Walmart, Green Bay, and the American Dream

Ok, I thought about this last night as I was standing in line at Walmart after midnight.

I own a VERY large van to cart my dear children around in. I really don't mind dropping $20-30 in the gas tank (which only fills it half way). I can take the bus in or work from home during the week, so gas lasts for maybe 4-5 days.

Not so with milk! Walmart has it for under $4 a gallon --often a better value than the "buy six get one free" deals. Anyway, B regularly holds "food portion training classes" for the kids but they STILL end up inhaling a gallon of milk in less than 2 days--and that's just 2-3 mornings of cereal a week and a "reasonable" glass at lunch. Oh, and IZ can't drink it.

Well, our food budget regularly comes up short in the cow juice category. It's crazy that a gallon of the milk costs more than a gallon of gas! I wonder if OPEC has ever considered infiltrating the dairy industry. (there's one for the conspiracy theorists)

SO I got in line behind two guys buying various items (including hooch) at Walmart late Saturday night. (no one mentions the lack of milk in our fridge until right before bed). Customer A is rambling on and on to Customer B (who is trying to be polite) about everything from game shows and Google to grain alcohol. Customer A has most things in life figured out (except how not to be alone on a Saturday night) so he continues conversing with the cashier, the "check your Walmart receipt at the door" folks and was still talking as I left for my car.

I think THAT'S the type of guy that should have a blog! Cyberspace is always ready to listen.

Anyway, Item 2:

CONGRATS to my Packers for making it to the NFC Championship!! I really didn't expect to see them much on "antenna tv" this year and , due to their success, I've been able to follow their season pretty closely. I was at youth group during Saturday's game but saw the snow-covered highlights (sigh) when I got home. My OneLife friend is a huge NY Giants fan and I'm glad they knocked off the Cowboys. Our teams meet in Sunday's game for a chance to (hopefully) play San Diego. (I really don't want the pack to be "that other team" who played New England the year they went undefeated and won the Super Bowl). I'll have to make sure we have lunch this week so we can have a friendly discussion about next Sunday!

Ok last thing, here's a guy living the American dream:

Mark Malkoff

Not only is he from NYC, he's funny (well I don't have Comedy Central so maybe not but his videos on the above site are pretty amusing) PLUS, he 's visited all of Manhattan's 171 Starbucks locations AND he lives in IKEA. Sorry girls, he's married (though his wife's apparently not too happy).

Now personally, I've been to the IKEA in Paramus and the roadways you have to traverse to get there are AWFUL!!! Some day when we get our IKEA in Tidytown, I'll have to see if we can "one up" him and get IKEA to agree to let a family of eight live in their store for a week while we replace the flooring in our house or something. (hmm. maybe not) But hey, they filmed this series in the exact store where I bought our dining room table! (whoo hoo!)