It was supposed to be just an easy trip into the grocery store to pick up a few items for dinner tonight. TBPITW was coming over so and we were left with just condiments in the refrigerator. I am usually good at whipping up some concoction at dinner time, but when you only have soy sauce, fat free mayo, ketchup and those little packets of sauce from Taco Bell it's hard to prepare a gourmet meal.

I don't like just stopping in to just any grocery store to pick up items for several reasons. First of all, when you're at your *regular* grocery store (Mine being Super Wal-Mart) you know exactly where everything is placed so those quick trips are made easier by going directly to aisle four, walking past the canned soup, over to the mac and cheese, squatting down to get the Blue's Clues Shells and heading up to the register. But, when you go to a foreign grocery store, it's like you're searching out the mac n' cheese down the soup aisle thinking the other store would have the courtesy to just put it where my local Wal-mart Supercenter keeps it. But no, the Kroger I visited keeps their mac n' cheese in the chips aisle and they don't even sell the Blue's Clue's kind and the original kind is 50 cents more. Already I am frustrated.

This Kroger grocery store I visited today is also very outdated. The aisles are only big enough for one cart which allows no clearance for passing or little kids riding along the side of the cart. Plus, their carts have some shelf built in to the back part which makes placing two kids in back and one kid in the front virtually impossible. So, all three girls were made to walk around the store with me. I thought, perhaps, that fact that TGIM was with me he would be of some assistance. However, his main goal was finding the beer. Being in that store made me feel like cracking open the case of Labatt Blue and hitting the customers over the head with them.

I understand that my kids are like marbles. Once they hit the ground they scatter everywhere. Get under your feet and cause cartjams at the store. This trip was no exception, however Wal-Mart Supercenter has wide aisles and when my Marbles scatter, there is usually enough room for other patrons to maneuver their big carts around the Marbles and find their way to their next destination.

Back to my point, because I know I had one.

The other reason I don't like going to just any grocery store is because not all of them have the self check out lanes. Or if they do they're out dated. I know you're thinking, "the self check-out lanes just came out a few years ago, how can a stores be outdated." Oh but they are. At Super Walmart you can scan the items and put them right into your cart without having to set them on the little built-in scale most of those stores have where the plastic bags are. The machines never freezes up so I never have to deal with the cashier that stands at the front podium yelling directions at the idiots who use the self check-out but are clueless as to how to work the stupid thing. At Super Walmart, the cashier walks up and down the various aisles, smiling politely asking if anyone needs help. At Kroger, their machines are so messed up that the podium cashier doesn't even need to ask if you need help because they know you're going to. I, personally, like ringing up my own groceries and what I like more is being able to bag all my own groceries as well. I have a little system I use and a manner in which I like my food placed in my bags. The self checkout lanes allow me to be this anal. Knowing that this particular Kroger had crappy self check out computers, I opted for a real live cashier to ring up my ten items and a real live person to bag them. I had TEN items!!! I walked out of there with nine bags. Why does that not seem right?

Once, my Kroger adventure was complete my Marbles and TGIM made our way home to celebrate the festive holiday of going to strangers houses and taking candy from them. Two things I warn my Marbles not to do, but one night a year it's ok.

Happy Hauntings!