Expenses Without Receipt

Oh shit, the last time I did this it was February 16.  Fine -- starting from Friday, March 22:

• The only thing I shelled out money for (I'm back to relying on my goddamn credit card again) Friday was for a program for the University of Minnesota baseball game: $1.
• Thursday the 21st ... I went to Shameless Inc. to purchase a ticket to Saturday's Minnesota RollerGirls derby special, St. Paul vs. Texas.  Should've asked my friend if she had a spare ticket, but too late: $13.
• Wednesday the 20th: Caffetto.  Since I was working my bracket and writing my sports column, I indulged with a piece of strawberry cheesecake along with my coffee.  With tip: $5.75.
• Tuesday the 19th -- shit, did I use my credit card or money to watch Warm Bodies?  I think I paid cash.  Anyway, this is a boring story I have to get off my chest: I was planning on watching Warm Bodies the week before, but for some reason last week they started moving up the first showings of the day from the 1 o'clock hour to noon.  I saw this on their website, but I thought it had to have been a typo or it had something to do with Daylight Saving Time, so I ignored it.  I shouldn't have, but I thought it was too late to watch Warm Bodies since it's been out in theaters for some time now and it didn't seem like the box office was going to keep them in theaters past the Friday before.  But they did, and I thought that was a sign I needed to catch this flick.  And good thing I did: It's a nice, lovely, cute story about a zombie who falls in love.  I love the redemption at the end.  A-?  Ticket, popcorn and pop: $9.25.
• Monday the 18th was the day it was snowing and I decided to bring the car back to the mechanic because it was acting up again.  Did a lot of walking around the U.  The mechanic still didn't find anything, so I just went to the library and Cobalt Cafe for their Happy Hour large coffee.  With tip: $1.25.
• Didn't spend anything on my birthday; just went to the Car Show ... Saturday everything I spent is accounted for, either through receipt or credit card ... and I think on Friday I charged everything.  So onward to Thursday the 14th -- Caffetto.  Since I didn't come back for dinner that night, I allowed myself a piece of chocolate cake along with coffee.  With a small tip because I ran out of quarters: $5.10.
• I used those quarters to park in downtown St. Paul to shop at Macy's: 75 cents.
• Monday the 11th ... Brookdale library, Cobalt Cafe, took advantage of their Happy Hour deal and got a buck of their large coffee.  For some reason, they calculate the tax at the regular price and then take off a buck instead of taking a buck off the regular price and then calculating the tax.  That's fucked up because it's more expensive this way.  With a dime tip: $1.25.
• I assume that I didn't spend any money Sunday, so I go back to Saturday the 9th.  Although I got there late, I decided to go into the Xcel Energy Center to catch the rest of the Class AA Boys' State Hockey Tournament Final.  Going there should be on every Minnesotan's bucket list.  Got a scalped ticket from a guy who was bringing his wife into the arena and had a spare ticket.  Tried to "haggle" him down to $5 because the game already started but he stayed firm so I shelled out: $10.
• Friday the 8th.  Caffetto: Coffee with tip: $1.75.
• McDonald's, where I finally got a Shamrock Shake.  When I was young I drank as many of those as I could.  I was obsessed, really obsessed with the fact that I was born on St. Patrick's Day, and so I thought eating Shamrock Shakes were my birthright, something I had to do.  They changed the formula some time ago, but I think it's much better now.  Even though I don't really have the money for it, I got a large for: $3.01.
• Thursday the 7th ... I started by going to St. Paul and seeing if I could buy some jeans cheap since the Macy's there is closing very soon.  Got Polo Ralph Laurens for about $35.  Later, I e-mailed my sister, the knowledgeable fashion plate, which of the available brands of jeans at Macy's I should buy. Unfortunately she didn't recommend the Ralph Laurens.  I'll tell her that if I see her face-to-face again.  I charged the jeans, even though I don't have the money for them.  The way I see it, I might not have the money now, but I will need new jeans, and is it really smart to wait to buy them if I can't get them this cheap?  I'm putting this down as an EWR because I paid cash to park on the street.  Well, coins, actually: 50 cents.
• I then went to Maverick's, like I said when I realized I forgot to vote in the Preposterous Statement Tournament, whose roast beef is considered to be the best in town.  Third time I've eaten here, second time I got the roast beef, first time I've been here in several years.  Honestly, I can't tell a difference between this and Arby's.  I was much more impressed by the buttered bun.  But Maverick's is way more expensive.  With tip: $9.25.
