Fun, Fun, Fun

It was cloudy and cool when we headed out around 10 again...but this time, we weren't going far. There's an outlet mall in Lee, near the Mass Pike entrance, that Lauren and her parents love. We've been there before together, but not since we spent at least four days there when I visited in October 2015.

Our first stop of the day was Van Heussen. They mostly carry dressier clothes and sweaters, as well as IZOD golfing separates. I didn't see anything I needed, but Lauren went back later and bought two sweater vests for her dad. Neither of us found anything of interest at the Gap. Lauren considered a plaid button-down shirt at Tommy Hilfiger, but it didn't fit quite right. While the Dress Barn is one of the only stores to have it's own plus size section, we didn't find anything here, either.

Did much better at G.H Bass & Co. On my way out, I discovered a wall filled with rows and rows of socks that were three pairs for $12.99. Digging around uncovered pairs in a thick mostly-cotton knit that would be perfect for work; I did indeed buy three.

We also did well at Ann Taylor. She bought a blouse with a really cute navy and yellow lemon pattern. I saw a similar shirt in my size, but it was a tank top. I have plenty of tank tops. I bought an orange cardigan that perfectly matches the black, red, orange, and turquoise blouse I bought on Sunday.

I made my best find of the day at Eddie Bauer. I finally discovered a hoodie sweater to replace my badly faded and raveling blue knit. While it was a pullover, it was also a heavy black and multi-colored cotton that would keep me warm on capricious fall and spring days. A half-off sale brought it down to 25 dollars.

We had lunch at the mall's food court. Unfortunately, the food court doesn't seem to do as well as the mall in general, probably because there's plenty of restaurants down the road in Lee. More than half the booths we ate at in 2015 were gone and hadn't been replaced, including the sandwich shop with that yummy turkey and stuffing sandwich. We both ended up at Subway. She had a Chipolte Steak wrap. I'm not up to spicy food after the chili yesterday and opted for a Rotisserie Caesar wrap.

I was low on cash after lunch and Eddie Bauer, but Lauren did make a few more finds. She wanted to find a new pair of clogs for her job as the head teller at a local bank. We checked Clarks, Crocs, Sketchers, and Famous Footwear, but came up with nothing she liked. She did best at Jockey, which was having a buy-one, get-one half-off sale. That sale netted her two plaid sleep shorts, a similar pair of sleep pants, underwear for her mother, and three bras. She found a sweater for her mom at Talbots and a blouse for her at Aeropostale, along with plaid shorts for herself at Nautica. We emerged empty-handed from J.Crew, Levi's, Chico's, Calvin Klein, and The LOFT.

We finally headed out around 4:30. After we showed the Millers our purchases (and I had my leftover vegetable pizza for dinner - Lauren had her pepperoni later), we went downstairs to her room to play Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. After all the trouble we had getting online last night, we stuck to playing each other and the computer in the Grand Prix. Lauren mostly won, but I did better, managing to come in first on Sweet Sweet Canyon and actually coming in third on Rainbow Road.

(That's the best I've ever done on any version of that round. Usually, I'm lucky if I can make it to the end without falling off. Rainbow Road is the hardest round in any version of Mario Kart. There's nothing to keep you from skidding off the edge. When my sisters and I got to that round, our goal was more to see who could fall off the least than to see who could win it fastest.)

I'm heading home on the 12:10 train from Albany tomorrow. I'll have to text Dad and Jodie tomorrow to remind them - I forgot to tonight.