French Vanilla Iced Coffee

I’m a huge fan of self checkouts at supermarkets. If they don’t have them in your area, let me explain. Basically you go to the checkout counter and scan your items yourself, and bag them yourself. You put your money into the self-checkout machine and it can give you change, too. I like it because it’s often quicker than dealing with clerks who love to chat with co-workers but mostly as I can bag my own groceries.

One of our supermarket chains, Stop and Shop, has a clerk who hangs around at the 4-5 self-checkout stations, helping when people need it, bagging if they have nothing else to do, etc. Shaw’s Supermarket, another chain, doesn’t have one specific person for this job. They have a front end person whose job is to supervise all the registers/checkouts and that includes helping people who need it.

Of course, people who haven’t a clue use these things. They don’t know how to find the 4-digit produce code on their produce, they don’t know where to find the scanner code, they don’t bag when you’re supposed to. And, these machines aren’t reliable as they often yell at you, “item removed from bagging area” and if you put the item back, “please remove item from bagging area.” MAKE UP YOUR MIND.

The worst has to be when you’re in a rush and don’t pay attention and push the Spanish button instead of English. All of a sudden this machine spits out Spanish at you and you can’t make it stop. Sorry, I’m in America, I speak our language. But, I digress.

Today, Stop and Shop showed me a new way to check out, but it’s so much more than that. When you walk into the store, you scan your shopper card. A button now flashes and a little gizmo is yours. The idea is you pick up the gizmo, plastic and paper bags, and as you shop, you scan the item then and there and bag it as well. When done, you simply take your gizmo to the self checkout, scan in your gizmo, and pay and leave. Simple, huh?

Aren’t I taking a job away from someone this way? What if it scans in the wrong price? Now I have to try to find someone who works for the store to delete it from my gizmo and put in the right price.

They also explain that they have the right to ‘audit‘ your groceries at any time they wish … in case you ‘forget’ to scan an item and bag it and try to leave the store.

I know at the large Wal-Mart Superstore, they did away with self checkouts. I asked why and they told me due to theft. People would scan in all their items at the register, bag them, and walk out the door, without paying! And, I’m told, at local supermarkets they do the same thing.

Look, I love to bag my own items, but if you expect me to start scanning them as I shop, bagging as I shop …. Uhm, why don’t you offer me lower prices if I’m doing my own bagging and scanning? You’re obviously saving money on the cost of an employee, so why not pass the savings on to me?

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Here is one scam. A friend emailed to ask me if the car advertised in the South Coast Craigslist (our area) was fake or not. He’s asked before and they were always bogus.

How did I spot it? He sent me the link and I ran the email address through Google and it gave me 2 links … one for an identical car in Washington, DC and another for a car being sold on Craigslist that had been removed.

ALWAYS check before making such a purchase online

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Now, what bothers me about this is she was not a PORN star. She did have an adult website, and she did appear nude, but did not do any hardcore sex. When girls pose on Internet sites, they are “porn stars” yet when they post nude in Playboy, they are revered as sexy women who chose to pose nude. Why the double standard?

RIP, Zoey Zane.

Autopsy slated for secret porn star

EL DORADO, Kan. - The search for a missing college student who led a secret life as an Internet porn performer turned into a homicide case after her body was apparently found.

Authorities said the preliminary physical description of the body found Thursday about 50 miles east of El Dorado matches that of Emily Sander, who was last seen leaving a bar here a week ago with a man who stayed in a motel room where police found large quantities of blood. An autopsy was planned for Friday.

Investigators refused to give details about the state of the body or how it was found. Police Chief Tom Boren said the cause of death was not yet known.

Sander’s case drew wide attention after it was revealed that she appeared on a popular adult Web site under the name Zoey Zane. In some photographs, she appears merely scantily clad in lingerie or cowgirl outfits. Other pictures, some of which require viewers to pay for, are more explicit, showing her nude, fondling herself and posing with other women.

The 18-year-old Butler Community College student was last seen Nov. 23 with Israel Mireles, 24. Authorities are looking for him and his 16-year-old pregnant girlfriend.

The rental car the pair were driving was found abandoned Tuesday in Vernon, Texas, where Mireles has relatives.

“We got no information from them at all and very little cooperation,” Boren said of Mireles’ family.

The search for Sander gripped this small community, and the apparent discovery of her body left only memories to comfort her friends and family.

