Trying to Get My Business

In the mail, I get these flyers with coupons. Ninety-five percent of the time, I wind up tossing the whole thing into the recycling bin as there's nothing in the flyers I can use. On Saturday, two came. I've been chucking them without even perusing them because there's nothing for me but, for some reason, I actually looked through both of them. There was a coupon for $7.99 hair cuts at the place I get my hair cut and there was a coupon for a free drink and chips when you bought a sandwich from a new sub place in town. It happened to be over by the JoAnn Fabrics where I was headed after getting the pumpkins. That would make it just an easy stop on the way home.

I know nothing about this chain. It appears they have been around for some time and are just making inroads into my neck of the woods. It's a small place with 5 tables and a huge TV. The menu is quite large in terms of specialty sandwiches and they will do made to order sandwiches, too.

After several minutes reading the menu, I opted for their "Hook and Ladder". It's ham and turkey with Monterey Jack cheese. It comes with mayo, tomato and onion but they did make mine without all that. "Do you want a pickle?" No thanks but they gave me a pickle anyway. The sandwich is heated so the cheese melts.

It's 8 inches long for $7.38. You all know how I feel about Subway so how did this stack up against Subway. Let's just say that I won't go there again unless I have a coupon. If I'm going to spend $10 for a sub meal, I want a footlong. They have white or wheat bread. I usually don't get my Subway sandwiches toasted I think I'd have to speak up loudly to not get a toasted sub here. I don't necessarily think toasting adds to the flavor of the sub. In the winter, a hot sandwich is nice, but I prefer mine untoasted so I taste all the ingredients.

And that's where I think this sub failed. It all tasted the same. There wasn't a difference between the ham and the turkey. Their wheat roll got soggy, especially the second half. There's not a lot to recommend me driving out of my way to go get one.

One thing they did have which I found really interesting was the Coca-Cola "Freestyle" machine. If you go to the web site and click on beverages, it pulls up a graphic of the machine. It's a bit smaller than a regular soda machine but it dispenses, they say, up to 120 different sodas. There is a graphic on the front where you select your beverage, Dr Pepper, and then the version, regular, and then, the flavor, regular. They had cherry and cherry vanilla Dr Pepper in regular and Diet. On the cup was a listing of all the flavors this machine will dispense and, if you are inclined to mix flavors, as some people are, your possibilities for beverages jumps to the hundreds. You could get water, sparkling water, ice tea in flavors and lemonade in flavors. It's quite impressive, but the storage space for all those kinds of beverages has to be huge. No Pepsi products. This is solely a Coke thing.

The bottom line, for me, is that they haven't won my business from Subway. I'm a fairly boring person when it comes to the subs I like so a place like this isn't attractive to me. Plus, in terms of what I get for my money, Subway can't be beat with a footlong for $6.00 versus an 8 inch for $7.00. I think there's room for variety so I wish them well.

Beverage:  Edinburgh's Finest tea

Deb

Pam's Voice

Having to walk into a fabric store or a craft store that sells fabric is an exercise in the utmost restraint. I usually fail the test. It was terribly hard on Sunday, too, to walk into JoAnn Fabrics to purchase the pieces to make spiders for the front. So...many...fabrics. So many things I could sew.

As if to taunt me, the printed fleece was on an end, right by where I would walk to get to the styrofoam balls. They had a huge selection of professional teams from baseball, football, basketball and hockey. There weren't a lot of college teams represented, but, oh dear, three bolts of Iowa Hawkeyes and each one is different. No. No. Must not be tempted. I'll just walk around the corner here and ...

crap. Will you look at that.

Last year, when I was going to make Carole and David camp shirts, I went to a very large JoAnn Fabrics for material. I knew I had seen Pittsburgh Steelers fabric and they are David's favorite pro team. I thought it would be a big hit to make him a camp shirt in Steelers fabric. The large JoAnn store, while having almost everything under the sun, did not have any fabric with the Steelers logo on it, nothing, zero, zip, zilch. I didn't come to this store, even though it's closer to me, mainly because the road to the shopping center where the store is located is under destruction and getting here is a headache and a half. I settled for the fire print, which turned out really cool. I should have come here. I'd have found exactly what I wanted.

