Daylight Savings Time - 2012

Well, folks, daylight savings time is upon us.  This is the weekend we turn the clocks back forward an hour.  And Monday is the day everyone looks forward to: Dragging their (and worse, their children's) sorry carcasses out of bed an hour earlier than normal.

YEAH TEAM!

Here @ Scope-Tech, it just wouldn't be right for this occasion to pass without note.  So, back again, is everybody's favorite couple, Larry & Sarah.

And, if you wish to revisit some of my older posts on the topic (because you're boring and have nothing better to do on a Saturday night, unlike me, who is going grocery shopping), the links are below.

• The Times They Are A Changing (I'm particularly fond of the DST video explaining DST in this one.)
• A Happy Thought For Friday
• And Now, A Word About Daylight Saving Time…
• Spring Ahead

It Came From The Aisles – Out & About

This week, I've been talking about being out grocery shopping with my fabulous and lovely wife, Cora.  But, not all the great finds are in the grocery store.  And they can be both free and priceless.

"Korean Live B.B.Q."?!?  Are they barbecuing live Korean's?  That's a very specific form of cannibalism that they are targeting there. I can't see that the market will be able to support that thing for long.

 
The colorblind play full price, I guess.

 
No.  I don't want any part of that.  No.

Look, it's "Rumspringa Barbie" and her English slut friends.

 
"Low Radiation"  That's a HELL of a selling point to put right in your face.  "Low Radiation – Cooking you slower, like the 'defrost' setting on your microwave."

"The Stripper And Other Fun Songs For The Family" – What the hell kind of family do they live in?  I did look up the album (sorry for the glare) and yes, the song is the one you're thinking of (video link).  I didn't know anything about David Rose, so I looked him up.  The dude was married to Martha Raye, but divorced her for Judy Garland.

It Came From The Aisles – WTF?

Note: For those of you who commented on yesterday's post, I have responded.

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As I mentioned last time, my lovely and talented wife, Cora, and I do the weekly grocery shopping together.  It's kind of funny, there's an Aldi across the street.  Literally, across the street from our condo.  When I moved in, I gave them a try.  When Cora moved in, she gave them a try.  It's a poorly lit Hall of the Damned, we simply can't visit it.  Just down the street is a Family Dollar.  They have a surprising variety, and being in walking distance, a great place to grab that "one thing".  We tend to hit them up for cleaning supplies and their snack cake knock-offs that we call, "Faux-Ho's".

As mentioned, Dominick's is our preferred store, but there's also Jewel-Osco, Target,  and a new guy, Mariano's, an offshoot of Wisconsin's Roundy's chain has also moved into the neighborhood (Actually into the building that used to house the Dominick's we used to shop at).  And then there's the Entenmann's Outlet (aka "The Bread Store").  Killer prices on bread, bagels, English muffins, and donuts.  The clerk looks like a peroxide nightmare, but she's actually pretty nice.

All-in-all, we shop far and wide, and sometime, just sometimes, we are amazed at what we see:

 
That's a very, very weird bit of of shelf placement for the 45 Piece Tool Set.

Our local Dominick's has a parking lot on the roof.  I saw this weird, enclosed 3 wheeled, motorcycle.  Sorry for the bad shot.  Only had the cell phone camera, and she was pretty far away.  I've seen them before, in London, but never around here.

"Fiber for Life"?  I'm not sure that I need a lifetime's worth of fiber in my bread.  Lordy!

 
I don't think I need Uncle Joe's mint balls keeping me all aglow.  I think that's more of a therapy thing.

Speaking of "therapy"…

I think I'll need some after staring deep into the "Red Eye".  See!  I'm hypo-mo-tized!

And while not at the grocery store, I did pass this little wine shop in my neighborhood that had a very interesting display in the window.  Joshua, this is for you:

 
A little Star Trek.  A little Dr. Who.  And Maybe some pirates?

 

 
Next time, some more oddities from our shopping trips.

