Month: March 2003

I was at the grocery store yesterday, picking up the basics, and I needed to get bread. Well, apparently there’s a storm coming cause the shelves were pretty barren. A bread guy (you know, he works for the bakery that makes the bread, not the store, that kind of guy) was standing there and I asked if he handled the brand of bread I was looking for. He told me no, but that delivery guy was there, he’d probably be out in a few minutes. Then he explained that they all deliver on Tuesday because they don’t work on Wednesday. If you buy bread on Tuesday look for the green twist-tie because that’s the stuff right off the truck, and not stuff left from the last delivery. Oh, and if you buy on Sunday, look for the yellow twist tie, for the same reason. He was very helpful, considering I wasn’t going to be buying something from the company he worked for. On the other hand, I used to do grocery merchandising for a cereal company, and it was a long, lonely summer driving from store to store, and I think if someone in the store had started talking to me I would have had a conversation as well.

Oh, and here’s an interesting thing – gas prices dropped 2 cents at my favorite place. Don’t know if they did it to compete with the new Hess, which at one point last week was FOUR cents cheaper than the next cheapest place. But I’ll take a price drop of any kind, thank you. That puts us at $1.59 for regular unleaded, if you’re keeping track.

Looks like I might be moving the Big DumpTruck to a new host soon. I was trying to support a local company, but my hosting fees jumped $25 this month (and I’m still trying to figure out why, because something looks very fishy to me). Look, I love you guys, and I love writing this blog, but I cannot afford to spend THAT much money just to amuse myself.

If and when I make the change, the site may be temporarily unavailable. If you subscribe to the Dump newsletter, I will post the IP address so you will have no downtime while the change makes its way through the DNS servers of the world.

Amazingly (and if you know me, you’ll agree) I’ve gotten more items from my to-do list completed in the past two days than, well, ever. No, that’s a lie, but still, I’ve been so freaking productive. I even did all the items that required me to actually leave the house and go out in public. I returned all the overdue library books (total fine =$3.20), got something notarized, and picked up a copy of Junior’s birth certificate so that I can register him for kindergarten on Saturday. Somebody replaced my sweet baby boy with a big kid, and I’m none too happy about it.

I even scoped out two projects that I’m bidding on. I don’t want to say things are improving and jinx it, but I’m seeing more postings for tech writers, and more opportunities to do web content development. Also, I have had a couple of small projects this week, so I’m just happy to be busy.

I’m going to let the warm weather and the possible work improve my mood and not dwell on the fact that our “elected” leader chooses to ignore the American People and most of the free world, and play High Noon out in the desert. I’m going to ignore the Code Orange and throw open the windows and listen to some peppy tunes. Cause that’s the kind of gal I am.

If you have $5 or $10 or whatever, consider sponsoring my friend Jeff who is participating in the May 18th AIDS Walk NY.

I went to The Bagel Inn this morning and the scone of the day was pistachio (you know, green). I love their pistachio scones. The coffee flavor I got was a little iffy, but drinkable. I brought it home instead of eating/drinking there just because I would rather work now and have fun later, instead of the other way ’round.

Yesterday I told Junior that today he should wear green because it’s St. Patrick’s Day. The interesting thing about a kid this age is they either want lots of details or none. In this case, he didn’t even ask who St. Patrick was or why we’re celebrating his day. Just matter-of-fact acceptence.

I promptly forgot about it after that, and this morning I put out jeans and a blue long-sleeved shirt with a lizard on it. He came blazing into my room.

“Mom! I can’t wear that shirt, it isn’t green!”

“Oh wow, I forgot, let’s see if you have something green.”

We rummage. The only real green-green shirt he has is a turtleneck that is probably too small for him. I think it just comes to the waist of his pants, and who knows how tight the neck is. Plus, it’s going to be 60 today. I don’t want him to wear it but he insists. Then he finds a green pair of pants that almost matches the color of the shirt. He looks like a leprachaun, and I tell him so. He thinks that’s funny, and he also thinks (thanks Blue’s Clues!) that the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow is actually those foil covered chocolate coins, I believe aka gelt.

So he’s very green today, and proud of it. He’s actually one-sixteenth Irish. My great-grandmother (on my father’s side, his mother’s mother) was born in Ireland. Reason enough to celebrate, right?