A Day at the Zoo With my Family

 Hey everyone. About a month ago my mom had the idea to go to the zoo with my grandma as a family outing. Since it's been years since I've been to the zoo, I jumped at the idea, taking a day off and ready to have some fun. It's been years since I REALLY went to the zoo, having been to the wild lights many time in recent years (like here, here, and here), but all the animals were asleep except for the reptiles. This will also be one of the last times I'm able to do stuff with my family before I'm married (because I'm getting married at the end of the year, I even had a bachelor party). Before the zoo I went out to breakfast with my mom to her and Dad's favorite breakfast place. Mom had an omelet and I had bacon and eggs. After breakfast we went to pick up my grandma, and that was a bit of a story. She and my parents have these friendship lights that both change color when one of them touch them, connected via the internet, and hers was having a problem. Mom thought it would take a while to fix it, but I fixed it in minutes (just the old IT trick of turning it off and turning it back on again). We loaded her up and went to the zoo.

When we pulled up to the front gate and unloaded my grandma and myself so she could walk slowly up to the front while Mom parked. Since stupid COVID is still stupid, the zoo is running with limited capacity and everyone has to wear masks. We got in through the front gate and got the rental wheelchair for my grandma. Since my mom was still recovering from her broken wrist it was my job to push her all day. It's OK, it's not like I wasn't going to be the one to push her anyways. It was no problem, I got my exercise that way. After getting all set with the wheel chair we ended up getting our picture taken for a souvenir picture. It was fun.

Our first stop was the first exhibit in the zoo, the butterfly house and bird aviary. Well, it would be the butterfly house, but because of stupid covid we were only able to go to the birds. It might have been for the best, considering my grandpa used to volunteer at the butterfly house and we lost him earlier this year. It was kind of interesting, since I knew the butterfly house and aviary so well as a child and the 2nd entrances that we never used because it was always the main entrance, a bit of a childhood dream of "going the other way" was being realized. The birds were fun, and it was nice and warm in the building. Unfortunately because of covid we weren't able to use the spinning plastic things that tell you what each of the birds are, but they had these little yard sign things to say instead. I don't know if the exhibit changed much in the 10 years since I was last at the zoo, but the environment sure didn't. I remembered all the different terrain and seating locations, but the little inclines were REALLY noticeable when pushing a wheel chair. At the end we stopped at the one place where we could still sit, and I took a picture with my grandma. I had to retake it because my jacket has the reflective stripes and the flash made everything black except for the bright reflective stripes.

After the aviary we went to the otter exhibit. Unfortunately the otters were inside their indoor house and we weren't able to see them. Oh well. We went to Amphibavile after the otters, it's where they have all the amphibians (frogs, toads, salamanders, etc.). Because of covid and the Midwest fall temperatures they closed off the brass frogs that squirt water. Oh well. It was fun looking for all the different amphibians, and seeing how they camouflage themselves in their habitats. Back when I was younger there was this educational video that would loop in a theater, and there were blocks that were meant for seats that you could move everywhere. In the 15+ years since I was there, and likely due to covid they had to close that off. Oh well, I basically memorized the video. My other favorite part of amphibavile was the giant terrarium walking path thing where you could see the frogs up close and personal, and I could see my favorite frog in all it's colors, the poison dart frog. I love how it has these bright colors, and unlike all the other animals that take these very Earthy tones to blend in with the environment, the poison dart frog is all "I'm bright blue, or red, or yellow, don't mess with me because even touching me will make you sick." Yeah, maybe it was a bit of a liability having them jump freely around guests, but I remember a zoo keeper telling me they change their diets so they don't secrete the poison. They also had a free roaming sloth in the walking area, which I guess also wasn't the smartest thing since sloths are kind of dangerous with their giant teeth and claws, and that they sometimes fall from the tree because they grab onto their own arm thinking it's a tree branch and let go. I was still able to see the poison dart frogs, even if it was behind glass. They replaced the walking path with an enclosure for the giant salamanders, which when I saw how big they are and where they were living before, I definitely understand why they had to move them. They were basically living in a tube; it'd be fine for your average sized amphibian with plenty of room to move around, but not for these big guys. I guess it's a worthy trade off for the giant salamanders to be happier.

