Thanksgiving and Black Friday 2022

Hey everyone, it's Thanksgiving again, which means it's time for my annual Thanksgiving and black Friday blog. Let's start things off with Thanksgiving. Every year my parents host and now we've started that we spend the night with my in-laws that weekend (mainly because their guest bed is comfortable and can hold 2 people). When we got there I started showing the black friday deals to dad-in-law because there were some things I figured he might be interested in trying to get, and while he said "oh that's really cool" a lot he didn't say "that's a thing I want you to try to get." Eh, no big deal. Thanksgiving morning was pretty low-key. I got my paper with all the circulars, and while it's a little expensive at $5 a paper, I ended up getting meijer bucks which saved more than that (but I'll get to that later). IRA and I went over all the things so we could know where we wanted to go. Mskate and her mom watched the parade and it was fun ocassionally getting called in to see a favorite character, but it's not exactly my thing (I've been to the Detroit Thanksgiving parade once and that was really cool, but just watching on the TV isn't super interesting). Whatever, after that it was time for the main event.

Mskate and I arrived around 1 or so I think, and this is where I had a lot of fun. In my lets play of TMNT Turtles in Time, I mentioned how my brother and I used to play this arcade game a lot whenever we went to the Wheels Inn, but were never able to get very far. Well, with the release of the Cowabunga Collection, we finally had our opportunity. I brought over my PS4, both controllers, charging dock, and the game, booted up the arcade version of turtles in time, and we played through the entire game start to finish. Under normal circumstances my mom would probably be encouraging us to spend time with more people, but she was there those 4 or so years and knows how big of a deal this was, and we were accomplished. This was probably close to 20 years in the making, but we finally beat TMNT Turtles in Time. I had beaten it a year or so prior, but never both of us. Now we just need to beat the NES game and all will be complete.

Before I get to dinner, I should talk about the other event. My grandma, TanMan's grandparents and uncle, and grandma's friends all came as well. Grandma's friend's wanted to buy some copies of Mskate's book, so we ended up having a little book signing which was fun. I got some pictures of the event for mskate to put on her book instagram and facebook page so it looks like it was a real book signing. OK, with the book and game out of the way, time for dinner. My parents made a traditional dinner with turkey, mashed potatoes, green beans, corn, and cranberry sauce, and then ham for those of us that don't like turkey (like me). Mskate and I have basically decided that our contribution will be brussels sprouts since we have a good recipe and it goes over so well, and then on like Wednesday I picked up a loaf of pumpernickel bread from the grocery store and brought that as a contribution. My mom was making a big deal about how "that is such a grown up food" (I'm kind of picky), and I was like "Mom, I've always liked pumpernickel bread, we used to get it every time we went to Frankenmuth [starting from when I was like 3]." Dinner was pretty good, I got my non-China plate like I do every year (now adays I could be trusted with the China, but I like to keep that "tradition" alive). After dinner grandma's friend always brings deserts, especially her lemon meringue pie. She said she had some trouble getting enough lemon and wasn't sure if it was going to be good, but what she lacked in lemon she made up for in sour so it was still a win in my book. 

After dinner we did the accordion sing along. IRA and mom-in-law joined us for that, and it was a fun time. Not long after it was time to go home mskate and I went back to her parents house and IRA and I watched some of the south park specials on paramount plus before bed. We had to wake up at 4AM because the first store opened at 5 and we had to make sure we got there.

After a mostly restful night, it's 4AM and IRA and I need to get going. I had pop tarts and a bagel and I don't remember what IRA had, but it was something on the road. Our first stop was Best Buy since they opened at 5 and had the most things we wanted. We got in line and it just so happened that the local news was there interviewing people. I got interviewed and showed off the loop and list of items we were out hunting for. The cool thing is we ended up on the news.

Once 5 hit we went to the movie section and started searching for what we were after. I ended up finding Spiderman No Way Home and Morbius, and IRA ended up finding some other things. After the movies we went to the videogames and I got Doki Doki Literature Club Plus and Death Stranding. I don't remember all that IRA got, but I do know he got TMNT Cowabunga Collection on switch, so that's good for him.

After Best Buy we went to Walmart because we thought it would be open at 5 according to the commercials, but there were people waiting and apparently they opened at 6, so we improvised and instead went to Kohls about a mile away. I had 2 things I was looking for, Harry Potter Defense Class Lego set and an Air Conditioner cover. Here's the problem I ran into, they were out of the Lego sets (they had them, but not what I was interested in), and the AC cover was only available online. I did end up finding some things, instax film for mskate and a winnie the pooh shirt for mskate's mom (and when I got home I ordered the AC cover).

By now it's 6AM and we were going to go to walmart but gamestop was close by, so IRA and I went there even though I didn't see anything of interest (I almost bought Sonic Frontier, but it was a little to expensive for my interests so I decided to wait it out), and I think IRA got something but don't really remember. The employees were kind of weird, saying they thought it felt more like closing time (probably just Gamestop syndrome). Anyway, after that we went to Walmart. There wasn't a lot of things I was looking for, but for my parent's new 4K tv I got them a 4K Roku for $20. IRA picked up some value DVDs that weren't on sale but were dirt cheap anyway.

After Walmart we went to Meijer. This is where things got kind of big. The main things I wanted to get were new joycons for my switch (because mine are drifting bad) and a new Disney welcome mat, both of which would utilize the Meijer bucks. By chance I saw a Nightmare Before Christmas puzzle which will make for a great gift for IRA at a later date, and a Lego Harry Potter Polyjuice set for mskate since the Kohl's set didn't work out. I also got some blue Christmas lights that I am using for a craft project, buy 2 get 1 free and $5 for 100 lights, which works out pretty well for what I need. We also got some Puperoni dog treats for Duke and Delila, so that will work out well. After Meijer because it was kind of close I picked up 4 poster frames for the puzzles mskate and I regularly do (70% off, great deal).

Now it's time for Target. The main things I was after were the apple gift card for the $15 rebate, pop socket for mskate, a second tree for mskate and I for all the Disney ornaments, and tide pods for the $5 rebate. IRA got some things I think, but these were the main things that made the trip worth it. After Target IRA and I went to Barns and Nobel because IRA was a little interested in the graphic novels, but didn't find anything. Since Bed Bath and Beyond was pretty close we went there and I got mskate a popcorn popper since she really likes popcorn and microwave popcorn isn't all that easy due to her allergies, so this is hopefully going to be a fun thing for her.

Now we're pretty close to the mall, and that means Macy's and Bath and Bodyworks. At Macy's I had 2 things I was after, the sterling silver Micky head pendant for like 75% off and the Micky and Minnie plushies. Since we were so close we went to the mall and to Bath and Bodyworks. The sale they had was buy 3 get 3 free, so we got 6 different $7.50 hand soaps. IRA ended up paying me for 2 of them so he could give one to my mom and one to my grandma, and the other 4 are basically going to go to those people as well (maybe my aunts as well). We stopped at the other target but I was running out of energy and interest, so I just stayed in the car while IRA ran in. He didn't find anything, but that was OK since we were tired and wanted to rest (it was like 9AM, we had been out for 5 hours).

After about a 2 hour nap I did some amazon black friday shopping (as well as getting the AC cover from Kohls.com). I ended up getting Ed Edd n Eddy the complete series (I know it's not "fully complete," but I love this series and it's complete enough and if they ever release the rest I'll just buy it separately like I did with Teen Titans and Teen Titans Trouble in Tokyo), nerds ropes, amazon fire stick and luna wifi controller (because my computer can't accept a controller while playing luna, and this would be good when traveling), the movie Used Cars, gaffer's tape for either my dad or brother, disposable rubber gloves for cleaning and crafting, apple juice, tomato sauce, and 4 different allergen free snack boxes for mskate.

After the shopping it was time to go put up my grandma's tree. VikingPolak and I went down to her basement and got her tree, and then everyone else just brought up her ornaments, lights, hip shaking santa, and pants down santa. I helped put the tree up and strung the lights, and put up the window lights while getting the timer set-up. After that I "did my part" and mskate put up all the ornaments. We had left overs for lunch/dinner, and that was pretty much that. After the tree trimming we went back to mskate's parents house and relaxed. IRA and I watched more south park specials, and then I passed out from being tired. We spent the night one more night and then went home the next day.

Nothing of major note happened on Saturday (mskate worked on our Disney tree, and I did some processing of things), so I'll just jump to my Aunt's Sunday Thanksgiving trip. We went to see my Aunt and Grandpa for the day, and after church mskate and I went to my parent's house to pick everyone up, and we all rode up in our truck. While we were waiting for my mom to get home from my grandma's house, I showed dad how to get to the Hallmark Channel on Sling, because I got the Hallmark Channel on our sling account to share with my parents since they cut the cord and my mom isn't the most technologically literate person (and when I first showed mom how to get to it she was surprised to see all the movies she had access too that aren't Hallmark).

