Random Bits

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?

Yeah. For the last few days my Groupon emails have had very strange subject lines. Today's offering?

"Father's Day deals for the man who felt you kick inside him for nine months"

A few days ago it was

"Father's Day deals for the man who gave birth to you"

... ... ... Uh... really?

Things I learned today:

* Mr Snuffleupagus has a first name - Aloysius.
* Holding four different conversations simultaneously via IM is difficult and crazy-making.
* That those four conversations were about the same work "bug" just coming at it from four different directions did not help.
* gwendolyngrace was a precocious child. Even stranger and more precocious than I realized (♥)
* My client announced four new leadership people that I will be working with closely for the next two years... Three of the four have no clue what they just let themselves in for.
* My aunt is on Facebook. This is my mother's sister. My mother doesn't do anything with a computer. At all. Ever. Apparently Aunt Kelly has no such issues. Mom has an iPhone which she makes and receives calls on, and is able to check the weather app, as well as snap a photograph. Other things are a bit beyond her (and she has no email anyway). It is the very first generation iPhone and is pretty creaky and slow.
* Martin Freeman is adorable and has no idea how wacktastic his fans are. Although in the next few days he is likely to get that point hammered home.

Grocery shopping tonight turned out to be an experience (of course I would forget to get the ONE item I absolutely positively NEEDED, but I digress). My supermarket has self checkout. More then that it has scan-as-you-go shopping. When you are a scan-as-you-go shopper, you can check out at the self checkout and just scan your store card and it pulls up your already scanned order and you pay, and are out the door really really quickly.

So I did my shopping and got to the bottom of my list (I didn't realize I forgot that ONE IMPORTANT ITEM until I got home. Bygones.). I got in line for the self checkout as normal. Only two self checkout lanes were open, one with three guys in line, one with a couple of girls checking out and one other guy also in line with a very small cart of stuff (he had maybe six items in his cart. Maybe.).

I got in line behind him. The girls are about seventeen, obviously new to the whole checkout thing, but I am okay to wait - holidays y'know. The other lines had more people. The girls are having trouble with the concept of weighing their produce on the scale - they kept taking it off the scale before it was completely finished and erroring the system. Which called the guy who handles all the self checkout lanes over to void and re-ring. The girls were obviously getting things Mom (and/or Dad - whoever the adult is who cooks and shops) had forgotten (I don't know two teenage girls who would get three large bunches of asparagus).

Finally the young man who worked there came and rang in the last of their cart, and left them to pay (via credit card). One girl finished bagging while the other was trying to navigate the payment process. It told her to sign the signature pad next to the scanner. She couldn't figure out where the "pen" to sign was. She got that point, and then tried signing the wrong signature pad. She got more and more upset until I realized she wasn't following the directions and didn't know what to do.

Then I found myself saying something I've never even heard my mother say. I ducked around the guy in front of me and said "here, honey, sign right there and press done" pointing at the signature pad that is right under her hand (in her defense she was faced with three different electronic pads and the signature one is the smallest and least obvious).

I called her "honey" wtf? When did I get all maternal and shit? That is just Not Right.

The guy and I exchange good-natured eyerolls as if to say kids! as the girls leave giggling. He checks out in good time (he had about five or six bags of bread rolls and that was it), and then so do I. All I had to do was scan my store card and pay - so even with groceries for the next week it took about three minutes for me to check out.

Of course I would pick the shortest line that took the most time. I seem to have a knack for it. Oy!

...We're so surprised.

Max has taken to turning himself around and backing up while moving to a different part of the same room. And more times than not he gets tangled up in himself because he won't get out of his own way.

Oh, Max. You are such a loveable, loving doofus.

Saw my folks for lunch. They're both doing well - we discussed my vacation and their travel to Rochester, NY to see friends and family (apparently in HS my dad was known for running fast, always being late for school, and being smart. Not surprised. My Mom also found out his HS nickname but he would not let her tell me), and Max's time spent with my brother where he whined all night. Well, yeah, he's only been away from home once before since my folks brought him home, and my brother wanted him to settle in a New Place that smelled like Another Dog? Oy. My brother is not SMRT sometimes. He should have stayed at my folks' house overnight instead of moving Max.

