Ever burned the roof of your mouth before?
< 1 minute read
February 7, 2005, 12:42 AM
Ever done that, where you burn the roof of your mouth eating food that’s a little too hot? I did that last night. We had pizza, and it was just a little too piping hot to eat, but I ate anyway. The first bite was just like, “WOW!” on the heat index.
So it was pretty evident that I’d burned my mouth on that hot pizza. And as expected, it was numb afterwards, as the heat from the pizza probably burned off all the nerve endings over there.
The next day is when the fun begins, though. By the day after, all the nerve endings and such related to sensation have healed, and so now you can feel the burned area again. And it’s still sensitive from the burn. And it’s not even a “pain” kind of feeling. It’s more of a tingly feeling, if you know what I mean. It’s weird.
I highly do not recommend trying to find out for yourself. Trust me on this one. Plus, in the course of life, you, too, will eat something that’s too hot and burn your mouth.
And also, this is a distinctly different feeling from when I’ve burned my tongue in the past, usually on hot soup or hot coffee. Burning the roof of your mouth is a different, more intense feeling. But it’s still quite similar as well. And still a weird feeling nonetheless.
Categories: Food and drink, Myself
I was raised by a cup of coffee…
< 1 minute read
January 18, 2005, 7:36 PM
Let me tell you something… at work today on my first break, I made a strong pot of coffee. A lot of people at work were talking about the “really strong” coffee. I had no qualms in claiming ownership of that pot of coffee. I made it strong, and on purpose, because I was kind of tired.
After my cup of that strong coffee, I straight up said what I thought of it. In my best Strong-Bad-as-Homsar voice, I said, “DaAaAaA! I was raised by a cup of coffee!” since today, that was quite true. That coffee raised me up quite a bit. Heck, that coffee that I brewed this morning was so strong it could quite possibly raise the dead. This was strong coffee.
And near the end of the day, I still had my orange soda break. I always have orange soda on my last break.
Categories: Food and drink
I am an artificial morning person
< 1 minute read
January 13, 2005, 10:05 PM
I was thinking about it… I am so not a morning person. Yet when I have to come into work in the early morning, I’m perhaps one of the perkiest people in there. Yet I’m not a morning person. I recently realized how I manage to do it.
One word: CAFFEINE.
It’s a wonderful thing. Have a big soda right before work, and voila! Perky. After this realization, someone asked me how I managed to be so perky in the morning, and I answered quite honestly. Caffeine. Wonderful thing. Without caffeine, I don’t know what I’d do to get moving in the morning.
Categories: Food and drink
Christmas Eve, Christmas, and the day after
4 minute read
December 26, 2004, 9:45 PM
My, what an interesting three days.
First there’s Christmas Eve. The crowds at Wally World were just amazing. Practically all of Waynesboro crammed into our store and cleaned it out. And then at 6:00, just like last year in the Staunton Wal-Mart, all became quiet, as the store closed, and the customers went home. All of us as associates finally wished each other a Merry Christmas, and went on home. Hey, the store was closed, and we were going to enjoy every minute of it. Though I think I caught Evelyn off guard with a Christmas hug.
Speaking of Christmas Eve, I’m still sore from that day. For one, my arms are sore from all the scanning I did. Let me tell you something. I was scanning far more items than a regular day, and was scanning at warp speed. So I’m still sore from that. We’ll recover. I also got a bruise on my front. I noticed it this morning while I was getting dressed. Then at work today, remembering where the bruise was, I realized how I got it. I must have accidentally jabbed myself with the arms on the bag spinner at some point, since it was at the right height to be the spinner.
Then there’s Christmas itself. Mom was the star of the show in the morning, overacting for everything. Sure, it was a bit bad acting, but it was cute. Meanwhile, you know you’re getting mature when you realize that the Christmas presents will still be there in the afternoon, and you don’t have to open them at the crack of dawn. I had no problem sleeping until noon or later. But the family woke me up at 9:00, and so I kind of lumbered down the stairs to open presents.
