The Thanksgiving and Black Friday 2024 Blog

Hey everyone, my how time flies, it's already Thanksgiving. I got an email from dogechain saying they were going to shut down completely and I had to back up my wallet or else I'll lose about $100 worth of doge I got back in college. I set-up my old college laptop, installed dogecoin core, and loaded my wallet information into it to import there. This required updating the blockchain, and it's been going for about a week now and isn't even 70% done. Whatever, time for the holiday. This year was kind of different due to my grandpa passing and aunt going to her brother's out of state instead of staying home, and my grandma no longer living independent and having even more mobility problems than normal, but even then a lot of things stayed the same. Wednesday was a normal work day, and then we went to the in-laws for the evening so we would be ready for the fun of the weekend. Pretty basic day, just spent a lot of the evening going through online black friday ads and watching some tv. Got a pretty good list ready. Something that caught my attention was Target selling an XBOX 360 for $75. I called IRA to see it since it was so weird, and he got excited since his 360 red ringed and he wanted a new one. OK add Xbox 360 to the list.

Thursday Thanksgiving day. I bought a news paper to get the black friday ads because I like to have the physical paper, but I think this will be the last time I do this because it didn't have any of the big players like walmart, target, meijer (I'm mid-west), BJs, gamestop, or others and that was kind of the same as last year. Oh well. About 1PM we went to my parents house for the party. Because of nursing home preferences and rules, we had dinner and celebrating a little early. Normally dinner is around 4PM and accordion sing along is around 6PM, but this year we shifted everything forward by about 1.5 hours. The moving is where things got kind of complicated. My grandma had broken her hip earlier this year and it just made it harder to move, and the dementia makes it all the harder to have her move herself properly (don't grab the walker handle, grab the arm rest, I said don't grab the walker handle, OK I guess we're using the walker but don't fight too much when we have to lift your arms). God bless her but it does complicate things by a lot. Dinner was great, ham and green beans for me, everyone else enjoyed that and turkey and stuffing and such. Great meal. Getting grandma back to her chair for the sing along was hard too, but this time we remembered that we had a wheel chair from my grandpa after he passed.

The sing along was fun like always, over the river, apple peaches pumpkin pie, and some other fun songs. After the sing along it was time for desert. Time for some comical problems. The accordion friend likes to bake and always makes a cake and a pie, and she forgot the pie at home; there was some confusion or something and the pie was left on the table in the garage. Whoops, oh well. There was some more visiting and after a while it was time for everyone to leave. Getting my grandma back in the car was a major production. We got her into the wheel chair and just walked her to the back door where it's easier to move, and then we just picked her up in the chair and carried her down the steps, just like what we'd do with my uncle who was always in a wheel chair. Brought back a lot of memories for us. Once we got her in the car we brought up my parent's Christmas decorations and assembled the tree. After that it was a calm early night at the in-laws because IRA and I had black friday shopping to do early in the morning.

OK, now it's the heavy time, early morning shopping. IRA woke me up at 4:30 so we could get to stores when they opened. Basically everything opened at 6AM except for gamestop opening at 5AM, so first stop on our loop was gamestop. We went to one that was somewhat close that had a target really close (same shopping district) at about 5:15, but when we got there they didn't have any of the games I was looking for, and directed us to go to a store that was further away on the rout but not exactly close. Change of plans, went to that store and found 2/3 of the games I was looking for (Hogwarts Legacy and Tomb Raider Anniversary). Score. Afterwards we went to the target that was fairly close and only had to wait in the cold for about 15 minutes. Because there was some big Taylor Swift promotion they had to have an employee come out and give us directions on what the limits are. Wild thing is the employee was someone I went to highschool with, He was one of vikingpolak's friends and I didn't really recognize him (and he didn't remember my first name, just my last), but it was pretty funny. I had no need for the Taylor Swift stuff, but the CD was under $20 and she's really popular right now, so I picked up a copy to try to resell later. I also picked up Kirby Forgotten Land, a pop socket for mom in law, and a bullseye squishmellow for mskate. We couldn't find the squishmellow and so we asked the highschool friend where it was, so that was pretty cool. As for the XBOX, when I asked the employee in electronics he said "we haven't sold xbox 360 in years, we're stopping XBOX ONE even, you'll have to go to a retro store for that." I then said "the ad lied to me, it said you had XBOX 360s for $75." It wasn't a console, it was a megablocks building set. Why the confusion? It shipped in a box that was a replica of the xbox 360 box, looks extremely close to an xbox 360 in a low resolution scan, and comes with a replica copy of halo 3. The employee said "yeah if we had them I'd get one just for nostalgia." Oh well. After Target we went to Walmart, I was looking for the basically half off gaming laptop since I need a new laptop (my current laptop is about 8 years old and is starting to fail, and I want a computer that can actually play all the games I get for free with prime), a cheap dresser unit, and a wire rack. All of them were online deals, dang, that was a waste.

