Fun At The Department Store

Okay -- here we go, some more fun stuff! Amy and I have been known to occasionally stop into a certain department store that specializes is selling things no other store is able to. One of our favorite places to eat is Outback, and this store just happens to be in the same parking lot. So after enjoying one of the 'worst foods in America' (in all fairness we only get the half order and we split that), and feeling a little guilty we will often walk over to this little gem.

In all honesty Ross really does have SOME quality merchandise for a fraction of its original cost. I personally buy t-shirts at Ross, Amy loves to hunt housewares, and we have both found some pretty nice name brand outfits a couple of times. It's kind of like shopping and hunting all in one, there is certainly a skill to it; but with some practice we're nearing the pro level.

If you ask Amy she will tell you that shopping with me, can at times be like shopping with an 8 year old. I like to hunt for the most outrageous clothing item, most absurd hat, or occasionally the odd nick knack -- I will sneak the said items into our cart just to see the look of horror on Amy's face when we reach the checkout line, and the attendant begins to judge us for our apparent poor taste in fashion, goods, or decorating sense. Good times.

A couple of months ago we were on one of our evening jaunts over to Ross, we were looking at bed linens; I selected something to put in our cart but Amy quickly realized I had chosen the wrong basket. I asked her how she knew since our cart was empty, and so was the one I put the item in. She stated that our basket didn't have a pole! -- I was rapidly overcome with laughter. I began looking around the store, and just over all the racks and shelves there are poles moving around all over the store. Yes this is Ross's anti-cart-theft device -- a pole.





You may not find the pole as funny as I do, but next time you are in a Ross seriously look around, all you see are poles meandering around the store, its very funny.

Now on to the items that do not necessarily fall into the the 'SOME quality merchandise' label that I defined earlier.
Here we have a fat ceramic pig sitting in a flower bed and wearing a bow -- seriously!

Okay the clearance rack at Ross -- this is the result, some very odd ceramic things, I believe on the left we have a yak with a horn looking at a scarecrow, and on the right a dog doing whatever ceramic dogs do.

Okay the owls are a hoot -- (literally) -- and the porcelain bird with gold trim is just too much.

This could be marketed as a 'Cirque du Soleil' character and fetch a pretty penny, but no -- it is labeled, "Home Decor"

This just screams "Great For Hosting!" -- sadly they didn't have service for eight, just the one.

At this point you may be wondering if anyone looked at me funny for taking pictures all over Ross -- yes they did!! The key here is to remember that I often ride a scooter to work that is just a little too small for me, and of a color that doesn't really meet societies expectation of what a grown man should ride. So in other words, I'm used to weird looks.

The shoe aisle is by far my favorite, there are usually some doozies -- this day they weren't as fun as they could have been. I like this one because there was only one, and the post hole digger on the back of that thing is out of control.

And these slippers were just fun -- I must tell you that my partner in crime -- a certain Miss Amy would select certain items that she thought would be fun to share, set them out; signal me, and then quickly vanish so as not to be a recipient of the weird looks.
This 'Plush' aisle was slightly askew, I'm sure a member of management must have thought I was with quality control or something, but not to my surprise I was never approached; and the plush aisle remained askew throughout my stay at Ross.

HAVE A GREAT WEDNESDAY!