Run that buy me again

We haven't had much snow in Seattle this winter (knock on wood). And last winter the dogs had so much fun playing in it I thought I'd take a day trip up to Snoqualmie Pass for a run around in the snow. My friend Scotty joined us heading out on I-90 eastbound. We took exit 44, I think, or nearby anyway and headed south off the ramp. A couple of blocks in we saw a number of cars parked and figured this would be an excellent place to park. We geared up, I put on my boots, got the poop bags, toys to fetch, and my digital camera and off we went. It was a perfect day, bright and sunny. The dog boyz started racing up and back and peeing on every perceived thing that could be peed upon, you know how dogs are. Llelo started going turbo and had the snow been packed at all he would have gotten excellent speed, as it was he looked like a rear wheel drive truck on a patch of ice on an uphill, just spinning his wheels; only he would occasionally get some footing. He'd go a few steps and sink into the snow, stall a bit, and then regain purchase and continue on. You really had to see it. Gus was actually the chasee instead of only the chaser, he was really having a good time, too. Gus is on the right and Llelo on the left (full body showing). And the obligatory self portrait of Scotty and me.

After we were finished walking, both dogs had stopped running like crazies, we headed into North Bend to hit the outlet malls. Can't go all that way and not do a little shopping. Besides I had some coupons to the Jockey underwear store, that would expire the end of January, I needed to use them or loose them. Scotty found something he'd been coveting for a while in the Black and Decker store at a much better price than the big box stores. Riddle me this: I spent a flat $26 in the Jockey store and in doing so saved $105.54!!! How does that work? Well, you walk in the store and everything is 30% off lowest marked price, I had a coupon for 20% off any purchase of $50 or more, and I had a $20 gift certificate for having one of their club cards. A fleece pullover initially retailed at $28.50 cost me $3.05 and some underpants initially retailing at $8.50 cost me $0.91. How can they make any money? Is that why the economy does funky things? And we as a nation demand that kind of pricing forcing manufacturing overseas into ... , well, I'm just gonna stop here, because I do it, too. I like the low prices. However, I am trying to check labels more and am making an effort to buy more US produced goods. Just have to keep at it, the more you look for US produced goods the more the market will have to offer them.