The Hungry Citizen

Yesterdays trip was hard for me for two reasons. One being my back. I have an appointment tomorrow with my doctor. I have been in absolute pain for days now in my lower back. My big fear - a herniated disk. We shall find out though and hopefully it is nothing more than a sprain. Also my sugar levels were a bit out of control yesterday, which coupled with the back pain made me a little bit on the bitchy side. Today I think I have a much better control over my sugar levels and at this moment the back pain is tolerable so off we go back into the mouth of the lion to do some more shopping.

OK, so we went back to LL Bean and picked up some more goodies. Yes, we both love this store and the clothes it sells. After leaving there we found ourselves over at the Ralph Lauren - Polo Outlet, they had some great sales going on in there and of course we needed to spend money so it worked out well for us. After Ralph we went to the Samsonite store to pick up a nice laptop bag for son number one.

We also found ourselves at a small place called Mexicali Blues. A kinda earthy, new age type of store with tons of knick knacks and unique gifts. Yes the wallet opened wide there. I am not sure how much money we spent this weekend and I probably do not want to know but a good thing happened.

The Good Thing: A new discovery that could go a long way in saving marriages. In an earlier post I talked about my new HTC Mogul. A cell phone / pocket PC that basically does everything. Now as we all know the fairer of our species, the women, love to shop. As we also know men as a rule do not want to spend a whole day in stores. Men tend to know exactly what they want when they walk through the door. So do women, but women also see things and next thing you know 4 hours have past. Well I have a suggestion for all men with wives and girlfriends who love to shop. If you have to go shopping for prolonged periods of time with your significant other then I suggest you get yourself an HTC mogul or similar smartphone. It will allow you to pass the time in the store as your wife or girlfriend tries to decide for the thirtieth time if blue is better than pink. Trust me, a little gadget like this can save a marriage.

I will be writing this post in stages as the lovely bride and I make our way through this mall masquerading as a lovely, quaint little Maine Town. I am sitting on a bench on the first floor of the LL Bean Outlet in Freeport, ME. You see even though I have found everything I want in this store, the lovely bride has not and when we finish here we will be walking across the parking lot to the main store and then to a slew of stores that line Main street here in Freeport. For a guy it is going to be a very long day.

This is Freeport. Home of the famous LL bean but also a town filled with a who’s who of the retail world. Besides L.L. Bean there is Coach, Ralph Lauren, Reebok and Rockport, Brooks Brothers, Ann Klein, J Crew, Jockey, Banana Republic and much more. This is a town that might not be here if it weren’t for these stores. This is also a town that every woman in the world would love to call home. A place that woman can come practice the art of the sale. Yes, a place for bargains and a place to get all the “Names” that make woman jealous.

I say bargains because we now have gone back to the hotel to look over the spoils we have looted from LL Bean and Coach. I was able to get $200 or so in pants for less than forty bucks. My wife was able to get a coat, shirt and a few other things valued at over $300 for more than half off and this was jut from LL bean. The Bride also was able to walk out of the Coach Factory Store with about $600 worth of merchandise for under $160.00. A good start for a woman who loves to get a great deal and fashions herself one who always can.

It is now 6:36 am and I am sitting in the chair at the hotel room. We cut yesterdays shopping trip a little short due to back pains the wife and I both were suffering from. Sharon had a spinal fusion surgery that has left her with chronic pain and it seems I have developed something with a disc in my back. But we are going out again this morning, rested and ready to hunt down more bargains.

I have been a Sprint customer for years and have had more than reasonable great service from them the whole time. I recently went into Sprint with my bride and we both decided to get new phones since both of our old cell phones were now dinosaurs.

Sharon opted to get a Blackberry. She loves it and can’t seem to put it down. I got the HTC Mogul and this little gadget does just about everything. Yes it is a cell phone but it is also an email, web browsing, multi tasking machine that is running Windows mobile 6 and has MS Excel, Powerpoint and Word all built into it. I have to admit, I love this little thing and I am using it to write this post. The web browser is the bes browser I have used in a mobile device. Web sites come up looking the same as they do on my computer and I am able log into this account and anything else I might want to.

A very great little gadget with lots of power … Oh and again you can make calls with it.

We arrived last night and checked in to one of the many hotels here. After getting oursleves situated we decided to go out to eat. As we drove down route 1 in search of a good restaurant I noticed a sign. It read “Pedro O’hara’s” and in smaller letters below the sign said “Mexican - Irish and American food”. It was a random sign with a random name serving what I thought was a random menu. The bride agreed and since we both love random things we decided to give Pedro a chance.

The inside of Pedro Ohara’s is colorful. Kind of what you would expect in a mexican cantina. We were seated quickly and a waiter brought us a bowl of warm nacho’s and salsa immediately. The menu was as we expected with items like the Shamrock salad and the Taco Salad. They also offer the Gringo, The Pedro, The Mick and The John Scott, all of which are burgers of different varieties. They also offer traditional Irish and Mexican fare and mix the two up in a few dishes. Being a person of Irish descent and a person who loves Mexican food I may have found my favorite resteraunt in the universe.

After much debate I went with the The Pedro, a 1/2 pound Burger topped with chili, cheddar cheese and Jalapeno, I also ordered a cup of chili and the Mexiskins for an appetizer. My bride ordered The Gringo, a 1/2 pound burger topped with avocado, bacon and your choice of cheese.

Our waiter was a young man who is about to graduate from UMaine and will be going to Europe in May. He was very good and was quick to bring us whatever we asked for. The Mexiskins were good but the cup of chili I had was phenominal. Hands down in the top two or three chili’s I have had over the years. If for no other reason go for their chili. The Burgers were also great and came out qucikly with steak fries that were perfectly cooked. All in all the service here is great and the food is better! A very definete must go to if you are ever in the Freeport, Maine area.

4 and 1/2 stars out of a possbile 5