On Tuesday we went to the mall. Phoenix is definitely a shopping mecca. Compared to Pocatello it is probably more like a shopping heaven! Monday afternoon Nina and Jaelene dropped me off a Frys and I toured the store for about two and a half hours. I made it about 2/3’rds through the store as I walked up and down every aisle. It was a lot of fun and I didn’t spend very much money, actually. Tuesday was the day for the mall.

We were definitely on a schedule on Tuesday. The boys had school and we were going to the mall while they were at school. Colten had a birthday party starting at 4:30 and a big play-place and he needed to be neither early nor late for this event. I had to be at the airport to catch a 5:19 flight back to Salt Lake City. Consequently, Jaelene had everything timed down to the minute. She told me that we’d arrive at the mall at 12:15 p.m. and would have to leave there by 2. At 12:05 we still weren’t out the door and I told Nina that there was no way we’d be there at 12:15. My prognostication ability was proven unreliable once again as we pulled into the mall parking lot at 12:14. On the other hand, Jaelene definitely pushes the speed limit….

I had two destinations in mind — first was the Apple Store in the mall. Then over to Barnes and Noble to check out the books and magazines. The Apple Stores always look empty to me. There isn’t much product out; the middle of the store is mostly empty; and there are usually twice the number of employees as customers in the store. For some reason, none of the Apple Stores seem to be hives of activity (unlike Frys which was as crowded and busy on Monday as it was on the previous Saturday). I thought this might be to my advantage because I was curious about the new Apple Mini and what capability it had. I was finally able to get the attention of a very soft-spoken store employee who showed me a little of the standard software intalled on an Apple Mini. The computer itself is very small and quite stylish. I could easily see this box becoming part of an entertainment center. However, unless I wanted the stripped down standard, basic version, I couldn’t buy it at the store. The basic unit is not quite enough. It needs more memory, a larger hard drive, and a DVD burner. All of these are available — but it has to be purchased from the Apple website. There are none of these units available in the store. In fact, not much other than iPods were available in the store! Even though I was ready to plunk down cold, hard cash (well, in reality a warm credit card — warm because it was in my back pocket), I couldn’t buy anything that I wanted. Apple, that’s just plain dumb. Two other people left as I did — empty handed and disappointed. That’s a lot of unspent money walking out the door to be spent somewhere else.

I was much more successful at Barnes and Noble, and it cost me a whole bunch less money.