I just recently got into Mad Men. And now I am really really into it. Greg and I had a Mad Men night to celebrate Season 5. Even Sal made an appearance!

NEVER in my life have I gone into Target and only bought the ONE thing I went in for. Today in line, right after I realized I had forgot the thing I came in for, I turned to a woman gathering her bags and said,  “Isn’t it so hard to only buy what you came in for?!” She looked at me with her perfectly buttoned collared shirt and smooth hair and said, “Not for me. I always just get what I need.” She then turned and walked away leaving me and my cart full of stuff I didn’t come in for…fuming.

YEAH RIGHT! There is no way. No WAY I am buying into that. Seriously? She’s never ventured off into the dark aisle of candles and picture frames…ever?

I turned back to the checkout guy to pay and said, “I am just not buying it.” (Not the unnecessary items, the woman’s lies!) He just shrugged at me. I already knew he wasn’t into chit-chatting I am not sure why I even tried a second time. Minutes before this debacle with Miss Perfect went down, I had asked him if he thought I bought the right lamp shade for the stand I was purchasing and he just said coldly, “I don’t know… I’ve never bought a lamp before.” Alrighty!

A look inside his house.

Anyway, this Target recently got a major upgrade and it made me think it may just be a…SUPER TARGET (although the sign outside just said Target). I recently drove to Riverside County north of San Diego for work and saw about three Super Targets on the way. Each one calling my name to come check them out. I wanted to stop so badly. What made it Super?

As I pulled up to this Target tonight, I saw the new and improved exterior and thought maybe it had become Super. As I walked into the store I immediately asked an employee if this was a Super Target. He stopped, looked around and replied, “I’m not sure.” I’m not sure? Really? You either know if it’s Super or you don’t. He then went on to say, “We have groceries now so maybe it’s Super.” I asked him if groceries are the only thing that make it Super. Again, he didn’t know the answer. I said that it still said just Target out front so maybe it wasn’t yet Super but on it’s way. He nodded and then I left it with, “Have a super night.”

As I grabbed a cart, I took a deep breath and went through a mental list of what I really needed. The minute I turned the cart around and saw the cute scarves, I immediately forgot about the list.

Flash forward to the checkout – round two. I am now going through the checkout again after my first unnecessary purchase. I made a point to go to a different check out to avoid my “I hate lamps” nemesis. As I was paying for round two, I thought I’d ask the checkout guy if this was a Super Target to get a second opinion. He replied, “I think so.” OH MY GOSH!! It’s either a yes or a no. If I managed this Target and it one day became Super I would have a huge company party in the Franzia section and make an official announcement. “Folks…we’re Super now! Take it in. Experience it. Live it.” Everyone would know we were Super. None of this “I’m not sure.”

After I asked the guy what it would take to definitely say this Target was Super and he said, “We’d have doctors.” Finally! He knew what makes a Target Super. Doctors. There would be doctors.

And not just doctors…Super doctors.

Now we know…if you see doctors in Target you my friend have stepped into a Super Target and your life will never be the same.

I am still speechless over these mouse pads I saw this evening. Brought to you by the people at Awesome Graphics.  I was searching on Amazon for mouse pads (which is a secret past time of mine that I rarely talk about) and I found this mouse pad called I Love Fun.

LOOK AT THE AWESOME GRAPHICS! For only 11.99 (plus shipping and handling, duh!) you can have life altering graphics at your fingertips. Awesomeness to the MAX! Every day YOU can be reminded that top tier graphic design excellence is out there…Reminding you to strive to reach the artistic level that the people at Awesome Graphics have obviously reached with their use of Comic Sans.

Below are a couple other mind blowing mouse pads they sell. But remember to brace yourself for the awesome graphics.

Mouse Pad: AUGUST (for all those who were born in August!)

Mouse Pad: PINK (for all those who love pink!!!!!!!)

These are hot items, folks. Get them while they’re still awesome and affordable.

Instead of candy on the outside these apples got the candy on the inside. What what!?

When I think of the TV show Silver Spoons I think of four things:

Here’s why:

1) Whitney. Whitney Houston made her guest appearance on the show. I remember watching that episode at 6 years old wondering why Ricky and friends were freaking out so much. Later on when I was singing The Greatest Love of All out of tune along with my at my classmates at our 6th grade graduation, I realized this Whitney Houston woman was kind of a big deal…and so were we – WE WERE GRADUATING FROM THE 6TH GRADE!

