Mall Madness

Started out the day by finishing Auntie Mame. I did enjoy the original adventures of everyone's favorite madcap aunt and her loving (and frequently exasperated) nephew. There's quite a few stories here that didn't make it into any other version, including Mame's involvement in World War II and her attempts to get Patrick married after the war. I'm going to have to look for a better copy somewhere along the way, though. The copy I picked up from the free book table outside the Collingswood Library a few years ago was falling apart; it was missing the cover, the first four pages were falling off, the spine was gone, someone drew weird faces on the back in pencil, and somehow, a page from another book had ended up in the chapter on Auntie Mame trying to marry Patrick off. It was in such bad shape, I just tossed it in the recycling bin.

After a late breakfast, I headed out to run errands. Though Newton River Park was lush and green, it was also still rather wet after last night's storms. After riding through one wide puddle, I decided to stick to the street.

Surprisingly, despite it being noon, the Haddon Township Library wasn't busy. There wasn't even anything to shelve when I arrived. I organized the children's DVDs, then put away the few titles that arrived later. I didn't take anything out or do anything else; I had other plans for today.

The bus to the Cherry Hill Mall conveniently runs down the street between the front entrance of the Haddon Township Library and the back entrance of the Westmont Plaza. The bus picking me up was 10 minutes late, and there was traffic both ways, but otherwise, I had no problems getting to or from the mall.

Needless to say, as today is Friday and it's the beginning of the month, the Cherry Hill Mall was quite busy. My first stop was JC Penney. I had a coupon for 10 dollars off an order of $25 or more. No wonder they've been losing business. They need to learn to organize properly. I couldn't find the rain coats at all, and the plus sizes and intimate apparel was still shoved in a tiny room in the back of the first floor. I did end up taking advantage of a buy one, get one free bra sale to buy two new underwire bras, along with a pale blue nightshirt and a new green t-shirt.

After I left them, I made a quick stop at the bathroom at the food court to change into the shirt (the white button-down shirt I wore was a little too see-through), then had lunch. I opted for ChickenNow, which was basically a variation on Chick Fil'A. They made some good food, though. Their grilled chicken sandwich was delicious, and the very salty, crispy fries were to die for.

Browsed around the mall for an hour after that. Anything I wanted at Williams-Sonoma cost too much. I peeked at Build-A-Bear and The Disney Store, but I've bought enough toys and enough toys and clothes for my toys lately. They didn't have any WebKinz at the Hallmark store. Didn't see anything I could actually fit into at Old Navy, nor any skirts I liked at Layne Bryant. (I really wish shorter skirts were in fashion. My legs are some of the only body parts I have that I like to show off.) Still couldn't find the rain jackets at JC Penney, and I didn't feel like hiking back to Macy's on the other side of the very large mall.

I finally found a jacket at a little plus-size store called Fashion to Figure. They mostly sold fancy dresses and suits in bright colors, but they also had rain gear. I found a bright cobalt blue rain jacket that was just perfect - nice, wide hood to keep the rain out, lots of pockets, long enough to keep the water off my rear when I ride my bike. I bought it...then brought it back and replaced it when I realized it wasn't big enough. I just went up a size.

I finally hopped a surprisingly empty bus back to Westmont. Since I was already in the area, I did my grocery shopping at the Westmont Acme instead of dodging traffic to get to Audubon. (I'll just get my schedule tomorrow.) Once again, I didn't have a huge order. I was mostly replacing pantry items. I realized I had no condensed or evaporated milk when I made that rice pudding a while back - bought skim versions of both. Bought the usual apples, bananas, and grapefruit. Needed peanut butter and honey - neither were on sale, but I wasn't waiting. I did get a sale on the Acme's generic Multi-Grain Cheerios.

When I finally got home, I made Strawberry-Apple Muffins and had leftovers for dinner while dubbing Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult. Lieutenant Frank Drebin (Leslie Nielson) is at it again, despite having finally retired from the LAPD. Police Squad wants him to track down a gang of terrorists who are planning a major bombing. His wife Jane (Priscilla Prestley) isn't thrilled with him on another case after he said he retired and takes off with a friend. Now Frank has to reconcile with Jane, while taking down the terrorist and his mother (Kathleen Freeman) who have the ultimate location planned for the bomb to go off - the Academy Awards!

Basically, if you're a fan of the other two or the loony Zucker Brothers style of humor, by all means, jump right in. It's pretty much the same goofy gags, including references to everything from the James Cagney vehicle White Heat to the sexy dramas and huge historical action movies that were ruling the real Oscars in 1994. However, if you're new to Frank Drebin and his nutty world of cops and bad-guy crooners, go directly to the first Naked Gun film or the Police Squad TV show first.

Ran a Backyardigans episode that also involved police shenanigans as I cleaned up from dinner. Uniqua and Tyrone are space officers in "Cops and Robots" who patrol the galaxy, looking for rogue robots. Two such evil machines (Pablo and Tasha) steal a key to the Robot Factory. If they flip the switch, they'll turn all the robots in the galaxy bad...but not if Uniqua and Tyrone can help it!