1-12-10 Tuesday & 1-13-10 Wednesday

Here’s a Jim’s work status:  He and the rest of his new hire coworkers will be in a classroom setting for several weeks while they learn procedures and computer software. 

In the meantime I’ve been running around town, shopping, returning and picking up dry cleaning.  I had to add the dry cleaning part in there since that seems to make it more domestic sounding.  It’s true though.  Since we’re new to town, Jim decided to try 3 different dry cleaners in the vicinity of the house.  Last week we dropped off several shirts at each place to see which did the best job.  On Wednesday I attempted to pick them up.  Cleaners #1: Low price.  Out of 10 shirts, 5 came out crappy.  Cleaners #2: I’m not sure yet.  I went in and they gave me a jacket that I didn’t recognize.  Jim will need to make sure it’s his.  He bought some new clothes recently and I may not have seen this jacket.  Cleaners #3: They couldn’t find the dry cleaning because the computer crashed.  Imagine that.  It must have been an Acer with a Windows operating system.  Finally he found it, or maybe.  It had someone else’s name on it yet he was sure it was mine.  That evening Jim confirmed it to be his.  Scary.

I made Red Velvet cupcakes on Monday to celebrate Jim’s first day.  Don’t get excited, it was a boxed mix.  He’s been bringing some to work for a snack.  The instructor commented in the typical fashion about bringing enough for everyone (30 people) so Jim wants to bring about 60 cupcakes to work for Friday to surprise them all.  We bought double batches so I’ll be busy making cupcakes on Thursday.

The first time I made the cupcakes, the ingredients came from Walmart.  This time we purchased the stuff from Bloom.  Now remember, I said an entry or 2 ago that as nice and cool as Bloom is, I’m sure the prices will reflect that.  Here’s a comparison. 

Compare item #1 to #1, and #2 to #2 on each receipt.  A pretty large price difference for a little item.  Also, look at number 3 on the Walmart receipt.  I figured while I’m at it I’d tell you that the new Walmart stores are printing receipts on both sides.  Handy.  Less waste, less space.  Oh and look at them damn taxes.  {sigh}

I have this things to do list that grows but nothing comes off it.  I’ve not spent any time watching TV or playing video games.  Blogging has been bare minimum lately.  Web surfing has been a little high lately.  Jim’s laptop was having chkdsk errors on startup and was hanging.  Dave suspects hard drive failure.  I tried reinstalling system files and got it stuck in some Windows XP install loop.  Ugh.  I spent a big part of the day Googling and reading for solutions.  Nothing worked.  Thursday I’ll be wiping it clean and starting over.  Double ugh.