THE PEOPLE MUST HAVE THEIR DAN MILLER

It’s a double posting day!!! Scroll down to see results of the yard sale of doom. This post is for detailing the May grocery totals. This was actually my worst month since January. There haven’t been a whole lot of good deals lately.

Total before coupons: $615.89
Coupons: $160.55
Doubling: $59.80
Rebates: $25.88
Catalinas: $4.00
Store savings: $251.30
Other: $8.00 (2 movie tickets)

Net price: $106.36
Savings: $509.53
Savings pct: 82.73%

This was the first month that I attempted to keep a full list of everything that I bought during the month. So you can see what I got for my 106 bucks. I can’t promise that this was everything because I unfortunately let a lot of receipts pile up before I put them in to the old computer, so I might have missed some.

So I finally am getting around to posting something about the yard sale that we had a week or so ago (5/21). Madeira has an annual city-wide yard sale, so I thought that would provide the perfect opportunity to unload some of The General Store. Here’s a breakdown of what I put out for sale, along with what I priced it at, and how it sold.

Some before pictures:

Notice the big towers of Froot Loops and ketchup. I put that out there to try and convince people to stop. We started bringing things up from the basement the night before into the living room, and started setting things outside about 6:30 AM. We were blessed with great weather. Our first customers started coming by around 830 or 9.

• Garnier 100% Hair color - priced at $2.50, or 3/$6. Didn’t sell a single one. Had a few people look at them, but no purchases.
• Toothbrushes - 2/$1. These went like wildfire. Early on, I sold 17 of them to a lady for 25 cents each, though in retrospect I shouldn’t have taken a price cut.
• Deodorant - these were in 2 separate boxes for men’s and women’s - each priced for $1. These sold very well.
• Suave shampoo and conditioner - 2/$1. Sold every one I put out (about 50) except I had one left at the end of the day.
• Purell hand sanitizer (trial size 1 oz) - 4/$1. Sold tons. Probably could have made these 3/$1 or even 2/$1
• Cereal - I listed the smaller boxes at $1, and the larger boxes at $1.50 or 4/$5. Sold tons of these too.
• BBQ Sauce - 75 cents or 4/$2. This sold very well too. The KC Masterpiece all went first before anybody touched any of the Open Pit.
• Spaghetti 16 oz - 2/$1. Sold very well
• Spaghetti sauce - $1. Sold very well
• Ketchup - 75 cents or 4/$2. Sold about 50-60 bottles, though I had plenty left over.
• Relish - 4/$1. Sold WAY more of this than I expected. Must have been due to it being so near to Memorial Day and cookout season.
• CVS diapers - $5. Didn’t sell any.
• V8 Splash - $1.50 or 3/$3. Sold every bottle I brought up (about 10-15)
• Hamburger / Chicken Helper - $1.25 or 3/$3. Sold a few of these but not as much as I expected
• Pasta Roni - 2/$1. Ditto for these.
• Chi-Chi’s Fiesta Dips. $1.25 or 2/$2. Sold maybe 2-3.
• Wheat Thins / Triscuits - $1 - sold every one I brought up
• Fruit Snacks - $1.50 or 3/$4 - ditto.

We also had just regular old garage sale junk that we had brought up from downstairs and wanted to get rid of - didn’t sell hardly any of that but we still did pretty good on the day. I’ll definitely do this again next year and may have a sale on my own in the fall.

This was after we had taken some of it back inside, but every time we started thinking it was time to pack things up, more people would show up!

Carolyn and I went on a date tonight to go see Star Wars. I thought it was good, but then again I thought the first two were good, and nobody else seems to….

It was good to finally get to go see it, because now I don’t have to worry about people talking about it. There’s these two guys at work that keep talking about it right next to my desk, so whenever I see them I have to go walk around the building or put on my headphones. But now no more!

Sorry for the downtime today folks. I’m sure all of you were mortally wounded by not being able to get your fix of TPMHTDM over the past few days. My hosting company apparently had some problems. I have a good post about our garage sale that we had on Saturday that I want to write, but I’ve still got some fallout from the server problems to clean up. Stay tuned….

So Carolyn finally got me down in the basement to clean up the basement (read: throw out all the crap). I did manage to save a few things, and I wanted to blog a couple of them before I threw them out. Here’s one I found from I believe 1994 (12th grade). It’s a piece of paper ripped out of a notebook that starts out:

Trampus,

Fill in the blank with the word you feel is best.

I wish the court would issue an indicavit, I also want a_________

and then Trampus wrote in “an affadavit”. This came from a rhyming book we found where one of the pairs listed was affadavit / indicavit. We found this especially funny, mostly because we didn’t know what an indicavit was. I bet you don’t either.

