American Consumer

Our weekend was filled with consumerism. In the first instance, we spent much of the weekend looking at wedding ceremony and reception sites. It seems like weddings are the ultimate consummation. We visited the Thomas Birkby House and Whitehall, but the real winner was Oatlands Plantation, a plantation near Leesburg, VA that has beautiful gardens surrounding a Greek revival mansion. Some of the history of mansion centers on the Civil War, and I joked with Courtney that we could reenact a battle on the site, with my family as the South and her family as the North. No doubt the South could win this time, if only because numbers are for us.
To continue on our consumerism, we spent much of the weekend shopping. We visited an outlet mall out in Virginia, and I picked up a coat for the winter. Courtney bought a dress for Trulie's wedding. Later, I bought some new shoes to replace the ones with holes I wear now. We also stopped by Old Navy to return some stuff, and found a button-down shirt for $6. Score! Finally, we looked at a couple of sofa sets at Value City Furniture, but didn't find anything that was cheap enough and perfect enough for us. We will keep looking.