Home again, home again, jiggety jog

The beach was perfect. I am relaxed, and I'm happy to have a tan. (I just this second realized I have beach sand on my arm -- how, I have no idea. I've showered twice since being on the beach yesterday.)

Matt and I both got some great deals at the outlets. He has been looking for a new watch for a couple of years, as is his way, and he finally bought this one. He also got some really nice dress shoes at the Bostonian outlet for less than half of what they cost at Belk.

I was on a mission to replace four pairs of shoes that are innocent victims of my job: black closed-toed heels, silvery-gray high-heeled sandals, black high-heeled sandals and brown open-toed heels. I wear one of these to work almost every day in the spring and summer, but they are pretty much destroyed because I so often find myself walking through muddy construction sites, lots full of waist-high brush and other hazardous conditions with buyers. (I try to keep flip-flops in my car at all times since I never know what a day will bring, but sometimes it's unavoidable.) I was happily surprised to find a replacement for each of these pairs for about $70 total, thanks to buy-one-get-one-half-off sales on top of already reduced prices at the Nine West and Brown Shoe Closet outlets. I also got three shirts for about $30 total at the Banana outlet.

We celebrated our sixth anniversary at Cracker Barrel. Laugh if you want, but it was Mama's Chicken day (Sunday) and there wasn't anywhere else in Myrtle Beach we especially wanted to go. In all honesty, I enjoyed that meal more than last year's overpriced steak at Ruth's Chris.

We got home last night in time to do most of the laundry from the trip. This was made possible by my wonderful husband's fixing our ailing dryer. Each load dries in about 40 minutes now, not two hours. Who needs the Maytag repairman when you have an engineering degree, right, babe?