Another slickdeal bargain...

[brooklyngirl]

I have to say, both walmart AND Costco provoked serious panic attacks in NY, and I avoided both like the plague. Here in SC, it's a freekin PLEASURE! Especially Costco. Between my husband and I, we're there probably 2ce a week since it's no big deal to run in and grab a few things because it's always virtually empty (compared to what I'm used to in NYC) and never more than one person ahead of you in line. And that includes weekends!

 

[southernlady]

I have to say, both walmart AND Costco provoked serious panic attacks in NY, and I avoided both like the plague. Here in SC, it's a freekin PLEASURE! Especially Costco. Between my husband and I, we're there probably 2ce a week since it's no big deal to run in and grab a few things because it's always virtually empty (compared to what I'm used to in NYC) and never more than one person ahead of you in line. And that includes weekends!

While I don't disagree about the weekdays...are you SURE we use the same Costco on weekends??? That place makes me crazy on Sat. Sunday isn't quite so bad. And I won't go near the one in Greenville on weekends.

 

[brooklyngirl]

While I don't disagree about the weekdays...are you SURE we use the same Costco on weekends??? That place makes me crazy on Sat. Sunday isn't quite so bad. And I won't go near the one in Greenville on weekends.

Liz- yes, Saturdays were more crowded than any other day, but never even remotely close to the horror show I used to deal with in Brooklyn! Hubby and I laugh every time we get on line and have 1 person ahead of us and 2 cashiers at each register (one unloading the wagon/packing the stuff in boxes while the other rings up everything). I get a huge kick out of the fact that the line to have your receipt checked at the door is longer on the weekends!

 

[Spiky Bugger]

Liz- yes, Saturdays were more crowded than any other day, but never even remotely close to the horror show I used to deal with in Brooklyn! Hubby and I laugh every time we get on line and have 1 person ahead of us and 2 cashiers at each register (one unloading the wagon/packing the stuff in boxes while the other rings up everything). I get a huge kick out of the fact that the line to have your receipt checked at the door is longer on the weekends!

@southernlady @brooklyngirl ...it's all relative.

My husband and I laugh our asses off at Las Vegas traffic reports. We lived in L.A. forever. The news people point at the six cars going northbound and say, "Traffic is picking up." Or when cars are moving along at "only" 35 mph and they say traffic is at a standstill. In L.A., when they say traffic is at a standstill, it means the cars are LITERALLY standing still.

Lauren...maybe you need to take Liz on a field trip to the kind of Walmart/Costco you and I (and Hilary) seem to be used to. (Most of my Costco experiences have been good....and to keep it that way, I shall never again darken the doorstep of the Garden Grove, CA Costco!)

 

[brooklyngirl]

@southernlady @brooklyngirl ...it's all relative.

My husband and I laugh our asses off at Las Vegas traffic reports. We lived in L.A. forever. The news people point at the six cars going northbound and say, "Traffic is picking up." Or when cars are moving along at "only" 35 mph and they say traffic is at a standstill. In L.A., when they say traffic is at a standstill, it means the cars are LITERALLY standing still.

Lauren...maybe you need to take Liz on a field trip to the kind of Walmart/Costco you and I (and Hilary) seem to be used to. (Most of my Costco experiences have been good....and to keep it that way, I shall never again darken the doorstep of the Garden Grove, CA Costco!)

That's it, field trip to the Costco in Sunset Park, Brooklyn! Be afraid, be very afraid

 

[hilary1617]

@brooklyngirl, I'd like to raise your bet of Sunset Park, Brooklyn Costco with a side trip to the Elizabeth, NJ Ikea. On a Saturday.

ETA: Then we will really see if it is only Alexander who is entitled to call it a "Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day", before we imbibe heavily.

 

[Spiky Bugger]

@brooklyngirl, I'd like to raise your bet of Sunset Park, Brooklyn Costco with a side trip to the Elizabeth, NJ Ikea. On a Saturday.

ETA: Then we will really see if it is only Alexander who is entitled to call it a "Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day", before we imbibe heavily.

Alexander taught me all my financial planning techniques.

 

[brooklyngirl]

@brooklyngirl, I'd like to raise your bet of Sunset Park, Brooklyn Costco with a side trip to the Elizabeth, NJ Ikea. On a Saturday.

ETA: Then we will really see if it is only Alexander who is entitled to call it a "Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day", before we imbibe heavily.

Haha! Well played, and I think I'd be more miserable than Alexander
*side note- did you know the movie is coming out soon? Not sure how I feel about it since I'm almost always really disappointed when they turn a book I love (esp a children's book!) into a movie, but I still wanna see them, thinking "THIS one is gonna be the good one!"