There's an interesting connection between the Hawkeyes and the Steelers. This, from Wikipedia:

In 1979, Hayden Fry helped to create the Tiger hawk, the logo seen on Iowa's football helmets. Since both teams shared the colors of black and gold, Fry gained permission from the Pittsburgh Steelers, the dominant NFL program of the 1970s, to overhaul Iowa’s uniforms in the Steelers’ image. Fry's idea was that if the team were going to act like winners, they first needed to dress like winners. Fry had originally asked Steelers Defensive Tackle "Mean" Joe Greene for a replica helmet and home jersey; Greene was able to send Fry to one of the team owners, and three days later, the owners sent Fry reproduction copies of the home and away uniform of Steeler Quarterback Terry Bradshaw, making Iowa one of only a few schools to use the uniform scheme of an NFL team. Although the uniforms appear the same, there are subtle differences, mainly in the scheme of the white away jerseys, the Steeler jerseys have the players names in yellow, while the Hawkeyes use black.

So, here I stand in the aisle, taking a photo and thinking of getting enough material to make myself a shirt or, perhaps, actually making David the shirt I wanted to make last year. Then, out of the blue, comes a voice in my head. I know this voice. It's Pam. "No, you're here to get those things on your list to make spiders. You can't buy anything else. Besides, what's in that box in the closet?" Ah yes, the box in the closet.

I have two pieces of fleece that I haven't done anything with. Guess that settles that. Now where are the styrofoam balls?

Beverage:  Dr Pepper

Deb

It's Okay They Are Wrong

As the Autumnal Equinox approached, there were a number of predictions on just how much color we would see with the trees this year. I live close to the Morton Arboretum and there wasn't a day that went by from September 16th to the 21st where an arborist wasn't quoted regarding fall colors. The weathermen were consulted and probably a few tea leaves checked. It all came down to "this has been a rough summer for trees due to the drought". We were warned not to expect the colors usually seen in fall. "It's going to be mostly yellows, golds and a few oranges. The browns will come a little later." Well, that does make sense.

I don't know about your area, but this prognostication has been wrong in the most spectacular of ways. Witness the maple across the street from me.

I think every color possible in a maple is on this tree. The leaves now are a brilliant flame red. It started to the right and has completely overtaken the whole tree.

On the drive to get pumpkins, there was this tree...

and these two.

When the sun hits them, the colors just explode. This is hardly the yellows and oranges we were told to prepare for. I think I've seen more red this year, fire engine red, than I remember in years past. I'm sure it has something to do with the drought. Even the bushes have more vibrant colors than I remember.

These colors make it one of the more spectacular falls that I can remember. The golds are gold. The yellows are deep yellow. The whole effect is phenomenal. It makes one sad to realize this is but a fleeting moment and these colors aren't going to hang around for more than a few weeks.

Usually with prognostications, you want the experts to be right. After all, they spend their careers studying these things, they should know what they are talking about. This is one time they got it wrong and I'm not complaining.

Beverage:  Dr Pepper

Deb

My Lap

The last stop on the list of things to be done yesterday was a trip to a new sub place. They had a coupon in one of the flyers I get and, since I was going to be over by them anyway, I might as well give them a try. Their location is too far to be considered on my list of places for lunch. I brought home my sub and had a friend, instantly.

She is not the lap cat. Oh once in awhile, she'll lie in my lap but if I have something to eat, she's there. She wasn't thrilled with this sub. She loves deli turkey and there just wasn't enough of it to share. She hung around until I was completely done with the sandwich and then she left.

I needed to just sit for a bit. I walked a lot and over uneven surfaces. My knees were saying, "You're going to take a breather or we'll make sure you do." I got rid of the wrapper from the sub, sat down, put up my feet and had my lap cat arrive.

She is not at all interested in the meat in a sub or people food at all. But once my lap was free, she's all about commandeering it. I've been playing World of Warcraft a bit more lately, with the new aspects to the game, and she's let me know she finds that unacceptable as it takes away lap time. So, on Sunday, we sat in the recliner for a good hour, just her and I. I don't think I've watched that much pro football in years.

The lap is a marvelous space and I don't mind sharing.

Beverage:  Dr Pepper

Deb