Yesterday morning saw the arrival of the Rockwall Herald - not only the local free newspaper, but also a cracking good read. It kept me entertained for a good two minutes. I particularly enjoyed the regular column by Jeff Parish. Well, to be honest I didn't read it. But I liked the title. It's a weekly editorial featuring the thoughts of Mr Parish, so naturally it's called... wait for it... 'Parish the Thought'! Marvellous.

The highlight though was an advert for the Helping Hands Thrift Store. Yes people, a Texan charity shop. It was right there alongside an ad for a funeral harpist, and it was perfect timing: it just so happened that Big Sis had the afternoon off work, and Rockwall was our oyster. We were free to go charity shopping! Hurrah!

So anyway, the first phonecall from Sis came at about 1pm. The next around 3:15pm. Well, let's just say she wasn't home til 4:30pm. Unfortunately the staff at the Helping Hands Thrift Store aren't willing to be helpful after 5pm on a weekday, so that was that idea up in smoke.

Fortunately though, the owners of 'Dollar General' are willing to work until 7pm, so we went there instead. Well, I went there. Big Sis and Lisa decided to go and get manicures and pedicures instead. This, it seemed, turned out to be the funniest event of the week - they were both hysterical by the time I picked them up, and frankly it was hard to get any sense out of them. But it seems they were abused by a couple of Vietnamese women who couldn't speak English, and who attacked them with an electric sander. They seemed quite happy about it though. I'm currently trying to persuade Lisa to write a blog post about the experience, but she claims she's on holiday.

Anyhoo, no time to write more today - we're off to Oklahoma City for the weekend. It was recommended by the woman I sat next to on the plane over here. Well ok, it wasn't. She couldn't stand the place. But we're going anyway. We're supposed to be leaving in half an hour and I haven't packed yet...