That problem stems in part from a concept called, IIRC, “product groups”.
Say you have an ice cream factory. You know (either based on figures from previous years or on the crystal ball of your Head of Marketing) that 30% of your sales are chocolate ice cream, 10% vanilla, 20% strawberry and so forth.
Instead of making and selling them independently, you create your production orders in such a way that you always make all your products in exactly those ratios, and you always sell them as packs: supermarkets in a vanilloholic area can’t order a full truck of vanilla ice cream, they must order the “pack” and that contains 10% vanilla. So, people who live in vanilloholic areas complain about the lack of vanilla while supermarket owners don’t want to order again so long as they have yards of unexpired other-flavored ice creams; chocoholics in a different area can find nothing but strawberry, and the nougatoholics cringe at the sight of fridges full of chocolate. And, whether they come from studies from previous years or from a crystal ball whose antenna needed adjusting, the ratios only get adjusted when your brand comes up with a new variety of ice cream.
It’s the strategy Nestle uses for their mousses and La Lechera for their glass-pot-shouldn’t-have-it-dairy-desserts in Spain… and it’s fucking stupid! I still have to see a supermarket where Lemon mousse sells half as fast as Chocolate, which actually gets time to sit on the shelf unlike Coffee You know it’s time for the new batch to arrive when there’s nothing but Lemon left. I’ve witnessed people standing at the till’s line catch sight of an employee with a pullcart loaded with mousse boxes, leave their spot and go harrying after the employee until she opened the box of Coffee mousse and the customer could grab the holey-coffey goodness… but does Nestle increase the ratio of Coffee? Of course not! BLOODY MORONS!.. for the glass-pot La Lecheras it’s trufa that flies away, and the idiots keep introducing other flavors - less exotic crap and more chocolate, you imbeciles!
Excuse me, I think I need to go get my rabies shots…
And take mine with you. I took the ibuprofen an hour ago and I’m still in serious ouch mode. I swear my damned uterus must have enjoyed giving birth because it keeps trying to recreate the experience complete with cramps that make me think epidural STAT!
TMI, But I know the one aunt (who is in her sixties) is a virgin. How do I know this? Because they were talking about missed opportunities, and my aunt turned to me and with the most godawful serious look on her face said,
“You don’t think I wanted to do the sex thing! I wanted to do the sex, too! I never got a chance! This body is going uncracked to its Maker!”
All in fucking village Punjabi. I managed to nod sagely, made it to the bathroom, and fucking lost it. I had to hide my face in a towel so they wouldn’t hear me laughing.
The other one…it gets complicated, but I know that she doesn’t like sex. How do I know this? Because,
yes,
she discusses it with the other aunt. IN MY EARSHOT. I’m wishing for the days when they thought me too young to hear such things!
Sorry, had to cut my post short, lunch was over. No, sad to say it didn’t come back. Went from a few bad files to completely dead in a matter of days. Fortunately I had backed up my music files not too long before that, so I only lost a couple songs.
I did buy another Sansa to replace it, no problems so far but I’m watching it like a hawk!
AGH! Stupid design-flawed frying pan! I now have a nice burn on my index finger of my right hand, just before I’m off to go carve a bunch of pumpkins.
My frying pan has a nice dent in it now, too, where I dropped it on the floor. Thank God for laminate flooring, though - of the three of us, it’s the only one that came out of this unscathed.
'Mika, if your sex-hating aunt hasn’t talked your virgin aunt completely out of wanting to do the sex thing (omg her phrasing is awesome) then she needs to get herself onto the internet, stat. I worked at {very large online dating site} for a few years and routinely saw folks in their eighties - widow(er)s, mostly - dating around, meeting new partners, getting re-married, and, yes, hooking up.
Though I’m sure they called it something more genteel.
Yes, I understand that the cost of veterinary care has risen in the past year. I’m not surprised that the rate for Lil Miss Rowdy is set to rise because, to be honest, the dog has GI tract set to “auto-destruct”. If she’s not trying to eat razor blades, lancets, or cigarette butts, she refuses to eat normal dog food until Mom and I are both freaked that she’s going to die. So, yes, she’s had her fair share of vet visits.
But fucking DOUBLING the premium?
The reason I got the damn insurance to begin with was because I didn’t want my mom to put the dog down if she got seriously ill and the vet bills were too expensive. Well, Mom and Dad are both so emotionally attached to the dog, they’ll put me down first to cut down on expenses, and other than the dogs habit of eating hazardous substances - which has declined steeply in the past year - she’s the picture of health.
My apartment complex has a community center which is locked at night, but supposed to be open to residents 24-hours a day with a keyfob. I, working the night shift, like to work out between 2-5am on my days off because that’s when I get the bulk of my energy and because the room is quiet with no one else around. Tonight, I was all amped up and ready to go workout on the elliptical machine (cardio day) and what do I find, but they’ve replaced the door fob reader devices—and now neither my or my former roommate’s fobs work to get into the damned building. And of course, no notice that they were changing things from the office. grumble
'Mika, considering some of the TMI I’ve got on my parents, grandparents and several sets of uncles, I think I can say “I feel your pain”.