My Dad is still planning to go golfing with his brother and cousin(s) in October. But neither my mom nor I have faith that if Cousin R is making the arrangements (you're *sure* R knows he's supposed to find you all somewhere to stay? Absolutely positive? Really?) that they will be able to find a place at this late date. But that is all up to R. R, who has a habit of monologue-ing in his broad NJ accent (his funniest, that horrifies his daughter and makes his son laugh is he is going to create and install an ATM machine (Afterlife Teller Machine) as his headstone that has a video interface so he can dispense their inheritance to his kids in multiples of $20. And he can harangue them from the grave "You! We never see you unless you want money! You want a hundred bucks? Here - here's forty. Come back next week and visit maybe I'll give you a hundred!" or "What - back again already? Its only been two days - what did you do with the last money I gave you?" Yeah, Cousin R is a riot - unless you're one of his kids, I suppose).

Ah well. Day off tomorrow. ♥

What IS it with five year old girls? Back in 2008 when my youngest niece was turning five in a couple of months she and I had a serious/funny conversation where she informed me I could "get" a baby - like it was as simple as picking one up at the corner store.

Today, the twins who live next door - T and C, who informed me today they Just Turned Five wanted to know if I had kids (which, wait, what? THEY LIVE NEXT DOOR! Don't they think they might have NOTICED if I had any kids running around the place?).

And then wanted to know why not. And did I know I could *get* kids.

WHY is my status as single-no-kids so endlessly fascinating to little girls of a certain age? Do other women get this subtle pressure from an unexpected source?

Sure, both my grandfathers pushed me about the "unmarried" thing in the last few years of their lives. But they were pushing 90 at the time and so you kind of had to let them express their opinion. I'm certainly not OPPOSED to having a relationship and kids, but it is quite unlikely to happen at this stage of my life. At least at this point it is very unlikely I'd birth them myself (I'm getting too old for that I think) if I were to even decide it is time to go ahead and be a mother. But I've never had the burning desire to have or raise kids. Maybe in my next lifetime.

I went to the WB site and got my Patronus...



It is a Phoenix. The little wrietup about it says they are "known for their faithfulness and healing powers" and then goes on to mention Dumbledore's patronus is a Phoenix.

Interesting. I'm not sure it is completely accurate, but what the heck does an app from the WB really know about anyone, right?

(and if you want to get your own, you can go here: http://apps.warnerbros.com/hp7b/patronus/us/index.php)

Today's Google Doodle is pretty rockin'... literally!

Today's google doodle is frickin' AWESOME. Use the lever to manipulate where you are undersea - love the divers and treasure chest the best (narwhal!). \o/

So I woke up this morning in time to put my trash and recycling out - it was still dark. Then I went back to bed, because dark=night and night usually=sleep (but not always). So when I went out later, the trash and recycling trucks had been by to pick up my trash and recycling.

My recycling bin was not quite empty. It had a bit of "rejected" recycling, which is fine, if something is not recyclable, I am glad they are screening and rejecting items that don't fit. This is not what confuses me.

What confuses me is that the rejected bit of recycling? Is not something *I* recycled. I mean, my bin was full to the top - can't fit anything more in it (I still have a bag that did not fit that I'll have to add to the recycling in two weeks). So WHERE the heck did the reject come from? Was my bin just lonely for extra cardboard? Have they pegged me as the go-with-the-flow kind that will make the item recyclable and try again? I mean, all it needs is the plastic wrapping to be removed from the cardboard part, and BING! Recyclable!

Should I give all my neighbors the stink eye and teach them all how to recycle properly ("one of you doesn't know how to recycle! I am watching you!)? Is that another step on the long road to becoming the crazy cat lady, only with no cats as alas, I am allergic?

Yeah. I don't know. But it was something that made me go "huh?" when I went out earlier.