Anyway, after Trampus wrote the answer to that one, we passed this back and forth, I believe in Shack’s English class. With each one, one person would write the beginning and the other person would write the punch-line. Here they are, just as they are written:

(T) I wish my coffee was decaffinatit.
(D) If I had a valuable painting, I would save it.
(T) You know if I wanted some land, yo I would survey it.
(D) If I had a perilous undertaking, I’d brave it.
(T) If there was a dirt road, yo I’d pave it.
(D) If I had a flag, yo I’d wave it
(T) If I were a cop and one of my other cop friend (sic) gave my dad a $73.22 traffic ticket yo, I’d waive it.
(T) If there was some food I really wanted but couldn’t have it, yo I’d crave it.
(D) If there was something I wanted under my control, yo I’d enslave it.
(T) If I had a really long beard with lice growing in it, yo I’d shave it.
(T) If there was an Alden, yo I’d Dave it. Jeees! (reference to Dave Alden who was a kid in our high school and always said “Jeeeez” long and drawn-out)
(D) If there was a word I know is a word but don’t know what it means, yo stave’s it (this is crossed out apparently by Trampus sheesh not like some of his aren’t just as bad! )
(T) If I wanted a rapper from Public Enemy, you (sic) I’d Flav’ it
(T) If I was a Jew in the holocaust, yo I’d wear the star of Dave it (sic)
(T) If I lived in a tunnel in a mountain, Yo!, I’d cave it.
(T) If I was one of Donald Duck’s nephews, yo I’d say I quave it (also crossed out)
(D) If someone asked me for something I had given away, I’d say I gave it ………………AWAY!!! (reference to the classic Joe….MAMA jokes prevalent at the time - at least by us)
(T) If my last name was McDaniel, yo I’d Xave it!
(D) If I were a Regoarrarr, yo I’d wazoo it (again with the censorship - crossed out. I think it’s wazoo, it’s kind of hard to read)
(D) If I surrounded something with a barbed wire fence, yo I’d enclave it.
(D) If I had an unruly child, yo I’d behave it.
(D) If I were to make a telescopic lense (sic), yo I’d concave it
(D) If I had to bury someone, yo I’d grave it.

And don’t even get me started about parallel diction!! I will try and post a couple of other things I found. One of them was the treasure hunt that Jay made for me in library study hall. I even found the clue that made Mrs. Ewart cry (”Find the next clue taped to Old Bag’s desk”)

Here’s a report on my road trip. Part of this route mirrors some of my latest EFC route, and some of it was just some other ramblings. If you want to follow along, ODOT has some pretty good maps. My favorite is this one, but it’s 6.3 MB - so only if you have broadband.

Started out on my street and reset the trip odometer, at 5:00:32 a.m.

Loveland-Madeira (5.5 miles, 9 minutes, 11 seconds, 35.9 mph)
I-275 North (3.3, 3:16, 60.6)
I-71 North (48.1, 40:13, 71.8) - Up to this point, this was all pretty standard stuff that I’ve driven a billion times.

Got off 71 at US 35 (Exit 65). Stoplight at the off-ramp and another one a few feet later at the on-ramp to 71-south. Started off at 35 mph (0.4, 1:40, 14.4 mph - had to wait at both lights)
50 mph (1.8, 1:39, 65.4)
65 mph (14.4, 13:32, 63.8) - this was a nice highway section, comparable to an interstate. Exits at 72 and then Old 35, before I got off at the N Bickett Road exit.

Right off the off-ramp, and a stop light at Old US 35. This was a 35 mph section with a jog on US 42 - flashing yellow light there (not a regular traffic light) - (1.6, 2:50, 33.9).

Turned left on to Brush Row Road (3.7, 5:44, 38.7). It was 25 as I passed by Central State University (maybe a mile), then a stop sign, then it turned to 45, and then a stop sign at Stevenson Road (Cross-traffic does not stop). In looking at the map, depending on the time of day, it might be better to turn left on 42 from Bickett, and then right on Stevenson and left on Brush Row. Wasn’t that bad here since it was 6 a.m.

Brush Row dead-ended into US 68 N (55 mph) - on that for (0.6, 0:49, 44.1). Turned on to OH 235 North (soft left turn). From the map it looked like this might be somewhat populated, but it was still pretty much the middle of nowhere (6.7, 7:46, 51.8). Stoplight at Dayton-Yellow Springs (3.7 mile marker), Flashing yellow at Byron (5.6) and I wrote down Thebein road crosed at 6.2 - I think because I recognized the name from a different route attempt I had come up with.

