Our names are Jack and Katie, and we are Apple retail junkies. ("Hi, Jack and Katie!") We thought we had it all under control-- that first taste back in May was sweet, to be sure, but we didn't actually get addicted to these openings until the floodgates opened in August. Ever since then, we've been checking Apple's retail page obsessively, always wondering what lucky cities are next to be listed under "coming soon." And then there was last Friday: four grand openings in one day? Heck, even without actually being at any of them, that's a whole lot of retaily goodness for a Mac fanatic to handle. After the rush of having four of those puppies opening all at once, however, imagine the crash we felt when, for several days following that grand event, Apple's "coming soon" section remained completely and stubbornly empty. It was like there were bugs crawling on our flesh.

But just when we thought we were going to have to check into the Betty Ford Center for retail withdrawal therapy, Apple finally came to the rescue. The next two stores to feed our habit will be opening at South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa and at The Market Common in Clarendon, Virginia. As usual these days, Apple's being coy about posting the actual opening dates, but faithful viewer Peter Thille forwarded us a note he'd gotten from Apple announcing that the South Coast Plaza store is slated to open on "Friday, December 1st, 2001." That fact is all the more impressive since there isn't a Friday, December 1st, 2001, but heck, what's a day or two between a pusher and his junkies? (Hey Apple, dealer rule number one: never sample the merchandise before doing anything important like writing a mass email announcement.)

Later on in the announcement, though, it's clear that the actual opening day is Saturday the 1st, and the doors are slated to open at 10 AM sharp. Meanwhile, faithful viewer Nina Tovish received an announcement about the Clarendon location, and it, too, is scheduled to go live at 10 AM on Saturday. That's this Saturday, kids, so if you live in either of those general areas, cancel the pancake breakfast and set the VCR to tape your cartoons, because you're going to want to haul your butts down to party with the other local Mac freaks. And don't give us any nonsense about needing to work on your holiday shopping instead; even if there's nary a Mac user on your list (dude, you need to find some cooler friends), everybody, and we mean everybody, can use a flexible USB-powered Kensington FlyLight™-- and the Apple stores stock them. Ooooh, bendy!

For those of you keeping score, after this Saturday the store count will be 24-- meaning that Apple will have thirty days in which to open just one more location in order to hit its goal of 25 by the end of the year. Doesn't sound hard, does it? We heard a rumor a while back that Apple's internal goal was actually to get 28 stores running by January 1st, and even that remains perfectly doable. Kudos to Apple for getting these things open on schedule; here's hoping that the holiday sales numbers are good enough that the company won't need a schedule to close them back down again, too. Now everyone get out there and spend. You know you want to.