Yesterday, I went to put gas in my car, only to discover that my favorite gas station had gone to a "pre-pay only" status.

I always use cash to pay for gas, so the whole pre-pay thing is VERY inconvenient because you have to go and give them money first, so, you're either going to give them too much (in which case you have to go back in and get change), or too little (and you're driving around without a full tank of gas!).

After pissing and moaning about this for a moment, I walked into the gas station and as I was standing in line, I had a stroke of genius.

"I'd like eleven gallons of regular on pump four," I informed the gentlemen behind the counter.

By the look on his face, you would have thought I had asked him to recite pi to the end (ha ha).

"I don't know how much that is," he admitted.

"Well, that's how much I need," I persisted, with a 'sucks for you' shrug.

"Um," he started before turning to the girl working the register next to him.

"You have a calculator! Just multiply eleven by two fifty-six," she explained shortly. (*on a side note, today I WISH gas was $2.56....over night it jumped to nearly $3.00 a gallon!)

So, he multiplied it out, charged me $28.16 for my eleven gallons and was glad to be rid of me.

I went back out to the pump and filled my car.

If you've ever noticed that on the price signs for gas will say something like $2.99. If you pay close attention, you'll notice that the price is actually $2.99 9/10. So you're actually paying $3 for the same gallon, but it must sting less to think that you're saving a penny.

Anyway, because he forgot to factor in the 9/10ths of a cent, I actually ened up only getting 10.826 gallons.

Did I pitch a fit? No. I had almost left the poor guy in tears once for the day. My job was done (and if I'm paying the better part of $3 a gallon for fuel, you better bet I'm going to find some way to get some enjoyment out of it!).

Plus, I was very pleased when I started my car and saw the needle raise to just past the "full" line, which is where it would have gone if I had pumped the gas first (completely filling the tank) and then paid.

So, if you want to irk the people at the gas station (or at least make them use the basic math skills that they learned in 3rd grade), tell them how much gas you need.....IN GALLONS!