Gotta love Dollar General

It was a late spring and and a much awaited Easter, and I wanted to make the Easter baskets more meaningful this year. Fewer plastic eggs, less candy: more necessary, useful stuff that will last. So I took a trip to Dollar General.

This no-frills store is a staple of mine. I buy detergents, trash bags, greeting cards and personal products here at rock bottom prices. Sure, they had plenty of chocolate bunnies and plastic grass here, but I had a pleasant brainstorm.

I found colorful plastic shower totes with handles, that were the size of large pails. Cheery and sturdy, they would make good storage containers after the holiday, in a way that more fragile woven baskets would not. I put some colorful Easter grass in the bottoms of these.

I picked an eclectic mix of surprises: a small bag of Doritos, blue Gatorade, a DVD movie. Hair accessories for the girls - barrettes, coated rubber bands, clips and ribbons. Nail clippers, tweezers, lip gloss, fingernail files. A couple of pieces of jewelry to accent an Easter dress. A little bit of good chocolate candy, but with all the other surprises, I didn't have to load up on the "bad" candy.

We also picked out special cards to tell the children what special Easter gifts they were to us. It was nice to tell them that again, and have fun with little gifts away from the madhouse of the Christmas season. No one was expecting as much, so it was fun to do it then. Dollar General made all of this more affordable. I like the simple approach of this store. Some of these stores haven't kept up as well, and have junkier inventories, but the one I go to is well kept and clean. One thing I like is the two charities the corporation supports - one for literacy, and Autism Speaks. Good causes, both.

The kids had hunted eggs on Palm Sunday, so I didn't hide any this time. They had some fun with Silly Putty - remember when we were told to press it down on the Sunday comics, to copy a picture? Then it was possible to stretch the pictures out and make them even funnier. Silly Putty, in its egg-shaped container, was a good fit with the Easter theme.

The kids had dyed eggs at school, so that had been done also. I love when they bring home milk-carton craft bunnies and edible Easter scenes. Marshmallow Peeps, pastel candy corn - what is wrong with me? Maybe it's time to cook a nice roast. Leave the candy to the kids. It all brings back memories though, of innocent Easters long ago. Bonnets, and families in their Sunday best. Nothing wrong with that.

New things in vending machines

I'm fascinated by what I've seen in vending machines lately.

I already blogged about Red Box, the DVD vendor. Now I'm finding new products in machines in lots of other places, including the one you see on the right - a proactiv skin care dispenser.

I've seen this line of cosmetics advertised heavily on television, aggressive marketed with celebrity endorsements. We've all seen mall kiosk booths with humans selling products, but this automatic job is in the middle of Glenbrook Square Mall, Fort Wayne - really?

I don't use this product but I took a look at it in the machine, and scrolled through the on-screen menu. Their "30-day-trial" of three samples of a small amount of the basic product
was $30. Just swipe your credit card. Prices go up from there.

I'm just surprised the other mall tenants don't complain about these vending boxes. It seems like competition to stores with employees, but maybe they don't care, it serves different markets. Maybe this is how they do it in Japan.

There was another one I actually used lately, and was delighted to have found. It was for Clinique products, which I love. It was in a terminal of the Dallas/Fort Worth Airport. I was shocked to stumble across it.

Where else do you see high-end makeup products neatly lined up in a vending machine? I always felt the human touch was something Estee Lauder Co. pushed hard for Clinique - well- trained, well-groomed counter staff. Good at selling. Has its branding so helped the line's reputation it can sell on autopilot in a faceless machine? Very interesting.

I really like the Dallas airport, by the way. My favorite thing is the Skylink High Speed Train that connects the five terminals - most rides only take an average of five minutes. I like it much more than those diesel buses or long-distance hoofing it.

I also like DFW's many personal care features, including the Samsung Mobile Power Lounge, with lots of oversized leather lounge chairs and ottomans. It is such a welcome change during a connection, rather than those awful, welded-together airport chairs. Tons of people go in the area to charge their phones and devices.

But back to Clinique. I took out my credit card and bought a box of my favorite product - their Dramatically Different Moisturizer. Sometimes I'll buy something other than this, but I was out, and I really love it. It's just the right chemical compound for my freckled skin, and to each her own. Too bad this one doesn't have SPF. I also like their make-up products. Remember their classic bar soap, that came with the green sliding soap case? Didn't every teenager want that product? It is a quality line, in my mind.

What else is going to be coming out in a vending machine? I can't wait to see.

The Best Years of our Lives

Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden, wives of our nation's President and Vice-President, have been touring the country talking about the focus of their charitable cause: lay-citizen support of military families, and making us all more aware of the sacrifices they make.

These families experience many challenges while their loved ones are away on deployment in military service. They face single parent struggles financially, the challenges of parenting children alone, loneliness, and other stresses. Meanwhile, their spouse may be endangering his or her life in the defense of our freedoms. Many of us don't know lots of military families, unlike in some of the previous wars of this nation, in which most families had one member or another serving.

Seeing the First (and Second) ladies on their press junket reminded me of the movie "The Best Years of Our Lives," in which three men return from the hardships of World War II and face the challenges of assimilation back into society. Released just after the end of World War II, it won seven Oscars and dealt with themes that ring true today, in which servicemen and women struggle to find their places again once they return home.

