9:57 p.m. - Wed. April 28, 2004
It was a win win situation!!!
OHH My gosh what a day this has been. My sister-in-law-to-be had to attend a meeting in Pittsburgh today but didn�t want to drive down there, so being the self-centered person I was I saw it as an opportunity to go shopping so I volunteered to take her down. As of last night at 9:30 when I got done working, I still didn�t know where I was going and what time I was meeting her and what time she had to be there. About 10 I got thing straightened out and knew what I was doing thanks to MSN maps. It gave me the very best driving directions to get to this place. ***I never mentioned that I could follow them but they were correct.***
Boy did 5:15 come very early this morning. I got up and outta here by 10 min. to 6 and picked everybody up and was on our way to Pittsburgh by 6:30. I figured I could afford to get lost for about 45 min and still have her there on time. I learned a few things on this trip the first one is to never every say, �and we will be early!� About half way there she was going through her email from work and found an email that said the meeting was changed to 8:30. This meant we now only had about 20 minutes for traffic and the �oops that was our turn off� detours. So we get to Pitts and I we got really close and I said those dreaded words, �Oh look we are going to get there early.� So much for that as I took the wrong direction on the last route, the exits were going up and not down so we got off there and asked directions of the �not to bad looking for an older Pepsi guy� who was witty and charming. We got back to where we were supposed to be and found the complex where the Giant Eagle�s Headquarters was located. They have not one, not two, but three buildings. OYY! We got there right about 8:30, so we didn�t do to bad in the getting lost department.
After all that it was off to shopping at Cranberry! Yes, all we had to do was go back the way we came and shop for the next 8 hours. Not a bad idea until somehow I got all turned around and ended up going in a great big circle in this complex, it wasn�t too bad till I came around this hairpin curve and there was this big delivery truck right in our lane coming towards us! We, Laurie my friend who was along for the shopping part, **not to be confused with Laurie who is my sister-in-law-to-be** screamed and I deftly with the driving skills a pro maneuvered quickly out of the way of the truck, and then saw a sign saying that the route we wanted was just up ahead and to turn right. It looked rather familiar and Laurie brought this to my attention, yep we were going in circles. **good thing we didn�t have our tail in our mouth,,hehehe** So back around we went trying to figure out how we got there and where we missed the ramp at; we rounded that hairpin curve at that point and TA DAAAH the stupid truck was in front of the sign and ramp when we came by the first time. We had a good laugh about it and proceed onward and upward to shopping!!!!
We made it back to the turnpike alright and as we are pulling out of the toll both I ask Laurie, which way which way??? Harrisburg or Ohio,, **why do they put these signs in the most broad general terms?? OHIO??? What the heck??** Laurie says Harrisburg, so off that way we go��. About the first sign on the turn pike we realize that opppssss we are heading the wrong way� OYYY the next sign did however clear things up, we were headed to Monroeville. Good shopping in Monroeville so it was all good and it was about 10 miles less to go down the turn pike than Cranberry was. Good deal.
We got there and found a nice little plaza but realized that nothing was open yet at it was about 20 minutes after 9 and things didn�t open till 10. So we enjoyed a nice donut at Krispy Kreme. *I didn�t get sick this time whaa whoo* While scoping out this plaza guess what I spied??? My favorite place in all the world�. A BOOK STORE, not just any book store but one that was a going out of business! Whaa whoo I spent what I thought was 10 min but in real time it was about an hour. I love book stores. I got a couple spent about 10 bucks. Two of the books were little ones, one for my daughter from me and one from Laurie�s daughter to her. I will sneak it to her on the sly so she can give it to her mom on her bday!!! I also got a cool Grandma Scrapbook sorta thing. I hope to work on getting it all filled in over the time I have till I have grandkids. If nothing else it will be a nice book for my kids. Next we went and did a bit of speed shopping at the mall, it was fun, and then it was off to do some more running in circles. We were looking for some place to eat, and ended up going around the block and going back to McDonalds that we passed when leaving the mall.
Of course I�m not sure if one can survive shopping without at least stopping at one craft store. I didn�t want to chance it so we put in about and hour at Michael�s looking at scrapbooking stuff. I got few papers for half price and then some bulk paper and a nice book of how to draw boarders and some different lettering for a buck. I also took advantage of their 40% off coupon to purchase corner rounder. That was so much fun but it was now time to get Laurie picked up from her meeting.
This time I knew where I was going and got us about half way back when I said those words again, �OHH look we are going to be early, I�ll stop and get some gas.� Duhhh,,, I apparently didn�t learn my lesson the first time because, I pull in to the gas station and up to the pump kill the engine and try to remove the key. ODD the key wouldn�t come out, it wouldn�t start couldn�t figure this out so after messing with it for a bit I opted to get the gas and let Laurie look in the owners manual **it is the sister in law to be�s car** to find out how to get the key out. I get back in and the manual was no hope so I messed a bit more, the longer I messed the harder we laughed. All of a sudden Laurie says� �is it in park??� AHH DUHHH,,, OHH did I ever feel stupid. Her car has the shift on the consol so I wasn�t used to that. Soo much for being early!!! We get with about 3 min to spare; however Laurie was already waiting for us, she got out about 5 or so minutes before we got there. Not bad if I do say so myself. We had a good time telling her what we did while she was sitting in that wonderful meeting.
At this point we headed back towards home. We got to Cranberry about 4:30 and decided that we wanted to stop in and do a bit of shopping at you guessed it,,, Michael�s again. There I got my hole punch the kind you hit with a hammer to use with eyelets, with their 40% coupon. How cool is that, I also go some different paper that was marked half off and some black paper. I think I would like to try some black paper background pages, but couldn�t find any around here. So all in all I spent just about as much money on scrapbooking stuff as I did on everything else. We did go to Fashion bug and Catherine�s to do one last bit of shopping then to Kings for dinner. After dinner we headed on home. It was a fun fun day and the sister in law to be didn�t have to be a nervous wreck driving down there, and Laurie and I had some fun shopping, so it was a win win situation!
I am so tired I can�t keep my eyes open.
