Thursday, June 11, 2026

Three Things Thursday

Stephany does an occasional Three Things Thursday series, so I thought I'd do something similar. I feel like hers is less whining than mine. 

Three Times I've Felt Invisible

1. I have complained about the limited number of self-checkout lanes for more than a handful of items at our local grocery store before and I'm here to do it AGAIN. If the store is going to limit self-checkout to only ONE lane for people with more than a few items and then that lane doesn't work, we're going to have to wait in line for a cashier. Fine. (It's not fine. I want to bag my own groceries.) The cashier did a fine job, although Amy's tendency to chuck items down to the bag means we had to toss a can of tomatoes because there was a brand new dent on it after she threw it. Fine. That's the cost of dealing with a human being who doesn't care about our groceries. 

But the bagger. Her name was Kylie. Was she drunk? High? I specifically said, "hey, those nectarines are very ripe - can you treat them like they're the most precious things on earth?" and then she threw them into the bag. Fine. But then. THEN. She literally threw baking potatoes on top of them. My husband and I both yelled don't, but it was too late. My nectarines were squashed. 

This happened more than a week ago and I'm STILL STEWING ABOUT THIS. Customer service is dead. If I have to checkout at a lane with a cashier and bagger, I'm not so politely telling the bagger to get out of my way and not touch a single item. 

2. It's registration season here at my job. In the afternoon, I do a presentation to all the students in our college to tell them what classes to register for and how do so. So I'm in the computer lab working with students and I say, "hey, can you open X program?" and they say "how?" and I say "how did I tell you to do it?" knowing I told them at least three times and they say "you didn't." AND THEN I SCREAM politely, but maybe not patiently, tell them how to do it AGAIN.

3. I was waiting patiently in line at a local business and when the person in front of me was finished, the people behind me just barreled in front of me and checked out. Like...I was standing right there? Maybe I AM invisible. 

Three Things Happening Right Now

1. As mentioned above, student registration is this month. June sucks at my job. So I'm basically doing the bare minimum in the rest of my life. But don't feel too badly for me because July is going to be a whole lot easier. 

2. Our book club is reading a book by a local author and we asked the author if she'd like to come to our next meeting. We'll see how it goes.

3. My new office chair came in. I'm enjoying it. 

Three Podcasts You Should Listen To

1. Sea of Lies - Some folks on a fishing boat find a dead body. How that dead body got to be there is batshit crazy. There's international fugitives, financial crimes, stolen identities, and incest. What more could you want? Everyone told me to listen to this last year and I didn't because I resist popular things, but I should not have resisted. 

2. Time Capsule: The Silver Chain - I was NOT expecting this. A reporter stumbles upon newsletters from a swingers club in 1970s suburban Minnesota. He starts researching the club and what happened to its members. It sounds salacious, but instead turned out to be heartbreaking.

3. Dirtbag Climber - A rock climber in Squamish, British Columbia is shot dead. Who would want to kill him? Well, it turns out that the suspect list is pretty large because the guy was really a dirtbag. Great investigative podcast. 

Three Photos of Zelda (she is perfection)



MY PRECIOUS KITTEN

Three Times My Husband Made Me Snort Laugh

1. Our car has this feature where it recognizes who's driving and adjusts the seat settings for that driver. My husband recently shaved and now the car doesn't recognize him. He made a new profile with "Summer Ted" as the name and now the car says "Hello Summer Ted" with a pink colored background whenever he's driving. This makes me laugh and laugh and laugh.

2. We were at the grocery store yesterday and parked next to an SUV as per usual. As we were getting out, the SUV guy was emptying stuff out of a cooler in his trunk and one thing was an egg carton and he just flung the water out of it. I looked at my husband and said "I'm surprised you didn't get wet" and he said "well, I wasn't expecting egg water on my foot today, but here we are." AND I LAUGHED SO HARD. EGG WATER.

3. The way he will watch endless videos of Belgian Malinois dogs snapping at air. 

Three Books I Have Requested from the Library

1. Kittentits by Holly Wilson - The aforementioned book club book. It sounds absolutely unhinged.

2. Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters by Mark Dunn - Kind of a cool premise. Letters keep getting banned, so the book follows suit and doesn't use those letters. I'm excited to see if it lives up to expectations.