Our visit was good. I was able to get my switch back after forgetting it at her house the month before. We filled them in on how Mskate's book and part time retail job was going. We fixed some things up for them since she is replacing all her smoke detectors and they're not the easiest to replace since the connectors are different, and she needed some blinds put up in her sewing room and they were kind of complicated. We had a combination of left overs from both of our dinners (aunt made some stuff for her and grandpa, so dad brought some of what he had as well). I brought what was left of my pumpernickel bread and grandpa enjoyed it. It was a good visit. This was a good Thanksgiving. Well this has been Pokematic, signing off, and bu-bye.

Pokematic Goes to The Fly Trap in Ferndale Michigan, a Diners Drive-ins and Dives Restaurant

Hey everyone. It was my dad's birthday and mskate and I wanted to do something special for a birthday lunch. Well, he and I both enjoy Diners Drive-Ins and Dives with Guy Fieri and it turns out that The Fly Trap as seen in "Off The Hook Specials" and "Triple-D Classics" wasn't prohibitively far from where he lives. We were going to go to The Union Wood Shop from "Kid Rock's Detroit Tour" and "Pork Hall of Fame," but they were closed until 4PM, so we went to another place in flavor town. Maybe next time.

Anyway, we went there and it was pretty cool. Here's some of the décor.

I was kind of surprised that they weren't playing up the fact that Guy featured them since Blimpy Burger really played it up. That actually could be for the best, because it could be kind of tacky. It was also a rather small place. I know the camera adds 50 square feet, but it's still always kind of weird when a place from a TV show is so much smaller than it looks on TV. There were maybe 15 tables and a bar, and most people were sitting at the bar. The fire marshal set the maximum capacity at 75 people. Oh well, size aside it was still pretty neat.

We got our menus and it took us a little time to figure out what we wanted. Ultimately mskate and dad settled on the The Patty Wagon and I went with the Hamburger. I wanted to get something "more interesting" (and next time I'll probably also get The Patty Wagon), but the burger would require the fewest changes for my pallet and I wanted to see what the Buzz Sauce was like. With the limited menu options for all of us and what ended up being a bit of a wait, we were kind of wondering if it was worth it. Well, once we got our food it definitely was.

My Hamburger with Buzz Sauce

Dad's Patty Wagon

Mskate's Patty Wagon without the bread and cheese

These were were REALLY good. Like, this was more than just a burger. That sauce made it a little spicy and other flavor that really complimented the onion and lettuce, and the home made bun really helped. Dad and mskate both really enjoyed their Patty Wagon, and I had some of Mskate's and it was really good. Dad even thinks he might take Mom there because it's not crazy far away and has some good quality food. Once again, Guy knows his restaurants. There was some left overs and we got this cute little take-out box.

After eating I went to the bathroom to wash up. Here's what the doors said.

"Either" and "Or"

I asked myself "am I an 'either' or and 'or'"? I asked one of the waitresses which bathroom was the men's room, and aparently they were unisex. They could have done something to make it a little more obvious, but whatever. I decided I was an "or." It was a pretty good restaurant. Maybe check the menu beforehand to make sure there's something you like, but if you do go it's worth it. This has been Pokematic, signing off, and bu-bye.

An 80s Doll with 80s Videogames, Another Columbus Ohio Adventure

Hey everyone, at the very beginning of this year my wife and I went to Columbus for a new American Girl Doll release, and with the release of the Harry Potter clothes we decided to go again. We also made sure to get the same hotel that we did last time because of the awesome arcade. Mskate is pretty into Harry Potter and wanted to make a character doll (maybe Ginny), so we planned on maybe buying a doll in addition to the accessories. With all that we planned on purchasing I bought some gift cards through swagbucks to get the cash back. Since this was a new release they had some promotional give aways and we wanted to get them. Mskate was being kind of pesimistic though, basically saying "I know we won't be making it, so we don't need to even try, we'll sleep in and don't worry about it," but I said "no, we're going to try, we'll get up early and go there to make it."

Saturday was the day. We woke up at 6:30 but didn't leave until about 7:30, and that was OK because the give aways were for the first 50 people who bought things. I drove the first leg and it was good, then mskate drove the second leg. I was getting hungry and wanted to get McDonalds because of the Pokemon toy promotion, but it was too early since they were still serving breakfast. Once we got to the mall I pulled out my camera and was ready to take some video, but I neglected to charge my camera and the battery was dead, so I had to take video on my phone.

The store was pretty cool. Since we had been there earlier this year there weren't a lot of things that were super new, but there were some cool displays. One thing mskate pointed out is that there were many displays made of card board, and some of them looked really good. You can see them in the video above. The Harry Potter stuff was really well made. There was a trunk that came with an owl, birty bots every flavor beans, chocolate frog with wizard card, wand, and acceptance letter. There was also the sorting hat with the nimbus 2000. This was a funny story, there's a "classic witch" costume that's available as well and mskate thought the broom that came with that set and was on display was the Harry Potter broom, and I pointed out how it wasn't. There were also school uniforms and house scarves, and mskate wanted to get a Griffindore so we could make a Ginny, but of course being the house of the main character it was sold out. We almost got a Ravenclaw so we could make a Cho Chang, but decided against it. Instead of a doll for a Harry Potter character, we got a Courtney doll. She's the 80s doll and her story is awesome (because it's all 80s pop culture, with a love of Pacman and Care Bears).

Now for some interesting things. They have blind bags with little accessories from sets that didn't sell well, typically foods or home supplies (like we kept feeling shampoo bottles and bracelets when feeling these bags), and we were only interested in the cell phone and smart watch set. A lot of other people must have been interested in it too because we felt all hundred or so bags and no cell phone set. It would be a little bit of a scene if it wasn't that everyone does it. Oh well, in the past we successfully found the cheese and cheese grater, milk and eggs, and syrup and pancakes sets.

After the shopping we went to eat lunch at the mall food court. I was going to maybe get Shake Shack while Mskate got Bibibop, but we both ended up getting Bibibop. I got a salad bowl with broccoli, steak, potatoes, and teriyaki sauce. We sat at a table that had outlets so we could charge the camera and my phone, but the camera wasn't taking a charge and my phone barely got a charge after sitting there for maybe an hour. Oh well.

After lunch we went to a game and puzzle store that was in the mall, and I bought a pikmin 3 puzzle. I played the coin dozer games that they had, and I thought they were close to payout but they weren't so I lost a dollar. I had fun though. After that store we went to the legoland gift shop and played "I got that one and that one and that one" since mskate's dad likes to gift lego. We managed to find something we didn't have and kind of need for our holiday display table, a black cat and mouse in a pumpkin display piece for the fall display. We went to the lego store after that and didn't find anything but still played "I got that one and that one and that one."

After this we drove to the hotel. I checked us in, unloaded the stuff, and packed the car while mskate took the stuff up to the room. I caught up to her quickly since there was an open parking spot. We got situated and just rested for an hour or so. We also explored the hotel some and went down to the pool. At the pool we found this funny bit of conflicting information in the signs. Mskate also played with her new dolls, and we got all set-up. Here I am with Courtney. 

For dinner we ordered mskate sushi from the local sushi place and I got McDonalds. I got 2 happy meals because I wanted the pokemon toys. They tried to give me scooby doo toys, but I pushed them and asked for the pokemon toys (and they gave them to me). The McDonalds was pretty interesting, it wasn't like a normal building that matches their style. After the McDonalds we went to get mskate her sushi, which is also right next to the barcade. They have tinted windows and mskate thought they might be out of business, so when I went to get the sushi I also checked (they were open). We went back to the hotel where I finished my McDonalds and mskate had her sushi, and I had her wasabi and other spicy thing they give with it (I just ate it straight, and I felt the heat of the wasabi in the back of my nose). A little while later around 5:30 I went to the barcade.

Here's the business model of this barcade, the drinks are inflated but most of the arcade games are free. Skeeball, pinball, and some new arcade fighters cost money, but every video cabinet that is over 10 years old is on free play. It's a great place. When I got there I started a tab and started with a Galaga; a purple drink made with rum, gin, vodka, and raspberry liquor. This was a good drink, I highly recommend it. Then to start, I went with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Turtles in Time. Someone had left 40 credits on Rafael early in level 1, so I played as Raff. After the time warp I decided to start filming some lets plays with my phone, holding the phone in my left hand while I controlled Raff with my right hand, joystick in my palm and attack with my middle and ring finger. I don't recommend playing like this if you are spending money since dodging requires the jump button, but if it's on free play it's an interesting challenge. While I was playing the 2020 level a boy that was probably 7 or 8 came up with his mom and asked if he could play with me. I said sure and he pressed the credit button for Leonardo and Michelangelo and we played together some. I was very careful with how I engaged with them, because I wanted to let his mom know I wasn't mad that he jumped on but I also didn't want to be a weirdo at the bar talking to children. It was cool though, because at least according to Irate Gamer 4 random kids playing the TMNT arcade game together was what you did back in the day. He got kind of bored after half the level and ran off, so for a little while I'm moving 3 turtles around the screen so I could advance the level, and then let them game over so I could continue playing as Raff (though I did play some as the other turtles just to try them out, because why not). At the last level I got all the turtles on the screen because at the end of the level if there were more than 1 turtles on screen they would high five, and I wanted to have all of them at the end. I eventually beat the game and because I was taking a sip between each level I finished my drink, but because I didn't start from the very beginning I decided to play through until I got to a part where I walked in, so I played through the entire game. As I explained in the other blog and in the lets play, I have a history with this game, so every time I come here I'll probably spend an hour or whatever beating it because 9-12 year old me never was able to.

