The Day Of The Valentines

Little did I know just how popular this holiday was.  The Day of the Valentines was the craziest thing I've seen in many moons.  

I needed groceries.  In spite of the food deliveries I've been ordering, you still need things like paper towels, chicken for Mr. Cooper and of course Ritz crackers for Jonathan.  Just like in a normal household, everyone has their favorites.  I should have picked another day.

I walked in the door to be completely shocked at the enormity of their flower and balloon display.  Good grief!!!  I could barely push the cart through the too-close-together aisles.  I did a quick measurement in my head.  They had almost 2,000 square feet of stuff ... including that six foot tall rose balloon.  

Do people really BUY all this stuff?  And it's not cheap either!!!  $45.00 for most every little container of flowers.  When I finally got through the maze, because there's no other way to get to the actual GROCERIES, there was a stand selling chocolate covered strawberries.  Pick how many and which ones you want.  I passed.

I admit, this is not Walmart.  After mailing off my tax records to he who is better at navigating the IRS than I, and returning that perfect foldable chair for the RV which I could not for the life of me UNFOLD ... oh that was another story ... I proceeded to get food.  

The chair came from Amazon in a box the size of my front door.  Either there's a trick to getting it to unfold, or it was broken.  I even watched videos to no avail.  The UPS store would not take such a large box, so I had to PAY $10.00 for a box to return it.  

Walmart is no where near either of those places, so I went to the EXPENSIVE grocery store.  It couldn't be that bad, since I didn't have much on my list.  Well it was bad enough to almost cause a heart attack.  

Before the new company took over this store, groceries were affordable.  Certainly not any more, and so I will never shop here again.  It's back to Wally World for me!  That $195 got me two full bags, one half full and the cheapest paper towels they had.  Pretty crazy!!

Back home, I tried to put this off.  I knew programming the infernal machine was going to be a hard row to hoe.  There is a million ways to do it, including figuring taxes on twelve items for each key.  We don't have taxes thank goodness.  The directions are vague at best and do not tell you how to switch from ABCD to 1234.  

We fought for about two hours before I finally got it figured out.  To type in REG 2, it took 14 key strokes.  No kidding ... it's crazy complicated.  And that just programmed ONE key on the machine.  

We fought back and forth, tooth and nail.  At long last came the test.  With his last breath, he tried to stab me in the heart ... one key did not program, meaning the remaining 18 keys were incorrect.  AAARRRGGGHHH!!!!!  

Another hour and I was ready for the final test once again.  Amazingly, it worked.  I WON!!!  It was a hard fought battle, but when I typed in the normal bingo purchase, it added up correctly!!  

Uh oh ... I just realized I did not check the receipt tape.  I'll have to do that today.

Anyhoo, I then proceeded to program the SD card.  Unlike last time when I did NOT make a folder for the programmed data, meaning it didn't work at all ..... I created a folder and copied the data.  Hopefully if this happens again, I won't have to do it all manually.  BUT I wrote down specific directions in 5th grade English, so I would remember how to do it next time, just in case the SD card did not work, because there is always a NEXT time.

TAKE THAT infernal machine!!!  Time for a little Nancy The Conqueror reward.  This is a smash pork burger, smothered in onions and cheese.  Who would have thought to use ground pork instead of ground hamburger??  This is what it SHOULD look like.

Not bad ..... not bad at all.  Apparently I got a little carried away with the Old Bay Seasoning on the fries, which I cooked in my air fryer.  They were not exactly crispy, but boy were they pepper hot!!  That burger ....  OMG it was DELICIOUS!!

I keep saying I'm not going to buy these meals any more, but gosh darn they are tasty!!  AND they seem to turn out fairly well when someone cooks them that seems to have lost her knack in the kitchen department.  You can skip weeks any time you want, so maybe every other week ......

Today I get to fight with Mr. Roomba.  He lost his mind yesterday, and his internet connection.  He just sat there and hummed about it for an hour before I realized he was lost ..... and DEAD.  So far I have not been able to get him connected back to my internet.  Brain surgery seems to be required.  I'll put on my scrubs and see if I can bring him back to life today.  This should be fun!!!