Sam's Club and Shiro

How is a major bulk retailer related to my cat? It's not, I just have things to say about both of them.

On Monday Chi took me to Sam's Club. I've never been to one before. She bought a membership because she likes to go there and save money. It is an interesting store, not quite what I expected. They have a lot of stuff in bulk, including name brands, but very little selection. For example, they have Classico pasta sauces in two or three packs, but they only had three of the twenty or so varieties. I was expecting things to be a bit less name brand and more generic bulk stuff. It is a nice store to save money on things that you will use a lot of before they go bad and you just happen to like the variety they carry.

So I ended up spending a lot of money and buying bulk of some things that I do use and won't go bad soon. I spent a ton of money, but it basically means spending very little money grocery shopping for the next couple of months, so I believe it should be a savings in the end. The biggest savings I got was with medication. I take allergy medication both in the form of loratadine (Claratin or Alavert) and sometimes Benedryl at night. Well I got a year's supply (300 tablets) of loratadine for $10, and that's only if I use it every day, and I usually only have to use it about half the year. And the generic Benedryl was even better, I got 400 tablets, which is 200 doses, for about $3. That will probably last me about a year, and it was only $3!

But I'm not willing to change brands or switch to something I feel is lower quality or I would like less just because I can get it cheaper at Sam's Club, so I'm not going to shop there exclusively or anything. It is useful occassionally to pick up some things that they have, but I'll still be doing my regular shopping at the local Harris Teeter.

Now onto the second subject, completely unrelated: Shiro. Yes, Shiro the cat. What about Shiro? She can be really annoying! Like seriously, does she have to pick times when I'm in the middle of homework or something to decide that she is the only important thing in the universe and I need to center my attention on her? Seriously, she will randomly decide that it is time for her to be petted, and will jump up on my desk and force herself between me and my keyboard. She will walk back and forth across my desk like this, getting cat hair all over my face and my keyboard.

So how about ignoring Shiro when she does this? Haha, nice try. She will start stepping on the keyboard or plop herself down on it so you can't continue working, and perhaps even make her own "addition" to your work. If she can't do that or you forcibly remove her enough times, then out come the teeth, and Chi can attest to that. "Hey, you're not paying attention to me *chomp*! Pet me *chomp*! Don't walk away from me *chomp*!" She doesn't bite hard, but she will use her teeth to guide you and indicate what she feels you should be doing.

So what about discipline? Remove her, scold her, even spray her when she does this? No effect. I've done it. She stops for a couple of minutes, and then comes right back and does it again. I think she knows she's being annoying and preventing people from getting anything done, and it has the possible frustrating side effect of people giving up and paying attention to her. Damn those cats are smart. I just wish Shiro would learn from Shima. Everybody likes Shima because she's friendly and nice, and I think she gets more attention because of it.

Wow, I sure type a lot for somebody who doesn't like blogging, huh? See, it's my new method of procrastination. I have to much work to do right now, might as well start a blog and not do my work.