What are you telling me?

Yesterday I was dashing through Rainbow Foods for milk and hamburger buns when the end cap of the chip aisle caught my eye. (Not the end cap that's actually outside the aisle, but the one right near the end of the aisle where they rotate in and out things that are somewhat related to the contents of the aisle). Instead of the usual dips, candies, or similarly complementary items, the end cap featured...control top panty hose.

Also, a mini-rant: I made the mistake of going to trivia at Brit's Pub tonight. It was completely packed to the point of insanity, we couldn't understand a word spoken by the Brit with the crappy sound system, and then it took me 40 MINUTES to get home because of the f'ing Twinkies traffic--causing me to miss Top Chef. I think that's it for me and trivia.

Emotional eater

One of the great loves of my life is...Crispix. Yes, the cereal. I have a really pathetic addiction to that crispy rice on the one side and crunchy corn on the other. I usually eat a bowl of cereal each night before bed, and 94% of the time it is Crispix. Often I enjoy the first bowl so much that I chase it with another.

Anne likes Crispix too (the normal healthy amount), but didn't want to eat it when we lived together lest she be the one to finish the box--and cause anger or sadness. I bought so many boxes at SuperTarget last week that the checkout clerk commented loudly on how much I must love the stuff. Last night I had the bowl of Crispix all poured before I realized I was out of milk. I actually said, out loud, Oh, how awful! in a really whiny voice and then proceeded to consume the bowl without milk.

The welcome screen

During my semester in DC, I took a journalism class. The instructor had a really strange set of professional experiences before becoming a teacher, including a stint with the USA T(otal crap)oday sports section, an unspecified something that led to a close personal friendship with the America's Most Wanted guy, and co-editorship of the AOL welcome screen. She told us that editing the welcome screen was the pinnacle of her journalism career, because it's one of the most-read news sources anywhere. Serious thought goes into selecting headlines that will be irresistible to AOLers--and make them click for more.

Yahoo! Mail has a similar screen full of headlines--most of them leading to trite and annoying stories. And yet I still get suckered in to clicking, even as I'm thinking "no, no, resist, resist!" I hate to let the welcome screen people win, but I did find these two recent stories pretty interesting:

• Divorce Wars
  

• The Slump: It's a Guy Thing

All for naught

In case you're wondering what I've been up to (there are also a whole bunch of bloggers who will provide more excruciating detail). I guess there is still a shred of hope, albeit a small one. On the bright side, a total breakdown in negotiations might free up my weekend considerably.

Oh, here's a funny session moment I forgot to post a long time ago.

And finally, I find the public discussion on the Governor's "sex joke" to be really entertaining. According to the Strib, "speculation is rife whether Pawlenty's wisecrack about his sex life was a gaffe or a calculated political move." A calculated political move? Really? I mean, really? I propose we channel all the energy spent on useless and absurd punditry into something more productive, like ending world hunger or building capacity for rapid disaster response in Asia.

(and yes, Jim, this post is mostly for you)

Credit!

So, having recently exercised my credit score to purchase a car, I thought I'd take the time to make sure the old credit report is in order. My cautionary tale: The car dealer initially offered me interest rates in the high 6% to low 7% range, which I thought was way too high. I told them I wouldn't accept anything above 5.5%. They came back almost immediately with rates below 5% and said the reason was my Equifax credit score (which they originally checked) was much lower than my other two scores (which they later used to get the lower rate).

As I suspected, the lower Equifax score was due to that damn hospital in North Carolina that delayed treatment for the worst food poisoning of my life because the admissions woman could not fit my entire DC address into the character limits of the patient information database. She finally got tired of my continuous puking into the bowl they had provided for this purpose, and clearly cut some corners to fit my address in. I never got a bill, they referred it to a collection agency that obviously didn't try too hard to contact me since my phone number is still the same. After discovering it on my credit report two years ago, I promptly paid the debt. And yet there it sits on my credit report making a relatively big difference in my ability to get a good loan.

When I last cleaned up my report two years ago, it was a tedious process. But government saves the day! The feds have since passed laws to make credit reports more accessible and to make closing accounts much easier. So, 20 minutes and some basic information about my current debts later, I just printed (well, actually CutePDF-ed) credit reports from all three major companies via this website.

The Equifax report is particularly useful because it describes how different elements of the report contribute to a credit score (and therefore how to avoid low scores). From one of the reports I also found this FTC brochure with more detailed information on managing credit reports (government strikes again!). I found the TransUnion report to be most helpful in cleaning up old accounts--it provides the full account number and phone number of the company holding the account.

My next project: a Target charge card my mom opened in both our names in 1998--still open.

Great find

My internet addiction led me from a recent post on Sarah's blog to this incredibly interesting site: Action Squad: Minneapolis Urban Adventurers. This group practices urban exploration, which wikipedia defines as "examination of the normally unseen or off-limits parts of human civilization" including abandoned buildings, utility and transit tunnels, and sewers and storm drains. Judging from their website, Action Squad focuses on brewery caves, steam tunnels, and condemned historic buildings. The website carefully describes each "mission" in text and pictures. It's really impressive. And they cite Indian Jones and Goonies as their sources of inspiration, so how could they go wrong?

Oh, and for those of you keeping track, the legislature has moved on from regulating animal chiropractic care to the most important business of regulating beer keg purchase and receipt by scrap metal dealers.

Nerdy internet sample platter

For all the language arts nerds out there, check out Freerice.com, a site that donates 20 grains of rice to the UN World Food Programme for every correct answer to a vocabulary quiz. Thanks to KT for this great find--timely given the problem with rising rice prices. In response to a skeptical friend of Kate's, I verified there is a link to the site from the UN World Food Programme, so looks legit despite sounding pretty weird. I donated 220 grains on my first try (lost on hoosegow, which means "jail") and my highest vocab level so far is 44. I will certainly devote some quality time tonight to beating those records.

For all the economics-, news junkie-, or general-purpose nerds, I think you'll enjoy this Marketplace segment on the coming economic stimulus payments. What's really incredible is that they got former labor secretary Robert Reich to comment for the story.