3. The Unseen World by Liz Moore - The guest on this week's Sarah's Bookshelves podcast recommended this so highly that I couldn't stop myself from putting it on hold. 

Three Things I've Watched Recently

1. The Princess Bride - When I mentioned to my husband that I'd never seen this movie, but I felt like I had the gist through bits and pieces because it was always on TBS when I was a teenager (baby Fred Savage, rolling down the hill, a torture machine?), my husband was HORRIFIED. So I watched it. I think it's probably the first movie I have watched since before COVID. 

2. Taskmaster - The current season's final episode will be available tomorrow. I'm finding the current season pretty meh, but even a meh season of TM is better than most television. 

3. This guy talking about birds on YouTube.

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What's the last movie you watched? What was the last photo of a pet you've taken? 

24 comments:

  1. With a name like Kittentits...I mean how can you not read it? I read the description, and it's either going to be great or garbage. I'll let you vet it for me.

    So what did you think of Princess Bride? You didn't say!!!!! That's a movie that's a meh on my own but something that I love watching with my family.

    Your experience at the grocery store sucks. Was Devonte on break?

    My most recent pet photos are Doggo in bed while I was folding laundry yesterday. She started by flopping down on top of the clothes, and I was able to get everything folded in spite of her. Then she started burrowing under the covers which was funny. I wonder if she was trying to tell me to turn the AC down.

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    1. Kittentits might be a disaster. I guess we're about to find out. It's risky to ask the author, but she works with me and lives in our town, so it seems weird to NOT invite her.

      I don't understand The Princess Bride hype, to be honest. But I rarely get movies the way other people get movies, so that's okay. Tiny Fred Savage is so cute, though. He was my first crush in The Wonder Years days.

      Doggo knows that you're supposed to pay her attention instead of doing laundry, silly.

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  2. mbmom116/11/2026

    The students needs to pay better attention- been there, done that, over many semesters. You can write the directions on the board, say it three times, and still get blank faces.
    I watched most of Fifth Element recently. I don't think I've seen it before. Princess Bride is my favorite movie- I saw it in theaters, owned a the VHS tape, and carted around the movie theater poster from it for a good 20 yrs. The book by Cary Elwes discussing the making of Princess Bride was a nice bit of nostalgia.
    Cat pictures yesterday of my big plush boy under the bed- escaping from summer heat- and sitting on the kitchen floor waiting for food. ( He's on a diet so I have to monitor his intake. Every time anyone walks in here, he looks at them with big eyes and an expectant expression, followed by wistful glances at the bowl. )

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    1. They just don't pay attention during the presentation. I watched one of them on her phone the whole time adjusting her hair and makeup and when I sat down next to her she was all "what am I supposed to do?" and I was all "what did I just say to do?" They don't pay attention even a little bit.

      Zelda is definitely a bit overwarm these days and that's why she's all sprawled out. The cats just can't handle summer!

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  3. First things first! Yes- Zelda is perfection. The last pet photo I took is a nice one of Sylvie, since I realized I had no current photos of her awake and sitting calmly.
    My complaint about baggers is that they seem to think their job is to give you as many bags as possible. I bring my own bags (obviously) but they STILL want to put things in plastic bags, as if my cat food for some reason has to be separated from the other food. If I somehow- God forbid- forget my bags, the way they bag the groceries is horrifying. Like one bag for a loaf of bread, one bag for a bag of chips... and it's hard to supervise the bagging when you're also trying to make sure everything rings up at the right price and pay. Self checkout WOULD be the way to go, but sometimes I like to pay with cash, and most of the self checkouts don't take cash. GRR.
    Okay. kittentits sounds so bizarre, I don't know if I would like it. But, I will happily read your review!

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    1. Yes for cat photos! I realized I hadn't take a photo of the dog in over a week, but my camera roll is currently mostly Zelda.

      I will take as many bags as they want to give me. I use them for everything from can liners to poop bags. We actually don't bring our own bags for pretty good reasons. Maybe I'll write a post about that. I mostly mind that they put the yogurt in with canned goods instead of with other cold items. I just want to bag my own groceries!