After the amphibians we took the wetlands path over the central pond. This was something that was kind of new to me since it used to be just a giant pond without the dock path. I remember it being under construction, and being there when I went back in highschool, but it wasn't something I really did before. My mom kept asking me why I kept taking such a weird steering path while walking the dock, and it was because I was avoiding running over goose poop. It's not like I really cared about the rental chair (it's a zoo, they're used to animal poop), but my legs kept running into the wheels and I didn't want to get goose poop on my pants. We tried to see the beavers after the amphibians, but they too were inside. Luckily they had a video feed of their inside house, so we were able to at least see them sleeping.

After the bust with the beavers we went to the reptile house. Since the reptiles don't really "go to sleep at night" like all the other animals, I would see them at the wild lights. It was fun seeing them with my mom though, since she likes reptiles unlike mskate, and my grandma is ok with them (not scared or dislike, but not really like either). We had a lot of fun looking at all the snakes and lizards. What was really fun was seeing a massasauga, the only snake we ever had to worry about when camping in boy scouts. Sure, it wouldn't be fun being bit by a garter snake or the others we could find when camping, but it would just require some basic first aid (like the times it happened). Massasauga on the other hand, well that's an ER visit and thankfully never happened. We were able to find most of the snakes, and enjoyed seeing the alligators, crocodiles, and turtles. Speaking of turtles and scouts, there was this time where some boys in my troop had the bright idea of catching a snapping turtle at summer camp. Those guys are nothing to mess with, they'll bite a finger clean off, but they somehow managed to bring it from one side of the lake all the way back to main camp. Fun times.

After the reptiles we saw the camels, but most importantly the fountain. Rackham Fountain is an icon of the zoo, and we got our picture with it. We also reminisced about the fun times when we were little going to the fountain. Right by the fountain there used to be "the dinosaur experience," which had a bunch of animatronic dinosaurs on a walking path. It was really cool, but they got rid of it around 2000 from what I remember. The joke was always "why don't they have real dinosaurs, what a rip." After the fountain we went to the red panda exhibit (who was off on maternity leave) and the tigers. The tigers were rescued from private zoos, and that's when I gave my mom a little crash course that "yes, there are crazy rich people that say 'I want to have a tiger' and they are basically in their backyards." I know this because I watched Tiger King.

Now for the really fun thing, the great apes; chimps and gorillas. We got to see a gorilla hanging out on the tree toy, and then climb down. It was really fun seeing them active. My grandma kept asking "how much do you think they weigh" about all the big animals, but this time I had an answer for her about gorillas, because I remember them weighting around 300-400 pounds. She was quite impressed with them. But what was REALLY fun was seeing the baby and child chimps with their foster mom. I asked the zoo keeper how the foster mom was decided and apparently the birth mom got hurt around child birth time so the humans had to care for the really infant chimp (nursing and such), but they always would show the baby to the adult chimps behind the fence so they could see if maybe the baby would be able to find a foster mom. The oldest and most respected female chimp really seemed to take an interest in the baby, and when it was time to introduce the baby to the family she scooped him right up and said "you are mine now." Their big worry about human nursed chimps is that they would associate more with the humans and wouldn't go into being a chimp, but this little guy took right to being a chimp and doesn't show any signs of wanting to be a human, and being brought in by the oldest and most respected female meant he was accepted by the rest of the chimp family.

Now while it's always fun to see cute baby animals, baby apes are especially fun to watch, because their mannerisms are almost exactly like baby humans as is the parent mannerisms (at least these were). The baby chimp was holding onto the foster mom while she was going to a different side, while the child chimp was following close behind. The foster mom found a nice place to sit and was just like "OK, you two just play nicely while mama takes a break. The baby chimp got off and started curiously exploring his environment, while the child chimp was "come on, let's play," tackling him and climbing all over him, while the baby was pushing off and having fun as well. Then the child found a pile of hay and started picking it up and putting it on his head, and putting it on the baby. And then he decided to climb down the rope swing to do his own thing, and you could tell the baby wanted to follow but just wasn't strong and coordinated enough to play with the big kid. All the while mom is watching to make sure they don't do anything dumb, occasionally reaching an arm out to break it up. I swear, it was just like watching a parent with a toddler and a kindergartener. If you ever get the chance to watch baby chimps play together, it's great.