I-675 North from Exit 22 to Exit 26B - crossed into Clark County (3.8, 3:35, 63.6)

I-70 West from exit 44A to 24 (20.5, 17:44, 69.4). Saw the Montgomery County Ohio Bicentennial Barn at mile marker 39.

Got off I-70 onto OH-49 North (5.2, 5:58, 52.3)
55 mph (3.4 miles)
35 mph (0.8 miles - Phillipsburg)
55 mph (1.0 mile)
Stoplight at mile 1.1 for US 40 and one for Main St. (mile 3.8) in Phillipsburg

I was a bit worried about this next turn - wasn’t sure what kind of signage I’d get for Montgomery Co Line Rd, but it was fairly easy to spot. You could see the signs for the start of OH 721 off to the right before you made the left onto the County Line road.

Montgomery County Line Road was your typical middle of nowhere road (3.7, 4:31, 49.2). Just to be annoying, Preble County Line Road hits just before the actual county line. There was no sign announcing the start of Preble County, but you could see the back of the sign announcing the start of Montgomery County on the other side of the road. It’s fairly conspicuous since as was previously mentioned, it’s the middle of nowhere :-). There was a tiny bridge over a creek or something right near the county line, and a driveway on the north side just past it that I used to turn around. The return trip back to OH-49 was also uneventful (3.9, 4:26, 52.8)

OH 721 North (5.9, 7:03, 50.2).
55 mph (2.9)
35 mph (0.5 - Potsdam)
55 mph (2.1)
35 mph (0.4 - Laura)

While in the bustling metropolis of Laura, OH, 721 came to a stop and I was unsure where to go. Luckily off to my left I saw a reassurance marker for 571, which was where I was going next. So there was a slight jog there. Was on OH 571 for a short time (0.8, 1:14, 38.9).

OH 55 East (3.3, 4:17, 46.2)
55 mph (2.9)
35 mph (0.4 - Ludlow Falls - there was a jog here of a left and a right before turning left onto OH 48)

OH 48 North (20.0, 20:36, 58.2).
55 mph (3.4)
35 mph (0.9 - Pleasant Hill - there was a neat statue at a sort of mini-roundabout here)
55 mph (3.5)
35 mph (0.5) - stoplight here at OH 41
25 mph (0.2) - stoplight
35 mph (0.7) - stoplight at US 36
55 mph (9.8)

Left onto OH 66. This is the king of all EFC Roads, so I felt like I had to visit it for a bit at least (19.5, 24:22, 48.0).
55 mph (1.6)
40 mph (0.7) - stoplight at OH 47
55 mph (2.4)
50 mph (0.5)
35 mph (0.9) - stoplight at OH 705, and one at OH 362
50 mph (0.2)
55 mph (1.9)
35 mph (1.2 - Minster, SLs at OH 362 and OH 119)
45 mph (0.2)
50 mph (1.5)
45 mph (0.3) - another stoplight
35 mph (0.6) - stoplight
25 mph (0.1) - stoplight at OH 274
45 mph (0.2)
50 mph (0.3)
55 mph (6.2)
35 mph (0.8) - 3 stoplights - one at something I didn’t write down, one at South, and then one at OH 29.

Turned onto OH-29 (4.7, 5:47, 48.8). First part of it was in regular city roads in St. Marys (2.1, 3:10, 39.8), and then a limited access highway that I originally erroneously called US 33 (2.6, 2:37, 59.6).

35 mph (0.9) - 2 stoplights
50 mph (1.2) - 3 stoplights

The limited-access highway ends just past the Mercer county line - I was able to turn around by pulling a U-turn at Harris Road.

As I drove back on OH-29 East which turned into US-33 East by just continuing the highway (16.1, 14:27, 66.9), I first called home to check in and then I had a decision to make. Upon approaching I-75, I could either turn north to head into Hancock and Hardin counties or turn south to go back to Shelby and then head into town. I wanted to get where I needed to be in Columbus by 10:30 and it was at this point that I did my first cursory examination of the data and found I was making good time. So I decided to go north. Not a whole lot of exits here - OH-66 at 4.5, Hardin Pike at 14.0, and OH 67, 198 and 501 at 14.7 are all I wrote down.

I-75 North from Exit 110 to Exit 135 (25.0, 20:42, 72.5)

Took a local road called E Lincoln Hwy that paralells what appeared to be a limited-access US 30 (4.2, 4:36, 54.8). When I turned off this road south on to Hancock Road, it did have an intersection with US 30. So it may be slightly faster to take US-30 east from 75, though probably not a whole lot faster since Lincoln Hwy was pretty quick.