After Turtles in Time I went to the bar and got a Frogger; a drink made with coconut rum, pineapple juice, melon liquor, and orange juice. I was drawn more to the pineapple and didn't see the coconut, and if I did I probably would have got something else because I don't like coconut, and it wasn't for me. Since I wasn't getting any trouble for filming the lets plays with TMNT, the next game I played was Maximum Force, a light gun game I could play with 1 hand. I don't have a history with this one partially because I wasn't allowed to play light gun games as a child (my mom was pretty anti-gun), and I for sure wasn't allowed to play this because when the bad guys got shot they kind of blew up. I also didn't see this in the arcades I frequented as child, so even if that was permitted I wouldn't have had the option. Regardless, it was fun. The fun thing was it had FMV human enemies and low-texture 3D graphics. I let's played the first 2 levels, but the 3rd I did without the camera because I wanted to dual wield, and that was a fun way to play. I took some sips between levels, but not too much and still had plenty of drink after I finished the game. After Maximum Force I decided to play Frogger while drinking a Frogger, but I was a little buzzed by then and while I'm normally a wiz at Frogger (at least enough to get halfway through the first level), but I wasn't even able to get my first frog in the end cave. I also gave the original Donkey Kong a try, but failed pretty hard at that as well, not being able to get past the first screen.

After failing at Frogger and Donkey Kong I went to play The Simpsons Arcade game. The button layout was pretty similar to the TMNT button layout, so I decided to play as Lisa and do lets plays as well. I filmed one before my phone had a super low battery, so I only got one video. This is another game I have some history with, because I would play this sometimes at the Chuck E Cheese and the Caesarland by me, and I watched the demo screen very well because I would watch it all the time pretending to play. One of the cool things about this game is that if 2 characters stood next to each other motionless for a few seconds they would work together for a super attack. Bart and Lisa would hold hands and hit the enemies, and Marge and homer would do something similar. If Bart or Lisa stood next to Homer, he would pick them up and they would deal double damage. If it was Marge she would pick up the kid and throw them like a projectile. Because the combo attacks just required 1 joystick input (Bart+Lisa and Homer+Marge), there was some time where I just put all 4 characters on screen and controlled them simultaneously, but that eventually became too much to handle so I just played 1 character at a time. I ended up playing as Homer and Lisa primarily (Lisa because that was good for lets plays, Homer because I like playing as him), and I ended up getting 2 high scores because of it. It was another game I beat, and I finished my Frogger while playing it. I had seen the end of Simpsons Arcade a couple of times because there would sometimes be a kid or group of kids that were determined to beat it, but it was fun to beat it all by myself.

For my 3rd and final drink for the night, I was going to get a Stonewall (8 different liquors with a splash of sours, orange juice, and sprite in a souvenir tumbler), but they were out of tumblers so I got a blue bomber (blueberry vodka, blue curaco, lemonade, and blueberry redbull; a very good drink). I decided to give Tengen Tetris a try, the arcade version that is very Russian. I could only use one rotate button because the other was sticky and I didn't want to deal with sticky. I did pretty well with it, getting to like level 5 or 6. After Tetris I played Area 51, another lightgun game that while I never played (gun game and kind of gory), I did see in arcades all the time, and on the demo screen I'm pretty sure one said "used to help train law enforcement." I did pretty well considering I was 2 drinks in and tired. The next game I played was Q-bert, and I made it to level 2 before getting the game overs (I think I played 2 games because the first one didn't "feel real"). I also played Ms. Pacman until I game over'ed, and didn't want to try much because I have a Ms. Pacman 35th anniversary cabinet at my house. The next game I played and failed at was Donkey Kong Jr, it was much harder than the NES port I have (and the 2.5 cocktails and fatigue didn't help). I also played the original Punch Out, and got to the 3rd boxer despite not really knowing what I was doing on top of the other challenges.

One of the last games I played was Tapper, a game I have some history with. When I was in 5th grade Shockwave.com was the game site we frequented, and they had classic arcade games available to play, one being Tapper (or "Rootbeer Tapper," the "kid friendly asset swap" that replaces the Budweiser logo with a generic root beer logo). Even though I nearing my end, I could still beat the bar setting and bonus stage with ease, then I got to level 8 which always got me as a kid (I'd either serve too many mugs and lose the life that way, or a customer would get to me because I didn't serve them fast enough), and this is where I bit it again. It was now a quarter to 9 and I only had enough in me for 1 more game, and I played another game that had a lot of nostalgia connections from Shockwave, Rampage. This was a modern version but still Rampage. I played as George and made it to like level 4 before I basically gave up on (but I still made it to a game over). I cashed out at this time and the final bill was $32. That was a good price for 3.5 hours of arcade games and 3 drinks. If I counted 50 cents for each time I pressed start it probably would have been more than $32. After the arcade I went back to the hotel. Mskate was in bed but not asleep, so I was able to tell her how the arcade went. I showered and had some snacks, and that was it for the night. 

Sunday morning was pretty chill. As I said in the other blog, the hotel doesn't have a free breakfast, so I had poptarts and pistachios. We just relaxed some in the morning, before packing up, checking out, and going to church. The mass was interesting because there were a lot of small children, and they were a little distracting. The church was in a cute little town, with some cool old style architecture. Mskate drove the first half of the trip, and then I drove the other half. So, we filled the gas tank before going on the trip and that should have got us pretty much the whole trip. However, with the traffic that we ran into the gas tank was running on empty and I wasn't sure we would make it home (the car was driving a little different than normal), so I stopped at a gas station like 5 miles from our house and got 2 gallons, and that was more than enough to get us home. We unpacked the stuff and then just enjoyed the rest of the Sunday.

Overall, great trip. While American Girl Doll isn't really my thing, I don't dislike it (we got Courtney mainly because I love the 80s and she's an 80s doll). Then there's Level One Bar and Arcade, an arcade with free videogames. The only way it could have been better is if my camera wasn't dead and they had the Griffindore accessories. Next time we go (because there will be a next time), I'll make sure I have enough charge on my phone and video camera so I can take more lets play videos. I was a little hesitant because if people don't want you taking video they REALLY don't want you taking video, and since was a bar that wasn't in a tourist place there was a decent chance that they wouldn't want me taking video, but I took video in front of the employees and they didn't say anything, so next time I'll be sure to be prepared. I also won't have 3 alcoholic drinks; maybe 2 and a non-alcoholic drink (like a Pinky or Donkey Kong Jr.). I also will play some other games that I haven't played yet like the big buck hunter and X-men game, but I'll always play TMNT because that was as much of a draw of Wheels Inn as anything else there. Well this has been Pokematic, signing off, and bu-bye.

Christmas and New Years 2021 Blog

 Hey everyone, it's Christmas time again. Mskate and I got our Christmas tree up and all our decorations. We also had to take down our usual decorations, but couldn't find a good place for the American Girl Doll bike, so I used our left over wrapping paper scraps to wrap it up and make a Christmas scene.

Before I get into the big festivities, I have to tell a pre-festivities story that will pan out later. I don't know exactly how IRA found out about this, but he learned that my grandma didn't have a timer for her Christmas lights and bought her one. Since my grandma is his grandma-in-law, he didn't know where she lived and needed me to go with him. We stopped at the McDonalds by her for lunch and to maybe get Encanto Happy Meal Toys since mskate wanted them. We didn't want to deal with the drive through and thankfully the lobby was open for carryout. Unfortunately they didn't have Encanto anymore, and we ended up getting a Micky's Runaway Railway and Luca toy. I'll just try to sell those on ebay later. We setup the timer and watched the Rugrats 2021 Holiday special. It was cool, we learned about Las Posadas (because as my mom likes to say, "everything I learned about other religions and cultures I learned from the Rugrats"). It was fun.

OK, so it's Christmas Eve, and it's time for us to exchange gifts with my maternal grandma. We always exchange gifts on Christmas Eve with her ever since I was little, and part of the tradition was we would go to McDonalds while Santa delivered the presents. We didn't do it last year because everything was closed, and we almost didn't this year because Mom called and asked if dining area was open and when she heard "no," she thought that meant it was drive through only and we did frozen oven pizza. Because IRA and I went a week or 2 earlier we knew that the lobby was open, and I had to keep the tradition alive, I walked there and got grandma a McDouble and a large fry to share with everyone. We still had frozen pizza, but we also had some McDonalds When I got back I yelled "Santa Came!" like I would have when I was little.

