Some Links

Legends, and problems, of Oz. A nice MetaFilter post that sums up a lot of the history behind the recent movie.

Comics that can help you understand mental illness. Personally, Hyperbole and a Half definitely hit me hard.

Eight pseudo-scientific climate claims debunked. Of course, anyone who doesn't accept the reality of climate change isn't going to change their mind based on what science says because such people are probably too stupid to understand science anyways.

New Usagi Yojimbo... just tell me which is the new stuff and I'll go get it.

McDonald's Hot Coffee Lawsuit: deliberate, corporatist urban legend. In short, it's been distorted and joked about to the point that people don't even know what really happened.

After Mrs. Liebeck bought her coffee and breakfast, her grandson, who was driving, pulled over so she could add cream and sugar to her coffee. Since his Ford Probe had no cupholders, she placed the cup between her legs. When she fumbled with the lid and spilled the coffee on her sweatpants, she began to scream.

“All I remember is trying to get out of the car,” Liebeck later related. “I knew I was in terrible pain.” She went into shock and her grandson rushed her to the emergency room, where she would undergo surgery and receive skin grafts. She had third degree burns on 6% of her body; the pictures of her injuries are shocking.

...

Liebeck spent a week in the hospital, amassing hospital bills of $10,000.

Still, Liebeck did not sue. Her family wrote a letter to McDonalds asking them to pay her hospital bills and check whether its coffee machine was faulty. McDonalds rebuffed them, offering $800, so they found a lawyer. But even the outcome of the lawsuit -- a $2.9 million verdict that people saw as Liebeck hitting the jackpot -- was a fiction.

...

The jury decided to award Liebeck $200,000 -- less than the $300,000 recommended by a mediator in a settlement that McDonalds rejected before trial. The jury, however, decided Liebeck was 20% at fault since she spilled the coffee, so they gave her $160,000. In addition, they awarded her around $2.7 million (two days of McDonalds coffee revenue) in punitive damages. In civil cases, since there are no criminal sentences, punitive damages exist to ensure companies change their behavior. The judge reduced the punitive damages to $480,000, for a total of $640,000. McDonalds appealed and later settled out of court for an undisclosed amount believed to be between $400,000 and $600,000.

Getting The Happy Meal Toy You Want Without Buying A Happy Meal

If you are like me, you cannot stomach McDonalds food product any more. I could handle it as a kid, but nowadays I rarely eat it, and never feel very good about it when I do. So when I heard they were doing a Young Justice Happy Meal promotion, I thought, "Great, I'm gonna have to eat mung again." However, I held out one shred of hope. In the past, I've managed to get the Wizard of Oz Happy Meal toys without too much effort. In fact, the last time they had them, hubby-Eric and I were able to get all the toys in one visit. Now I'm going to explain how we did it, so you can do it too if you want.

1) Do your research. Make sure the toys you want are in the current rotation. Check happymeal.com for the latest information. But don't rely on them, instead, go to step two if you think they are in and...

2) Call the store(s) you plan to visit and ask them if they have the line you are looking for. If you are looking for an individual figure, like I was, you still want to ask about the entire line. For instance, I called my store and asked if they had the superhero Happy Meal toys, then when she didn't understand, I asked about the Young Justice toys, and she confirmed they were in. Update: I recommend not calling during a meal time. Wait until the store is likely to be quiet before you call. You are more likely to get an answer.

3) Make sure you go early in the promotion. Don't wait until the last week. If at all possible, go the first week the toys are out.

4) Go during a less busy time. The times vary depending on the store, but you are going to be taking up someone's valuable working time, so try to make sure you hit the store when it's not too busy.

5) Find or ask for a manager. The counter workers will usually not be able to help you with this request.

6) Ask specifically for the "Customer Satisfaction Box" for the line of toys you are looking for. There will be a box for each line, and most restaurants receive them sometime early in the promotion. Be polite, and if they have no idea what you are talking about, try to find another manager. You can also do this in step two, but you're going to have to ask in the store as well.

A Customer Satisfaction Box is a box that simply contains complete sets of all the toys in a Happy Meal promotion. It usually has anywhere between two to six complete sets along with extras of the most popular toys. It is meant to be used to satisfy customer requests, but not all stores use it that way. The reason you need to go early in the promotion is because each store only gets ONE box per line of toys, and if someone gets there before you, they may all be gone.

