Rose's Cantina

I just got back from the Starbucks and it was a friggin'  car wash. It's always busy before 9 a.m. and so we thought we'd wait and go a little later. Didn't matter. The line snaked out the door and if Scott didn't desperately need a Vente Bold Black, I'd have been outta there. Sorry if I'm snarkey this morning, but there's nothing worse than going to the dog park and not being able to find a parking spot. Today, the line was down the road with dog owning SUVs and their precious little red coated foo foo doggies waddling down the road. Today, we saw a couple with two dogs who looked suspiciously like Bernese Mountain Dogs, without all the fluff. Turns out they were Swiss Mountain Dogs, according to the snooty owners. Welcome to Black Monday which really is Remembrance Day in Canada. It's the day when all the federal and municipal public servants get the day off while their kids are babysat in provincial schools which are forced to stay open...

After watching the Remembrance Day ceremonies, we decided to pop into Costco to pick up a bag of dog food. (Costco has the best price on dog food, and with three hungry mouths to feed, a $25 bag of Kirkland dog food can last us two months!) Anyway, we got there today at 12:30 and had to park in the "additional parking". I go to Costco every week, and with the exception of St. Jean Baptiste Day when the Quebec Costco is closed, I've never had to park there. Immediately upon entering the store, the bile began to rise up in my throat. The place was packed with public servants, bank employees and posties all fighting over the last Christmas ball. Nearly all the carts were taken. We weren't ten steps in when Scott disappeared into the crowd and my head started spinning and sweat beads formed on my brow. This was Remembrance Day and all I saw was a human car wash with people buying gaming systems, flat screens and tourtiere the size of ancient turtles. In my 5...

Costco is an evil place. I mean, how ridiculous is it to pay a vendor $100 just to shop at their store? Ditto for Direct Buy. I've often thought that going to Costco was like going to the Rideau Carleton Slots. People have the same zombie-like stares are they meander through aisles and aisles of SWAG, or in their case, Stuff We All Don't Need. Then they come out into the parking lot with 100 unit boxes of candy bars, hot dogs the size of nuclear missiles, and nativity scenes that could fill the entire city of Jerusalem. I, myself, am a slave to Costco. I've spent the budgets of some Third World countries at Costco some years, so I've had to learn to be frugal. My strategy is simple: just buy the fresh stuff and you can't go wrong. I mean, you can only eat so many strawberries and so much salad right? But a three-pack of mustard, well, that will last into the next ice age. Anderson Cooper had a show on yesterday which presented strategies for shopping...