We decided to give one more gamestop a try since I still was looking for roller coaster tycoon adventures delux, and so IRA looked up where the next closest gamestop was. He gave me the directions and when I got close I'm like "wait a minute, I know which gamestop we're going to, it's the gamestop right by where my grandma used to live, we'd go here back when it was funcoland." They had Roller Coaster Tycoon for PS4. I was hoping for switch, but PS4 works for me since I have a PS4. Since we were in a neighborhood I knew, we went to the dollar general that used to be the family video we'd rent movies from on Friday nights. I got us dawn soap, command hooks, pedialyte (mskate needs it for her electrolyte deficiency), and garbage bags. Since it was now like 9AM and were close to where the accordion friend lives, we called to see if they were up and able to give us the pie (they wanted us to have it to share with everyone). They were and we got the pie. After that we went to my grandma's condo just to look around since my mom had the house completely redone (new paint, no carpet, no furniture), and go to the bathroom. It was pretty surreal; it was familiar but completely foreign. Walked the house probably 1 last time. There was one more place, we went to the shopping center about a mile down the road from my grandma's house to go to 5 below to see if we could do the squishmellow $20 bag. They were completely out, it was just something for the first 100 people, but that's OK because we still have a big bag of stuffed animals from other big sales. That was OK though because there was a new retro store in the shopping center and they had some black friday deals. For me it was the buy 2 get 1 free on games, so I picked up 6 PS2 games and IRA got some movies on buy 2 get 2 free. On the way back we stopped at BJs where I got a new TV for the bedroom (our TV was the TV I bought for my dorm room years ago, and it's not very good) and some gift cards on discount (I think it was subway, disney, and uber). Once we got back I unloaded the car and took a nap.

Later in the day mskate wanted to do some shopping with us, and so we went out again in the afternoon. We went to bath and bodyworks, CVS, bjs, and the retro store again (because IRA decided he wanted to get an $80 used xbox 360 from them). At CVS we got a peanuts cookie tin for my dad since he likes Charlie Brown and Snoopy. BJs was just a couple more gift cards and filling gas. When we went to the mall with bath and bodyworks we found a store that was just gochapon. I looked for a machine with figures I would be interested in, but didn't find anything too interesting. IRA decided to though and got a digimon figure. At bath and bodyworks we got soaps and lotions for the moms on buy 3 get 3, and then got hand sanitizers for the workers at grandma's assisted living center. This is when we discovered that IRA didn't have his debit card, meaning he lost it. That was pretty bad, but we retraced our steps and went to the retro store where he last used it. That's where it was, and apparently he wasn't the first to do it. He got his xbox and some more movies, so crisis averted. Rest of the day was pretty low key.

Saturday was a simple day. We went to my grandma's assisted living to get her apartment all decorated and just visit. We already had a little tree set up, but it didn't have a lot of ornaments and we bought some garland to hang on the wall and put some ornaments on it. I'm glad I bought the command hooks because we needed them for the garland. We got it all set up while she was still at lunch, and once it was decorated we brought her to her apartment and just visited. We didn't have a lot to do with her, so I put on the wedding video I made for my cousin (the one we saw in Hawaii earlier this year). She doesn't know him, he's on my dad's side and she's my mom's mom, but she really likes little kids and half the video is just my 2 year old niece-cousin being cute, so it was a great little thing and she especially liked watching the part where we went to Disney Aulani for the character breakfast. After that we just walked her around her floor until it was time for their activity. It was a good little visit. The rest of the day was pretty calm, just unpacking the stuff and trying to find places for it. Later in the evening we went to a drive in theater to watch The Polar Express and National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. We saw Red One and Elf the week prior, and figured out how to keep warm without turning the car on better than we did that time. It was a good fun time.

Well that was Thanksgiving weekend. Glad I can finally get this out at a reasonable time this year. This has been Pokematic, signing off, and bu-bye.

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.

Thanksgiving and Black Friday 2021 (and a bachelor weekend)

 Hey everyone, it's that time of year again, the time when I give thanks for all that's great and fight some people for $10 off a microwave, Thanksgiving and Black Friday. Before I get into things, I just want to say taking a month off was not intentional; it was just my first anniversary around the 1st weekend and we celebrated by going to Disney World, so there was a lot of planning and prep that went into that, and then I had to recover from that the next weekend, and then it's Thanksgiving, and then mskate went to see her aunt so there was work with that, and work is a little crazy so when I get home I'm tired, and it's just been crazy. Now that I have some time to myself I figured now would be a good time to get back to things.