7) This is important: some stores will let you go through the box yourself, others will not even let you see it. Make sure you tell them clearly which figures you want. For instance, the Aqualad and Black Manta figures in the Young Justice set were figures 5 and 6, and both had the name on the wrapper, but it was hard to see. I also pointed them out on the display case to the assistant manager helping me.

8) Pay for your toys, and if they ask you to buy a meal, do so. Most stores will not require you to buy a meal to get the toys.

9) Be sure to thank everyone who helped you. This is also important. Don't be a snotty customer, give sincere thanks to the workers who just helped you out. Their duties do not require them to get that box for you, so you best be grateful if they do.

10) Go home and eat something healthy. This is an optional step.

UPDATE (May 23, 2014): I've noticed that this post is getting a lot of attention from various collector forums and such. Please let me know how you fared in getting the toys you wanted. A comment is very welcome, and I will read them because I've got the moderation on (so I get e-mail when you comment). I'm particularly interested to know if people are still finding the customer satisfaction boxes. Advice for others based on your own experiences is also welcome.

If you don't want to comment but find this useful, there's a little box called "feed my ego" at the bottom of the post. Check that so I know this post helped. Now, back to the previously published post...

Ok, now I've told you what I did, and yes, I managed to get both Aqualad and Black Manta very easily and almost utterly painlessly. I got in a couple of people's way (sorry fellow customers!) and the poor fellow the assistant manager sent back to find the box had to search a little (it took him a few minutes), but for the most part it was no big deal.


If I'd been thinking, I would have gotten two of each, but I barely had the cash to get one of each anyway. And I would LOVE to dissect these toys, as they are the first Happy Meal toys I've ever gotten that have an on/off switch because they light up. And while Aqualad's light-up arm tattoo is cool, Black Manta looks truly awe-inspiring with his light up eyes.

Links and Stuff

Comic Book Urban Legends Revealed #158: Neil Gaiman, Chris Claremont, John Byrne, Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Frank Miller, and Alan Moore. Yea, seven items instead of the usual three.

Man, I've always wanted to read Prince Valiant from the start, and now Fantagraphics is reprinting them. Maybe I should start requesting them from the library to make sure my library system buys them.

Cheyenne is back.

Take a look at 10 Star Wars posters from Japan. There are some visual treats in there, along with a couple of "What were they thinking?"

I don't care if people are sick of steampunk, I love the steampunk Dalek.

If you didn't catch all the internet references in Weezer's Pork and Beans video, the wikipedia article for the song now lists them, along with handy links to most of them so you can check out the originals.

Here's an amusing and short story. Very short.

Belief in the moon landing: how education can rid children of stupid anti-science views.

This is almost enough to make me eat at McDonalds. Almost.

Fox "News" equals gullible. Seriously, if they can't even do basic fact-checking, they don't deserve to call themselves a news channel. Only an entertainment channel would run a story as poorly-sourced as that one.

McCain would continue Bush's illegal wiretapping of US citizens.

Hey, there's a restaurant I won't go to, if only because the owner has to be a moron for not praising the employee and letting all his customers know about the wonderful thing she'd done for charity.

Guy pretends to be a Seattle Sonic. WHY? Eh, he can't be much worse at the game than the current players.

I really should collect all the examples of LOLCats theology.

Pug for the in-laws.

And lastly, if you have a few bucks and want to fight breast cancer, please donate to support us in the Race for the Cure: Laura Gjovaag, Eric Gjovaag, or Lisa Dunham (my suggested donation is $5 to each of us, if you have $15 to spare, or $5 to one of us (flip a 3-sided coin) if you're poor like me).

McDonald's of Oz, Part 6

Late this afternoon, a car pulled into my driveway and a good friend whom I haven't seen for several months came up to my door with a large plastic bag. J explained that his sister works at McD's, and had told him about the Wizard of Oz toys. J had immediately thought of Eric, and so his sister had pulled together a complete set of the toys for him. Just like that. As a gift to us.

Seriously, we have the BEST friends in the world.

McDonald's of Oz, Part 5

It started with Dorothy. Then we got Glinda and a bad bruise. Next came Witches and Lions. And finally a frantic hunt that led to one complete set, and another set almost complete.

