Costco

So today I went to Costco for the first time. For years I had a Sam's Club card. I first got it when I was living with my parents and was able to get a card for free through my mom's work. Back then Costcos didn't exist. At least not in Utah. Anyway, so I had a Sam's Club card, and I kept it even after moving to Minnesota, but I didn't use it very often. Occasionally I would go to get pineapple or muffins, but that was about it. So I finally told my mom to just cancel my membership. Someone, somewhere was paying for it, and it was a waste of money.

A week or two ago Kristin said that the Costco people were coming to her school and wondered if we should get a membership. I've heard excellent things about Costco for years and told her if she wanted one to go ahead. So she did.

We finally ventured to the nearest Costco (10 miles away in Maplewood) today, and, unfortunately, I was disappointed. Maybe it was the fact that so many people had talked it up so much so I was expecting something grand or spectacular, or maybe it really is just a disappointing place...but disappointing it was. It wasn't very busy at all. Everyone says "don't go there on the weekends! It's crazy busy!" It actually wasn't too crazy at all today - probably due to Mother's Day - so I can't blame that for my disappointment either.

Anyway, here are some of my observations:

First of all, the prices weren't stupendous. Now before everyone starts getting all defensive and telling me about the great deals they've found there - I'm sure there are great deals to be had. But we walked nearly every inch of that store, and I didn't see any great deals on anything I buy regularly. $8 for two boxes of cereal? I don't think I have ever spent $4 on a box of cereal in my life. The items that did seem to be good deals were either things that would spoil before we could ever eat all of it or things I would never buy in the first place.

Secondly, the selection didn't seem to be very big. I knew enough going in not to expect grocery store selection, but Sam's seemed to always have a lot more variety as far as food goes and just more "stuff" overall. It felt like more of Costco's aisles were dedicated to free sample people and large items than to useful things I would be interested in buying.

Thirdly, the layout of the store seemed haphazard and confusing. Maybe that could just be chalked up to it being our first time and not really knowing where anything was...?

On a positive note, the employees were extremely friendly...except one...but maybe she was having a bad day.

I'm not ready to trade my membership card back in yet. I am definitely willing to give the place another try, but I'm pretty sure that the only time I'll be driving 10 miles to do any kind of shopping is when we need pineapple or muffins (feels a little reminiscent of my Sam's Club days).

Anyway, in the end we left with a small box of items that cost $85 which apparently should feed us for a week since that's what I typically spend at Target for a week's worth of groceries...I'm just thinking we'll be tired of eating muffins, hummus, and pistachios before the week is up.

Mother's Day

Tonight we were at Target and Kristin, being the procrastinator she is, decided now would be a good time to get a Mother's Day card. Now, I'm all about Mother's Day. If there is a day for middle children and a day for dads and a day for everyone else in between, there should be a day for mothers. If nothing else it provides a good reminder to say "hey, mom, sorry I was such an idiot as a child"...right?

For some reason, as Kristin was looking at the cards, I just thought about how silly it is for throngs of people (the photo doesn't do the crowd justice) to be crowded around and reaching over each other to find a card that says just the right thing.

A woman picked up one card, read it, and was all weepy. Then then a guy picked up the same card, read it, muttered "lame," and put it back. Wouldn't it be better to just pick up the phone or write your own note?

Anyway, happy Mother's Day to all of the mothers out there...and for those of you who have mothers still roaming around this big round planet, pick up the phone, write a note, or go see your mother. Forget the card. Then again, I sent a card to my mom AND grandma earlier in the week...so who am I to talk?

Ha! Cheater!

Yesterday I went to the eye doctor. For some reason it always makes me nervous to go. Granted, I have a fear of the medical doctor, and I have a fear of the dentist, but the EYE doctor?

My adventures at the eye doctor began after an eye test at school in third grade. I remember standing there and some woman rubbing my back and telling me it was okay. I remember thinking she was weird because no, I couldn't read the letters on the piece of paper half a gym away, but I wasn't worried about it...I certainly didn't need someone rubbing my back telling me it would be okay.

A few days later I went to the eye doctor (who totally freaked me out with all of his weird machines) with my mom and we ordered glasses. Big, pink, plastic glasses. Hey, they were popular at the time (at least I thought so). After they arrived I wore them and was amazed that trees actually had individual leaves! They weren't just a trunk with a blob of green on the top. Nice! Then came the first day of school with my glasses. I had made a diorama of some sort and hid the glasses in there. As soon as I walked in my teacher asked about where my glasses were (sometimes, people, good communication between parents and teachers sucks). I told her I didn't want to wear them. So we started the day with a discussion about people who are different. The teacher asked if anyone had any experiences they wanted to share about being different. One boy said his brother got called metal mouth all the time because he had braces. One girl said that her sister got teased all the time for wearing glasses - people called her four eyes and nerd. This discussion was doing nothing to encourage me to wear my new pink plastic glasses. The teacher asked what things people who had glasses could do that others couldn't. Answers were all over the place and included "read" and "play." And for some reason, this made sense to my third grade mind...even though I had obviously read and played before and everyone else in the class who didn't have glasses could read and play without them. But I took them out, and I put them on and that was that.

