cooking up the offense like he's cooking ravioli

There is an episode of How I Met Your Mother where Marshall finds himself in one of those discount chain stores in New Jersey and absolutely loves it. He has room to spread his arms and can get everything in huge quantities. Rachel and I ventured into Stamford, CT today to do just that, spread our arms and buy huge packages of the things we needed.

We started the day by going to a town called Port Chester, NY. I had been wanting to check it out after seeing a few things about it during my ongoing research on cities and towns in upstate New York. They also have a Michael’s and Panera, so we had plenty of reasons to visit. Panera was great, as usual, but I think I am becoming an impatient New Yorker because the service seemed a little slow. After lunch, Rachel headed to Michael’s – she had a couple coupons that were about to expire – and I took Crusher to Petco to see if he wanted any new toys. He was mast interested in the bird toys and cat litter so we left without making a purchase.

After driving around Port Chester a little, we crossed the state line into Connecticut. As strange as it sounds, I love crossing state lines. There is something about crossing an arbitrary line so easily that I get a kick out of.

We made it to the Stamford Town Center Mall around five for some shopping. Rachel had a couple more coupons to spend and I wanted to maybe splurge on some new clothes with some of my birthday money. We ended up not having too much time to shop since the mall closed at six, but it was a nice mall and I would love to go back the next time we need to go out for some suburban shopping.

Finally, we made an epic trip to Target. We actually live within walking distance of a Target in Brooklyn, but it is so stressful to go there, that I try to avoid it whenever possible. Our Target is incredibly crowded and the shelves are never stocked. The Target in Stamford was marvelous. It was calm, quiet and seemed empty. We had the luxury to peruse the fully-stocked aisles at our own pace. Since we drove we could stock up on family sized shampoos and economy sized dishwashing detergent, and not have to worry about carrying them all the way home. Shopping at Target has never been so fun.

We had a great day getting away from the city. The weather was perfect and scenery was even better. This city is staring to grow on me, but it is nice to get away and be able to spread your arms in wide aisles every once in a while.