Crash!

Ah the joys of the long weekend, with its sleeping in until 11, long, languid lunches at the restaurant of your choice and general lazy laying about. My weekend was nothing like this, but I remember what it was like and these thoughts make me weep.

The less said about the weekend the better, however I can say that my children but the "long" in long weekend.

That crashing sound you heard earlier today was Target shattering the Transformers movie toy street date with impunity. I ventured there to return some shirts and felt drawn, nay, pulled to the toy aisle. What greeted me but a host of Transformer toys, including the Leader class Optimus Prime and the Voyager class Ironhide and Starscream. I almost missed Ironhide, but thankfully, my keen eye and persistent collector's spirit took over and I rummaged around like a crazy person. There were no Deluxe figures to speak of, other than the Protoform toys, but they did have all the Real Gear toys. They look like fun and I am anxiously awaiting their arrival.

Optimus is fucking huge, which he should be for 44 goddamn dollars. He, Ironhide and Starscream are currently in the back of the van, waiting for me to take them home and make with the Transforming. This leaves only Ratchet, Blackout and Megatron for Saturday's auspicious toy release event. I'm going to try and wait until Saturday so that I can use some Wal-Mart store credit, but in all honesty, I have zero self control and will probably buy these early if the opportunity presents itself Wal-Mart is a stickler for not selling toys prior to street date lest they incur the wrath of Hasbro. Target apparently shrugs off said wrath, humming a jaunty tune all the while.

I apologize in advance for all of the Transformers stuff you'll have to endure in the coming days. This comment is directed mostly at my wife, but seeing how she represents something like 25% of this site's readership, I felt it was necessary.

If you thought it was easy to purchase old school glass jars for pickling and canning, you would be very, very wrong. Everywhere you look, space age polymers assault your senses, demanding you store your foodstuffs within their tight fitting confines, yet the classic profile of the mason jar is nowhere to be found. I'm all for modern conveniences but I'll be damned if my currently marinating batch of freezer pickles is bottled up in some plastic affront to long term food storage. My pickles deserve better than that. Much better.