Bastet

I've shopped there in a pinch, but usually the sale prices aren't much cheaper (and the regular prices are higher) than my local liquor store, and even where BevMo would save me a couple of bucks per bottle, I'd rather give the money to the family who owns the liquor store than the corporation that owns BevMo. It's not a membership store, but they do have a rewards card like most grocery chains and such do. I'm not sure if you need to have one of those cards in order to get the sale prices (my parents have one, so I just give their phone number the few times I shop there), but you get coupons that, if used to purchase something on sale, probably add up to a nice chunk of savings. The five cent wine sale sounds like it might be a good deal, but I've never really explored how decent the wine selection is.

I'm largely assuming, although I also think I saw this stated here earlier, that it was because Carter was Lucy's direct supervisor, in charge of her evaluation, etc. so it would have been totally inappropriate to date her and he didn't want Carter to be the kind of person who would do that.

I'm surprised there isn't a sign posted saying the lot is for customers only (and, no, counting yourself as a customer for purposes of parking there all day long five days a week because sometimes you pick up some groceries on the way in/out wouldn't fly). My reaction is in line with Moose's -- sure, for your particular circumstances (of which they have no reason to be aware), I'm sympathetic to you wanting to park there, and I get that it's a big lot, but what if everyone who catches the bus at that stop wanted to park there all day every weekday? They can't pick and choose who can and who can't, so once they become aware anyone is doing it, they have to put the kibosh on it. Why it took so long, I don't know - someone new working somewhere bringing it to management's attention, probably - but that's the action to take. They should also put up signs, though.

Today was an even worse day than yesterday, and somehow that made me crave steak, even though that's what we're having for Mother's Day dinner and I don't normally eat that much red meat in three months, never mind three days. So I picked up a rib-eye on the way home and will grill that and roast some Brussels sprouts. But, for now - Maker's Mark on the rocks.

There's a fourth episode on right now. My program guide and the Pop TV website both show Celebrity Name Game as usual (today, and next week), but the next episode of ER, Vanishing Act, is airing instead. Weird. Oh, poor Corday having to intern for that asshole resident played by the guy who played the asshole fiancé in The Wedding Singer!

It's somewhat common for me to use three burners at a time, but it's usually two, and I can't say for sure I've ever used all four at once. I'd definitely be able to manage with two.

Ack! It seems like just five minutes ago we got rid of Cynthia, and now it's already time for Lucy. Is she wearing a fanny pack?! Shifting gears, one of the things I clearly remembered about this show is how fun I find the Corday/Romano interaction as time goes on. "I couldn't do it, work with family." "Robert, you can't work with anyone."

The 87-year-old driver of the car Katherine Berman rear-ended, Edward Bertulis, was also killed in the accident (she was pronounced dead at the scene, he upon arrival at the hospital), and a state police source has told a couple of media outlets they are investigating the possibility he suffered a medical emergency immediately before the collision. The Berman family issued a statement urging people to remember Bertulis as well. Bertulis' children issued a statement saying he was healthy and drove the speed limit (and that he was on his way home from visiting his late wife's grave). It's not clear from the reports I've read in what order those three announcements occurred. It sounds like a tragic accident all around, and hopefully things don't get any more awful than they already are.

It has been A Day, it's already almost 10:30, I've had roasted broccoli as the day's sole food consumption, I'm hungry and in no mood to cook, so what's for dinner is pizza, made by someone else. Wheat crust (thin) with spicy olive oil base, topped with chicken, goat cheese, caramelized onions, and arugula. I'm counting the arugula as my salad, since I don't feel like making - or paying for - a side salad (I eat a mixed-greens salad of some sort with almost everything). This restaurant does a great fried calamari appetizer that actually travels well, but I talked myself out of a fried appetizer just a couple of hours before bed (I know, like a late-night pizza isn't bad enough). Now I'm anxiously awaiting delivery.

Trying to get my schedule/routine back into the swing of watching the show again, I wound up only seeing a few minutes tonight. Part of that was the iodine TS. Iodized salt, blah, blah, blah -- has the worldwide iodine deficiency/goiter association really fallen that far out of common knowledge?

I missed today's episodes, but IMDb says she played "Patrice Robbins," and Robbins is Jackie and Walt's last name, so it sounds like the answer is yes. Going back to the episode where Jackie ran into Peter and Elizabeth out together: The way Khandi Alexander played that cracked me up, because if you had asked me in advance to visualize Jackie's face should she think/find out Peter is dating a white woman, that is exactly the face that would have come to mind!

"No fighting, no cussing, no nakedness," but his treatment of women is hunky dory?

Yeah, as I said, it was Y&R Tricia Cast was on, and the character's name was Nina (Nina Webster, then Nina Webster McNeil, according to IMDb). I have no recollection of her storyline, though, other than something with the Chancellors. Ah, look - there's a Y&R Wiki; here's her info. She must have been somewhat memorable if we both recognized her from a soap we didn't pay much attention to. Especially with 15 episodes airing per week, it starts to feel pretty ridiculous -- there's a sense they're frequently confronting some systemic crisis (or outside-the-hospital misadventure).

I was thinking The Young & The Restless, but she was definitely on one of the CBS soaps. As Nina Something? Dammit, now I have to go look this up ... Yes, it was Y&R (and I even got Nina right; wow, is that taking up unnecessary space in my brain, since I haven't watched that show since the '80s and only did so occasionally even then) and the actor's name is Tricia Cast. Anyway, as for Mark's joke, I didn't catch that (it was one of the episodes I was only paying sporadic attention to), but that's an improvement over his false accusation refrain (even after the police told him the guy had an alibi). I didn't remember Mark being such an insufferable asshole the first time around; I'm sure seeing a season play out in just over a week is affecting my perception.

