7 Quick Takes Friday.

I'm joining Jen at Conversion Diary for another round of Quick Takes.

Let's see if I can get to 7 or if I have to abandon ship sooner...


1. Dan's been in Ireland all week.  Boo!  But he arrives home tonight.  Yay!  That is assuming no problems with airports, weather, flight cancellations, etc.  Since there is always one issue or another with airlines (especially on Friday evenings) I always just expect him home a day later than his actual flight - you know, hope for the best, expect the worst. It keeps me out of the fetal position on those times when he gets delayed.

2. The kids aren't in school today thanks to a teacher work day of some sort and guess where my kids want to go today?  The Halloween store.  I can hardly wait.

Spending at least an hour or more looking at masks and costumes in a dark creepy store and then the kids begging for over priced costumes and getting upset when I set a price limit and then not being able to make up their minds on anything and then me dragging them out of the store and then finally getting them home and them announcing, "Oh, I wish I had gotten the blah blah blah mask instead of this blah blah blah costume" is exactly how I want to spend my day today.

Anyone care to join us?

3.  Peter wants to eat lunch at McDonald's today.  Thankfully, I can't remember the last time one of the kids asked to eat at McDonald's.  Thank heavens for older kids who can appreciate the goodness of Chick-Fil-A, Arby's, and Subway.

Last weekend, Dan and Peter went hiking with the Cub Scouts and on their way home they stopped at McDonald's to try the new Mighty Wings.  Peter loves wings.  He gets his love of the hot wing from me.  Although he prefers his a lot milder than I do.  He said they were good and wants me to try them.  So, lunch at McDonald's for "wings" and a trip to the Halloween store.  Should be an interesting day.

4.  Tomorrow I am heading to Charlotte to see some friends of mine.  One of my good friends from college is getting married in November and she's having a lingerie shower. I did something I haven't done in years.  Years!   I went to Victoria's Secret.

Back in the day,(waaaaaaaay back in the day) my bras and panties had to match and they had to be purdy - prints, colors, textures - nothing plain Jane for this girl.  And yes, this was when I was gainfully employed and spending tons of money on bras and matching panties in all hues of the rainbow was something I didn't think twice about.

Now I have approximately two bras. One white, one tan.  And I get them at Target.  And I usually buy my underwear in a pack from Hanes or Fruit of the Loom.  And the only criteria is that they be bikinis (not boy shorts, not granny panties, not thongs, not low cuts) just bikinis.  Color and fabric aren't important.  Oh, but there is one other criteria...how many come in that pack is key.  7 pair of print  vs. 9 pair of plain....you can bet I'll be buying the plain.

Oh how far the bra and panty proud have fallen....

5. While I was at the mall, I stopped into Charming Charlies.  What a cute store!  Tons of cute jewelry and accessories and it was all reasonably priced. 

The rest of the mall, I could take or leave.  Give me Target and Kohl's.  I'm in and out with what I need and  with zero hassle, zero trekking 4.3 miles to get back to my car and zero kiosk people trying to convince me to get my eyebrows threaded or my hair curled.  Ew...

6. There are just too many people trying to talk you into buying something at the mall.  I made the mistake of trying a sample of tea outside of Teavana.  That kid (who was quite the forceful salesman) lured me in quickly with two free samples of tea and before I could swallow and say thanks and head to my car, he had me in the store to try other samples.  And then he showed me the pots and asked which one I thought I wanted.  As I was trying to down my tea and plan my getaway, he gave me even more samples (I think he was trying to sample-guilt me into buy a $75 tea pot set) and then showed me to the bins of tea leaves.

He asked me which one of the 47 samples I liked the best and I told him my fave was the Dragonfruit Devotion Herbal Tea.  And it really was good.  I was going to find out how much the tea was and then get out of there before I bought one of those pots and some tea, because at this point I was like one of those kidnap victims who starts identifying with her captives and wants to protect them and help them. And that tea really was tasty and maybe buying a fancy teapot set with all it's cute accoutrements would be a great idea after all...

He pulled out the canister of the Dragonfruit tea and then proceeded to try to sell me an empty canister that you need to have to store the tea.

He started to measure the tea into this canister (so presumptuous, my little kidnapper was) and I said, "So this is $7.99 a pound?" (Because I could see $7.99 on the side and really, that was affordable.)  And he said, "No Ma'am. It's $7.99 for 2 ounces."

WHAT?  I almost coughed up my Dragonfruit tea.  I dailed 911 to report a kidnapping and literally ran out of that store.  I think that poor kid thought if he kept talking long enough, I would eventually snap and buy something.  And his tecqnique almost worked because y'all, if that tea had been $7.99 a pound I would probably be the proud owner of a cute canister filled with it as well as an overpriced tea set.

But I spend $7.99 on 9 pairs of underwear that typically last me a year so there is no way I'm spending $7.99 on a couple of cups of tea.  Although that Dragonfruit tea was pretty tasty....

7. Have a great weekend y'all.  I guess I need to hop into the shower so I don't look scarier than one of those masks at the Halloween store.