Wake the kids and phone the neighbors, retail fans, because the latest batch of unannounced Apple stores is hot off the griddle and ready to elicit what we're sure will be the awed "ooohs" and "aaahs" they so richly deserve. The ever-popular "Coming Soon" section still hasn't returned to Apple's official list of stores, but faithful viewer Karl Kuehn noted that four new Mac Genius positions just showed up on Monster.com over the past couple of days-- and for those of you who can recite Apple's complete list of open and confirmed future retail locations by heart, it looks like you're going to have to find room for a few unfamiliar city names in that braincase of yours.

First off, there's one coming to the Twelve Oaks Mall in Novi, Michigan-- we don't think we've mentioned that one here, previously, but the Novi store's been public knowledge for probably a couple of months, and it's been listed publicly on Apple's job site for a while, now. The one at Towson Town Center in Towson, Maryland also shows up in Apple's official listings, but that one's a far more recent addition, so it was still a surprise to us. We're not sure we'd seen the third new store listed there, before, either (it's up there now), but Apple's looking for Geniuses to dish out the smarts in Westchester, New York. (That's the seventh confirmed Apple retail store going into New York State, in case you lost count.)

But when last we checked, the fourth store wasn't revealed anywhere on Apple's site, and that's the one that's got us all a-tingle. Faithful viewer Dan Parks Sydow breathlessly informed us that Apple is soliciting for Mac Geniuses to strut their stuff at the Mayfair Mall in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, a suburb of Milwaukee. Why is that such a big deal, you ask? Because it just so happens that Katie, AtAT's resident fact-checker and Goddess of Minutiae, lived pretty much her entire life in Wauwatosa prior to trucking out east and eventually landing a deity gig with AtAT. In other words, yeah, we know the Mayfair Mall, and we're tickled pink that Steve Jobs has chosen to honor our own goddess-on-retainer by erecting a retail monument to her in her own home town. Ain't he sweet? If the tribute pleases her, perhaps in return she will bless him with the sudden ability to identify correctly any "Brady Bunch" episode after watching only the first five seconds.

Anyway, even if you don't ascribe any specific importance to the goddess's home town (sacrilege!), it's worth noting that three of these four new store locations establish an Apple retail presence in virgin territory, states-wise: Wisconsin, Maryland, and Michigan. And that's the sort of progress that should put a spring in any Mac-lover's step, religious affiliation notwithstanding.