There isn’t much more time left until Ed leaves to get started on his Master’s degree at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, so we’re getting the most out of his final days in our home town before he moves out for a while.

We’ve been regularly going out to get lunch, but today, we decided to go on an extra adventure after our meal. After going to Chick fil’ A, using a coupon for a buy-one-get-one-free chicken sandwich, and seating ourselves in a convenient corner of the restaurant such that we were able to access the Pokémon Go PokéStop in the building across the street, we stopped by a few stores on the way back home.

It’s the middle of August right now, so it’s burning hot. I have air conditioning in my house, but I also don’t really want to spend hundreds of dollars extra on my electricity bill for running it to a low temperature. So, I end up sort of just getting used to being warm during the summer. This wasn’t a problem back when I was an undergraduate university student, because my electricity was included in the base rent payment – now that I’m actually paying a separate electricity bill, I’m more conscious of it.

We decided to wander into an electronics and appliance store called hhgregg. I quickly realized that, whenever I’m warm at home, I should just pack up my laptop and come over to hhgregg. Not only do they have it cooled to a very comfortable temperature, they have plush couches on display for sale, that we can just use to relax.

The best part (for us, not for hhgregg) is that it’s not very busy there, so it’s peaceful and quiet.

After relaxing for a bit, we decided to go next door to PetSmart. Ed and I both absolutely adore animals, so we went straight to the pet display. We started off with the cats – here’s a photo of Ed observing and smiling at a cat, and a photo of a different orange cat who was one of the only active ones.

Next up were the birds. They were pretty loud.

We made our way to the back of the store, where the dogs were kept. I don’t think there were any dogs available for sale or adoption (unless all of them were literally out for a walk all at the same time). But, we got to see the dogs inside the “dog hotel,” that offers babysitting and training for dogs.

And finally, before we left the store, we stopped by the fish. There were a ton of fish, including one that apparently need to be kept in solitary confinement, or else they will eat each other (according to Ed). I decided to take a picture of more peaceful fish – neon ones, kept inside a brightly-lit tank.