I enjoy me some mocha. And as my work schedule has begun to skew more towards mornings instead of afternoons/evenings, it’s been necessary for me to get some caffeine into the bloodstream in order to function. I had been achieving this by having a Pepsi with breakfast. But I wasn’t really happy with that. It always seemed like the boost provided by the soda never lasted long enough. Plus, there’s a lot of calories in that sugar water. So I started wondering about coffee as an alternative morning pick-up beverage. Thing is, I’m not much of a coffee drinker. But I do enjoy the mocha, a drink that takes all of the sophistication out of coffee and turns it into a kid’s drink. I began to think up a way that I could get my morning mocha fix without visiting a coffee shop.

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Tags: Flickr, food, Starbucks, Trader Joe's, VIA
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Jen finished her stint as a summer-school teacher earlier today. She’s now got a few weeks off before the fall school season begins. She decided to kick things off with a trip to the local farmers market. I took pictures.

Many of them, of produce.

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Tags: California, farmers market, Flickr, food, Golden China, San Luis Obispo, Starbucks, vegetable
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A couple weeks ago, I went to my doctor for the SARS. I had already been to a doctor at Med Stop (an urgent care clinic) a few weeks before, but the antibiotics I was prescribed at that first visit didn’t cure me. During the recent trip to the doctor’s office, I received another prescription for antibiotics. My doctor instructed me to wait a few days, and see if I start to feel better. If not, then I should fill the prescription. Well, I waited a few days. And it seemed like the sickness was waning. So I decided to wait on filling the prescription. And today it seemed like, once again, the SARS was waxing. I figured I may as well fill that prescription. I caught the bus around 6:30PM and headed over to the nearby CVS Pharmacy. I brought our piggy bank with, as CVS has a Coinstar machine. Anytime Jen and I have loose change (pennies, nickels, dimes – quarters are saved for laundry), we drop it into the piggy bank. Once the bank has become sufficiently heavy with coins, we empty it out and turn those pesky coins into real money. Unfortunately, our friendly little bank doesn’t have a coin-counting machine. That means we’ve got to turn to Coinstar for our coin conversion needs. After dropping off the prescription at the pharmacy, I carried the (rather heavy) piggy to the Coinstar machine. I flipped the pig and popped the stopper that held in its money-rich guts. I pressed the touchscreen of the Coinstar machine and began the process of feeding the coins into the machine. For those who are not familiar with Coinstar, the service gives you two options for your cashed-in coinage. You can either have your coins converted to real money (I.E. bills) or you can have your deposit amount converted into a gift card. If you go with the real money option (as I did), Coinstar charges around nine cents on the dollar for the conversion. (Conversion of coins to a gift card is free of charge. I wasn’t interested in any of the cards that Coinstar offers.) When the Coinstar feeding was completed, the machine reported that I had doled out just shy of $32.00 worth of coins. And for the privilege of having my coins turned into real money, Coinstar kept just shy of $3.00 for itself. Seems like a bit of a ripoff. But what else could I do? Hand roll the coins myself? Even if I did, would my bank accept them? Once I was done with the coin drop, I walked to a nearby Starbucks to kill some time before my prescription would be ready. I had a coupon for a free espresso, and took full advantage of it. Here’s a photo I took of the pig along with my drink:

After hanging out at Starbucks for a bit, I went back to CVS and picked up the drugs. Paid for ‘em with the cash I made through Coinstar. Which was good ’cause I’m broke, and I didn’t want to have to put the medication on credit. Then, I took the bus partway home, and stopped by another coffee shop to bring something back for Jen. it seems that this entry has lost its way a bit. I guess all I wanted to say is that, Coinstar is a nice service. It just sucks that we live in a world where we’ve got to pay to make our own money usable.

Tags: California, CVS Pharmacy, health, life, money, San Luis Obispo, Starbucks
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And it’s still OK.

(Photo also available through Flickr.)

Tags: California, Flickr, food, San Luis Obispo, Starbucks
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But, that’s OK.

(Photo also available through Flickr.)

Tags: California, Flickr, food, San Luis Obispo, Starbucks
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