Anyway, so it's yesterday, and I check in at the eye doctor. I notice, once again, that I'm the youngest patient there by at least 40 years. The clinic I go to specializes in all sort of surgery stuff, so I assume that's why...but it always makes me feel weird. Anyway, so I'm wearing my contacts and the woman at the front desk asks if I brought my glasses. Oh! My glasses! Does she mean the ones with the broken nose piece, the bent ear piece, and the lenses which were chewed up by the cat? Yes! As a matter of fact I DID bring those with me. I hand them over muttering about how they're old and I don't really wear them, slightly embarrassed at the state they're in, but the front desk people always have to "analyze" the glasses for some reason, so I hand them over.

Eventually, I get called back (Duh-Neat? Duh-Neat? Is Duh-Neat here?...oh! That's me. Silly girl. Blame it on the low battery in my hearing aid), and the doctor comes in and makes a little small talk (Every year he talks about St. Kate's and tells me about how he graduated from St. Thomas and that the speaker at his graduation was so old the doctor thought he was going to fall over dead right in the middle of his speech. While this was a fine story the first time he told me it has now become somewhat funny and I giggle a little as soon as he starts in..."so a looong time ago I graduated from St. Thomas, you know."). After the small talk, he begins with the whole put this machine in front of your face and read the bottom line. I absolutely hate this test. You know...where you get down to the bottom line and then he starts saying "is this one better or worse?" "Do you prefer one or two?" as he flips little pieces of glass around. I always feel like he's trying to trick me - like if he says "one or two" and I say "two" and then he moves things around but really keeps them the same and says "one or two" and I say "one" that he'll jump up and say "ha! cheater!"...or what if I say one is better than two but really two is better than one...then I'm stuck with a wrong prescription for a whole year...I know, I know, I'm a little neurotic, what can I say.

Anyway, after he finishes that and he asks if a resident from the U of M can come in. Apparently my eyes look "perfect" and "young" (uh, yeah, remember the waiting room?) and he wants her to see them. So in she comes. He puts the drops in my eyes and gets all up close to look inside. Then he hands it over to the resident and she gets all up close. The thing is that she can't seem to figure out how to use the eye looker thing...he tells her that when people are near sighted it can be harder to get it in focus and explains how she needs to do it. So she keeps trying and trying and trying. For 4-5 minutes I sit staring straight ahead while she shines a light in my eye and keeps her face no more than 1/2 inch from mine. Ah well...anything in the name of learning and science, right? (She thanked me profusely afterwards and I wished her good luck with her residency.)

And with that, I was given my new prescription (one step blinder than a bat in each eye than I was last year) and left. And now I can say PHEW. Done for another year (and he didn't even call me a cheater).

May Day 2010

Today Kristin and Ellie went to the May Day Parade in Minneapolis. They went with our friend Jehn while I stayed at home nursing a migraine (which was completely gone by 1. I was bummed I didn't go!). Kristin took the camera (at my insistence) and got some great photos (so a big thank you to her!). Here are a few:

Bleeding Hearts...

One of the best parts of this spring has been watching all of the "mystery" plants in our yard come alive. I'm basically just watching most of them this year to see what they are and then I'll decide what stays and what goes for next year.

We have this corner by our back door that had a leafy plant growing in it...which was fine, but I almost ripped it up to plant "pretty" things instead. In the end I left the main leafy plant and removed the smaller ones in order to plant flowers around it. Several days after I planted the flowers the leafy plant "bloomed!" Seems it's a bleeding heart plant. Who knew?!? Now I'm completely fascinated with it and love it even though it's starting to take over the flowers I just planted. Ah well...

Good Morning, Ellie!

This morning Ellie had a hard time waking up. Even her fur looked sleepy :) Since I have been home all day with her most days she has become my best bud. I'm pretty much in love with this dog. :)

Welcome, Kord!

Ack! What kind of auntie am I? I completely neglected to welcome the newest addition to our family!

Kord Todorovic was born April 17 at 12:26 p.m (two years to the day since another little nephew, Corban joined the family!). He weighed in at 8 lbs 6 oz and was 21" long.

Baby and mamma are doing great, and two aunties in Minnesota can't wait to meet the little man in July or August!

Death by Facebook

Tonight I was pondering how I don't update this as much as I should...and I realized that it's largely due to Facebook. Instead of taking the time to write everything up and post it here, I just say it in one or two sentence snippets on Facebook....which for some reason made me feel a little bitter towards Facebook...even though it's not Facebook's fault...well, it kind of is, but never mind.

Anyway, that got me thinking about the death of a blog…it must happen often. Especially with the emergence of Facebook and other networking sites. And then I thought that it is probably a good thing that there aren’t obituaries for all of these dying blogs (hey, it’s late, I’m tired, it’s where my mind goes)…and if my blog were to die (which it won’t since I think I’d rather say goodbye to Facebook, or at least to the majority of Facebook), it would have a really great obituary…like:

The Inner Musings of a Chronic Muser, 3, of Blogspot.com died today after a long battle with Facebook. Inner Musings was born on May 10, 2007, and enjoyed a couple of years of relative happiness before first battling with Twitter (Inner Musings reigned triumphant over that one) and finally facing her match with Facebook.

Inner Musings was preceded in death by a sister who lived on LiveJournal and a cousin who resided in MySpace.

Inner Musings is survived by arch enemy Facebook.

There will be no memorial service, but friends are invited to view previous entries as much as they want since she will probably be floating around in cyberspace forever (god help us all).

The end.

Spring Has Sprung!

I have always liked spring, but this year I am enjoying it more. I don't know if it's because of the unseasonably warm weather or the fact that we now own a house and trees and flowers and it's fun to watch everything grow or because I'm home more to enjoy it, but it's wonderful!

Here are a few pictures I snapped this morning from our yard...

Ellie