Goodwill Hunting

We got a slightly earlier start today, around 10:30. It was already into the lower 80s by then, but much to my surprise, it wasn't humid at all. We had a rather nice walk to the Westmont Plaza, dodging the traffic on Cuthbert Road and waving to the pre-school kids heading down West Clinton Avenue with their teachers to the Oaklyn Library.

We mainly wanted to go to the big Game Stop at the Plaza. They have twice the room and inventory of the mall and Audubon Game Stops. Lauren did pick up the Wii game Namco Museum Megamix and Super Mario for the DS. I just grabbed Epic Mickey for $9.99. I wanted Pac Man Party, but while they had the game box on display, for some reason, they didn't have the disc.

We went right next door to the Westmont Bagel Shop for lunch. They're always busy at lunch with the secretaries and clerks from the offices in Cherry Hill and Haddonfield. We were between groups of clerks; it got kind of noisy, between them and The View and the news on Channel 6. Lauren had a huge cheesesteak sandwich (on thick slices of white bread instead of a roll); I had a Monte Cristo on the same bread cooked French toast-style.

We made a brief stop at Dollar Tree. I just bought star-print muffin cups. After that, we walked to the other side of the Plaza and hit Tuesday Morning. I wanted a basket to keep the Wii controllers and other video game equipment in. I got a big, heavy, round straw basket with handles. They had WebKinz again; I found the caterpiller.

It was hot and getting hotter by the minute. We stopped at Kayla's Ice Cream Parlor on the way back to my place. Lauren had a lemon water ice. I had a black cherry milkshake (milkshakes are on sale at Kayla's on Monday). We relaxed at the pink, yellow, and green tables under the roof and relaxed while watching the traffic on Cuthbert and the White Horse Pike go by.

We spent the rest of a very hot afternoon at my place, playing Kirby's Epic Yarn. We're just about done with that one. We got through a difficult Space Land, and found ourselves back in the beginning...then at Kirby's home Dreamland. We were just about to take on the main bad guy when we realized how late it was getting. I heard my cell phone go off; Jessa and Joe were on their way.

We went further afield than we did the last time. Joe first took us to a Goodwill in Woodbury, a half-hour from Oaklyn. Lauren had no luck there, but I picked up a record and three CDs. The record was:

Johnny Mathis - All Time Greatest Hits (a 2-disc set still in its original plastic!)

The CDs were:

Paula Abdul - Forever Your Girl (a cassette replacement)

A collection of various recordings brought together to make the closest thing to an original cast album the unusual 1941 musical Lady In the Dark got, with songs from British star Gertrude Laurence and comedian Danny Kaye.

There happened to be a small mom-and-pop video game store in the same shopping center, Game Alley. They were more-or-less an independent version of GameStop, with collections of older games going back to the Atari 2600 as well as titles for newer systems and a limited selection of movies. Lauren found two original Nintendo games and another DS title. I finally got Pac Man Party.

We made one last stop at a huge Goodwill in Glassboro. Joe and Jessa didn't get anything from this one. Lauren bought a pair of purple shorts. I found of the short Disney DVD cartoon collections from the last decade, this one revolving around Mickey and Minnie.

Joe mentioned he hadn't had Leo's Yum Yums since he was a teenager, so we stopped there when we got back into Oaklyn. They were pretty busy with a mom and her two kids and their friend, but we did finally get our orders. Joe and I had cherry vanilla Yum Yum. Lauren had a cherry water ice. Jessa had a strawberry-kiwi water ice and complained that it tasted really bland.

Lauren and I considered eating at the Oaklyn Manor a block down from Leo's, but we finally decided we weren't really up for it. We went home and ate out of the fridge instead. I had the last lamb chop from not last week, but the week before. Lauren had the last of the ham. I boiled some snap peas for vegetables.

We played Pac Man Party after dinner. This is pretty much Mario Party with Pac Man characters. Characters play one of five different Monopoly-style game boards. During the games, you can play different mini-games that mostly involve shaking or swinging the Wii controller. There's a couple of other modes, including a story mode and one that involved battling the other players, but we stuck to the boards. Lauren won in both the desert-themed board and the toy-themed board. I just couldn't figure out how to work the mini-games (except for the one that involved twirling spaghetti - I'm a good twirler),

Right now, we're watching Weekend at Bernie's and hanging out online. Tomorrow, we're going to spend a very hot afternoon in the Cherry Hill Mall.