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  4. Next time the baggers do that, take the items out and demand that they refund you the money, because that is total bullshit. I try to use the lane with an actual checker because I like people to keep their jobs, but if they were damaging my food, I would feel very differently. I’m seething on your behalf.

    Princess Bride…I love that movie so much, except when DPR threatens to hit Buttercup. Why was that necessary? And I feel like he says something about hitting WOMEN who lie, but it’s been a long time so I’m not sure. I used to own the book, and I’m pretty sure it’s there too. Anyway, I pink puffy heart the old woman yelling “BOOO!” And keep that in my back pocket for people who suck.

    LOL at Summer Ted! HA! I’m pretty sure our new car could be taught to know who is driving and keep our settings, but we have yet to figure it out. Do you have to have an app on your phone for it to do that? Asking because my Ted has the Toyota app on his phone, but my daughter and I cannot add it for some reason, it just errors out. Frustrating. Is this because we bought the car when it was 1 year old instead of new? I don’t know. Egg water. That is totally snort worthy.

    Zelda. What can I say but <3 <3 <3, and I’m so so glad that the radiation worked for her.

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    1. There's an app for Subaru, but I don't have it because I'm anti-app. I have so few apps on my phone because I find them distracting. It recognizes us based on profiles we set up in the car's computer. Unfortunately, it cannot tell who I am when I'm wearing glasses/hats/sunglasses, so it only recognizes me about 50% of the time. In that case, I then push a button to have it go to my mirror/seat settings.

      I'm so glad we did radiation for Zelda, too. She has a good cat life now. And she's PERFECTION.

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  5. That photo of Zelda sleeping in her cat tree nest is perfect. She makes me miss my Marlowe even more. She really is a gorgeous little girl.

    Princess Bride--I don't get what all the fuss is about this movie. I found it boring and dumb. Maybe I watched it at the wrong time in my life, but I'm not going to try again. Ever.

    Self Checkout--I'm ever so grateful that my grocery store does not have this. People need jobs, and I'm not going to be a supermarket's unpaid labour. I bring my own bags and bag my own stuff always. And I'm with J--DO NOT ACCEPT DAMAGED GOODS. Make them get you new ones or take the price off your order.

    I'm so jealous of your Smartypants Car. After Rick drives my Prius, I have to rearrange every single thing before I can drive it. He is 6' 3" and I am 5' 4". EVERYTHING has to be readjusted, and if he messes with my dashboard readout, I make him come out and restore my stuff.

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    1. Zelda appreciates her fans.

      I am happy to be unpaid labor if the grocery store won't train its employees. The cashiers whip items down the non-existent belt and it is as if the baggers have never heard of keeping all the canned goods together and all the cold items in one bag. I have a way to bag and they NEVER do it correctly. I will (apparently) complain about the lack of self-check at my store forever.

      Yes, the new car is very smart. I worry about what happens when something breaks, though. IMAGINE THE REPAIR COSTS. I actually don't want to worry about that.

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  6. My grocery store has quite a few checkout machines, but there’s not much room for items, so I have to scan one item at a time, put it back in the cart, and grab another. So no, I wouldn’t want to try to checkout a large order. But unless I get a young male cashier, our people are pretty good about bagging.

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    1. Oh, we can't put it back in the cart - we have to set it on the scale. And the scale is very tiny, so if you have more than ten items, it's impossible. Our cashiers and baggers are generally terrible, so I prefer to do it myself if possible.

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  7. I just watched "Contagion" on Netflix. It's eerie just how closely this movie that came out in 2011 parallels Covid. Definitely not as feel-good as "Remarkably Bright Creatures" (my next-to-last movie) was, but I was entertained nonetheless.

    Thank you for warning me about Kylie. I'll try to avoid her line if I see her. I'll also be on the lookout for egg water. (That made me laugh, too...as did Summer Ted!)

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    1. If you see Kylie, please do your own analysis. Drunk? High? Medicated for some personality disorder? Just a checked out teenager?

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  8. Zelda the Magnificent for sure - she is so beautiful.

