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.

Mother's Day 2022, Another Restaurant Experience

 Hey everyone. It's Mother's Day again, and I wouldn't be writing this if I didn't have another fun restraut story. Many years ago we had "the asparagus story." Now it is time for "the prime rib story." Once again, I love my family, but they can be a little crazy, and this time I'm kind of to blame. Here's the thing, we used to go out to a nice restaurant every year for Mother's Day, but recently celebrations have been "go to my parent's house spend time with the people that aren't my parents while they go crazy hosting. Part of this is because of covid, part of this is because it has gotten hard to move my grandma. 2 or so weeks ago my mom proposed "go to their house and have a pot roast for Mother's Day," and I said "I would rather go to the restaurant we normally went to on Mother's Day." Mom called them and was able to get us a reservation, and this is where the fun began.

First off, my grandma doesn't travel very easily anymore. She has REALLY bad arthritis, and has trouble with balance, making it very hard to get her in and out of cars. She also has no real turn radius with her walker, so areas need to be open and flat. The funny thing though is this makes restaurants and other public places better for her than my parent's house (parents have steps going up to their house, restaurants either don't have that or have ramps for ADA compliance). I know that's why my mom and everyone else always gets take out or delivery when taking care of her instead of going out to the restaurant, but this was special, and honestly if she was going to leave her house it might as well have been to a place that is completely level without any steps.

We had my parents, grandma, brother, the accordion friends, mskate, and I all at the restaurant. Since it was a holiday the menu was limited, and we had to find something grandma would like. Back in the day this wouldn't be very difficult; she would read the menu, pick one of the most expensive things on the menu, tell me to not worry about the price and I should get what I want (because I always happen to get one of the cheaper things on the menu, but that's honestly just because that's what I like), and that would be it. Maybe some crazy order changes when she missed something on the menu, but that would be it. However, she has become a lot more picky and confused with age, so whenever we go out someone has to order for her, and it's never guaranteed that she will like what she gets so our meals have to be tradable. Many years ago she liked prime rib, and as one of the more expensive things on the menu, the price was right. She also liked her steaks cooked medium (because she and grandpa would always be worried that my steaks were over cooked when I ordered it well done), so I assumed she would like her prime rib medium. I got the pork chops because I like restaurant pork chops (and of course they happened to be one of the cheapest things on the menu), and my mom got fried shrimp.

Before we get to the craziness, here are the gifts. We decided to do gift exchange before the meal because we only had the table for an hour and a half (they told us this much), and that ended up working out for the best. The day before mskate and I got gourmet cookies from a cookie shop that was close to where we were dog sitting that weekend (oh yeah, we were dog sitting Mother's Day weekend, nothing special though, just watching a friend's old dog while they were away). The cookies were $4 each, but if we bought 4 it was $13. For the extra dollar I got myself a gourmet cookie, but mskate wanted to get the individual boxes for everyone. We asked the cashier if we could get the the cookies individually boxed but at the 4 pack price. She said it would be a 25 cent upcharge, but it was loud and crowded, and she spoke softly and it ended up being a 25 percent upcharge (basically meaning it was full price for individual cookies). I noticed it shortly after seeing the price on the register and the price on the menu, but it was really crowded and mskate really wanted the individual boxes, so I didn't argue, but mskate agreed that next year we just get the 4 pack box, because it was silly to pay $1 for a box. We got cookies that would match everyone's personality; grandma got the basic chocolate chip (she's picky but likes classic chocolate chip), mom got a nutela cookie (she's a little adventurous and sometimes likes "young people fads," and I remember when nutela was a bit of a "young people fad"), accordion friend got pink velvet (a fancier fancier flavor for one who likes to cook and bake on an almost professional level), and I got lemon (because my unironic enjoyment of lemons and lemon flavor has become a running joke in my family). Mskate wrote nice messages on the boxes for everyone and they all enjoyed it. She also got my grandma a card that folds into a pot of flowers and my mom a card that has a pop-up bee hive. Mom was really happy and said "nice Hallmark cards, these are the kind of cards we get now that we have a girl in the family," and without missing a beat my brother said "no mom, you taught us to get dollar store cards."