Hardin Road (1.0, 1:35, 37.9) and then a left on Huber Road (3.0, 3:49, 47.2), which is on the Hancock / Hardin border.

OH 235 South (19.7, 25:41, 46.0)
55 mph (2.7)
35 mph (1.4) - 4 stoplights - this was Ada, home of Ohio Northern University
55 mph (3.9) - stopsign and a jog.
35 mph (1.3) - At 9.3 of my OH-235 journey I looked down and saw my car hit 80,000 miles exactly.

OH 117 East (8.1, 8:42, 55.9). Just north of Huntsville, I saw the end of OH-366. Also just north of Huntsville, I decided to jog west on OH 274 (0.6, 1:03, 34.2) for a reason which was probably much clearer then…

US 33 East. This was another very nice highway - interstate standard. The map had it as a regular US route for part, a divided highway for part and limited-access for part, but I didn’t really notice a distinguishable difference the whole time I was on it (21.0, 17:20, 72.7). Exits for OH-292, OH-247, and then OH-739/OH-287/Honda Pkwy, which is where I got off.

Stokes Road or Twp Hwy 168 (0.3, 1:10, 15.4) then a quick jog onto W Darby Road (3.4, 4:50, 42.2). There was a jog here at the intersection of N. Lewisburg road. I actually realized here that I got off at the wrong exit from US-33, at least according to my printed plans. I should have continued one more exit east, and got off on Darby-Pottersburg road, gone south about a mile and then left on to W Darby. I expect that either way it’s about the same. There was a danger of high-water sign as I crossed over Big Darby creek, but even though it had rained pretty good all night and most of the morning, there wasn’t really any water on the road. I did see a buzzard eating something on the side of the road.

Right turn on to OH-245 West (1.0, 1:31, 39.6) to get me into Champaign County. There was a sign here and a convenient driveway in which to turn around. Back on OH-245 East (5.9, 6:18, 56.2). At this point, I was approaching US-33 again, and judging from the map, it looked like there might be some city traffic if I continued on OH-245 (involving a likely stoplight at W 5th Street in Marysville. So I detoured right onto Paver-Barnes (0.8, 1:10, 41.1), Left onto Collins (1.1, 1:54, 34.7), and left onto US-36/OH-4 (0.8, 0:50, 57.6) - stopped for awhile at a stop sign trying to turn left here. In retrospect, I think continuing on OH-245 would have been quicker.

Back on US-33 for awhile (16.4, 13:21, 73.7) and then got off at OH-161 / Post Road. Took that west (1.4, 1:50, 45.8) crossing through Franklin Co. and into Madison Co. where I had to pull a U-turn at Kile road). Back east (1.6, 2:32, 37.9)

Got back on US-33 (2.6, 2:39, 58.9) and then took I-270 South from Exit 17 to Exit 10 Roberts Road (6.5, 5:24, 72.2). At this point I got gas and my road trip was done. I did do a few more experiments on my way home, which I will describe here in a second, but here is the county-by-county breakdown.

Hamilton Co (10.8, 14:10, 45.7) - approximation - I didn’t write down the exact time/mileage I crossed into Warren Co.
Warren Co (23.2, 18:36, 74.8)
Clinton Co (15.0, 12:56, 69.6)
Greene Co (4.1, 3:32, 69.6)
Fayette Co (7.6, 8:15, 55.3) - approximation - the Fayette border sign was either missing or not easily visible due to highway construction.
Greene Co again (27.7, 30:04, 55.3)
Clark Co (4.9, 4:21, 67.6)
Montgomery Co (22.3, 20:57, 63.9)
Miami Co (0.6, 0:52, 41.5)
Darke Co (3.0, 3:24, 52.9)
Preble Co (0.2, 0:35, 20.6) - just turning around
Montgomery Co again (3.8, 4:06, 55.6) - south side of County line road
Miami Co again (23.9, 28:08, 51.0)
Shelby Co (13.0, 14:55, 52.3)
Auglaize Co (15.8, 19:30, 48.6)
Mercer Co (1.1, 1:21, 48.9)
Auglaize Co again (23.1, 20:12, 68.6)
Hancock Co (1.0, 1:35, 37.9)
Hardin Co (24.9, 32:00, 46.7)
Logan Co (26.6, 23:49, 67.0)
Union Co (5.5, 7:55, 41.7)
Champaign Co (0.1, 0:20, 18)
Union Co again (31.3, 32:43, 57.4)
Franklin Co (0.7, 0:55, 45.8)
Madison Co (0.2, 0:35, 20.6)
Franklin Co (0.7, 1:02, 40.6)
Union Co again (2.0, 1:58, 61.0)
Franklin Co again (8.0, 7:43, 62.2)

Afterwards, I took I-270 North from Exit 10 to Exit 17 (6.8, 5:38, 72.4), and then continued on to Exit 22 (5.8, 5:16, 66.1). Got off onto OH-315 North (1.9, 2:52, 39.8) - two traffic lights here and then there was a nice church parking lot to turn around in just into Delaware county.

