Today's adventure was a trip to the "Chicken Mall". This is what India calls the mall in Salisbury, MD, an hour drive north to civilization. They have one of those soft, germ-infested play areas that is poultry themed (home of Perdue, natch) and the girls love it.

We went to meet my friend Lois and her two girls, Tricia and Claudia, who live about an hour north of the Chicken Mall. It's a good halfway point for us. India has been just beside herself with excitement: seeing Claudia, playing in the Chicken Mall and eating "puff chicken nuggets" in the food court is the stuff of dreams for her.

What are "puff" chicken nuggets, you say? Recently when traveling across VA we stopped at Wendy's for dinner and the girls had chicken nuggets (they even order what we call El Nuggets when we eat Mexican), and India just didn't care for the Wendy's variety. She gave quite a soliloquy about the difference between McDonald's and all others, proclaiming that McDonald's chicken nuggets are "puff", which she explained as meaning fluffy and soft. This is because the McDonald's version is less like real chicken, a quality that our children seem to respect. The ironic thing about all of this is that they don't have fast food very often, yet they are obsessed with it. I was pulling out of the drugstore drive-thru yesterday and Kate yelled out "Where me chicken nuggets?!!"... anyone remember "Cook, bring me hasenpfeffer!" from Bugs Bunny?

Anyway, back to our trip. It was hellish. It began with India having to go to the bathrooms 4 TIMES in 45 minutes and ended with both girls taking less than half of the nap they normally have. In between they acted like maniacs. And although they talked incessantly about the chicken nuggets, did they eat them? No way. An hour later they both cried and professed that they were starving. Lois may never want to see us again. Bad day. Again. How do people with more than 2 kids do it? All I can say is TGIF and bring on the margaritas.

(happier day in San Diego)