So many of the themes are the same - soldiers with limbs blown off, trying to rehabilitate. In this movie, the real actor lost his hands in the war and had learned to manage with hook prosthetics. Homer lights a cigarette, shoots targets with a rifle, takes piano lessons, and delicately scoops ice cream with a spoon at an old fashioned soda fountain.

There is even anti-war sentiment: not in hippie garb, but in regular suit clothing. A man feeling sorry for the hook-armed sailor tells him the United States shouldn't have entered the war. The sailor is told he lost his arms for a less-than-noble cause. The debates about going to war are nothing new.

We see PTSD - although no one calls it that, of course. The airman Fred has nightmares and sweats, dreaming of being shot down, bullets and planes crashing, men on fire. His wife tells him to "snap out of it," get on with the business of living. If only he could.

But let us not hate the people we fight. The anti-racial remarks, against Asians or people of Arabian decent, is very old in this country. Here, the line is "last year we were killing Japs. This year it's about making money." I've heard the same things from men in other wars, such as those who fought in Vietnam. Many things, including types of food from the foreign countries, were of no interest to these veterans.

There is also the generation gap, in which the devoted teenage son has trouble becoming excited about the Samurai sword his father has carried home. He's more concerned that if another war begins, "everyone will just be blown to bits the first day." Such was the legacy of our post-war baby boomers.

The real-life double amputee in this movie, Harold Russell, is wonderful, and carries the movie. Myrna Loy is so poised and classy, a real lady: a standout in Hollywood. But to be honest the acting is sometimes overdone, the dialogue or screenwriting not completely natural. Hoagy Carmichael, the songwriter, is actually a good actor here, and plays the piano.

Mrs. Obama and Dr. Biden are right. We need to think about and support our military families in any way we can. Maybe base housing segregates them too much from other families, I don't know. We can't ignore the sacrifices they make. And we don't seem to be any closer to putting an end to all wars.

That One Place on One

It's not easy to find a good restaurant around tiny Leo, Indiana, but I was impressed with the new menu from "That One Place." Someone couldn't help but make a play on words here. It's the latest name for the restaurant on the curve at Highway 1 and the Imagination Station in Cedarville (officially Leo-Cedarville). It's changed ownership several times in the past few years, despite its good location, so hopefully the economic climate won't get in the way of "That One Place" staying open.

A very casual, sporty place, with a couple of large flat TVs for watching games, and a spare amount of local, area sports memorabilia - but not cluttered with that kind of stuff everywhere. Warm pine-cabin logs and bench-booth seating - good-looking but my back and seat became really sore - easy to clean, I suppose, but most of us would rather have a little padding. Especially considering most of the morning clientele was folks 50 and over.

The food, though, was excellent - I had scrambled eggs and links. The potatoes were American fries, I'd call them, rather than shredded hash browns; but browned and crispy, and I'm picky. The toast was good - grilled, I suppose; crunchy and soft, great texture.

There are a lot of different dishes on this menu. Crepes, waffles, pancakes. I saw several patrons eating pancakes - it must be the thing. Egg dishes, omelets, skillets. Biscuits and gravy. This much selection is unusual for Leo, and I hope they get enough customers to keep the menu choices going. I think the locals still have no idea what they offer here now.

On Hosler Road in Leo is a small buffalo farm. (The farm is small, not the buffaloes.) Anyway, these nice folks raise and sell their buffalo meat, and some of it winds up on this restaurant's menu as buffalo burgers. I do like the "act local" approach to the offering, as I know their ranch is very cute, clean and organic.

The menu has a few "Leo" items - one is a taco meat omelet - sounds good with beans, onions, green peppers, tomatoes and cheese. The only connection I can make is vague on my part. All I've got is that Leo schools are famous for serving the kids a lunchtime "walking taco" - a single serving bag of chips, such as Fritos or even Doritos - into which is dumped taco meat and ingredients, and one eats it from the bag with a fork. I actually like this, but would never dare to serve it at home - sans plate. It tastes good though, and the kids like it. Don't know what made me think of that, but that's the only "Leo taco" I've got.

There is also a Leo Burger, which the menu reports to have a cheddar cheese skirt. So - I guess it looks like a cheeseburger cheerleader? Your guess is as good as mine.

Wrap sandwiches, salads, pasta. I think I have seen more cars here for lunch and dinner, and I've seen regular 'specials nights' advertised, seemingly a routine for the after-sports gathering place for local families. They have lots of pies advertised, and displayed in a nice case - they are trying hard. Cute fancy cupcakes were decorated uniquely and tempted me as I walked by. If you walked around the block in this neighborhood, you'd see the old boat ramp by the spillway and the dam at the St. Joe reservoir, and the oldish church by the river - lots of walnut trees, squirrels, and oaks on this corner. The Imagination Station playground across the street is famous. Built by volunteers and designed by locals, buses come from Fort Wayne and all around to bring kids here to climb and play.

Nothing fancy, with small town wait staff, and good looking pies. Go try "That One Place." I give it a thumbs up.