It Came From The Aisles – Saving A Buck

On Sunday, the my wife, Cora, and I went grocery shopping.  Pretty standard weekend activity.  We grocery shop together every weekend.  It's kind of "our time" together.  One thing that's kind of cool is how we've gotten into saving money on the tab with about as little effort as possible.
We can't be like those "EXTREME COUPONERS" for a few good reasons:

• We live in Chicago.  None of the stores double or triple your coupons, or allow for overages.
• We live in a 2 BR condo & rent a mostly full storage unit.  Space is at a premium.
• To quote my mother "I don't want to die with all my cash tied up in toilet paper."
• Despite rumors to the contrary, we aren't freaks like that.

Our two main grocery stores, Dominick's and Jewel-Osco (Safeway & SuperValu vs. Albertsons, respectively) both offer their discount club cards.  Weekly discounts on whatever.  We normally shop Dominick's, and one thing I like is that while they usually advertise things like, "2 for $5.00" but it's really priced @ $2.50 each.


But now they've started something new, called, "Just For U" where you can load even more discounts "coupons" on to your card.  The trick is, you've got to go to the website, and put the deals on your card.  There are 3 sections: Coupon Center, Personalized Deals, and Price Match.  The Coupon Center are their deals for everyone.  Often, there's a deal for like, "$1.79 a gallon on milk, must buy 2".  Not shabby.  (The last two weeks, the milk is gone, but we've gotten a dozen free eggs each week.)
The personalized deals are based on your buying habits, and targeted at you.  I know that there are people out there who don't like the idea of the grocery store knowing what they bought, so the idea of getting tracked and targeted ads like this really bothers them.  But you know what, I don't care if the store knows that we buy their store brand of peanuts, and they offer us a deal on Planters peanuts @ 16 oz jar for $2.93 vs. the regular $5.99.  (A real personalized deal this week.)
AND, they've got a section where they price match some of the deals from Jewel-Osco and Target.  (Our local Target stores have been pushed by the city / county / state to offer more groceries, including fresh foods.)  This section usually doesn't have a whole lot, but it's better than nothing.
I know that sounds like a lot of work, but it really isn't.  Maybe 10 minutes on the computer, then printing it out, and having it with you, so you can remember what the deals are.

But, as they try to make very clear, the savings do add up.  It's not always 39%.  Last week 'swas 29%.  The week before that 37%.  Not being Rockefellers, saving an extra $24 for a couple of minutes websurfing is a deal I'm willing to make.
Anybody else out there doing the "Just For U" thing?  How are your savings?  Does your store chain have a similar thing?
Next up:  It Came From The Aisles!!!

Jumpin' On The Meme Bandwagon

Over on this little microblogging website call "The Facebook" (have you heard of it?) there's this 6 picture meme going around.

There are all kinds of them.

One for teachers:

 

One for living with chronic pain:

So, being a Photoshop sort of guy, I couldn't let this meme get too old before I jumped on the bandwagon.

So, what topic should I choose?

Ahhhhh…

 
The hardest part of it was finding the picture in the upper right corner while the stepdaughter kept coming into the room!

Have a good weekend, all.  There's a mild bug going around our condo, and I've got it at the moment.  So I can sure use the sleep.

A Kiss Of Grammar

Back in high school, I read the following in Ann Landers in my local paper. (Apparently from Oct. 11, 1982). I cut it out back in the day, and remember running across the slip of paper off and on thru my life. I haven't seen it in years, so it must be lost in the sands of time. Thanks to the internet for helping me find it.

Here's the text (in case you don't want to squint at the clipping):

• A kiss is a noun because it is both common and proper.
• A kiss is a pronoun because she stands for it.
• A kiss is a verb because it is either active or passive.
• A kiss is an adverb because it modifies the art.
• A kiss is an interjection because it shows strong and sudden feeling.
• A kiss is a conjunction because it connects.

I know it's a little late for Valentine's Day, but every day is Valentine's Day when you're in love, right?

Guitar Heroes

Love is…

Doing a Harry Potter post for your wife on Valentine's Day.

