Day 74/365 - Nicholas, Patron Saint of Shopping Malls

It's kind of odd when you think about it that we erect shrines to a saint in shopping malls across the country once a year, yet it's done for almost entirely secular reasons. Poor Saint Nicholas -- stuck with cheesy temporary shrines and crying, snot-nosed, greedy little pilgrims. He definitely got the fuzzy end of the lollipop when it comes to the saint business.

I hadn't really thought of it much, but I do miss the excitement of going to the mall and sitting on Santa's lap and telling him what I want for Christmas. That was always a lot of fun as a kid. I'd pester my mom by asking her when we were going to see Santa and then I'd try to figure out what I wanted to ask for and then hope I didn't forget it when he asked me.

This is the atrium at the Pentagon City shopping mall in Arlington, VA. All my Christmas shopping has been done for a while now (gift cards as usual), but today I swung by the mall to grab lunch at Johnny Rockets and pick up an arm band for my iPod in the hopes that maybe that will motivate me to pry my slovenly butt up off the couch and go to the gym in my apartment complex. We'll see.

BTW, I really hate the way the Apple stores are set up. I hate the whole 'no check out line' and roving sales staff thing. When I go there it's just to grab an accessory. All I want to do is pay for it and go, but I'm stuck trolling about the store trying to find someone to take my money. Usually they are all chatting with an endless parade of clueless customers and I wind up ping ponging around trying to find one that is almost done answering questions.

I guess it's great if you actually do have questions, but when I just want to buy an armband or a case I don't need to ask any questions or get any explanations. 'Here's what I want, here's my money, bye'! I wish they had one sales person who was always in the same corner of the store instead of floating about and who was just there to ring things up and not to answer any questions. That would make me happy. It shouldn't be that hard to give someone your money. Bah, humbug!

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 6/365 - Made Over

My friend Desiree decided I needed a fashion makeover (she said my fashion sense was stuck in 1989), so tonight we went to Macy’s and Old Navy and I got 4 pairs of pants, a belt, two sweaters, a light jacket, and 4 shirts. And then after the stores closed we went to the Gap online and ordered me two pairs of jeans and three more shirts.

I only decided to get about half of the things she tried to get me to buy, but that was still a pretty major departure for me. I’m generally pretty stubborn and set in my ways. The stuff she picked out that I did wind up buying though looked fairly good on me, and they were things that I never would’ve even considered buying if I’d been shopping on my own.

We’ll see if this makeover is enough to catapult me kicking and screaming from the 80s into the 2000s (although I'm still not really sure about the dark jeans). This will be the first time I've worn corduroy pants since I was in the second grade. Turns out that the stuff I wore when I was in grade school is now the height of fashion. Who knew?

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 3/365 - Think I Got Everything

My friend Desiree decided we should have a little get-together to celebrate Oktoberfest today (she's good about coming up with things like this -- in July we celebrated Belgian Independence day by making Belgian dishes and drinking beer), so I grabbed my 'old lady' cart and walked over to Harris-Teeter to pick up the ingredients I needed for a bratwurst, sauerkraut, apple, and onion dish I found on epicurious.

I don't drive anymore and the old lady cart makes hauling the groceries home a lot easier. There really isn't much need for a car in this area. I can get pretty much everywhere I need to go either by walking or taking Metro, so about 9 years ago I sold my Jeep and then a couple years later I just let my license expire. People tend to look at you like you're the Unabomber or something when you tell them you don't have a driver's license, though. You might as well tell them you're from another planet.

It was my first time making this dish and it turned out to be pretty tasty. Here's the link to the recipe in case you'd like to try it. I took the advice of a couple of the commenters though and doubled the amount of bratwurst and used whole wheat flour instead of wondra, which I'd never heard of before and which the 'Teet' didn't carry.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)