Meijer (regional grocery chain) has started putting out their Christmas decorations.  They are right next to the Halloween costumes and candy, which happen to be on sale today.

It used to be that the Christmas stuff would appear around Thanksgiving but not any more.  Now, it seems like the stores would like to skip Thanksgiving all together.  In fact, that seems to be what they are doing.  The Halloween decorations are being replaced by the Christmas decoration and not the Thanksgiving decorations.

I suspect that in a few more years, the Christmas stuff will start appearing before Halloween.

Here at the state, we have an underground parking structure below our office building. Whenever there is a tornado warning, we are instructed to go to the bottom level of the structure until the warning is lifted.

In an effort to reassure state workers that they are indeed where they are suppose to be, the state has posted signs on the wall that say “emergency shelter area”. But, instead of reassuring state workers, the signs only added to their confusion. This fact became evident during our last storm warning drill.

After reporting to the parking ramp, I noticed that people were clustered around the emergency shelter signs. I thought that this was rather unusual but I saw someone that I needed to talk to in one of the groups so I headed for the group.

As I got near the cluster, one of the women in the cluster hollered “this shelter is full, you will have to find another one.” And another said “they should mark out the shelter area on the floor so that we will know where to stand.”

Mystery solved. State workers, you got to love em.

When I take my morning break at work, I quite often go for a walk around the neighborhood. And since the neighborhood can get quite bad quite quickly, I stick to the same route and don’t wander off of it.

All summer long, I have been seeing older car, that has been painted black, parked on the street . When I say “painted black” I mean as painted with a paint brush.

And, some times, there is a man sitting in the car. At first, I thought that he was sitting there smoking.  But, in actuality, the man isn’t doing any thing, he is just sitting there.

The car sits on a side street that has a half dozen houses and a dentist office. For a while, I though that the man was waiting for someone in the dentist office. But, then I noticed that the dentist had a parking lot right next to the building. So, I would think that if the man was waiting for someone in the dentist office, he would be in the parking lot instead.

Then, I thought that maybe the guy is a private investigator who is watching a house. Well, that didn’t seem very likely as he didn’t seem to be watching anything. Besides, some times the car is empty.

It does appear that he is waiting for someone. Maybe he is waiting for his lover to arrive home.  Who knows.  When the weather turns bad I will be taking my breaks inside.  I wonder if he will be there come spring?

While we are on the subject of Micky Ds, I love Egg McMuffins.  Unfortunately, they don’t seem to like me.  Two hours after I eat one, I usually get terrible heart burn.

I don’t know what it is about them that doesn’t agree with me.  At first, I used to think that maybe I wasn’t chewing them up good enough.  So, I tried making a conscious effort to chew them well.  But, it didn’t seem to make a difference.

I had one on Monday and it didn’t bother me.  But, when I had one on Tuesday, I got the heartburn.  Go figure.

I am thinking that maybe it is the muffin itself that doesn’t agree with me.  I’ll have to try a Sausage McMuffin and see if I have the same reaction.

Breakfast shouldn’t be this complicated.

I like mushroom swiss burgers. They are one of my favorites. So, the other day, I had a chance to try the new Angus Mushroom Swiss burger at Micky Ds.

The burger must really be special as it came in its own box. No plain wrapper for this baby.

I opened the box, picked up the burger and took a bite. I was expecting to taste a blend of burger, swiss cheese and mushrooms. Unfortunately, that was not what I got.

There was burger. There was bun. There was something that kind of tasted like mushrooms but they had a strange after taste. There was something that was white and slimy but I wasn’t sure if it was suppose to be the swiss cheese or some sort of sauce.

Well, half way through the burger, I debated about cutting my loses and buying a double cheese burger instead. But, I decided to stick it out. When I finished, I took a big drink of my diet coke in an effort to cleanse my pallet.

The Angus Mushroom Swiss burger is the worst burger that I have ever eaten. Maybe they should skip the box and invest in some real mushrooms and swiss cheese instead.

In an effort to prevent a flu outbreak, the state has posted signs in the restrooms about the importance of washing your hands regularly with soap and water. Unfortunately, all of the soap dispensers are empty and have been so for several weeks now.

Well, it was a nice idea anyway.

Alice Wang has designed a perfect date night for you. It comes with matching dishes and wine glasses, proper dinner attire and a special pillow to cuddle on after the meal.

Unfortunately, it is not for you and your significant other. Rather, it is for you and your dog. That’s right, a date night for you and your dog.

I guess this adds a different twist to the term “puppy love.”

What can I say about Soupy Sales?  I grew up with him.  He was like the Pee Wee Herman of the 50s and 60s.  Where ever Soupy was, a pie was soon to follow.

He will be missed.

We had crab cakes for the very first time this summer. They were delicious! But, ever since then, I have been trying to make them at home. And every try has been met by failure.

While I can mix up the ingredients and form the crab into patties, they always fall apart in the pan while they are cooking. Then, we end up eating crab hash.

Maybe I’ll start practicing with salmon patties. At least they are cheaper.

In an effort to increase their revenue, a TV station in Saginaw Michigan has started televising obituaries. As a part of their news program they now have an obituary segment. For a variety of fees, you can have your loved ones obituary read on TV.

While I think that it is a little strange, I guess people are willing to pay for it.  So, what ever.

I wonder if they run them between sports and the weather?