Continue reading…Categories: Christmas, Clothing, Food and drink, Schumin Web meta, Shoes, Walmart
And all this time I thought I was drinking unleaded…
< 1 minute read
November 9, 2004, 4:26 PM
Boy, do I feel dumb. I found out today that I’m about the only person at Wal-Mart who didn’t know that Sunkist orange soda had caffeine in it. No idea. I always thought that orange soda was caffeine free. A coworker of mine pointed it out to me today on my last break, and I was just like, “You are kidding me, right?” I was just dumbfounded for a moment there. This stuff has caffeine in it! I asked a few people, “Did you know that this stuff had caffeine in it?” Everyone said they did. I was just blown away by that revelation. Especially since my last break at work has become my “orange soda break”, since I always have an orange soda on that last break of the day to “wind down” a bit, since I always figured it had no caffeine in it.
So as you can see, this is practically an earth-shattering revelation for me. My caffeine-free wind-down soda is loaded with caffeine, it turns out. That explains the amazing second wind I got after my last break, though. I was just flying over my register yesterday, and I just thought I’d hit a second wind. Turns out there was a little something called caffeine in play there, that I didn’t know about.
So now I have to figure out what orange soda has no caffeine in it. Since that’s what I was going for there.
Categories: Food and drink, Walmart
Today we found out why soda bottlers stamp an expiration date on their products
2 minute read
November 6, 2004, 11:41 PM
Yeah, on my way to work today, I found out why sodas carry an expiration date. I had always thought it was more of a marketing gimmick than something real.
Well, I was wrong.
When I was on my vacation to Virginia Beach, I bought a six-pack of Pepsi in the 24-ounce bottles. This was August 11 – day one of my vacation. While on that two-day vacation of mine, I enjoyed four of the six bottles. The remaining two bottles came home with me unused. I took them home and kind of placed them somewhere out of the way.
Now fast-forward to last week. I re-discovered those bottles under some stuff, and threw them in the fridge to get cold again.
Categories: Food and drink
Things we do on our off-days…
3 minute read
July 28, 2004, 8:37 PM
I was off yesterday and today, and it was quite an interesting time. The highlight of the days off was going to Roanoke on Tuesday afternoon and evening. I did some very minor photography, mostly night photography at Mill Mountain Park, home of the Roanoke Star. I don’t know what it is, but there’s just a certain draw to that location for photographing it at night. The only problem is that with the warmer months, darkness comes later, and thus I get far less time topside before they kick us out of the park at 11 PM (that’s when the gates close) than I would during the winter when it gets dark at like five.
Still, I managed to get a few gems. My only major problem up at the star this time was children. Elementary-aged children running around doing child-type stuff, getting in my way, tromping around on the wooden overlook platforms, messing up more than one shot. One child actually bumped my tripod, creating a double image with some strange trails on it.
On this trip, I also realized why winter is the better time for visiting the Roanoke Star. Besides there being more dark up there at night, the leaves are gone from the trees, permitting us to see more of the area. Foliage is a big blocker, let me tell you.
And then after I was finished at the star, I went over to Hooters, where I had a meal, and also got into a conversation with Cierra, one of the Hooters girls, about the Metro in DC, MARTA in Atlanta, and other transit-type topics. Also found out that Roanoke indeed does have transit service – a bus service called Valley Metro. I will have to chase this and photograph service one of these days. It may be more difficult than I would like it to be, considering that I had never even seen buses in Roanoke before this trip. Still, we’ll figure it all out in the end. May pair it up with the BT in Blacksburg.
Categories: Food and drink, Howard Johnson's, Roanoke
Soy? What’s the problem?
2 minute read
July 26, 2004, 2:24 AM
Well, my Sunday at work was a sweet-and-sour day. And it didn’t even have anything to do with work.
My day was quite a good day up to my lunch break. On my lunch, I bought one of my usual lunch picks, as well as something new I saw in the produce cooler. It was a vanilla chai tea with serious amounts of soy protein.
So I rang it all up on the self-checkout, and went off to the breakroom, where I decided to first enjoy the tea. I drank that down, and boy, was I sick. That was it. It did NOT agree with me, and I was miserable the rest of my lunch break. I don’t think my system settled for some hours after work ended. But goodness, I felt hideous. Not enough to go home early, but still, you could tell I was a touch out of it.
Needless to say, I’m never having that again. I don’t know what it is about soy. I used to drink soy milk all the time, and it would always agree. Then I had one soy milk that did not agree earlier in the year. I had at the time attributed it to drinking it too fast. This time I didn’t drink it fast, so who knows why it didn’t agree with me. And why soy has turned on me lately, I don’t know, especially since I used to drink soy milk a lot. Who knows…
Categories: Food and drink, Myself, Walmart
Finally, an off-day!
