updates

Today, we joined Costco. We've visited once or twice before - particularly to evaluate the selection of food items, but today we bit the bullet. $50 membership, which included a free gift bag with a few product samples.

The samples in the gift bag are the only items in the store that come in anything less than feed-an-army size. Among the items we bought were 1400 baby wipes, a box containing approximately 12,000 granola bars, and a container of chopped garlic, which, in my estimation, includes the entire garlic crop of the United States for one week.

On the bright side, their products tend to be good quality, the prices are such that the membership fee will quickly pay for itself, [in part because] there's a store close to home, and the deals on electronics might just be good enough to one day justify the purchase of a flat-screen TV.

On the downside, I'm pretty sure that the rise of warehouse stores has some connection to the rate of obesity in the United States. When your options are: buying a loaf of bread at the grocery store for $2.99, or buying 3 loaves of bread in a single package for $3.99 at Costco, your personal consumption is likely to increase.

In other news, I start work tomorrow. Wish me luck. Gotta remember what that whole experience is like - it's been a while. Tomorrow also marks the first time that I'll take public transportation to my job.