SATURDAY SUPERSTORES

We were meant to be going to a Renaissance Festival with Patrick and Leanna today, but then we realised that we'd be paying lots of money that we don't have to go to a mock up of the country we come from.

So we sacked that and went shopping.

Yes, I know we have no money BUT we went to Alexandria, to the Gap Outlet store, where everything's basically free! Unfortunately my accountant must've called ahead, because when we got there, there was disappointingly little of interest to me and by no means did I repeat the wondrous pre-Costa Rica haul.

On our way home, we stopped off at the massive mall at Pentagon City, to try to find Max a winter coat and some trainers, but were told in no uncertain terms that it's too early for winter coats(!!) and couldn't find anywhere that sold anything other than sporty geek trainers.

My hankering for bargains was satisfied at Express, where I picked up some things for not very much, and then we headed to Target, to stock up on goodies for our Halloween party.

We've (actually, I suspect it's just 'I've') decided to really get into the Halloween spirit this year. It's a really big deal in America and front yards everywhere are bedecked with ghouls and ghosts and pumpkins, so we're throwing an old-school scary party and turning our flat into a haunted house.

The tradition in America is for girls to use fancy dress parties at Halloween as an opportunity to dress like a slut (see here), but we have stipulated that we want ghosts, vampires, brides of Frankenstein and maybe the odd Sarah Palin dressed as Tina Fey. Once Alison had clarified that 'fancy dress' doesn't mean black tie, I think everyone was on board.

So, because Target were having a sale, we headed there to stock up on pumpkin fairy lights, bouncy eyeballs, a cool strobe light you can put inside your pumpkin (Jean Michel Jarre, eat your heart out!) and creepy crawlies to strew about the place. We did however resist the tombstone multipack, despite it being terribly good value!

On the way home, we followed a lead on a skater trainers shop off U St, which was in a scary neighbourhood, but which furnished Max with some very smart new trainers, to replace the ones he left in a taxi ages ago, when it was raining really hard.

Tonight, Anne and Hugh came over to chill out, eat pizza and watch 'Forgetting Sarah Marshall', which is pretty much my dream evening. Although it was tinged with sadness, because Anne's moving out! Her and Megan's landlord has insisted they sign a year's lease and Megan's pretty sure her and Jonathan will want to move in together sooner than a year's time and Anne doesn't want to find another flatmate when that happens, so she's moving out to find somewhere by herself! I'm bereft! Fortunately, she's looking in this area and even saw a place today on our street, but it won't be the same as having her just next door.

The evening was further tinged with sadness, or rather annoyance, when it transpired that Hugh - the fortysomething screenwriting student - likes to narrate the film that he's watching! So throughout the movie, which is far from subtle or nuanced, with absolutely no subtext or hidden meaning, Hugh would be explaining what was going on! But not even in a highbrow screenwriting student way, just in a kind of stupid childlike way! Grrr.