682229846144 ...

What is 682229846144 you ask?  The total number of hits this site got last week? Uh, no.  The total number of sexual encounters Paris Hilton had last week? Close! But, no.  The number of Americans who watched the gold medal hockey game against Canada on Sunday? No, but had the US won, that many people would have claimed to have watched it. 

So do you know what that number is?  Do you give up? Okay, I’ll tell ya.  Actually, I kind of cheated.  Here, let me break those numbers down like this for ya …

6822

2984

6144

Now do you know what those numbers represent?

WRONG!

Okay, enough fooling around.  Those are the PIN numbers of the three people using debit cards in front of me at the convenience store today.   I wonder if they even thought about the fact that when they punch in their PIN number on that little thing that everyone standing around them can get their number. 

Now, since I’m not a criminal, and don’t have any real criminal talents, I don’t think there’s anything I can do with this information.  However, there are people out there who can do something with it. 

Whenever I have to punch my numbers in, I make sure that I block anyone else in line and then punch it in real quick like.  I think we should all be sure to be more careful about these things.  It’s too easy to be lazy and think that even if someone does get our PIN number, there isn’t anything they can do without our acct. number or our card.  Well, do we REALLY know that? 

I know people who use their debit card PIN as their password on their email and other sites.  That gives someone with bad intentions even more chance of stealing your identity or engage in other bad activities. 

So, let’s be more careful out there people.  Not everyone is as criminally stupid as I am and can’t think of anything else to do with your PIN numbers other than to post them on a blog.

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Speaking of the store, it probably comes as no surprise to you that we don’t have a lot of shopping options here.  And the places we do have, don’t have a tremendous variety of stuff to choose from.  We have three grocery stores, but a Super Walmart.  One of the stores is really dirt and ghetto and the people who go there fit right into that theme.  Another one is owned by a family that I would rather have my toenails pulled out one by one than give them any more money.  The last grocery store is very nice and actually has great meat, but its very expensive.

Okay, so we all know that Walmart is going to be cheaper than any of these places already.  But, the problem is, I don’t trust Walmart’s meat.  I’ve had some bad experiences there with their hamburger meat and some steaks.  So, I’ve always just shopped at the nicer grocery store with the really good meat.

Well, I finally decided that maybe I should experiment with getting only the meat at the nice store and everything else at Walmart.  After about four trips to the store it is now clear to me that the saving is somewhere around 18%.  That’s pretty substantial.  I’m pretty sure that the chicken and pork at Walmart is probably okay, it’s just the red meat that is questionable and getting those white meat products at Walmart would probably save even more.  But, for now I’m happy with this arrangement.   Well, as happy as I can be with having to go to two different stores, but that’s life in a small town.

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Speaking of variety in a small town.  We have our first Thai restaurant here.  I haven’t been in there yet, but every time I’ve driven past the place there has been a pretty good crowd there.  Whenever I finally give it a try I’ll report back. 

Oh, and Grant … I’ll let you know if any Bunnies are working there. 

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One last thing.  I was given an award by Linda over at The Good the Bad, the Worse.  Normally I don’t do the blog award thing if there isn’t a check involved or if it doesn’t come with an 18 year old stripper, but this award really made me LOL …


How awesome is that?  Thanks babe! 

Also, if you haven’t visited Linda’s blog you should do so now.  She rocks!