OK, it's dinner time, the moment of truth. Grandma is skeptical because the prime rib is a little pink (that's what medium is), and it was quite big. Since my brother was sitting next to her he cut a piece and gave it to her. Unfortunately this was one of those "I used to like it but now I don't" things, saying "it was inedible." She traded with mom but felt bad because she didn't want mom to eat something so bad (it wasn't, it was actually really good). She ate some of the shrimp, but she wasn't really enjoying it. This is where my pork chops came into play. I ate one of my pork chops, but left the other to the side in case it was needed and ate my potato in the mean time. When it became obvious she didn't necessarily want the shrimp, I started cutting pieces of my other pork chop and mskate started giving it to her. We had to do this somewhat stealthy because she would have a fit if she saw it coming off her grandson's plate (because pretty much all my life she and grandpa would unsolicited take food off their plate and give it to me), but she never caught onto where the pork chop was coming from. Since she wasn't eating the shrimp mom took back the shrimp and gave me some of the prime rib. At one point the waitress came out and saw us trading food and got a little confused. Mom said "we'll help you with the checks later." At the end of the meal there was about 2/3rd of a pork chop left and maybe an ounce or 2 of prime rib with a good amount being stuck on the fat line, and 1 dinner role. I boxed the pork chop and gave it to my mom to give to grandma the following day for dinner, and I took the remainder of the prime rib after trimming off the meat from the fat and the dinner role for myself. We were able to sort out who got what (pork chop, prime rip, and mskate's salmon was on our bill, shrimp and dad's meal was on their bill). Mskate and I got grandma's meal as a mother's day gift, and at first she wasn't having any of that ("oh no, you can't do that, that's too much, I need to do something for you in return"), and that's when I reversed her logic on her ("no this is me returning the favor for all those Friday nights we spent with you"), and that ended up working.

So this wasn't AS crazy as asparagus, but it definitely reminded us of it (I leaned over to my parents and said "asparagus" a couple of times). I guess before I go I might as well mention that Dad and I saw my brother bartend the night before. He knows a guy that has a micro-brewery that sells their beer at the brewery, and he bar tends for them every now and then. It was fun having a drink with my dad while brother helped recommend stuff for us. I had a pint of one of their sour beers and alcoholic slushies, and dad had a pecan beer and something else, and we watched the Kentucky Derby (80-1 odds, that was quite a race). Brother asked if I wanted another but it was getting a little late and I was starting to feel it/ I said "no, I'm starting to feel it Mr. Krabs." Anyway, that was Mother's Day weekend. Grandma enjoyed her left over pork chop and half of the cookie, which is good to hear. This has been Pokematic, signing off, and bu-bye.

Friends For Life Indianapolis 2022 Adventure

Hey everyone, I went on a trip. This time it was to the Friends For Life regional conference in Indianapolis Indiana. Since mskate is working at the big Orlando conference and they had spare rooms, we were able to go for free, and that's why my mom and aunt were able to join us. Friends For Life is a type 1 diabetes organization through Children with Diabetes and every year they hold 3 different conferences, 2 small regional ones and a big one in Orlando at Disney World. At the conferences they have panels and lectures about navigating type 1 diabetes, and food and fellowship. Mskate goes to them every year and has friends through it and looks forward to seeing them in person every year in Orlando. The regional conferences are much smaller, but 4 of her friends were going to this and it was in this cool train themed hotel that used to be a train station, and it was within driving distance, and was free.

Friday was our driving day. I took the day off work so we could have a good 3 day weekend. Mom met us at our condo around 8AM and after packing her into our van we started on our adventure. Driving to Indiana is nothing new to us (mom's side is from Indiana so we have a lot of stories about driving there), and we filled mskate in on so many of them. Mskate drove first and the first big fun memory was Exit 0 and Play N Trade. Here's the story, one year on our family trip we stopped somewhere outside Indianapolis for the night, and close to the hotel was this videogame store called Play N Trade, and they had old school video games (which was my big thing when I was a teen). The next year I said "we have to go back, I really want to go there," and my mom said "OK, it's on the way so we can do that." This is when mapquest was first a thing and car GPS was a luxury, so I printed out directions on how to get there from my parents house and everything seemed reasonable, except for the direction that said "get off at Exit 0" (as in, "1-1" zero). My mom thought there was a problem and we would get lost, but believed it when I showed her the directions. My grandpa was adamant that there wasn't an exit zero, and would not trust the directions. Then when we followed the directions, there it was, exit zero. He was like "I'll be damned, there really is an exit zero." I went to play n trade, got some games, and had a great time.

Then there's another play n trade story. Now that we know exit zero is a real thing and how to get there, we went there every year for the next few years. One time when we went there the store was closed. On the door was a hand written sign on the door that said "closed for a family emergency, sorry for the inconvenience." That was our "National Lampoon's Vacation Wally World" story (the store wasn't "exactly" on the way, it was a little out of the way, and I build it up every time). Good memories. I got video telling the story, that was fun.

