We spent our Labor Day weekend in Dallas. My sister was in town, along with Mary Ann and Charlotte. It rained most of the weekend, so we had to alter our usual plans of lazing the weekend away by the pool. We headed out to the Allen Premium Outlets on Saturday and broke the bank buying clothes for the four of us. We scored a winter coat for Henry and Mary & I both got a new pair of sneakers. I nearly bought some red classic Pumas, but they had sizes that were either a little too small or a lot too big (a rarity for me).
We continued the consumer frenzy theme the next day at the Stonebriar in Frisco which my mom suggested as a place to take Henry and wear him out. I’m normally averse to any trips to the mall, but I think the previous day’s outing had softened me, especially since I had managed to pick up the elusive second series of King of the Hill figures at the KB Toy Outlet at a sweet $4.88 each. What a massive monument to American consumerism! The place had an indoor playground, giant carousel, a Dave and Buster’s, a Cheesecake Factory, a 24 screen movie theater (you read that right, 24) and two Starbucks locations (one on each level so you don’t wear your fat ass out in a quest for a venti double non-fat caramel macchiato). The place was truly frightening. Frisco was full of cow pastures when my parents considered moving us there in the mid-late ’80’s (much to my sullen teenage chagrin). They certainly have come a long way. Plano used to be an utter Stepford nightmare that scared the crap out of me, but Frisco has it beat in spades. The lyrics from ÆNIMA kept looping through my head as I walked around looking at all of the vacant stares and perfect hairdos. *shudder*
Oh yeah, there’re new pictures up from the weekend. Henry keeps making some weird face when he smiles, so the only decent shot I got of him was posed and coached. Lily, on the other hand, gave a wealth of material, such that I had a difficult time picking just one picture. Friday night, she started gnawing on an asparagus spear and seemed determined not to stop until she turned it into mush. After working on it for several minutes at the table, she got down and marched around my parents living room, munching all the while. I spared you some of the grosser shots with bits of pulverized asparagus hanging from her chin.