Over the weekend, while my sister and I were at the Comicon, hubby-Eric went out for a McDonald's lunch and got himself another Glinda. He was hoping to find Toy #5, "Wicked Witch of the East", and complete the second full set. No such luck. I decided when I heard about his meal when I got home Saturday night that I would go to McDonald's once more sometime this week and find the final figure. It was my quest!

Monday morning, poor hubby-Eric was really sick. I spent some time during the day taking care of him, and decided not to go out for lunch for a variety of reasons. On Tuesday he was recovering, and although I ran a bunch of errands and such, an opportunity to go out to McD's didn't come up. Besides, I felt a bit woozy on Tuesday myself, and spent much of the day hoping I didn't have what Eric had.

I was beginning to think I did have it this morning, but a couple of hours of sleeping in banished the illness and I felt almost normal by midday. Good thing, too, as I had a number of errands I really needed to get done TODAY, including stuff for work and stuff for hobby. One of the things I didn't need to get done was a trip to the comic shop for new comics day, but I was feeling well enough that I headed out there anyway. Heck, I get to show off the sketchbooks on the Wednesday after a con at the comic shop, so it was fun. There were a couple of folks in the shop that had been at the con, and they both agreed that this year was a good one, with a very relaxed atmosphere. But I digress.

After visiting the comic shop, I decided to try the McDonald's near the shop where I had so much luck last time. I decided that if I found ol' East Witch, I would buy a Happy Meal to go with her... and EAT IT, too!

Again, the store was pretty much deserted when I entered, though the drive-through was insanely busy. No line, so I asked the cashier which Oz dolls they had. She had to get me to clarify which toys, as she was once again a person who had more Spanish than English. I followed her over to the toy bin and watched as she pulled out a Tin Man and something that had a flash of red. She held them out to me, and I grinned happily as I took La Bruja Mala Del Este, Toy #5, from her and said, "This is the one I wanted!"

I think my enthusiasm was a little catching, as she smiled back and it didn't look forced at all. I said I would buy a Happy Meal to go with the toy, which made her laugh, and got a burger, apple dippers, and a diet coke. She had no problem taking my order, and even remembered that I asked for no caramel for the dippers and no ice in my drink. Yes, I ate it (285 calories, 9 grams of fat).

Note to self: Whenever you need to go to McDonald's for a promotion, go to the Kenmore one FIRST. They seem to be the best in the area.

After returning home, I completed my work stuff and got a package ready for my hobby stuff. Then I walked down to the post office (165 calories spent) to mail it. Not quite enough exercise to offset the Happy Meal, but enough for the day, I think. I then sat down to write this and delay working on my next con report. Current tally: Two complete sets, plus an extra Glinda.

And hey, I don't care what hubby-Eric's April Fool's Day Joke says, this is it. We're done.

McDonald's of Oz, Part 4

I'm nothing if not persistent. I've been warned against being so persistent in the past, as it can be an incredibly annoying trait for people who have to deal with you. I really didn't know I'd be getting into a persistent mood today. But I get ahead of myself.

After a much-deserved break from the Oz doll hunting yesterday, I was determined to find another doll or two for Eric today. As it's also new comics day, I figured I would go visit the McD's near the comic shop after I got my comic books. Not a big deal. It involved some careful planning, as the traffic around there is irritating, but nothing too difficult.

And so I hit the comic shop at about 1 pm, chatted a bit with everyone about this weekend's convention (yay!) and then drove out to the McDonald's. There was no line, the place was in fact pretty dead. I explained that I was looking for the last four figures in the line, and the cashier went over to her manager, spoke a few rapid sentences in Spanish, then headed to the back. The manager, I later noticed, spoke perfect unaccented English as well as Spanish.

The cashier returned with a box. It had a bunch of the toys in it, but I suspected we weren't going to find anything I wanted, since all I could see on top were Glinda and Dorothy. Just as she set the box down, a woman came up with an unfinished salad in one hand and a couple of Oz toys in the other. She asked for a bag for the salad, then noticed the box. Suddenly I had competition!

I explained to my competition that I was trying to find two each of figures 5-8. She wasn't sure what she wanted, beyond getting a complete set. The cashier got a positively wonderful look of long-suffering on her face as we chatted, then she started going through the box.

The Scarecrow (#8) turned up first, then the Tin Man (#6). Lots of Dorothy and Glinda, and a few Wicked Witch of the West and Lions. Finally she pulled up a Wicked Witch of the East (#5) and that went into my pile. My competition was also getting one of each as they were pulled out. I got another Scarecrow, then a Daisy Munchkin (#7). I had a complete set! My competition completed her set moments later, then I finished my collecting with another Tin Man. That was it. We went through the box three more times. Nothing else.

