Random Bits

CNN Mistake
Haven't found a CNN mistake in a while, but here's one from a photo caption today - "Cindy Hurst thought having her daughter, Ellie help, cut Mom's hair before chemo might help her be less afraid. "

A Funny
Most of you know that I primarily listen to a Christian radio station. This morning they were going through school closings in the area due to snow/ice and they mentioned "Portland Jewish Academy". Haha. I wonder just how large their Jewish listening population is!

Traffic Safety!
When we were driving to work this morning, we suddenly came across a single line of orange cones all the way across both lanes of traffic on a fairly major street! (obviously not THAT major since it's only one lane in each direction, but it's reasonably sized - it's a freeway exit if that gives you some perspective). It was at an "intersection", sort of - it was right near a new housing development where they have a little contruction entrance/exit on the east side of the street only. We were headed north, so it was fairly easy for us to go around the cones - however, I saw major potential for big issues! First of all, it was icy. Second of all, it was dark out and you couldn't see these cones until you got to them. Third of all, there was really no way for southbound traffic to go around the line of cones - there is a ditch and no shoulder on the west side of the street. Fourth of all, if the southbound traffic did go around, they would have to try to coordinate that with the northbound traffic... basically it would be a giant mess if there was more than one car there at a time. It was weird - unlit, unmarked, etc. It really looked like someone had just put those cones there "for fun". So when I got into work I called the police non-emergency number. The woman seemed skeptical... she said there had been an accident in the area earlier in the morning (not sure if in the exact location). She asked me which lane of traffic it was blocking - I said BOTH! Then she said well on the east or west side of the street? BOTH!!!! She said she'd report it to the officers to have them check it out. I surely hope they did. And I wish I knew what the story was with that - so weird. At least now I have the police non-emergency number... I need to program that into my cell phone.

Grocery Game
And now, the moment you've all been waiting for- Grocery Game totals for this weekend!
Rite Aid: Shelf Price $8.57, Out of Pocket $3.75, Rebates $2.99 - savings of 91%
Safeway: Shelf Price $29.41, Out of Pocket $15.02 - savings of 49%
Albertsons: Shelf Price $130.20, Out of Pocket $60.91 - savings of 53%

Rite Aid actually PAID me a dollar to take some shampoo away from them! What a hoot. I am having so much fun. So far we have saved an average of 53% (this week and last week). :) YAY!

One might question why the totals are still so high for two people for a week - for one thing, it includes household/health/beauty products, not just grocery. Also, in the first 12 weeks of the game, the idea is to "stock up" on things so that you have it when you need it - you pay the cheaper price for it and then you "shop" in your house instead of going to the store and paying whatever the price happens to be the day you need it. I expect that the totals will get lower after we have a stockpile built up.

It's also funny that this really has become a game for us - both Geoff and I look forward to getting the list and going to the store on Sunday! We also went to Costco so I could make a "price list" of things we typically buy so I could see if the Grocery Game is cheaper or not. I was never super-obsessive about getting the lowest prices on things before, so this is very amusing to me. But it makes it more fun for sure!

Patrick says that along with comments about "what a nice young man" and owning a trailer, that the Grocery Game makes us prematurely old. So does the fact that we own a hutch.