TRAVEL!

We’ve been busy this week since returning from our mini road trip to the Hill Country, so my trip update is a little late! We drove just over 600 miles and were able to see lots of Central Texas that we hadn’t seen before. Donna spent all day Monday shopping, and then shopping some more. I made it for about six hours, but couldn’t do the whole day. We had a wonderful lunch at Rathskeller’s, a basement restaurant on Main Street. I had the Shepherd’s Pie and it was awesome! While Donna finished up her shopping, I drove around town looking for buildings to photograph. A few posted above, including the Bed & Breakfast where we spent two nights. Also posted is an eagle carving out of a really old tree. Donna is in the photo to give perspective to the size. On the way back to Allen on Tuesday we stopped in Comanche for lunch. We are always on the look-out for awesome Chile Rellenos! And we found them at Miguel’s. The best we’ve ever had though are in Lubbock at Durango’s Restaurant. Miguel’s was a close 2nd! We then stopped in Dublin to see the original Dr. Pepper bottling plant, along with the museum and store. We’d like to go back sometime for one of the tours when they are bottling. We did pick up a case of 8 oz. bottled Dr. Pepper though! New Subject! I have finally accepted a position with Market Street, and I start this next Monday. I will train at the McKinney store for two weeks, and then move to the new Allen store, which is scheduled to open on Friday, February 29th. It will be just three miles to work for me, and it has been a long time since I had a commute that short! I will be working in the receiving department with great hours, 5 a.m. – 2 p.m., Monday – Friday. It has been almost 35 years since I worked in the grocery business, but I’m really excited about it. Especially being a ‘Team Member’ of United Texas! They have a customer service philosophy and employee culture that I searched out. Over the course of the last couple of months, they offered me four positions from which to choose. I really wanted to take one of the Service Manager positions and work with the store “guests”, but the early morning hours of the receiving department was too good a match for me. And the bennies? Yep! That will save me about $10k annually that I now pay through the Oregon Retirees program with the City of Portland. And oh yea! I don’t think I’ve given you an update on our scams. I did receive two checks for our Mustang, both bogus. We have one phony money-gram for $17,000.00 and one phony check for $17,500.00. We also advertised Wade & Michelle’s pool lounge chairs on Craig’s List, and had two scams with those. We advertised the loungers for $250.00 and have phony money-grams for $1,200.00 and $1,550.00. They want to send you more than the asking price so you will ‘wire’ the difference to them, supposedly for inspection and shipping. DUH!