Good Eats and Mall Adventures

First stop today was the Haddon Township Library for this week's first volunteering session in two weeks. (I skipped last week; there was just too much going on for me to get there then.) The kids' DVDs were in pretty good shape for once, so I made sure the adult DVDs were equally well-organized and did the soundtrack, jazz, and holiday CDs. Helped some kids find DVDs, too. Had a lovely chat with a five-year-old about the Samantha American Girls movie and helped a little boy and his mother find Disney shorts DVDs. (When he couldn't find a Mickey DVD, he opted for Donald's nephews.)

I headed to the Collingswood PATCO next to hop a train and a bus to the Deptford Mall area. While it was a nicer day than the last few have been, it was still very windy and a tad cold...not a bad mall day. I had somewhat better shopping luck at the malls than at Philly. No clothes at Target, but I did get shampoo and mouthwash (which I needed), the newest Good Eats DVD set (turned out Target's Food Network DVD sets were on sale this week), and the second Tiny Toon Adventures set. The Toons were a splurge - at $34, it was more expensive than Alton Brown but cheaper than it probably would be at FYE.

I had a quick grilled chicken wrap and cole slaw at the Chick Fil'A in the Deptford Mall's Food Court, then went clothes shopping. The clothes are still ugly, but I did manage to find some things I liked. Skorts are back in, much to my surprise. Fine by me. Means I'll be able to wear a skirt and still ride my bike. I bought a skort and a good, simple blouse at Sears, a plain orange t-shirt and olive tank-top at JC Penny, a good button-down white shirt that I really liked at Avenue, and a somewhat fancier scoop-neck blouse at Charlotte Russe. I also checked out New York and Company, Layne Bryant, the Ann Taylor Loft, and American Eagle Outfitters with no luck.

The clothes weren't my only good finds at Sears. I'd been hoping to finally get an inexpensive CD/cassette player to replace the recalcitrant Victrola on this trip. The one at Target was $60, a little bit more than I wanted to spend. I was looking for the women's clothes when I passed by a row of washing machines in the back of store. Peering beyond the large white, red, and silvery boxes, I saw TVs blaring local news. Figuring that if they had TVs, they may have CD/cassette players, I wandered over. I looked everything over, passing iPod players without a thought (I don't own one) until I got to the CD/cassette only. Not only did I see the same Sony player for 10 dollars cheaper than Target, but they had a smaller Emerson model for $34. Perfect. Easy for me to carry home and simple to use.

I'm so glad to be able to play my cassettes again! I have an old favorite on now, Rod Stewart's Vagabond Heart. This is one of the first cassettes I had as a kid, and I was happy to find it again.

Oh, and I stopped at the Oaklyn Library on the way home to take out two more DVDs I wanted to see. I've wanted to check out the X-Men movies for a while, if only to ogle Hugh Jackman in tight leather, but all anyone seems to have is the third one. So...if I like the third one, I'll grab all three. And everyone's talked so much about Wall-E and given it such high marks, but this is the first time I've seen it at the libraries.