We did our grocery shopping at Fred Meyer in Hazel Dell last night and I picked the wrong check-out line. You know when you have a hunch you're picking the wrong line but you do it anyway? ALWAYS trust your gut.

There were only 2 checkers and it was the shorter line and quickly got even shorter as people bailed. Whoever was up when I got in the line had some sort of price check issue that took forever to be resolved and then the people in front of us had a price check issue to be resolved. They had 3 Halloween costumes and only 1 kid who, of course, melted down during all of this and started screaming. We had a cart-load which we'd already unloaded. If I'd known how long it would take I would have put everything back in the cart but there was always this hope that we were moments away from getting taken care of.

After about 10 minutes some people got in line behind us and I told them: "This is the slowest line on the planet. We've been here for days." They quickly abandoned us for another line. Another couple approached and when they saw the problem they felt bad we'd already unloaded our cart.

The price check finally came through after our fearless checker stood there wondering aloud if anyone was actually checking the price, and then this family with the 3 Halloween costumes had to have some sort of committee meeting about whether they wanted the costumes -- one was $13 and was like a peapod or something.

By this time I was irritated enough to look for management -- it's rare for me to be aggressive about poor service. The office was empty so I went to the U-Check because I knew the guy who was working that station and I asked about anyone supervising the checkout because the very nice lady at our register was completely out to lunch and we'd been waiting forever.

He gives me this look of horror and said, "Did you get in _____'s check out line? Oh no no no no no." Then he laughed. Then he apologized for laughing and recommended that I avoid her line in the future. He said many customers avoided her line. I did find this funny but why do they keep her on the register? Way back when I had that job at Target for 3 months they put the fear of God in you with their computer system that timed everything you did and printed out reports. Isn't there some basic standard of efficiency?

I wandered back where it was finally our turn -- well, first the people with the 3 Halloween costumes with no prices who had the family meeting about the peapod costume -- their check didn't go through. Fortunately, a manager type person took them aside to deal with this problem. Bob and I laughed all the way home.

Torani Syrup has Almond Roca flavor. I suggested we try it last week and let me tell you, it's fantastic. And I try to avoid sweet syrupy things but it's a miracle in hot drinks.

I did not pick the pumpkins yet. I just tried to find a picture of a Cinderella pumpkin to link to with no luck. Lots of talking about them, no one can add a picture? And people: websites don't need musical accompaniment. Ever. Back to the pumpkin thing -- I'm not sure but I think they will get more red -- but I'm not sure at what point it's too late to bring them in. Freezing? I'm going to leave it another week and see what happens.

I read in the Oregonian that there is a 9 foot sturgeon in the Columbia that you can see at Bonneville Dam. That might be worth the drive.

It was my turn to go at class last night. I lost my way on this latest writing project and I've been struggling to get it together. Last Thu night I dreamed that I only had one page to bring to class. I ended up scrapping most of the 25 pages I brought the first time -- I only salvaged about 4 pages so I had a lot of work to do this weekend. My strategy was to start typing and stop trying to figure it all out. There were some parts that were seriously undeveloped -- but I got a good response and lots of great feedback and I've got an idea of how to make it better.

Meanwhile, I'm longing for a weekend where I'm not glued to the computer working on this stuff. I have all kinds of chores and projects that are half done or neglected. I have a pair of pants I bought months ago that need hemming. I have movies to see, books to read. I need to buy a wedding gift.

The warm weather is strange -- it feels wrong. I wore a skirt with open-toed shoes yesterday. It's probably the last time until May.

World Cup is over. I can get back to my normal routine again. I had terrible luck with taping over the weekend. My US / Canada game cable coughed during the US's second goal so I missed that and then my Germany / Sweden game cut off about 2 minutes before the game winning goal and it sounds like it was controversial so I'm especially sorry I missed it. I enjoyed all the games I saw and it was great to get to see the US Women play although it would have been nicer to see them win. I've never cried about sports before but I came awfully close when they lost to Germany.

Last weekend I saw Matchstick Men and the weekend before I saw Lost in Translation. Both movies feature a major moment with the song: More Than This. Go get your Roxy Music.

I had the busiest week on record last week and I'm still too tired to talk about it. I got a good nights sleep last night so I am feeling halfway human again but the other half still feels completely insane.

Here's some hints for faking indy rock cred and it's entertaining except for the stupid popup ads. How can the person who created those sleep at night?

Blogging always takes more time than it should but I want to get this stuff up here before I forget.

First is The Puffies, annual awards to overblown book blurbs. Entertaining and a little disturbing.

Then there's an article by Steve Almond on the Harold Bloom dumbing of American readers editorial in response to Stephen King winning a National Book award. The key point he (Almond) brings up which I like is:

"Indeed, Bloom's rage seems entirely misplaced to me. Rather than attacking writers, or those who bestow accolades onto them, he should be excoriating the true opponents of creative enlightenment. A short list would include: the deification of consumerism, the decline in funding for public education, the economic inequality that has become the hallmark of late–model capitalism. This culture discourages creativity, and deep thought, because such actions are not profitable. The horrible fact that people turn to Stephen King rather than Saul Bellow is, in other words, symptomalogy. "

While I was checking out the Mobylives website I found another good column on discount chains and bookselling. Key quote:

"What that means is the major discounting efforts of these non–bookstore chains are not stimulating and growing the [book buying] market but simply shifting consumer dollars away from bookstores and other potential book sales. Consumers buying a mega–seller at a Walmart will not be discovering a book of promise, as such chains do not invest in authors and non–bestselling books. Bookstores do, and we are losing an opportunity to handsell other good books to these consumers who do not regularly visit and browse in a bookstore."