Shell’s what?

Yesterday we received a menu for a new pizza place in the mail. I got excited, because I always like to try new pizza places and this one even has stromboli on the menu.

And then, I noticed something absolutely horrifying on the menu.

STUFFED SHELL’S.

Nooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh, incorrect apostrophe usage absolutely breaks my heart. Breaks my heart, I tell ya.

Funny signs from when I was in China…

They had recycling bins everywhere in China. I was very impressed.

And that is where you disposed of non-recyclables.

In Xian! Look out!

At the hotel’s breakfast buffet in Xian. I had some of the “chedda”…it left much to be desired.

In case you can’t read the first line, it says, “You’re in an enviable position.”

That was in the hutongs of Beijing.

Mmmm…cholotate!

At first we were hesitable about the cheesecake, but then we decided to seek out these 50% off cheesecakes. As it turned out, they didn’t have any.

Is that man-chicken logo a little creepy to anyone else?

At the Shanghai Maglev.

They had Red Bull everywhere in China, but they also had this knock-off energy drink: Red Oxen.

Fun!

Refreshments at the Jin Mao building in Shanghai.

And the fish sure were happy!

A great deal for deformed man.

Exit that-a-way!

Another why I love Costco post…

Almost two and a half years ago, I blogged about why I love Costco. After today’s trip, I feel the need to write more.

- I saw a little old man trying to return cookies.

- Three words: Free food samples. I tried sun-dried tomatoes, chocolate, chicken, and salmon. The salmon was actually really good. I should have bought some.

- I found some really cute clothes there! Black pants, a purple sweater, a pink tunic-style top, a red cardigan, and a grey sweater with three-quarters sleeves. All that for about $70 — and mostly name brands, too!

- Socks, socks, and more socks!!!

And they had this bed, which I thought was amazingly cool:

I’ve never seen the Pirates movies, but the bed sure is cool.

Poor Lolcat

BostonNOW

Oh, and may I add that I absolutely despise BostonNOW? I made the mistake of picking one up to read on the train after my dollar coin fiasco.

1) Their film reviewer reviewed the new version of The Eye, and stated that the original was a Japanese movie. WRONG. The original movie was CHINESE. It was called Gin gwai.

2) Its obvious lack of fine-tooth editing.

3) An article stating that Nancy Pelosi should support Hillary Clinton simply because they are both women. An excerpt:

I continue to be amazed that professional and liberal women prefer to vote for any male candidate before they will vote for another professional woman. For example, one would think that Speaker of the House, Democrat Nancy Pelosi, D-California, would support Sen. Hillary Clinton in the same manner that most Black-Americans are supporting Sen. Barack Obama. In my view, Pelosi enjoys being the most powerful female in Congress and would rather have Sen. Clinton lose than help her win the Democratic nomination.

I find that to be sexist tripe. That’s nearly as sexist as NOT voting for Hillary because she’s a woman. One’s gender should not matter when voting. The article was difficult for me to stomach.

4) Their celebrity gossip section is taken RIGHT off People.com. They do credit People.com, but come on…

What a waste of trees. It would be one thing if it were a blog, but it just does NOT work as a newspaper. I understand that it’s a free newspaper so it’s not as if it were the Globe, however, their standards are so obviously low that it’s painful. Don’t these writers want to be taken seriously? Don’t they take pride in their work? At least I know I am not alone. The Yelp reviews of BostonNOW are absolutely hilarious.

Dollar coins

It costs $4.75 to go from South Station to West Newton. After lovely meal of dim sum, Matt drove to Southie for band practice, and I walked to South Station to catch the 12:40 train back to West Newton.

I made the mistake of purchasing my train ticket using a $20 bill at the ticket machine. I now have fifteen dollars worth of dollar coins weighing my pocketbook down.

I could barely close my wallet!! I hate using those coins because cashiers never seem too pleased when I hand them a handful of dollar coins. And I remember from my cashier days that the cash register drawers seldom have a compartment for dollar coins.

SIGH.

Poop in Central Square

Oh, man! Last night, Matt and I were at one of the Bank of America ATMs in Central Square around 9:30 PM and, like my previous entry about the subway, we were overwhelmed by the unmistakable smell of poop. WHY DOES THIS KEEP HAPPENING TO US? :-(

Poop on the New York Subway

The day after Christmas, I went with my dad, cousins, and Matt to The Museum of Natural History in Manhattan. We took the subway in from Queens, enjoyed a lovely pizza lunch, and spent the afternoon looking at all of the fantastic exhibits. (My favorite were the dinosaur bones…I remember that from going there on field trips!)

After transferring to the N train to get back to Queens, we were excited to find a mostly empty subway car during rush hour. And then, we were overwhelmed by a very, very foul smell. We then came to a horrible realization why the subway car was mostly empty: that smell was poop. At first I thought someone had just farted, but then the smell never went away and it was apparent that the stench was poop.

At that point, we had to decide what to do. Our choices were as follows:

1) Exit the subway car and get on one of the cramped ones.
2) Stay in the spacious, but stinky subway car and watch peoples’ reactions as they boarded.

My cousins enthusiastically opted for number 2. (No pun intended) It was like something out of “Candid Camera”…people walking in and exiting immediately, people wrapping their scarves around their noses and mouths, and taking out tissues to breathe through them.

I pulled my turtleneck over my nose and mouth and watched the horrified subway-riders. I laughed so heartily that my sides ached for hours afterwards.

Voting

I went to the polling place around 2 PM, and the woman behind me asked, “Is this your first time voting?”

“Me? Nope!” I responded.

“Really, you look so young!!” the woman exclaimed.

I was touched! “Thank you! You made my day!”

I’ve been voting for 8 years…which isn’t a LONG time compared to others, but if someone thought I was about 18, that’s A.O.K. with me! It feels like a lifetime ago that I was 18. Ah, back in those days I used to bleach my hair, wear junk jewelry, and wear a size 3! Not that I’d ever go back — I much prefer being 26, but I can’t argue with looking young. I bet I’ll end up being one of those women who lies about my age once I hit a certain point.

Sour milk

I think one of the worst physical sensations is accidentally drinking sour milk. I poured myself a nice bowl of Puffins cereal with 2% milk that the sell-by date isn’t until later this week. I’m a little stuffed up, so I couldn’t smell anything sour. I took a big spoonful of cereal and milk and….BLEAH!!!! Terrible!!! I lost my appetite and didn’t eat anything again until 1 PM!!!