Star Bars

I posted a picture of some snacks goods on Instagram a while ago and I'm getting around to writing about on here.  I'm sure you've seen them at the grocery as they've been out for a while now.  I first saw them when I was back in Cranbrook in January when Willie and I saw them at Wal-Mart.  

I got them when I got back to Calgary and had to get both flavours.

There is the Kids Edition Vanilla Cake Flavour with Chewie on the box and the Special Edition Chocolate Cake Flavour with Darth Vader.  So the Chewie box is for kids and the Vader box is for adults??  Luckily I got away buying the Chewie vanilla bar despite having no kids and when the cashier asked if I did, I just lied and said yes.

I hate to disappoint everyone out there, but these granola bars do not like vanilla cake or chocolate cake.  If you take a bite you are going to say "Oh, this tastes like it might be vanilla." or "This tastes chocolate-like".  Once my granola bars are done I won't be in hurry to get some more.

So they don't taste that great and the art on the box is the same picture of Chewie from Cinnamon Toast Crunch box and the picture of Vader is the same picture used on the Campbell's chicken soup can and the box of Cheerios.  With vast library of Star Wars images in the Lucasfilm archives, they only gave out one single picture of each of these characters to licensees?

Even though the granola bars weren't that great and I won't be buying more I'll still buy whatever cookie, cereal or drink they slap a Star Wars character on the front of next.

Vs

Double Stuf Oreo Vs Cinnamon Bun Oreo

Cinny Buns

I saw a picture on Instagram of Oreo Peeps which are Oreos with Peeps filling in the middle.  I knew that they'd probably only be available in the States because all the good stuff never comes north of the border.  I still always like to hope for the best, so when I was at Co-op today getting some groceries I had to walk the cookie aisle for a quick look.  I didn't find Peeps Oreos, but I found some Cinnamon Bun Oreos which are a good runner up.

The verdict is that they are good!  Gingerbread Oreos are still my favourite, but these are pretty close.  They smell awesome too.

I think one of the reasons they are so good is that they have extra filling, or it sure looks like they do.  That is definitely more filling than a regular Oreo.  I think I'll have to do some comparisons just to find out for sure.  I'll have to try and not eat them all before I get around to it though.

Farewell HMV...

When I was back in Cranbrook a few weeks ago Willie told me that he saw on Facebook that HMV Canada is closing.   I gotta say, that totally sucks.  HMV was the best place to get movies and pretty much the only place to buy good movies and CDs.  We are are left with two options now, and neither are that great.

There is Best Buy which doesn't sell music anymore and everytime I go there their movie selection continues to get smaller and smaller, they only stock big studio releases now.  There is Wal-Mart which does have a music section, but only mainstream stuff.  They do occasionally bring in some smaller releases in terms of movies, but once they sell out, they are gone and not getting restocked.  If you see something you want then buy it because in a week or two it will be gone.

They say buying stuff online is killing brick and mortar stores and more importantly buying(and bootlegging) digital formats.  It's getting to the point where we don't even have a choice anymore because there are no brick and mortar stores.  I've been pretty loyal to physical media over the years, having only bought a handful of digital albums and movies because when I pay money for something I like to be able to actually physically touch it.  I don't even illegally download movies or music because that's a no no.

I'll try and see the bright side of the whole situation...SALE!  HMV is marking down all stock as they are set to close forever on April 30th.  The website said  30% off, so I had to check it out and went to the Market Mall location today.  First of all, not everything was 30%, most the apparel and other collectible crap was 30% off, while movies and CDs were only 20% off.  I was bummed because movies and music were the only things I was interested in.  Of course I still spent money.

80's!!!!  A cheesy 80's action/adventure movie and the hero wears a bandana and rides a flying motorcycle.

Spaceballs: The Blu-ray!  One of the special features is a commentary in Dinkese.  I'm pretty sure I already have this, but the black case sold me.

This one was the other half of the 2/$20 deal or 2/$18 with the discount.  It's the 3rd Bass Icons CD which is basically a best of album.  It's pretty fly yo.  I opened as soon as I got back to my car, so I could get my groove on.

Finally, I got the Chemical Brothers "Don't Think" album which is a live album recorded in Japan.  It has a CD and a DVD of the same concert.  Its actually a few years old from 2012.

That's all I got as the CDs were seriously picked over, they aren't even going to have anything left in another week.  If you were planning to look for music at HMV during the closing out you better get there ASAP.  The movie section was in a lot better shape and they still have lots of t-shirts, mugs, Boba Fett cookie jars and collectibles.

I visiting the website again tonight and they changed the front page of the website with a new 20 - 40% graphic!  I'm sure the movies and music are still only 20% off while anime socks are 40% off.  I might check out another location on one of my days off next week.

Snowball Express

I heard Cranbrook got a lot of snow, so much snow in fact Willie can't even leave his house.  My mom sent me a picture because she's been busy shovelling snow all weekend.

I guess the grader went up the street and piled up a foot and a half of hard pack on the driveway entrances.  Logan actually went out to help bust it up because it was rock hard.  Then he got a blister on his hand.  Awww....

I actually can't even remember seeing that much snow piled up that high.  

Cats on the internet

Because Mike wanted more cats I thought I'd actually come through for once.  Back in October my sister got a kitten and named her Chloe.  She was a real scaredy cat when she brought it home and was skittish, but now Logan says she's pretty hyper.  Of course she's grown since October, but she's still a bit small.  Here are some blurry pictures.