OK, so it's the second Thanksgiving as a married man, and we've basically agreed that mskate's side gets Christmas and we stay with her parents for overnights, and my side gets everything else. This is because the only holiday they get really into is Christmas and mskate's parents kept her room a bedroom, whereas my parents get into every holiday and my dad turned my old room into his home office. We had 3 days of festivities planned so we packed for 2 nights. We left shortly after waking up and got to our parents around mid-morning. We unpacked and did "Thanksgiving Ornament Presents" with her parents. When I say mskate's family is into Christmas, I mean they would be "our lawn and house is covered in decorations" people "if it wasn't so gaudy," and as such her dad bought us a bunch of ornaments and wrapped them up for us. His logic for giving them to us on Thanksgiving is "if I'm going to give you Christmas decorations, I'm not going to give it to you after the decorations are no longer needed, this way you can keep them out for the season." That's actually some pretty sound logic. We got some cool Disney Hallmark ornaments, and some Christmas Lego sets and crystal decorations (like the REALLY fancy kind, but her dad got them used for a good deal). After presents mskate and I made brussels sprouts for our contribution to Thanksgiving dinner. It's not a very complicated recipie, just sprouts cut in half with olive oil and garlic salt.

Anyway, food is cooked, now it's time to head to my parents. We were the 2nd to arrive I think, and it was just visiting. Not soon after that pepperbc and her family arrived and then my grandma got there, and then grandma's friends got there. A lot of visiting, talking about the different things we're working on. It was fun time. I had a bunch of hors d'oeuvre before dinner for lunch time, and got a paper for us to look at circulars for black Friday. It was a little difficult since they didn't have a lot of ads due to the supply chain shortage, but the website was up to date and got a lot of information from them. My family went through them and found some things for everyone (details later). Around 4PM we had dinner. I had ham, green beans, brussels sprouts, and rolls. Everyone else had turkey and stuffing with all that good stuff. We had no brussels sprouts left so that's a good sign that everyone liked them, yay.

OK, dinner's over, now it's time for the accordion, because that's part of our traditions. We sang some polkas, Christmas songs, and Small World for mskate. We had a lot of fun. After the accordion we had deserts; home made chocolate cake, chocolate pudding pie, apple crisp, and some other things. Since we had 3 people celebrating birthdays around this time we sang happy birthday and had some birthday candles in the cake. Really fun time. We did some more visiting, and then it was time to go. Mskate and I returned to her parents house and got some sleep for IRA and I to go black Friday Shopping.

OK, it's 5AM. I get up, grab some pop tarts, and tell IRA "get up, time to go shopping." The first store we went to was Best Buy. We got there before the store opened and had to wait in line. We were both cold but it was managable. The main thing I wanted there was an outdoor antenna that I can use for now while we're living in the condo and then get it installed when we move to a permanent house. I got it and IRA bought some DVDs and BluRays. Our next stop was Walmart. I wanted to get sonic colors ultimate on an 8th generation console (because I hate the wii) and jedi fallen order, and I was going to get a $20 roku at ABC Warehouse for my aunt but they had a $15 roku at Walmart so I got it there. IRA got some more DVDs. Our next stop was Macy's where we got a Minnie Mouse stuffed animal for mskate and slippers for my mom. IRA enjoyed the adventure even though he didn't get anything there. Our next stop was Meijer where we were going to get a Disney welcome mat and dog toys, but the dog toys were all made in China and the dogs we were buying for only have toys made in America (or at least, not China), but we were able to find pop sockets at Meijer and wouldn't have to get them at another store. Finding the welcome mats were difficult because I was looking for them in the seasonal section since they are seasonal mats (Micky wishing Merry Christmas kind of things) and the stock person saying "it's somewhere in seasonal," but they were actually standing alone in the outdoor section. Lucky for me IRA was there because he found them. Now it's time for the big one, Target. We went to the target that was close to Meijer and had to stand outside for this one. The employee was funny, he was walking around with a baby Yoda strapped to his chest counting people and then said "OK, now we're not going to shove or fight, and we're going to have a good time, otherwise baby Yoda is going to have some problems." This is the picture I got of him.

There weren't any problems. IRA bought some Super Smash Bros Ultimate DLC packages and I bought $100 worth of apple gift cards to get a $15 target gift card. The cashier didn't understand how the DLC receipt worked and she thought it was something for the store. I stopped her and explained what it was, and how that was IRA's. Good thing I was there. After this Target we went to another Target that was close to best buy and here IRA found some DVDs and I got Skinny Pop popcorn for mskate. Technically it was for our parents and my grandma to have at their houses for mskate since her allergies make snacks a little difficult to have on hand for her, and Skinny Pop is something she can eat. I was looking for 5 feet apart since mskate loves that movie but doesn't have it yet and it was on sale, but this target didn't have it in stock. It was getting to 8AM normal morning time, so we had maybe 1 store left. I had some things to look for at Menards (well just the hope of dog toys), but it was too far away. However, on our way there we found another Target that I forget about and this one had 5 Feet Apart. IRA bought it with some other movies (because the deal was buy 2 get 1 free), and he's going to give it to mskate for Christmas. IRA and I probably could have gone longer but mskate wanted us home for breakfast and shopping show and tell. IRA and I showed off all our finds, and it was fun.

