My End of the Woods

I thought I'd post an update on what's going on at my end of the woods. The biggest thing is impatiently waiting to go on the upcoming 2 week Globus tour of France. I'm impatiently counting every day. When I get within a week, I'll get to do more concerning the trip i.e. buy a bunch of Euros, put my mail hold request in and figure out what I'm going to wear. For now, all I can do is count the days.

Work at the Post Office goes well enough. I still have issues with the notorious single moms and I know I always will. I'm never going to accept their laziness or breaking of the rules. I count my blessings that I get along so well with my boss. Also, supposedly, the Postmaster is very pleased with me. I do whatever he asks without whining. He knows when he gives me a task that it'll get done. It's nice to know he's pleased with my work.

I've been considering buying a videocamera for the upcoming trip. My mom suggested it. Unfortunately, the timing is bad. I want to be able to pay all the optional excursions I plan to take at the beginning of the tour. I hope to avoid a big charge card bill when I get back from the trip. I haven't forgotten the Australia tour I did with Globus. I was paying on that for 3 months after I got back. If I bought the camera, I wouldn't be able to pay the excursions off before hand. I've decided to buy it in a couple months. I'll take it with me when I do the Egypt tour in March. That is something I'd definitely want to record on DVD.

I visited Dave & Busters today. They're offering a buy $10 worth of tickets and get $10 free coupon on their website (must be used by September 1st). It's a good deal. I suspect they're doing it to get you in the door. $20 with a supercharge will get you 125 tickets. That isn't much when you start playing the games. I'm partial to Spin & Win and that costs 8.8 tickets per play using a gold card. I suspect once you're there, you'll be more likely to recharge your card and play some more. I know I did today. I had frustrating luck on Spin & Win. I must've missed the 1,000 ticket light by 1 or 2 lights at least 15 times. I did finally hit the thing once. I now have over 63,000 tickets. They have a Zune MP3 player for 46,000 tickets. I want an MP3 player but, I don't know if I want to spend 46,000 tickets to get it. I'm going to keep thinking about it.

Also, I did a little bit for the environment today. I did a recycling run to the Glen Burnie Recycling Depot. It isn't much but, it is something. Also, I do try to not run the lights in my apartment unless I'm using them. That may have less to do with the environment and more to do with trying to keep my electric bill down.

On the subject of travel again, Globus looks to be getting more serious about their Journey club. It's a special travel club they offer that offers club only tours and access to their clothing shop. If you reactivate your Journey club membership, you'll receive a coupon that'll get you $75 off any tour that you book between August 2008 and December 2009. Also, they're offering a free extra night in a hotel providing you share it. Singles don't get to take advantage of this offer. Oh well. Also, it appears they going to come out with some kind of club membership number. The webpage to reactivate my membership asked for a card number. I had no idea what they were talking about. I'm curious to see if I get a membership card in the mail.

Lastly, I'm looking forward to the Maryland Renaissance Festival. It opened last weekend. Labor Day Weekend is a good time to go since the Post Office is closed on Labor Day. The only bummer to the festival is I'll make sure I get on the road early to get to it. If you take your time, you'll get stuck in a long bumper to bumper line. It'll be neat to check out the festival. They have some good acts and nice shops plus, the smoked turkey legs are delicious.

That's all that's worth telling about for now. Stay tuned for more updates as the France tour gets closer. Cheers all!

Trader Joe's Sparkling Pomegranate and Blueberry Juices Review

Recently, I tried Trader Joe's Sparkling Pomegranate Juice and Sparkling Blueberry Juice. This review in on those 2 products. I'd never had either pomegranate or blueberry juice so I thought I'd give Trader Joe's products a try. Taste wise, both juices tasted good. Neither have any kind of chemicals or preservatives which is another plus. However, there were some notable negatives with these 2 products. For starters, you don't get 100% pomegranate juice or 100% blueberry juice. The bottles say 100% juice and then in far smaller letters state that they are a blend of 4 juice concentrates. For example, their sparkling blueberry juice has blueberry juice, apple juice, pear juice and white grape juice. So while it's 100% juice, it isn't 100% blueberry juice. While Trader Joe's can technically say their being honest about the product, I feel they aren't being totally above board. Second, I had problems with the price. A 25.4 ounce bottle of blueberry juice cost $2.69 at Trader Joe's Columbia, Maryland store. That isn't a lot of juice for the money, especially when you figure in the carbonation. The pomegranate juice was a little cheaper selling for $2.49. In my opinion, these juices are a bit pricey.