I purchased the six dolls, thanked the cashier, and asked if they would be getting another box like that in. The manager, overhearing, said, "No, each store only gets one of those boxes." Hmmm. Food for thought. My receipt for the purchase reads 6 HAPPY TOY NO FOOD. Current tally: Two each of Dorothy, Glinda, Wicked Witch of the West, Cowardly Lion, Scarecrow, and Tin Man. One each of Wicked Witch of the East and Daisy Munchkin.

As I pulled out of the parking lot, I thought to myself that I'd done a great job. Heck, I had one complete set already!

But I am cursed with the inability to just leave well enough alone. As I drove down the street, I realized that the downtown McD's was right on the way home. I ought to just stop there and see if they had those final two figures that I want. Numbers 5 and 7.

And so into the downtown McD's I went, with a little trepidation. My luck here so far had been mostly bad. There was a line in this one. A very loud and upset young girl was trying to drive her mother batty at the front of the line, while a lady standing behind them tried her best not to cringe at the screaming. I got in line and waited. The screaming continued. The mother turned around and apologized to both of us. The staff seemed to be gathering her order in slow motion. Finally she got her order and moved the screaming child to another part of the store. My ears wept in relief.

The lady in front of me had a quick order, and there was no one behind me. I was able to make my request without feeling like a complete moron. But the girl behind the counter said that they hadn't got to those figures yet. I mentioned the box that the other store had, but she just shook her head no and offered me a free iced coffee. I thanked her and left. No, I didn't take the coffee. I don't drink coffee.

At this point my persistence kicked in. The competitive part of me whispered that the other McDonald's wasn't that far up the road, and maybe I should just head up there and make sure that they don't have it. I mean, heck, wouldn't it be great if I could complete both sets for hubby-Eric today? Then I wouldn't have to look for them any more, and any further toys we end up getting would be just fun. It wasn't hard to persuade myself, and up to Canyon Park I drove.

Again I was lucky, as there was no line. The cashier was a large white guy, the kind of guy I tend to hang out with at conventions a lot. I made my request, and he said he'd check the back. He came back a minute later and told me, "The Customer Satisfaction box is missing, so I don't have any of the figures from later in the promotion." A-HA! I have a name for that box I saw at the first store. I thanked him, and headed out to my car. Persistent me whispered, there's another McDonald's up in Mill Creek. I decided to try it. One more store.

The Mill Creek McD's is a rocking place, and I expected to feel like a jerk for getting in line and asking for toys, but the cashier, a gorgeous large black guy, made me feel comfortable by joking around as he looked. Checking to see which toys they had, he pulled out a Wicked Witch of the West figure and said, "Here we have Amy!" A fellow employee made an angry denial while other employees laughed, then the girl I presume was Amy joined in laughing. The guy was just too silly. He said he'd check in the back, but I urged him to deal with the other customers first.

There were two people in line. A guy who looked vaguely irritated by the goings-on, and a woman who looked extremely interested. She asked me, "Are you looking for Oz toys, too?" I said yes, that I was waiting for them to check the back. She told me she didn't realize you could get more than the current one. I explained about the Customer Satisfaction box. Her eyes lit up. She wanted a whole set!

Another employee came out with a Daisy Munchkin for me, then. No number 5, she said. The other woman immediately started in with asking which ones she could get. The employee, a girl with a scarf, put on the plastered smile and started to try to fill the order. While the girl looked, I chatted with the new competition. She explained that she was an Oz fan from Kansas. I explained that my husband was a big Oz fan. She said that she and her husband had just moved to the area. I asked if she had a pen and paper, then wrote down the addresses for the Wizard of Oz Page and the Oogaboo Page for her. I explained that the Oogaboos are the local Oz fan club, and that we were having a meeting in April.

I bought Daisy Munchkin after one last check for #5, then it was out to my car. I considered finding another McD's, but logic told me there is plenty of time. And now that I know the secret of the customer satisfaction box, I'm not going to worry that all the figures were being sold out.

My errands, complete with comic shop, had taken about an hour. I needed to get home and get some lunch in me. And so to home. Current tally: Two each of Dorothy, Glinda, Wicked Witch of the West, Cowardly Lion, Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Daisy Munchkin. One Wicked Witch of the East.

