23-VIII-2007.
It's our birthday - Go's 28th, mine 52nd. Decided to treat ourselves in Adidas's shop, true outlet. The girls went shopping, that is, I was going in and out as usual, smoked, snappedshooted... er, snapshooted, er... whichever way is correct.
Only in the american south. A limo is usually made out of a luxury sedan, by just adding a few meters of metal in the middle and strengthening the chassis. In the south, however, they like to show off and do it their way, so someone paid to have a stretch hummer, with all the amenities - a bar, fridge, sound system and who knows what else. Now the question of it still being worthy of driving off road will remain unanswered. Doesn't matter, as long as it looks.
Dunno what we actually bought, one pair of sneakers for sure, maybe two, maybe some jeans. This being an outlet, the prices are lower to start with, the middleman's margin being out of the picture, and even so, what we bought had the price lowered to 50$, then 37$, sold for 30$. Not the first time - four years ago Go bought a tweed jacket in Richmond for 40$. When we peeled off the price, there was a 50$ tag under it, then 60$... all the way to 90$. (all prices here are rounded, I'm not nuts to keep typing the ,99 so many times).
Then we walked through the nearby mall, and I got midly disgusted. The mall in A-burg being identical to one in our neighborhood and the one in Jose's area (which is actually somewhat different) is kind of expected, it's all Virginia and probably the same chain, but to drive 750 miles to be in another identical copy... same tiles, same banisters, same wall siding, lights, everything. Saving on design, perhaps. Almost achieves the out-of-spacedness effect, where you suddenly don't know where you are and what will you see when you get out. I don't remember whether they bought anything there, the nearest smokery was too far and I was just walking around and snappingshooting, appearing only when called to produce the paycard.
Driving back I missed the exit to highway (best to take one, driving from south to north end) and stumbled into Buena Vista, aka Disney alley. Ouch. All sanitized, spruced up to look just like in the cartoons, not a living soul on sight... I hope that nobody lives there, and that those employed there will soon find some honest work. We've been through worse, this was only disgusting.
Nina reported that she bought another guinea pig, so Chu would have company. It's very similar to once Mrvica, and is so tiny that she named it Tik (only two calories...). Of course, over time it got fat to its ideal pear shape.
For dinner we ordered two largish pizzas, and opened a bottle of wine, of galon or less. The wine was chosen by its name - same as Ricardo's village (okay I know there are no villages in the US).
Next evening we drove back. Around midnight we were at the last restarea in Florida, somewhere north of Jacksonville, and did well so, because there were none in Georgia by the nortbound lane. The one they have serves southbound, unreachable. We slept in South Carolina again, this time a room upstairs, and the terrace in front of the door faced a swimming pool. Which we noticed only in the morning, when we already packed and were leaving. Didn't take a splash, just got to the highway and stepped on it.
We arrived at home in the afternoon, so (... 4 words...) we picked two big cucumbers (... 5 words...) patio. Good crop!
Mentions: Annenburg (A-burg), Chu, Gorana Sredljević (Go), Jose Bariero, Mrvica, Nevena Sredljević (Nina), Ricardo Manuel Bariero (Ricardo), Tik Tak, in serbian