For someone who's not a big fan of Wal-Mart, I seem to be spending a lot of time there lately. I've never gone shopping there on my own, just because it's only ten minutes from my house. I didn't even realize it was that close until it started to become the place where the Boss and I meet to exchange documents. He's been in the area over a month now and has dragged me down there several times.

That's actually the main reason I would go to a place I don't like. The Boss finds it convenient, and the quick drive doesn't take much out of my day. I'm perfectly happy to meet him in the parking lot, and I've only gone into the store twice after some sort of work rendezvous with him. I've spent money there both times, but I've also been reminded of some of the things I don't like about the store.

It's big and crowded, and the aisles are way too narrow. People either stand right in front of you, oblivious that you might want to get by, or they come up behind and act all righteous, as if you should have seen them coming and made way so they wouldn't even have to slow down. The shelves go to the ceiling, and they're all crowded with merchandise, but I almost never find exactly what I want. And if I do, it's probably been crumpled, or opened and reboxed, or just manhandled.

Oh, and I would never by a CD or DVD there, because of the company's censorship policy. But that's just something that grates against my principles, and it doesn't have anything to do with this particular store. I don't hold it against the employees, most of whom I find to be friendly and courteous. If they weren't, I'd never set foot in the place at all.

So Mom and I went to Wal-Mart today for one simple reason. It's the place Tammy saw the baby book she wants me to get her for Dakota's (fourth) birthday. Since Dakota apparently has everything he needs already, and since she wasn't able to do a baby book for him when he was a baby, she's going to make one for him now.

Lucky for me, I found exactly the one she described to me, after having to wait twenty minutes for the aisle to clear. Half of it was crowded with overfilled shopping carts, and in the other half people were sprawled on the floor surrounded by so many children I didn't feel comfortably trying to step between them.

But don't think that's all Dakota's getting from me for his birthday. Oh, no. I can't top the elephant chair I gave him last year, but I have a few items that I think will please him (and I hope will fit him). I even bought him a shirt at Wal-Mart, believe it or not.