My stepsister Jessa picked us up around 11 for our trip to the Deptford Mall. She parked us outside of the main entrance, near Boscov's and Red Robin. And since we were right there, we started at Boscov's. Like Kohl's, their wares tend to be hit or miss. The other two didn't find anything. I just bought a light brown T-shirt from the junior plus section.
Headed to Red Robin for lunch after we got out of Boscov's. There was a vintage Super Bowl game between the Los Angeles Raiders and the Washington Redskins on the TV over the bar as we ate the towering stack of onion rings. The Raiders won Super Bowl 18 38-9 over the Redskins. (I looked the game up online later; apparently, it dates from January 1983.) By the time I had a croissant with avocado, bacon, lettuce, and turkey, Lauren had macaroni and cheese and a Whiskey BBQ Chicken wrap, and Jessa had a burger and fries, they had switched to a far more recent Las Vegas Raiders game.
We were in and out of a few pop culture stores next. I picked up a record and a CD at FYE. Despite their cute merchandise, no one found anything interesting at Hot Topic. Jess peered around Yankee Candle, but I'm not a fan of candles. Jessa got a cinnamon roll from Cinnabon and I got a churro while Lauren poked around in GameStop.
Made our way to Round 1 at the other side of the store next. The skee ball games were broken again, but I did manage to enjoy most everything else. Spent the next hour running from the Monopoly big dice to the pirate wheel to the monster wheels to the ring toss. Got Luigi again on Mario Kart Deluxe, and did quite well with him, too. Played Bust-a-Move, the giant Space Invaders and Pac Man, Nerf Arcade, and the Lane Master bowling game. (Got three strikes in a row on that!) I made over 3,200 points, enough for a big sweet stuffed dragon named Kai, an advanced Pokemon coloring book, and a gift for my niece Finley's birthday next month.
Spent the next hour in the remaining two department stores. Jessa and I didn't come up with anything at Macy's, but once we finally met up with Lauren, she revealed she dug up a few blouses. JC Penney is directly across from them. Jessa still wasn't interested, but Lauren bought another blouse, and I found an adorable mint-green sweater with a yellow pear knitted into the middle on clearance and a pair of tan Clarks walking sandals. The walking sandals I bought from Lands End online last year have already begun to fall apart. Normally, Clarks is beyond my budget, but they were $45 on a really good sale.
Our last stop was another, less edgy pop culture store. BoxLunch specializes in merchandise representing anime, Harry Potter, various TV shows, and Disney characters who don't often turn up outside of the theme parks. That huge purse I bought last year proved to be too much to carry around. It was too big to put in my bike basket, hard to get through narrow store aisles, and looked clunky other than the cool woven strap. I had a hard time deciding, but I finally splurged on an adorable Pokemon mini-backpack that featured Eevee and Pikachu froicking through a field of beautifully embroidered flowers. It cost me a pretty penny, even with a 10 percent discount, but it was worth it. I wanted a well-made and unique mini-backpack that would be easier to carry on my bike, and this certainly fits the bill.
After I unloaded the old purse and got everything into the new one, we headed out. I love the big Deptford Barnes and Noble so much, I had to share it with my two of my favorite people. Jessa just got a passion fruit iced tea. Lauren bought an iced coffee and a set with all seven Smokey and the Bandit movies, including the ones made for home media in later years. I bought two records, three books, and used the $1 coupon off an iced tea or coffee I got during our Barnes and Noble trip last week on a green iced tea.
There's a big Old Navy two doors down from Barnes & Noble. I meant to stop there on my birthday, but I was tired by the time I got across the street and wanted to get home. Lauren spotted a red vest right as we entered. Apparently, the Old Navy at the Lees Outlet had been out of the red vest for ages. I didn't see anything I wanted until I got to the checkout lane. They had socks hanging on a display under the counter, including pretty crew socks dyed in gradient colors, one set pink fading into yellow, another lavender fading into blue...and they were only $1.49 each! They were even mostly cotton. I bought two of each for a little over $5.
Oh, and the books I found were:
Celtics Myths and Legends, one of the huge Barnes and Noble hard-back fairy tale and folk lore collections.
Against the Currant and Hard Dough Homicide - Olivia Matthews (A brand-new series about a Caribbean family in Brooklyn who deal with a lot of skulduggery around their new bakery.)
The one CD was:
Kiss - Destroyer Deluxe Edition
The three records were:
Barenaked Ladies - Original Hits, Original Stars (Includes the theme from The Big Bang Theory!)
The soundtrack from The Goonies
The original Broadway cast album for the short-lived but well-received Some Like It Hot
Jessa dropped us off around 7:30. We brought our things upstairs, then went right back out again. Lauren loves Crown Chicken and Gyro and wanted to do at least one meal there. Not to mention, it was the nicest day we'd had on vacation yet. Sunny, breezy, dry, and much cooler, in the upper 70's. It was too nice to pack it in. They were busy with late dinner orders when we got there, which is likely why our shrimp and broccoli on beds of rice took so long. It was so late when we got it, we opted to just walk home and eat it there.
Watched Match Game Syndicated while we ate. They skipped ahead again to the second episode of the week with Gary Burghoff, Marcia Wallace, and Eva Gabor. Everyone had fun with the echo on a question about how an echo answers when a man yells "I love you" into a canyon, especially Marcia. She also did well with "Creature from __" on the Audience Match. The second episode began with Charles showing off his sailor's cap to Brett. Brett isn't overly happy when she turns up as the answer to a question, while Charles demonstrates the differences between "waste" and "waist."
Finished the night after a shower and the Match Game and Super Password with the tail end of My Favorite Year and game shows featuring fathers. Games revolving around the family go a long way back on TV. To Tell the Truth featured three father-son duos in 1961 who claimed to be two generations of pro baseball players. Family Feud let the whole clan, Dad included, in on the fun, while Family Game Night let parents and children run wild through a series of Hasbro board game-inspired mini-games.
Some famous TV dads turned up, too. Tom Bosley made his only Match Game appearance during a memorable Easter week in 1975. Ted Knight of Too Close for Comfort spent his week on Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour refereeing wacky Arsenio Hall and Jm J. Bullock and trying to keep them from jumping into the "canal" (the area behind the upper tier).
Play along with your dad and some of the most famous dads on TV with these hilarious episodes!
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