Joe's New Blog

Nothing special, this is just my third effort at writing a blog about my life and what goes on in it: Hobbies, cooking, work, maybe the occasional book or DVD review, and so forth. Nothing really noteworthy, but this is sort of a little subset of my world...

Saturday, December 26, 2009

Daily Journal: Day 20 of 365

It was cold again this morning, with snow still on the ground out in the back yard. Fortunately the roads were all pretty clear, though. There were just a couple of slick areas still left where the sun hasn’t hit for the past couple of days. It was fortunate because we were going to go do some shopping this morning.

The girlfriend had a whole little list of stores we wanted to go to. We started at Hobby Lobby, mostly so she could look for good deals on wrapping paper and such, which we figured they’d likely have at very good prices. Unfortunately, things seem to have been picked over pretty well already, so she just got a few little things. I didn’t find anything I really wanted. There were actually quite a few things I wouldn’t have minded getting, but I just figured that I could live without more kitchen stuff. We already have a shortage of cabinet space, and I should use more of the stuff I already have without buying more.

After Hobby Lobby, it was off to the mall. She had a bunch of stores to go to, but I just headed off to Barnes & Noble, so I didn’t throw off her shopping mojo. They had a lot of stuff in the discount section of B&N, but I once again decided that most of the stuff I could live without. I did buy the unabridged Conan the Barbarian, which includes most of the short stories originally done by Robert E. Howard. It doesn’t have most of the novel series, which were completed by other authors from notes and manuscripts begun by Howard but left incomplete at his death. I probably could have lived without that, too, but I gave away all of my Conan novels when I moved down here to Texas, and I sometimes miss the shallow swordplay-and-sorcery fantasy that I used to have in my collection.

Next stop was Hastings, where we found a couple of DVD collections of Christmas shows at steep discounts. She got the Charlie Brown holiday collection, and I got a collection of the old animated classics including Frosty the Snowman, Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer, and Santa Claus is Coming to Town. We’ll definitely have Christmas shows to watch next year. I also got a Christmas swing CD, which wound up being only 25 cents. We thought about going back and getting more once we found out how cheap things were, but we decided to move on.

Old Navy had jeans on sale for $15, but I couldn’t find a pair that fit me and didn’t look way too big. So I settled for getting a few T-shirts, also on sale, and the girlfriend got some sweaters and some wrapping paper. We cut the trip short after that because we were both tired and hungry.

Once at home, I turned on the brisket, filling the house with a lovely smoky beefy aroma. It took a while to finish, but it was well worth the wait. Her friend Jason came up for her birthday, and we had dinner and watched some TV with him. Now he’s off to bed, and I’m about to head the same way…

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Sunday, December 6, 2009

More Christmas shopping...

I stayed up way too late last night watching college football. The last game was in Hawaii, which means that it didn't even start until almost 10 PM here. I got up late this morning and finally got out to do more Christmas shopping at around two in the afternoon with the girlfriend.

We went to Petsmart first and got some cat food and a little kitty toy stocking. I wasn't going to do anything like that, getting the cute little pet present, but they had a pre-made stocking with 22 cat toys for about $8, so I couldn't resist getting some new toys for her. She's almost out of mice anyway. At least mice which she hasn't chewed the tails from.

After that, we went to Old Navy and picked up a few things, including a few more long sleeved shirts for me to wear under my uniform shirt at work. Then it was down to Michael's, since I had a coupon there. I didn't find anything that I really wanted, but I did get some polymer clay for my sister for Christmas. I think I've just about got enough to make her a nice little package, so now I really need to start working on trying to find something for her husband. I never have the faintest idea of what I should get him. I think I might call my mom and see if she has any ideas.

The girlfriend and I were getting a little hungry by then, since neither of us had any breakfast before we left this morning. Since we were right there, we went to Fuddrucker's and had their bacon cheddar half-pound burgers. They were pretty good, and I'm still definitely not hungry about five hours later. There were some little girls sitting with their father at the booth next to us, and the little one was pretty priceless. The restaurant had a bunch of celebrity pictures on the walls, and she asked her dad, "Are all of those people dead? Are their pictures on the wall because they're dead?" Later, she told her sister that the girl with her pictures on the wall near them must have been a singer. She pointed out the picture which proved it. It was Marilyn Monroe at a USO concert. In itself not that funny, but I just found the different point of view amusing, that this little girl hadn't the faintest idea who Marilyn was.

After Fuddrucker's, we were kind of trying to decide where to go next, but we were both feeling rather lazy and lethargic, so we just wound up coming back home. I think it was a decent shopping day in any case. Since then, I've just been watching football and playing around on the computer. Guess I should try to do something useful with the rest of the evening, but I'm not sure what...

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Saturday, December 5, 2009

Week #3

This is the third weekend since I kind of re-entered the 43Things universe. And yes, I did get out of the house and do something today. I went down to the city landfill and dropped off the old TV which quit working a while ago, and then the girlfriend and I did a bunch of shopping.

We stopped at Hobby Lobby, where I picked up an N-scale railroad turnout and some beading stuff for my sister for Christmas. Then to the mall. I got some new shoes and some long-sleeved shirts for work. The girlfriend found a couple of things to get for Christmas presents for her sister in law, so we got those. And then I got a couple of books at Barnes & Noble with the gift card which the girlfriend’s mom got me for my birthday. I got a Mapsco atlas of the county, which is also mostly for work use, and the two-volume complete Sherlock Holmes. The girlfriend was wondering if I had any Sherlock Holmes after reading a new Holmes story which was authorized by Doyle’s estate. I didn’t previously have much except on my computer, but now I do.

After the mall, we went across the street to Party City to try to find something for her nephews. She’s got one, Oliver, who simply loves to dress up in costumes. When we went over to their place a month or so ago, he must have changed outfits three or four times in the couple of hours we were there. There was a ninja costume and his karate outfit, as well as the regular clothes he was wearing when we showed up. So, the girlfriend wanted to get him something else to mix it up a little. She was looking for a pirate outfit, and we found one for his little brother, but not really anything for him. But when we talked to the checkers, one of the young ladies said we could go back to the storeroom where they keep all the old Halloween costumes from last season and she would show us some of the costumes they had there. We found a neat little Star Wars outfit for him. It’s Jango Fett, complete with mask, and we’re pretty sure he’s going to dig it.

After Party City, we were going to head to Petsmart and Michael’s, but I wanted to eat first. I was thinking Mexican food, but we discussed it and decided that we’d just go to the Long John Silver’s that reopened recently on the Loop. So, we went there and got our greasy food at the drive-through, but by the time we were done with that, we were pretty much getting tired and decided to head back home. We’re going to probably go back out tomorrow and continue the Christmas shopping…

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Monday, March 17, 2008

I do my best to use them every time I shop...

Sometimes I forget to take them back out to the car after I’ve unloaded my groceries, though, so I still occasionally pick up another little plastic one. I’m trying to use up all the old plastic ones that I have sitting in the kitchen. I use them for garbage bags and if I’m delivering anything to people, like now when I’m currently giving away a bunch of books before I move to Texas. Unfortunately, our recycling center doesn’t take them yet, or they didn’t the last time I checked a couple of months ago at least…

Fred Meyer has some very good quality bags which are plenty big enough to carry most of the regular shopping I do. They charge $0.99 for them, but they’ll also replace them free if they ever tear or lose their handles. And, if you just use those, the do give you a 5-cent discount per trip, so after 20 trips or so, they’ve fiscally paid for themselves, not to mention the fact that you’re doing at least a little good for the environment…

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