The Big DumpTruck

I forgot to mention yesterday that when I got home from work (late) Thursday evening, I had two surprises waiting for me.

(1) The neighbor’s cat had taken a dump on my back stairs. The stairs we use. The stairs that heretofore had been catpoop-free. I was not happy.

So I went inside the house to get the jug of bleach and discovered that (2) Junior had left one of the fridge drawers slightly open when he grabbed a juicebox that morning, meaning the door had been propped open all day. Meaning I had to basically dump everything out of the refridgerator.

I just got back from grocery shopping, spent 127.26 buying my normal stuff, plus replacing everything that was in the fridge. I didn’t want to take chances with anything that was open, and I know some people leave certain condiments out for long periods of time, but I decided it wasn’t worth it, so I was even replacing things like ketchup, the little jar of minced garlic, the packages of cheese, half and half, eggs, etc. etc. etc.

I hate when that happens.

I’m working on a new series for the Daily Proble – interviews with inanimate objects. Eventually I’ll collect them and put them here on my site as reprints, but for now you can read overat the Probe.

This week’s guest: Maine.

There is so much information out there available to the average human with web access.

Did you know that you can get a report on mosquito activity in your area. I mean think about it…until now, you had to find out about mosquito activity by going outside and standing there holding a beer. Now, the internet does it for us! (Except for the beer part. My computer is underage.) Go to weather.com for your report.

Well, you know me. I love to spend money. So if I can use this Saturday’s “tax holiday” as an excuse to hit the mall, I’ll be there.

I did have one thought about this earlier today: do they really think that this will account for a huge increase in sales? Isn’t it possible that people who would have gone out to buy something yesterday, today or tomorrow are instead putting it off until Saturday? So yes, Saturdays sales numbers will be great, but the rest of the week will suck? I don’t want to be pessimistic, I love the idea of not paying sales tax Saturday, but the reality is that there was something I was going to buy yesterday that I’m putting off until the 14th (saves me the gas driving up to Nashua, really). Do the malls look as abandoned today as I think they will?

Here’s what’s on my mind today.

[crickets]

No wait, here are the items.

1. I don’t know where my sunglasses are. Did I leave them at my sister’s house? I’ll have to follow up. Luckily, it’s dreary out, so I didn’t need them. Maybe this is the heads-up I need to make an eye appointment anyway. Those sunglasses (prescription) are totally trashed, and a couple of years old. It’s time for new ones.

2. I’ve never had a gas station attendant make a comment about how empty my gas tank was before. Today, I went to the place next to the Bagel Inn, where you pump first, and when I went to pay he said “Wow, you were really empty. That car holds what, 16, 16.5 gallons?” I suppose so, I never actually checked to figure that out. I was driving with the little gas light on, if that’s any indication. But I was just thrown that he’d say anything about how much gas I’d crammed into my tank. Now I’m all self-conscious.

3. Today was the day to bring in the backpacks for the underprivileged kids. We were given a specific child (we only had first name, age, sex, sizes) and told to get them a backpack, school supplies, and clothes, etc. I had a 7-year-old girl, and I got her this awesome Hello Kitty backpack that came with a purse. We got most of our school supplies at Staples (of course) but at Target the other day I found the world’s most wonderful Hello Kitty notebook that had pink lined paper in it, so I had to buy it to go with the backpack. Then the only issue was carrying it in to work today; how many people saw me and thought it was my backpack?