12-5-10 Sunday (Displeased Crowd Pleasers)

For today’s adventures, we (Jim, my mom, me) went on a coin-clothing adventure.  OK, I’ll explain.  We have a self counting (well it used to work) change/coin bank that was almost filled up and stopped counting just above the $100 mark.  Jim decided he wanted some new sweaters and remembered that Cointstar (same company that has Redbox DVD rental) doesn’t charge a fee if you redeem for certain gift cards.  We went to our nearest grocery store that we knew had a machine and it was out of order.  Naturally.  At a different location we redeemed our loose change for 70-something dollars for Old Navy and 30-something for JcPenney.   The machine gives a paper voucher with the gift card numbers on it. 

Next stop… Concord Mills Mall Old Navy to take them up on their buy one sweater, get one free.  4 sweaters and shirt for $75.00.  

For lunch we went to Smokey Bones.  I think we’ve only been to one once previously.  Mom and I had hot wings.  They were lame.  Actually, they sucked.  Mom said they tasted “old” but she couldn’t elaborate.  I think it’s because they are served breaded and were over cooked.  Jim enjoyed his BBQ sandwich.  Oh, and the appetizers sucked.  We had their “Crowd Pleaser”.  Lame.  The service, despite the 2pm off time, was lackluster.  I won’t go back there.

We took mom home for her nap and then continued on to JcPenney without her.  We went on a pillow search.  Jim and his pillow problems, another story for another time. 

I was worried that the certificates wouldn’t work or that the stores wouldn’t know how to handle them.  At both stores, the clerks seemed a little unsure but managed to read the voucher to obtain the necessary info they needed to enter into their computer systems.  Yay!

Later on, we reunited with my mom and headed out for dinner to 1900 Mexican Grill.  We’ve been there many a time.  If you clicked the link it would have taken you to our blog but shown you an entry of each time I mentioned it.  Thrilling, right?

Mom loved her Margarita but didn’t care for the chimichanga.  She says she was expecting it to be different.  Like how?  Like longer.  How does that change the flavor?  She couldn’t elaborate.  That’s my mom!

We stopped at The Fresh Market.  Yesterday we had spotted a banner “Special: NY strip steaks, $4.99 a lb”.  What we didn’t notice at the top of the banner in smaller (but not deceiving) print was “half or whole”.  Basically a $32.00 slab of meat.  The banner may also not have had the word “steaks” in it.  I can’t remember and it doesn’t matter because Jim asked the butcher if it could be cut for us.  “Absolutely”, he replied.  We picked the thickness and got 7 beautiful steaks.  I’m glad Jim asked and I’m glad that The Fresh Market is so awesome!