2 minute read
June 29, 2004, 11:42 PM
Yes, after six straight days, where I worked all four different Service Desk shifts at least once, I finally have gotten another off-day. This Wednesday, I will be going nowhere near my own Wal-Mart. Other people’s Wal-Marts, on the other hand, are a completely different story, as most other Wal-Marts don’t look at all like Waynesboro’s. Most Wal-Marts are gray, red, and blue. Our store is beige and forest green. Our store has black signage and faux-wood floors. Most stores have some sort of blue signage and carpeting.
So I have yet to figure out what tomorrow looks like. Probably not going to go out, but rather I will probably take the opportunity to do some serious work on the Web site. I really need to work on it, since right now I’m behind on a few different projects, including spinning College Life off into its own subsidiary site, working on “The Lights of the Night” group of photo sets, and my “Memories” College Life set.
Otherwise, the phrase “Are your gas bills so high they make you want to cry?” is just perfect for me. To fill up the Previa costs almost $30 with these astronomical gas prices. And my car isn’t even one of those gas-guzzling SUVs.
Now sport-utility vehicles aren’t helping the price of gas, either. If people would all get small, fuel-efficient cars, maybe we could all get more for our money as far as gas goes. I know that when I eventually replace the Previa, I will be getting a small car, preferably a station wagon.
Categories: Driving, Family, Food and drink, Schumin Web meta, Toyota Previa, Walmart
It seems that carbohydrates have become the new fat…
3 minute read
June 11, 2004, 1:24 AM
After having just seen two commercials in a row about low-carbohydrate foods, I have to believe that we’ve officially gone off the deep end.
The first commercial was for Special K, which acted as though people were just crushed to death, showing people sitting on the ground with their head buried in their knees and crying if that tells you anything, about not being able to use their cereal bowl due to their low-carbohydrate diet. That’s why this new version of Special K is supposedly so great, because it’s only nine net carbohydrates per serving.
The other commercial was for CarbWell salad dressing, which promotes having no carbohydrates. Not nearly as bad as the first, but still pretty bad…
I’m just amazed, really. I grew up with something else, and it wasn’t long ago when it was the case that fat was the enemy. We counted our fat grams, and counted our calories. And food manufacturers announced how low in calories they were and how low in fat they were.
Now it’s carbohydrates. Sugars. All of a sudden, fat and calories are left by the wayside. The key to slimmer thighs is to lose the sugars now! The way it’s come around, it seems like a huge national fad.
Categories: Food and drink, Virginia Beach
“When the water fills the clouds, then they call on lightning! When the rain needs to pour, then they call on me! And I crackle, and I flash… people think I’m frightening… when I dance through the clouds and send the rain free!”
2 minute read
May 21, 2004, 11:04 PM
You know the story. Thunder blows its giant trumpet, and then…
“I must dance my dance… at last I am set free! It’s my chance to dance (to dance his dance!) where the whole world can see me! I can flash through the sky… and light up the heavens…”
Yes, it rained today. Specifically, we had some mighty thunderstorms. It’s not often that you can see lightning through the skylights at Wal-Mart. It’s also not often that you can hear the rain on the roof from the salesfloor at Wal-Mart. Usually you can hear the rain on the roof in the back room, since it’s usually quiet back there. But to hear it over the din of the customers is is something else. You know that it’s got to be raining hard for that to happen. And it was LOUD on the roof, too! And to hear thunder loud and clear in the store is another thing.
And the ride home was just fun. Raining and all that all the way home, with lightning flashing all over the sky, really lighting up the sky. If only I had Big Mavica and a tripod with me to get a long-exposure shot of it all. And watch me get zapped in the process. It would be a heck of a way to go, though.
Categories: Food and drink, Myself, Today's Special, Walmart, Weather
Twelve hours at work…
2 minute read
May 4, 2004, 12:56 AM
This is what happens when we don’t have enough help at the Service Desk. So I worked extra beyond my regular shift to cover the Service Desk. And I did pretty darn well, too. Sometimes on a regular day, I get fatigued in the last couple of hours. On days when lunch doesn’t agree, I get fatigued soon after lunch. This, by the way, led to my no-rich-foods-for-lunch rule, which came about after I ate some of the very rich (and very expensive) “Cherry Cheese Delight” that we sell at the Deli proceeded to not agree with me, and wrecked the entire second half of my day.