OK, now it's time for 2nd Thanksgiving, this time with my grandpa and aunt. We all drove up together (or maybe we drove separately, I don't remember) and it was good. We arrived around mid-morning and it was a good little visit. We told grandpa about our trip to Disney and gave him the souvenir smashed penny we got him. He really likes Jiminy Cricket, and with it being the 50th birthday of Disney World they had Jiminy Cricket pennies.

He didn't want anything special (he's 95 years old and doesn't want any more possessions), but it's a $1 token gift of his favorite Disney character that I also got as a souvenir so he liked it. I gave my aunt the roku but she didn't know what TV she wanted it installed on so we'll install it another time. For lunch-dinner we had left overs from the day before. It was a fun little visit.

Afterwards we went back to mskate's parents house and visited with them for the evening. We also went to see Encanto, the latest Disney animated movie. I really enjoyed it, a lot of fun music and it strayed from "the animated movie" trope of "buddy roadtrip film." IRA didn't really care for it because there wasn't a grand adventure like so many other animated films of recent years, but I really enjoyed that aspect of it, and mskate was kind of in the middle. Mskate and I had a cuddle couch and IRA sat behind us. We spent the night again, and then in the morning mskate and I went back to our house. The rest of the weekend was pretty tame, just our normal weekend stuff and finding some things on cyber Monday, and planning for mskate's trip to see her Aunt the following weekend.

OK, on Wednesday morning I took mskate to the airport and Thursday and Friday were pretty basic, only special thing was I made a lego gingerbread house for our Christmas display.. Mskate suggested I go see a movie because I don't do that very often anymore now that we're married (because our tastes in movies only really overlap with Disney films), but I realized "actually, this is my opportunity to eat at restaurants we normally can't eat at because of mskate's allergies, I'm going to eat at restaurants that have a bunch of gluten and dairy." On Friday I walked to the takeout pizza and subs place that's a block away from our house and got a side of cheesy garlic bread to go with the pork roast I made. The city did a small firework show in memory of the school shooting that happened earlier in the week, and I happened to catch it as I was walking to get my garlic bread. That was a good way to start the weekend. I also watched 2019's Joker and ate pop-secret buttered popcorn, 2 things I don't really do with mskate around (she can't eat the buttered popcorn, and doesn't like movies like Joker). On Saturday I had a personal pizza from Pizza Hut for lunch and Chinese food from the Chinese takeout restaurant that's also a block away for dinner (mskate isn't confident there wouldn't be cross contamination from there). Sunday was really fun. I went to my parents house to do Christmas chocolate dipping with my family and get pizza from our favorite pizza place (more gluten and dairy). It was just a fun half afternoon. I also did some straightening up for mskate's return this Sunday night. It was a fun weekend. I was going to film a food review, but I got busy with a bunch of things so I ended up not. It's been a crazy busy month. Hopefully December has more opportunity to do content. This has been Pokematic, signing off, and bu-bye.

Amiibo Hunting and Final Loads of Free Crap Bash

(This is a little late. Events happened on September 11th 2015)

Hey everyone. Today is a rather dark day in history. In respect, all flags around campus were flown at half mast, and members of the military stood around one flagpole in reverence. As I passed that flag pole, I took my own moment of silence, and remembered how the world would never be the same after that day 14 years ago.

Coincidentally enough, this was also the day for my college's "loads of free crap bash" as I've come to call it. In previous years I've spent pretty much the whole day there, going to different booths, seeing what organizations are available on campus, and getting loads of free crap; pens, magnets, coupons, lanyards, and just out there stuff. It was great freshman year because that's how I figured out how to get involved, and sophomore year was kind of the same but to a lesser extent. But after sophomore year I know the clubs I had time for and could be in, so it just became about the free stuff, but I made sure to see everyone, and then last year I helped out with one of my clubs.

Well this year I wasn't able to have the level of fun I normally had. The bash was from 3-7, and I had class at the engineering campus from 4-6:30. This meant I would be able to wander around for about 30 minutes before I had to leave for my class. I also had class from 2-2:50 so that meant I wasn't able to help the clubs I'm in get set-up. Well, I was able to help my film club set-up some at 1:40 since their booth was right outside the building I had my class in, but not much. After the class I headed out with my singe sack and went grabbing. Most of the good stuff you have to play a mini-game for, and wait in line. While I enjoy the mini-games, I wasn't about to wait in line, so I just went to the open booths. I picked up a bunch of pens and magnets per usual, and a couple cups.

Instead of just listing it, I'll show a picture.

I have flyers, thunder sticks, a Frisbee, a hat, a micro USB cable, and some other things as you can see.

I was a bit surprised with how much stuff I got in the period of 30 minutes. I went to class, and the cool thing was that since this was the first week, and it's not a traditional learning environment, we were done at 5:15, which meant I could head back to the bash. Most people packed up, and I already got the good stuff, so I went to my Pokemon club and sat at the booth for 15 minutes. Then they decided to pack-up, so I went to my film club's booth and sat there for 30 minutes, and helped them pack up afterwards. They had balloons to draw the eye, and I claimed them. Lets see how long they last.

