You’re not alone:
# Land under the country’s largest cities is sinking. Here’s where — and why.
You might have a point inasmuch as grocery stores now do sell alcohol, but I never buy it there. These were all legit groceries. Don’t even ask about my alcohol bill! But I consider that to be a separate non-discretionary budget! 
A famous restaurant in Chicago (Portillo’s) has created (just for the month of May) a sandwich honoring the Pope.
Ladies and Gentlemen: The Leo…!
Thanks and sorry for your $$ pain But I have an anti-rant! 
It turned out to be a dead capacitor for the blower motor. Took about an hour all told and cost me less than $150 - astounding since this behemoth unit is over 20 yrs old.
I am getting on their twice yearly maintenance plan so that’s another $120, but given the age of the thing I figure it’s a damned sight cheaper than 7-10k for a new unit!
I’ve been on my HVAC company’s service plan since I bought the original unit, and it’s saved me quite a bit on parts and service calls over the years.
Article is pay walled but looks interesting!
That line was really just a reference to this song because it’s been in my head all day!
Our grocery bills are about $1200/month and we’re a family of three. A family where one member is allergic to a bunch of stuff so they have to eat specialty foods, and another member who will only eat dry foods, so we give him nuts and dried fruit to try to cover the nutritional bases, as well as protein-infused bars which are hella expensive.
I have tried to get our prices down and I think it’s just impossible. Even the cheap junk isn’t cheap anymore. Food is expensive.
13ish hours later…there’s a big hole in the road, a safety cage, and at least one person in the hole doing something to the source of the leak.
Meanwhile, down below:
They say there’s an underground river here …
I checked out the antipode to where I live, and it’s pretty much in the middle of nowhere in the ocean. I’m pretty sure it’s not in the search area for MH 370 but had they kept digging much longer, they may have found it!
It seems we have a (temporary?) repair 14+ hours later. The hole is still a hole, but it’s all cordoned off, and they’ve already piled dirt and gravel to backfill. I assume some planned permanent work will happen in a few months.
It was a fascinating process to watch, but I’m glad to not hear the pumps going like they did all day! An amazing quantity of water got spewed out onto the road. It’s all very muddy.
I live in an apartment complex. There’s some kind of problem with the water/sewer pipes, so the driveway has been dug up and there are large holes at the intersection. They finally almost completely filled the holes with gravel, so I hope that means everything is fixed and the holes can be filled with asphalt soon.
My petty gripe for this morning: I want a pastry with a nice chocolate filling for breakfast, but that doesn’t exist around here. I don’t go to Dunkin Donuts because one of the employees shot a coworker and I’m not going to a place where the employees try to shoot each other. I’ll check out the options at the new bougie donut place if it’s open. There’s a donut shop that does custom filled donuts, but it’s in another county, so I will have to think very hard about my priorities and whether I really should drive that far just to get a donut.
Look, you work in a place where you’re constantly putting holes in the middle of pastries, you’re eventually going to get confused and try to put holes in the middle of coworkers. It’s a natural mistake.
They started filling the hole with gravel, then stopped. Back in the hole for a while, then took out the safety cage and they are digging again. Of course, the water is shut off, so we can’t do laundry or shower.
We are going to my in-laws tonight; we’ll show up before supper with laundry and take showers there!
Fun times.
“Say, that’s not jelly filled…” /s
I always have macaroni in the cupboard. Always.
And I have a variety of leftover grated cheese in the freezer, so I decided I’ll make macaroni and cheese tomorrow for lunch.
Took the cheese containers (there are 6 of them) out of the freezer and put them in the fridge to thaw. Decided to get the macaroni out as well.
No macaroni. Only penne and b owties. Not the same. Nearby stores, that I went to this morning, are closed until Monday. Have to go two towns over to find a place that will sell me macaroni on a Sunday.
Should have checked this morning. Bah.
And I know there’s a thread (or two) already about this, but I don’t like the round avatars. Looks weird.
For those who haven’t checked the thread, it’s apparently due to a bug wherein all the customizations in the Straight Dope Light theme are broken. It’s not intentional. Presumably will be fixed at some point.
My Android phone updated last night and changed the layout of numerous things, and won’t let me change it back. It’s less useful now and less intuitive. I’ve changed the configuration settings as much as it’ll let me. Not delighted.
At least with the change in the SDMB appearance, I know it’ll get fixed or I can swich to a runner-up theme.
More of a lament than a rant, but as Mother’s Day approaches, I feel entitled.
We took Wee Weasel to pick out a new bed today. He’s been in a toddler bed converted from a crib up until this point. Now he’s getting a full. With a space-themed bedding set. Monday they’re going to haul away the crib and replace it with an actual person-sized bed.
And… And he also got too big for his car seat, so tonight, we converted it into a booster seat.
I don’t have a baby any more.
I have a big boy.
When I was in college, I was in a play that used this as a joke. It got cut because it was too spicy. Maybe this is a sign that I should stop eating donuts. But they’re so delicious. 
It’s a conundrum.