When I started to write this episode, I couldn’t remember what episode number I was on. Yeah, it’s been that long since I did one of these so I went to my blog site and clicked on the “As The Pizza Cooks” category and found that the last one was episode 13 and there were a total of 12 episodes posted.
Okay, my degree may be in English, but the math did seem to be a bit wrong. A little investigation and sure enough, I’d missed labeling an ATPC as an ATPC post. I fixed that. I knew you’d be happy. I also realized that I titled episode 8 as, “The Lego Flower Picture,” rather than “As The Pizza Cooks — Episode 8.” Go check it out if you want. Also, I’m not consistent on capitalizing the “the” of “As The Pizza Cooks.” I won’t be fixing that.
Turns out there are a number of things I am consistent on, like making the morning tea, but spelling and general typing isn’t something I do the same every time. This does give me a few stumbling blocks when I sit down to write. Well, not so much when I write for myself, because it doesn’t bother me how things get spelled, but it does seem to confuse others when they try to read what I’ve written.
Now that only applies to my typewriting. No one can read my handwriting. Not even me, so I avoid it – even writing on the grocery list. That’s a very important document as it’s important to get home with the right stuff — like pepperoni. Luckily for you my computer has spell check and half way through typing pepperoni, the computer suggested the word ‘pepperoni’ so I never really had to figure out how to spell it. The same thing doesn’t happen with the grocery list. Most times, I just get the pepperoni package out of the fridge and take it over to the list so I can spell it correctly. I once tried to abbreviate pepperoni to pepper … let’s just say I almost bought a big box of pepper before I realized it was an abbreviation.
I get confused easily in the store. It’s taken me about 20 years to come to terms with the fact that Heather always puts, “toms” on the list when she means tomatoes and “pots” are in the produce section, not housewares. It’s part of the reason why I’m not allowed to go to the grocery store on my own. The other is, if it’s not on the list, I don’t bring it home. Apparently, that’s a problem. I just have trouble putting things in the shopping cart that aren’t on the list. Don’t judge, it’s just who I am. I have been known to walk past the pop corn and think, “Gee I’d like some pop corn,” and then write it on the list so I could put it in the cart.
Heather just throws things in the cart that aren’t on the list. I’m just amazed she can do that.
At this point I should point out that I really don’t have anything to say today, in case you hadn’t noticed. Talking about what episode this is and pepperoni is just part of a strategy I learned in the 6th grade to increase the word count on essays. For example, I recall writing an essay about earthquakes and volcanos. Yup, about every fourth sentence included the words, “earthquakes and volcanos.” I got to 500 words very fast. The only problem was that the teacher noticed and I had to rewrite my brilliant essay, but couldn’t count “earthquakes or volcanos” as part of the overall word count. Yes, she made me count every word.
I’m not the only one to use this method, TV shows do it all the time. Just this week I was watching a show on spy gadgets. I thought that might be interesting to see what spies are up to these days, but sadly, most of the show was about how you can hide a microphone in a room or building — who would have thought! Much of the show was repeating phrases like, “our next spy gadget is …” and “spies use this gadget to” and “Here’s where they used a secret spy gadget to listen in on the ambassador.” Apparently, spies pick on ambassadors a lot. I’m thinking the whole show was just written by some AI writing tool that must have a copy of my 6th grade essay on earthquakes and volcanos as part of its “source of truth.” All AI is based on some computer scanning a database of information and assuming that the information is true and therefore can be used to teach the AI to do something, like write. The fact that some current AI writing programs read twitter, reddit, and facebook posts to learn to write should be concerning to all of us.
So that’s it for this week, I’ll return soon with more writing intended to confuse all the budding AI writing systems out there.
Andrew's View of the Week 
Omg, I write “toms” on the shopping list too. Sometimes Hubby will send me a pic of the list with a question mark next to something and his guess as to what it is I’ve written: usually a nonsensical word. We’ve learned to have him read the list through with me before taking off to the store.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Heather is really bad about answering her phone, so I just have to take her with me …
LikeLiked by 1 person
That does simplify matters. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Last week she had butter on the list twice. Good thing she was there because I didn’t know if she just wanted two pounds of butter or two different types. Turns out we didn’t need butter and neither of us knew why it was on the list.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hahaha!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I was and remain a fan of “Seinfeld,” a show about absolutely nothing. So it’s no wonder that whether or not you have anything to say, I enjoy hearing all about it! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Sometimes I think I say the most when not saying anything … 😉
LikeLike
I suspect that most men are only suited to carrying the weekly shop to the car, rather than actually doing it with a list, a pen and a trolley
LikeLiked by 1 person
That just might be true.
