Shopping and Bonnie's Rain

Two things I forgot to mention yesterday: KB is living in California, so it's a big deal for her to visit, even though her parents still live here. It's not like she still lives one street over from me anymore. Also, she gave me a Kerry bumpersticker. Very cool!

Today my mom and I went to check out Brier Creek shopping center. That place is gigantic! I knew it was big, but you really have to see it to get a real impression of it. It looks like a little town, similar to Southpoint, but it's built more like a strip mall on steroids. We went to TJ Maxx and I got a few interesting kitchen items, like a 5 qt stainless steel mixing bowl and some cooling racks. We thought there was a Bed, Bath & Beyond there, too, but there wasn't. We tried out Champa Thai and Sushi. We ordered Pad Thai, a Sweet Dragon Roll and a Rainbow Roll equivalent, called a Skittles Roll. The Pad Thai was very good and I liked the sushi. I still the sushi at karma better than anywhere else I've tried it. The entree came with a coconut soup, which was also enjoyable.

Not too long after we got back, my dad and I ventured off to go Linens and Things. Mom mom thought we should take a look at some cheap bookshelves. The bookshelves looked good to me, so I got three of them. I also picked out odds and ends like small brooms with dustbins. I had just gotten to the aisle with non-stick baking sheets when my mom called on my cell phone and said we should leave as soon as possible, because we were about to have 2 hours of thunderstorms, according to the announcement on the HEMS frequency. So I grabbed a brownie pan, a mini-muffin pan and we headed for the cash register. By then, it had started pouring. I'm convinced that we would have been better off to stay and then I would have gotten to look at more of the kitchen section. As we were driving home, the rain was incredible and then as we got closer to home it lightened up a bit. It turns out that I'll be getting to look at the kitchen section after all. I turned out that the hardware in the bookshelves was made out of potently. One of the screw-like things holding up a shelf was broken when we took it out of the box and another one broke with just a little bit of pressure. They definitely won't hold up to heavy books and magazines, so we'll have to take them back tomorrow.

Finally, I discovered another use for blogging. When you write about practically every meal you consume, as I do, and it is announced on the local news that someone working at one of the restaurants that you like to frequent has come down with Hepatitis A, then you know very quickly whether you went there on the days when there was a possibility of being infected. You don't even have to find your credit bills or ask anyone you might have gone with. Fortunately, I last went to Big Bowl before the was any danger.