Sister Time

“"The Wife’'s”" sister came in town for the weekend. She had in tow her husband and 1/3 of her children. We spent the afternoon shopping at “The Forum”. “The Forum” is a kind of outside shopping center with the likes of Orvis, Barnes & Noble, Talbots & Pottery Barn dotting the complex. The stores surround the parking lot, which is usually filled with Escalades, Lexus'’s & BMW’'s. In other words “"The FrickMobile"” looked completely out of place.
Our shopping adventures always begin with the men splitting off from "The Women". The men will venture through the bookstores, sport stores and such, and eventually catch up with "The Women" in either “The GAP”, Limited or Old Navy.
This afternoon we found “"The Women"” in “Old Navy”, we went inside to let our presence be known and let them know that we would be out front waiting on “"The Widow"” benches. “Widow benches” are those benches located throughout shopping centers/malls where you will always find men perched waiting for their wives or girlfriends to finish shopping.
After waiting for a while, we see “"The Women"” heading for the checkout line, and a slight smile breaks across our faces, this quickly turned into a frown as “"The Women"” retreat back into the bowels of “Old Navy”. We rode this emotional roller coaster several times, as "The Women" would head for the check out line, only to turn around and go back in search of more, better, or cheaper merchandise.
Finally “"Unka Dug"” turns to me and says "this is kind of like waiting for a space shuttle launch", "what do you mean by that?" I ask, "Unka Dug" replies "they start the countdown, and then just when lift off is in sight, something happens, the weather changes, a part falls off, there’s a fuel leak, who knows what but something always stops the countdown and then you are right back where you started with the whole countdown beginning again.".