OH-315 back south (1.4, 3:08, 26.8) and then continued on 315 as it became a limited-access highway (12.4, 10:56, 68.0). I was eating my free Frostys at this point. Continued on 71 South (4.3, 3:42, 69.7) and then made my way onto 270 East with a very long ramp (2.5, 2:22, 63.4).

Took US-23 South (5.3, 5:47, 55.0), and there was not much traffic at all (it was about 12:30 pm). From the map, I was expecting this to be a pretty built-up area, but I went through it pretty quickly. I was also worried about knowing when to turn around since I hadn’t printed out a map of this section, but it was pretty easy. There were 3 traffic lights, and a fourth just south of the Pickaway border at which I turned around. Northbound was more of the same (5.5, 5:54, 55.9). 270 West (2.4, 2:32, 56.8) and 71 South to Exit 97 (4.8, 4:44, 60.8).

This was my 2nd foray into Pickaway county and going in I was expecting it to be faster. I don’t think it was though, and so I’m not going to detail exactly how I got there, but it was (3.2, 5:22, 35.7) in and (3.2, 6:35, 29.2) out - big wait at a traffic light trying to turn onto OH-665 - should have just cut through the Citgo. Coupled with the 5 miles of Interstate both ways that I’d have to use to get down here, and it appears that the optimal Pickaway detour is on US-23.

I also timed that from Exit 97 to Exit 75 on I-71 was (22.2, 18:26, 72.2) - Exit 75 is just across the Madison Co line if you wanted to pick up Pickaway and Madison that way, and there is an emergency turn-around at mile 76. I also saw the Madison Co Bicentennial Barn. For completeness I-71 from Exit 75 to Exit 19 was (54.9, 45:54, 71.8), after which I stopped writing things down as I went to Meijer and got paid 5 bucks to take 4 boxes of Froot Loops, 4 boxes of Mamma Bella garlic bread, 4 boxes of Totino’s Pizza Rolls and 16 boxes of Hamburger Helper.

What? You’re still reading all this? Crazy person! I will probably post a summary of all this and how it affects EFC tomorrow.

Took a road trip yesterday. I was going up to Columbus to be with some friends of mine as they got sealed. The sealing was at 11 a.m., so I decided to get up early and take a road trip to visit some new counties as well as test out some portions of my EFC route. I will post more detailed information about the journey later (probably tomorrow - I can hear you ALL dying of anticipation ), but the good news is that I am fairly convinced that 88 counties is possible in 24 hours. It may not actually even be that close.

I visited 7 new counties yesterday - Darke, Clark, Champaign, Logan, Union, Hardin and Mercer bringing my total to 65 in Ohio and 430 overall. Here’s a map.

Thanks to all of the moms out there!

Though I wouldn’t hold my breath to start getting those paychecks just yet!

I went to a local Barnes and Noble the other day and played a little Diplomacy. It was pretty fun - had a good time. This is actually the first time I think that I’ve actually played with people that more or less know what they’re doing. The other few times I”ve gotten to play, it’s been people that don’t know how to play, and then it’s usually a matter of “gang up on the guy who knows what he’s doing”, which is less than fun.

If you’re in the Cincinnati area and want to play Diplomacy, and you know that you all do, come join us.

Lately I have been doing some speed estimates for the EFC trip. Just doing some timings as I drive to and from work. This process was greatly enhanced by Carolyn finding my watch this morning.

I’ve kind of noticed lately that my speedometer has not accurately been reflecting my speed. Or, alternately, the odometer is not accurately capturing my distance travelled.

For instance, as I drove up 71 this morning, I set the trip odometer at milemarker 18.0 and started my stopwatch. Then when I got off the highway at milemarker 22.8, I stopped the stopwatch. I had set the cruise control at around 75, and the speedometer maintained itself at about 77 mph.

That’s 4.8 miles as measured both on my trip odometer and the blue milemarker signs (we have nice little tenth-mile marker signs here). The stopwatch had 3 minutes, 54.64 seconds. That is a speed of 73.64 mph, even though my speedometer never really wavered from 77. This is not a unique experience either - it seems like every time I make these calculations on Interstate speed, my actual results are 3-5 mph slower than my speedometer is showing.