Random Bits

So one of my favorite grocery stores to shop at has those little personal scanners so you can scan your groceries and bag them as you shop.  I love that feature - because I can break up my types of items and nothing gets squished having been bagged by some high school student who just hasn't a clue.  So I tend to shop there for most of my normal food.  I also shop at Whole Foods for specific things (their instant oatmeal packs are better for one, and I can get my organic shampoo there).

But today I was in the scan-your-own groceries store.  After you scan and bag, you can use the self checkout and it takes your order and automatically loads it to the machine.  Tonight I paid cash.  I was supposed to get a few dollars and thirteen cents back in change.  I got the few dollars, but I got twenty-two cents instead.  It actually took me a few seconds of thinking "that's not right" to figure out what happened.  A group of young, male, employees were congregating at the employee station to take care of self checkout problems and I approached and asked them... "So, that machine gave me two dimes and two pennies, instead of one dime and three pennies... do you care?" And each and every one of them paused to parse the fact that a.) the machine failed at change, and b.) that I was actually asking them if they wanted to correct the issue.  Then, almost in Dolby Surround Sound I got "no, not really."

So I paid nine cents less for my groceries than I was supposed to.  But if they didn't want the hassle of figuring out how to square it with the machine... who am I to argue?

Shopping today. I went into the pharmacy to get a couple of trial-sized items (toothpaste and hair gel) because I've traveled so much lately I am running low on travel sized toiletries. As I was checking out the clerk brought my attention to the new candies that were near the register (as they do).

He was charming about it but when he pointed out the M&Ms package my first response (and I am afraid I actually said this out loud, to his delight) was "oh my god, ew!"

The package was the new "Candy Corn White Chocolate M&Ms"... which sounds so toothachingly sweet to be almost disgusting.

My reaction was so completely knee-jerk immediate and revolted the clerk was entirely entertained.

What do you think?

I'm in California this week (ugh waking up at 5am Do Not Want) and yesterday my company spent the day at its holiday party activities.

We started the day "volunteering" - that is preparing things for one of the local soup kitchens. I was delegated to the arts and crafts table making cards for dual thank you and holiday cards for the group to give its most stalwart volunteers. Other folks put bagged lunches together, and made chex mix and packaged it, and put together sample packages of diapers and toiletries for folks in need to pick up. We would have also been set to cutting vegetables in the kitchen, but the chef didn't arrive in time for us to do that activity. But it all seemed to go well.

Then we had lunch at Palacio in Los Gatos (which doesn't seem like it is usually open for lunch - we had the whole place to ourselves). During lunch we did a modified white elephant ornament exchange. I'm glad the ornament I ended up with isn't glass. Delicate, but not glass.

Then we were set loose on the streets of downtown Los Gatos with a sum of money and told "spend it or lose it - and you must spend it on yourself!"

OMG STRESSFUL (last year they gave us the same amount in amazon gift cards and I still have some left over from that)!!! I did not spend the whole amount - but I have an item in mind that I *will* spend it on, and that seemed to be okay - but it is a gadget and I need to research more about them before I purchase (e-reader for those who want to know - Kindle or Nook or Other?). Four people put the whole amount toward the purchase of an iPad (it got them more than halfway there), and two people upgraded to the iPhone4S. The apple store did very well with our crowd!

A few people cheated (a bit) and got kitchen/cooking stuff. I know it isn't technically cheating, and I suppose if cooking is where it is for you it might be fine, but I still felt appliances aren't "personal" enough. Whatever.

I got a few baubles in one of the cutest boutiques - just to have *something* to show. One of the ladies and her husband are going on vacation between Christmas and New Years to where they had their honeymoon, and she saved most of hers to go toward the golf cart rental which is the preferred mode of transportation on the island resort. I thought that was a good use of the money - because it will make their vacation that much better.

We ended the day at a wine bar, and spent some time showing off what we got - or describing what we were going to get. One woman has a fancy party for her father's 75th birthday and thought she knew which fancy dress she was going to get, but tried it on and decided not that one! so she saved it for when she finds a dress (and if any is left for shoes, etc.).

Shopping - especially under a time crunch like that - is incredibly difficult for me. The one co-worker I hang with the most gets even more stressed out and freaked because we are both "let me think about it" types. She, however, decided to upgrade her iPhone to the new one and spent it all in one fell swoop. Which left her so much more relaxed than I remember her being two years ago when we did this same activity. I guess the take away for the holiday party is *always always always* have a short list of pricy items you would love to own but might put off buying yourself to trot out and either talk about purchasing when you get home, or actually get while there.

