Going To The Beach For A Pizza!

I have been blessed to be working through the holidays, as those with real jobs have taken off work to give us freelancers a chance. Yesterday, however, I had my one and only weekday off, so the family and I decided to go out for pizza - in Rehoboth Beach!

For those of you unfamiliar with the geography, Rehoboth Beach, Delaware is about a 2 hour and 15 minute drive from Brookeville, but gas has suddenly become dirt cheap, and we DID have a 65-dollar gift certificate to Grotto Pizza that I had won at an Associated Press convo a year and a half ago, and the certificate happened to expire on 12/31/08. It was now or never - plus, they had shopping outlets and no sales tax - so off we went!

It just so happens, Tuesday is "half-price pizza" day at Grotto, so our 65-dollar gift certificate not only yielded us plenty o' slices for lunch, but also gelato for dessert AND three large pizzas for the freezer at home!

Next it was off to the outlets, where all rumors of big price markdowns after the miserable holiday shopping season are TRUE! We dropped the boys off at the movies, while the missus and I found dress shoes for me (two pair - all leather - 40 bucks!), shirts for the boys and perfume for mama. Then on the way out of town, I found the biggest bargain at all at Wawa - we filled the gas tank for - get this - $1.41 a gallon!

A road trip with free pizza and cheap gas to boot! What more can you ask of the holiday season?

Monday Musings

Just a few random thoughts and news notes from over the weekend...

• If the Redskins don't get a pass rush, they might end the season 6 - 10.


• I have a small rant. I will admit up front I am a bit of a lead-footed driver, and I've written about that before, more than once. But why is it when motorists drive past speed cameras, they slow down below the speed limit? It drives me insane. People who are tooling along at 40 in a 35 mile-an-hour zone will slow down to 25, when they'd be perfectly fine if they had just stayed at 40. The law in Montgomery County states that the camera will be triggered only for drivers going 10 or more miles over the speed limit. As these cameras mature, you have to wonder how effective they are. Everyone knows where the cameras are, so one-block stretches of roadway are being protected. Beyond that - not so much.


• I filled up my minivan for 30 dollars yesterday at the Costco in Frederick, where the price for regular for $1.89 a gallon. I've been trying to remember the last time I paid this little for gas, and I just can't. I know this is a really bad indicator for the economy, but at the moment I just don't care. I can't wait to fill my Civic for less than 20 bucks! You can't help but wonder what shape the US auto industry would be in if this plunge had happened a year ago instead of now... But then again, if this had happened a year ago, a whole lot of things about the economy - and perhaps the outcome of the election - would have been different.

Finally - A video for you that harkens back to the days when jet fuel was cheap, but jet travel was not. A time before baggage fees and sardine class seating - when people would wear their Sunday best on planes, instead of their pajamas. It's Pan Am - 1958!

Weekend News And Notes And Odds And Ends

...and knicks and knacks... Mutts and Jeffs... yins and yangs... salts and peppers... tweedledees and tweedledums... you get the idea.

We've been so focused lately on the big picture economic issues, with the Dow falling hundreds of points a day and whatnot. Well, I enjoyed two small picture economic victories over the weekend. We drove out to Frederick to go to Costco, hopeful of finding gas under three bucks a gallon, because Costco is always cheaper than conventional gas, and also because Frederick in general is about as cheap as it gets in Maryland for gasoline . (In addition, I always enjoy going to the Frederick Costco, because I can wave to my grandparents, who are buried at Mt. Olivet cemetary, just across the street!) When we arrived, traffic at Costco was spilling out onto the highway, because gas was going for $2.69 a gallon! How ironic is it that Detroit's Big Three automakers are now struggling to survive because the markets for SUVs and Big Trucks dried up when gas prices started to move towards four bucks a gallon?


Meanwhile, even though my garage shelves were already full of soda because of the great deal I found at Shoppers Food Warehouse ($1.99 a case for Diet Pepsi!), I could not resist going to Safeway on Saturday, where Pepsi 2-liter bottles were going for 59 cents! Do I have a life, or what? (Don't answer that question!)


On Saturday night (actually, on Friday, THEN Saturday night), Brad and I accompanied our friends, the Bernsteins to the Sherwood/Quince Orchard High School football game - a HUGE deal in our community because Sherwood has a long tradition as a Montgomery County football power and because Quince Orchard was ranked as the number one team in the DC area.

It's amazing just how much a sense of community there really IS at local high school football games... The stands were packed with parents, most of whom were wearing Sherwood gear, and many of whom seemed to be "regulars" at the games. My friend, Randy, has been going to Sherwood games for years, even when his kids weren't going to school there - and it's easy to see why. The atmosphere is electric... it's fun to see teenage hormones at play in the stands... and the football is not bad, either! Sherwood took an early two-touchdown lead, and held on with excellent defense to shutdown Q.O., 14 - 6, ending Quince Orchard's 20-game win streak!

Finally, I must mention that while I enjoyed watching the Redskins win a defensive battle over the Browns, for me the real joy of the NFL weekend was watching those no-account Cowboys choke like dogs to the Rams. The mainstream sports media have had a Barack Obama-like fascination with Dallas for years, and it's good to see their expectations fall back to earth. The Cowboys suck, and short of a major turnaround, they'll be watching the Skins in the playoffs instead of playing the Skins in the playoffs!