Time for presents. I got some PS4 games that I got on black friday and amazon prime day that my mom and grandma bought off me, some gift cards, candy, hand cream, and some puzzles. Mskate got me a present she was VERY proud of, Recess Miracle on 3rd Street on DVD, because it wasn't available on disney plus. Unfortunately for her I already had it on VHS from when I was a child, but it's good to have it on DVD now (but she was still a bit sad that I already had it on a home media). Mskate got some candy, puzzles, gift cards, and a special gift that I helped my grandma give. But before I get to that, I need to go through the gifts we gave my grandma. We got her an ornament we painted together some weeks ago, a Minnie Mouse we bought her in Disney World, a build a bear shirt we got on sale in Disney World, some gift cards, and this special gift of gift. Grandma is always saying "I don't have anything for you to eat" whenever we come over, especially since mskate has multiple food allergies. Well, on prime day I found these organic fruit snack starburst things that I knew mskate would like, but I knew she would like them "too much" and they wouldn't last a week in our house, so I wrapped them up as a gift from grandma to mskate, put it in a box, and then wrapped it up as a gift from me to grandma. When she grabbed the box, I told mskate to go over to her and get ready. When she opened it and saw it was another present, I said "read the label" and she handed the inside package to mskate, and mskate liked the organic starburst to keep at her house. We also gave vikingpolak some gifts, a universal socket, a tactical flashlight, and something I'm forgetting. Oh well, it was still fun. My parents got clothes and gift cards.

After gifts we went to church. It was a good service. After church mskate and I took dad back with us so he could get dinner started. Dad made a pot roast and some baked potatoes. It was really good. After dinner we packed up and went to mskate's parents house for the night. We exchanged some pre-gifts with her parents, some clothes and ornaments, and gave the dogs some toys. I wanted to watch A Christmas Story on TBS with IRA, but he isn't a fan of A Christmas Story so we watched my new Recess DVD. After the DVD it was time for everyone to go to bed because "Santa had to come set-up." I wasn't ready to sleep yet, so I watched some of A Christmas Story in bed on my phone. IRA offered to let me watch it on his DVD copy, but it has to be 24-hours on TBS, because 24-hours of A Christmas Story on TBS is my 14 year long tradition.

OK, it's Christmas morning. Last year we learned our lesson and put the dog's presents up high so Dalilah wouldn't get to them. IRA though was up at 4AM excited for all the stuff. Even though he's 24 years old, he's still a kid at heart and gets really excited for Christmas morning. The rest of us got up at about 7:30 AM, and we started at around 8AM (and while everyone was waking up, I watched some more of A Christmas Story). It was quite the sight, because my in-laws get REALLY into Christmas. I got some cool Sonic and Pokemon socks, some lego sets, puzzles, games, and blu-rays. Mskate got puzzles, legos, clothes, and Addie the American Girl Doll with bed. IRA got a bunch of movies, and we got him a "pokematic family staple," The 3 Stooges complete collection of DVD. He was REALLY excited about that. As for my parent-in-laws, we got dad a USB fan and washing machine cleaner (because that's the kind of stuff he likes), and mom got a peanuts colorform and spoon rest. They got some other things as well from us, but those were the key things that really got them excited. It's funny, mskate and her mom always had difficulty shopping for her dad because his standards were either too high, or they paid too much for what they bought, and they just didn't know what to buy him, then I came along and said "for the man who loves his computer and to keep the AC off in the summer, give him a USB desk fan."

OK, now it's time for breakfast. I had an over easy egg and medium well bacon, mskate had an egg replacement omelet, and everyone else had this egg casserole and medium rare bacon. While breakfast was cooking I watched some more Christmas Story, but with the west coast TBS feed because that was closer to where I left off last time. A little later mskate and I went to pick up her aunt to have breakfast and christmas with us. Nothing too spectacular to say, except IRA and I took her back afterwards and I finished watching A Christmas Story after that (once again, on the west coast feed), and that's how I watched all of A Christmas Story over 4 airings this year.

OK, now it's now about 2 PM, and time for us to spend time with my side of the family. My parents throw a party every Christmas and this year was no exception. Vikingpolak picked up my grandma, and their accordion friends showed up a little bit after. The really fun thing though was mskate's cousin M came as well. Mom said "if cousin M isn't doing anything, he can come to our house," and he did. We all visited for the first hour or 2, introducing cousin M to everyone and catching up on life. After that we had dinner. Since my parent's dining room table isn't big enough for everyone there was a "kids table" and "adult table." Since there's normally more than 10 people at these functions and my parent's china set is only for 10 people, and I'm a bit clumsy, I normally have to use a normal dinner plate, so when I asked "where's my plate," I wasn't being rude or entitled, I just knew my place. However, because Christmas was 10 people this year I got a china plate this year. I had ham, green beans, and a roll. After dinner we did the accordion sing along. IRA and mom-in-law came over for that, and it was fun. This was something new for cousin M, and he enjoyed it. While we were singing tanman called to wish everyone Merry Christmas. I was one of the last people to talk to him so I didn't know who to hand him off to, so I said "here, talk to cousin M." Neither of them knew what to so, but mom was like "no, here, talk to your accordion grandparents." After the sing along we all said our goodbyes and went back to mskate's parent's house since we still had festivities with my parents the next day. IRA and I watched one of his new movies, The Suicide Squad, not to be confused with Suicide Squad. This is the R-rated soft reboot, and I gotta say, it was pretty gross. Like, LOADS of gore and brutal deadly injuries, and I guess this is what people wanted, but it was a little too much for my tastes.

OK, it's now the 26th, the first day of Kwanza, and the day we're exchanging gifts with my parents. We met my parents and vikingpolak at Sunday church and had a good mass. My parents still had some setting up to do so vikingpolak, mskate, and I drove around the city a little. We went to the restaurant with really good gluten free bread to see if we could buy 5 pieces of bread quick and easy. Unfortunately the restaurant was closed so we just drove to the edge of the city and then back to my parents house. When we got there my parents had it set-up like they always do (brother's pile, my pile, their piles, and now mskate's pile). We added our stuff to their piles. Some of their key presents were a new French press for dad (since his was falling apart), a set of cooking tongs with a silicone tip one, and mom got a soap dispenser that dispenses soap in the shape of micky's head. There were some other things, like gift cards, but they aren't the main things that got a lot of fun. We also got my parents shirts from our Disney trip, and they all really liked them. We got vikingpolak some other things, but what they were escape me at the moment. Mskate and I got some puzzles, candy, a shirt or 2, gift cards, a build a bear thing, and plasticine clay builder thing. Vikingpolak then gave everyone special gifts. He gave everyone a utility bucket with a stuffed animal and gift card in it. I had a legendary pokemon, mskate got a corgi dog in a santa costume, dad got a snoopy in his WW2 flying ace costume, and mom got a queen bee. After gift exchanging we packed up our stuff and went back to mskate's parents house to pack up everything. The rest of the day was pretty basic, and we had some relaxing.

OK, now it's time to enjoy my week off. Monday was a day of shopping and doctors. Mskate needed to get some blood work done, so we went there after doing some shopping at BJs. Tuesday was more shopping, this time at IKEA and Ollies, and then dinner at an upscale steak house because we had a coupon for a free appetizer. That ended up getting crazy because while backing out I accidently hit the car behind me. I went around the restaurant asking "do you have a dark gray traverse?" and eventually found the owner. It was just minor damage, some scratches on the bumpers, but we still filed the police report. I called my insurance and got things taken care of, but it was a crazy night.

Wednesday is when things got "fun again." Mskate had a doctor's appointment at 10 so I waited outside and watched Elvira while she was in there, and after that we went to see my aunt and grandpa. It was an hour and a half drive up to them, and then we had a fun visit. We exchanged some gifts, and they really enjoyed them. My grandpa liked to carve wood in retirement when he could and one thing he really liked to carve was santas, so instead of putting up a tree with ornaments my aunt puts up multiple little pencil trees and all her carved santas up in a little santa village. Some weeks ago we took my grandma to a pottery painting place and made a santa ornament for my aunt and grandpa for the santa village. I think he fits in perfectly with the rest of the santas.

We also got my grandpa a pair of wireless headphones for the TV. My grandpa is losing his hearing so he keeps the TV kind of loud, and one time she asked "is there a way to give him headphones or something," and after looking at the TV I said "yes there is," and when I saw bluetooth headphones on prime day I said "this would be great for grandpa," and since I already had a bluetooth transmitter that plugs into a headphone jack I knew I could get this for them. Unfortunately I forgot what the specific jacks were on her TV and didn't bring an RCA to 3.5mm jack adapter, but it works for his ipad and the cell phones since there's a standard 3.5mm audio cable option, and they are happy about them. We also got them bird feeder cylinders and lindor chocolates, and they enjoyed them. We had ham sandwiches for lunch, and we had some good conversations. It was a fun little day.

