The Mall of Wonder and Whole Foodness and the US of Busheria

Last night after work, I went to one of the malls in Burlington. Mall of Wonder, it wasn't. It was a two level building, neat, clean and well-lit. The food court consisted of an Italian food place "Dino's" (quite popular) and a Chinese-Japanese place with two, tired and bored workers without customers. I almost felt I should buy something from them just because they looked so sad. But I didn't. There were about two dozen shops, I suppose. I didn't count. There was a Gap, Baby Gap, J. Crew, Lane Bryant, Limited, Abercrombie and Fitch, Waldenbooks and Filene (Macy's in Vermont) just to name a few. Being a plus-sized chick, I was glad to see there was a Lane Bryant.

When I was driving over to it, I had fantasies of this mall being the place I would go to to get away from the apartment during the times I feel trapped in due to the weather. However, I think it is not the place for me. I know I could hang out in the bookstore for hours, but that would be it. I know there is another mall somewhere around here. I will find it. I will. I do know of a Barnes and Noble that isn't too far away. That is another option.

After that tingling experience, I went to The City Market, which is like Whole Foods. I LOVED IT! It is a co-op, which I think is a cool thing. I found brands of healthy food that I liked in Los Angeles. That made me very happy. I bought some soy pudding (it's really good. You lactose intolerant people should try it) and beef. Then I went home to cook.

I turned on the TV to watch the election coverage while I cooked. I knew that not much would
happen with the results in the few hours I was watching, but I felt compelled to watch. I had bought a fry pan from the dollar store over the weekend that is about 6 inches in diameter. As I am not use to cooking on an electic stove, I was sure to turn the heat on medium high and not blast it on high. I sprayed the pan with cooking spray so as to not burn the pan and began cooking the beef patty. Well, the pan smoked and burned on the outside bottom AND on the inside. Nice. I can't afford scouring pads at this time, so I soaked the pan in dishwashing liquid and scrubbed it with a sponge. The burn is still there. I am hoping to buy an Oenida fry pan at the grocery store in a couple of weeks. I do feel that I absolutely got what I paid for. The pan was worth the dollar. It did it's job. It smoked up the house, but I had closed off the smoke detector so it wouldn't go off.

Back to the election. For those of you who might be Republicans, please don't stop reading my blog because of what I am about to say. It is a sad day in the US of Busheria. Maybe I will move to Canada. George W. Bush has been re-elected for a second term. That makes me sad, but I had a feeling he would. Our country needs a change. Between the Iraq situation (whatever happened to Afghanistan?), unemployment and the alarmist state we are suppose to live in, I thought John Kerry could make a difference. Though he has conceded the election, who knows if things will change once the absentee ballots are all counted (if they are all counted.) It does tell me that our election process needs to change. I stayed up until midnight watching the results and projections. I hate our newscasts sometimes. Since the results take hours to tally, why show prejections? It's like betting on horses or boxing.

Anyhow, lunch time is over. Time to get back to work.

Tonight I might go to the opera. I hear La Traviata is playing in town. I might just have to go check that out...