Another point of mention is Amiibo Hunting. Wave 5B I think we're calling it was released September 11th 2015, and normally I'm not able to Amiibo hunt the day of release because I had to work or didn't have a car. Not this time. This time, I went to Meijer at midnight to get what they had. I picked up Zero Suit Samus, Ganondorff, and Olimar. I was going to get 8-bit Mario, but something was wrong with my card so I was only able to get those 3. Besides, I was going to go to Target at 8AM to get Dr. Mario, so I'll try to get 8-bit Mario then as well. Neither store had many units available, so I'm glad I was there when I did. I was missing Bowser Jr. but I didn't know of a Toys R Us around my campus so I was going to let him go, but on Saturday I googled Toys R Us in my area, and I found one a couple miles away. I called them to see if they had Bowser Jr. in stock, and they did. I picked up Bowser Jr. and since they also had Smash Yoshi, I picked one of those up as well since all I can ever find is Mario Party Yoshi. It was pretty cool doing a midnight and store opening release. At Meijer people were just lining up and hanging out at the electronics counter, and at Target people were lining up outside the store. I was pulling in when they were handing out "line numbers," so I didn't get one, but I made sure I made it to the front of the no-number line.

Well that was my Friday and Saturday. It's weird that this will be my last "free crap bash." The closest thing I will ever have to this again will be a business convention and job fair, but it'll be professional instead of recreational, or maybe a convention, but the vendors charge for their stuff. But hey, Amiibo hunting was fun. Well, this has been Pokematic, signing off and bu-bye.

Black Friday, 2014

Ahh it’s that time again, Black Friday. So how was this year? Well, it wasn’t quite as fun as last year. Before I go into Black Friday, I’ll talk about Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving was fun. I saw my family on my mom’s side for the big day and my family on my dad’s side the following Friday. It was fun. I saw PepperBC. I had ham because I don’t like turkey. It was all around fun.

Now for Black Friday. Things weren’t as interesting this year. I looked at all the ads and only found a couple of things I wanted. From Meijer I was looking at DeadPool the game. From Target I was looking at Sixteen Candles for $1. At Walmart I was looking at Mario Kart 8, Scarface, the New Godzilla, and The Amazing Spider-Man 2. At Best Buy I was looking at The Big Bang Theory Season 7, That '70s Show: The Complete Series, The Princess Bride, and Spaceballs. Interestingly enough, I didn’t really find anything I was looking for, but I found other stuff.

To start out, my brother and I went to Walmart around 8PM. Unfortunately for us they had all their door busters already so we missed out on practically everything. I did however find a Fast and Furious Double Feature; The Fast and the Furious and 2 Fast 2 Furious for like $4, which is kind of funny since they were being sold separately for the same price. We looked around some more. My brother found some headphones and we picked up a dirt devil that my mom wanted.

Next came Target. Unfortunately I was unable to find 16 candles. However, I did find The Heat and Godzilla. Here’s a little story with Godzilla. The sign said $10, but the system thought it was $27. I see the register and it said $41 total (my brother was getting a DVD and we just put it all together). I ask the cashier what it was and he said Godzilla. I told him that it said $10, so he went and talked to some manager person. I got it for $10. It said $10. After checking out, we picked up Z-man. Remember him from last year? If you don’t, he’s a friend. We picked him up and then went to Best Buy.

At Best Buy, more of the same. However, I did manage to find Spaceballs. I already have it on VHS, but since our only VCR is currently connected to the capture card for my video converting thing, and since I want more out of my viewing experience, I want the blu-ray. Unfortunately, didn’t find 70’s show, big bang theory, or princess bride. Looks like I’ll just have to live with the VHS of princess bride for a while. However, we did end up finding Firefly: The Complete Series and something else that escapes me at the moment. Oh well. Z-man ended up finding an iHome speaker set. He needs it since his current set of speakers is completely messed up.

Now there are some stories that go along with this best buy experience. We’re waiting in line, and there’s a register that can only take cash. The lady asks if there’s anyone paying with cash, and I raise my hand because I am. We’re next because of the cash but we aren’t at the front of the line. This guy in front of us says he’s with us and goes to the cash only register. He then tries to pay with credit and then gets sent back into line. Buddy, it’s not our fault you didn’t bring cash. Then after we exit, Z-man drops his respite. Like a Black Friday lunatic, I chase after it, through the parking lot, and catch it right as it’s about to blow into the street. Yeah.

After that we were done. I didn’t bother Meijer because I could live without Deadpool the game for a while. This year wasn’t quite as fun. There wasn’t the mad rush to open the door busters, there wasn’t the line outside of best buy, there wasn’t that much cool stuff I wanted this year. I’m sure the door buster rush and line outside best buy happened, it just happened to early. Stores, please, STOP STARTING BLACK FRIDAY EARLY IN THANKSGIVING!!!!! I like it when it’s “doors open at midnight” and “door busters at 2AM” and all that good stuff. None of this “door busters at 6PM” crap. Sigh. Oh well. Another bummer was mbinski wasn’t able to join us this year. That was a bummer. Oh well. This has been Pokematic, signing off, and bu-bye.