Do whatever makes your loved-ones happy today (and every day) even if is society doesn't view it as "romantic".

It's A Major Award: Padded Cell Princess

A week or so ago, The Padded Cell Princess gave me this award: 

So you, Princess, you want learn more about me?  Well, let me give 5 not so random facts about me.  I figure that since I've been blogging for over 3 years and 650 post, some of the newer folks around these parts might enjoy a little cheat-sheet.

1 – I started writing as "Scope" in the fall of 1984.  For 3.5 years, I wrote a column for my college newspaper under the pen name "Scope".  I probably averaged over 3 posts a week on whatever topic was on my mind.  It was very much like blogging LONG before the concept of a "blog" had been thought up.  Here's a LINK to a post with one of those "Daily Other" columns.

2 – In 2002, I was unemployed for a year.  (53 weeks to be exact.)  Being a bored tech guy with a tonne of free time, I set up a GeoCities account (remember those), where I would post content for friends and family.  There was a section on the site call "Scope-Tech".  To post anything to the site, you had to load the whole HTML page and it was a real pain in the @$$, so after my sabbatical was over, I just didn't have time to devote to keeping it up-to-date.  GeoCities is now dead, but I did resurrect a lot of the Scope-Tech content in my earliest blog posts.

3 – In 2008, I was at the summer party for some college friends.  (Yes, doing the math, you will see I've know them a LONG time!)  The wife had had various renditions of this party most every summer since graduation, and I'd been to most.  At this party was another one of their friends who went to the same college that we did, but started after we graduated.  The funny thing is, this was the first time we'd ever met, even though we had dozens of the same friends.  Heck, I even crashed out on her cousin's couch one night.  We got to talking, and she showed me her blog.  Blog?  What is this?  I started following her, and commenting, and then commenting on other commenters blogs.  I was commenting for about 2 months before I started my own blog.  While Gwen doesn't really post much anymore, my first commenter, Candy, is still rockin' blogworld.

4 – I met my wife, Cora, through blogging.  The first comment I ever left her was on THIS POST, and it translates to: "I want to hide a spy-camera in your house to watch you exercise."  I'm so SMOOOOOTH, no wonder she couldn't resist me.  I flew 2,000 miles to suburban Seattle for our first date.  I stayed at a Comfort Inn.  444 days later, in the breakfast room of that same Comfort Inn, we had our rehearsal dinner.

5 – Growing up, I never really imagined being married.  And I never once thought of having kids.  As I entered my 40's, I had pretty much given up on meeting "The One".  I had even come to terms with with it.  And now, I can't imagine life without my wife and child.  I'm plunging into the unimagined future and can't wait to see what's next.

If you want more random facts, I once did a post with over 100 random facts about myself.  While some of them are out-of-date, you can check it out HERE.  I love this fact:

099 - I dated a girl who had a bird. Mean little fucker. And the bird was no prize either.

Now, the part of the meme where I get to pass it along to 5 other bloggers.  How about we learn a little more about:

1. That Janie Girl
2. Angela's Archives
3. Shana's Place 
4. Candy's daily Dandy
5. The Colie Chronicles

Cap Goes Crazy / "Big Sandwich"

Lego minifig stop motion projects.

You've seen a lot of them.

I've posted a lot of them.

But none like this.

This is one Lego minifig stop motion project that I would definitely make sure the little ones weren't watching over your shoulder.

I love the "toss the clip up into the pistol" bit that comes at 0:28.

Happy Super Bowl weekend, ya'll.  I'm off to get the fixings for "Big Sandwich" as mentioned in my 3rd Post Ever, and again in this Super Bowl 2009 post.  Here's a crappy cell phone shot of "Big Sandwich" from that post.

 
Yeah, you want some of that, admit it.  You're just trying to figure out how to unhinge your jaw to eat it.

And Candy, "Yes, that's a 'Terrible Towel' on the back of the sofa."  :-)

Date Night

So, a couple of weekends ago, I had an epiphany.  I'm married to a smart, sex, wonderful, amazing woman, and it's been FAR TOO LONG since I've taken her out on the town.