Lunks of Dimp

Bully's Ten of a Kind.

Home Ec 101. Useful tips for households.

MMMMmmmm Millennium Falcon Cookie.

The Create A Comic Project.

Ooops. PC World repairs a laptop with what they claim is a brand new harddrive... only it has graphic images already on it. And the user of the computer is an 11-year-old. Oooops!

Mt St Helens just keeps going and going and going.

Very cool... using mites to track the rise and fall of civilizations.

Washington State Quarters have been symbolically struck, and are due to enter circulation Monday.

Some love for Emerald City Comicon.

Oz and Ends weighs in on McDonald's Oz Toys.

Death Threats. A blogger is threatened by anonymous criminals. Scoble decides to take a week off in support of the blogger being threatened. MetaFilter weighs in.

McDonald's of Oz, Part 3

With reports coming out on Eric's Oz Mailing List that people were already seeing The Cowardly Lion at McDonald's, we decided that I'd better see what the store had today instead of waiting until Friday. However, I really didn't want to eat another Happy Meal. Ok, I admit, some small part of me craves the stuff, but my stomach isn't small and wasn't doing the craving. After the potluck at our Torchwood party on Saturday, and two Happy Meals in the last week, I really wanted some real food for lunch. So I was hoping I could buy just the toys and escape with my health intact.

Just in case I did need to eat at McDonald's, I wanted to go on a walk today. We had a couple of letters to mail, so I used that as my excuse to walk to the post office. After I got to the post office, I decided to continue on to UW Bothell to see if the bookstore there had a sketchbook. While I don't suspect my current sketchbook will get filled at Emerald City Comicon, I don't like to take risks. So I walked down to UW Bothell, and checked out the bookstore, which was humming with business. No joy, the only sketchbooks they had were the larger size, and I prefer small ones.

Once I was home, a quick check on the pedometer gave me a total for my walk of about 2.25 miles. Not bad. That's enough to cancel the calories in a Happy Meal if I got one. And so I hopped in the car and drove up to the other McDonald's, since I'd already determined in my last two visits that the downtown location doesn't like me.

Despite it being lunchtime, there wasn't a huge rush, so I didn't feel bad about asking just for the toys. The gal at the counter was happy to sell them to me, after showing me the Cowardly Lion, which I wanted. I asked if they might have any leftover Dorothys, since hubby-Eric had only gotten one of those, and she said she'd check in a moment, so I stepped aside.

Her manager spotted me, and asked me (in a thick Spanish accent) what was up. I explained that I was trying to get the toys for a collector. Her eyes lit up and she told me to wait. She went into the depths of the store and came back momentarily with two Cowardly Lions and two Wicked Witches of the West. She apologized, said these were all they had at the moment, and sold them to me. No food required. Thank goodness.

Tally so far: 1 Dorothy, 2 Glinda, 2 Wicked Witch of the West, 2 Cowardly Lion, and one big bruise on my left leg.

UPDATE: After calling around town, I found a McDonald's with a Dorothy still in stock, and got my butt down there and bought it. So the new tally is 2 each of the first four figures in the set. Huzzah.

Another Day, Another Doll

Hubby-Eric wanted to get in on the hot McDonald's action, so today we walked together down to the same McD's I visited yesterday to get lunch. I was a little hesitant because of yesterday's experience, but it wasn't hard for him to talk me into a walk, despite the rain.

Walks go much faster with a friend, so this one sped by like the wind as we chatted about various Oz, comics, Dr Who, and weight loss things. We'd spent the morning cleaning up for the Torchwood party (which starts in less than an hour) so we were already both a bit tired. It was raining a bit harder then yesterday. A heavy drizzle.

When we got to the McDonald's, we ordered our Happy Meals with a cashier who had no problem understanding us. Eric watched to make sure they got the right figures, and I didn't end up with an unwanted Turtle again, while I went to sit down. No sign of ducks. Maybe they did end up on the menu.

When Eric brought our meals over, I reached in and... Glinda! It wasn't Dorothy. Had they run out of Dorothy already, or were they switching by day? I considered asking, but never bothered. I got my apples, thank goodness, and realized that the caramel dip alone is twice as much as the apples. Hmmm. Maybe I should just eat the apples next time, and save myself 70 calories.