Kick out the jams

When I work a full day I used to just be lazy and buy something for lunch, but then I realized I was wasting a lot of money, so then I switched to making lunch.  Making lunch means throwing a granola bar, some cookies and sandwiches into a lunch bag which also happens to be a Safeway bag.

I usually make two sandwiches, one with meat and/or cheese and another with either peanut butter, jam, or peanut butter and jam.  When using the jam I would wait until the jar is nearly empty and then just start with a brand new fresh jar of jam.  This has left my fridge littered with almost empty jars of jam.

I took all those almost empty jars of jam out of the fridge to try and clean it up.  But what is one to do with all those "almost" empty jars?  Well, scoop out the remaining jam to create a monstrous mix of various jams!

Super jam!

That is all I got out of those six jam jars.  It still wasn't bad as I got a few more sandwiches out it.  It also tasted pretty good.  The lame thing was I had to wash out all the empty jars.

I also do the same thing with margarine and right now I have five margarine tubs in the fridge.  I won't be combining them to make super margarine though.

There and back

It's Tuesday night and I'm back from my short trip to Cranbrook.  I was going to post something while I was there, but I didn't really do a whole lot to make even a single post really worth it.  I thought I'd cram everything into one fun filled post.

My playlist for the drive down to Cranbrook.

I drove back to Cranbrook on Thursday and left somewhat early in the morning as I had to get back by 2:30pm to watch Avery's hockey game.  I made it just in to watch the game and see him lose.  Why did I come back again?

I only got one pair of socks this year, but they are extra nice.

Oh yeah, I came back for Christmas presents!  I didn't open all my presents at once, I spread them out over Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  Waiting an extra day or two is not a big deal at this point.  I got some movies, Disney Infinity 3.0(the Star Wars one!) video game, a CD binder(for my overflowing DVD collection), some huckleberry jam, two pairs of pajama pants and some bed sheets. 

I always get a pair of pajama pants every year without fail, and usually those pajama pants are too big.  XL pajama pants for some reason at like a size 54" or so they seem.  This year I got two pairs of pajama pants, so I'm hoping at least one pair will fit.  I'll wash them first and hope they shrink a bit.

Saturday I watched Avery play in two more hockey games which they actually won.  I was going to go the Kootenay Ice game Saturday night, but I was a bit tired from my cold, so I stayed home.  Turns out they played terrible and lost, so it was no biggie.

Avery's team made it to the finals on Sunday where they lost to a team they beat on Saturday.  They looked pretty slow and lazy out there for the final game.  Somebody should've pumped them up with sugar and Red Bull or something.

After the game I thought I saw Joe Detta and I was like, "Is that Joe?  It looks like Joe".  Then he disappeared, but later my mom asked if I saw Joe, so apparently it was him.

The hockey tournament also had some real nice baskets and raffle prizes.  You paid $20 and some some tickets which you use to enter yourself in drawings for various themed baskets.  I entered myself in a few of the basket giveaways and won was for a mini fridge.  I was also entered to win a PS4 and an iPad.  I won nothing!

On Monday, I met up with good up Willie and we went looking for all the gems of the Cranbrook retail merchants.  I got these two VHS tapes from the Bibles for Mission thrift store.  The Channeler is a horror movie starring Dan Haggerty.  I picked up Nukie wondering if it's similar to Mac and Me.  I'm kinda of hoping it is, but also kinda hoping it isn't.

I forgot my change in the car, so Willie paid for these for me.  What a bro.  I'll getcha back the fifty cents, man.

We went to Wal-Mart and didn't much except some Star Wars granola bars and that weird Batman van in the parking lot.  We walked over to Dollar Tree, and I bought some junk food.  I keep ads on TV for the Reese Cup with Reese's Pieces inside it so I had to try it.  The Clif bars must be left over from the holidays as they are Spiced Pumpkin Pie and Ice Gingerbread flavours.  I eat that because I'm totally an athlete.

We also went to the Salvation Army where Willie got a Smiley mug, an Oasis single and paid for this 8mm camcorder tape for me.  Yeah, I forgot my change again, so Willie had to pay for me.  Don't worry, I paid for his bag of chips at Dollar Tree, so it all worked out.

I bought the tape wondering if there is somebody's old creepy home movies on it.  Just like that time I bought an old VHS C tape that came with the adapter, so we watched it and was like some old 80's home movies and it was somebody's birthday and there was a creepy moustached guy smoking a cigarette holding a baby.  I never watched it again.

Since the Hospital Aux and the Cellar are closed on Monday, I swung by the Hospital Aux today just to check it out and good thing I did.  The sealed BB-8 Funko Pop was worth the trip.  I also got an old Warren Miller ski movie on VHS.  I'm wondering why I keep by these old VHS tapes because chances are I'm not gonna watch them.  If I was really a keener, I dig out my VCR and DVD recorder and convert them over to DVD, so I'd have a digital copy.  Then I'd need to buy a puny little old school TV to do it all on, because it's too much of a pain to on the real TV.  Maybe one day when I get fired and have lots of time on my hands.

I threw these CDs into the playlist for the drive back.

I'm back now and just getting ready to go to bed because I have to work tomorrow and probably the next five days straight in a row.  Cody's been locked in his room ever since I got home, so chances are he's probably sick or dead.  I'll wait a few days before I bother to check in on him.