2) Trains. Nobody I knew had a train in their house and they did. This image has been engrained in my mind for 25 years.

3) Cartlon from the Fresh Prince was Alfonso Spears on Silver Spoons! They were obviously big on keeping the actors real name on that show…Ricky Stratton = Ricky Schroder  and Alfonso Spears = Alfonso Ribeiro.) I wonder why some shows decide to do that. I wish they didn’t. It really bugs me. But really SS was not Alfonso Ribeiro’s big acting break… it was The Tap Dance Kid. He was the star of this Broadway musical in 1983 and then got cast as Alfonso Spears. Here is the commercial for the musical. His dance moves here blow the “Carlton” away.

4) Insecurity. I cannot tell you how many times I heard “Oh you look EXACTLY like Ricky Schroder between the years of 5 and 7.” This makes a little white haired GIRL not feel too good. I stopped watching re-runs around the age of 7 for this very reason because I couldn’t stand to look at my BOY doppelgänger. I am glad I moved past that phase (even though I slipped back into it around 10 years old when Lance cut me a mullet (he called them “sides” to make me feel cutting edge.)

1) It lies.

2) Only 17% of people actually eat it on the trail.

I bought the Whole Foods Brand, More Than Macadamia (wow, that just got added to the tough words to spell list) Trail Mix the other day. The title of the package could NOT be more perfect. It was MORE than macadamia. There were MAYBE 4.5 macadamia nuts in there…but they enticed me with the packaging to get me to believe I was buying a macadamia-laden trail mix.

I should have known when macadamia was the last ingredient listed. This got me thinking about Trail Mix in general. Everyone has a favorite thing in a pile of TM and watching someone go in for a specific grab is actually quite an amusing past time. Next time there is a bowl of Trail Mix at a party, sit back with your glass of wine and be a social outcast for 5 min. Watch that bowl. Watch it. Watch the people who eye it. The people who slyly grab a handful only to throw out the pretzel in the trash. Or the person who ambles up to it only to scrounge around for all the rye chips. AHHHH THE COVETED RYE CHIPS!

Suddenly, there are no more rye chips in that bowl. Gone. (Well, there were only about 5 to begin with…but still.) The rye chip craze must have hit the Gardetto headquaters and Nan Gardetto got on it right away. Nan gave the people what they wanted…

Slam dunk, Nan…ALL RYE CHIPS. My husband’s favorite, he was one of the many “special requests” they received.

Gardetto’s gets it.

Here is a pic of your typical Trail Mix grab. This handful is what Trail Mix enthusiasts would call a…

Equal parts of everything so you get the trail mix flava flav. Perfect for a strenuous hike or watching Season 4 of Breaking Bad.

There are so many Trail Mix varieties it’s almost scary…so I will not even go into them but I will leave you with Trail Mix’s super awesome cousin…Puppy Chow. White. Messy. Addicting.

Nobody knows the true origin of Puppy Chow but my strong memory of PC is that my friend Gretchen would always bring it to sleep-overs. All of us brace-faced girls would sit with our own bowl of it watching the movie Lady in White, all stuffing our faces full of chalky white stuff. Word on the street is it that this dude is behind the madness.

Not sure if I am buying the word but I want that dog.

Side note: Lady in White is one of the scariest movies of all time. And Mona from Who’s the Boss is the creepy lady. Good night.

My friend Deirdre and I have a love/hate with the H.Kitty. It’s sort of turned into more of a love because we hate it so much. (No, this will never happen to me and sesame seeds.)

It appears that people are more into putting the Hello on their cars then anywhere else. Do you see this everywhere, too?

I guess to each their own but they are inches away from the “Don’t trust list.”
Now if they stuff a bunch of stuffed animals in the back windows it’s over.

I have been writing on this blog since 2005 and never did I think I would type the words, Squirrel Underpants in a headline. Well, thanks to my friend Ashley we now know they exist. She saw this in a window of a store on her walk yesterday. Yes, there is Boys AND Girls versions. Happy Nightmares!

Balboa Park is amazing… So much beauty and color everywhere.

It’s also a place to see some seriously intense dogs….

Yup that is a dog. No need to buy a mop when you have a pal like that.