keith_h

We don't do much shopping there but they are the only place I can get certain cuts of meat that were common on the West Coast. Tri-tip in particular. While it is still more expensive than West Coast grocery store prices it is a lot less that the old fashion butcher shops in my area.

We are planning a trip up to the Boston area in May. We plan on staying at the Normandy Campground in Foxborough. For the route although longer I am thinking of cutting over to I-81 via I-270 and then up to I-84 to cut across. After that we would take the Mass. Turnpike to I-495. I've looked at the Massachusetts' toll rates and will probably forgo an EZ Pass as the difference is about 60 cents. From past experience of driving I-95 between Washington DC and Philadelphia my guess is driving time will be about the same but even if it isn't I am planning two days to drive anyway so an extra hour o

It's hard to tell if that is a smile or an "I really don't like this" look.

Lidl has three stores in our area. The one in Raleigh is the closest but still 25 miles away. They were going to build one about 10 miles from us but canceled it shortly after Ikea cancled their store in the same proposed shopping center. I always stock up on the German Herring tins when they come around once a year as no place around here carries a similar product. We also like a number of their imported German products. At least from memory they are similar to foods my grandmother and her parents, all first generation Germans, cooked. Of course my great grandmother would not b

It's become obvious you are no longer in the target demographic.

Stick a few boxes in the deep freeze and save them for August.

Prop 65 was a voter initiative that required labeling of anything that might cause cancer no matter how slight. I think a lot of the signs and labels are prophylactic in nature whether they are truly needed or not. To be honest I'm surprised they don't have a warning on birth certificates that being born is known by the State of California to carry the risk of getting cancer.

We go to Aldi's quite a bit. On staples they are less expensive than Walmart or the membership stores and we don't have to buy in bulk. The one we go to has been crowded lately. I'm hoping that will change with the new store they are building in our town. However even when they are crowded they don't waste anytime opening up more checkouts so things still move pretty quickly. Lidl has been starting to build around here. One effect it has had is older Aldi stores being remodeled and increased in size. We are just waiting for one to get close enough to us to see what they are like.

Maybe they will surround it with camouflaged cell towers.

We'd like that as we tend to only spend 4-6 hours at the parks, mostly in the evening.

There doesn't appear to be a 1 day ticket for under $100 anymore. I went out to the WDW site and the cheapest I could find was $109 but I didn't spend a lot of time digging for other prices. https://wdwnt.com/2019/01/breaking-disneyland-resort-rolls-out-monumental-ticket-price-increases-ahead-of-star-wars-galaxys-edge-opening/

Our plan for the next house is similar. Based on my experience of helping take care of my Dad after he got sick we want to have 36 in interior doors, 4 ft wide hallways, a roll-in shower, lots of in wall blocking, etc. We aren't sure of what type of foundation we will end up with but it will have to be on grade or low enough to build in a low ramp.

We've been here the full 18. Rene should be retiring in the next few years and our plan is to downsize. No more two story transitionals with multilevel dormers and the like. If I can't can't reach everything on the outside from a 14 ft utility ladder the house will be too big.

We've been going through this the last few years on our 18 year old house. Painting the house, new downstairs heat pump, new roof and new well pump/pressure tank/switch. It seems like nobody will even come look for less than $5K. I try to look at it on the positive side that when we sell the house in a few years everything will be new so we can get more out of it and recoup some of the cost.

The author is pretty accurate in their conclusions. That business strategy isn't unique to Disney though. I spent most of my career working for a large computer company. It was in the late 80's to early 90's when I started hearing a lot of talk about needing to help our customers identify and go after demographic groups with a lot of disposable income. The ability to identify customers with high amounts of disposable income is what drove a significant part of our large database and data management product development. This same principle also led to the company's entry into analytics and custo

For casual drinking I like Carolina Brewery Copper Line Ale & Kolsch or Carolina Brewing WIGGO. Both are local breweries in most of the stores with Carolina Brewing being just across town. For special occasions I would have to say Mother Earth Brewing Sisters of the Moon IPA or this time of year their Snow Flurry Juniper-Rye IPA. They aren't in stores but special- special occasions our favorite tap rooms are Ironclad in Wilmington, NC and Crystal Coast Brewing in Morehead City , NC. We will usually grab a couple of Growlers to take with us.

I think they blew it when they went cheap and kept the Arts and Crafts style lighting and furniture. It would have been better if they had gone to lighting more befitting the era Snow White takes place in. The only reason I can think of not going all the way, other than being cheap, is they don't expect to keep it a character setting for very long.

They'll just cram more people in until the parks are just as crowded as today which will make getting in and out even worse than already is. I think building additional parks spread out would be better even if they end up with two MK's or Epcots.

One less place for Rene and I to go to when we visit. Sigh......

I think it will result in lower quality photos with lots of backs of kids heads. With a real photographer they can stop their shot or take a another if something goes wrong. They also have a better chance of catching a special moment. While it might speed up the process sometimes quality should triumph over quantity. In the end it is just more indication that Disney is being run by bean counters and not visionaries.

If the Tesla ends up looking like that all I can say is,

I saw that on wdwnt a short bit ago. They say they are currently being tested at Town Square Theater and Adventurers Outpost. Doesn't surprise me as a machine costs less on the ledger than a person.

How about their parents?

Keep on believing that Dave. Who knows a wish, a little pixie dust and one day it just might all come true.

Been across the bridge multiple times. A department I was in in the early 2000's use to hold our annual planning session at Wild Dunes Resort and we would frequently go into Charleston. It's been close to 15 years since we've made a visit and with the 5 day weekend Charleston is just about the perfect distance for a relaxing trip.