My birthday flowers are mostly withered now, but this one keeps holding on, so I had to take some more photos of it. Here’s the best of the batch.

Grocery shopping accomplished! Even better, though only slightly, no one suffered massive injuries due to me driving the truck!

It felt so good to take as long as I wanted to picking out food and just wandering the aisles. It even felt good to drive the truck. I wasn’t nervous at all! I even pulled out of my driveway like a pro, and I parked in a angled parking spot between two other trucks (there were no empty areas for practicing first). So the driving went well, and I had fun getting one of my major responsibilities back. I really missed doing the shopping.

Though I do have some complaints. Don’t I always?

.95 pounds of something isn’t a pound, though the scales in the produce department will print up a ticket that charges you for a pound. If something is $1.99 a pound, and you buy .95 pounds, you should only pay $1.89. They did this on everything. I estimate that I paid about one whole buck extra for all my fresh veggies due to these math errors. What a rip-off for the customers, and what a boon of extra money for HEB. On top of that detail, not all of the prices were right in the scales either, especially the sale prices. I don’t imagine many people actually look at the damn stickers after they are printed out. I do, just to make sure it’s right. Two of mine had prices much higher than on the sign by the PLU for the produce I was buying, and since that put me in a snit, I just put the bags down and left them. Didn’t want the damn mushrooms or pears anyway. So not only are they cashing in by charging full pound prices for less than a pound, they are overcharging with the prices as well. Next time, I am going to print out the stickers, stick them to my shopping list, and let the cashier find and ring up the prices so I can see if I get equally ripped off that way. I don’t care if it makes the cashier grumpy. I am not going to use the “convenient” digital sticker-printing scales if it’s going to cost me more money to do so. Screw them.

Just imagine if every person buying food for a week for a household of two hands over an extra buck for their produce every time they go shopping? How much money do you think HEB can rake in that way?! Theft is what it is. Total scam, and yes, HEB will be hearing about it from me. I am actually so annoyed about it, I might make a special trip just to complain to the manager in person. I might also mention he can tell the employees to knock off the “Hi! How are you today?” crap too. Every single employee that passed me said it, some with a stupid grin on their face and some with no attempt at even acknowledging they were saying it to anyone in particular. Just because someone smiles and asks how you are doing while they are robbing you, doesn’t make it a pleasant experience.

I have got to find a better grocery store. Now that I have a vehicle I know won’t break down on me, I may extend my range of possible choices.

All the same, I managed to get out for a few pennies over a hundred bucks, and considering I had to buy a lot of staple items, I think I did good. Lin will probably grumble about the spinach, garlic, mushroom pizza, and I know he’s going to have a fit about the lemon flavored toothpaste. Such is life. I have had to live with his choices on all grocery related items for months, and now the tables are turned.

The microwave has just informed me my four cheese manicotti with broccoli is ready, and I am starving. I ate a small serving of last night’s spaghetti before I went shopping, but I didn’t figure I’d be there so long I’d get hungry again. I forgot to look at the exact time I left, but I had to have been there for almost three hours. Crazy! That’s what happens when you haven’t been allowed to wander aimlessly in the grocery for months topped off with the fact they renivated the whole place and moved everything around. Took me ages to find stuff, and nothing was really in any sort of logical location either. But enough griping about HEB … I’ve got manicotti to eat!

Speaking of cats, mine have been unnaturally attached to the kitchen window since I opened it yesterday.

They didn’t even come to bed last night. I guess they were afraid something interesting would happen in the back yard while they weren’t glued to the window screen.

I needed a good giggle this morning, and I found it right here. Nothing starts a day off better than photos of silly cats (and a few other critters) with even sillier captions.

“Many parts of Iraq are stable now. But, of course, what we see on television is the one bombing a day that discourages everybody.”
–Laura Bush

Oh, tra la la. There’s just one bombing a day! What’s everyone getting so upset about?!

I’m just guessing, but if there were daily bombs in California or any state in the Union, words like “stable” or “discourage” wouldn’t be used. No, I rather think words like “chaotic” and “terrifies” would be the operative words in use.

In addition to that one bombing a day Mrs. Bush mentions, it has been estimated there are approximately 185 insurgent and militia attacks DAILY. Oh yes, that sounds VERY stable. I can’t imagine why anyone would be discouraged about it all.

Always open a post with a cat photo, I say. Here’s what was on one end of my knitting needles … Ronin, biting and pulling on them.

Behind the cut, the sock that’s on the other end of the needles.
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To make up for being a slug, sleeping all day, and not getting the shopping done, I did a ton more cleaning around the house. I also decided to go ahead and get my iMac fixed, because not being able to burn DVDs is beginning to burn my nerves. There’s never going to be a good time to not have it in the house, and I might as well go ahead and get it done, right?

First, I can’t find the receipt. It’s here somewhere, but I think it might be lost somewhere in the clutter on Lin’s side of the den. I’m not overly worried about that, seeing as the Intel iMacs haven’t even been released a year ago, so there isn’t going to be any issue about whether or not it’s still under the original warranty, not to mention, Lin bought it in the Apple store in town, so they are going to have the info on it anyway. So I go to the Apple Store web site to set up an appointment with a Genius. That was when I discovered you can only make appointments for THAT DAY. That means I will have to get up early some day soon, hopefully get an appointment, and then hopefully make it to said appointment without incident. I hate not being able to plan ahead on things.

Anyway, I guess I’ll check in the morning to see if I can get in to see a Genius, so they can agree with me that my DVD burning is non-functioning, and we can get this ball rolling on getting it repaired. With my new software coming sometime in the next week or two, and said software doing animations, I might like to be able to burn a movie to DVD. I already have two movie projects saved and waiting as it is.

I’m still a little grumpy about having to have it repaired. So much for “works right out of the box” huh?

Lin took off out of here like he was late for something when he got home. No mention of where he was headed, just said he was “running away” … so my guess is he is out having some drinks somewhere with someone. Since he’s not answering his phone or text messages, I will assume he isn’t going to be home any time soon, so I am going to go ahead and make dinner (and play some FFXII — might as well).

I’m a bit grumpy about Lin just taking off with nary a word about where he was headed. We were supposed to watch a new DVD movie tonight (The Illusionist) and have dinner together. Then to not even answer his phone is extremely rude.

UPDATE: Forgot to hit post before my grumpy self moved to the kitchen. Lin is home now, and we are about to eat and watch a movie. It’s still rude to run out without even a “see you later” …