After the great apes we went to the flamingos and storks. My mom was making jokes about how the storks are a sign of what's to come (mskate and I are going to have a lot of babies). The peacocks were also hanging out at the flamingos. This was the first time we saw them, so I asked "oh, are they no longer free roaming?" My mom told me "oh no, they are definitely still free roaming, they just seem to be hanging out at this exhibit." They were, I saw plenty later (which I'll elaborate with a later story). We also saw lions (which also had a rescue story; it turns out a lot of animals have their rescue story posted), snow monkeys, and rhinoceroses. Chimps weren't the only apes with a child, we also saw a little snow monkey. He didn't have a child friend to play with, so he was playing with the adults. It was following who I guess it's mom, and trying to play on a branch and kind of falling off, while mom just kind of watched him make his own mistakes. He also started chasing after maybe dad until he got board and went back to mom. Again, just like human children. It's hilarious. The rhinos were where the elephants used to live, but they no longer have elephants (which is unfortunate since they were my favorite animal as a child).

Around this time is when we decided to have lunch. We went to the closed off quick service outside restaurant by the train stop and ate our meal there. Mom brought Jiff to go, crackers of the gram, salteen, and club variety, M&Ms, and a variety of goldfish crackers. Sure, not the "healthiest" of meals, but it was enough to keep us happy. My mom made peanut butter gram crackers for grandma, and then I made her eat some peanut butter "because you need to get some protein." She would always say that when I would make a "less than healthy" meal, so it's always fun to tell her the parenty things she would tell me as a child and teen. We reminisced about how much fun the train was, because it used to be free and since my brother was really into trains there would be times where we would just ride the train all day. Unfortunately it was closed because of covid, and stopped being free around the time he stopped being into trains, so it was just the memories.

After lunch we saw warthogs, zebras, and giraffes. My grandma was impressed by the length of their necks, pointing out how long it must take for food to reach their stomach. They had a giraffe encounter thing where guests can feed the gram crackers, but "because covid" is becoming a running thing, none of that. After the giraffes, we saw the red panda, and that was fun because the little guy was having lunch out of a cool whip container. It was great, we just happened to be walking by when it was feeding time. There was a family eating at the picnic tables by the red panda and a peacock was coming up to them. We looked at them and said "do you think we should tell them to be careful?" It's a reference to a story I'll tell later.

The next stop was the kangaroo exhibit. This is a really cool exhibit in that it's an open path and the kangaroos are free to walk around and over the path. You might think "but what about the safety of the animals," but from what I know kangaroos are incredibly strong and will be able to easily defend themselves against a human. Then there's "but what about the safety of the humans" and from what I know they aren't very curious animals that don't know their own strength (like a chimp or a tiger) and will generally leave humans alone. I'm not an expert, but from what I've seen on Animal Planet and based on the experience I had, "you don't bother them they won't bother you, and don't mess with them because they WILL lay you out." It was really cool, because some of them were rather close to us and I was able to get this great picture.

While there I told my family about the last time I was here and how one of the kangaroos had a joey in her pouch. I also did the "can you jump as far as a kangaroo" thing and made it about 6 feet.

After the kangaroos we went to the wolves, and it was fun reading about how wolves communicate, and that their body language and different vocal sounds are near identical to dogs. Like, exposing their belly is a sign of submission, and wimpers mean they're sad or scared, and I'm just like "yep, dogs still have a lot of wolf in them." After we got off the wolf path I realized we missed the grizzly bears and polar bears. I changed our direction to catch the exhibits we missed. The grizzly bears were also rescues, with their mom being killed when they were cubs and them getting saved from the harsh Alaskan winter that they wouldn't have survived without mom. My grandma didn't really know where we were going so I said "the Berenstine Bears," and again she asked how much it weighed.

Our next stop was the polar bears and arctic circle. Unfortunately the tunnel and buildings were closed (because of stupid covid), but we were still able to see the outside stuff. The biggest thing being the arctic foxes. They were REALLY cute; little white foxes that looked like babies but were actually full grown. The one was happy to just lie there and sleep, and the other kept pacing back and forth looking at the people coming by. It was funny, you could see that he kept following the same path back and forth to the different viewing windows; the grass was all matted down and he would just follow that path. Really cute. We also got to see a seal, but no polar bears. Since part of the exhibit was closed off, we got to take the "alternate entrance and exit," once again answering my boyhood curiosity.