Black Friday 2013, and my thanks Giving experience

Hey everyone. This year’s thanksgiving blog is going to be a little different. This year, the blog doubles as an assignment for Dr. H’s class. We do an “a day in the life” about our experience with crazy black Friday shopping for extra credit. So instead of talking about this Thanksgiving break in chronological order, I’m going to first talk about black Friday and then about everything else.

First some quick context. It’s Thanksgiving. I get 4 days off for the holiday. This year my brother brought home one of his college friends, an Indian grad student studying at his college. He’s from India and this is his first time in the US. He wants to experience American Thanksgiving and all that comes with it. I was looking forward to showing him the craziness that is Black Friday. He is referred to as “J-man.”

While getting dressed for Thanksgiving, I notice the 2 extra safety vests I have in my closet. I tell everyone that is going shopping with us "ya know, I have 3 vests and 2 hoddies. We could all match this year." Joking definitely, don't want a repeat of 2012.

Black Friday was really different this year. Unlike 2010, 2011, and 2012, all the stores opened up way early this year. They all opened up at like 6 PM and 7 PM Thanksgiving DAY! This made everything quite boring. As we do every year, my Dad went out and bought the Thanksgiving Day paper so we could get all the circulars. I know that I can do that all online, and I did a little bit before coming home, but it just isn’t the same. There’s something about actually flipping through those glossy pieces of paper scanning every ad for something that we might want. Have a look at the kayos.

Since my TV at college died, and I’ve been using an analog TV tuner connected to a 12 inch monitor to get my live TV, the one thing I was really looking for was a TV. All I needed was one that was at least 24 inches, had HDMI for my blu-ray player, and was under $100. That’s actually the same blu-ray player I picked-up last year.

We knew we could get a TV with those specifications. Black Friday always has deals on TVs. That’s how we got my grandpa’s TV. We found a couple in the circulars. Best Buy had the one that was perfect; Insignia 24 inch, $79, perfect. It was a 7 PM door buster. We were still doing our Thanksgiving thing at 7 PM. However, since this was the only thing we were actively trying to get, I was given permission to leave early, try to get the TV, and then come right back. I told Mom, the “ringleader” of both Thanksgiving and Black Friday, that “since I’ll already be in the store, I’ll try to get the one other think I wanted from Best Buy,” and being a reasonable request for this, the craziest shopping day of the year, I was given permission to also try to get the other thing. What was this other thing? The Big Bang Theory Season 6.

Now I begin my trip to Best Buy. On my drive over, I start thinking over my game plan. “OK, if it’s anything like previous years, it will be really crowded with a line extending halfway around the parking lot of the next door bowling alley. Since they’ve been open for 30 minutes, that line will likely be down to a quarter of the lot. Since I’m just 1 person, I won’t need to worry about getting separated from the group when let in and I might get some priority. The lot is going to be packed. The most likely open place will be on the far end of the lot. Now the TVs are in the back. They’ve changed the layout since last summer so I might have to get creative with getting to the back. Everyone wants big TVs. There will be a TV left for me. Insignia 24 inch.”

At this point I make it to Best Buy. I check the back, no spots. I drive to the front, no spots. While at the front, I notice the line is quite short, like not even beyond the end of Best Buy. I circle back to the end, and I see people getting into a van. Bingo. I stalk the spot like a lion stalking an antelope. I back just far enough to give them space to pull out. I’m sitting in an “intersection” of the parking lot, and at this point, a big pick-up truck pulls up in one of the lanes. I could tell it was eyeing my spot. I’m driving a little vibe. This pick-up had to be twice my size. But this was my spot, and I wasn’t about to let it go. It pulls up a little, but I pull up even more. It pulls up a little again, and I completely block the intersection. I’m the alpha car. I get the spot.

My precious spot was at the spot furthest from the line. I get out of the car, lock the car, and jog over to the line, paying attention to the vehicles around me. I’m wearing my thick safety yellow hoodie with the reflective stripes so I know I’m visible. I weave between moving cars to get to the line. Here’s a video of me in line.

I get in quite quickly. I was expecting to wait in line for over 10 minutes, but I’m in the store within 5 minutes. I see the wall of display TVs, on the other side of the store, with all these obstacles in my way. I see an opening, strait to the cell phones. I briskly walk to the cell phone section. When I get to the cell phones, dead end. Well, it would be a dead end on a normal day, but today was not a normal day. There was a gap in the corner of the walls of merchandise just large enough for someone of my size to sneak through. Using my amazing powers of agility to step over a storage bin of stuff, I get through and make my way to the TVs. No products were harmed in the use of my secret passage.

