Shrimp was on sale the other day at Meijer’s (regional grocery chain). It was a buy one get one free offer.

They were 26 to 30 count and were selling for $9.99 a pound. But with a buy one get one free offer, that equates to about $5.00 a pound. That’s cheaper than an pound of 50-60 count.

I bought 4 pounds of shrimp and got 4 pounds for free. We eat a lot of shrimp so we are always looking for sales on shrimp. Meijer’s has them several times a year. Bubba Gump would be proud.

When I was setting up our surround sound system, I noted that the wire that was supplied was not long enough to reach one of the speakers. So, I headed to Meijer’s (regional grocery chain) to get 50 feet of speaker wire.

A quick scan of the electronic section revealed that yes indeed they did have speaker wire. (Meijers’ is kind of hit or miss when it comes to these sorts of things) I could buy a 50 foot spool of 16ga speaker wire for $20.

That’s $0.40 a foot which is a bit pricey. But, I needed the wire and didn’t feel like driving to GR so I put it in my cart.

As I started to leave the isle, I noticed that there was another 50 foot package of 16ga speaker wire for $10. Same size wire, same manufacturer. The only difference was that the $10 wire was just loosely coiled and not on a spool.

Well, the $10 package was a lot more attractive than the $20 package so I put the $20 package back and took the $10 one instead. Besides, I wouldn’t know what to do with the $10 spool once the $10s worth of wire was gone.

7 million disappeared! Where did this happen? It happened in the US. It wasn’t on the news. It wasn’t even an op ed in the New York Times. In fact, very few people heard about it.

The years was 1987 and it wasn’t the result of an alien abduction. It was the year that the IRS required a Social Security Number for every dependent that you claimed on your tax return.

7 million children gone in an instant! Amazing!

The other morning, I went through the drive through at MickyDs to get some breakfast. After I placed my order, the attendant asked “Is that for here or to go?”.

I found that to be an interesting question. After all, I often place an order at the counter and then leave with my food. So, I suppose that it is possible that you could order your food at the drive through and then go inside to eat it.

Here in Michigan, we have a deposit on beverage containers. Everytime you purchase a bottle/can of beer or a soft drink, the store collects a $.10 deposit. Then, when you return the container, the store refunds the money. Small stores refund the money manually, while large stores have special machines.

There are two types of machines, one for cans and one for bottles. When you stick your beverage container in the machine, the machine reads the bar code to determine if the container is eligible for a refund. If it is, the machine swallows the container and racks up a tally. If not, the machine returns the container.

When you are all finished, you hit a button and the machine prints out a tally slip. Then you hand the tally slip to the cashier and you get your deposit back.

Now Meijers (regional grocery chain) has a special room for returning bottles and cans. And in that room are about 10 of these machines.

Today, when I was at Meijers, I noticed that there was a line of people waiting to return bottles and cans. I have never seen a line of people waiting to return bottles and cans.

I guess it is official, the party is over.

A few weeks ago when I was at Sam’s Club (you know it) I spotted a ginger bread house kit. It came with the ginger bread all cut out and all of the decoration for the house. So, I bought it. I figured that Rachel would be bored over Christmas and put the thing together. Well, she did. But now the question is “what to do with the thing now that Christmas is done?”

Initially, Kathy wanted to put it out with the trash. But, I reminded her that we always throw our expired bread and veggies into the back yard for the critters. And the ginger bread house was no different that a stale bagel. So, out in the back yard went the ginger bread house.

It sits there under the trees, waiting for some mouse to take up residence. It is like a little house on the prairie.

The other day, myself and a co-worker/friend of mine went to lunch together. We went to a local bar which serves food. We haven’t been to this bar in about 10 years so we had forgotten what the food was like.

I ordered a hamburger. She ordered soup. When my hamburg arrived, it was really really greasy. It was so greasy that it soaked into the bun and dripped on my plate. Finally, half way through, I couldn’t stand it any more and quit eating. (Maybe this is why we hadn’t been there in 10 years.)

When we got ready to leave, my friend announced that she would take the hamburger home to her dog. So, she wrapped it up in a napkin and stuck it in her purse.

Three days later, she was digging through her purse looking for her glasses when she noticed a strange object wrapped in a napkin. When she opened the napkin, she discovered the hamburger.

This explains why her dog had been going nuts over her purse for the past few days.

I am a Third Wave Pentecostal, technically speaking. I say this by default. Evangelicals refer to people like me as Third Wave Pentecostals.

In fact, my former denomination debated this subject just this year at their annual Synod. The majority report said that we were OK. The minority report labeled us as dangerous. No decision was reached on this matter.

The First Wave occurred in the early 1900s. Out of this movement came the pentecostal churches.

The Second Wave came in the 60s. This wave focussed on tongue speaking. Unlike the first wave, the second wave was ecumenical.

The Third Wave came about in the 80s. This wave did not focus on tongue speaking but focused on the gifts of the Spirit in general. And this is where I come in.

While I don’t speak in tongues, I am very sensitive to the presence of good and evil. Plus, I sometimes have visions when I am praying. And lets not forget the deja voes. These occur as visions of the future, the biggest being 911 so it seems.

So, even though I don’t belong to a pentecostal church, it appears that I am still classified as a Third Waver.

Everybody has to be some place.

My new car has heated seats. Nice! I no longer have to wait for my engine to warm up on those cold winter days. Instead, I just push the button on my seat heater and in a matters of seconds I have a nice warm seat.

But, besides warming my bottom when I am cold, the seats also help keep food warm. When ever I do take out, I turn on the passenger side seat heater. Then when I get my food, I set it on the warm seat to keep it warm. Life is good.

The people of Lansing like to run red lights. I am not talking occasionally, I am talking regularly. When the light turns red, these people are betting that the cross traffic will not get moving before they are through the intersection. And, what’s more, the light doesn’t turn red as they are entering the intersection, it turns red before they enter the intersection.

Today, I saw a school bus run a red light. And again, the light turned red before the bus entered the intersection so the bus could have stopped in time if it had wanted to. These people must figure that the world will watch out for them.