toastykitten

I went on a little shopping spree yesterday, as my immigrant instincts kicked in:

Bone-in ribeye steaks - $4.49 a pound! Compare to Whole Foods at $16.00 a pound.

I didn't buy these, but the prices are from the weekly ads they send to us:

Oranges - 4 lbs for 99 cents.
Butternut squash - 4 lbs for 99 cents.
Green cabbage - 5 lbs for 99 cents.

I am still in amazement. I don't even really remember most of what I bought, other than to say OMFG those prices are awesome and I grabbed some stuff. Oh, and though I don't believe any of it is actually organic, the produce is really fresh and tastes great. I'm still wondering how they get stuff that cheap and still make any profits.

I need a new cell phone. My current one has a battery that goes down to nothing every time I try to call someone. This is annoying. Luckily, my contract is almost over, so I am going to cancel it next month and switch over to Mark's plan which is with AT&T. In the meantime, does anyone have any suggestions? My only requirements are: voicemail, text messaging, address book, decent phone service, and a battery that works. I do not want a smart phone or iPhone or any of that extra stuff that I'm never going to use anyway.

I also need a new laptop. My Dell, which Mark sweetly got my friends to chip in for a couple of Christmases ago after my Sony Vaio was stolen from my parents' house, is starting to get super-slow. I'm not even running Windows on it! Mark installed Ubuntu on it after I got fed up with XP for taking forever to start up. My requirements for a laptop: under $1,200 (I may make an exception for a MacBook or an IBM Thinkpad), should have decent graphics, lightweight and can use a Wacom tablet. I use my computer mostly for writing and the Internet, but I like using programs like GIMP and Illustrator, too. And durable. I don't want to have to keep buying something every 3 years. (Is this wishful thinking?) Anyway, any PC I'm going to get will be immediately installed with Ubuntu. I am so not ever using Windows again. I might stick with the Mac OS since I do like that it's very intuitive and easy-to-use.

By the way, Mark has a new job!

Some salesperson at the Kenneth Cole store in the Stanford Shopping Center recognized me. "Hey, weren't you here a couple of weeks ago? You were wearing an "I love nerds" shirt? That was soo cute!" And then I explained that my boyfriend is a geek and he drops me off there when he decides to go to Fry's. I briefly considered buying something, but realized that the cheapest item in the store was a wallet that was $50 on sale. Then I left.

I found shoes! They are so cute, and not $80, which is really important. While looking up wedding presents to buy for the lovely couple, Mark sent me their wedding registry. They registered at two places: Macy's and Amazon, and had a total of about twenty items, most of which were already purchased. The only things left on the wedding registry to buy were the $96 bread knife, and 3 Dungeons and Dragons books. As of today, those are all purchased. I nearly fell off my chair laughing - they also put a wireless adaptor on their wedding registry. We're getting them something else. I'm pretty sure she's not a D&D player.

I just finished Mixed: My Life in Black and White by Angela Nissel, a consulting producer for my favorite sitcom ever Scrubs. She writes hilariously about growing up black and white in West Philadelphia, and relates some truly funny anecdotes, like her mom telling her that David Hasselhoff is half-black to make her feel better.

While reading this, it's also stirred up some feelings of panic in me. What the hell am I going to tell my kids about who they are? How do I prepare them to deal with their racist relatives? What am I going to do when they don't see themselves reflected, anywhere? What if our kids don't look anything like either one of us?

For my East Bay friends:

H&M opens in the Sun Valley mall this weekend.

For everyone who has an MNBA credit card:

You should really dump it. Because of this.

Sample Angel - sample sale this weekend in SF.

So we didn't actually end up at H&M. Jess got there first and it turns out there was a two-hour wait to just get into the store. We ended up shopping in Macy's and Urban Outfitters instead. And my shopping urge is still not quenched. Grr. Later we found out from a more fashion-informed friend that there will be a third H&M opening right next to the H&M on Powell, and one in Sun Valley Mall, so Jess, you won't have to BART over to SF for that!

This is my stash: A pair of pants and and a shirt from Macy's. I think I should just get a Macy's card, so I can get the coupons and additional discounts. If anyone needs cookware, their pots and pans are 40% off the lowest price right now. Tim Biskup and Pete Fowler coasters for 2 bucks each for a set of four, and the Lewis Black book, hardcover, for $5 from Urban Outfitters. The set of coasters I really want, though, is the Junko Mizuno ones, which I haven't been able to find anywhere. I love the Urban Outfitters sale section. There's always some good stuff there amidst all the junk.

Later Mark and I watched a movie with some friends. It was called Exit to Eden, and is based on an Anne Rice novel, stars Rosie O'Donnell and Dan Aykroyd. That is all you need to know. Anyway, it's funny, and weirdly dated. Mark mentioned that all the women had "eighties' asses". Ok, I'd never heard of that, so I asked him what that was. He said, "Long, flat asses." Apparently asses come and go in style - the trend right now is "bubble butts". What I don't understand is how one would be able to shape an ass into a particular style. Maybe women did different workouts back then?

Spelling errors are my pet peeve, especially glaring ones that any educated adult should be able to catch. I caught a few this weekend:

TiVo's new download service (for series2 owners) includes CNet's reviews of current gadgets. (Let's just say CNet editors are not necessarily TV people.) In this segment, someone held up a sign that misspelled "capacity". Seriously, shouldn't someone have caught that?

In Firefly, on the last disc, there are a few really sweet special features. On one of them, they talk about Serenity, the ship, and its role as its own character. Someone holds up a blueprint of the ship, and on it, the dining room was misspelled as the "dinning room". Apparently in the future, we no longer dine, we din.

>Futons! Affordable! WOW!

Which one should I get? I originally wanted the Aruba Sleeper, but then the Metrapolitan Sleeper looks nice, too.