OK, it's Thursday now, and it's dad-in-law's birthday today. We went to my dad's first because we had to pick up some stuff and just wanted to see him. After that we went to mskate's parent's house and played our new Disney Eye Found it game. Mom-in-law didn't understand it too well, but IRA enjoyed it. After that IRA and I watched an episode of Seinfeld and then we just waited around for dad-in-law to come home from work. I played Animal Crossing New Horizon and watched Just Go With It on Hulu. When he got home we ordered pizza and made a lava cake we got from BJs on Monday. Everyone enjoyed them. It was a fun day.

Alright it's Friday, Friday, gotta get down on Friday, and New Years Eve. Mskate and I planned on going to the American Girl Doll Store in Columbus for the new year release of the girl of the year, because mskate really wants the girl of the year since she's a future Olympian and her welly wisher sister is a figure skater. Thursday night she learned that they released them 2 days early, and so we went there New Years Eve before going to our hotel. It was a really fun store, and I may put some clips up.

We got the Welly Wisher, the skating outfit, an Olympic medal presentation set on sale, and some blind bags we felt to figure what we'd get (milk and eggs, cheese and grater, and waffle iron). After the store we went to our hotel and it took us a little while to check in (many people were checking in as well), so I just watched hulu while I waited. After checking in we drove around our hotel to find dinner. We found a Japanese restaurant next to a barcade (arcade that is paid for with alcoholic drinks) called Level One. We ordered avacado sushi rolls and a salmon sushi roll for mskate and steak teppan yaki for me. While we waited for our food, I went to the barcade and played "Russian Tetris" (the arcade version with more Russian imagery" and different mechanics and logic, knowledgeable Tetris players know that there are subtle but major differences between releases), and more importantly Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Turtles In Time. So, little story; when I was about 9 and my brother was 7, we went to a hotel in Canada called The Wheels Inn, where they have a giant arcade, mini-amusement park, bowling alley, laser tag, shuffle board, light gun shooting gallery, mini golf, giant "McPlayland" thing that was so big I sometimes got lost in it, bounce house, and more, and the game that captured our attention the most was TMNT Turtles In Time, but we weren't good enough to get past the 2nd level. When I saw it, I knew I had to play it, and if it was free play, I had to beat it.

It took about an hour and 40 free credits, but I managed to beat it. Young me was proud. The food was ready for a while, and a little cold, but it was worth it to me to beat it. When I sent the picture of the victory screen to my family they all said "oh that's great." After getting our food we went back to the hotel and ate dinner. The food was good, but not very filling (I'll get to that later). Mskate played with her new dolls and clothes, putting the Olympic outfit on the doll she brought and putting the skating outfit on the welly wisher.

After the play time and watching an episode of Numb3rs on hulu I went back to the barcade. I didn't buy a drink for playing TMNT while I waited for the other food, so I figured I should go back and get a drink. Mskate didn't want to go with me (not her thing, and she was tired), so it was just me and I could have all the fun I wanted. I bought a TRON, a cocktale with voka, rum, gin, and blue curacao "with a splash of sour and sprite," and it was REALLY good. If you ever go to Level One, I recommend it. I needed something to play with one hand while I drank so I played Q-Bert, a light gun game, and Frogger. After finishing my drink I played Tapper (which also has some history since that was my favorite arcade game to play on Shockwave.com in 5th grade, along with Rampage), Donkey Kong, and Punch Out. I could have played more, but I had to get back to mskate (but I'm definitely coming back here). Mskate was hungry for more food, so I bought her another order of avocado rolls. She kind of wanted more salmon rolls, but 1 salmon roll costs about the same as 8 avocado rolls ($4.50 for 8 avocado rolls, $3.25 for 1 salmon roll), and when she said "I could have gotten more salmon rolls," I almost said "like hell you are." She enjoyed the avocado rolls, so that was good. When I went to order more sushi rolls one of the employees said "hey, didn't you already order today?" and I said "yeah but we want more." When I got back mskate ate and then went to sleep while I watched Numb3rs waiting for midnight. Around 11:30 I accidentally woke her back up and 30 minutes later we watched the ball drop and rang in the new year with some kisses.

New Years Day started off OK. I woke up around 8:30 and went down to see about continental breakfast. The hotel was asking $12 for their continental breakfast, and I was like "no, I'll just eat the snacks and poptarts we brought." I ate my snack breakfast and called to find out when checkout was while mskate looked to see if there was a mass around us (Solemnity of Marry). Turns out checkout was the same time mass would be over, so we packed up our stuff, checked out, and went to mass. Since people were loud the night before (because new years), mskate didn't sleep as well as she would have liked, and wasn't sure if she would want to go back to the store, but would make the final call after mass. When mass was over she said "it's less than 15 minutes away (just barely at 13), so I want to go." We did and she found matching pajamas for the welly wisher and her, which was great. Unfortunately there weren't any big festivities, so that wasn't very good. Oh well.

After the store we went to the "mall building," where they have restaurants and this cool game store. Mskate got Bibibop and I got panda express, 2 things we don't get very often. At the game store I looked around at all the coin pushers they had to see if any were ready to pay out (I have a coin pusher at home and played it enough to be able to tell when they're ready to pay out), but unfortunately none were. We drove home and thus concluded our little adventure.

Overall this was quite a fun vacation. If I could do it over the only thing I would change is remembering the right cable for the headphones and getting it completely set-up. Well, now it's time for me to get back to real life. This has been Pokematic, signing off, and bu-bye.

My Family's Musgegon Weekend

Hey everyone, it's been close to 10 years since my family had a family vacation with everyone. Sure, there would be trips without my mom or my dad but everyone else, but it's been forever since everyone was together. We realized we never went to Michigan Adventures (a Cedar Fair park, and we really enjoy Cedar Fair parks like Cedar Point, Carowins, and Kings Island), and there happened to be a coast guard fair in on of the close by cities (Grand Haven) that mskate had fond memories of, so we decided that this would be a good trip for us.

The trip started on Thursday. Mskate and I packed up our stuff and headed out. We brought some s'mores ingreedients and supplies since there was going to be a fire pit, but more on that later. We drove for hours and planned to meet my parents at this restaurant that is allergy friendly since mskate has a lot of allergies. We had some trouble finding parking because of the festival, but we found some parking on a side street. It's primarily a breakfast place, so I had eggs and hashbrowns. Mskate had vegan and gluten free French toast, and I don't remember what everyone else had, but they enjoyed it. The restaurant has a retro style, and there was an old TV I had to get a picture with.

I'm kind of a fan of analog TV, and in 2021 when there were still low powered analog stations on the air we took a TV around trying to find them (but no luck). After lunch we walked down main street to all the shops. The first store we went to was a candy and liquor store (strange combination, I know), and one of the things they had was large pickles. I love me my pickles, so I got one. After that we went to another candy story, were we got some discount candy and these whistlers hard candy.

After the candy stores the next stop was the historical museum. This place was really cool. It covered the history of Grand Haven from the 1600s to the 1950s. We saw Native American settlements, pioneer houses, an old time house, a soda shop, fashion through the ages, and a coast guard display. The house was really cool, especially for my mom since my great grandparents had some of the same furniture that was on display. That was cool. Then in the fashion section we saw all these dresses from Victorian to the 80s, and my mom had me take a picture to send to her best friend that does all her shopping and say "look, we found the dress for the wedding." The coast guard thing was cool because it had a flag signal decoder wheel. I thought that was really cool because I remember boys who did the signaling historical merit badge in boy scouts saying the hardest part was memorizing the different signal alphabets. The last big part of the museum was the contest for a give away. It was "what does USCG stand for" and my mom knew the answer. She won a prize of a flower thing, and mom got one that her best friend and shopper would like.

After the historical museum we found a pawn shop. There wasn't anything particularly interesting about it (though they had a decent selection of videogames, but none I needed), but it was cool. The best thing was they had this sign outside.

The pawn shop was at the end of the street, so we walked back on the other side of the street. There was this news stand that was kind of cool, but the main thing was Marushka/Michigan Rag. It's this clothing brand that mskate's grandma and aunt were really into, so mskate got a shirt from them as a memory for her grandma and aunt. There was another candy store we went into, but I don't remember anything really of note from that one (just that we went in). That was pretty much all our shopping, so now it was time to go to the AirBnB.

It's been so long since I've done one of these and neglected to take a bunch of pictures, but lucky for me it's an AirBnB and information is available online. It was really quite nice. There was a good entertaining living room (TV and sectional sofa), 1st floor bedroom with a TV, 2 2nd story story bedrooms with a TV in each, and a basement with an air hockey table, skee-ball table, shuffleboard table, foosball table, darts, and of course, a TV. All the TVs were either smart or had roku's. After unpacking I decided to explore the TVs and see if there were any services that were logged in that we could find a movie to watch, but the only ones we could get to were the free apps (Tubi, Roku Channel, Freevee, and RedBox). I knew some of the apps and found some that could work, but we decided to just play corn hole (because that was something that was included with the AirBnB). That was fun. After corn hole we all just kind of did our own thing. I practiced on skee-ball and found how easy it is to sink the 50 point hole.