 

[hilary1617]

I love the book and am pretty convinced the movie won't come close to doing it justice. The previews look pretty darn cloying. That said, I'm a terribly cynical viewer. If Alexander follows the pattern of the vast majority of the gazillion or so G, PG and PG-13 movies in 2 and 3D to which I've been subjected as a mom, midway through I will question why anyone would fund such drivel and then spend the last half looking for the product placements which will clue me in to which advertisers to whom the producers were pandering. I suspect it will be a hugely forgettable experience.

 

[Spiky Bugger]

I love the book and am pretty convinced the movie won't come close to doing it justice. The previews look pretty darn cloying. That said, I'm a terribly cynical viewer. If Alexander follows the pattern of the vast majority of the gazillion or so G, PG and PG-13 movies in 2 and 3D to which I've been subjected as a mom, midway through I will question why anyone would fund such drivel and then spend the last half looking for the product placements which will clue me in to which advertisers to whom the producers were pandering. I suspect it will be a hugely forgettable experience.

I now hate Lee Child and his pandering. We read Jack Reacher novels...about HUGE Jack Reacher...and then Child sold out and that miniature human Tom Cruise was cast as Jack Reacher and I am FINISHED with Jack and Lee. BARF!! Wrong on several levels!

 

[jillc]

@Spiky Bugger I totally agree that Tom Cruise was so wrong in so many ways for Jack Reacher. Child did jump the money train. I still will read him, though.

What I do hate about Hollywood is they probably cast Cruise because he has dedicated fans, and there was a possibility of a blockbuster. I personally think that Reacher's physique (built like a brick craphouse and tough as nails) was very important and Cruise shouldn't have even been in the running.

As an aside, when I was 17 I was an exchange student in Jamaica. "Cocktail" was being filmed and boy is Cruise ever short. They had to paint on his tan, and the nightclub scene took a billion takes because the man has no rhythm. Two friends of mine were extras and me and friend went up to Port Antonio to try to be extras, too. We were too late but got to watch the filming.

Jack Reacher is like "The Littlest Hobo", except human and can fight like you wouldn't believe. Hmm, maybe "The Littlest Hobo" was a Canadian show, come to think of it. So that last part will make no sense to anyone on this board but me.

In case you're remotely curious:
(it looks a little cheesy now, but I loved it)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Littlest_Hobo

 

[Spiky Bugger]

@Spiky Bugger I totally agree that Tom Cruise was so wrong in so many ways for Jack Reacher. Child did jump the money train. I still will read him, though.

What I do hate about Hollywood is they probably cast Cruise because he has dedicated fans, and there was a possibility of a blockbuster. I personally think that Reacher's physique (built like a brick craphouse and tough as nails) was very important and Cruise shouldn't have even been in the running.

As an aside, when I was 17 I was an exchange student in Jamaica. "Cocktail" was being filmed and boy is Cruise ever short. They had to paint on his tan, and the nightclub scene took a billion takes because the man has no rhythm. Two friends of mine were extras and me and friend went up to Port Antonio to try to be extras, too. We were too late but got to watch the filming.

Jack Reacher is like "The Littlest Hobo", except human and can fight like you wouldn't believe. Hmm, maybe "The Littlest Hobo" was a Canadian show, come to think of it. So that last part will make no sense to anyone on this board but me.

In case you're remotely curious:
(it looks a little cheesy now, but I loved it)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Littlest_Hobo

I'll peek at the video later on.

On Child-Reacher-Cruise strike. Sticking with Baldacci and Connelly for now. LOL

 

[jillc]

Not a Baldacci fan myself. But love Connelly. And Ian Rankin.

 

[Spiky Bugger]

I don't know Rankin. Must check.

Connelly occasionally makes me nuts. I'm too familiar with the geography and city agencies and he messes some of them up. Like...he's got LA's DPW (Department of Public Works) and DWP (Department of Water and Power) mixed up. Or, his fixation on the pancakes at Dupar's at Farmers' Market. The pancakes are big and pretty good, but there's other stuff on the menu I prefer and I'm tired of his damned pancakes! Or he talks about an intersection I know, but puts an imaginary business right next to a real one. I have to work hard to suspend disbelief at those scenes.

 

[jillc]

Rankin is brilliant. His main series is about John Rebus, a middle aged detective. Similar thematically in many ways to Harry Bosch, but very different.
Another favorite of mine is Carol O'Connell. She writes about a sociopath named Mallory who is in the NYC police force. Brilliant series.
I totally get that about authors mucking up things. I'm not familiar with LA, so I'm okay. For instance we were talking about Lee Child and about 2 or 3 books ago, he mentioned the Crownest Pass/Highway #3 in Southern Alberta as desolate and untravelled. It's a busy trucking route, and he assumed (I think) that, due to it's geographic location, it would be abandoned.
But I think that's common with many things. I used to be a Massage Therapist and almost every television show or book they're portrayed as sex workers, flibbertigibbets, or sadists. Well, they may be right on the sadism...a wee bit.