State St. and Ellsworth Rd. Roundabout Open, World Keeps Spinning

The roundabout at State St. and Ellsworth Rd. has been open for the last few weeks and it really helps keep traffic moving. If you want to see how Darth Vader would say roundabout, check out this YouTube video from the GPS company TomTom.

My Allergies Don't Take the Winter Off

I'm always checking prices on allergy medicine and thought the price below had to be a typo. The price for a 365 pill (year supply) of Cetirizine, generic Zyrtec, is $14.99. That works out to $0.04 per pill! The generics at other retailers usually comes out to ~$0.30/pill and brand name Zyrtec is usually ~$0.40/pill. If you're really into the brand name, Costco's price at the time was around $0.30/pill or around what other retailers charge for their generic. The added benefit on top of the great price is the convenience of purchasing one bottle for the year. Most other retailers offer bottles with less than 30 doses. For what?!

 Note: these prices may have changed since I took the picture.

Craft Beer and BBQ Brisket Sandwich

It's good to see some more variety in the beer section at Costco. There's an expanded beer section in addition to this new Craft Beer display made up mostly of 750 mL bottles (1 pt. 9.4 oz.). Many of the brands you'd expect are represented as well as smaller breweries. Brands include Dogfish Head, Stone, Rogue, Sam Adams, Goose Island, Ommegang, Sierra Nevada, Unibroue, Chimay and others. 

In this post of new additions, the food court introduced a BBQ Beef Brisket Sandwich with coleslaw. I tried it today and thought it was pretty good. Overall, it was a bit sweet for my taste, but a good way to get a BBQ fix anyway. The construction is pretty neat as they use a paper ring to keep all the stuff inside the sandwich. 

A Favorite Quick Lunch Idea - CP Shrimp Wonton Soup with Noodles

I need a quick lunch from time to time and this is one of my "go to" meals. This is a CP Shrimp Wonton Soup with Noodles bowl from Costco. As is, it's a pretty solid frozen meal with 275 calories. Like most prepared soups, it is a little high in sodium so don't eat them at every meal. I like to dress this up a bit by throwing in frozen kale before it goes into the microwave. This provides some color and crunch to go along with the soft noodles and wontons, not to mention the benefits of fiber, vitamins and potassium. Be sure to add 30 seconds on the microwave if you add frozen kale. After pulling the bowl out of the microwave, I'll either add some hot chili sauce or Sriracha hot sauce to give it a little kick. All told, this lunch is under 300 calories which leaves room for something sweet. Enjoy!

Gotta have Sriracha

Roundabout Construction Planned for June

It's been awhile since my last post so I wanted to kick things off again on the right foot.

I've posted before about roundabouts, in particular the one planned for the State St. and Ellsworth Rd. intersection that will start this June at a cost of $2.3M. The story was posted in AnnArbor.com. 

Image Courtesy Washtenaw County Road Commission

I really don't recommend trying this in the new roundabout ;)