in which I play the lotto and do not understand motors
Fun craft group tonight--I probably didn't need to bring half my yarn supply to the Terrace, but that was the bag that I happened to be using, so... We even had a new person, A., who when I mentioned that my main fan from last summer has stopped working, innocently asked if I'd looked at the motor.
"Uh..." I said. "For WHAT?"
_becquerel_ chided her that "not everyone is a mechanical engineer," at which point A. protested that she is a CHEMICAL engineer, but apparently this is only half-true. At any rate, I certainly wouldn't have a clue what to do with the fan motor even if it was holding up a little sign that said HELP ME. I am rather vexed since I only bought it last year and it cost a good $30 at least, and now rotates perfectly while fanning not a single whit.
I'm going to have to get another one; I have one fan that still works, but I don't have air conditioning and one fan is not going to be sufficient for the hot summer months.
After craft group, I went to the grocery store with belleweather and caernsmith. Despite the fact that daowajan took me less than a week ago, I needed quite a few things--I didn't manage to get them on my list last time. I also picked up several high ticket items, like another cannister of protein powder and bags of frozen fruit for shakes and some moisturizer with sunscreen (although at least Dove has one for $5.50 instead of like $18-$24, which is apparently what Neutrogena thinks their brand name appeal is worth) and a big pack of paper towels, which caused me an agony of decision making because I really wanted the kind that have more frequent perforations so you can get, like, half a paper towel if that's what you need and none of them indicated they had that except single rolls, so who knows if these do or not.
I also got another bottle of the Rosemount grenache/shiraz blend, which is $5.99 at Cub Foods here and is really, really good. I highly recommend it.
I had to run to the check-out line to buy my wine before 9 pm, so then I had a few minutes to kill before caernsmith and belleweather came through. Unfortunately, I ended up waiting right next to the lotto machine.
After staring at it wistfully for a bit, I finally bought a $1 ticket for the "Bee Lucky" game (the ticket has a bee and a honeypot on it, it looked friendly), which at first seemed rather unnecessarily complicated, but I worked it out and then realized that I'd won: a dollar.
Unfortunately, the customer service counter, which does pay-outs, had just closed.
So I bought a second Bee Lucky ticket, figuring hey, I haven't lost money yet, and promptly lost a dollar.
I'm pretty proud of myself for not buying a third ticket even though it was a few more minutes before we left. I was reminded of a guy I knew who had at one time interviewed for a job with the state lottery commission.
He was told that their central goal, in order to make more money, was to get people in the second highest lotto playing category (like $15-$20 on lotto tickets a week or something) into the highest (over $20), because it was almost impossible to get people who don't buy lotto tickets at all to start, but it was pretty easy to turn heavy players into VERY heavy players. The very heavy player category, as it happens, largely overlaps with the "problem gambler" category. So basically, this particular state agency's central goal was to push as many state residents into problem gambling as possible. Ah, the lotto.
I have to wonder what kind of weird category I fall into, with probably three lottery ticket purchases a year, made on whims when I have nothing else with which to occupy myself. Is this a big category? Am I at risk to start buying five tickets a week? I guess it would still be cheaper and less self-destructive than smoking.
I also noticed at the Union when I was buying a pitcher of cider that you must have been born on or before this date in 1984 to buy alcohol, which is just ridiculous. sophonisba was born in 1984. I still feel like I'm getting away with something when I show people my totally legitimate ID and they sell me booze.
Mix CDs for tomthedog's LJ mix circle are going out tomorrow!
"Uh..." I said. "For WHAT?"
_becquerel_ chided her that "not everyone is a mechanical engineer," at which point A. protested that she is a CHEMICAL engineer, but apparently this is only half-true. At any rate, I certainly wouldn't have a clue what to do with the fan motor even if it was holding up a little sign that said HELP ME. I am rather vexed since I only bought it last year and it cost a good $30 at least, and now rotates perfectly while fanning not a single whit.
I'm going to have to get another one; I have one fan that still works, but I don't have air conditioning and one fan is not going to be sufficient for the hot summer months.
After craft group, I went to the grocery store with belleweather and caernsmith. Despite the fact that daowajan took me less than a week ago, I needed quite a few things--I didn't manage to get them on my list last time. I also picked up several high ticket items, like another cannister of protein powder and bags of frozen fruit for shakes and some moisturizer with sunscreen (although at least Dove has one for $5.50 instead of like $18-$24, which is apparently what Neutrogena thinks their brand name appeal is worth) and a big pack of paper towels, which caused me an agony of decision making because I really wanted the kind that have more frequent perforations so you can get, like, half a paper towel if that's what you need and none of them indicated they had that except single rolls, so who knows if these do or not.
I also got another bottle of the Rosemount grenache/shiraz blend, which is $5.99 at Cub Foods here and is really, really good. I highly recommend it.
I had to run to the check-out line to buy my wine before 9 pm, so then I had a few minutes to kill before caernsmith and belleweather came through. Unfortunately, I ended up waiting right next to the lotto machine.
After staring at it wistfully for a bit, I finally bought a $1 ticket for the "Bee Lucky" game (the ticket has a bee and a honeypot on it, it looked friendly), which at first seemed rather unnecessarily complicated, but I worked it out and then realized that I'd won: a dollar.
Unfortunately, the customer service counter, which does pay-outs, had just closed.
So I bought a second Bee Lucky ticket, figuring hey, I haven't lost money yet, and promptly lost a dollar.
I'm pretty proud of myself for not buying a third ticket even though it was a few more minutes before we left. I was reminded of a guy I knew who had at one time interviewed for a job with the state lottery commission.
He was told that their central goal, in order to make more money, was to get people in the second highest lotto playing category (like $15-$20 on lotto tickets a week or something) into the highest (over $20), because it was almost impossible to get people who don't buy lotto tickets at all to start, but it was pretty easy to turn heavy players into VERY heavy players. The very heavy player category, as it happens, largely overlaps with the "problem gambler" category. So basically, this particular state agency's central goal was to push as many state residents into problem gambling as possible. Ah, the lotto.
I have to wonder what kind of weird category I fall into, with probably three lottery ticket purchases a year, made on whims when I have nothing else with which to occupy myself. Is this a big category? Am I at risk to start buying five tickets a week? I guess it would still be cheaper and less self-destructive than smoking.
I also noticed at the Union when I was buying a pitcher of cider that you must have been born on or before this date in 1984 to buy alcohol, which is just ridiculous. sophonisba was born in 1984. I still feel like I'm getting away with something when I show people my totally legitimate ID and they sell me booze.
Mix CDs for tomthedog's LJ mix circle are going out tomorrow!