In Eckleburg's Eyes - 1/5/2009, Part 2

News & Notes from Saturday, January 3rd, 2009

-On Saturday, JTH and I traveled to Chattanooga to buy him boxer shorts. Yes, you read the correctly. He needed boxer shorts and the only brand he buys is Quiksilver. The closest business that sells them is Boardriders at the Hamilton Place mall in Chattanooga. In short, we drove 88 miles to get boxer shorts. (Do not ask the question of why he did not just order them online. That argument is futile.)

-Before hitting the road, we visited with JTH’s mother, KTH, who showed us her recently completed DAR papers and a scrapbook she has been working on featuring all her pets through the years. I was especially impressed when she described her show dog Sabrina. The dog once won an award called the “Winner’s Bitch”.

-After visiting with JTH’s mother, we hit the interstate and drove through a driving rain to Chattanooga.

-Since it represented the purpose of our trip, our first stop in Hamilton Place was to Boardriders. I chatted with the employees while JTH shopped. JTH found a discounted hoodie he thought PCR might like, so I had the employees model the clothes for PCR and sent this photo to him. They were pleased that they had made the sale. Amazingly, this was not the strangest request someone had made of them.

-The store's selection of boxer shorts was limited but I bought him two pairs for his birthday the following Sunday. I really hope buying another man boxers is the most effeminate thing I do this year.

-We then shopped the rest of the mall. The mall’s KB Toys was closing and everything in the store was on clearance. I could not resist buying a bingo cage. I play bingo so often...

-In the middle of the mall was this “Power Jump”. Kids were projected from the first floor over the railing of the second on a trampoline. I wondered why the mall closest to my house could not have this. I concluded that the fact that it has only one floor might be a contributing factor.

-After thoroughly perusing the mall, we ate at nearby restaurant called the Country Place Restaurant (located at 7320 Shallowford Road). It is a family owned and operated business that opened in 1976. It proudly notes that Reggie White once ate there. I figured it would be a good place to get chicken and dumplings. I learned that dish is available only on Thursdays. The advantage of eating there on Saturdays is that meals are accompanied by beef stew while it lasts. Unfortunately, on this day, it did not last.

-I asked the server what she recommended. Her glowing endorsement of the chicken fingers compelled me to order them. They were good but I was later disappointed when she told me they were the only thing on the menu she had tried! She liked them so much she could just not get away from them.

-Before leaving Chattanooga we stopped at McKay’s (it would have been sinful not to) and the adjacent America’s Thrift Stores (whose prices were excessive). This photo is of JTH ordering this wall of back issues of National Geographic at the America's Thrift Store. Can you say “OCD”?

-Throughout the day we caught bits and pieces of the Tennessee basketball game on 102.3 The Talk Monster!. The Vols lost to defending national champion Kansas 92-85 in Lawrence. Given the result, I was not too disappointed at missing the game.

-When we returned to Knoxville, we hung out with ALK. We picked up a pizza from Papa John’s. We spent the night watching the Colts lose in the NFL Playoffs (it was not a good day for my teams) and playing the Wii.

-ALK did present us with a mystery. The previous night she dreamt of a movie she had watched as a child. I searched for it under the descriptor “orphan” as ALK indicated. We searched for the film for minutes online. Eventually her cousin, whom she had called, was able to find the title online. The reason I couldn’t? The correct descriptor would have been “foster child.” Thanks, Bart!

-Oh, the movie was from 1995 and called Rent-A-Kid. How popular is it? It has yet to be released on DVD.