Was it just me or did this week seem abnormally busy? Perhaps I’m the only one?
The task of learning a new job is a bit daunting and just a bit stressful, but it’s still a sight more enjoyable than my old position. And due to my position I’m still waiting for eight different background checks to clear before I can actually log into the production environment and get some real work done. Until that time it’s study, study, study…and work as best I can in the QA world.
After so much reading, memorizing and practicing what I’ve learned, this is exactly how I felt as I walked through the door last night:
But hey, it’s finally Friday, so it’s not all bad! I’m looking forward to a long trail run this weekend, a few beers, and with my first official paycheck from my new employer it’s time to take the wife out for some quality sushi!
Have a great weekend, everyone. See you back here next week!
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Costo is an amazing place.
Not only can I stock up on multi-packs of toothpaste, gallons of Smart Water, pounds of chocolate and obscene amounts of batteries, huge slabs of what I can only assume is some form of GM’d Frankenfish, shelled crab and industrial-sized tins of refried beans, I can also pick up some of the finest meat at prices so low that even I can afford to splurge on whole hunks of cow.
I guess the only downside to Costco is how busy the place gets during the weekends. In my eyes, what draws a large percentage of shoppers to their stores are the infamous free samples which are handed out at the end of nearly every aisle. And it seems that when shoppers spy free food their brains shut down. The falter mid-stride, abandon their carts, bags and boxes and stumble towards the alluring scents of free chili, warmed doughnuts and buttered croissants. The carnage one is forced to navigate is reminiscent of the 101 in Los Angeles during rush hour. I’m just waiting for the day when I’ll find an abandoned, tearful child screaming for it’s mother amidst the cardboard box and shopping cart ruins, forgotten and ignored by the parents who are caught in the grip of an irresistible aeons-old primal food lust.
I’m also of the firm belief that entire groups of people show up not to shop but rather to feed themselves and their extended families, which adds to the chaos in the frozen food aisles where the choicest offerings are cooked up in rapid fashion to appease the dull, slack-jawed mob that just might turn violent if denied their scrapple sampler platter and miniature cup of brewed gourmet coffee.
I feel bad for the poor saps behind the portable counters whose job it is to not only heat up their assigned pre-packaged food product, break them up into individual sample sizes and parse them into miniature paper vessels, but also to shoo away the wild-eyed, ferrel children hoping from one cart to another with unsupervised abandon and to notify the senior citizens seeking a free meal because their social security funds are tapped out for the month that “one sample per person means just that”.
But I guess I’m willing to put with having to deal with socially challenged individuals if that means I can get a 12-pack of Jimmy Dean breakfast croissants for $9 and enough Starbucks mocha frappuccino to keep me wired 24/7.
I think we each have a strange unique for certain food products. I know people who enjoy tucking into a nice plate of pickled pigs feet, habanero infused glazed duck and fish couscous. Others have a weakness for more benign fare such as wasabi peas, bananas and peanut butter sandwiches, Nutella on toast, Scrapple or head cheese.
I myself am partial to broccoli dipped in mayonnaise, artichokes, and sardines. Of course, not any ol’ sardines will do. What I truly covet is King Oscar sardines packed in mustard.
King Oscar sardines are easy enough to come by, but that’s not the case for the mustard variety.
This past weekend Karin and I were wandering around downtown and walked into a small grocery store that happened to have in stock the sardines my heart craves for. Without a seconds hesitation I picked up a hand basket and dumped into it every single tin (18 in total!) of these succulent sardines from the shelf.
I wonder, is an intervention in my immediate future?
Pancake-mix-flour-plus-baking-powder-by-the-way-you’re-still-making-pancakes-from-scratch-so-don’t-think-you-got-out-of-that-one-sucker. Yeah, that just rolls right off the tongue…