I get to the TVs, and I see stacks of TVs, all different brands and sizes. I look for mine making a sweep of the area, but I don’t see the Insignia 24 inch for $79. Now as a man, I would normally not ask for help finding my stuff and just circle the area until I find what I want, but time was of the essence. I asked an employee where the Insignia 24 inch TVs were. I was standing right next to them, and there was a relatively large sign that said $79. I didn’t have time to feel embarrassed. I grab my TV, walk to the checkout, grab Big Bang Theory Season 6 on my way, and get in line. I’m expecting a 20 minute wait, but it was quite fast again, like 5-10 minutes. I pay for my stuff, and walk out to my car. Here’s a video I shot in the car.

I head back home with my score. All the guests are still there. They are impressed with the score. J-man was the most impressed. “My cell phone was $79, and it’s 21 inches shorter.” Yeah but your cell phone can do a lot more.

At about 9 PM, our guests leave. Only the guests that will go Black Friday with us stay. Normally the BF team is my mom, her friend, my brother, and me. Later in the night, one of my old high school friends will typically join us. Check out previous blogs for more information. This year however, things were different. This year, mom’s friend’s son, Z-man, and my brother’s friend J-man came along. J-man wanted to experience the American cultural phenomenon that is Black Friday and Z-man just wanted to see what it was like since he was now legally old enough to be out so late unsupervised. We split into 2 groups, mom and her friend, and the under 30 group. I took over as “ring leader” for the under 30 group. We wanted to go to K-Mart, Target, Best Buy, and then check Walmart for the scraps. Those 3 stores (K-Mart, Target, and Best Buy) happened to be within a 1/4 mile radius of each other. Sure, there’s a K-Mart and Target closer to our house, but those are much further away from each other.

First stop, K-Mart. Here, I wanted Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D and Animal Crossing New Leaf, both on 3DS. I’ve never been to this location before, but I found the electronics easily. They blocked off the electronics section and only let 5 or so people in at a time. They said it was because that’s where they were holding the door buster tablets, and to get the tablets you had to exchange a flyer you got from a wandering employee for the tablet. Understandable. I had to request my games because of this. I was able to get DKCR, but not Animal Crossing. Oh well. The rest of the group is doing some more browsing, and we’re in the store for about 30 minutes. My brother and J-man get headphones 50% off. It didn’t take very long to check out because there wasn’t many people there. Next stop, Target.

This particular Target was in a strip mall, next to Dunham’s Sporting Goods and across the street from Best Buy. At Target I wanted to get The Internship and Simpsons Season 18. They had The Internship, I got 1 of the 2 copies left, but they were out of Simpsons. Oh well. Z-man wanted to get Monster’s University. Here’s a funny thing with Target; the Black Friday deal movies were mixed in with the regular priced movies. While in line I saw that they had a special rack of BF deal only DVD and Blu-Rays, but in the normal DVD and Blu-Ray section of the store they also had the deals but they were mixed with the normal movies. At the price check there was a pile of movies that weren’t the correct edition. For example, the DVD version of The Internship was on special, but the Blu-Ray version wasn’t. Also, the Monster’s University DVD/Blu-Ray combo was on special, but not the stand alone DVD, the stand alone Blu-Ray, the collectors edition DVD/Blu-Ray combo, nor the Ultimate 3D Blu-Ray/normal Blu-Ray/DVD/digital copy combo. The line for the check-out was quite long. It snaked in and out of many aisles, most of which were personal hygiene. Here’s a video of the scene.

 

I told the team to bring me their stuff and I’ll wait in line. Z-man gave me Monster’s University and the money to pay for it. While I waited, everyone else went to Dunham’s. That was a good 45 minute wait. When checking out, there was a group of women that wanted to buy a bottle of wine. For some reason the computer said that they couldn’t legally sell alcohol at that time. The clerk checked with the manager, and he checked with someone even higher up, and they said “just ring it up as other.” Turns out that the group of women were from Canada and they wanted something alcoholic to drink in the hotel after the shopping was over. The rest of the team was done with Dunham’s by the time I finished checking out. In true stupid, young adult, 4 guys having fun late at night; my brother pulls up the car, doesn’t stop and instead coasts, I jump in while the car is moving, and yell “GO! GO! GO!” as if this was some sort of get away scene.

Before we head to Best Buy, we decide it would be a good idea to stop at 7-Eleven first. This way, we would be able to get some Slurpee sugar to keep the adrenalin up in addition to not having to make a left onto a really busy street. To get to Best Buy, turn left without a light onto a super busy street. To get to 7-Eleven, turn right onto the super busy street and then make a left at the light. This was J-man’s first Slurpee. After we get our frozen sugar, to Best Buy.

At this point it’s 10 PM. They have been open for 3 hours now. There was no line to get in. We just walked right in. Just about all the door busters are gone, including my TVs.

