Atherton and Nordie's

Penn is flying down to Atherton for his interview next Sunday.

Yikes.

In other news, the retail area close to our home has a bunch of new stores going up! They're adding on to the mall, which will house an additional movie theater and eight new restaurants. AND there is a new Kohl's!! We used to love Kohl's when we lived in Connecticut, because they had a section for tall people. Penn, not me. ;) So Nicknack and I drove over to take a peek. Unfortunately it isn't open yet, just hiring. But there is a brand new Nordstrom Rack next door so I strapped Nicknack in his stroller and went inside to see if they had any cute earrings or fall clothes for the little man. Big mistake.

First of all, you should know that I hate shopping. Especially for myself. Ask my mom. I'm no fun. She's not a big shopper, either, so I guess that's where I get it. I prefer to do all my shopping at Land's End and Nordstroms (for cosmetics and stuff) websites. I hate trying things on. I hate waiting around for someone to bring me my shoe size. I hate leafing through racks of stuff to find just the right thing. But I must admist that I do like buying Nicknack's clothes, so that's the only reason I usually step foot into a mall or department store.

In addition to shopping, I hate crowds.

Well, this Nordstrom Rack just opened. It was awful. There were throngs of people. Also, they provide smallish shopping carts for shoppers, but the aisles aren't meant for carts. Then you have Nicknack and I, with our stroller and large straw handbag hanging off the stroller handle. The whole time I was frustrated because I couldn't get down the aisle or I was in someone's way or Nicknack had kicked something off a rack.

And I didn't find any cute earrings or anything for Nicknack. I walked out with a pair of gloves for my mother and a headband. Woo hoo.

(By the way, I've read on other people that some folks call Nordstrom "The Nord." That sounds so odd to my ears. Around here we call it Nordie's. )

I think I'll stick to my internet shopping, thank you.

But on the way home we stopped at the kiddie consignment store in the fancy zipcode next to our own not-so-fancy neighborhood. Where I found a baby gate for $8. Yay! I went expressly to look for another baby gate and they had just gotten it in today.

They also had two of those gigantic train tables for very reasonable prices. I have to decide between the two - one is higher for a toddler to stand at and the other is meant for kneeling.

Although, if we're moving to Northern California I'd guess I shouldn't buy anything I don't want to move.

Hey, has anyone reading this ever been to the Atherton/Palo Alto/Stanford area? What did you think? I looked at Realtor.com and the housing is soooo expensive. Like $600,000 for a decent condo in a neighboring town. Can you imagine? No wonder Californians are always moving other places. Who in the world could blame them?