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My friend was off work Monday for Veteran's Day, so we decided to check out the two new outlet centers in the St. Louis area. Like a lot of people, I am curious to see if the area can support two of these malls. And I fervently hope they are not the kiss of death for Chesterfield Mall.  We decided to stop first at Taubman Prestige Outlets, which is accessed via I-64 from the Boone's Crossing exit. Traffic was slow in the right lane exiting onto Boone's Crossing, but sadly for the center most people turned left heading to Chesterfield Commons rather than right towards Taubman Prestige Outlets. Once we arrived at the center the parking lot was quite empty.

The center is set up in a horizontal fashion, similar to a strip mall, with two rows of stores facing each other. Currently there are 48 stores open, with a few more stating that they are coming soon. Billed as a dog friendly destination, there are numerous watering stations for dogs as well as waste disposal bags. As there is no grassy area, it doesn't take much imagination to figure out where the dogs will be doing their business. I have a dog, but this is not a place I can see taking him. Not every store allows you to bring dogs inside, and I would never tie him up while I shopped. Three restaurants are open in the food court: Japanese, Chinese and Italian. We decided to see what was offered at the other center, so we did not eat here.

I was hoping to get some Christmas shopping done, but all I ended up buying was a chew antler at the pet store for the dog and a card game at the game store to play over Thanksgiving.

dog station

one of several dog sculptures

children's play area

Next we headed over to St. Louis Premium Outlets. We hopped back on I-64 at Boone's Crossing and drove west to the next exit, Long Road. After crossing back over the highway, you turn right on Chesterfield Airport Road and follow the signs to the shopping center. The differences in the two centers was noticable immediately. The parking lots here were packed! The layout of the center to accomodate the 90 stores is very different as well. There are three rows of stores, with anchor buildings on each end. The center just has a whole different vibe to it. We went first to the food court since it was lunch time. There are five places serving food inside, and they are typical of the restaurants you would find in any mall food court. Hopefully there is a plan to open up restaurants near this center as well as the other one.

After eating we went in quite a few of the stores. My assessment is that the pricing does not appear to be much better than if you went into these stores in a mall location, particularly when the mall stores have a sale going on. I will add, however, that the Christopher & Banks store at this location is larger than any I have ever been in before, so that was something at least.

The bottom line for me is that I will not make the drive again to go shopping, unless I have guests visiting and they want to go out there. And if we only have time to make one stop, it would definitely be at the St. Louis Premium Outlet due to the larger variety of stores and general overall feel of the center.

fireplace & seating area

one leg of the center

sculptures

Recently I have begun to think about getting a new car. It is interesting how your family members all weigh in as if it is a car that they will be driving. Ha! Even the dog is not going in this car if I decide to get one. Jim and I first went out an looked at six or seven cars at the megacarplex in St. Louis County. It is handy to be able to view so many makes all in one location. When we entered the beemer shop not one person greeted us. Apparently we did not pull up in the appropriate vehicle. Or perhaps I forgot to wear my Prada that day. At any rate, while we sat in all the different cars I did not test drive any. I wanted to first be able to wean my list down.

While Andy and Megan were here they went with us to test drive the four vehicles I wanted to take a closer look at. Upon entering same beemer dealer, we were again all ignored. It was definitely a Pretty Woman moment - I had money to spend but they didn't want to help me spend it. That dealership is out should I decide to purchase that kind of car! The two other cars that we took out at the other dealerships were both very nice vehicles. Andy, Megan and I took out a hybrid from a third manufacturer, and while it had a surprisingly decent drive, it does not come with a sunroof or backup camera, so it is off the list.

Jim and I then drive a beemer from a different dealership and yet another make of car. I have the list down to my three favorites, and even completed a spreadsheet of their features because I cannot make up my mind which one I want to get. The spreadsheet did not help, but my mechanic concurred that I had made three excellent choices and proceeded to tell me how he would rank them. That was helpful.

Last Thursday my workout buddy wanted to go test drive an SUV made by the company currently #1 on my list, so we decided to go together so that I could take my possible choice out for a second drive. I also thought it would be fun to get the input of my friend on the car. I had contacted my salesman to let him know that we were coming, and he said he would be available. He had my car ready for us to take out, and confirmed what my friend was looking for so that he would have it ready when we came back from the first test drive.

When I got into the car I immediately noticed that there was a hump coming from the center console into the driver's side, and that it was rubbing up against my right leg. What the heck?!? How had I missed this the last time I took the car out? I was driving the version with reduced horsepower this time, so maybe that was the difference? I really didn't like the feel. Besides that, the drive was as wonderful as I remembered. Following that we took out the SUV, also a nice ride, and then for fun tried out the SUV Hybrid. $67,000!!! It was loaded, as you might imagine. It was a wonderful car, but not worth the price in my opinion.

