Costco before a hurricane is a bit crazy

Today is my rotating day off, and I have nothing else planned so I was prepared to spend some quality time standing in lines at Costco.

I was a little worried when I saw the lines of people with carts full of water that I was a little late to the party, especially when I couldn't find the water. I finally tracked it down as they were restocking it in the back. Once I had my water, I was able to browse the canned goods at a more leisurely pace.

Costco is a good place to people watch. I was standing in the line to get some pizza for lunch. Behind me a girl told her Mom that she wanted a piece of cheese pizza. Her mother responded, with a cool African accent, the following:

"Cheese pizza? What have you bought with that? Nothing. All pizza comes with cheese. If you don't get pizza with something on it you are just wasting money, so if you want pizza you'll get one with pepperoni or that other stuff on it."

It really struck me because 1: she was right, and 2: I would never have thought of it that way.

Both the little girl and I got pepperoni pizza for lunch.

Earthquake in Virginia?

I was working in the lab when there was this loud rumble and the building started shaking. My first thought was that they must be blowing up something big on the demolition field, but the building started rolling and I knew it was an earthquake.

I went through a pretty bad earthquake in California, so I was one of the few who knew what was happening. Its probably good, because the two techs who were with me had no idea what was going on. We were in an aisle with giant superglue cabinets so I was like "Earthquake! Get to the door!" I helped hurry them along, since I was the farthest in and right next to a window, and didn't want to get squished.

Nothing fell or broke however. They made us evacuate until the building could be inspected, so we got to spend an hour baking outside.

Once we got the all clear, they let us back in, but everyone was pretty much fried, and worried about their homes and families so they let us go early. I was a little worried about my house, but when I got home everything was fine. My garbage can didn't even tip over.

My friends in Fredericksburg said that some of their stuff had tipped over or fallen off the walls, but nothing serious.