The arctic circle exit was pretty close to the bald eagles and wolverines, so that was our next stop. The wolverine was pretty active, and we wondered if it was Sparty or Buckeye (because many years ago the zoo got 2 wolverines and named them after the UofM rival school mascots since UofM are the wolverines). We don't know but what was really cool about the eagles is we got to see one issue it's "territory defense call." A wild hawk (one not part of the zoo) was circling above the exhibit and you could see the alpha eagle keeping an eye on it. When it got a little too close for comfort it let out a "get out of here" call and then left the area. We also saw retired thoroughbred race horses in the same area, and they told the story of the horses before coming to the zoo. One saw 47 races and the other only saw 4 or so before suffering a career ending injury. The farm animals with the barn was in the same area, but because of covid it was closed.

The next stop was the prairie dogs. These are my mom's favorite, she always enjoys seeing the prairie dogs, and they are cute especially when they're popping their heads out of their holes. A really cool thing with this exhibit that I'm sure many other zoos have is a little tunnel with domes for kids to crawl up in and pretend to be prairie dogs and getting an up close view. I used to REALLY love doing that, and even did it as a teenager because I still barely fit (and it's still OK for teenagers to do things like that, just kind of weird but not "creepy adult"). Naturally because it's a confined area that kids practically lick, and not very easy to clean since adults can't fit in the tube, it was closed due to covid. I do remember it smelling funny when I was a kid, probably because it's never cleaned.

After the prairie dogs were the bison. We actually had a personal story about bison that we were reminiscing about. When my grandparents and great aunt went on a grand canyon vacation they did a bison tour, and my great aunt got out of the car to get a close up picture. Naturally she shouldn't do that, because bison are aggressive and WILL trample you. Everyone was yelling "LADY, GET BACK IN THE [probably profanity] CAR!" It was fun reminiscing about that since my grandma can't really do trips anymore.

The next few stops weren't too eventful. We saw ant eaters, vultures, pelicans, and storks. We pointed out how big the nose was on the ant eater, remarked at how big the talons were on the vulture, and made baby jokes about the storks. By this time we were back at Rackham fountain and took another picture. I parked Mom and Grandma at the fountain so I could get Dipin Dots (the ice cream of the future). We thought the Coney Island would have the Dipin Dots, but they were closed. I went back and got the family and we went to another food stand that did have Dipin Dots. I got a small bowl of chocolate, and sat us at one of the tables around the stand. This is when a peacock came right up to us and was eyeing my ice cream. It was like 1 foot away from us, I could reach out and touch it if I wanted to, and I knew what he was after (and since male peacocks are bright colors while females are brown-gray, I knew this was a male). This isn't the first time I've dealt with a peacock wanting my food. When I was about 4 years old, I was eating a peanut butter sandwich while watching the elephants. As I was eating it, a peacock came up and took it out of my hand. I was crying, worried they were going to kick us out because "I fed the animals" (which is against the rules, punishable by removal from the zoo), and mom had to reassure me "I didn't 'feed' the peacock, he STOLE my sandwich." About 23 years later, a peacock was trying the same thing, only this time since I was a grown adult I was able to hold my food above it's head while shooing it away. It then went to investigate my mom and grandma to see if they had any food it could steal (which they didn't). I got these cool pictures though.

I also don't remember where I snapped this, but I also got a "peacock waiting to go into the store." It likely saw it's reflection and wanted to interact with the other peacock.

Peacocks are interesting birds. I guess since it was getting cold they weren't sounding their calls. On a spring/summer day you can normally hear "oawh-wah, oawh-wah," but it was surprisingly quiet.