As we left, I turned to hand Eric the bag of Happy Meal toys and swung my left leg solidly into a piece of metal that was jutting out into the sidewalk. OUCH. A bruise has not yet formed, but it still hurts. I commented to Eric that I think that McDonald's hates me. It's certainly out to get me. Despite the need to walk off the McD's calories, I think I might visit a different one in future.

We're Off to See the ... McDonald's?

I used to be a big McDonald's fan, back before I realized that they don't actually sell food, but "food product". Still, they have their uses. I liked getting the mini-Beanie Baby penguins, back during the craze (I collect penguins). I have nothing against most of the toys. And I've always liked the Monopoly game. I don't like eating there often, but every once in awhile I crave junk. Sadly, today wasn't really one of those days. But I wanted to get hubby-Eric a Madame Alexander Wizard of Oz doll, and I wanted to go on a long walk, so I decided that lunch today would be a Happy Meal from McDonald's!

I wasn't positive that today was the first day of the promotion, so to hedge my bets, I decided to take some books back to the library first. That way, if I got to McDonald's and there was no Oz, I could head home at least feeling like I'd accomplished something. The walk to the library was easy, as I've been doing it for the last few months no problem. Ok, I generally avoid walking in the rain if I can help it, but you can't always help it around here, and it was more a light drizzle than real rain.

From the library I headed to McDonald's, which isn't much further away. As I walked up to the place I saw a cute little girl in the window playing with a doll that had a checked blue dress and ruby red shoes. I grinned broadly, and the girl smiled back. Into the place I went... and there my problems started.

Only one poor cashier was taking orders, and she was out of her league. She spoke English with a thick Spanish accent, and although she was cheerful, she was a bit hard to understand and was having some trouble understanding the customers. I speak very little Spanish, otherwise it might have been a less stressful moment for me. I ordered a "Wizard of Oz Happy Meal with Apple Dippers and a Diet Coke". She didn't understand me. All she got out of it was "Happy Meal". Then she asked me which toy. I said, "Wizard of Oz". She looked confused then typed something into her register. "Wadriwayaike?" She said. "Huh?" I said. "Wadriwayaike?" She said. I thought maybe my ears were misadjusted, "HUH?" "Wa drink waya like?" She said, and this time I got it. "Diet Coke," I responded, then said aloud, mostly to myself, "didn't I already say that?" The guy behind me grunted, "yes."

I paid then stepped aside to await my "meal". As soon as I got the bag, I checked the toy. Yup, it was a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, not a Wizard of Oz figure. I called the cashier over, pointed to the Wizard of Oz side of the bag and said, "I wanted a Wizard of Oz figure," and handed her the turtle. She nodded, smiled a forced smile, and got me my Dorothy figure. To her defense, she was young enough that she might not even know what Wizard of Oz is AND it's the first day of the promotion. I then retired to a seat in the place to eat my food product. As I walked to my seat, I saw a duck standing in the door, looking in. I paused for a moment, then continued to my seat.

I was maybe a quarter of the way into the fries when I thought to myself, MAN, these fries are really salty. And then I thought to myself, Hey, I ordered Apple Dippers! I sighed, looked down at my food product and weighed my choices. I could go back and complain. I'd probably get my apple dippers. I could eat the rest of the fries. I could dump the rest of the fries and just not worry about it. I had eaten enough of the fries that I didn't want to eat any dippers. And the fries were just too salty to finish. So I decided on number three: non-confrontationally dump the rest of the fries and be happy I got the Dorothy doll at least.

I looked up and saw a guy walking in the door looking curiously at the duck, which was still standing there. "He's not on the menu," I said to the guy. He smiled, looked back at the duck, and said, "Not yet, at least." I was going to say that McDonald's would never serve anything that fresh, but decided I'd had enough human interaction for the moment.

As I left McDonald's, I realized I was a little angry at them for messing up my order. I decided to use that anger to go on a longer walk. So what if it's raining? I walked to the local Safeway to check if they had any of Stephen Colbert's Ice Cream. No go. Then I walked about a quarter mile out of my way to the QFC to see if they had the Stephen Colbert ice cream. Nope, not yet. Then to home, where I entered my lunch and my walk into CalorieKing, and was pleased to see that they canceled each other out.

All's well that ends well? I suppose. Hubby-Eric was pleased when he got home and I gave him the Dorothy figure. That makes it all worth it.