Ranch Dressing Embargo of 2012

Over a decade ago a kid named Pete put it very succinctly during his last week in junior high:

“The one thing I learned in junior high is that Ranch dressing goes with everything.”

Of course he was only 14 and had just dumped the mother-load of dressing on his slice of pepperoni pizza.

We were out of Ranch dressing last week.  By “we” I don’t mean the lunchroom at my school, I mean the entire school district.  65,000 students had to eat naked pizza.

Well, we survived, barely.  Some even resorted to 1000 Island dressing for their salads and pizza, but you could tell it wasn’t the same.

It didn’t get “Lord of the Flies”-y until Friday, when the lunch ladies silently stocked the condiment bar with their recent shipment of Ranch.

Classic Elegance/Wal*Mart Pricing.

**Less than a million dollars!**

At least it wasn’t priced at $999,999.99.

Good Groceries Gone

I’ve known of it’s existence since I moved to Salt Lake City in 1974, though it opened up way back in 1942.  It was just around the corner from the Junior High I went to that year for 9^th grade, and my parents often went there when they wanted specialty meats and cheeses.

In 2010, thanks to the “Great Recession”, Emigration Market closed it’s doors.  Yeah, it’s been reopened by one of our local chains, Harmon’s, and from what I hear they have done a good job of keeping it’s unique atmosphere, but it is no longer a truly independent store.  At way too fast a rate, those kind of stores are becoming a thing of the past.  Sad.

When we heard about it’s closing, before we knew it wasn’t going to be leveled for a subdivision, Writer and I had to go get some pictures of it, so when I saw this weeks Thematic Photographic theme I immediately thought of those pictures.

I’m glad the building is still there, still serving this neighborhood.  I’m also glad that a chain is sensitive enough to their clientele to at least attempt to keep the flavor of the independent grocer.  But it’s still Harmon’s Emigration Market. 

Inside the courtyard, taken through the gates.  Not sure what that pile of stuff is, but it certainly looks like it was just dumped there on the way out.

The sun set on our little photo shoot, and we said goodbye and headed home.

And, as always, click on the banner below if you want to join in the fun, or simply see a bunch of other great pictures.

Keys and Pie

Saturday I went to a piano bar called Keys on Main with 5 other educators (all female).  I’ve gone with them 2 or three times before and always had a blast; they usually play a lot of music I know and the crowd is energetic but not sloshed.  This time was different.  No idea why, but we were surrounded by three tables of obnoxious drunks and the music sucked.  One good song for every 3 that had no reason to exist other than to use the “f” word as a verb.  (I have no aversion to the “f” word except for the gratuitous use of it).

We have always stuck around until close to midnight, but this time we left by 9:30, went to Village Inn for pie.  As we were walking in I noticed myself as the only male surrounded by 5 females and commented “You’d think my name was Warren Jeffs.”  It went downhill from there.

The evening’s conversation was peppered with comments about the remaining two wives and the 22 kids they were watching while we were out on the town, specific roles for each of the attending 5 wives and how, as educators, we had the whole home-schooling thing covered.  The waitress heard the conversation going on and I’m not sure she realized we were just joking, which brings us to one of the funniest parts of the evening.

One of the guys at the table behind us called the waitress over and the following conversation ensued:

Guy: “There’s something wrong with the bill.”

Waitress: “What’s wrong?”

Guy: “It doesn’t have your phone number on it.”

Waitress: “That’s just about the worst pick-up line I’ve ever heard.”

If I hadn’t been in Utah, where there would really be a question of whether our polygamy talk was serious or not, I (probably) would have told her when she came back to our table:

Me: “I’ve got an even worse pick-up line.”

Waitress: “What?”

Me: “Want to be #8?”

Bada-bim, bada-boom.

I confess, I didn’t have the guts to really ask, but the rest of my group found it hilarious.

Screens

So, I struggled over what to do for this theme.  I finally remembered a picture (I thought) I took back at my first school, of me and my Stage Crew playing video games on the auditorium’s big screen.  I couldn’t find the picture but along the way I found this of one of our first computer labs at the school.

And was amused at the difference with the computer screens in this picture of my current keyboarding lab.

Back in 1999, that computer lab was in the basement, an old storage room that was retro-fitted and, as you can see, strung with wires and cables all over the place.  Damp and dingy, you and your class had to trek through half the school to get there.

The room I’m in now was always intended to be a computer lab.  The power and network wiring plug right into the walls, and the tables are designed so the wiring comes right down the middle, safe and secure above the floor, but off the tables themselves.  And, like all 5 of our computer labs, they are right in the heart of the classrooms.

Not that I need to point this out to anyone on the blogosphere, but we’ve come a long way in the last decade.

For more “screens” pictures, click on the banner below.