After dropping my older son off at VBS for the morning, I took my younger son to the mall. There’s a nice play area there that is very quiet (and freshly cleaned!) for that hour before the mall opens. After about 20 minutes there, it became very not quiet. Loud, in fact. Painfully so.

The smoke alarms were going off throughout the mall.

My son covered his ears and we headed for the closest door, so we could go to the car. Which was all the way around on the other side of the building and up one story. It was now raining. We camped out in the area between doorways, where it was not nearly as loud. It can’t last long, right? Ah, but it can! And it did.

After a long while, my son wanted to go play again despite the noise. Since there was no real threat, we headed back to the play area, and the alarms stopped. Phew! He played. And I decided I wanted to go to Sears (right behind me) to check out any Land’s End discounts. The sign said 70% off! But he wanted to keep playing, so we stayed for a bit.

I started racking my brain thinking of what kind of thing I could get from Land’s End that was already on my list for the new season. Cardigan? Maybe. Not pants, I don’t like LE pants. I don’t need any more dresses. Hmmm… I must need something from Land’s End!

EEEEOOOOEEEEOOOO!

The smoke alarms went off again. I scooped up my son and we made a quick exit. We weren’t going to wait this one out. No needless shopping for me!