Headed out after that. The Uber driver didn't even need a minute to arrive. Thankfully, there was very little traffic as he headed down the highway and turned off to Deptford. He dropped me off at the front Boscov's Deptford Mall entrance around 11 AM.
Explored Boscov's first. I didn't see any clothes I liked, but they were having good sales on socks. They always have a great selection of decent socks. I walked out with a 3 pack of tan and brown cotton Goldtoe socks that came to $12 with 25 percent off.
FYE is a few doors down from Boscov's. While they no longer have the wonderful selection of DVDs and CDs they once did, they do have a decent pile of records. I found jazz group The Charlie Hunter Trio's Bing Bing Bing for $15.
Made my way down to the other side of the mall and into Round 1 Arcade. They were a lot busier than usual, with far more small kids running around with parents. The ring toss and Lane Master bowling game were down, but everything else worked. I ran from the Monopoly dice spin to the Nerf Arcade to the giant Pac Man game to skee ball to the spinning pirate wheel to Mario Kart Deluxe (I ended up with Luigi). Came up with over 2,900 points. Normal-sized Beanie Babies were only 400 points each. I got fluffy Tundra the Snow Leopard and sweet Chopper the Dalmatian, along with two tiny popping candy bags and one of those Chinese yo-yos for 10 and 30 points each. And I still have over 2,000 points left for when Lauren visits in June.
It was past 1:30 when I finally had lunch at the food court. I really loved Pitas and Salad, the Greek food booth where I had lunch when Lauren visited last year. Had a delicious lamb and beef gyro with thick, dry fries and big tomato chunks.
Bubble Bear Tea literally just opened a few days ago. Thought I'd finally give bubble tea a whirl. Tried their coconut milk tea. The "bubbles" were tapioca pearls, and they had a rather strange, gummy mouth feel. The coconut milk tea was good, but the bubbles were weird. I think I'll stick to green tea from now on when I want to do an exotic tea drink.
JC Penney is right behind the food court, so I went there next. They were having big clearance sales, including buy-one, get-one free on any items with a pink label. It took me forever to decide, but I finally came up with brown jeans (my old pair are starting to go in the thighs - I don't know if they'll survive another winter) and a gold cable sweater. The buy one, get one was more like buy one, get them half-off. With the sale, I got both for about $8 all together.
Peeked at the toy and accessories stores Box Lunch and Miniso, but it was past 3:30 by that point. If I wanted to check out Barnes and Noble too, I figured I might as well get going. Besides, the mall wasn't getting any less busy. I could barely move around in the toy stores. Went out the main entrance door, around Macy's, and past Dick's to the parking lot.
I originally tried to cross at the corner, but it was too crazy. As I headed down the street to cross closer to my destination, I saw something small and dirty laying in the street. It was a little Beanie Baby giraffe, all covered in dirt and bits of leaves. I couldn't just leave him there sitting next to the curb, so I brushed him off as best I could and stuck him in my bag.
Ducked past the abandoned shopping center that once held Christmas Tree Shoppes and Bed Bath and Beyond before making it to Barnes and Noble. They were also busy, but there's also more room to spread out. I dug two mysteries out of the cozy section and found a book on game shows on the entertainment shelves. Deptford does have a music and DVD area, and they too now sell records.
My Barnes and Noble finds were:
The soundtracks for Encanto and The Three Amigos (and I never thought I'd see a soundtrack for the latter - apparently, it's exclusive to Barnes & Noble)
Dim Sum of All Fears - Vivien Chien
Rhythm and Clues - Olivia Blacke
Game Show Confidential - Boze Hadleigh
Stopped in at the Starbucks there to wet my whistle. This time, I went with a small Green Tea Frappuccino. It was cold and I was thirsty. I went through my finds while downing my drink.
Soon as I got outside, I called Uber. It took the young woman about 9 minutes to pick me up, but it was the height of rush hour on a Sunday. At any rate, we once again hit no traffic, and I was home in 20 minutes.
Put everything upstairs, then went right back out again. It was too nice of a day to sit inside. The weather was gorgeous. It remained windy, but was also sunny and warm, probably in the upper 60's. I originally wanted to get a treat from Los Amigos, but it turns out that they close early on Saturday. I considered Dunkin' Donuts, but they didn't have much left, and I didn't feel like hiking all the way to WaWa. I just went home after that.
As it turned out, someone already took care of that. A friend, two neighbors, and their daughter made a pineapple-upside down cake for me. I love pineapple upside-down cakes! I've made them myself a few times. My friend also gave me a card and a huge bouquet of pale pink roses that smell so nice.
I heard from my family, too. Jessa texted late last night to see if I wanted to hit the Cherry Blossom Festival in Philly with her. I didn't get to it until late, and she didn't read it until much later. We decided to go bowling tomorrow or Tuesday instead. Rose texted me, and I had a nice chat with Mom (who also sent a lovely card).
Soon as I got home, I took that poor little stuffed giraffe to the sink and gave him a good scrubbing. I hope I got all the dirt off. It took me forever just to pull the needle-like leaves stuck in him. Since he didn't come with his tag, I had no idea what his name was. My friend suggested Geoffrey, after the Toys R Us mascot. I think that will do just fine. At any rate, he now looks much better, or at least, is less dusty.
Watched more Match Game episodes after I went upstairs. One of the most famous early episodes was from the only week where Bobby Van and Elaine Joyce got to sit side-by-side (and the only time Elaine was in Brett's character actress seat). The contestant's answer to a question about Batman and Robin's relationship now has this episode banned from the airwaves.
Switched to favorite episodes of the night time show after that. Two of the show's best early episodes has Gene questioning Richard's seemingly unusual answers in the Audience Match...and in the case of "Burns and __" and "Admiral __," let's say Richard was right both times. Another show begins with several panelists standing up and saluting a Scottish officer in full regalia.
The Match Game Sunday Classics marathon began around 7:30 and ran until past 3:30. Ira Skutch, the show's producer and judge, was in the spotlight tonight. A tall gentleman with high cheekbones and a fondness for leisure suits, Ira generally appeared on camera when he had to replace a question that had been compromised in some way with a new one, or to explain his rulings. Among the time he had to do the latter was during the week Donald Ross and Patti Deustch played together. Donald said "a little yellow spot" as to what a dog did on the floor and it was passed. Two other people said "spot," and it was buzzed. Ira told them he passed yellow spot because it was specific.
Ira's rulings could cause a lot of trouble, most notoriously during the infamous "School Riot" in 1977. Ira let "college" and "scuba diving school" slide as answers to where Dumb Dora took her cultured pearls to, but not "finishing school" or "night school." Debralee Scott and Richard Dawson threw a fit. Patti Deustch was so scared, she could barely show her "night school" answer. Brett and Charles tried to defuse the situation by showing Charles as "the first victim of the school riot," but the damage had been done. The lower tier kept their answers up in protest for what little remained of the episode.
On the other hand, his decisions could benefit the contestants. When one woman struck out completely in the Audience Match in a 1976 PM episode and couldn't do the Head-to-Head, they let her match the panelists for 100 dollars each. She ended up going home with 600 dollars and a smile on her face.
See if you can match answers with the show's infamously finicky producer and judge!
And here's the other episodes I watched today!
Oh, and the nice weather didn't last forever. The rain returned somewhere around 10:30. It rained hard for a while, but thought it remains windy, I don't think it's rained since.
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