PW at MOA

A trip to the MOA (Mall of America) anytime is an adventure. Today, as ChoirPres already pointed out, I decided to actually go for a reason. PW (thepioneerwoman.com) was signing books and well, I just couldn't miss the opportunity to get out of the apartment and venture to the land of crazy shoppers and bloggies.

There is one thing that is for sure, PW has a huge following and EVERYBODY is nice. There must have been a baby with 1 of every 5 people in line but it wasn't a mad house. No crying, no fussy annoying babies, even older kids were behaving.

This little guy was with us most of the way. The worst he got was trying to run through the crowd. Mom later passed him off to g-ma and when he returned he simply pooped out in the stroller. About that time I was thinking how nice it would be to grab a nap myself!

The line was so long that I started right up at the front only to slowly wind and twist my way to the back and ultimately up to the front again. PW came on stage with a full entourage of camera crews and photographers. One photographer actually fell off the stage! I found it odd though because I noticed that the camera guys were following the Security Guards around more than they were Ree.

Of course Marlboro Man made his appearance with the boys. He was mobbed and I saw a good number of middle age woman swoon.
By the time they arrived I was literally standing behind the stage and the boys walked right up to me, worn out cowboy boots and all. They put on a good show fighting in front of everybody. Brothers, what do you expect?

Of course Marlboro Man snagged PW's camera and took pictures of everyone taking pictures of him. Quite amusing.

They ultimately ended up around the corner signing at their own table. The boys were quite tired by the time we got around to them.

Marlboro Man of course was signing pictures of himself...including pictures of his own butt. I think we have done it...the full turn around and now we have the objectification of men. Sigh, he didn't seem to mind. I did have the joy of meeting Mike and Mary Mraz. Mary is thecakepanlady.com and had a huge boost from PW a while back and how is selling her pans all over the country! Great people and Mike of course picked my brain about seminary and all that jazz. I really enjoyed meeting them and especially enjoyed the Caribou Mocha Mike bought me.

There were some cute babies surrounding us and of course I had to snag some pictures. Where is my old 35mm when I need it! Should have thought about that.

Seriously, look at this guys cheeks and full head of hair. You're making me look bad little man. As we got to the front of the line it came clear what was actually happening with all the cameras. They were not there for Ree, they were actually filming a TLC documentary!
Seriously, Mall Cops: Mall of America? Oh ya, I had to sign a release because I was on camera. Lets see if I get my big debut on TLC in the near future. Stay posted.
The Barns and Noble people were great and took pictures for everybody. She even got a couple action shots of Ree signing the book.
Well there you have it. Thanks Ree for sitting in the MOA for HOURS and HOURS just to sign your name and meet us crazy Minnesotans. You really are an angel and keep us all entertained on a daily basis. If you don't read PW now, you might want to add it to your reader or spend some quality time catching up on her website.

~soundguy

p.s. she is putting out Black Heels as a book soon and the cookbook really does look great!