Read about this earlier in the day, but since the varieties were ones that hadn’t been deeply discounted recently, I didn’t bother to post.  On the off-chance that some of you are buying retail, here it is.  Oh, and in case you were wondering…I don’t have ANY friggin’ pizza!

Four varieties of California Pizza Kitchen and DiGiorno frozen pizzas are being recalled after some customers found small fragments of plastic.

The voluntary recall by Nestle; USA includes California Pizza Kitchen Crispy thin crust white pizza, California Pizza Kitchen limited edition grilled chicken with cabernet sauce, DiGiorno crispy flatbread pizza Tuscan style chicken and DiGiorno pizzeria! Bianca/white pizza.

Nestle believes the plastic is tied to a certain bunch of spinach it received from a supplier.  No other types of pizza from these brands are affected by the recall.

All the pizzas included in the recall were made in February and March. Nestle said it’s currently removing all the pizzas from grocery stores.

Those that already bought the pizzas can call Nestle customer service at (800) 456-4394 or [email protected] for further instructions. Nestle said it will provide a coupon for a replacement.

A serious post here!  Got a letter a month or so ago from the IRS regarding the 2010 tax year (yeah, I guess they’re a little behind) – apparently we owed thousands of dollars because the education credit wasn’t supported by the 1099-T. WTF?  I called a couple of times and finally got a human who told me that Box 1 wasn’t completed, only Box 2.  Box 1 is where they put in what you paid and box 2 is what they billed.  Well, obviously they wouldn’t be graduating anyone without payment being made, but apparently it’s very common with schools.  Something about not wanting to pay the accountants to figure out that the bills were actually paid.  yeah, that’s what i thought, too.  

What we needed to do was go to the school and request a Summary of Account, which would list all the amounts billed and paid for that 2010 year…which we did.  In the meantime, I’d completely forgotten what I was supposed to say or do with this form, so I turned to the helpful IRS website and the actual paperwork mailed to me (THREE COPIES!).  The forms mailed all talked about filing a petition with the Tax Court ($60), which sure didn’t ring any bells;  I’m pretty sure I would have remembered that part.  And the IRS website?  let’s just not go there.

So I called the 800 number on the letter – - – and waited 47 minutes before a human answered.  Wiped down the dining room and living room floors and straightened out both rooms, too!  Agent there basically told me the same thing about that 1099-T:  He gets at least a call a day.  I just had to fax a cover letter with the Account Summary and should be good to go.

I’m doing this post as a warning for all those who have dependents in college – check that both boxes have been completed on the 1099-T.  Had I known it was incomplete, I would have had FirstBorn hustle over there to get a complete form (and trust me, he WOULD have gotten it).  From now on I’m gonna check every friggin’ line on these things.

Pretty smart to include an insert in what is traditionally an insert-free holiday newspaper – P&G is the insert we need the whole month, so the newspapers will still get their ad revenue ’cause we need to buy it!

So happy, happy One-Insert Sunday, which will either appease or insult the various religious factions…

Some time ago I signed up for the Recalls, Market Withdrawals and Safety Alerts from the FDA – talk about buzz kill.  The sheer volume of voluntary recalls is numbing – most of them are companies and products I’ve never heard of, but this one from today is definitely not good:

Rich Products Corporation Announces a Voluntary Recall of Farm Rich® Mini Quesadillas, Farm Rich® Mini Pizza Slices, Farm Rich® Philly Cheese Steaks, Farm Rich® Mozzarella Bites, and Market Day® Mozzarella Bites Due to Possible Contamination with E. Coli O121

Google is opening up their Google Shopping Express (same day delivery service) as a test to select users in San Francisco and the Peninsula from San Mateo to San Jose.   Current participating retailers include Target, Walgreens, Staples, American Eagle, TRU and BRU, Office Depot, Blue Bottle Coffee, Raley’s Nob Hill Foods and Palo Alto Toy & Sport.

Early testers get six months of free, same day delivery with in-store pricing. Sign up using this link.

Here’s a little link I got from the Dreamfield’s Pasta people - a Risk Assessment for Type 2 Diabetes.  A few short questions and you get a risk factor.  For some reason, I’m looking good.  lying must help (only kidding!).

Here’s the applicable section of the revised coupon policy as regards multiple purchases:

When purchasing multiple items, Walgreens accepts multiple identical coupons for multiple qualifying items as long as there is sufficient stock to satisfy other customers, unless a limit is specified. Management reserves the right to limit the quantity of items purchased. Customer and employee purchases of excessive quantities of advertised items is not permitted. An excessive quantity is any quantity above and beyond normal household usage.

I read about this last week and then promptly forgot about it – I mean, when was the last time the Walgreens warehouse actually had enough inventory to matter?  And what constitutes a normal household?  The Jersey Shore folks?  The Duggars?  Mom, Dad and their 2.5 kids?  Then I got an email from a Walgreens employee who said the following

So there you have it.  Btw, stores have always reserved the right to limit quantities – check out Jewel, CVS or any other large chain’s policies.  So the question is will this be strictly enforced or not or followed for a short time.  As it stands now, there are friendly Wags and Wags run by coupon nazis – we flock to one and avoid the other.

My take (admittedly a cynical one) is that manufacturers are upset over the amount of free merchandise they are providing us and Walgreens is attempting to placate them with this revision.  Possible solutions (assuming they have deals where a quantity will even matter!) is to have multiple cards and use them in multiple stores across a couple of districts.  Obviously this won’t work in a place with only one or two Walgreens, although I don’t suggest moving just yet.  And the Walgreen’s district maps are very, very weirdly drawn:  The stores in Lisle belong to the same district as Wheaton, Bolingbrook and into Chicago.  It’s not a huge district, just oddly drawn (a spike into Chicago?  come on now), perhaps by off-season Republicans.

Reader got shot down at a Walmart today when trying to run the Neutrogena deal – apparently the bar (to that store mgr’s way of thinking) is not a body soap.  and i scratch my head as i look at my shower caddy with its bars of Neutrogena…