The other stories aren't THAT entertaining outside the family, basically just "remember when we went to Holiday World" type things. If you want family vacation stories, you can read them here, and here, and here, and here. We stopped at a rest stop at about the halfway point where we went to the bathroom and switched drivers. We also got an allergen friendly cookie for mskate off the clearance bin, and mom was surprised with how quick the stop was. It was 8 minutes in and out, and mom said "if I was with grandma we would still be getting out of the car right now." We also filled up on gas. I had to drive because mskate didn't want to drive in the city. But before we went to our hotel, we were picking up one of mskate's friends from the airport, peels. Because it was a Friday of lent I had a can of vegetarian beans to eat, and I was a bit of a sight. At the airport we get into the arrivals line and we switch seats (mskate in driver, me in passenger). I pull out my pocket knife and open up the can leaving the lid a little on and sticking up. I pull the plastic fork I taped to the side off and start eating my beans right out of the can. Just sitting there with a can of baked beans, nom nom. Peels calls mskate and asks where we are. We flag her down and load her in the car. I had to stop eating my beans and get back in the drivers seat.

We drive to the hotel and unload our car. We fill the luggage cart and the women go to check in while I drive to the underground parking structure next to the hotel. Because this was "big city hotel" the parking wasn't free, but everything was within walking distance so we park for the whole weekend. They were waiting for me to return before going up to the room. There were 2 types of rooms, 1 that was in a train car and 1 that was basic. We got the basic rooms, but mskate's other friend J and his parents were in a train car so we got to see it. The room was really cool, we had a great view of the pool and the TVs had lodgenet pay per view (or whatever the current equivalent of lodgenet is, but the remotes are basically the same and that's what it was when I was younger, so I'll just call it "lodgenet"). We didn't order any movies (because they are WAY over priced), and they didn't have videogames so that's no fun, but it's been forever since I've seen lodgenet so I was really happy just to see this relic of hotel entertainment. It's also new movies, not like "the service just wasn't updated and lodgenet forgot it was there," so that's neat.

After unpacking mskate, peels, and I went to Old Spaghetti Factory that was about a block from the hotel. This place had something all of us could eat (me with no meat on Fridays of lent, peels with food allergies, and mskate with both). The fun thing is they have 3 courses and bread. Since mskate and peels can't eat bread because of allergies, I ended up having the entire appetizer loaf to myself, yum. We each had a salad and our plate of pasta dishes. I had a plate of spaghetti and marinara sauce, mskate had a plate of allergy noodles, and peels had salmon. After the meal we all got a little cup of ice cream. However, once again because of allergies, I got all the ice cream. I was REALLY full after that. I also did some exercise because it was nothing but carbs.

Our room was on the 2nd floor and it was close to the Indianapolis sky walk (I'll get to that later), and we were also sort-of close to where the conference was being held, but we didn't know it. Funny story with that, the hotel has 2 conference areas, and there was another conference happening in the other area (I think it had something to do with counseling). We had to go to "Indiana station," and the conference rooms we were finding on the first floor were "New York, Pennsylvania, Chicago," and other landmarks, but no Indiana. We asked around and searched everywhere but couldn't find it. Eventually mskate saw a conference person she knew and asked where it was. Apparently the way to get to it was on the 2nd floor and there wasn't access via the first floor. Go figure. We checked in and got our name tags. This is when mskate introduced me to J and his parents.

We had some time before conference activities started, and since I had so much fun last time exploring the sky walk I did it again this time.

Here's a selfie I took in an attempt to match what I did last time

Mom joined me and we started at our hotel entrance and followed it to the Indianapolis convention center. We walked around the convention center trying to find the rest of the skywalk, and I gotta say, it was eerie. Like, there were employees setting up conferences in various ballrooms, but it wasn't very full and it just kind of felt like we weren't supposed to be there. We were allowed to be there, no one kicked us out and it's part of the skywalk, but it just felt like we were trespassing.

I guess we did do a little "shouldn't have been there," because we found an empty ballroom and went inside and did some dancing. Since my wedding was a covid wedding we didn't REALLY get to have our "spotlight mother son dance," so we danced to imaginary music in an empty ballroom. We eventually found the skywalk and it eventually lead us to the mall. Now this mall was cool. It had 6 stories and was connected to the skywalk from multiple locations. We walked around some and there was this "family fun center" thing that was inflatable bumper car things and those electric riding animals. Not anything spectacular, but kind of cool. We walked to the food court to see where the skywalk continued, and found this atrium ampetheater thing, and after looking at our watch we realized it would probably be smart to turn back. While we were in the food court, I saw something that I thought was impossible, a Chick Fil A without a line.

