Bat-ting A Thousand

It was a gorgeous Indian Summer day when I woke up. Couldn't be a more perfect day in October, with a bright blue sky and a sunny, windless day. I ran to the Acme quickly this morning for my paycheck and to pick up unbleached flour, yogurt, and eggs (the first and last on good sales). I stopped at FYE afterwards to see if they had the new WebKinz and the new Christmas Classic Collection set I'm looking for. They did have the new WebKinz but not the set, so I just headed home after that. I put the yogurt and eggs in the refrigerator, refilled the flour container, and headed out again, this time to the White Horse Pike to hit the bank (and finally pay my rent) and for my dental appointment.

It wasn't nearly as bad as last time. I guess my right upper side isn't as grimy as my left. There weren't nearly as many needles this time, and not as much done. It didn't take as long for the numbness to go away, either. I was in and out in a little over a half-hour.

I went over to 7-11 for a pretzel (just to see how numb my mouth WAS), and waited for Amanda to arrive. Amanda's a good friend of mine from college who lives in Vineland, NJ, about 45 minutes away from Oaklyn. We get together from time to time, usually at Christmas, but sometimes for our birthdays. Amanda's birthday was last week; I gave her my present to her, one of the Hello Kitty Furry Tale Theater DVDs. (Amanda loves cats in general and is a huge Hello Kitty fan.) Amanda gave me the cutest gray stuffed sheep from Bath and Body Works.

We took the White Horse Pike down to the Voorhees Town Center. Formerly the Echelon Mall, the Town Center is one of four major malls within driving distance of Oaklyn (and not counting the ones in Center City Philadelphia). (The others are the Moorestown Mall, the Deptford Mall, and the Cherry Hill Mall.) The Town Center is in the midst of a major remodeling project, and while it's left the building cleaner and in better shape than some of the other malls in the area, it also means there isn't as much there as there is in Deptford. This isn't helped by the Town Center being more-or-less in the middle of nowhere, with few other major stores nearby (which is one of the reasons the Echelon Mall was having trouble to begin with) and Amanda wasn't willing to go prowling around looking for more.

We both had Grilled Chicken Sandwiches and Carrot and Raisin Salads and shared Waffle Fries at Chick-Fil-A, then walked around the mall. I bought the WebKinz Bat from Hallmark. She bought a candle from the Candle Scents store (not the one she wanted, Chocolate Cupcake, but Vanilla Cupcake smelled real nice too) and a book from Borders Express, and we both admired the gowns we'd never have a reason to wear at Boscov's.

Figuring we weren't going to find much else, we headed back to my apartment and spent an hour there. Amanda had been to my place in Wildwood, but she's never visited me when I've lived in Oaklyn. I haven't been able to talk her into coming this far up the Pikes. We spent a pleasant hour as I showed off my place and we had chocolate cake and watched Hello Kitty. I'm hoping to talk her back up here for New Year's Eve, now that she knows where I am and that I'm not hard to get to.

Oh, and meet my WebKinz Bat, Boo! Naturally, Boo lives in my first Halloween room. I'm hoping to do at least two more rooms with the Halloween theme (a small pub-type restaurant and a bathroom) before they take it away for the year.