    The bagging thing makes me so mad. They SQUISHED your NECTARINES?!?! Were you able to hand them back and get different ones? I much prefer to bag my own stuff, and there are fewer staff people these days so I do it quite often. I don't really understand why it's so hard though??? It is mainly common sense, I think. But also, the checkers at Trader Joe's are masterful packets, so it IS possible to train people to do it well.

    I loved Sea of Lies!!! So weird and went so many unexpected places.

    SUMMER TED. I love everything about that.

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    1. I DON'T KNOW WHY BAGGING IS SO HARD. I get SO ANGRY about this. Put cold with cold, heavy with heavy AND STOP PUTTING POTATOES WITH THE EGGS. I don't like Trader Joe's, so I don't know about bagging there, but maybe I'll have to give them another shot if their bagging is spectacular.

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    2. It SERIOUSLY shouldn’t be that hard to figure out. (It’s my pet peeve, too!)

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    3. P.S. Not true for all TJs. Some are excellent, some aren’t.

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  9. Bagging groceries is a skill, for sure. Apparently it's gone the way of cursive writing and rotary phones... Although, I will say, I love how the people at our Trader Joe's bag groceries - it's a thoughtful game of Tetris.
    At our grocery store, they ring your stuff and send it on down, and you have to bag it yourself, which is my preference. ACTUALLY, my preference is to use the self scanner and bag as I go. That way, I can bag the food by storage location for when I get home.
    The last movie I watched was Devil Wears Prada 2 - in the theatre! On a weekday afternoon. My friend and I played hookey, ate popcorn, drank ice cold sodas, and it was amazing. I go to the movies maybe twice a year - I would go more but movies just aren't very good these days, especially for what it costs to go.
    I don't think you're invisible. Though, I've never seen you in real life, so maybe i'm wrong. But I don't think you are....

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    1. YES, Diane. I want to bag my own so I can put the items that go together in the same bag. Or, at the very least, separate the refrigerated items from the non-perishables. There's nothing more infuriating that coming home to a bag with a yogurt, a pear, a can of beans, and dental floss.

      You went to an actual movie theater!?! Wowza. That seems...like something a younger me used to do because everyone else was doing it.

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  10. Summer Ted! I love it! That is too funny.

    I am shocked you have grocery baggers. That is not a thing here unless you go to a premium store like Byerly’s which we obviously don’t since we are frugal folks. I would tell that bagger to step aside and would be livid about getting ripe nectarines smushed!!

    We rarely watch movies. Instead we watch documentaries mostly. We just watched the doc about the Michael Jackson child molestation which Phil probably regrets because I yelled at the tv so much and mentioned things like ‘i don’t know if I believe in hell, but if it exists, he’s there’ and said he should be castrated and then explained how many of MJ’s songs are popular on streaming apps and how that makes me so livid since he is a predator. I mean I was so ANGRY WATCHING THIS DOC. I clearly need a new pastime. And I hate that there is a movie about him in theaters that does not all touch on the fact that he slept with children and had child porn. What was that jury thinking that acquitted him. If you want to feel ragy, watch the doc on Netflix. Otherwise avoid it for your sanity.

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    1. We do have baggers. And I hate it. There, I said it. I wish they just collected carts and left me to bagging.

      Yeah, I don't watch anything except Taskmaster, really. I don't need to watch a doc on MJ. I've been pissed about him for years. And people play his songs LIKE IT'S OKAY. It's not!!

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  11. I’d rather bag my own grocery bag than letting anyone else touch my stuff… because yeah, these people are not trained and I cannot deal with it. I always volunteer to bag my own stuff at TJs (and have been asked if I wanted to start working there on multiple occasions, because I do it so nicely and efficiently. GOLD STAR, am I right? ;)

    You have a FACIAL recognition feature in the car that recognizes the driver? I guess it’s good it didn’t think that shaved Ted was Engie? LOL (Our car has a feature like that but it’s tied to the two car fobs that we use.)

    I enjoy this post format - might have to steal it from Stephany (and you).

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  12. I never let the bagger bag my items, because I am PARTICULAR. I just smile and say, that's okay, I'll handle it.

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