Austin, TX

I like to do my Black Friday shopping from my armchair, preferring to let my fingers do the walking. This year, because I’m a good sister, I braved the crowds. We didn’t rush out the door at 3am or anything crazy but we did brave Fry’s. Where else would you expect a geeky girl to go shopping? We got there some time after lunch and it was craziness to park and craziness to get in the door. There were people trying to get out the doors and big 50+ inch TVs going out the door. I managed to get the bargains I wanted, a 300Gb hard drive, 2GB memory sticks and a computer case.

As I wandered through the store I kept seeing long lines. I wondered what they were for but it took me a while to realize that it was the checkout line. Ugh. That had to be the longest checkout line I’ve ever seen. It was worse than a military commissary on payday! The line started just to the right of the entry turnstiles, wrapped around to the right, up the center aisle behind the games, left past the player piano and the cafe, left along the appliances, right toward the bathrooms and back past the the music and videos and finally down the main check out aisle. Considering the length of the line, it actually moved fairly fast. They had the checkout lanes open on both sides. The poor girl checking me out had already been there 4 hours by the time I checked out. They all looked a bit sluggish but were being very polite.

Normally I hate having to go through the checkout process at the door and allowing them to view my receipt. This time, however, I was thankful. Not only did I stop, but he guy at the door actually looked at my receipt. Not that cursory glance they usually give your receipt. He said, “I don’t see your RAM” and then I remembered it sitting on the counter unbagged. He went back and got and I was very thankful. It would not have been cool to get home and find that missing, having paid for it.

We finally got out of there. It was 3:30, we stopped by Costco for gas and then we headed downtown to South Congress. My brother wanted to look at Maya for jewelry for my sis-in-law. He’d had good luck there last year and he hoped to have the same luck this year. Everyone must have been at the big box stores because driving downtown was easy and parking was no problem. We stopped in at Vespaio for the best amaretti cookies in Austin. Mmmm… They also serve great food. Their calamari is just incredible!

If you’re looking for fun and unique gifts it doesn’t get much better than South Congress. We stopped in at Monkey See, Monkey Do and bought a few fun stocking stuffers and then turned around and headed back to Maya Star to check out their jewelry. They had some beautiful pieces. My brother settled on a gorgeous green intaglio. Intaglio is sort of a reverse cameo, with the design recessed. The g is silent in the pronunciation.

While we were there my niece, Sophie, spilled her popcorn. My mother told one of the clerks, apologized, and asked if they had something she could sweep it up with. The clerk was an absolute sweetheart about it and very cheerfully swept it, even stopping to smile and chat with Sophie. This act of calm kindness won my mother over and she said, “I’d have bought something just because they were so nice”. That’s the kind of customer service that can earn you a customer for life. Go check them out!

We got home around 6, tired and hungry and set to work making dinner. We’d bought mussels at Costco Wednesday night and were disappointed to find that they’d gone bad. We should have cooked them earlier but with all the Thanksgiving preparations, we didn’t get to it. We’d only paid $2.79 a pound for 3lbs so it wasn’t too big a loss. We had leftover crab so one brother pulled together a quick crab alfredo and the other toasted bread for garlic bread and bruschetta. Yum!

Tomorrow is supposed to be wet and cold. I am supposed to do Zen training but if it’s too nasty we may give it a miss. Brrrr… My poor folks are supposed to hit the Renaissance Festival in Houston. It’s going to be wet and cold there, too, but it is the last weekend for the Ren Fest.

If you’re looking for fun things to do this weekend, don’t forget that this is the last weekend to see the Ted Geisel/Dr. Seuss exhibit at Arts on 5th.

Black Friday, Austin, Fry’s, Texas Renaissance Festival, Ted Geisel, Dr. Seuss, South Congress, Vespaio, Maya, Star, Shopping, Christmas, Jewelry