Off Target

Before I get started, it dawned upon me last night that "Here's to you, Mrs. Robinson" would have made an awesome title for yesterday's blog entry! Oh well, opportunity lost!

Some quick-hitters:

- There's nothing more bone-chilling than to turn on my radio, expecting to hear Jim Rome rant about something stupid, only to hear him talk about the shooting on the Virginia Tech campus. I can't imagine how frightened the students on campus were, once word spread that the gunman was loose. Prayers go out to the victims and the families.

- Nice job, Clippers! All you had to do was beat the Kings to maintain control of your own destiny. Now, you have to beat the Suns, or pray that Golden State loses to Dallas and Portland (assuming you beat NOK).

- It took a while, but the Denver Nuggets look like a very scary team. I'm not saying that they will beat the Spurs in the playoffs, but the Spurs have to be sweating having to defend this team for 48 minutes per game.

- My Dodgers sit in first place at 9-3, and Brad Penny is 3-0. W00t! Of course, we're still only a couple of weeks into the season.

As for the topic at hand:

So you can go ahead and add Target to the list of evil stores; stores guaranteed to lighten my wallet much more significantly than I expect. I dropped by earlier today, with the intention of buying five items: a pair of sandals, some Doritos, some cereal, dishwashing detergent, and a new pillow. I was thinking that the trip was going to run $25-30 at the most. Of course, I ended up spending closer to $50, but at least I did get everything on my shopping list. Damn Jalapeño Cheddar kettle-cooked potato chips and Raisin Bran Crunch!

It was amusing to push my two-and-a-half year old nephew around the store, though, listening to him mumble about every single item he saw. Now that I think about it, he was the one that picked the cereal for me. He was also the one that brought my attention to the kettle-cooked chips. Dammit, this is all his fault! Anyway, we were there for a good hour, and he was doing a lot of talking. Couple that with the fact that we were constantly on the move, and he quickly got worn out; he ended up falling asleep in the cart when we got to the registers. I guess I can add this to my list of effective strategies to wear out a kid to the point of exhaustion and sleepiness, which I dub my "rope-a-dope" technique :P

(Whew! Once again, twenty-five minutes to spare!)