Still, today I was going like gangbusters from 11:00 AM when I came into work, through my hour-long lunch break where I had a hoagie and some fruit, and right on through to 11:00 PM when I finally was able to get the heck out of my little Service Desk cave.
And just think… I’ve made it through however many days I was scheduled for, and now I’ve made it to my two days off! And what am I going to do for these days off? Gooooooooooood question! I know that I’m going to spend at least a little time on the phone, trying to find a good price for a garage to put new brake pads on the Previa. Additionally, I need to also find someone who can look at my car’s air conditioner and tell me what’s wrong with it. Since trust me… no air conditioning during the warmer months is HELL. And considering that the air conditioning was weak in 2002 and non-existent in 2003, I have a feeling it may just need a “recharge”. Of course, it might just be more than that, which means it can get quite pricey.
Categories: Food and drink, Retail, Toyota Previa, Walmart
Replacing the fluids…
< 1 minute read
April 24, 2004, 11:02 PM
Before I begin, let me tell you that this is take two on this journal entry. I lost the first one when my computer froze up. Anyway…
You can tell I’m still recovering from all the heat from yesterday. I lost so much water yesterday from sweating and such, and we’re replacing it, slowly but surely. I’m so glad I bought that 64-ounce mug (more than any sane person should have at once, but this is me we’re talking about) at Wal-Mart on Tuesday. I fill that thing up, and it lasts me a looooooooooooong time. And it makes sure that I’m running smoothly, as water is like the body’s natural lubricant, since, according to the mug (which has water stuff all over it), the body is 80% water, we need to drink at least half our body weight in ounces of water (that’s a LOT of water), and that water plays a role in just about every bodily function.
So from all that sweating I did yesterday, I got myself a wee bit dehydrated. Slowly but surely, I’m going to have all my water again.
Meanwhile, I’m pulling all the photos from yesterday’s trip from the camera and taking a look. We’ll see what we can do with them…
Categories: Food and drink
What a productive day!
< 1 minute read
April 6, 2004, 12:05 AM
This was a day where I let my organizational skills shine. That Service Desk was looking fine. Everything was arranged in shopping carts and ready to go when I left.
And I came up with the best term for the Service Desk area. It’s a cave. See, in Supercenters, recall that it’s a gymnasium-style ceiling. So the ceiling is very high. So then you go into my little cave, and it’s a lot lower ceiling. So it really does seem like a cave. And I’m the monster who lives inside that cave, hehehe.
Still, my bosses when I was an intern at the Office on Youth last summer said I had great organizational skills. Today, I proved them right beyond a shadow of a doubt.
And Tuesday I am off. Off is good. Means that I can do everything I always wanted to do but couldn’t because I have work.
Still, next week is when I next go to DC. This week is just whatever. And I don’t mind it, because I’m going to hit up the Chatter Bus tomorrow, among other things.
So that ought to be fun. I love coffee.
Categories: Food and drink, Myself, Walmart
I finally took the advice of a friend…
2 minute read
April 2, 2004, 11:41 PM
In taking the advice of a friend, I went and bought a six-pack of Mike’s Hard Lemonade after work. And it’s pretty good. It tastes like lemonade, but has a little kick. So far, so good.
Meanwhile, I’m in pursuit of some new pants. As you know, I’ve stayed the same size for about five years now. And so I don’t have to buy new pants because I outgrow them. Instead, I buy new pants because I wear out the old ones. And considering I have some pants I bought in 1999 and still use, plus replacements in between, they’ve done quite a job for me. And now I’ve worn out enough to make it where I need to get some new ones.
I went to Casual Male in Roanoke, and tried out a lot of pants. Different sizes, different styles. I don’t want jeans, but I also don’t want dress pants. I actually tried out some cargo pants that I really liked, but we had a slight problem when it came right down to it. If they were the right waist, they were the wrong length. If the length was right, the waist was wrong. We figured out what the magic combination would be, but of course they didn’t have it in stock. Quite frustrating. So now I’m trying to figure out what to do next. I want something that will be able to take some abuse, be comfortable, and look good. Probably will find another Casual Male location or find another store that has what I’m after.
Categories: DC trips, Food and drink, Retail