Walmart

So I went shopping to Wally world last night to pick up some food for tonight’s dinner that I'm preparing. I'm going to cook some quick chili; Greg gave me the recipe on my first co-op because I wanted something to cook for myself besides frozen pizzas.

2 Lbs of Ground Beef
1 medium onion
2 cans of Diced Tomatoes
2 cans of Kidney Beans
1 can of Tomato Soup
Chili powder, pepper, and garlic powder

Brown beef with onions.
Dump everything else in.
Leave on warm for 1 hour.


So, at Wal-Mart- like a lot of other large stores- there are a large amount of people with carts. It reminds me of very slow moving traffic. Actually, I almost got into an accident with my shopping cart last night. I was pushing my cart along the isle and a guy shot out of a side isle right in front of me. I had to slam on the brakes (stop walking) else I would have side swiped him. He didn't look both ways before merging into traffic and he almost paid the ultimate price for it.

And there is always that unspoken rule of forward traffic being on the right hand side of the isle (like on a road). Has anyone else, to feel dangerous, just gone on the left hand side against the flow of traffic? I have and I always get an adrenaline rush!

I've always wondered if there have been accidents involving shopping carts. So I did a Google search on it and found the following story. Makes you think how dangerous shopping carts are...

On September 13, 2001 I was at a walmart shopping center in Lakeland, Fl. At this shopping center, they have a machine that the employees load the shopping carts on and it pushes them through the parking lot, and loads them into the store. I was in the store getting a shopping cart, and putting my son in the cart, when the next thing I know I am thrown into my shopping cart, and thrusted forward. The machine had at least 90 shopping carts, so I was hit with 90 carts plus the machine in the lower back.

Ouch. She got hit, not by a car but by a train! Lesson Learned: never get in the way of a train because it won't stop for you.

Nature in Florida

One of the things of Florida I enjoy most is the beautiful displays of nature. These vary from the gorgeous sunrises on the beach of the Atlantic to the powerful thunderstorms seen off in the distance to various insects.

Last night, there was a storm on the horizon which was producing lightning about once every 3 seconds. It was an awesome sight to see. I got out the trusty camera and tried to capture one of them. Out of the 80 pictures that I took, 4 weren’t totally black. I didn’t try taking the picture after seeing a strike because I thought that my reflexes wouldn’t be fast enough to see the strike, but instead constantly took pictures hoping that I would get a good picture. I don’t think that this method worked very well.

Below are some of my pictures of Florida’s great displays of nature.

Bathroom Blunders 2

Target Practice


Bathroom Etiquitte

estats4all

Andy's suggestion of estats4all is one awesome site! Here's why.

I can see that there have been over 100 hits to my site in the past 3 days.

Below is a table of websites whith number of documented referals to my site:

Andy- 10
DLo - 7
Yeiser-5
Hinton - 5
Todd - 3
The "Recently Updated Blogs" Site - 3
[THANKS GUYS!]

I can also see that Lubbers uses Netscape 3.01 and IE 6 on WinXP at work and usually visits my site daily (no comments on the ladies' bathroom?).

Bathroom Blunders

Along with learning my orgazational structure and scope of responsibility, I have had other experiences that are just as important; going to the Bathroom in the professional environment.

Since beginning my co-op, I have had various experiences that have impacted me. I choose to tell you these stories in the hope that you will recepricate your own unique bathroom blunders.

Below is a list of things that I have learned or observed. They are in no particular order and are, obviously, from a male's perspective. (Lubbers, you'll have to carry your weight in explaining the female professional bathroom situation.)

Hardly anyone talks in the bathroom. When a couple of friends walks through the men's door, it's like there's some kind of shield that renders everyone mute, just like the elevators. Somehow, either no one wants others to hear the conversation or they recognize the sacred bond that a man and the urinal shares; a bond that should never be interrupted.

While at the urinal, silently urinating or, as I've noticed some to do, loudly urinating by aiming for the pool of water, I've come to learn that there are all kinds of ways which men urinate. Some keep both hands down, some have one hand down and the other with forearm against the wall above their head, both hands on the hips (these guys must be proud of what God's given them), or both arms above their head. I think the best was when I was the only person in the bathroom taking a number 2. I heard the door open and then I heard what seemed to be a belt buckle. I thought that it was odd that the guy would already be working on the belt buckle right at the door. A moment later, I heard what seemed to be the belt buckle hit the floor. Curiously as to how his belt buckle hit the floor, I looked through the crack in the stall to see this man standing in his briefs with his pants on the ground. Suddenly, I was transported to a memory of me playing with micro-machines underneath a blanket while everyone else was sleeping during nap time.

I've also noticed that middle aged men don't have any shame when it comes to taking the Browns to the Super Bowl. They just let it rip, saturating the bathroom acoustically and sensorially. I have yet to be as courageous as these men.

Today, I was gophering pretty badly after eating a full lunch. It was time to make a quick run to the bathroom. I walked in and there were two guys at the urinal and both stalls full. AGGGG, the post-lunch bathroom rush! I quickly made my way to a 2nd bathroom across the building and walked into an empty bathroom behind another guy. He went for the far (handicap accessible) stall, so I went for the near stall- only to find that there was a garbage bag covering the toilet, apparently trying to quench the stench coming from the toilet. Frustrated, I went back to my desk to wait for toilets to open up. After some waiting, I went back to a bathroom. I walked into the bathroom with a guy behind me to find both stalls occupied again! Too embarrassed to just walk out of the bathroom with the guy behind me, I went to the urinal to pretend like my purpose for going to the bathroom was fulfilled. After flushing an empty urinal, I washed my clean hands and went to the other bathroom across the building. I walked into the bathroom and surprisingly found it to be empty. (As a side note, I like it when people leave reading material in the stalls as a complimentary gift.) I washed my hands and then went back to my desk feeling great.

Any similar experiences?

Parris: Resurrected

Hello World.

I must admit- blogging is fun.

I went on a sabbatical because I got tired of blogging.

I'm ready to blog again.

I'm trying to decide about the theme. Blogger now provides some professional themes. Should I bring my "made-from-scratch" theme? We'll see.

Andy wins a prize of some sorts. Before I said anything about my new blog (I wondered if anyone would find it while making preparations before announcing it) Andy left this comment using Blogger.com's commenting feature, which is now disabled for Haloscan's comments:

"he's back! i found you! i am looking forward to more of your posting! By the way parris, you and I should chat sometime. Take care"

Congratulations Andy.

Thanks to Yeiserman for the blogging suggestion.

DLo, take off that wretched woman's link and put this baby up there.

Hinton, Let's duke it out some more...

Hello World.

[this post is brought to you by the tax payers of america]