Personal

Supermarket Update

This is a quick follow up on my post about looking for a new supermarket. We checked out about 3 other supermarkets in the area. The Shop Rite on Pennington Circle, the Stop & Shop and the Shop Rite on Olden Ave.

The Shop Rite on the circle was small but had a good produce and meat section, but it was a little dirty. The Shop Rite on Olden Ave was big and way to busy. The main problem with this store was that people would come to a complete stop in the middle of the aisles and have conversation with firends ad I guess family and disregard anyone trying to get by.

The Stop & Shop is the final place we tried and have picked it as the new supermarket of the Bilancio family. It’s clean the prices are better then Acme and it seems no one ever goes there. 🙂 Carolyn and I have been there at different times and there has never been a crowed…we get through shopping much faster then at Acme and the prices are much less. The produce section is good and the meat department has had the cuts I have needed and wanted for the things I am cooking.

I am always interested in other places to buy food in the Lawrence Township area so if you have a favorite place let me know.

Old Closet…New Pantry

We had a closet in the back room across from the washer and dryer that was crammed with junk and only 3 shelves that were screwed right into the walls. So a few weeks back after having most of the stuff fll out when I opened the doors I had had enough. I was also out of space in my kitchen for stuff..so my counters were covered in stuff that we didn’t have space to put it. So for a whopping $64.00 for 5 pieces of 12 x 6 pine and 4 of those metal hanger strips I was able to make a 5 shelf pantry for my food and booze. Check out the pictures here.

Need some help from Friends and Readers

I am a person who likes a good used book sale or the book section of the Salvation Army or Goodwill.  I always look for books from the Travis McGee series by John D. MacDonald.     There are only 21 books in the series, but I am always on the lookout for them. I am looking for copies with the original cover art, but will take any copies.  So if you come across any please pick them up for me.

Thanks in advance….

A New Grocerie Store….Anyone 3

So I have lived back in this area now for around 18 years. I have been doing my grocery shopping at the Acme in the Lawrenceville shopping center. The prices are to high and the store is dirty and they seem to be out of a lot of stuff when I am there. My wife has been doing the shopping for the last few months and she has been telling that the store has been getting worse.

Today we wandered over to the ShopeRite in the Mercer Mall. It was big and clean and the prices seemed to be better, but it was to crowded and the parking lot was a mess. I like the store and the prices but…

We are going over to the ShopRite on the Pennington Circle to see if it’s as nice a store as the one in the Mercer Mall.

If you live in the Lawrenceville, NJ area where do you shop for groceries?

I sure wish there was a Trader Joes close to the Lawrence area…I love to shop there.

I Finally Cleaned my Home Office Today…..

I finally cleaned my home office today. It was a total mess.  People just throw there own stuff in there when they are done using it or company was coming over.  There was so much junk in the closet that the plastic guides on the floor snapped and the doors were bulging out.  But now I have cleaned and organized and thrown out all the junk and can now see the floor.

The desk was another story…I found 3 years of tax returns sitting there with a years worth of junk mail in between each year.  But I got most of the desk cleaned as well. 🙂  So we will see if I can keep the office clean through  the holidays and beyond. 🙂  Here are some photos of the office before and after can be found here.

 

Now to the people who feel they should call me at 6:17 in the morning….

To the people in the world that read this site and feel they should call the main number at the house before 7am. If you want to get me that early call me on my cell!!! Here is the short schedule of my morning.