Overall, while I thought the 2 juices had good flavor, I found them too pricey and not what they claimed to be. I feel they should call them in bigger letters some kind of juice blend vice stating they are a particular type of juice. If Trader Joe's is going to claim something is blueberry juice, it should be 100% blueberry juice. Because of their price and their labeling, I can't recommend either product. Cheers all!

Travel Documents

I received my Globus travel documents yesterday. I was delighted to get them. It makes the upcoming trip to France more real. I can't wait to go. I'm tired of the Post Office bullshit. Trips to Baltimore or D.C. aren't far enough. I need to get away from it for a while. 2 weeks in France will definitely do the trick. Concerning the documents themselves, I got a bit of double shock on them. To my surprise, my travel agent didn't catch that I didn't have airport transfers. After catching 3 flights to get to Paris, the last thing I'm going to want to mess with is getting myself to my hotel from Charles de Gaulle International. Also, my departing flight from Paris leaves at 7:25 a.m. I don't want to mess with trying to make arrangements to get to a foreign airport that early in the morning. I emailed my travel agent and he said he'd take care of it first thing. Also, I found that I was missing the documents for the travel insurance I purchased. I definitely want that information included. I hope I don't have to use the insurance but, it is nice to have it just in case. Now, I need to make a checklist so I can make sure I get done everything I need to do for my upcoming trip. I'll need to make sure the batteries for my digital camera are fully charged, that I pack a spare memory card for my camera, that I put my mail on hold, that I buy enough Euros and that I figure out what I'm going to wear during the trip. The clothes part promises to be hard because Globus limits me to one bag that can't weigh more than 50 pounds. The tour will be 2 weeks. Also, I'll be going to some events that'll be dressy i.e. the dinner and tour of Monte Carlo. Lastly, I have to make sure I have enough space in the suit case for souvenirs and gifts. It promises to be a bit of challenge figuring out what I'm going to take. Still, it'll be neat thinking of the upcoming tour. To get to see the famous beaches of Normandy where the D-Day invasion took place or see the stunning Mont St. Michel. It should be an awesome time. Stay tuned for further updates.

Travel Update

As my trip to France gets closer, I am getting more and more excited about it. I'm definitely ready to go on another trip. It's been 5 months since I did my first ever cruise in the Caribbean. Later this week, I should receive my travel documents for the Globus France tour. I'll blog more about that when I get them. Also, I made the last payment on the Egypt tour. Now, I just have to pay the charge card bill for it. That should be an awesome tour. Lastly, my friend Harvey was supposed to put the deposit down for me on the Historic East tour. Globus was offering an early booking deal where you could lock in a pre-brochure price. I checked and it was only $80 higher than this year's prices. I don't see the tour being cheaper than that so I decided to go ahead and book the tour. I'm pretty excited about that tour too. It is going to be really amusing to catch the Metro (Washington D.C. subway system) to the tour hotel and start the tour in D.C. I'm very use to having to catch a flight (many times an international one) to do a tour. It will be a real trip to do one that is so close. Stay tuned for further updates.