OK, now it's Friday, the day we go to Michigan Adventures. Since they open at 11AM we we able to enjoy the morning. We made breakfast and it was good. I made some toast and had bacon. Everyone else made eggs, but I decided I didn't want any. We packed up some snacks and diabetes stuff for mskate. After packing up we got in the car and drove to Michigan Adventures. Well, we started that but then we realized we left the pool bag at the house so we had to turn back and get it. After we got it then we really went to Michigan Adventures.

We got there rather quickly, and were a little interested in the fact that it was basically in the middle of nowhere. When you think about it that does make sense; amusement parks require a lot of land up front, and all the theme parks are kind of "enclosed communities" (they have restaurants, they have bathrooms, they have basic medical care), and places like Orlando were just swampland before Disney started Disney World, and being a smaller park it doesn't draw development so it's going to be still "out in the woods." We got there at opening and it was pretty neat; there was a local marching band playing. After we got in my mom, mskate, and vikingpolak got their meal wrist bands (because my parents got 3 even though mskate and I knew we would only need 2), and after that we got our picture taken for the souvenir picture. We first went to Coasters (the air conditioned restaurant, with a 50s theme that sells chicken tenders, salads, and cheeseburgers. Mskate having to eat gluten, dairy, and egg free due to allergies wanted to get a salad without cheese, but unfortunately they were all premade and we weren't able to pick off the cheese. I got a cheese burger and fries, dad and VP got chicken tenders and fries, and my mom got the salad. I loaded my burger up with pickles and lettuce, because fixings were free. Mskate ate a lot of everyone's fries, but that's OK because she was going to get her main meal at the next place in an hour and a half (because that's how the meal tickets work, eat every 90 minutes).

The first ride we rode was the Corkscrew, a rollercoaster that had 2 corkscrew loops that happened to be right by Coasters. Dad decided he didn't want to sit it out, so he waited at the outside seating while mom, mskate, VP, and I went on it. While we were in line we waved to him twice, and he was able to see us. It was fun, I loke roller coasters as does the others, and it was smoother than the one at Cedar Point (that one really bangs your head around). After the Corkscrew we went on Lakeside Gliders, a ride that swings you around and you have control over a wing that adjusts your trajectory. All 5 of us decided to do this one. Holiday World, an Indiana amusement park we went to all the time when we visited my cousins, also has one of these rides, but the ride carts are bigger and can fit 2 adults, and we assumed these would be the same. We split up according to size; mskate would ride with my dad, I would ride with my mom, and vikingpolak would ride by himself. It turns out they were much smaller than the ones at Holiday World. Mskate being small was able to fit in a cart with dad, but mom and I weren't able to fit in the same cart. At this time I ran to where VP was and tried to climb in with him, but that didn't work either. Since there were no open carts left, he just sat that one out and I rode by myself. I swung it REALLY hard, maximizing the wave I was making. Afterwards I was kind of nauseous because I went so hard. I had to help my mom out and then help my dad out. but it was a really fun ride.

After the Lakeside Gliders we decided with it getting to the heat of the day we should go to the water park. As we went to the water park we walked through Camp Snoopy just for fun (dad really likes Peanuts, and as a Cedar Fair park they have the Peanuts license, so they have Camp Snoopy for the kid's park). VP and I got pictures at the Beagle Scout campfire sitting with the Woodstock bird campers while Snoopy gave a presentation. After we got our picture Dad got his picture with Snoopy doing the same pose. Camp Snoopy has a lot of great kiddie rides, and we were going to ride the Flying Bus ride at the end of the day if time permitted. We found our way to the water park, and passed by an arcade which was cool to see. If there was DDR or pinball I might have had to get a game card and play some games, but unfortunately they didn't have any of that so it was just a shaded passthrough.

Now for some fun with the water park. Since it was food time again we went to the next food place, Beach Bites. I had to use the bathroom so I broke from the group and was going to meet back up with them. Beach Bites wasn't well directed, so I walked around a bit aimlessly looking for it. I eventually asked an employee and he misheard me initially. I asked "where's Beach Bites" and he thought I was saying "Beach Bikes," and said "I don't know if we have those this year, you'll have to ask customer service." When I told him it was a restaurant he pointed me in the general direction but didn't know exactly where it was since he was new. I found everyone eventually, and it was time to eat again. We originally chose this place because of food variety (multiple things mskate could eat), but this is where things went south. We first tried to order a salad and asked if we could get it without cheese, and the cashier said "I would look into that, but we're out of salad." That was a set-back, but still OK because vikingpolak was going to get the turkey and provolone sandwich, but they were out of that too. Turns out the only thing they had was chicken fingers. Because of that we got 2 orders of chicken fingers and fries, and mskate used her premium band to get rainbow dippin dots (because those are dairy free) at the stand not to far away. This was a bit of a mistake since everyone was still pretty full from Coasters, but we ate 1 of the meals and about half of the other. Mskate also got us a powerade to split with her premium food band, which was good with the heat. For fun I decided to choke down a chicken tender (and I say "choke down" because I don't like chicken). It wasn't all that bad because there was a lot of breading and I was able to dip in barbecue sauce. My brother didn't bring a swim suit so he just camped out at the beer garden and watched our stuff.

OK, first we did the lazy river. Nothing super interesting to talk about, it was a lazy river. There were some events of trying to get my parents laying in their tubes, but that was it. That is until we passed by the slide outlet into the lazy river. I've seen this maybe one other time, and it was cool. We knew we would have to do that. We went around again to get to the entrance/exit that would get us to the slide. Mom, mskate, and I decided to go, Dad just went around and waited for us to get out. We took our tubes up the stairs to the only slide in the area, and hoped it would go to the lazy river. The stairs went to multiple slides, and no one had tubes like ours (the park color codes the tubes for what slide they go to). We waited in line like everyone else, but since we were the only ones that were doing this slide when we got close to the top people just let us through right to the slide (no line). The slide was fun, but the exit to the lazy river was the big thing, and it was fun. I waited at the bottom to catch mom and mskate, and we rode together to get to the exit for the next attraction.

That next attraction was the wave pool. Again, nothing super special, it was a wave pool. There was a guy measuring kids to make sure they were tall enough, and since I was after a group of kids I jokingly asked if I was tall enough (I'm taller than the measuring pole). He leaned down and jokingly checked my height and said "yeah I think you're good." But then something interesting happened. You know the life guards, the people that surround the pool in case someone starts drowning but most of the time they don't do much but watch people? Well we saw them save someone, three times. It was pretty crazy. It almost happened 4 times but the kids were able to get to a safer level. I also had some struggles after the waves ended. These were like 3 foot waves, and I was out rather far, and when the waves stopped I couldn't touch and was somewhat tired. Still really fun.

After the wave pool Dad decided to join vikinpolak at the beer garden while Mom, mskate, and I rode a big slide. This slide had the big rubber rafts that could hold probably 6 people but can only safely hold 3 people. These are normally sent up by a conveyor lift but they instead needed the riders to carry them up the stairs. It took all 3 of us to carry it, and we were impressed by the dads that were carrying them by themselves because their kids couldn't help. It was a really fun slide, and the only way it could be improved is if they put in a lift for the rafts. After the slide we got dippin dots to share and it was good, but that along with the fries were too much, and I got nauseas. Mskate kept asking me what's wrong for the rest of the day but just didn't accept "I overate, and now I feel sick."

This was also the end of our water park time, so we got dressed and went back into the ride park. Since thunderhawk was close to the waterpark entrance, we went on it afterwards. Dad and I sat it out though, so I don't know what it was like, but it sure looked like a fun rollercoaster. This was also around where the swan paddle boats were and mskate wanted to do those as well (a fun romantic ride with her husband), but with me overstuffed and her feeling tired it wouldn't have been as romantic as intended, so we skipped it. After the thunderhawk we walked to the midway area with a bunch of carnival like rides (not knocking it, that's just the best way to describe it). There was a petting zoo along the walk and I would have enjoyed it (I love petting zoos, even as a grown adult), but unfortunately it was closed. We were also going to ride the big swings, but that was closed for the season. Oh well.

When we got there the first ride we rode was the trabant, a spinning ride that then lifts you up at an angle, a mix of a centripetal force ride that seems to defy gravity and the scrambler ride that spins the riders into each other, and I barely managed to ride it with my nausea. I had to sit down after that. After this ride we rode the Matterhorn ride (or as they call it Thunderbolt). I liked it but mskate didn't. It was really fun. After the Matterhorn vikingpolak rode Shivering Timbers (a wooden rollercoaster) by himself and everyone else rode the scrambler, while I sat it out. I just needed a break. After that and everyone met back up, mskate, Mom, and I rode the tilt a whirl. I would have gotten sick but I managed to not get sick by just closing my eyes. It was still very fun. Since this was a small park late in the season and everyone was probably still in the water park, there were practically no lines. Yay.