Guys, seriously, if you had a wife like Cora, wouldn't you want to take her out.

So, we scheduled a "Date Night."

We left a big pile of Kibble and a bowl of water for the girl… We made sure our 15 year old daughter had dinner before we headed out on Saturday night.  The night was a little cold, but the winter has been so mild, we walked to one of the Thai restaurants in the neighborhood.  "One of"?  Yes.  I think there's like 8 Thai restaurants within a short walk my place.  That's not counting a couple of sushi joints and a Chinese place.  (And I live in a German neighborhood.  Seriously.)

We walked hand in hand to the restaurant, a little store front place that has gotten some pretty decent press, and we've been to a few times with great success.

Even though it was Saturday at dinner time, we got a table for two right away.  We sat at the table, talking like adults.  We didn't talking about the court case we are dealing with, and we didn't talk about the daughter too much either.  We just talked.

And it was wonderful.

(I had the spicy basil with chicken.  Cora had the cashew chicken.  We split the "crab lagoon".  Tasted like crab rangoon to me.  I knew you'd want to know.)

After dinner, we wanted a little dessert, but nothing on the menu sounded good, so we hiked up to a Mexican place.  Cora got the flan covered chocolate cake, and I got the berry cheese cake. MMmmmmmm…

We brought the desserts home, and ate them while watching Dead Again, one of Cora's favorite movies, starring a couple of Hogwarts professors (Gilderoy Lockhart & Sybil Trelawney) in a past lives / murder mystery drama.  And at about midnight, the movie and the date ended.

It was a good date.

I'm looking forward to doing it again soon.  :-)

Are you married?  Do you have date nights or is that just a "newlywed thing"?

This Is What You Get For Waking A Brother Up…

Wake the groundhog…

get a cap popped in your @$$!

Makes sense to me.

Happy Groundhog Day!

Christmas Part 1 – 2 - 3

Wow, am I behind on this old section of the internets.  Well, time to play some quick catch-up I presume.

So, this year, we had 3 Christmases.

1. Christmas Eve at my sister's house
2. "Our Family Christmas" with just the 3 of us on the 28th
3. New Year's Eve at my sister-in-law's new house in the Seattle area.

Christmas #1

My family does "Christmas" on Christmas Eve.  Always have.  That's when the big group party is.  Then Christmas Day is a much lower key thing.  We drove down there on the morning of Christmas Eve and had a good visit with my mom & dad.  We then went over to my sister's house (about 10 miles away) for the party.

We ate, talked, Cora met my brother's wife & son who she had never met before, and exchanged some gifts.  We did the "draw one person's name" thing this year, and it went well.  There was a $25 limit, and I think everybody was happy with it, for the most part.

Then it was game time!

My sister split us into teams of two, and we plaid a number of "Minute to Win It" type games.  They are harder than they look on TV, and we had to ditch some, and alter others, but you can't help but laugh at someone trying to use their facial muscles to move an Oreo from their forehead into their mouth.

Christmas day was low key, but that evening, we went to a local park that puts up a decent Christmas light display for a town on 20,000.

	The park features a cute little iron and wood bridge over the central pond.  I've fished for bluegills off that bridge in my youth.
	Another view of the bridge, reflected in the pond.
	And here is my lovely wife on said bridge.
	OMG!  It's the Claus Ness Monster!
	And then I started playing with the exposure setting on my camera, taking some long exposure photos of a string of lights…
	And a tree full of red lights to make it look on fire…
	Some reindeer moving at warp speed!
	And speaking of warps, I love this little time warp effect running down the tunnel.

Christmas #2

Was a quiet little affair.  In the morning, we opened our stockings.  Then, after a break where I went to work all day (*sigh*), we opened our presents.  I was too busy living in the moment to take any pictures, and am too lazy to steal any of my wife's pictures.  So if you want to read her account, go HERE.

