wish we had more Targets.  And at least ONE Super Target.

So what are you hating this (not-so) fine Monday?  Feel free to share the venom in the comments.  Let Monday have it!

So despite my husband declaring that it is a store inhabited by snobby old bitches, we found ourselves at Whole Foods for the third weekend in a row.  And, I gotta say, I pretty much love it there.  I love the produce department where you can sample sweet, tangy oranges, crisp grapes and juicy pineapple to your hearts content, the pungant cheese department where they have more cheese than I’ve ever seen in one place in my life, the abundant selection of wine, the extensive selection of meats in the meat department, the tantalizing treats in the bakery along with the fabulous selection of bread… I could go on and on and on.

But holy jeebus, it’s expensive.

We picked up a package of diapers for Liam (we don’t have quite enough cloth diapers for him to wear them full time), a bag more of the same apples we got and loved last week and a bag of oranges for $20.  GULP.  Still.  It’s a beautiful store and I wouldn’t mind very much if I could just set up a tent and LIVE THERE.

It’s different from Wild Oats (which is what we had before) and Trader Joes (which still exists in town, as far as I know).  We always felt out of place sohpping at either of those stores.  Like perhaps we weren’t a part of the “club” and would be outed as total frauds.  And those stores just didn’t feel quite as accessible.  The aisles were crowded and unorganized, the store at large was pretty small and the selection was wee.  Not so with Whole Foods.  No, Whole Foods is a mecca of consumerism.  And they even have a fireplace and some couches up front for if you need to sit down and take a load off for a few.  Now that’s a concept I can get behind!

As we were driving home, we realized our shopping can neatly divided into one of four categories.  The vast majority of our shopping is done on the supah-cheap at Walmart.  Then there’s the bulk and other budget-related shopping which is done at Sam’s Club.  We go to Whole Foods for our fancy-schmancy stuff.  When there’s an ingredient that we’re unlikely to find elsewhere or when we really want to get quality, that’s where to go.  And then we have our mid-week Emergency Shopping that is done at the Smith’s that is just five minutes down the road.  It is neither cheap like Walmart so it’s out for our majority shopping and the quality isn’t that fantastic so it’s not a fancy store by any means.  But it is close and that’s something neither Whole Foods or Walmart can boast.

And wow.  Yes, I just toally did an entire blog post about grocery stores.  It’s a slow weekend around here, what can I say?