After all the midway fun we went to the Ferris Wheel. The ride was big enough to hold all 5 of us, so that was cool. Mskate and I were sitting next to each other so when we got close to the top we kissed. After we kissed we got my parents to kiss. Since they were sitting on opposite sides to balance out the ride it was a little more difficult, but they managed. After the Ferris Wheel we went to the Viking ship ride. This was quite a risky ride for me. I was still pretty unwell and this rocks you back and forth and causes nausea. Mskate and I rode in the middle since it would be the gentlest, and the rest of the family rode as far back as they could. The fun thing is we sat in front of a family that was easing their kid into bigger rides, so the comments of "it's going to be OK, nothing to worry about" were fun to listen to. Then this also happened. There was a hornet that landed on the plastic part of the ride in front of us and just sat there the entire ride. As a bee-phobe I was rather scared, but she just sat there in one spot the entire ride. Then when it was done, flew away. I think the wasp just wanted to go for a ride.

It's getting close to the end of the day, so time for 1 more meal. We went back to coasters because it was air conditioned and mskate could get a burger without a bun and cheese. Mom and vikingpolak went to a place to get pizza to take home and eat when we got back. It was just half a pizza (2 slices per meal, 4 slices total, plus bosco sticks), but they put it in a pizza box and we carried it out of the park. We got some fun comments from that. Around this time mskate went to the gift shop to get a Michigan Adventure Snoopy. It was a good relaxing time. By the time everyone was ready to leave it was time again to get a snack, and we got a bag of cotton candy. Overall we saved like $120 in food with the all day food passes, but could have saved more if we only got 2 and ate more often. Oh well, there's always next time and we're probably going to go there again (it was a great place and there is still a lot we didn't do, both at Michigan Adventure and in Grand Haven).

After we got home we had a nice relaxing day. I ate the pizza later into the evening as did vikingpolak, and everyone ate other things. Now for the fun thing in the evening. Originally I wanted to watch a movie, but then a new episode of Generation Gap was available on hulu. I knew my family would enjoy this because it's a game show about grandparents and grandkids testing their knowledge of each other's generation for money, normally with hilarious results. I hooked up my laptop to the main TV with my  15 foot HDMI cable (because I carry that in my laptop bag for such an occasion), and we watched an hour of TV together. Everyone really enjoyed it, and it was a nice way to end the day.

OK now it's Saturday, the day for Grand Haven. We woke up and had our breakfast, and generally woke up. Before we went out to the city we went to a candy store that our friend used to go to all the time when she was growing up there. It's called McDonald's Candy, and first we went to the wrong location but then we went to the right location. Mom got this seafoam candy for our friend since that was her favorite growing up, and I got some raspberry cream chocolates and jaw breakers. We also met the owner and name dropped our friend, and she remembered her. really cool. After that we went back to the house to pick up everyone for the day. 

Since it was an event we were able to park at a church and get picked up by a shuttle. When we got to the lot there was 1 parking spot left, and the shuttle was getting ready to go. We made a plan, I would jump out and flag the shuttle to hold them for us to pick up while everyone quickly grabbed the stuff. I was able to hold the shuttle and everyone was able to make it. Once we got to the destination the driver said to make sure you have everything. I patted my pockets and noticed my phone was missing. I went back to the shuttle but it wasn't there either, and so I left it in the car. This would probably be the time I would have take a bunch of pictures, but unfortunately no phone means no picture

The first thing we did was scope out a spot to watch the parade. Since this is a big deal for the community a lot of the good spots were already taken, but we did find a good spot at the credit union drive thru (it was covered and therefore shaded). This happened to be close to the art fair, and we wanted to shop that. We managed to find a vender that made unofficial American Girl Doll accessories. We found Dippin Dots and got them for mskate's dolls. One day it will be part of a cool display. We walked around some more but didn't find anything else. The art fair was also where the food trucks were, and I got chili cheese fries with bacon bits for lunch. About this time we went back to the bank to watch the parade. It was OK, but very long and very spread out. Mskate went to get candy that was being tossed out. She also got a bag, hat, fan, and mini-American flag. We didn't watch the entire parade because it was kind of poorly planned (lots of gaps). One of the fun things we saw was a bagpipe troop. We took a picture and sent it to my uncle who also plays the bagpipes and used to march in parades as well. We also saw a marching band, and I felt bad for the kids. It was hot, and there were parents running around between kids giving them water and spraying them. One of the quad drummers looked like she was about to pass out.

After we were done with the parade we went back to the shopping area. We went to this café and cooled down there while dad ate lunch. While everyone was hanging out there mskate and I went back to Marushka/Michigan Rag and got her aunt a sweat shirt. She likes dogs so we got her a shirt that had 11 dogs on it. After we got the shirt we started our walk to the coast guard ships. Along the way we found a penny press and got one for the coast guard festival. We also walked along the river where they shoot off the fireworks and saw everyone had their blankets out to stake their claim, like 8 hours before the show. I wish I had my phone because I would have taken a picture of this.

The coast guard ships were cool. Before we get on the ship though we had to go through security, and I realized I had my pocket knife on me (because when I'm not at work I pretty much always have my pocket knife on me). I was worried I wouldn't be able to go but they just kept it with the other knives and pepper spray people had and held it until we were done. Now I enjoy touring military ships since they're all self contained mini-cities on top of the necessities for military and sailing. When I was in scouts I had the opportunity to sleep on some decommissioned world war 2 ships and subs, and while there were many similarities between this ship and the old ships I went on in my youth (mostly exposed gauges and pipes, lots of plain metal, and "military look"), the cool thing were all the modern amenities like drinking fountains with filters and coolers, and the officer's quarters with a smart TV. We went to the control deck and it was cool seeing it. I got to sit in the captain's chair, and my mom did as well. It was pretty fun. Then there were a bunch of steep stairs to get to the different levels, and when people were struggling going down I remembered something from when I slept on the submarine in cubscouts; go down the stairs backwards like you would a ladder. I was climbing down the stairs and the sailors looked at me like I kind of knew what I was doing (because I did kind of know what I was doing). One of the other tourists asked me what I was doing and I explained it, and then they started going down stairs backwards. After the tour I picked up my knife without problem.

We were all pretty done with the adventure and ready to go home, so we headed back to the shuttle pickup. This is when mskate and I split from the family. We were going to get a corn dog from the stand that mskate's cousin loves, but that was further away from the river and my family wanted to stay cool with the river temperature. Once we got to the stand though we decided against it; the line was very long. On our way back to the  pickup we went past some more food trucks. I wanted nachos, and I found a place that sold them. Mskate also got a lemonade from them. One of the employees was doing a Micky Mouse voice, and mskate told me to do my Goofy voice. The Micky employee and I started having some fun back and forth. I wonder how many times Micky meets one of his friends. Good times. We got to the pickup place before the rest of the family somehow, so we just sat in some shade and waited. After everyone got there it was time for pickup, and when we got back to the car I confirmed that my phone was in the car.

Once we got back it was time to start our fun dinner and fire. I got the fire started with my year long bucket of prescription labels. After the fire was started I wrapped up the potatoes and put them in the fire pit. Vikingpolak got the grill going and started making the brats. Things were going fine, but as it went on there was a grease fire and he didn't trust whatever was burning and insisted we get new brats. We went back to the grocery store and got new brats (there were 2 other times we went there for supplies we forgot). This time they just cooked the brats in the oven, and by the time the brats were done the potatoes have been in the fire for probably 40 minutes. The fire must have not been very hot though, because even after all this time the potatoes weren't done. We then finished the potatoes in the oven. We also brought a bell pepper and bought an onion from one of our other trips to the grocery store, so we had onions and peppers for the brats. We ate outside at the outside table and it was good. Then when the potatoes were done we had those as well. After dinner we all sat around the fire and I made smores with the stale marshmallows and garham crackers I take camping for s'mores. Only mskate and I partook in the roasted marshmallows on a stick, but mom tried making a s'more thing in tin foil. It apparently was pretty good. After we were done with the fire mskate went to our room to talk with one of her friends while the rest of the family went down to the basement to play the games. The main game we played was skee-ball, with people getting the hang of how to score 50 points the score everyone got was 290 (5 in the 50, 4 in the 10). After the skee-ball we played some foosball, but because VP was in a fraternity in college and they apparently played a lot of foosball his team beat my team pretty quickly. We would have played the bar shuffleboard game, but there wasn't any rossin on the table to make the pucks slide. We also would have played the air hockey but it unfortunately didn't work. Oh well. That was it for Saturday.

Sunday was a pack up day. We gathered up all our stuff, made sure the house was clean, took the bedding off the beds, said our goodbyes, and left. Mskate and I went to mass at one of the local churches, and it was good. The drive back was alright, nothing super special. We each drove about half the distance, and I played Animal Crossing when I wasn't driving. Once we got home I had to empty the car out because I had to turn in my lease the next day. I pulled all the emergency supplies I keep in it out (jumper cables, bungie cables, non-parishable foods, blankets, cotton rope, battery lanterns, etc.), and some other things I just collected over the while and moved it to the vestibule. I cleaned all the garbage out and threw it away. Then with the car mostly empty I took it to the car wash with the free vacuums and floor matt washes. For turn-in I didn't need to get it washed, but the interior had to be clean and there was a lot of sand and twigs and leaves and other crap, so it was worth it to get the $7 car wash to get the free vacuum because I probably would have spent $7 alone on vacuuming and that's not including the matt wash. The matt wash was good, but not good enough for the caked on salt that was on the edge (I have aftermarket rubber matts for the driver and passenger, but they missed the edges), so I just cleaned them at home in my industrial mop bucket. This was my fun weekend. I look forward to the next time we are able to do something like this. This has been Pokematic, signing off, and bu-bye.