Dunnow, recent information on people (re)marrying at an advanced age has led to a slew of “personal interest articles” in Spanish newspapers and TV and neither the reporters nor the people themselves bother much with genteelness. A problem with being someone under 60 who enjoys ballroom dancing is that the places dedicated to the genre are the hookup locales of the over-60 crowd… and both the gents and ladies will swoop on anybody under 60 who makes the mistake of entering the place I once had to walk into one of those to call my aunt and uncle out, and I was a mere 25; never felt more like a slab of meat in my life
She’s on the Internets. Getting married (because she will never hook up outside of marriage; there’s history to this) is a complicated thing for her. I don’t even know if it’s occured to her! But she could never put up with a man, nor could a man put up with her. And besides, they come as a pair - they will never live apart.
Ah yes, I’ve come up against this before. In my case, I was griping to the owner/buyer about the range of sizes that we got in each clothing store. We’d get something like 1 each of 16, 18, and 24, and we’d get 2 each of 20 and 22. The thing is, we’d never sell the 16s or 18s, and the 24s would fly out the door. This is because there were other shops in town that also sold 16s and 18s, but very few of them went up to 24. If we had been able to buy about 3 24s to every 16, we’d probably STILL run out of the 24s first, but we could have sold more merchandise and had fewer leftovers hanging around the store.
Now, possibly the pack is great when you’re first stocking a store. But it’s not so great if there’s a clear pattern of preference, whether it’s an individual store or globally.
ARGHHHH! It took me months to find a set of in ear headphones that I could tolerate. Today when getting off the treadmill I got the wire caught and it pulled the earplug out at an odd angle - leaving the silicone part still in my ear.
Luckily my daughter was home today because there is no way I could have removed that myself. It seems to be securely back together but now I’m a little concerned about using them again. Ugh, other headphones gather sweat and I do not need any excuses to skip treadmill time!
Seriously!?!??! I have been on ambien for the past month for insomnia that I’ve had since January. It got really bad to where I went two and a half weeks only getting 2-3 hrs every night, so I finally said enough is enough and went to the doctor. She diagnosed me with insomnia, depression, and anxiety. Gave me ambien and anti-anxiety drugs. I’m only taking the ambien, because the reason I can’t deal with depression is not sleeping, and my anxiety comes from post-acute withdrawals. I’m afraid of taking pills because I’m still going through the effects of abusing adderall for 8 months. Yes, I was a fucking idiot, I know. Trust me, the side effects were more than enough to make me aware of that for the rest of my life. Not just the physical symptoms, like shaking, night sweats, incoherent thoughts, and memory loss, other TMI’s; but worse, ultimately, the pyschotic mess I still am today. Granted, its been 5 months since I quit, but I still have days where I just can’t stop my paranoid hallucinations. I’m in college, just dropped to below full time student yesterday because I failed my genetics test and there was no way I could make it back to passing. Haven’t told my parents, they’ll flip. Even though, this is all irritating, I got to say the thing that made me post today is that every time I go to the doc for ambien, she gives me 5 refills, and so far, EVERY time I have gone to get a refill, they have said my prescription is cancelled. So i have to go to the doc, again, and get it refilled. Seriously!? Why give me refills if you’re just gonna do that shit to me?!
Slide in the Mud, it might be a disconnect between what the doctor’s office says and what the rules at the pharmacy are. Ambien is one of those often-forged prescriptions they have to watch out for. I dunno what the actual law type rules are on it, but I think some pharms are extra-wary and might not actually allow refills… and who know, maybe they don’t want to tell you that’s what their policy is, if it is.
FWIW, Ambien and me are so not friends. I’ve had it prescribed to me a couple of times, but it turns out I’m one of those people who go all weird on it, waking up in the middle of the night to do obsessive things and later having no memory of any of it. I’ve never tried driving that I know of, which is the classic horror story with Ambien, but I have made chicken soup from scratch, starting with a leftover chicken carcass and finishing with a fridge’s worth of tasty vegetables, but neglecting to strain the bones out at any stage; and scrubbing the bathroom tub loudly and vigorously over my poor husband’s requests that I please go back to sleep. I really hope you are not like me, but do me a favor and watch out for it?
You know it’s time for the new batch to arrive when there’s nothing but Lemon left. I’ve witnessed people standing at the till’s line catch sight of an employee with a pullcart loaded with mousse boxes, leave their spot and go harrying after the employee until she opened the box of Coffee mousse and the customer could grab the holey-coffey goodness… but does Nestle increase the ratio of Coffee? Of course not! BLOODY MORONS!.. for the glass-pot La Lecheras it’s trufa that flies away, and the idiots keep introducing other flavors - less exotic crap and more chocolate, you imbeciles!