And that's why they closed...

DH and I decided to have lunch at Bishop's at Southpark Mall yesterday.  The last time we ate there was before we moved to California.  But I had a B1G1F coupon and Bishop's French Silk pie sounded awesome.

After we ate, we walked around the mall and were amazed at how many stores were no longer in business. I guess traffic at the mall just isn't what it used to be.

I pointed at one such store by the name of "G Spot" that was obviously empty.  Quick-witted DH responded "It probably closed because nobody could find it."

Front of the Line Fashion Sense

I couldn't put my finger on my 1st grader's funky sense of fashion lately.  I've been trying to give her some independence when it comes to selecting her outfits but I've also tried to give her a little direction.   For instance, she'll pick out a piece for the day and I'll give her suggestions about what might match it.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not a fashionista - quite the opposite.  But I try to make sure that the different pieces work together... more or less.

Well this morning, Miss M just wanted to argue with me.  She wanted THIS shirt and THAT pair of shorts.  The shirt was mostly dark pastels with purples, greens and blues with a small pattern.  The shorts a few shades of pink, yellow,  and red with large daisies and butterflies.  No matter how many times I tried to tell her that they didn't work together, she just didn't want to listen.

Then it finally came out.  The reason for her misguided fashion decisions lately...

"But Mom, I want to wear lots of colors so when the teacher calls a color I can get in the front of the line."

Sigh.  That explains so much.

How Did My Photo Get There?

During the course of the BlogHer Conference in Chicago, I took pictures with various people that I was excited to have the opportunity to meet. Celebrities, fellow bloggers, people I admire. Mel, my roomie at the event, brought a fancy film camera to BlogHer. I took several candid shots for her so she wasn't always using her film.  Following the conference, I shared all my digital photos with her and was surprised to see all of them end up on her Flickr account.  No big deal though since there wasn't anything personal, private or embarrassing.  Mostly just photographs of the event, the people and the chaos. I didn't think twice about it.

Well, imagine my surprise today when I noticed that Mel posted a message on Twitter a few days ago.

I don't know how many of you surf the BlogHer website but the masthead is a photo bar that BlogHer regularly updates with fresh photographs.  I've never considered submitting a photograph to it so I had no clue what Mel was talking about in her Tweet.  I popped over to BlogHer to find this:

The picture on the far left is me with Donna Byrd, Publisher of The Root, following a keynote presentation at BlogHer09.

Cool.