Not since the teakettle quest

Our last foray to Highland Mall must have been over a decade ago, when we went to Foley's housewares department, trying to acquire a replacement Revereware teakettle of the smallest size and most classic design. We were unsuccessful there, but Callahan's placed a special order for us and we still have reserves. Highland Mall is still inhospitable to Those Evil Ones Who Ride the Bus; in other words, the bus stop is way out across the wasteland of the parking lot and without shade. How well I remember! We had no idea at what time it would open, and there was no one to ask, although there were determined Anglo types of a certain age striding purposefully around and around. We were looking for the Dell kiosk advertised as being there, but the shopping-center maps didn't say when the stores open and didn't list any of the non-store retailers. We gave up and went in search of a hardware store, soon finding ourselves at Zinger's, thanks to the old set of Yellow Pages in the trunk (the Zinger Hardware website is not for those on dial-up, by the way). The store is sparsely stocked, but with taste and enterprise. The owners, and their baby, are very much there. A replacement handle for our ancient pavement broom and a smaller palmyra broom are what we found for ourselves. We didn't have the heart to look into the new Terra Toys, driven by high rents from South Congress. Back at Highland, we found the guy in charge of the Dell stand to be extremely well informed. While we waited to speak with him, he sold two leptops right in front of our very eyes. This was to be the last day for the kiosk in that location; tomorrow it's to be relocated at Lakeline Mall. He said that every Dell kiosk is identical to every other one, displaying the exact same models in the exact same fashion. All these were laptops, except for an XPS, as I recall. Back downtown at OfficeMax, we turned in our coupon for a discount on school supplies.