Christmas #3

We flew out to the Pacific Northwest on the 30th.  I took a day off so that we could catch an earlier flight, and that worked out extremely well, as we got out there in time to actually visit with the family when the plane landed, and not just going to sleep.

On New Year's Eve, we went to the house that my SIL's family & my MIL will all be buying together and moving into shortly for a super-combo celebration of Christmas/New Year's/Birthdays.

A good time was had by all.  Because there was cake.

We also visited Callista, her husband, and their dog, Moose, who as you can see, is the "Tennis Ball Terror Terrier of Tulalip".  But otherwise, a cool dog.

Later in the visit, we all went to downtown Seattle to Pike Place Market, where we saw some über creepy ventriloquist dummies.  The guy in the store was twisting and moving their heads so they looked like they were tracking you!  (For those of you with clown phobias, try getting Bozo there out of your noggin tonight as you go to sleep.)
  
And then right up the street, there was another place that puts dolls on display.  They actually had some pretty good signs, I must admit.

But, before we knew it, it was time to head back home.  And I think we got out of there just in time!  The storms came in, the trees came down, and the power went out.  It looks like things are slowly returning to "normal", but the new house that they are buying has been without power for over a week.

I think someone better get a visit for the Auxiliary Generator Faerie before next winter!

Mine! Mine! Mine!

In the winter, there's a strange tradition in Chicago that takes over after a decent snowfall. It's called "Dibs".

It's basically the idea that if you shovel out your parking spot after a snowfall, you should get the spot when you come back home. Sounds fair, right?

And then it goes to the extreme.

I get it for a quick run to the store the day after a decent snow. 3 days after a 6" snow? Put your junky old kitchen chairs and milk crates back in your garage. You're embarrassing yourselves, here.

But, I guess if you leave your wife sitting out in the chair, and she's got THAT look on her face waiting for you to get back, well, go for it, big guy.

Do any any other cities have this type of thing? I'm lucky that I've got a garage spot in my condo (if "lucky" means having a separately deeded parking space with its own mortgage) so that I don't really have to deal with it.

Virtual Sunday Part 2 Cinema

Okay, I know today is really only "Virtual Sunday Part 2" for those of us with the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday off, but since I don't get another holiday until Memorial Day*, I'm going to enjoy it.

Before we head out to see "Beauty and the Beast 3D" in a few minutes, I thought I would share this little number with you:

I was pretty surprised they didn't have a "MySpace" joke or "I didn't see you last night on AIM" or something like that, though.  And why isn't there a shot of him at a football game, wearing a Snuggie, exclaiming how great they are?

Do I have to start making my own videos now?

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* For those of you in the South, that would be the day honoring the Union dead in the War of Northern Aggression.  My old roommate used to work for a national company based in Atlanta, and they did not get that day off as a paid holiday.

Would You Eat…

Sushi from Walgreens?

That's what I said, "Sushi from Walgreens". Seriously? Sushi. Walgreens.

Or drink a smoothie?

Get a makeovers or manicure?

Yesterday, Walgreens opened up a "Flagship Store" in Chicago.

I'll let that sink in for a second.

A fancy, up scale Walgreens flagship store.

Here's a LINK to the story in case you're interested.

The funny thing is, when I saw the signs announcing that a Walgreens was going into that location, I laughed. When I got my first job in Chicago, I worked about a block and a half down State St. from where this store is going in. (Today, I work a good 2.5 blocks away.) And the place was a Walgreens back then.

And it was a hellhole. An absolute hellhole .

It was there for about 80 years, then they knocked it down in 2005 and put up a fancy building with a Loehmann's store. But that closed, and now Walgreens is moving back in.

On the map above, I have marked the location with a "W", and you can see by the other pushpins and red dots on the map, they desperately needed a Walgreens in that location. Someone might have to walk 2 whole blocks to get to one.

That's not drugstores. That's Walgreens. There are also a handful of CVS's in the Loop, too.

And thankfully none of the others offer sushi (that I'm aware of).

And if they do, I'm still not eating it.