Postal Service Loss

I read an article on the Associated Press this past week that stated that the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) lost 1.1 billion dollars this past quarter (http://govexec.com/dailyfed/0808/080608ap2.htm). I thought I'd offer my 2 bits on this. First, summer time is the worst time of the year in regards to mail volume for the Post Office. I've seen considerably less mail these past 3 to 4 months than I do during the rest of the year. This is the norm. Personally, I like the lower volumes as it means I can get my route done quicker and I end up giving the Post Office fewer free hours. Second, the price of gas is really clobbering the Post Office. The Post Office has one of the largest fleets of vehicles per a U.S. company in the country. On some of the routes I deliver on, you have to drive from box to box. It would take far too long to deliver the mail walking. I think I saw a statistic some where that stated the Postal Service loses 8 million dollars for every penny the price of gas goes up. Considering how much gas has gone up, you can see how badly the Postal Service has gotten clobbered. Lastly, the service is trying to keep costs down. I know on the city side at our Post Office that they are having more open routes i.e. routes that don't have a salaried carrier. These routes have to be carried by the other city carriers. Also, our Post Office is cracking down on mis-thrown parcels. If a parcel is shipped Priority or First Class, we must deliver it the day we receive it. Mis-thrown parcels by the clerks can make it necessary for us to send a carrier (at $17.98 an hour) out to deliver a $4 parcel. By cutting down on mis-thrown parcels, we're able to save money and parcel runs.

The Postal Service is facing some incredible challenges. On-line bill paying is really hurting the service. People prefer to email or text message vice writing letters. Also, competition from FedEx and UPS is tough. Ironically, the Post Office offers a great deal in Express Mail but, a lot of people still prefer to use FedEx or UPS. Postal work remains labor intensive though the service has tried and continues to try to automate as much as possible. There has been a serious reduction in the number of clerks because of automation. The service also has a real challenge getting people who can do the job. A lot of people in this country don't realize just how hard it is to deliver the mail. I know, I was one of them. We have a high attrition rate among new hires. One of the things I've had to do is encourage the newbes to stick it out. The job is very hard until you start to figure out where various addresses are on the mail case. Lastly, I think the Postal Service is a great bargain. You can still mail a letter across the country for just 42 cents. With high gas prices, competition and communication advances, the future promises to be very challenging for the U.S. Postal Service and its employees.

Jeff Foxworthy Beef Jerky Review

To my surprise, while shopping at Safeway, I found out that Jeff Foxworthy of redneck fame has come out with his own beef jerky. As I really like beef jerky, I decided to try it. I tried the teriyaki flavor. I found it to be bland. The jerky was also tough though that is how jerky is supposed to be. Jerky was meat that was salted and dried so it would last a long time. Since, it was dried out, it would be tough initially to eat. One plus for Foxworthy's beef jerky is that it DOESN'T have any Monosodium Glutamate (MSG). It really annoys me to see that stuff in various foods. In my opinion, it isn't good for you. I know it will hurt me wind wise, if I eat something with that and then try to exercise later. I've personally seen the very noticeable difference. Price wise, Safeway was selling a 4 ounce re-sealable pouch of the jerky for $6. That's comparable with other brands of beef jerky.

Overall, I can't rave about Foxworthy's beef jerky. It failed to impress though I do like that it doesn't have MSG. I plan to keep looking for some jerky that tastes good and doesn't have a lot of artificial junk in it (real jerky doesn't). Cheers all!

Dave & Busters

After wiping myself out on the elliptical machine yesterday, I decided to go to Dave & Busters at the Arundel Mills Mall in Hanover, Maryland. It's a fun place and I enjoy playing the super trivia game and Spin and Win game. I wanted to add to my ticket winnings and see what new prizes they had. I managed to win 3,156 tickets at a cost of $53. I had frustrating luck with the Spin and Win game as I missed the 1,000 ticket light by 1 or 2 light over 20 times. It hurts to get that close. A split second made all the difference.

In regards to prizes, I didn't see anything that really wiped me out. They had a DVD player recorder which seemed nice but, I'm terrible about watching movies. They had a shake mixer but, how often do I make milkshakes. So, I decided to hold on to my tickets. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they'll get an MP3 player sometime. I'd have bought one myself but, I'm saving the money to pay off my future travels.

One other item of note I want to let folks know about. The parking situation around Dave & Busters is really bad on weekends. You can expect to spend at least 5 minutes trying to find a spot. You may have to watch for folks leaving so you can get their spot once they leave. This is the only problem I have with Dave & Busters. Barring that, it is a a fun place.