My friend G., a teaching colleague from Europe, has quickly become American by shopping regularly at Wal-Mart. We went there yesterday to pick up some groceries. I have avoided shopping at Wal-Mart since January 2006 as a New Year's Resolution. But I went inside to see how things are, and how they're priced.

First of all, you'll notice that very few prices end in 0, 5, or 9 unless it's on rollback. These are the values that other stores normally use, and Wal-Mart is too special for that. You're saving every cent possible by shopping here, after all.

So, if you are looking for a box of Kellogg's Mini-Wheats (Strawberry Delight), where's the best place to get them? I usually get them from Food Lion or Harris Teeter, where it costs about 3.29. Enter Wal-Mart, with its everyday low price: 3.12. Not bad...until you see that at Target, it's 2.89. When it's not on sale! The lineups are also shorter at Target.

A box of Michelina's pasta dinners costs $1 at the grocery store, but .96 at Wal-Mart! A box of Stouffer's Corner Bistro paninis is 2.81; not 2.80, because, good heavens, that might cut into profit margins.

The truth is I find shopping at Wal-Mart with its penny-pinching pricing strategy not worth the additional time spent waiting in line at the checkout.

I was in Graham on Thursday, visiting with some of my host's relatives. We passed through five counties to get there. Add that to the eleven I passed through the day before and that's quite an adventure. Since I'm leaving N.C. in less than a week, I became ambitious and decided to make a list of all the counties that I have passed through during my time here (in alphabetical order):

Alamance (Burlington, Graham), Anson, Bladen, Brunswick (Sunset Beach), Buncombe, Burke, Cabarrus, Catawba, Chatham, Columbus, Cumberland (Fayetteville, Hope Mills), Currituck (Corolla), Dare (Kill Devil Hills), Davie, Durham (Durham), Edgecombe, Forsyth, Guilford (Greensboro), Halifax, Harnett (Raven Rock State Park), Haywood, Hoke (Raeford!), Iredell, Jackson (Cullowhee), Johnston, Lee, McDowell, Martin, Mecklenburg (Charlotte, Huntersville), Montgomery, Moore (Aberdeen, Pinehurst, Southern Pines), Nash, New Hanover (Carolina Beach, Wilmington), Northampton, Orange (Chapel Hill), Randolph, Richmond, Robeson (Pembroke), Scotland (Laurinburg, Wagram), Tyrrell, Union, Wake (Cary, Raleigh), Washington, Wilson

bold type denotes endpoints of trips I have made
That is 44 counties out of 100.

A couple of posts back, I mentioned having great plans for the FICA tax refund.

I went to Kill Devil Hills, N.C. with a colleague for a couple of days. It was a 250+ mile drive from Raeford, with a stop in Hope Mills to pick up said colleague. North on I-95, and east on U.S. 64 (which begins as a four-lane divided highway with controlled intersections, and eventually downgrades to a two-lane undivided highway with no shoulders). There are two long bridges to cross, one across the Alligator River, and the other across Croatan Sound.

First, I had my seafood fix there: crab, scallops and oysters. We stayed at a beachfront hotel (with no ocean view, since it was on the first floor) that cost over $150/night. For breakfast, I had a waffle that I made myself with a self-serve waffle maker.

You can tell whether someone is a local by looking at their license plate. The three letters begin with OBX (for the Outer Banks).

I got my first sunburn in a year, but the very next day there was a downpour. I got my car stuck in Corolla (pronounced co-RALL-a), where N.C. 12 ends and becomes a beach access road, where you can't get very far without a 4x4, since it's all sand. A truck with Pennsylvania tags helped pull us out, which happened just before the storm came.

The Wright Brothers national memorial was a nice place to see the "birthplace of aviation"...or is that Ohio?

The First Flight High School (yes, this is a N.C. public school) in Kill Devil Hills puts Hoke County High School to shame.

By the end of the trip, my friend realizes that we spent way too much money and doesn't know how he'll come up with rent for next month...but that's another story.

Hey Samantha,

Welcome to North Carolina. You are going to enjoy the weather, and the hospitality of the folks down here. But don't forget where you grew up (knowing you, you probably won't).

Love,
King

Yesterday I went to the Finance Officer at the board of education and filled out a form requesting a refund of the FICA/Social Security taxes (7.65% of gross salary) that I paid since the beginning of this year (over $1,000). Because I am leaving before 183 days of the third calendar year (2007) have passed, I am eligible for the refund, so long as I promise not to return to the United States for the rest of the year. Hopefully the money will be deposited within a week. I have some great plans for it.

I was in Fayetteville today, and decided to stop at Target to get an iced tea from the Starbucks inside. Black passion tea, sweetened.

I parked next to a Honda, with the car idling, and a boy sitting alone inside playing a video game (with the air conditioning on, I imagine). Fifteen minutes later (after a bit of browsing inside the store), I returned to see the car still there, idling, the kid still entertaining himself. Okay, so you have a fuel-efficient vehicle, and it might be 90ºF outside, but that still doesn't excuse you from contributing to global warming needlessly. Leave your kid at home, he looks old enough to take care of himself.

Some storm named Barry decided to drop by this weekend, thereby spoiling all weekend vacation plans.