I’ll take an iced tea and a cruller, please!

While in NYC and I went to a Dunkin Donuts for some iced tea. I noticed that the calories were posted for everything. When I first heard about that, I thought it sounded like a terrible idea, but actually, upon seeing the calories posted right there in front of my nose, I was intrigued.

First, I learned that a corn muffin at Dunkin Donuts clocks in at over 500 calories. That’s something that I would normally think, “OK, that’s a slightly healthier alternative to a donut!” But now I’ll never think that again. On the other hand, a cruller is only 150 calories!! I’ve always liked crullers, but for some reason when I’m on the go, I’d always reach for a muffin thinking it was the least-bad-for-you option.

My fav, a chocolate glazed, is 340 and my second favorite, chocolate with coconut is 370. Their chocolate chip cookies are a whopping 540 calories!! YIIIIIIIKES.

So, yeah…I think next time I’m at a Dunkie’s I’ll settle for a cruller :-)

Twitter loses followers

I’ve been frustrated with Twitter before, but now…straw, meet camel’s back. Twitter loses member’s follower lists.

Bravo, Twitter. You continue to be an interesting service that’s so incredibly poorly executed.

Bloggin’ on Bolt Bus

I’m blogging from the BoltBus! For $10, I am coming home from NY on a bus with free wifi and electrical outlets. Before I get carsick, I’m gonna throw in a DVD :-)

It’s too hot out.

That is all.

Social Networking and Illnesses

A few weeks ago, I was contacted by someone on MySpace telling me about a new social networking site for women who suffer from endometriosis (as well as their spouses/partners). It’s called We Are Endo.

It’s actually a really great site. It’s really much like MySpace, with status updates, groups, blogs, etc. The Boston-area Endometriosis Support Group disbanded so at least now I have a place where I can login and feel like I’m not alone. The blogs are useful too, because you can chronicle pain.

But then, at the same time, because it’s a site for an incurable disease, it can also leave me feeling a little hopeless.

Are you a psychic or a psycho?

I think my love for Costco has taken a sharp dive today. I went there again today for another inexpensive lunch.

AND SOMEHOW THE GUY WORKING THERE NEW MY NAME.

You don’t need a membership card to use their food counter, so he didn’t know my name that way. And you can only pay using cash at the food counter, so he didn’t read it off a credit card.

He said, “I hope you’re having a great day, Ms. Munroe.”

I stood there dumbfounded and as I walked to fill up my beverage, it suddenly hit me that it was a VERY weird thing to happen. HOW did the Costco guy know my name? I almost thought maybe I was hearing things, but I really wasn’t!!!! Then I looked behind me to see if he was talking to another Ms. Munroe behind me, but the lady behind me didn’t seem to react either!! And I don’t think I know this guy, though it’s not the first time he’s served me at Costco!

ARE YOU READING MY BLOG, COSTCO GUY???

I should have just eaten the tuna!!!!!

Another Costco Post

This isn’t the first time I’ve written about how I think Costco is the epitome of cool, and I doubt it will be the last.

Yesterday at work I packed tuna for lunch, but as the clock crawled to 12:30, I lost my interest in eating the tuna. I thought about what I could have has a cheap lunch. I then remembered: COSTCO!!!

And so I went to Costco! I had a slice of pizza and a Diet Coke…it was filling and the total came to….$2.71!!!! AND before returning to work, I refilled my Diet Coke and enjoyed sipping it for the rest of the afternoon.

Oh Costco, you warm my frugal heart.

Good-bye Octopus, Hello Little Birdie!!

The octopus was fun and cute and all, but that overall layout was just a little too cluttered. I now have a little birdie on my page! You may have seen that little birdie before, because I sometimes use it as an avatar. I used to be VERY into illustration for a while, and that was one of my favorites. I also made a cute owl and a hippo…but for now, say hello to our new friend, a little blue birdie!!

I don’t think I like Whole Foods that much anymore

When I was a kid growing up in Jersey, I used to go with my mom to this little health food store. We’d get things like Puffins Cereal and EdenSoy chocolate soy milk. On the way out they sold these little mint chocolate bars that came with an animal trading card. We also used to buy our shampoos and conditioner there, and my first deodorant was an all-natural apricot-scented roll-on that really didn’t help my adolescent B.O.

The days of the little health food store seem to be long gone. At first I enjoyed Whole Foods…I liked that it was like a health food SUPERMARKET. I defended Whole Foods’ prices and when people called it “Whole Paycheck” I would get mildly irritated because I felt like the higher prices were justified by superior product.

I like their 365 brands of shampoos and conditioners, so I stopped by Whole Foods yesterday to get some. I noticed the prices went up (by about 50 cents) for them, but I know that prices are going up for everything, so I grabbed them anyway.

I wandered around, thinking I’d buy some granola bars while I was at it. I’m a fan of the Cascadian Farms Chocolate Chip Granola Bars…I was about to grab a box until I saw the price. It was a whole extra dollar than it was for the same exact thing at Star Market!!! (AND I’ve gotten big boxes of them at Costco which, of course, is an even better value!)

And when I saw that, my love for Whole Foods began to wane. With Stop and Shop and Star/Shaw’s expanding their organic sections and carrying the same things at lower prices, why frequent Whole Foods? And after my recent discovery of the pre-made mac and cheese at my love, Russo’s, which is just as tasty as the Whole Foods mac and cheese but at less than half the cost, I think my Whole Foods trips will be few and far between in the near future.

I do still enjoy certain things at Whole Foods, but between Trader Joe’s, Russo’s, farmer’s markets, and the ever-growing organic sections of mainstream supermarkets, my love for Whole Foods is fizzling out.

MySQL, Errors, and Drupal — oh my.

A Newton blog I run, TheGardenCity.net is broken. I have no idea how it happened…I was on the site last night and it was fine, but then this morning I logged in and it was broken.

So, any users of TheGardenCity, I’m sorry about the inconvenience. I’ll be trouble-shooting and hopefully I can get it fixed before the weekend, because I’m leaving town on Friday evening for a few days.