“She was probably the most independent girl I know,” said Nikki Watson, a close friend. “She was so anxious to get out on her own and make something of herself. She was ready to take on life.”

Former boyfriend Michael McAllister, 20, said Sander moved in with him when she was 17.

“It was the best time of my life, and I hope it was the same for her,” McAllister said.

He helped her finish high school, and she encouraged him in college. They bought pink and white Denver Broncos jerseys for themselves and their dog, Zan, that they wore on game days. She loved to dance to hip-hop music.

“She wanted to choreograph music videos. That is the only reason she did the Internet thing — to get a little exposure,” McAllister said.

They broke up in September after she started posing for nude photos, he said.

Watson said the attention over Sander’s Web site has upset her friends.

“She never referred to it as her porn site,” she said. “It was just her Web site. She didn’t make it into this big thing.”

Police insisted that Sander’s Internet activity had no connection to her disappearance. “The issue of the Internet and the spinoff of that has been literally crippling our investigation,” Boren said.

The body was found as searchers on foot and all-terrain vehicles were checking the tall grass along each side of Highway 54 as they traced the route Mireles may have taken Saturday on the way to Baxter Springs to pick up his girlfriend.

Sander’s grandmother, Shirley Sander, said the discovery of a body would “very definitely” bring closure to the family.

“We had to know one way or another,” she said in a telephone interview.

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Didn’t realize it had been SO long since I’ve written in this blog. Well that is about to change!

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Apparently the rules have changed. Or, maybe I’m just a throwback to the 50’s. What I’m learning is that when people “date” these days, it simply means they are friends. People who are dating are allowed to answer other personal ads, date other people, and have sex with whomever they want. From what I’m learning, until you sit down and have a talk and agree to be exclusive to each other, anything goes.

Now for me, that’s garbage. To me, if you are dating, you are getting to know someone, and you should have that person as you central focus. If you’re still perusing personal ads, then you’re looking for someone else or someone better, and that isn’t fair to the person you are dating. Friends can go out as friends but not hug or kiss at the end of the night, as people who date do.

Me, I went to be wooed. I want someone who wants me and me only and devotes their attention to me solely. I won’t be looking at other men or wanting to meet other guys so why should you be able to do so?

I think I’m just too old-fashioned to be dating in this century as I have such outdates ideas and ideals of what dating entails.

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I think if you did, you’d never eat at a restaurant again!

I went to a local steakhouse to buy some salad dressing. Sound odd? Well, I don’t like the bottled dressings you get at the grocery store and the homemade never comes out quite right. I ate at this particular steakhouse once and their Italian salad dressing was really good, and they told me it was homemade. I took some home and now I buy it all the time. It’s much more expensive than store bought but well worth the extra cost.

So, I have to wait a while as they package it up for me, so I view the open kitchen. First a chef took a steak out of a refrigerator, then sprinkled it HEAVILY with whatever type of seasoning they use on their steaks, but one would assume it contained a healthy dose of sodium. Then he salted the other side … and then took a brush full of oil, brushed it on the grill, and slapped on the steak. Over the next few minutes he poked and prodded the piece of meat rather than just letting it cook.

He turned it several times, then put it on the open flame grill. He moved it around a bit, poked it with a fork (NEVER DO THAT TO MEAT!) and then finally put it on a plate.

So, you have a greasy salty heavily seasoned piece of steak that should have been unmolested, but instead was ruined.

Then I watched them making rolls, putting the dough into a massive mixer, then kneading the dough. A pan came out of a proofer and were brushed with oil/butter and put into the oven. A pan was removed from the oven and again, painted with oil/butter.

I would say that meal, sans veggie, has more fat in one meal than I eat in several days!

I C K!!!

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So, it’s over and I thought I’d critique this season. First, it wasn’t exciting to me. The auditions featured mostly horrific singers with one or two surprises thrown in. There were a lot of what I felt were good singers who were overlooked.

When it came down to the 20, there really weren’t any men who stood out. Personally I liked Sundance Head and felt he’d go far. For the women, I felt Melinda Doolittle and LaKisha Jones would be the top 2 women.

HA.

Sundance was voted off and yet that kid Sanjaya Malakar was allowed to stay for much too long. He really didn’t have a great voice, so I’m not even sure why he went past the judges to the top 20. Yes, he was cute with a great smile and great hair (until he cut it) but he was talentless.