Sweetened ass. (Mayonnaise vs. Miracle Whip is something of a thing in America; there are people who like both, certainly, but there are more who strongly prefer one over the other. There's a heavy regional element to it. As you can tell, I'm a card-carrying member of Camp Mayo.)

Oh my gosh, Carter's complete lack of game when it comes to women cracks me up -- he is finally going to ask Anna out ... while she's stoned on Percodan. (Mark's equally non-existent skill at planning a banquet is also entertaining.) The whole trajectory of Scott Anspaugh's storyline has been obvious since the moment we met him, but I still teared up when he finally said he doesn't want any more chemo.

I'd forgotten (don't most of my posts about this show start that way?) how much I liked Corday. She's completely straight-forward about what she wants, and she's always reaching out to other women on staff for conversation and socialization. And screw you, Peter -- when a woman tells your showing up unannounced self, "This isn't a good time," do not interrupt her by literally saying, "No," and then plowing on with what you want to say.

I did the same thing. (I'm not particularly fired up about Blue Bell, either, but Blue Bunny is forgettable.)

I learned the hard way to request "lightly salted, please" in Tom Colicchio's restaurants. I should have known from the show, I guess. Mayonnaise is also on my short list of things where I like a commercial brand (Best Foods in my case) better than homemade.

I didn't come in until the decision of the first round, but I found the "FN Chefs and Their Moms" competition a bit patronizing. And it was annoying not to have any female chefs working alongside their moms. I like that Ted was competing; I think he said he'd never participated in that role other than in the "After Hours" thing. "You jerks; explain, please" and "You can't chop us; we quit" when they were eliminated was fun. (And, if he's the biological child of his mom, Dad must be tall; even accounting for gender differences and age-related shrinkage [not to be confused with the shrinkage Seinfeld made famous], that's quite a difference.) Chris' mom saying, "You have a good appetite" when Marc said he finished his polenta, and the other judges teasing him as if she'd told him he was a pig, was also entertaining.

Oh, why did I read that shortly before bed? I'm sorry you were the one who had to listen to that; I'm chilled just hearing about it. I hope there's punishment more than the proverbial slap on the wrist coming to that sicko. (Does it really have to wait until morning to be turned over to the police? Showing up at the guy's house while they're prepping for disposal yields more evidence than showing up after the fact, but I know in a lot of jurisdictions the police will be pretty hands-off.)

I haven't watched the show all season, tuned in tonight during DJ, and some teacher couldn't come up with Ahab. I think I'll crawl back into my hole. Actually, what I think I'll do is temporarily become a teacher so that I can audition for the Tournament and win the grand prize. Because, holy crap, are the clues always insultingly easy - and then the contestants stand there like dumbasses. FJ was an instaget for me, and color me surprised the Ahab moron is the one of the three who didn't lose sight of the category and at least start to write down Darrow instead.

Was it the employees' fuck-up, though? I read it as the store opens at one time, and the floral department, where the balloons are sold, opens later, at 8:00, but I may have misinterpreted that. If I have it right, she shouldn't have gotten so pissy, because she's the one who didn't pay attention to the service hours (any time you know you're going to a specialty department within a store - what springs to mind from my own experience is going to the Costco pharmacy or tire center [or eyeglass thing, or whatever other services they have within the store] - you should know you need to check when that department is open, not the store hours). But, even assuming that's correct, yes, in the interest of not starting off my day with a mess at some unholy hour of the morning, I'd have offered to sell her the balloons that were already blown up - explaining that, since that department isn't open yet, there isn't anyone there to make her a customized arrangement, but I do understand she's already here and doesn't want to wait/come back, so if she'd like I can grab any of the ready-made balloons she'd like and have a cashier ring them up (at whatever the regular price is, though) in the regular check-out line. If she settled down after that, I'd probably be nice and look for something to tie them all together into a bouquet if she wanted.

Today's peeve is companies that change a product without noting "new formula" on the packaging. I just updated my spreadsheet showing the protein, fat, carbohydrate, phosphorus, and calorie content of various cat foods, and found several changes from the last time (which was a couple of years ago now, as I slacked off on annual updating since there's a vet who posts an updated chart with much of the same data on the internet). Nothing more than three or four percent, and usually just one or two, but come on; none of the cans ever sported any indication of change. (Probably because manufacturers would have only wanted to spend the money on a label change if it said "new and improved," which would have been a lie, since the change almost always involves replacing a little bit of the protein with fat or carbs, to maximize profits.) Nature's Variety will soon be coming out with all new packaging, and changes to many of its formulas. Customers on the company's mailing list received an email advising of this, with an overview of the various changes, and I am in the process of getting updated data on the specific formulas I need to know about. But even with that company, its venison formula got slightly tweaked somewhere along the way with no notification. I'm on the Wellness mailing list, too, and never got anything about changes, but, lo and behold, the turkey and chicken formulas are both a little bit different now than they were the last time I updated. That kind of thing happens a lot with pet food. And the numbers on the can are just guaranteed analysis, so when the actual numbers ("as-fed" or "typical nutrition" analysis) change a little bit, the guaranteed maximum/minimum doesn't, so one would never know from looking at the can that anything was different. Most of the time, it doesn't matter, but people feeding diabetic cats, cats with chronic kidney disease, etc. may very well care about even a small change.

This is me at many restaurants. I don't use much salt (like a poster above, I generally cook with fresh herbs, garlic, lemon zest, and such, and I don't taste any need for any significant amount of salt to enhance the overall flavor), so I find a lot of restaurant food too salty. Usually that means I enjoy it while I'm eating it, but don't enjoy feeling like I need a gallon of water when I get home, but sometimes it means it actually tastes of salt, and I send it back.