The day was a lovely one though, sunny and and not cold at all (damned California and they still have roses and pansies blooming in freakin' December - which is a weird juxtaposition with the evergreen holiday decorations!).

Monday started off with a bang!

But first, my weekend! Let me show you the fun! Friday night I went to a party! I had a pretty wonderful time, and the party was low-key and fun. Our hostess was relegated to *sitting* in the living room. She had spent Thursday night in the hospital having tests done (gallstone was the diagnosis), and she didn't tell anyone until we got to her home Friday night. If it were me, I'd have canceled the party, but she didn't. So I took over her kitchen as the party was set up to be pot luck. I did a lot of "So what'd you bring? Do you need a serving plate? Does it need to be heated up? Microwave or oven? What temp, and how long?"

Which will make those of you who know me LOL as I don't cook. At all. But, by damn, I can heat shit up with the best of them! The only thing I would have done better is start the coffee earlier. But what the hell do I know from coffee? I don't even know how to make it! I had to ask our hostess to explain her coffeepot. But next time! Oh, next time I will make the coffee earlier!

Saturday I went and explored some of West Concord with gwendolyngrace. She had to pick up dance shoes at the dance shop, and conveniently there was a quilter's shop right next door. So we went in there and poked around at the gorgeous fabrics. Then we amused ourselves in the 5 and 10. So cool! I love 5 and 10s. There are so few of them still around. Gwen found some green boot polish, and I got a nail brush.

After that we wandered into the local artists shop - and I recognized some of the artist's work! Some of these same folks are in the CHG, my mom's co-op.

We got a late lunch together and she went off to rehearsal, and I went off to the Players "Coffeehouse Capers" which is sort of an in-group variety show. I was set up help. So I went early and put together the centerpieces, and started to help in the kitchen. I ended up being one of the two or three people making the event unfold smoothly. I guess I was house-elfing this weekend.

Sunday I went to the CHG and helped my mom and DL with display. I completely tore apart one of the artist's display of jewelry and rebuilt it, making it look so much better than it did. And almost the moment I locked the cases back up after having finished working on it, a woman came in and bought a bracelet from the case! So, it was also pleasing to the customer. The bracelet was $145. Which more than made the artist's rent for the month, so I felt good about that (and didn't mind having an empty spot to shift things around to fill).

Lunch with mom and dad as per the norm of my days going to the CHG. I left my copy of MOON with them so they could see it. They're currently working their way through the first season of "The Wire" that my brother gave them.

Last night was an early night as I was tired from two nights up really really late. I got up this morning and checked my email... I had a quick project (as in, must be done in three hours, but you know you're on a conference call in two, and both need about two hours of your time to prep for...).

I sent back my reply with the needed information for the project just in time to log in to the conference call. The conference call went quicker than they were expecting, and this time I was strictly listen and take high-level notes, no talking necessary! That ended in time for a late lunch, and I had the rest of the afternoon to try to get my normal daily work completed. Which I did at about 6:35pm... Whew! Seeing as I started this morning at about 8:27... It has been a damned full day! Glad I had that wild blueberry tea (OMG, so damned delicious - but also caffeinated, so I must be careful to only have it really early!). I now have two favorite teas... one caf and one decaf!

Whew! I think I'm gonna go veg out for a little while and figure out dinner...

So one of the local supermarkets has begun the "easyshop" program - which is scan-as-you-go shopping. I pulled down one of the shopping devices and scanned each item as I took it off the shelf. I even packed them in my canvas bags myself as I went along. The coolest thing about this? The device has a running total in the corner of it's screen so I finished shopping when I hit my budget limit!

Easy to use (push big yellow button and scan! Push "remove" button and scan!) and checkout was a breeze. The whole experience was kinda neat - and I saved an extra $2+ because I used the easyshop device (it tells how much you saved with regular shopping and how much extra you saved using easyshop - all told about $10 this time).

I could see this being annoying if I was buying fruit/vegetable items that needed to be weighed, but since I was not it was quick and, well, easy. And since I got to pack my own bags the cold stuff all stayed cold because - shocker I know - it was PACKED TOGETHER!!11!!!

Technology is very cool!

/geekery