As we were walking back, I saw something on the floor above us at the top of the escalator. It looked like an arcade, and I had to check it out. It was an arcade, TNT Amusement. I was in heaven. I LOVE arcades, and this had so much cool stuff. There were all sorts of coin pushers, this arcade bowling game where you control the ball through all sorts of crazy alleys, a Luigi's Mansion light gun game (technically not light gun, but that kind of thing), air hockey, crane games, and best of all, Dance Dance Revolution. When I was a teen and young adult the arcade at the mall sort of close to my parents had a DDR machine and I set high scores on probably half the songs on that machine (and was REALLY sad when they shut down). We didn't have time to play because the conference was starting soon, but after the conference events for the day we knew we had to come back.

Here's a picture of me with the mascot of the arcade.

The first event was an introductory talk by the founder. I watched maybe 10 minutes but then my allergies started acting up and I had to leave. I went to the room to get some air and let the allergy pill kick in. I was able to make it back for the last 10 or so minutes, so that was ok. It was time for dinner now. I had some cheese and crackers, and J pointed out how bad the tongs were. As a bit of a buffet expert I had no problem with them, but they were hard to use. I had the rest of my beans for dinner afterwards. There wasn't much for mskate and peels to eat, so after mom and Aunt G ate some food, we went to the mall to get some food for peels and mskate. Oh yeah, Aunt G drove up to join us in the festivities, so that was fun having her along. When mom and I said "the mall was a 30 minute walk," she said "what do you mean, the mall is 2 blocks away." Apparently the skywalk way is really far, but it's just a 2 block walk outside. We all went to the mall and entered from the outside (but we had a hard time finding the entrance). Turns out the mall closes early on Saturday, or every day because of the labor shortage, but the doors stay open because it's part of the skywalk. Mskate and peels weren't able to get food, and I wasn't able to go to the arcade. Mskate, peels, Mom, and Aunt G went to steak and shake to find some food, but I was full and wanted to do more skywalking so I took the skywalk back without them.

The rest of the night was low key. At some point around one of the meals we looked at the exhibit hall booths (but it was more like "exhibit corner" since there were 5 people). There was dexcom, tandem, a health insurance company, omnipod, and this special pajama company with pockets specifically designed for insulin pumps and their tubing. Everyone had swag, and it was really cool. The pjs people were giving away a pair of airpods to one lucky contestant. We got a tin of jelly beans from the tandem people and the tin looked like an insulin pump. Dexcom gave away pens and folding flying discs. I saw one boy having trouble folding it back into the little pouch it came in, so I told him how to fold it and he appreciated it.

OK, Saturday fun time now. Breakfast was good; bacon, potatoes, and bagels for me, and there was fruit, yogurt, and scrambled eggs for those who wanted it. This time the tongs were better, lol. I piled up and was ready for the day. The first talk we went to was one about continuous glucose monitors, and with how it was titled it sounded like it would be "how to feel comfortable sharing your numbers with your loved ones," but it ended up being "this is what a CGM is, it's a device you wear on your body for consecutive days and it reports your numbers to a device." It didn't tell us anything we didn't already know, so we ducked out after 20 minutes. Oh well.

We had a big gap in the schedule, so Mom, Aunt G, and I went to the mall to enjoy the arcade. We got there right when they opened and the guy was like "not everything is warmed up yet, so it might be a little bit before you can play everything," but that was OK because DDR was ready. I bought a $30 game card we had loads of fun. I played probably 3 games of DDR, some coin dozers, the video bowling game, this curved air hockey game with my mom, and tried to play this spongebob game. I say "tried to" because it said "how to play," but I don't think I ever really played the game. Oh well. The DDR was really fun, the first time I accidentally paid for 2 player which meant I was playing double pad (the extra hard one), that wore me out pretty hard, but still fun. After that I played normal single pad. We had fun for maybe 2 hours, and then it was time to go back for lunch.

Lunch was good; lunch meat sandwiches. I had a ham, pickles, lettuce, onion, and potato chips on my sandwich. After lunch it was time for another talk. We tried this one financials of diabetes class (because I'm interested in financials stuff), but it ended up being more of a political activism talk, and a rather liberal one ("insurance companies are gouging you, we need legislation to force cheap insulin"), and mskate realized if I stayed I was going to start a big debate and start a scene. We ducked out and went to the other talk about coping mechanisms with diabetes burnout. Not exactly something super relevant to us either (we both deal with the craziness well I'd say), but it's better than me saying "how much does it cost to make a vial of insulin? How much did it cost to get that new brand of insulin on the market? Are you sure you want to take away all incentive to make new types of insulin by legislating away all profits and then being stuck with what we have now if anyone is still willing to make it?" Oh well.