That was pretty much the end of the day. We walked by the playground that they REALLY downsized. It used to be huge, with a "young children" structure and "older children" structure, and all these creative monkey bar type things, all geared to "how animals move." Granted, everything seems much bigger when you're a child and it was probably the size of a standard park, but it at least had 2 jungle gyms with "zoo inspired features," this was now just a simple jungle gym with some animals painted on it. We returned the wheel chair and picked up the walker, packed up everyone, and went home. All and all it was a really fun day, we were there for about 6 hours. Even if covid put a big damper on some of the exhibits, the animals were generally pretty active. I know there have been times where we went and they were just sleeping and not doing much, but not this time. It was also a pretty great "end of an era" day trip since we used to go to the zoo all the time when I was little. This has been Pokematic, signing off, and bu-bye.

The Pokematic Bachelor Party

 Hey everyone, so as I mentioned in the camping blog, I'm getting married. Like all good bachelors, I had myself a bachelor party; one last big party of being a single man with my boys. VikingPolak, my brother and best man was in charge of setting it up and let me say, he did a pretty good job.

Since I'm a giant geek that has spent thousands of dollars on all my cool stuff, and partially because of the damn virus, the party was at my condo. Honestly though, I wouldn't want it anywhere else. At my condo, I have 2 different arcade machines, a large sectional sofa, a 4K TV, and an impressive VHS and amiibo display. Then in the nerd cave I have 3 CRTs each hooked up to different video game consoles, and in my bedroom I go to to sleep next to my PS2 collection, which I estimate is around 15-20% complete. It's a really awesome place, but that did mean I had to spend the week prior cleaning up my condo. On the day of the party my brother came over early to help clean-up the final bits and set things up. He brought some games and a craps table. After getting set-up we just went shopping because my AC is out and it's hot.

At about 4:30 my dad and future brother in law showed up. They brought this Disney trivia game where players have to list as many things as they can (like "animated movies with a bat in it") and the one that can list the most wins. Of course, because I'm a major Disney fan, I pretty much always win, and I did, again. A little while later ZeldaMaster93 showed up, and he joined in and still didn't win. VikingPolak wanted to start grilling the brats so I went out to help him. Little did I know that while I was getting that set-up, my dad was setting up a big surprise, something I've been wanting to get for a while now.

(Note, I didn't wear a shirt the entire party, just be warned with pictures and videos). That's right, my family bought me a dancing inflatable tube man. Some years ago I said "I want to get one of those" after seeing it at car lots and such, and I found places online that sell them, but I never got one. Well, for my engagement, my mom had the idea of getting me one and now I have one. This will be great, whenever we host parties I can put it out in our lawn to help people find it, and I can rent it out to people for parties and such. I love being eccentric.

A and Z showed up not too much after we pulled the brats off. We all had brats and then we started the thing that ended up being the main activity, deep frying. I set-up my deep fryer and cut some potatoes for french fries. Z brought Oreo's and bro-law brought chicken wings. I made a beer batter and we fried them up. We all went outside and I started frying the french fries. They went over well, but people were looking forward to the Oreo's and chicken. VikingPolak coated an Oreo in the batter and then let it sit, allowing a lot of the batter to fall off. We tried frying it, but then it basically dissolved. I then did another but took it directly from the batter to the fryer. It was a little better, but it still was very watery and didn't fry very well. I told VikingPolak to get the flour to thicken the batter. The flour thickened the batter well, and then this happened when we fried some more oreos

The Oreo got stuck to the bottom of the fry cage, so I stabbed it out like a cave man that discovered a tool. The batter was very good, and the Oreo's were really good. Everyone liked them. After some more Oreo's and fries, I tried my hand at fried chicken. This was the first time I ever tried cooking chicken, but I ended up doing well according to guests. I did it in pairs since that was how much I could fit in the little fryer comfortably. On one of the pairs of wings, this happened.

Yeah, I kind of overfilled the fryer and it boiled over, and that's one of the reasons why I did this outside. The other reason was it was hot in my house. It was a really fun time, and we used about all the fry batter. While I was cooking we all just sat around drinking and talking. It was a fun time. After it got dark we cleaned up and I set-up the fryer to cool down.

Now for a new fun thing, gifts. My dad and brother got me something to symbolize my marriage, a play on a classic joke.