5:30ish – Get Up
5:40ish – Take shower – can’t answer any phone
5:45 – Getting dressed – Won’t answer the phone
5:50 – 6:20 – Take dog for walk and play fetch – I do have my cell with me so call that.
6:20 – 6:30 – Get stuff ready for work and get dog back in crate
6:30 – off to quick-check to get coffee
6:40 – arrive at work

So unless you want me to get yelled at by my wife and daughter because the phone rang and woke them up please call the main number between 5:30 and 7am. 😉 Now if it’s emergency that’s ok. Just keep calling we will answer if you just keep making the phone ring 🙂

Well I now can check a different box when I fill out forms

Well on this day in 1967 a small boy was born in Marion, Virgina. Yes that would be me. 🙂 I turn 40 today…and you know it doesn’t feel that much different then being 39. I still woke up feeling like crap and not wanting to get up…but I did and am very happy I did. I was able to open my e-mail this morning and finding a whole bunch of Happy Birthday messages..of course they were from Borders, Toyota, and Alumni.net. So at least I know that the places I spend money and interne sites I have signed up for still love me. 🙂

So Happy Birthday to me…and to all the other people who have a birthday on July 19th.

Stuck in the house…and no dog to play with

On Thursday morning I took Karma out for a long walk since I was taking the day off and head to NYC to check out the 7-11 that had been turned into a Kwik-E-Mart. I was going to get a squishie and a buzz cola and what other Simpson stuff the had. But on our walk Karma and I got tangled up running across the street and I fell and renched my back. I have been laid up in bed and in the house since Thursday. After the first day I realized that Karma was going to drive my wife and Avery insane so I called Karen over at Goosebusters and see volunteered to take him while I was laid up. I really appreciated it since I can’t stand up straight and get around real well. It also looks like I won’t be heading back to work on Monday…I am hoping to be able to go back on Tuesday.

This has been a real bummer…since I have been losing weight I haven’t had any back problems in about 4 years. I hate when this happens it seems like have this happen when I want to do things. My uncle and cousins were in town till Sat morning and I only got to see them on the 4th of July for about 2 hours. His oldest was supposed to go to the city with Avery and I on Thursday and then I was going to spend some time with my uncle on Friday night, but I couldn’t even get out of bed. I won’t even be able to go to the shore to see them since I am missing work for the next few days.

I am missing the dog more then I realized when I finally made it down stairs yesterday and he wasn’t lieing at the bottom of the stairs waiting for me.

Well that’s all I got for now…think healing thoughts for me. 🙂

This is my off year but I feel I should discuss colonoscopys with you……

I haven’t written in a long time. I have been busy with work and the stuff around the house and with the dog. I was looking for information today on the big Internet on something and came across this great review on a Colonoscopy. I am required to get one every 2 years because colon cancer runs in my family on my mother’s side. , but this is my year off. I only go on even years. I had my first one in 1986 right after graduating from high school…like the next day. Back then they didn’t knock you out and it was not a pleasant experience so I vowed never to get another one. Well, when I turned 37 I decided it was time to
go again so I geared up for the unpleasantness of it, but now it’s like taking a nap and waking up and not knowing anything happened. The prep the day before is still a pain in the ass (no pun intended) but once you get through that and finally get into the surgical center it is a piece of cake. So for the PSA part of this post get out there and get a colonoscopy to make sure all is good with your colon and go read this review of this guys colonoscopy…it’s very simple these days and pain-free.

What a week/month

Well this week has been a traumatic one in so many ways. The shooting at Virgina Tech, I have friends down there as well as family in the area.

Then Don Imus was fired last week…I use to skip class when I was in college to hang out at the radio station I worked for to listen to him on the satellite feed between news casts. It was cool because during the comers breaks they would just leave the mic open and you would hear Imus conversations with the rest of the crew it was fun. I think the whole Don Imus fiasco was blown out of proportion, but that was just me.

Then today I found out a program director I worked for in Corning Dave Abby died from brain cancer last month. He was only 54. He was a good guy who cared about his announcers and the station.

The weather in this area was horrible this week. We had a nor’east come through here on Sunday and Monday that caused a ton of flooding. My basement took on about 4 inches of water. Thanks to Smed and Ed for coming over and helping me bail out the basement. But the weather has cleared up and it looks like spring may be here for good now. I need a few weeks of dry weather so the water table can go down some in the back yard and the standing water can go away…even though the dog likes to play in it.