• Tuesday the 5th: After a bunch of hemming and hawing, I decide that I needed to spend some time watching a movie, even though none of the films being screened interested me.  Checking Rotten Tomatoes I decided to take a chance on the best-reviewed one available: Side Effects, supposedly Steven Soderbergh's final film.  Good thing I did: Side Effects is a fantastic, twisted movie, a Hitchcockian mindfuck that starts off as an indictment of the pharmaceutical industry and then goes sideways on you.  The reviewers who didn't like the flick imply they were misled.  I say, it's a goddamn movie, you let them take you where they want to take you, and you judge it on their terms.  Goddamn, this is a great movie.  I'll give it an A.  Ticket, popcorn and pop: $9.25.
• Monday, March 4 ... let's see ... before class I went to Lavvu to get some coffee.  With tip: $2.27.
• And that afternoon I went to Rosedale and, not having anything better to do than to contemplate my life and how the fuck I got here, I finally tried Caribou's version of oatmeal.  Just as good as Dunn Bros.' and a little cheaper, but smaller.  With tip: $2.75.
• I assume that all I did Sunday was work out, so I'll go to Saturday the 2nd ... I think my EWRs were for that night, starting with giving a tip after charging for a Surly at the Minnesota RollerGirls bout: $1.
• After that I went to Caffetto to chill with coffee.  With tip: $1.75.
• Friday the 1st.  I booked two experiments at the U. that day.  Got two gift certificates for $10 each in the first one.  Received an Infusion for the second one: $10.
• That evening I went to the Metrodome to see the first home game of the University of Minnesota baseball season.  Program, hot dog and Coke: $9.50.
• After that, Caffetto.  With tip: $1.75.
• ETA: Well, shit.  I just looked at my day planner and have a space for Dairy Queen, but no amount.  I'm pretty sure that I went to eat there because I picked up free tickets to the Minnesota Gopher baseball game that night.  I think I had planned on writing the amount down, but I didn't.  Fuck me.  I'll pull something out of my ass: $5.56
• You know, looking back on my Franklin Quest, I've been pretty good on the weekdays in not spending too much money.  It's just that when I do spend money, I spend money.  Have to go back to Tuesday, February 26 for Expenses Without Receipts.  First, while cooling my heels waiting for the mechanic to check out my car, I went over to the Overflow Cafe for coffee.  With tip: $2.03.
• And to cover the three cents I had to do something I've never done: Take one of my shiny new dimes out of storage (actually in my pants; if I store these coins I keep because they're new, I should take them out of my pants and put there where I actually store them, namely a cup on my desk).  Actually I  don't know if I used this dime this day or another day, but I fucking forgot.  Anyway: 10 cents.
• Then, like I mentioned before, when the mechanic couldn't find anything, he just asked to be tipped.  I emptied out my wallet for him.  I hope he's OK with only: $19.
• And then I went to see A Good Day To Die Hard (aka Die Hard 5) at the theater.  Verdict on the movie: Crap.  None of the charisma, none of the Swiss timing machinations of the bad guys, and it was really short, too.  Guess Bruce Willis is sentimental about playing John McClain -- he's a Pisces, after all -- but he could have at least asked for a better script when cashing in a huge paycheck from Hungary.  (I had to throw in that last fact because I stay for the credits, and all the names there were conspicuously Hungarian.  Have never seen so many Zoltans in my fucking life.)  C-, maybe even a D+.  Anyway, I wanted to celebrate the mechanic not finding anything with my car, and so I gave myself permission to charge everything to my credit card to watch the film.  But instead of the girl getting me popcorn and pop punching in four dollars ("4") in the credit card machine, she accidentally hit forty ("40").  And instead of trying to redo the transaction, she just offered to just give me the difference in cash.  First time it's ever happened to me.  I had to get to the movie, so I said yes, so I get an Infusion of: $36.
• Man, from this date on my memory's a fog.  This is what happens when I don't do EWRs more frequently.  We go to Friday the 22nd, where I had lunch at Noodles and Company on the way to an experiment at the U.  A lot of student-athletes from the Big Ten Swimming and Diving Championships were there.  Bumped into a bunch of huge bookbags in there, but it was awesome to see the logos and colors of all the other teams of the B1G.  Probably won't go back there for a while because of the cost of an otherwise tasty lunch: $6.66.
• Thursday the 21st.  I swear that I ate out this day.  But the only EWR I have is an Infusion from my last day at the hearing experiment: $20.
• Wednesday the 20th ... tried out this place called Toppers Pizza for the first time.  Not bad, but again, expensive.  I'm not saying McDonald's has five-star cuisine, but it's cheap!  Had no cash on me so I charged it, but I did have enough for a tip: 25 cents.
• Tuesday the 19th I stored pennies because they were virgin pennies: 3 cents.
• Monday, February 18.  Now I''m going back to the nether regions of my mind.  I may, may have gone to My Favorite Stripclub (Non-Cover Edition) after class at the U.  If so, then this is the last time I've been there, and that's a long fucking time.  Coffee and tips: $10.

Shit, this spans more than a month.  I hope I got everything.  Caught up through March 22.