An Embarassment of Ovoid Riches

Thanks to a couple of wonderful people, I have more Cadbury Eggs than you can shake a rabbit or chicken at!

restoman found some at a drug store a bit further afield than I'd traveled and was sweet enough to buy 16 of them for me. My friend Michelle engaged in a Halloween egg hunt of her own and found another 22 which she mailed to me from Wisconsin. (And I, after looking in so many drug stores without success, finally found a box of them on clearance at Price Chopper and bought something like 16 more at 33 cents per because I am an addict.)

I now have about fifty of these things, including one lone egg left over from Easter. That one won't last long, but the rest of them will. Thank you so much Michelle and Restoman; you're fantastic!

Winter Tires

Given the hills in this town, I was going to have to buy some studded tires for winter commuting. I was going to order some after my next paycheck, but this morning I jumped on a deal on Ebay. A got a set of two, used for about 16 miles according to the seller, for $80 with shipping. Buying them new would have been $118, plus tax, plus $10 or $15 in shipping. Saving $50 or so is a wonderful thing!

For those curious, they are Nokian Hakkapeliitta W106 tires, as described here: http://www.peterwhitecycles.com/studdedtires.asp

"This little town...is afflicted with too much Johnson."

"Instead of it being used as a slang expression here, this little town and the community round about is afflicted with "too much Johnson," a Newman Grove (Neb.) correspondent of the Sioux City Journal says. "I believe there are more Johnsons to the square inch in and around this town than anywhere else in the world, figuring on the same area. I have counted them up and find that, taking this town as a center, there are 958 Johnsons within a radius of twelve miles...." " From the Dakota County Herald, Dakota City, Nebraska, 27 May 1910.

Sometimes the jokes write themselves.

It looks like *my* Johnson may be hard to find. I'm looking in Omaha, but there are supposedly 623 John Johnsons in the Dakota City area, so it might be worse in a more populated area. The article goes on to say that banks are refusing to do business with any John Johnsons without assigning them a number to avoid account errors.

Birthday Meal Planning

I'm trying to decide where to go for my birthday meal. (Oh wow; that's this weekend!) All-you-can-eat buffets are a rare treat for me, so I want to do one of those. I'd have conveyor belt sushi in downtown Syracuse, but I'm taking Danae out for that while she's in town and it's pricy to do twice.

There's an independent pizza, pasta, and salad buffet that looks pretty good, but it's 20 miles from here and I don't know if I want to devote most of a day to a ride out there. I thought I might go for Ponderosa. I haven't been to a Ponderosa for something like twenty years and it would be a lot fun to see one again! But I just found out that the one I thought was nearby closed in June.

The Chinese buffet that Glen and I went to last week was pretty good; I might go back there. Or I might try the *other* Indian buffet in town. You know, the one where I didn't walk in to find an employee repeatedly spitting into a sink in full view of the tables. Ew; that one is out of consideration permanently. (And their gulab jamun were cold.)

Anyway, that'll be my birthday present to myself. I'd thought about getting a cake, or even an ice cream cake from Carvel (there's a Groupon), but I have *so* much chocolate here right now. Maybe restoman will come too. I think I'll see if there's anybody he wants to bring. Meeting new people would be another good birthday thing!

I just found this place, too; I'll have to check them out some time. The lunch buffet includes some tasty looking rolls and is fairly affordable. http://firudous.com/

Globalization is weird. No "American-style" buffets are anywhere near my 150,000 person city in central New York State, but there are at least four places (counting Chinese buffets) to get all you can eat sushi.