Quixotic

That's me.

Today we took the kids to the mall for the afternoon. They always love walking around window shopping, which is good because most of the time we're too broke to splurge and actually buy them much of anything. But today, we had lunch in the food court together and then Manny and Juliana rode the carousel together. Anneliese and Grace are afraid of the carousel. Keep in mind it goes about 5 mph, and you'd have to be really intoxicated to get dizzy riding it. But no, they feel safer watching it and naming all of the circus animals on it.

Then I got to have my rings cleaned and inspected, and watch the girls run around the kiddie zoo. The kiddie zoo is my name for the play area that the kids get to climb and run around in. The theme in ours is Huck Finn. Manny got to putz around in Barnes & Noble for a while. By the time I got to go in, of course it wasn't alone. No, all of us went in, but at least Manny took the girls into the children's book section. They got to do some crafts that had something to do with Harry Potter and the book being released. Ooh, which reminds me, we got a couple of silly polaroid pics that I'll have to post later, if I can scan decent copies of them. No, I didn't buy the new HP book, because I figure I'll be borrowing it from one of four sources, or just wait for the library to have an available copy. I'll buy it when it comes out in paperback, just because I can be cheap that way. The kids were excited about getting books. Juliana picked out a nice new diary; Grace chose a Strawberry Shortcake book that has lots of drawing and painting pages, plus some water color paints; Anneliese kept asking for a "book wiff crayons, Mamma!" so I found a Barbie Cinderella coloring book that actually came with four huge coloring crayons. They're all proudly carrying around their new treasures, and will likely sleep with them all week. I just love that my girls enjoy books as much as I do. I get lost in them, when given the chance. Books have no expectations of you, and just take you to a place in a way nothing else can. I love the feel of the paper, and the weight of the book in my hands. I love getting so involved in a dramatic portion to discover that I'm holding the book right up to my nose in anticipation. I love how time can fly in the midst of a good tale. I love the connection to characters that feel like they could jump out of the pages and know everything about you, just as you know about them.

I DID get to buy a copy of Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles. Yeah, yeah, old news, but it's a paperback copy that has ALL THREE books in one big book. I would've gotten the Mayfair Witches series but they didn't have all of the books in a single book like that. Ah well. There's also a newer Anne Rice book called "Christ The Lord" that I would LOVE to read. It's about Jesus as a child, starting when he's about 7 years old, as he grows and tries to figure out the mystery of his birth and his place in the world. Supposedly, Anne Rice did a ton of research and it's supposed to be a fairly decent possible account of what his childhood could have been like. That'll have to be a library steal, though. Right now I have a few books already from the library that I need to get through, but this one is top on my list.

Anyway, our main errand at the mall was to upgrade our cell phones. Manny's was busted and needed replacing, and mine was starting to get to the point where it was just grubby. Thank goodness for the free dollars Verizon offers every two years, because we were able to get two phones for $100, but the money didn't come out of our pockets. They were on Verizon. Whoo hoo! Well, not "whoo hoo" at having to sit and program every single phone number from the old phone into the new phone. I hate that part. It'd tedious and boring and don't you know that Manny wants me to do his for him? Gah, later.

OK, gotta take off for now, but I'll be back tomorrow, I'm sure.