Black Sabbath... err... Friday

I had some coupons for Costco that were only good Friday through Sunday, so we decided to go there on Friday.

I was really surprised just how empty the shopping centers were.  Costco, Sam's, Home Depot and Wal*Mart all seemed to have the normal number of shoppers, and traffic levels on the roads seemed normal for a Friday afternoon/evening.  I'm not sure whether it's just a Nebraska thing (the state is dangerously underpopulated, to borrow a line from Apu), or if this year is going to be a bust shopping-wise (better sell my stocks now).

Nobody really seemed to have any decent Black Friday deals, other than Costco.

At Costco I picked up a Skil cordless drill/driver for $30 and a Crescent 211 piece tool set for $80.  Unfortunately, the latter turned out to be missing a socket, so I'm going to have to return it.  I picked up some gifts, including a copy of Mass Effect for my SO's birthday.  As we left the store, the receipt-checker handed me a cookbook, Favorite Recipes the Costco Way.

Popped over to Home Depot and Wal*Mart for some minor items, then over to Sam's Club.  I picked up a nifty cordless rotary tool for $30, along with the usual Car Whole and 18CTGRAALARG.  I noticed they had good quality 80/20 ground chuck patties $6.41 for 6 pounds. That's about $1.07 a pound.  I haven't seen that good a price for even crap ground beef chubs in a while, let alone 80% lean chuck in preformed patties.  This price is either a tremendous mistake or else they're trying to get rid of them, so I grabbed 3 packages.  I'd have bought more, but I didn't think we had the freezer space.

It was really late by the time we started home, so I decided to stop at Popeye's to pick up some chicken for dinner.  Good thing, since there were having an "our worst day of the year" sale, 20 pieces for $9.99.  Of course, by the time you add in sides, it's up to $20, but it's still a pretty good bargain.

A few pics

This is "a 20% chance of snow", falling from the sky and all over the lawn.  (This was Wednesday, by Saturday most of the snow has melted, but there are still a few small patches)



Donation box seen at a local Pamida.  The viewer is left to his imagination.



An old picture of my engine.  Removing the "home plate" resonator frees up a few extra horses but leaves a gaping hole exactly the size of a regulation hockey puck.  I eventually replaced the intake elbow with one from a Camaro, which lacks the resonator hole, so I don't have a bunny under the hood anymore.



My computer tool kit.  It started life as a Belkin 65-piece tool kit acquired while I was working at Computer Renaissance.  I have since replaced almost every tool in it.  I think the only original parts left are the vacuum & attachments, the anti-static wrist strap and the sockets.  This kit contains 95% of the tools I have ever needed when working on computers.  If I could add a small multimeter, the kit would be pretty much complete.