Easter Fun 2022

 Hey everyone, it's Easter time again, which is a fun time with our family. This year was a REALLY big year though, because mskate went through RCIA to join the Catholic Church at the Easter Vigil. I'll get to that soon enough but first I need to go through everything starting at Friday.

So every year my family makes soft pretzels for Easter, a Polish tradition we normally did with my dad's side of the family when we went to see them on Easter. We haven't done it with them since my paternal grandma passed, but we still do it with my parents, and this year IRA and my maternal grandma joined in. This does put a little challenge for mskate though, since she has pretty much all the food allergies, and most of those things are in pretzels. My ever accommodating parents found a way though, finding a good allergy friendly dough recipe online and making her special dough. We made her pretzels first to prevent cross contamination (no flour on cutting board, no pretzel residue in the baking soda bath, no pretzel crumbs on the baking sheets). The fun thing is we got to use our pretzel making template we got for a wedding present. Since Dad and I like Good Eats with Alton Brown, we made jokes about the unitasker. It was pretty handy though, because you shape the pretzel on the mold, and then it lifts off the mold to put in the bath, and then that can be used to fish it out. After making mskate's we made our normal pretzels, and it was really fun.

After the pretzels we dyed eggs. We had 2 different egg kits going, but we just couldn't get some of the colors to turn out right. This is where grandma really enjoyed watching us, because when we we little we would dye eggs at her house and it brought back a bunch of memories. One of the interesting things in one of the kits was an "egg glaze" which made the eggs shiny after dying. IRA and I had some fun with that, but the glaze was stale or something and didn't really spread well (it was kind of like a gelatin-jelly), and they didn't turn out very well. We also did egg sleeves, and mskate was really fascinated by those. Unfortunately my parents got "large eggs" and the sleeves were more meant for "medium eggs," but we were able to use most of them and they turned out well. It was a really fun time. At some point mskate and I made it to church, but I don't remember if it was before or after my parents.

Saturday was the BIG day, probably the most eventful of all the days. First off, mskate's sponsor and her husband came up on this day. We met them at a restaurant mskate and I discovered one night when I said "I don't want to cook, I want to go out to get Chinese at a restaurant," and while this wasn't Chinese it was a new restaurant. This was really fun since I haven't seen them since the wedding, and I get along really well with the husband (but I don't know him well enough to come up with a blog name yet, lol). We sat together and had some fun discussions about the trip up and jobs. I guess you can say we had brunch, because some people had breakfast foods and others had lunch foods. The restaurant is also along the water, so after the meal we went out and walked along the dock. The really fun thing was pointing out Canada (because we're close to the border, one of my favorite radio stations is a Canadian station, and if I set-up the TV antenna just right I can get like 4 Canadian TV channels). Mskate and I grew up close to the border and had short vacations in Canada in our youth, so we take "look, it's a foreign country" for granted, but for them it was really impressive to be able to be able to see Canada in person across the water. 

After lunch it was time for another big event. IRA and I are fans of Steven Crowder and when they announced that Dave and Steven would be doing a live show at the Royal Oak Music Theater (something that isn't too far from us, and I went there when I went to the Mike and Micky Show), we knew we had to do it. I picked up IRA and we found parking. Then we got in line and it was pretty crazy. The line stretched all the way around the block past the transportation center, a lot of people wearing Steven Crowder shirts, Let's Go Brandon, and MAGA. I know IRA wore one of his Crowder shirts; I want to say it was "piss off youtube."

When we were in line venue security came walking around distributing "legal to drink" wrist bands (this makes it easier on the bar inside, instead of everyone showing their ID everyone just shows the wrist band). I didn't have any plans on drinking, but I wanted the wrist band. While we were waiting in line I remembered I had my pocket knife on me (because if I'm not at my day job, I probably have my pocket knife on my person like a good boy scout), and I remembered "live performances don't want you to have pocket knives." I ran back to the car, dropped my knife in the cup holder, and ran back. I struggled a little to find IRA, but after calling him I reunited.

Once again I assumed my ticket was in the balcony, but the usher told us "no you're on the main floor, center." We weren't super close like I was with Mike and Micky, but it was still pretty close to where we could clearly see the acts. One thing that was really cool was the pre-show music was either Louder with Crowder parody songs or pogo. I want to say that the song before the start was the song they play before the online show, but I can't say for certain. The opener guy was pretty good, I want Steven to have him on the online show some time. Dave and Steven were hilarious. I don't remember a lot of the jokes they told, but it was really fun seeing them do jokes that weren't just about modern social-political topics. Dave's closer about the prostitute and White Castle sliders was gold. What was really neat is that a lot of the jokes were specific to South East Michigan since Dave is from Detroit and Steven's family is from Detroit and Steven used to live in Ann Arbor. Since they're high level comedians the jokes work if you're unfamiliar with the area, and I'm sure they use the same jokes elsewhere in the country, you could tell there was "hometown details" that were added, like Dave talking about "getting high at this house on Gratiot" (a street in Detroit) at this show is probably "there was this Detroit house I used to get high at" in other shows. After the show I dropped IRA off and went back to our house for Easter Vigil. Mskate was worried that the show would go too long and I would be late, but it didn't.

This was quite the ordeal. Mom and Dad brought grandma, and that was quite something. I struggled with mass, because they had a bunch of Easter flowers in the church, and I am allergic to pretty much all the flowers. After everyone was seated and situated, I stood outside by the fire they had going. As I stood out there I had the great idea of "if anyone joins me I will say 'surely you were with him' and see if they say 'I do not know that man.'" Unfortunately no one joined me so I didn't get to use that, but it got some laughs when I told people about it afterwards. My standing out there actually helped with the technical production side since I was able to give them a reference for "average height adult male" when framing the shot for the online stream and projected video inside the church for when they were lighting the candles off the fire. The mass was good, but twice I had to step outside and get some non-allergy air. The first time was about halfway through mass, and the second time was after communion. After the second time I sat in the back away from all the flowers, and that helped some. After mass when we were packing up my grandma, she told me "it's really late, you can stay at my house, I don't want you driving all the way home." I reminded her that she was at my church, and my house was much closer than her house. Bless her heart, but she gets very confused. After mass I took a hot steamy shower to clear my sinuses, and that felt good.

Easter Sunday, the day of celebration. Mskate's friends joined us for breakfast and we made these vegan pancakes that everyone could eat. It was a really weird recipe, since the batter was the consistency of cookie dough and not pancake batter. When we put chocolate chips in I originally said "put the chocolate chips in after pouring the batter," because with normal pancake batter you do that because if you mix it in the bowl the chips all settle at the bottom and the distribution is all off. However, because this was "cookie dough" the chips were all stuck on the top and melted into the pan without going into the pancake, so then I mixed it in with the batter in the bowl like I would with cookie dough. Mskate and I distributed the work; she mixed all the ingredients, I cooked them in the frying pan. The scraping scoop we had dished out the perfect amount, and everyone enjoyed my cooking.

First we saw the in-laws and we gave Easter baskets, just nothing super exciting. After them we went to my parents for the Easter party. Grandma and her accordion friends came over, and we had a fun sing along. We sang some Disney songs and old spring time songs, but what was really weird was singing "you are my sunshine" and "a tisket a tasket." Everyone knows the chorus for "you are my sunshine," it's a pretty common public domain song (and if it's not like how Happy Birthday was still under copyright until recently, it's part of the American cultural cannon). Well accordion friend printed off the verses for it and this was the first time any of us have heard it, and it turns out the song we all thought was an up-beat love song ("you brighten up the day like the sun, I can't imagine life without you here") is actually a depressed break-up song ("my life was full of light when you were here, but now that you are gone my life is dark and meaningless"). That was crazy. Then with a Tisket a Tasket, pretty much all of us only knew "a tisket a tasket, a [something something] basket," and we had the Ella Fitzgerald version which has the line "and if she doesn't bring it back I think I will die," which is a pretty extreme reaction to "I lost my basket." I think we had a pot roast dinner, and it was good.

Because Easter fell on a Sunday this year, I had the Monday after off. Mskate and I largely spent the day relaxing and organizing after Easter (new toys and candy, had to find places for them), and then I was like "it's been forever since I went to the movies, I want to see Uncharted." And so I found a theater that was playing Uncharted and I saw it. Since Uncharted is basically a videogame adaptation of treasure hunt movies, it translated to film pretty well. And that was my Easter weekend. It was pretty jam packed, and really fun. This has been Pokematic, signing off, and bu-bye.