Luckily, I did all my needed shopping and I was just there for the ride at this point. I did a little looking around, just seeing what else was out there, but nothing really interested me. Since Black Friday is their busiest day of the year, all the terminal stations for each section become registers. I don’t know if they are retrofitted for today only or if they have this capability year round. Either way, there are registers in the middle of the store. My brother wanted to get a video camera, some accessories for that camera, and a couple of CDs. Unfortunately there was a problem checking out. Since we were at a center store register and no one was waiting for us, I suggested that they ring up the camera separate from everything else. That worked for the camera, but everything else, still problem. He “put back” the spare battery and that solved everything. He didn’t put enough money into his debit card account, so the problem was insufficient funds. I found out after all the shopping that I overdrew my account, but because I used it as credit instead of debit, I was able to overdraw because the transfer wasn’t instantaneous.

It’s 11 PM, all our main shopping was done. We head to Walmart in the off chance that there was some craziness to see. On Black Friday, Walmart has its doors open all night and they wrap the door busters in what is essentially cellophane. Read more about it in a previous blog here. This year, since they did their door buster’s so early, all the door busters were unwrapped and all the craziness was over. Only the “vultures” were left to see what we could still get after the initial crazy people. I went to the movie and game door buster scraps to see if anything caught my eye. I found Batman Arcam City and The Ratchet and Clank HD collection, both for PS3. I bought them on a whim since they’re both supposed to be great games. Then I see it, the one that got away, Animal Crossing New Leaf. When compared to other stores, this was the cheapest place to get it, and since it’s such a great game, I expected it to be gone. It was gone at K-Mart, and it was $5 more at K-Mart. And there wasn’t just 1 copy left. It was as if only half the games were gone. There had to be 2 shelves of it. I couldn’t believe it. I got my copy, looked around a little more, found the team, checked out, and left.

This year was definitely the most boring Black Friday. After all the shopping, we got back at 11:52 PM. It wasn’t even Friday yet. Since every store opened so early, all the crazy fun was done and over with by the time our Thanksgiving party was over. I think we even ended Thanksgiving earlier than we normally do, but that wasn’t enough to get there in time for the crazy. By doing door busters so early, all REALLY crazy people are done before the fairly crazy get there. Once the “normal” crazy are ready to head out, all the REALLY crazy and fairly crazy are gone. Most of the fun is diving over people once the cellophane comes off. Unless all 3 species of crazy are there at the same time, there’s no diving, there’s no reaching, there’s no fun. Normally my high school friend joins us at about 12:30-1:00 because his family’s Thanksgiving festivities last until around 11 PM. He wasn’t able to join us this year, and he’s the rest of the fun. I offered to do a second round of shopping just with him since this is pretty much the only time I get to see him in the short time I have with Thanksgiving break, but since it was just going to be the 2 of us and he wasn’t really interested in anything this year, he didn’t do Black Friday this year. I still had fun with the team this year, but it just wasn’t the same. Hopefully next year, all the stores open at midnight so the fun actually happens. Oh well.

Now for the rest of my short break.

Like every break, I came home on the train. Normally the train is 5-10 minutes late because another train had to pass it or it took longer than expected to load and unload passengers at the stops before mine. This time, the train was delayed 1 and a half hours. Apparently there was an obstruction on the track and it took them a while to move it. My train that was supposed to leave at 4 left at 5:30. I went through half a stack of newspaper comics waiting on the delay. Because the train got so behind schedule, it threw off the rest of the train routs. We had to let 2 different trains pass us, and that set us back another hour. I was scheduled to get to my destination at 7:30 PM, but instead got back at 10 PM. My grandparents were going to pick me up, everyone would get to see me and be happy I made it back, meet my brother’s friend, and it would be a little welcome home celebration. But since 10 PM is late for my grandparents and my brother wanted to see his best friend from high school, only my parents got to welcome me home. I’d get to see everyone tomorrow so no big deal.

Begin Thanksgiving Day. Mom, my brother, and J-man went to the parade. I got to wake up in my own house, eat a chocolate muffin, and enjoy being home. I watched some TV channels I don’t get up at school, played some video games, and use my electric blanket. I helped some with the getting set-up for the Thanksgiving festivities, mostly moving chairs and making sure there was enough room for people to visit. We expected people to show up at about 2 PM. My grandparents showed up at 2, and then their friends showed up at 2:15. My grandparent’s friend plays the accordion, and she brings it whenever there’s a family gathering. I jokingly told J-man “now this a normal part of Thanksgiving. Everyone’s grandparent’s has a friend that knows how to play the accordion and everyone gathers around and sings songs.” After the accordion, it was time for dinner. We had the normal turkey, stuffing, cranberries, and everything else. We also had ham and some kind of yogurt cucumber salad J-man made. We all enjoyed each other’s company. After dinner I went Black Friday shopping. You’ve already read about that.

The day following the shopping, Friday, I got my hair cut, hung out with mskate and later mbinski, the high school friend who missed Black Friday. Nothing super special there, just some fun with friends. I head back to college on Saturday, and now here we are. Well this has been Pokematic signing off and bu-bye.