Grocery shopping rant

k you've been warned that this will be ranty.  twice now. ;o)

Darly found a shopping bag that I'm not using so that brought on this post.

I started collecting reusable grocery bags back when we were in Korea...WOW has it REALLY been that long???  anyway, I've managed to get quite the collection.  I have some that are small and pretty much just two rectangles of fabric sewn together with some handles, a few that are those square bottomed made out of some sort of plasticky recycled stuff, a few canvas bags and one really nice insulated bag.

When I first started on this adventure the grocery store used to pay me to bring my own bags.  They don't do that any longer.  They SAID they were gonna start charging folks for using plastic or paper...they haven't done that either.  So now the only real advantage to using my own bags is that I like them and they hold more stuff than those flimsy plastic bags.

Grocery store baggers are still idiots.  I KNOW that they are supposed to receive training on how to bag groceries...like don't put cans on top of the eggs and such.  But they don't seem to remember how to do that.  It has gotten so that I will shop for the right check out lane so I get a bagger with a brain and I don't get smushed bread.  If I can't do that, I usually spend a few minutes in the parking lot rebagging my groceries.

I had to take a marker to my insulated bag and write COLD on it so that my cold items go in that bag (btw: I organize my shopping cart so that similar items reach the bagger in groups.)  Yet I can't tell you how many times I get my cereal bagged in the cold items bag!  It doesn't help.

The two really small bags should be for light things like bread, chips or eggs...but no.  They like to load those up with canned food.  I now have to retire one of my bags as it is falling apart.

And then I put all my bags into the largest bag.  The idea is that they should use the bags inside that bag first and then if I go that far use the outer bag.  But the baggers like to empty the big bag and use it first...then when they finish my order figure out how to contain all my extra bags.  I bring my own produce bags too so this can be quite messy.  sigh!

oh and I frequently have to remind the baggers that I have to carry these bags once I get them home.  It seems they get some sort of sick pleasure in trying to load my entire order into one bag...that's probably why they go for my big carrying bag.  Of course this will backfire with them putting very little in the bags too.

snow and laziness

Despite what some national news reporters are saying, my area is enjoying it's second snow storm of the season...we got our first snow back on Oct 8th.  sigh

you all know of my snow allergy.  So far today I've been able to stay inside as the only place the snow is sticking to the pavement is where my driveway is hollow underneath it.  I should go out and shovel that part so that it will melt while the sun has a chance to get at it.  hummm that might provide exercise.

But alas there's the laziness I mentioned.  This kind of weather makes me lazy.  I want to just eat fattening foods and snuggle with a good book.

This snow is supposed to all be gone by the weekend...just in time for folks to come see Scrooge! 

Grandma's Birthday

My grandmother turns 90 this year in December.  She has two daughters, my mother and my aunt of course.  My mother stopped speaking to her mother and sister years ago over many years of wrongs on both sides and I don't see that ever getting cleared up.  Honestly it's my opinion that it is best for things to remain this way.

That said all the grand kids decided that we would like to take grandma out to a nice restaurant for her birthday.  There's a few problems with this...  two of us live in another state... one of us is about to be unavailable for a long time... and we're all very very busy.

Ideally it would be nice to take grandma out ON her birthday in December.  But the one who won't be available for a long time leaves at the end of November.  (sorry to be so cryptic here)  So it would seem that we need to do this in November... but then one of my cousins is going to another state for most of the month.

So what to do?  I suggest that we do this in two parts... those of us available in Nov can do it then and those of us available in Dec can do it then!

Now I have one weekend in November completely free of planned activities, that didn't work for the others.  I have one weekend that is all planned, but I can have hubby take over for me that weekend and make it work.  That seemed to work for at least 3 of the 6.

To make that work...
Darly has auditions and confirmation retreat on that weekend.  So hubby would have to take her to the audition scheduled before the confirmation retreat and deal with the possible call back.
However, I found out that the retreat might get moved...easier for hubby I guess.

