Blizzards

Yesterday I took my daughter to buy her grad dress!!  We drove to Edmonton and hit two blizzards - on the way there it was the snow kind, on the way home it was the Oreo kind!!!  Let me start at the beginning though...we left Vermilion at 10:00 a.m. and drove through some pretty yucky weather!  We stopped halfway at Tim Hortons for a pee break and a snack - a chocolate chip muffin - and thank goodness that we did because I didn't eat again until supper!  We arrived at Costco first before we hit the dreaded West Edmonton Mall...well, Costco was pretty much as dreadful as the big mall.  I am not sure how many idiots can fit in one giant parking lot at a time, but I think I counted about 100 yesterday!!  I should have had something to eat for lunch there because I was starved by the time we actually did eat - I will get to that in a bit though.

We arrived at WEM and since the weather outside was frightful (you can sing the rest of that song if you like) we decided that best place to park was in the covered parkade...along with the other 200,000 people there!!  We drove and we drove and we drove until we found a spot at enterance number 56 and the shop we were going to was at enterance 31 so I figured we couldn't be too far from it. HAHAHAHAHA!  I think we walked about three miles to get there (which was really probably a good thing after you hear about my supper).  We found the store we were looking for - Mina's Bridal and Prom (I really shouldn't be giving them any free advertising since they don't really deserve it) a teeny tiny little store with about 500 not-so-teeny-tiny prom dresses!!!  If you are claustrophobic, I don't recommend this store.  Anyway, my graduate-to-be tried on about ten different dresses with the first one being the one of course - I think every bride or girl looking for a prom dress should just take the first one they try on because it's Murphy's law that it's the one you will end up taking!  Anyway, after carrying 20 lb dresses back and forth through the throng of other dresses and walking 3 miles through WEM I figured a few calories had been burned; the thought slipped my mind though after I looked in the three way mirror in the store - are my hips and thighs seriously that big!?!?!  In case you are wondering, we left the store with a 20 lb dress in hand - it fit like a glove, and the thought of going back there terrified me, so I payed in full (a rediculous amount of money) and we took it home - and made our way back to the parking lot to go find some supper!

We stopped at the Outback Steak House for supper (YUM) and I was SOOOOOOO hungry I could have eaten my left arm, so as soon as the girl came around I ordered a ceaser salad to start; she then told us that she would bring the free bread out right away...oh ya, I forgot about the free bread!  So, I chugged my gingerale and scarfed down my salad and bread, and I was actually getting a little full at that point...but then she asked what we want to order.  Steak sandwich - medium - with fries and gravy of course!  When she brought me the plate and I cut into the steak it looked like I just the severed the cows artery!!  I asked her to take it back and cook it just a little more, so she took the steak on a little plate and left me with the garlic toast and fries...so I ate the garlic toast and most of the fries as I waited for the new steak.  She soon came back with an ENTIRE NEW MEAL!!  Here I was so full from my salad, bread, garlic toast and fries and I was staring at a big plate of steak, fries and garlic toast - so I ate it!!  I couldn't finish it all of course, but I did my best and let me tell you, I thought my stomach was going to explode!!  Any thought of dessert that I may have had was out the door at that point.  We left the restaurant with sore bellies and a long drive home, but at least the blizzard was over - the snow kind at that is.

At the half way point we pulled into the DQ parking lot for a pee break and the much wanted dessert.  Do you know they now sell mini-blizzards!  I am sure they are very cute, but in my hands I held a medium Oreo blizzard and enjoyed every bite of it!!  I haven't stepped on the scale yet this morning, but I am sure it is not going to greet me with any good news, which is probably the exact reason why I haven't stepped on it yet!  I will though and I will get myself back on track today.  No more trips to buy grad dresses for me for another 12 years and hopefully when we go back at that point two things will have happened:

1. I will not have these hips and thighs when I look in the three way mirror.

2. The style of the prom dress will change so it does not weigh 20 lb!!

SJ