(no subject)
I had a great time in Minnesota.
We left here around 9:00 Friday but my GPS was trying to make me go a way I didn't want to go so I recalculated and I think I recalculated for the longest route. It sent me all the way across southern Wisconsin, up around the western edge of Green Bay, and then I restarted it and I had to go all the way back across northern Wisconsin to get to my aunt's house. Then when we got to the town she lives in, it sent me around the same block three times because I didn't put in her house number. When I reentered it with her house number, it got me where I wanted to be, which was across town. It all worked out, even though I made a 4 hour drive into a 7 hour drive, because my aunt couldn't leave work early. My other aunt was waiting outside for her and us when we pulled up. So when that aunt got home, we all had a cup of coffee and waited for my uncle to get home from work. He freshened up and we went for dinner. Then I headed on my way, which was another three hour drive.
It started pouring in the twin cities and it was really hard to see, then when I got to the town where my friend famatigia lives, I couldn't find the address so I turned on my brights and forgot to shut them off. I got pulled over and let off with a warning. It probably helped that I was honest, apologetic, and admittedly lost. I had Briana call her to get better directions though, and we figured it out without brights.
Saturday, we ate breakfast at my friend's work before we headed to Minneapolis. We met bettybites (She is my other friend's sister and I have been friends with the whole family for over a decade) outside her apartment (Brittany, Briana, my friend's son Josh, and myself) and we went to the art museum and then this really cool world market. I forget the correct name but it isn't the chain store. It's like a flea market of food and goods from all over the world. I bought two bottles of my favorite tea, a box of gluten free cornbread mix, and then had a bubble tea.
We headed back toward my friend's house and then when she got home from work, we went to dinner at Perkin's, then had ice cream from culvers and took the kids bowling. We didn't bowl but the kids did. The first game got done really quickly and they seemed a little bored so the second game, we let them take turns coming up with funny ways to bowl their turn. Whoever got the most points on a turn got to pick the next silly thing. They went backwards, they spun around in circles, they shot under their legs, they did bootie dances and then on the last shot, they had to do a really good dance. Josh break danced his ball down the alley. It might not have been appropriate or within the rules but it was fun.
Sunday, we went to Mall Of America. It was mostly fun. Josh didn't come but we met her older son, Jon, at Menards and picked him up so he could get his girlfriend a birthday gift. We made the hour drive to the mall, and then spent another 7 hours in the mall. The girls were rather inconsiderate about the amount of time we waited outside of clothing stores for them, until I scolded them. They got better from there. Then they wanted to go on the roller coaster and were next in line when some little kid freaked out and his mom threw a fit. The line got cleared, except our kids. Tangy went up for them and the asshole at the other end tried to tell me there was nobody else waiting up there so I had to move my bags. I had everyone's stuff surrounding me and couldn't move it. She was really rude. Then when we went to get our money back, she couldn't understand the concept that we paid cash for the ride and wanted a refund. She was so snotty that I intend to complain to corporate.
We left there and stopped at Burger King, then headed back and essentially packed and went to sleep.
Tangy cooked breakfast for us this morning and then we loaded up the car and headed home. The drive wasn't too bad, except that it poured most of the way through Wisconsin and the semi trucks kept spitting water at my windshield so visibility sucked. I expected Madison's traffic to be way worse than it was, though. We did find a shortcut so we avoided the tolls in Illinois and the highway led from the interstate straight to my house. I didn't know it went down that far.
If you're interested, here is what I bought at MOA:
Two cupcakes and a soda
An iPod touch case for Brittany because her otter box wasn't ventilating and her iPod kept overheating and shutting off (Michelle, do you want the otter box back?)
Arby's sandwich
Two shirts, a Wonder Woman bikini, and a pair of yoga pants for me (the bikini won't be worn around anyone but Louie)
Two Aeropostale shirts for Ronald
2 pairs of shorts and a shirt for Perrin
2 dresses and a shirt for Olivia
A dress and three shirts for Kimberley
A bag of hottest tamales for Ronald
A build a bear and clothes for Olivia and Perrin and one without clothes with a MOA symbol for Kimberley
3 bottles of body spray and body wash and 4 hand soaps from bath and body works
A shirt for Louie
Altogether, counting Burger King last night away from the mall, I believe I spent $270 on that excursion. The girls spent a combined total of about $400 and got a ton of clothes. In addition, my friend gave us a box of clothes for Ronald, and I somehow managed to fit it all, along with what we brought, in the trunk of a 2012 Chevy Cruze.