Thursday, November 20, 2008

Make Up Minds!

So I was just reading an article at CNN.com about the stock market slumping after oil prices dipped below $50 a barrel. I'm still asking myself why we are paying $2.40 a gallon here in good ol' Buffalo, NY when the national average is well below that, but I digress. Anyway, the article included this text:

"Crude briefly dipped to $49.91 in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange Thursday before settling just above $50. The industry fears the economic slowdown will drastically curb demand for oil."

OK, WTF? When I was paying $4.30 for gas this past summer, everyone was hot under the collar saying we needed to curb our usage and cut back. Remember the warnings that the people in the US were using too much, we were too dependent, we needed smaller cars. Yet now that it's down to $50 a barrell you fear the economic climate will "curb" demand. Isn't that what they WANTED?

Make up minds people, make up minds!!!!!!!!!

On a side note, why am I still paying the same fuel surcharge ($4.95) to have the waterman bring the water to my house when he's paying roughly 1/2 of what he used to for gas. Hmm? Hmm?? Answer that waterman!!!!!

In any case, I hope you now understand why I stick to reading entertainment news at MSNBC, I don't get nearly as worked up. Owait, I forgot about Brad and Angelina. I take it back. I just have to stop reading.

Monday, November 03, 2008

Trick or Treat (Or Beans)

So what did YOU give out for Halloween? If you're like most people, you went to the Tops/Wegmans/Rite Aid/K-Mart/Walmart/Walgreens to pick up some candy. The Snickers, the Milky Way, the Kit Kat, the Reese cups, the M&Ms. If you were trying to cut back, you got the Child's Play mix of Dum Dums, Nerds, Laffy Taffy. The stuff my kids love.

First, let me preface this posting by saying that I'm not complaining. Frankly, I'm scratching my head. I understand that the economy is bad, things are tight and people are pinching pennies. But I've seen the prices on candy - it's pretty cheap. And the people in our neighborhood got it easy, because we hardly got any trick or treaters. I used two bags, and I was giving 2-3 to each kid. So I think you could spend, say, 4 bucks and give out to everyone who came to your door. But if you didn't want to spend that much, what could you do? You could say, run to a store in Mexico. Or you could give out something around the house? Something you don't like, or something you have lots of. So that is exactly what you do! See the exhibits below which my kiddies got when Trick or Treating last Friday.

Exhibit A, a piece of hard candy. Notice the graphic? Since it's small, I'll tell you what it is. That's a little green man with both arms in the air and an Ax hanging out of his head. Note the name on this candy. Espanto. Have you ever seen such a thing at the Walgreens? How about the Wegmans? How about the candy store next to the Hispanos Unidos? I thought so!



Let us move on now to Exhibit B. Wow - this looks PRICEY! Those Ghiardelli Squares are Delicious! You can buy them at a normal store, like Tops, and they have carmel and peanut butter and chocolate goo in the center. Owait, this one isn't filled. This one is just chocolate. Dark Chocolate. 60 percent dark chocolate? Evening Dream? Huh? Am I HAVING a dream? Cause my 9 year-old isn't a huge fan of dark chocolate, and I don't know many 9 year-olds that are. Also, I'm fairly certain that you can't win a kid over with 60 percent "cacao" (as this is labeled) when their favorite candy is the Skittles.



On a side note, in case you were wondering, cacao is otherwise known as "The cocoa plant," but I don't think cocoa sounded fancy enough for this shit. On another side note, I learned that these pieces of crap were passed out at the Taste of Buffalo and they let you take handfuls. So my theory that they bought them but didn't like them went out the window. They just took a jackload for free and then when they realized they tasted like ass, they gave them out.

Moving on to the most peculiar item placed into the Halloween sacks. This is the very first item my hubby pulled out of the bag to show me. The story goes like this. The kids knocked on the door, said Trick or Treat and a woman in her 30s came to the door. She told the kids "hold on," then disappeared for about 2 full minutes. The kids waited, dootie do. The woman came back and gave them the items in the photo below. Please click to enlarge.



Yes, you are looking at Ziploc Bags full of beans. They are small and brownish in color, about the size of split peas, but are not split, they are smooth on both sides. Jessica thought they were rabbit food. I told her "I think they are beans." Duncan said "I don't like beans." If you hold up the bags you can see that the bag Jessica was given was half full, but the bag Duncan got was only 1/4 full. I told Duncan that the woman must not have liked him and he said "but I don't even like beans!" As determined earlier.

Here's my question. Pretend you weren't ready for Halloween, but your light was on and you came to the door and there were two trick or treaters and you had no candy. Then you realized you had no pennies or nickels to give and you thought a dime or quarter was too much. Which of the following would give?

1. A juice box or can of pop
2. A Toothbrush
3. A Pen
4. A Pencil
5. A can of corn
6. A ziploc bag of small beans.

I don't know about you, but where I'm from you can't eat anything that's already been opened. So those beans are out and have to go into the trash. But not until I show everyone, and I mean, everyone that I will see in the next few weeks. Cause man, this is the stuff blog postings are made of.

The beans are curently on my dining room table and will be on a traveling road show tomorrow to my work, then to the polls. After that, their journey will continue until they live down in infamy. But they are already famous in my house. This will forever be known as the Halloween of the Beans. 2008. A great year.