Melinda was consistently the best performer and outshone everyone. Her voice is exquisite and she’s the consumate professional. However, Melinda was not an attractive woman, not sexy by her own admission, and she was 29, and I think all those factors worked against her since the “my bff Jill” crowd seems to be the ones voting on American Idol.

I’m sure she’ll have a record deal and will still do well.

LaKisha Jones started off very strong but seemed to lose a lot of steam midway through the competition. She never smiled during a performance and was wooden and didn’t connect with the audience at all. Simon liked her, despite her large size or maybe in spite of it!

There was the controversy with Antonella, who posed semi-nude for friends and the photos were circulated all over the Internet.

This year was boring. Last year we had Chris Daughtry, Elliot Yamin, Taylor Hicks, Kelly “salmon” Pickler, Bucky Covington, etc .. they had talent, they were fun, they were exciting. We all tuned in to see what stupid thing Kelly would say, to see what dance Taylor would do, to see how Ace would wear his hair.

Near the end of season six, when it was Blake Lewis and Jordin Sparks, I lost interest. Jordin was a decent singer but never made me say “ooh” like others had done. Blake was fun when he did his beat boxing (I’d never heard of it before that!) but I don’t think he’s a great singer.

They say the ratings for this season are down and I have to believe it was the lack of exceptional talent this year.

What will next year bring?

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Do you agree with Don Imus being fired for calling the Rutgers girls basketball team “nappy headed hos?”

Is this a freedom of speech issue?

I admit, I’m torn. I believe in freedom of speech but I think there should be limits. People are worried our “young people” will hear what he said and it will affect them. Uhh, they hear a lot worse in today’s rap lyrics. All the women are bitches and hos and you’re told to “smack them up” and treat them like garbage.

One of the people who campaigned to get Don Imus fired is Jesse Jackson, who is infamous for calling Jews “hymies” and New York City as “hymietown” in a 1984 interview. Now, granted, this was a while back, but still … isn’t he just as bad?

Shock radio hires shock jocks for one reason — TO SHOCK YOU. Calling black women “nappy headed hos” is part of his job, I guess. He’s supposed to say things to cause controversy.

But, how far is too far?

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Today, when at the grocery store, I saw a display of 16 ounce bottles of Pepsi. They were being sold individually, so I went up closer to check them out. These were not regular bottles of Pepsi, though. Oh, no, this was Pepsi Jazz, and diet Pepsi Jazz at that.

I guess they thought they had to “jazz up” the taste of Pepsi. So, I bought a bottle of Diet Pepsi Jazz Black Cherry French Vanilla, Diet Pepsi Jazz Strawberries & Cream and Diet Pepsi Jazz Caramel Creme.

The caramel cream was my least favorite, as it didn’t have a strong taste of caramel or cream. The black cherry French vanilla was too busy for me, but the strawberries and cream was really good. There was a slight taste of strawberry without overpowering the taste of Pepsi.

I found out there are many, many, MANY other flavors of regular and diet Pepsi. There is: Pepsi Lime, Diet Pepsi Lime, Pepsi Twist
Diet Pepsi Twist, Wild Cherry Pepsi, Pepsi Vanilla, Diet Pepsi Vanilla and Pepsi One.

When I was a kid, we had Coke, Pepsi and RC Cola. If you wanted diet soda, you had Tab or Fresca. That was it. Then along came Diet Rite Cola. Life was simple. You wanted a drink, you drank a little soda and they all seemingly tasted the same. Then the cola wars started.

If you were sick, you were given ginger ale. Plain old ginger ale. Have you shopped for it lately? Raspberry flavored, grape flavored, orange flavored and cranberry flavored ginger ale.

Why do we have to continually flavor things? Wasn’t life simpler when things were just, well, plain?

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Well, we’re down to the top 10 and I have to agree with a lot of people that this year’s talent just isn’t as high quality as previous years. Last year we had Taylor Hicks, Katherine McPhee, Elliot Yamin, Chris Daughtry and so many others. This year we have 2 women, LaKisha and Melinda, with talent, though no one on the male side really shines. Sanjay Malakar has no real talent other than great hair and a great smile, and all the little girls are voting for him.

I don’t vote but if I did, I’d vote for Melinda as she is the most professional with the most potential.

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