Now I'm just waiting for the 3 to tell me if I should buy my flight... tick tick tick

Don't Ask updated

Hubby went back to the doctor on the 11th for a follow up appointment.  He was able to see his regular doctor who found that they had forgotten to send his x-ray from the 8th to the radiologist...which meant there was NO official diagnosis of pneumonia. :p  Doc was pretty sure that he had it though.  She felt that the anti-biotic prescribed was stronger than she would have given him...but I don't care.  I would much rather "nuke" the pneumonia than start low and work our way up to the big guns.

Hubby went back to work on the 11th to an ice cold office (they hadn't switched on the heat yet) so he came home feeling worse from trying to keep warm all day.  The doc said his lungs sounded much better though (even though she hadn't heard them on Saturday.)

On Friday hubby had to start working out side for a few days and that seemed to be a set back as he was cold and tired each day...but now he seems much better.  I forget when he goes back to see the doctor, but he does have another follow up.  And of course if I feel that he didn't kick this when he finishes up this round of antibiotics we'll go back for some more.

Just bothersome that I feel as if I have to be the real doctor here and we're just using the paid doctor to get the medication we need. :(

don't ask!

so after years of putting up with my co-leader for Girl Scouts' snide remarks she finally resigned yesterday, during our meeting...with a few more jabs at my expense.  She claims that her girls want more badges and activities and SHE can't be leading all the meetings with them.  I know this, I do a load of the meetings too...unfortunately they all tend to be the general upkeep of the troop type.  Registration, Ceremonies, Cookie Training.  Because my child isn't thrilled with being at the meetings any longer (her BFF quit) I've decided to resign also.  Being a leader is tiring and my only help without complaints was BFF's mom.

Then we had the costume parade today.  Unfortunately, I had planned to get a lot of things done this morning before the parade instead of finishing them last night...unfortunately because........

This morning hubby wakes up with symptoms of pneumonia.  He's been sick for a few days and doing fairly well (still going to work) but this morning after a rough night he felt dizzy and had some other signs that we needed to take him to see the doctor.

(note: we were both pretty skeptical about taking him to the doc because the last time he got pneumonia we took him to the ER, they ran tests and didn't find pneumonia.  Took him to the doc, confirmed diagnosis from ER and said he could fly.  Got to Michigan and was in the ER 2 days later near death with full blown double pneumonia!)

So I rearrange my schedule to fit hubby in.  Luckily, I had loaded the car Friday night with as many of the costumes as I could fit into it and I was able to drop them off when I took the girls (we had 2 extra with us this morning) to rehearsal.  My original plan was to take the second load when I returned for the parade.  But instead of finishing the labels on clothes and hangars, I was only able to reload the car...

Then I took hubby to the urgent care.  No appointment necessary... but that means waiting about 15 min in the waiting area, then about 20 min in an exam room, and then another 15 min for the x-ray and another 10 or so for the doc to say that it looks like it could be pneumonia, here's a scrip and come back in a few days.  The good news is that since hubby has a history of pneumonia the doc wasn't as lax as they were last time.  He went ahead and started treating him for pneumonia even though he doesn't have a confirmation of the diagnosis.

Well there went my chance at getting lunch!

Since the rehearsal location is right across the street from the doc office, I drove the second load of costumes off at the rehearsal and then took hubby home.  When I got back the costumes were pretty much ready for the parade.

The parade went FAIRLY well... I could have done without a few of the kids who didn't follow directions.  none of the boys seemed to be able to locate their ties or tuck in their shirts!  But otherwise not too bad.  We managed to do some alterations right there and get out by 2:15 or so.  YAY

Then I picked up hubby's scrip and finally got some food!  Hubby still  feels the same though, but I figure we're gonna need a bit more drugs before he feels any better.  sigh!  I just hope that we caught this early enough to avoid another trip to the ER.

Oh all the costumes are still in my car and will stay there until after Church tomorrow!  That is IF I make it to Church.  The doc said if Hubby started feeling worse to take him to the ER.

SUNDAY UPDATE:  Hubby says he feels 10 times better!  YAY!  Hopefully this works.  I'll take Darly to Church and see how he feels later.