I had noticed that we did not have the salesman's full attention, which I thought was odd as I had brought him another potential customer. Then my friend made the comment that she wondered if we would be getting the same treatment if our spouses were with us. Sadly, I think she is right. And all my original warm, fuzzy feelings for this salesman disappeared. Why do women continue to be treated this way? After all, both of us were looking at cars for ourselves. Not our families and certainly not our spouses. And for that matter, why do you rarely see female car salespeople? I will probably take a trip to the other dealership in town that also sells this car just to see what the treatment is there. And you can bet that I will be blogging about it.

Two years ago when my friend Diane purchased the quilt I had donated to the school auction for her daughter Lauren, she cautioned that she would need quilts for for Tommy and Courtney when they graduated as well. At the time I wasn't sure if she was serious, and anyway Tommy wouldn't graduate until 2011 and that was a long way off. Well, Diane was serious and it is now 2011!

Last week the two of us went to Jackman's Fabrics to begin looking at material. Tommy wants a quilt just like Lauren's except that he wants purple as the main color and not Mountain Dew green. So the good news is that I know what pattern I am doing, the bad news is that the quilt has 70 squares of novelty fabric, each representing something of the past or present. That's right - I need 70 different fabrics. We found 26 at Jackman's, as well as three different purples for my borders. I came up with 18 additional fabrics I had a home that will work, leaving me with 26 additional fabrics to locate.

I love shopping online as I can enter what I'm looking for, say Harry Potter fabric, and I can usually find something that will work. The trick is to make sure it will look okay with purple! I located the lady I have purchased from in the past, and I'll be able to make up the rest of the squares from her I think. She is looking for a few things I could not find, such as something to represent a trip to Germany/Austria. Castles, perhaps? It will be fun to see what she comes up with. Last time she sent me a whole bag of scrap materials to dig through, and she wouldn't let me pay her anything for them since I was donating the quilt.

Last night I cut the 44 pieces of fabric I already have into 5 1/2" squares. Lauren's were only 4 1/2", but Tommy is quite a bit taller than her for one thing. The fabrics we located also have larger patterns on them, so I wanted the extra inch to capture more of the detail. While I am waiting for the other fabrics to arrive I'll begin cutting the purple strips which will border each of the squares. All the cutting is the most time consuming and least rewarding part of quilting, in my opinion. I like seeing all the squares come together as I sew. Oh well, off to the cutting board!

It is hard to believe that today is the first day of September. I'm really thankful it has arrived what with the heat we have been experiencing this summer, but still the year is marching on its way. While most colleges have already begun, Katie's first day is not until the day after Labor Day. Since we ran into problems getting an apartment in Chicago, that is actually a good thing. We ultimately secured a three bedroom apartment in the building that Katie began looking at last April. It is a beautiful apartment, nicely appointed with stainless steel appliances and granite countertops. Didn't we all have that in college? Oh wait...I lived in the dorm for three years and then in a two bedroom trailer my senior year.

But that was then and this is now, and I am happy that Katie is in a building and area that I feel comfortable with, or as comfortable as any parent can feel with the world being what it is these days. Katie and I spent a good chunk of today picking up some last minute items. We'll still have shopping to do at Target once we get over there, but we picked up non-breakable, non-perishable items here.

Friday at noon I will pick up the moving truck (woo-hoo, haven't driven one of those since I moved Andy out to D.C. in 2007). One of the young guys from SWT is coming over at lunch time to help us get Katie's bed down from the third floor and the couch out of the basement. Then at 4:00 I'll take the truck to a new business in Webster Groves to pick up out IKEA order, along with the order from Katie's roommate. We'll finish loading the truck with all the girls' stuff Friday night as we want to be on the road by 9:00 Saturday morning. I'll leave slightly earlier as I am dropping Kirby off at my niece's house in Illinois. Her girls are excited to have Kirby spend the night with them.

Our move in time at the loading dock is 3:00. Sounds like the girls have recruited a number of friends so we should have many hands on dock - yuck, yuck. We'll need them as we have a lot of furniture to put together. Jim and I can pretty much stay as late as we need to on Sunday, and I know we need to not only go to Target but also the grocery store to get the pantry stocked.

I'm looking forward to meeting Katie's third roommate Fay from China. Hopefully this will be a good mix of personalities, and everyone will have a fun year.