Now another break, so back to the arcade to finish up the card. I played some more dance dance revolution, and after 5 total games I said "OK that's enough." Mom and I had a little skeeball contest where we each played a round and saw who got the higher score. I can't remember who won though, because the final score didn't last very long on the board. I played the Luigi's Mansion arcade game after that, and that was REALLY fun. I love the Luigi's Mansion games, they're really fun Nintendo horror games. Art style, level layout, and ghost types, I think this was based on Dark Moon. It's a really fun on rails shooter, and if you ever come across one I highly recommend it. I also played the Star Wars Arcade game, but the screen brightness was really turned down so I wasn't able to see the enemies really well in the space fight and didn't get to the 3rd stage. We played 2 rounds of Deal or No Deal, but it ended up selecting deal when we said no deal so we gave up on that. That emptied the card pretty much all the way and without much time left before dinner starts we went to the ticket counter to redeem the tickets. I had enough to get a TNT Arcade shot glass, TNT Arcade lanyard, and a rubber duck turtle (with 1 ticket left over). I gave the turtle toy to J and he really appreciated it.

Dinner time. They had ribs, roast beef, red-skin potatoes, and salad. That was REALLY good. I ate a lot after my big exercise day (plus it was REALLY good). I also had some of a super rich brownie, and then Mom and Aunt G had the rest (because I could only eat about 1/3 of it). After dinner we went swimming. J's parents are old and not able to swim with him, so mskate and I went swimming with him. He's at the age and energy level where it's really fun to have someone throw you in the pool, and so mskate and I tossed him while in the pool. That was fun. On a similar note, mskate, peels, J, and I all took a photo at one of the backdrops and J was like "I'm too heavy, you 3 can't lift me," and I said "oh yeah," and picked him up and the 3 adults were holding him sideways. He's fun.

Sunday was low key. The only mass around us was at like 7AM and I think was in Spanish, so I watched our local mass online. Breakfast was the same as Saturday, breakfast meats, potatoes, scrambled eggs, and toast. Aunt G checked out either right after breakfast or before breakfast, so she missed the closing key note. It was a good key note from what I remember, and it was really fun to meet everyone that I hear about all the time. Peels was supposed to bring her switch and we could visit each other's islands, but she forgot it and so I missed out on that. After the key note we checked out. We returned our 4th set of room keys (because the keys kept losing their code), loaded up the luggage cart, and packed up the van. Because we were still city I drove the first leg, and after 100 or so miles we stopped to get gas and switch drivers. Aside from the boring speeches it was a great trip, fun to get away. Well this has been Pokematic, signing off, and bu-bye.

County Holiday Light Display Adventure 2021

 Hey everyone. Last year mskate and I went to a holiday light display some weeks before Christmas, and it was really fun and we decided we would go to it every year as a new tradition. Well it crept up on us this year and mskate basically texted me "let's go to the holiday lights tonight" while I was at work and I'm like "yeah let's do that." When I got home I relaxed a little while we waited for it to get dark, and after some relaxing we made us some popcorn for the night and got some other snacks together. The lights are about 40 minutes from our house, so we were able to leave before it got completely dark. I got some fast food on the way since we didn't eat a normal dinner that night, and that was baked into the "wait for it to get dark" plan. This year since there wasn't as much construction as there was last year, and we used a different GPS to get there, it wasn't as hard to get there like it was last year.

OK, now for the fun stuff. We found the entrance easy. Mskate downloaded a playlist of Christmas music from spotify and that set the atmosphere, but first I wanted to listen to the information loop that they were playing over the radio on I guess the city's AM station. It was funny, mskate saw a sign and she thought it was an FM station, and told me "103.6," and I'm like "babe, the FM band is on the odd number," so we're dialing through all the FM frequencies on what she thought she saw, but when we got to the entrance we saw it was an AM station and then it made sense why it was an even number. OK, now for the lights.

Halfway through they had a rest stop with a food cart selling pop corn, hot dogs, and hot chocolate. The halfway point came faster than I remember last year. Maybe people were just moving faster this year, maybe it was less crowded than last year and so we moved faster, maybe it was because so many of the displays were the same as last year and therefore not as exciting as they were the first time, maybe it's because they didn't have a "stated halfway marker" and so it was just "start and end." Whatever the reason, I was glad they had it open because I needed a bathroom break. While we were there we got a picture with the reindeer stable lights. Now onto more lights.

After the lights we drove home and just enjoyed the night. It's a great little activity that we can do every year. 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.