Target Thai

Rewind all the way to Wednesday.

[jumping into time machine]
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I got an e-mail at 9:43 a.m. from Harley, asking if anyone wanted to go to "Target Thai" for lunch. An e-mail at 9:43 about lunch! I heart you, Harley. I was in. I didn't even know what "Target Thai" was. Did it matter? I like food. Good enough.

Eight of us journeyed to Lublae, a Thai restaurant in a nearby mall with Target as its anchor. Mystery solved! Not like I needed Jessica Fletcher for this one, but still. Brownie points for anyone who got that reference. [Cue theme song and bicycle riding through Cabot Cove.]

We were greeted by the usual wooden lady found at many Thai restaurants and a festive-but-sorely-out-of-date snowman flower arrangement.

My fave decor, though, were the hugging pigs. Salt and pepper came OUT OF THEIR EYES. Funny at first glance. Freaky when you think about it too long. The yellow and the white embrace reminded me of my old relationships (I spew forth pepper). Hardy har har.

How was the food? Pretty decent, considering the snowman, porcine pepper purveyors, and strip mall location. Not out-of-this-world by any means, but I'd go back. I'm excited to be surrounded by real food that costs about the same as food court food.

I started with my usual Thai iced tea. Huge.

Fried tofu with sweet peanut sauce. Drunken noodles. Tofu was good but slightly on the dry side. Drunken noodles were yummy with just the right spice -- good kick. This was my favorite dish of the day.

Chicken fried rice. Vegetable dish. Mediocre and forgettable, both.

Pineapple fried rice. Pad see ew. Pineapple fried rice was a winner with copious pineapple and cashews. Cashews are my friend. We go way back and are like this [crossing fingers]. Pad see ew was totally trying to be my new BFF, but, even though he was pretty fly, we're not really quite like this [crossing fingers]. That's reserved for just cashews.

Yellow curry chicken. Panaeng curry with shrimp. Both curries were decent. I would've liked hotter versions, but we were dining with a number of spice wusses. (Don't worry. I still love you, no matter how wussy you are.) The curries are not the best bang for your buck, as the portions are somewhat small.

Complimentary black cherry ice cream. Mmm. Free.

And what's a trip to Target Thai without a trip to Target? I couldn't believe I was doing this in the middle of a work day and neither could Bax, who is a fellow newbie.

I really liked these rainboots. Too bad they weren't in my size. You think I'm kidding.

Bax bought these shoes for $7.49, as well as a cat hat. Cat hat! I was laughing so hard. She promised to send me a photo of some cat-in-the-hat action.

Harley had fun with another pet toy. Now that's a rock.

Harley modeled the latest doggie purse (all the rage!) and bought a 20 Questions Game, which is seriously genius, although we've already stumped it a few times at work. (It couldn't guess "trophy" or "cloud.")

The real reason for the trip was for Harley to get a space heater. Her office is like Antarctica.

None of us came out of Target empty-handed. Is that even possible? I say it is not. I think I did extraordinarily well with just two items for my really dry office.

Bax's loot included her shoes and pet toys. (She didn't end up getting the heater.)

Harley and Veggie were seriously stricken with bad cases of Target-itis.

We piled into Harley's car and drove back to work. Bax was worried about going in with a Target bag, so Harley very kindly drove us to our cars to hide the evidence. My stuff was for my office, so I marched right on in with my little bullseye bag. Word.

Man, I love this job.