Yep, the old ball and chain joke. My dad's an artistic carpenter, so he made this in his shop, and those links are all solid, no seem links. My brother has the idea of having each of my groomsmen and each of mskate's bridesmaids sign a link, and then maybe put a design on the ball. I like the idea of signing the links. It's a fun thing. Then I gave my groomsmen their gifts. I got vikingpolak a Letter Kenny coffee mug (because he really likes Letter Kenny), A-man a deer wallet (because he's a hunter), zeldamaster93 a Legend of Zelda wallet (because he loves Legend of Zelda), and bro-law a Bad Mother F***er wallet like in Pulp Fiction (because he loves movies). They all absolutely loved their gifts. After gifts we played my Ms. Pac-man and Galaga arcade machine, taking turns at 2-player games and seeing how far we could each get. It was a fun way to end the night. After an hour or so of that everyone started to leave. It was getting late, and I was getting tired.

It was a great night and a great party. I can't think of another way I would want to celebrate my bachelor life style and have my "last single hurrah." Everyone really enjoyed themselves and seeing the cool place that I set-up. This has been Pokematic, signing off, and bu-bye.

Camping 2020 Fun

Hey everyone. It's been forever since I did a blog, and we all have the damn virus to blame. For those of you who may be reading in the future, I'm talking about the covid-19 pandemic/hysteria. That shot basically all the plans in the foot. Oh well, things cleared up enough for my family to go camping like we do every year, and boy was it fun.

This year was particularly fun, because mskate joined us this year. Why did she join us this year? Because we're engaged now. Yeah, I'll be getting married soon. Before I get to all that fun, first some pre-camp excitement. First off, my air conditioner went out, so I've been hot and have been taking cold baths to help with the heat. Normally I wouldn't be interested in swimming in the lake, preferring to sit on the beach and read my manga volumes, but because I've been SOOOOOO hot recently, I knew I would be going swimming. I also stayed with my parents the night before, because I needed a break from the heat and they had AC. It was a very quiet, simple night together; we chatted, ate dinner, and did some packing. Since I had been working 4 10-hour days that week instead of my normal 5 8-hour days, I was really tired and collapsed at 9PM. Mskate was asking what time we would leave, and I couldn't really give her an answer because my family "gets going when we get going, we're on vacation, no need to wake up early, the destination will still be there."

Now the fun starts. I picked up mskate around 9AM and pack her things in my car. Normally my family would just take 1 vehicle, but because we had an extra passenger with her own stuff, and I had a much smaller lease this year, we took 2 cars. For the drive up, mskate and I drove in my car and my parents drove in their car. I largely followed my dad up until we stopped at a rest stop. After that we went our separate ways as mskate and I wanted to stop at the outlet mall on the way. Her mom needed new croc flip flops, so we made a stop at the crocs store. They were having a "buy 2 get 1 free" sale, but since my current pair of crocs were still good and I had a back-up pair for when these give out, we didn't partake in the sale. We also stopped at the Coleman store primarily to see if they had pocket ponchos (we didn't have any, and they're good for camping). Unfortunately they didn't, but they had water bottles and mskate needed a new one. We got a 2 pack because that's what they had. Mskate wasn't exactly thrilled since she only wanted the one, but I told her it was good to have a back-up since she really likes those kinds and lost her last one, and if she didn't use it there was still packaging on it to indicate it's new so we could gift it. Since she loves giving gifts, that sold her on them. Around the crocks store I found a new store called "rewind." The name caught my attention, and inside was a millennial childhood paradise. They had Pokemon, Digimon, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Sailor Moon shirts, stickers, VHS tapes, toys, original Jordans, original Supreme skateboards, and so much more. I really hope they can last, because that is an awesome store. I didn't get anything this time, but next time I go to the outlet mall I need to get me some stickers. We tried going to the Pepridge Farm store to get cookies for the group dinner, but they were closed. Oh well, we just got some from a super market instead.

After the outlet mall we continued to drive to our motel. My parents say "they're too old for tent camping anymore," so we get a motel room that's close to the camp ground and just visit for the day. Since we had 4 people this time, we got 2 rooms instead. Since mskate are not married yet and are traditional like that, my dad and I shared a room and my mom and mskate shared a room. My mom made the initial reservations so I had to call to change to my credit card on the way up. This is where I had to be very sneaky. Mskate has been begging me to get a new phone to follow her on dexcom, or other thing and with her birthday the following weekend, I got a new phone; I just had to keep it hidden from her all weekend. I asked her to drive while I called the motel and that worked to keep her from seeing my new phone. Men were in room L and women were in room B. Mskate commented that we should have switched, so boys were in B and ladies were in L. We didn't though, and unpacked our "hotel stuff" (toiletries, clothes, laptops and devices).