This morning I went shopping at Kohl's. (Here's an insider tip: arrive at 10:00 on a Sunday morning. There were only three other cars in the parking lot.) Next month we are going to Washington, D.C. to see Andy and Megan, and I need a few things for the trip. A bag of my summer clothes mysteriously disappeared. Because we live in an old house we are pretty shy on closet space. Hence Jim and I put our winter clothes down in the basement in storage. I'm not sure what all was in the bag, but I first missed my "Got Albert?" Cardinals t-shirt. I LOVE that shirt and I have never seen anyone else with one on. Next I realized that my two summer nightgowns weren't with my other summer clothes. Then I missed a couple pairs of shorts...You get the drift.

So off to Kohl's I went with my 15% off coupon in hand. I picked up a couple of household items first before heading over to the petite section. Gathering up the items I wanted to try on, I headed for the dressing room. Other than a pair of jeans and two nightgowns, nothing else was working for me. I went back to petites for round two, adjusting sizes on the shorts and trying to clear the horror of seeing myself in triplicate in a swimsuit out of my mind. I took a new set of clothes to the dressing room, which was still gloriously empty, and was in my bra and underpants when I heard someone enter the space. Next thing I know I see the head of a man appearing over the top of the fitting room door. He thankfully was not looking my way, and I watched him in triplicate as I hurriedly stepped into some pants. I could hear him spraying the mirror at the end of the hallway outside of my door in preparation of cleaning it. Next thing I know, my door swings open. "Someone's in here!", I shouted just as he exclaimed, "Sorry!" He probably was sorry that he saw all of me in triplicate.

He proceeded to clean all the fitting rooms, including running the vacuum, even though I was in there. How odd...He apologized again as I finally made my way out. I was hoping to out-wait him, but he apparently was intent on doing a thorough job. Just my luck to run into a man who actually cleans.

But in the end I scored two pairs of jeans, two pairs of shorts and two nightgowns so I am set for the trip. Too bad I don't "Got Albert" though.

Jim is in Chicago with wife number 4 (I have all of his motorcycle buddies numbered. I, of course, remain wife number 1) attending a motorcycle show. They went over yesterday and closed the exhibit hall down last night, and will be there all day today and tonight. They did squeeze in time this morning to have breakfast with Katie, delivering to her the chocolate orange cookies I made for her and the quesadilla maker she got for Christmas but couldn't fit in her suitcase when she returned from break. Somehow she convinced them to take her to Target so she could buy some things that are too heavy for her to carry back from the store. That's my girl! I would have loved to have seen those two guys traipsing through the store with her. I have to admit that it is a pretty cool Target. It is huge - two stories with a parking garage attached to it. As my husband told wife number 4, who is from Lawrence, "You're not in Kansas any more Jimmy!"

I decided to do a little shopping myself today. I headed off to the Galleria with my list in hand. Had a new battery put in my Seiko watch, which was a Christmas gift from Jim many, many years ago. Picked up a new tube of my lipstick at Sephora. I buy all my other makeup at Target, but for some reason most tubes of lipstick make my lips crack. Katie turned me on to Dior lipstick and it works well for me, I guess making it worth the King's ransom they charge for it. My daughter, of course, is a frequent shopper at Sephora. She wears much better makeup and underwear than me. Sigh...

After I checked those two things off my list I headed to Macy's. The guys at ORMI got me a gift card for Christmas, so I wanted to use it before I lose it. I don't have as much luck shopping at Macy's as I did at Famous Barr. They don't carry the petite line of clothing that fit me so well. Since I had no one waiting for me I took my time trying on lots of clothes. And might I just interject that one could do a whole blog posting on conversations overhead while in a dressing room. Here is just a taste...a man followed his girlfriend into the dressing room so he could give his opinion on the dresses she was trying on. They went back and forth on whether she liked the first dress. She hated the bow, and he said he would just cut it off. The second dress she really liked, and when she asked his opinion he said he REALLY liked it. She told him he was supposed to be looking at the dress. I can only assume the girls were popping out of it and that is what captured his attention. Oh to have been in a dressing room that had slats I could peer through!

Anyway, I particularly wanted to get a winter pants suit, and I thought I would have luck on the clearance rack this time of year. Apparently I waited too long, as all the suits were more of a spring weight. So I settled for a classic grey herringbone, and the pants are lined so they will work most of the winter. I also had a few tops I had selected to go under a couple of jackets I already own. When I went to pay, I handed the clerk the gift card and a discount card I had received in the mail. "You can't use the gift card and the discount card", she told me. Apparently the only way to get the discount was to use your Macy's card. No problem - the suit was a little more than the gift card anyway. Nope - the computer wouldn't accept it. So I told her to ring up the suit separately, using the gift card. Then I used the coupon on the blouses. Ridiculous! But a good shopping trip nonetheless.