Grocery Shopping...

As much as I don't want to admit it, Walmart works for me. Since I'm always looking for the best way to do things I decided to see which store was cheapest to shop at. I compared Walmart and Farm Fresh. Then to see if buying in bulk was worth it, I compared them both to Sams Club. Farm Fresh is kind of the middle class of grocery stores. In our area we basically have 4 stores (Listed in order from not so nice to nicest): Walmart, Food Lion, Farm Fresh and Harris Teeter. This spreadsheet lists the basic things our family usually buys and most times it's off brand name items. In almost every case Walmart was cheaper. Sams Club was cheaper in some items, mostly with frozen fruit, frozen chicken, cheese and hamburger. However, if you want to enjoy your shopping experience and you don't mind paying a little more money Farm Fresh of Harris Teeter are for you. These two stores always have the items stocked on their shelves, play nice music in the background, offer cookies to the kids and take your groceries out to your car for you. One disclaimer is that this list was compiled a few months ago, before gas went through the roof. So most of these prices have increased somewhat. Click on the picture to view it bigger.

It Pays to Know People

Thanks to a friend I got to see Billy Joel tonight right up front. Sometimes it pays to know the right people.

Second Hand Smoke?

If you live in South Eastern Virginia or North Eastern North Carolina you've noticed the smoke from the Great Dismal Swamp fires that have been burning over the past few weeks. When the wind blows the right (or wrong) way we get a thick smoke that settles in over our area. This morning was one of those mornings. I went outside to meet someone this morning at work and I saw two guys I knew smoking out back. We were talking about the wildfires and one of them said, "This smoke is killing me." I looked at him and laughingly said, "Are you sure that's what it is?"

Life's Little Ironies

Life is filled with little ironies. These ironies either amaze me or just make me chuckle to myself. Some days it's the smallest thing like singing a song to myself, then at the same time someone says the exact same phrase or word. So, I'm going to start posting them...feel free to chuckle at them as well.

The other day I was driving and Mike and Mike in the Morning on ESPN Radio were talking about how the jockey for Big Brown pulled up at the end of the race. So I look up and the license plate in front of me says "Pull Up".

Kalen's a Signing Time Star!

Kalen's a signing time star! Click the link to see her video!

http://www.signingtime.com/article_info.php?articles_id=92#june

If I grew up in the 70's

We had a FAM Trip last week for a group of Association Executives from DC. Our theme was Boogie to the Beach, a 70's theme. It was fun, but my feet hurt from the shoes. I almost fell backwards when I took them off. We had some good fondue though.