To the Ice-Cream Companies (including the non-dairy ones):

Please STOP this trend of making ice cream container lids out of plastic!
They're harder to open; the plastic digs into the skin of my fingers.
Paper lids work just fine and are more bio-degradable.

The only explanation I can think of for this trend is that some people who don't know how to properly place the lids on their containers must have complained about the paper edges of the lids getting bent inwards.

Happy Dancing Duck

Skimming down my shopping receipt, I see "Hapy Dancing Duck".
"What?! I didn't buy any duck!", exclaim I, and muse whether one of my items rang up as something else.
But it's correct; it's the birthday card with the cute image of a duckling playing in glittery dandelion fuzz.

I got the holiday cards done done and sent out today after all. Even more cards than usual; sent some to Qiao's family too. But with no newsletter-type insert, only a couple photos. I don't expect the cards to get to their destinations before Christmas, although there's a chance the in-state ones may. If I'd had more time, it would have been nice to come up with a poem about the year to include in the cards. But I suppose any such poem would include references that only made sense to myself, so would probably not be a good idea after all. That would be better put here, on my journal.

My lower back remained achy this morning, even after lengthy and repeating stretching. Going shopping, as always, made it worse. It seems lately that whenever I go shopping, I start feeling like I might be coming down with a fever and getting sick. It must be from the lower back pain getting to me, and/or from being exhausted. Once I get home I start to feel better.

I shopped at World Market (Cost Plus), Big Lots, and Kroger.
I had browsed World Market's online store last week; didn't see anything that looked good. I got tired of scrolling and gave up. But in the actual store, I found lots of good stuff. Some food items to give as gifts, and some for myself.

At Big Lots, in the corner of the store by the door to the Employee-only area, I again smelled weed smoke. Strong enough even through my face mask to make me start feeling slightly nauseous. And yet this was a *different* Big Lots store than the one I smelled weed in last time!

At Kroger, I may have set a record for the most-ever items purchased through self-checkout. (But none of the non-self-checkouts were open anyway, so.) The automated kiosk thing stopped me at least 3 times, at about 15, 32, and 64 items, making me wait for an employee to enter their code on it and let me continue.

Also, I think today was the first time ever at the Kroger self-checkout, that the machine *didn't* call for an employee over after I selected the button for using my own bags.