We had a nice sleep-in today as had nothing really planned til the evening.  After breakfast and showers we sent Jen a text to see if she wanted to go out for lunch, which we did, so headed down the road to the local Super Target.  Super Target, for those back home is like a regular Target store, but on a MUCH larger scale.  Target here are slightly different though, as they sell food here also.  Wiggy eh?  We were a little disappointed that the Target stores don’t seem to sell NHL gear over here anymore   Sadly, they do sell Dallas Cowboys gear though.  Damn football strikes again!

After Target we figured we’d get a bite to eat, so Jen directed us down to the North Park Mall, just a little south on the I-75.  North Park is a really big mall with a brilliant variety of stores, including it would seem, Build-A-Bear, one of the stores that Wendy and I wanted to find anyway.  A quick lunch first, then we headed down the mall to Build-A-Bear, so Wendy could select, build and buy her very own customised bear.  She chose this cute little brown bear and dressed it in a Dallas Stars outfit, including helmet, jersey, pants, boots and his very own hockey stick and puck!  The bears official name on it’s birth certificate is “Mikey Mo”, aptly named after Mike Modano.

We then went for a long walk around the mall, starting with the lower level before heading upstairs to do the top.  We had the funniest moment when a small boy who was running ahead of his mother tried to run between Wendy and Jen and completely clotheslined himself on the Build-A-Bear bag that Wendy was carrying!  It was absolutely brilliant and had us all thinking WTF while laughing!

Jen found the Michael Kors store and fell in love with a great bag she wants to buy herself eventually.  Pretty cute snakeskin bag.  After the Michael Kors experience we headed into Macy’s to see what they had… and guess what, they had Michael Kors, and a GREAT special, so Jen ended up getting jeans and a top for a fraction of the price she would normally pay.  Made her year i think!! She was sqee’ing all the way home, and then some!

Before we’d come over here I had promised Jen that I would cook for her.  Naturally, it became expected that i’d cook something authentically Australian.  Those who’ve been to Australia would know that there really is no such thing as “Authentic Australian” these days.  Well, maybe damper etc would be, but you know.. nothing really truly Aussie.  So, we figured we’d cook a classic Aussie type meal; Meat Pie, mashed potatoes and veges.  I’d never cooked meat pie before, so after finding a recipe Wendy and I drove down to the local supermarket, “Tom Thumb” to get the groceries we needed.

It turns out Pie is pretty easy to make… it’s just a case of cooking all the filling, adding it to the pastry and then cooking it.  Voila, pie = good   I was incredibly surprised at just how well it came out to be honest, so by 9pm I was serving up pie, spuds and veges for Wendy, Jen and myself, and made sure i kept enough veges aside for Rhonda, who we were expecting to come over a little later.  It turns out, Rhonda had a long night at work and forgot to charge her phones, so she never actually arrived.  No harm done, as the food did not go to waste.

The Stars played the Anaheim Ducks on the road tonight, so we had that playing live on the TV while we ate.  The Stars looked ok and took a great 3 goal lead with goals by Mike Modano and 2 by Brad Richards.  The Ducks pulled 1 back going into the 2nd intermission with the Stars taking a 3-1 lead going into the 3rd and final period.  The Ducks did not sit back however and came out much stronger, forcing the Stars to play a defensive game to stop the Duck onslaught.  Dan Sexton of the Ducks got his first NHL goal in the 3rd period and after the Ducks pulled their goalie in the final minute of the game, Dan Sexton struck again, tying the game 3-3 and forcing overtime.  It was at this time that we all looked at each other, looked at Turco in the net and thought “oh crap”.  It took just over 4 minutes but the Ducks, and Marty Turco did what we expected… scored.  Ducks win 4-3 in OT.  A let-down, but heck, dinner was hella great!

After the game we were all tired so headed back to our room for a relatively early night; just passed midnight.