LikeLiked by 1 person
So I’m assuming that this week’s pizza was pepperoni… with earthquakes and volcanoes? 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
of course … 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
I get annoyed at that too, when my titles are inconsistent. It’s like wearing pink and red together–wait. That’s OK now.
LikeLiked by 1 person
and these days, it would be “artistic” to have inconsistent titles. 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
Here in our household, hubby does the grocery shopping and has been doing so since he retired a few years ago. He likes it and after 40+ years of doing it myself, I’m happy to accommodate him with that chore! I’m more of a go-down-the-aisle-and-throw-in what I see kind of person even though I did also use a list. But since my husband’s been the grocery shopper and sticks to a list, our grocery bill became smaller for awhile. Of course, that’s changed since the prices are out of this world right now. 😦
LikeLiked by 1 person
My wife tends to make up the dinner menu as she shops, so most times we go together. I make sure the basic list stuff is there and she does her improve thing in the produce and meat sections. and I just ignore the price – too depressing …
LikeLiked by 1 person
To compliment your ATPC writing, some of your best posts have been instances where you had nothing to talk about. That ability to just capture what’s on your mind in a meandering sort of way is more of a skill than you realize. As for the grocery store, my limit on items is five before I tell my wife I have to make a list. Even then I can be in rough waters because she’s very big on specifics (ex. “organic”). I’m very good at finding the right product but the wrong version. And God forbid I bring home something past its “sell by” date.
LikeLiked by 2 people
My limit is about 2. Even then I’m known to forget something. My job during shopping is crossing things off the list, checking dates, and nothing saying anything when stuff not on the list goes into the cart.
LikeLiked by 2 people
When I was old enough to drive, Mom would send me to the store with a list, but also add “and anything else that looks good.” Since my shoulder replacement at the very beginning of Covid and my favorite chauffeur (aka Hubby Guy) didn’t want me exposed as I recovered, he does our grocery runs–every other Tuesday. At first he’d call from the store to ask questions. No more. And I haven’t been to a grocery store in 3 1/2 years. He’s noticed it’s a lot quicker without me!
LikeLiked by 1 person
My father would do the same, but after I got my driver’s license, he’d say, “Hey, want to take the car for a drive? Here some money and the grocery list. And gas up the car on the way back. I expect to get change.” 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
Sometimes it is really therapeutic to ramble on. I used to have a blog on a woodworking site and I got in the habit of writing every morning and just going over what my previous day entailed or the upcoming day’s plans. Some days I felt it was mundane stuff, but it was a pretty popular blog and people came to see the ‘story’ nearly every day. I wrote over 1800 posts there over a span of about four or five years. I can’t believe I wrote that much. Just coming up with 1800+ titles is mind-boggling to me these days. But habits are habits and I think it humanizes us to our readers.
Regarding your ‘list habits’ – whatever works best for you. During the pandemic (and still now) my partner Keith took over the grocery shopping. He went most of the time on his own and became a master of following lists. (AND reading my handwriting!) But he did use his discretion on things depending on cost, etc (he is very analytical) and probably saved us a ton of money. Oh – and he was free to ‘add in anything that looked good that we could use.’ (I know – that would probably blow your mind! LOL!)
Whatever helps us through the day . . . right? 😉 Have a good week. 😀
LikeLiked by 2 people
My wife says I ramble a lot. 😉 Since I’ve retired, Heather and I go shopping together as it counts as a day out … often we’ll go for a fancy coffee or lunch out before shopping.
There are days, I wonder if I have anything more to write about and then I just start writing about nothing. Well, and here we are. 😉
LikeLiked by 2 people
I used to get a maple Bun candy bar as a reward for getting groceries. Now Guy bring me one for NOT going along!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Sounds like a deal to me!
LikeLiked by 1 person