Looks like eldest son will be happy in his new college town.

Were wondering where he would get Magic cards and, lo and behold, across the street from the motel was a sports card shop that also advertised Magic cards.

The Subway shop had Metallica on their sound system.

Found at least one coffee shoppe with Internet access.

As wife cruised randomly around town, driving us crazy as she read aloud all the signs she saw (are we getting senile already? I was doing the same, only less so), the only thing he wanted to do was find the mall.

So we did that.

Identical to any other mall we have been into.

Had bookstores, video/music stores and software stores.

The essentials of life.

Saw at least six different establishments advertising "tanning", and not one of them dealt with the process of making leather from the skins of dead animals.

Not one.

One of the McDs in town (a town with more than one McDs! We're talking a major metropolitan center here.) advertised a McFurry for only $1.89. Wife thought it was quite cheap until I pointed out how it was spelled.

Her response?

"Well, no wonder!"

Was disturbed to learn eldest son's college has a male:female enrollment ratio of 3:1. College staff says it is quite stressful on freshman males.

I imagine. (Unless you're part of the minority that likes those odds).

But son is part of an overflow from over-subscribed dorms and will be temporarily housed in the dorms of a nearby business college.

Son has already determined that the ratio is reversed in the dorms for that college.

Good for him.

Now, do I worry less?

Or more?

Wife had received a discounted Sam's Club membership, so we finally got to try that out. Impressive store. Spent almost as much there as we did on his first term's textbooks.

Almost, but not quite.

And, we got to see the Russian, Mongolian and Australian dinosaur display that is slowly traveling the country. Not great, but still neat and impressive. Got quite perturbed by one of their Protoceratops mounts. You can look at the bones and tell they didn't articulate the way they are displayed. And they had adult and juvenile skeletons side-by-side, and yet reconstructed their front shoulder joints differently.

Sorry folks. I know there are physical changes with maturity, but I don't think the scapula is going to migrate from the fifth rib to the fourth. Nor are the clavicles going to slide up a few vertebrae.

But that's just my opinion.