Mall Review; or, How Debra Duncan almost stole my car

So we got a new outdoor mall over here in my corner of suburbia. (Yes, outdoor, in Texas, in the heat, in Houston, in the summer. Think, people, think.) It opened this week, and I seriously might never have even noticed if I wasn't constantly on the lookout for new, exciting, and FREE things to do.
We called up my MIL and headed over to check out the new stores.
Let me just say: I LOVE IT!!!
The stores are great and STROLLER FRIENDLY! The employees are HAPPY and NICE (so far).
Highlights from the day include:
1. SEEING ELMO at the Learning Express Toy store.
Downside to this: Being an OUTDOOR mall, I was afraid Elmo was going to die of heatstroke in front of all of the kids. Not sure the store owners planned on paying for years and years of therapy. BTW: Zane could not have given a flip over Elmo. Since he doesn't watch tv, he had no clue or interest in the six-foot-tall red furry person. Oh well. At least he was a living six foot tall furry person.
2. A REAL LIVE SAXOMOPHONE PLAYER in the new Macy's. We stopped so Z could see a musician and he was a really nice guy--even started in on some lullaby renditions. Again, Z could care less. There was no hat or instrument case on the ground to leave a tip. I felt that stuffing some cash in his pocket might be misconstrued. On the way out, though, Z was dancing up a storm in his stroller to the light and airy jazz tunes.
3. STRIDE RITE, GYMBOREE, CHILDREN's PLACE (coming soon), and ANN TAYLOR LOFT. Now I really don't have to go anywhere else for my shopping. Honestly, I prefer Ann Taylor (more timeless; LOFT seems rather trendy and at those prices (read: more expensive than Target) I want something that's going to last longer than a "season", whatever that means) but Loft will do. And that brings me to
4. CLINTON KELLY from WHAT NOT TO WEAR was there prepping for the evening's fashion show. Since I don't have cable and certainly HAVE NEVER SEEN THE SHOW (seriously, t-shirts and shorts are not "in"? I didn't know. . .) There was serious scuttlebutt about this and lots of racks of clothing with lots of signs being moved very seriously around the store, ALMOST railroading my child and stroller. I think I'll stick with my own comfortable "fashion", thankyuverymuch.
5. DEBRA DUNCAN and her camera man ALMOST STOLE MY CAR. Okay, so not really, but it sure sounds interesting. Apparently, they did some footage and were heading out to the parking lot at the same time we were and we all thought we had driven the same car. I was really cornfused and thought I was totally losing it when some lady and a dude with lots of camera equipment were moseying on up to my car saying, "This is us, right?" and giving us a look like "Why is this lady and her baby trying to take our car?" Anyway, we didn't even have much of an exchange and then they found their car (looked, um, nothing like mine. . .well, it was red). And I turned to my MIL and was all: "Was that Debra Duncan?" You know, Houston morning tv personality? Yeah, it was, and honey, I thought she'd me traveling more in style. But, cutbacks, you know. She was very nice. And tall.

So if you live in the area, I highly, highly recommend our newest contribution to the economy. It's clean, nice, there's a splash fountain area for the kids and lots of places selling COLD, COLD DRINKS 'cause it's doggone HOT out there.
I was surprised at how under-crowded it was. I'm sure it will be a ZOO this weekend. But, go and have fun! Even for a non-shopper, non-mall-person it was GREAT!!!