After checking in and registering on my godfather's site, we went around and said our hellos to everyone. It was really fun introducing mskate, because I got to say "[friend] this is my fiance [mskate], [mskate] this is [my friend]." It was kind of the first time I really got to do this, and it felt great. After introductions I wanted to get in the lake and enjoy the cool water. It's been years since I went swimming, and it was really fun having my fiance there with me. One thing we did was have fun with the buoyancy of water, where she was able to princess carry me with ease. We also spent time visiting with our friends as everyone else was swimming too. Dinner was simple, just hamburgers, hotdogs, and brats. After dinner we went to the ice cream store that's just outside camp, and it was fun getting to see my little god-siblings eat their ice cream. Ice cream is a pretty common date for mskate and I, so this was nothing new for us. After ice cream I went to the liquor store that was close by and bought sunflower seeds, because those are fun to eat outside where you can spit them anywhere.

Evening activities were calm, just a camp fire. What happened next was really cool. Since I took an astronomy class in highschool I was looking forward to seeing the clear, country sky and all the stars. As I invited mskate and some of the friends to the beach, someone asked us if we were going to see the comet. I wasn't, but now I was. I looked through the sky and I eventually found it. I pointed it out to everyone and they were really impressed. It was a little hard to see, but if you were looking at it in your peripheral, it was pretty clear. According to some news articles, this was the Neowise comet. Some friends were confusing comets for shooting stars, but then I explained what a comet is and why they're so rare. It was quite the experience, especially for someone with a mild interest in astronomy. After that we went to the hotel for the night.

Saturday was fun. We had breakfast in the motel room and it was simple cereal and muffins. After dinner we stopped at the camp ground, but then mskate and I had a zoom call for couples with a diabetic partner. This was our first real "engagement seminar" since covid killed all our plans. It was really fun being among other engaged and married couples in this kind of capacity, and I learned some things. After the call we went back to camp for lunch. Again, simple hamburgers, hotdogs, and brats; and bacon ends and pieces. I have a meat market by me where they fresh cut the bacon, and they sell the scraps. It made for good lunch. After lunch was more swimming. What was really fun was some more friends came up for the day, the ones with Louie the Chihuahua. We tried to take him swimming, but he wasn't really into it. He did enjoy the raft we put him on though, and he looked very regal in his pose. We also jokingly did some water zumba since some people were playing music on their boat. It was fun. After swimming mskate and I were going to go for a walk to the boat basin and watch the boats launch, and maybe find a swing to have a nice nature date. However, I had both room keys and dad needed to go back to the room. He called me a little into the walk and this is when mskate found out about the new phone. "Happy birthday, I got a phone for you." After walking back and giving dad the key, she set me up on her dexcom. We decided to drive to the boat basin instead. The boat basin was fun, but a little crowded. We weren't able to get on a swing, but had fun sitting on the side watching people bring their boats in. We also went to the camp store, just to look around since it was close. Eventually it was time to head back for dinner.

For dinner we got pizza from a local pizza place, and mskate and I split a pepperoni, pine apple, and banana pepper pizza. Everyone enjoyed the cookies we got. After dinner we went for ice cream again. This time my little god-brother was really thirsty. Since his dad did these kind of things for me at his age, I gave him a drink from my water bottle. His mom didn't know me then, getting married when I was a teenager, so I said "after all the times your husband did these kind of things for me, I can repay the favor." It's fun having that whole "full circle" thing. After ice cream we went to the boat basin and were able to swing. Mskate was really tired when we were swinging, so I took her back to the motel afterwards and came back by myself. More camp fire fun. I stayed maybe another hour, then I went back to the motel for the night.

Time for Sunday. We had simple breakfast in the motel room and got in our church clothes. We went to church together like we do every year, but because of social distance requirements we weren't able to take over the back chair section like we've been doing for 30 something years, so we just spread out. It was a good sermon. After church we went back to the motel to change into camp clothes, pack-up, and check out. There was a communal breakfast were we share what we have left, so some of the bacon ends and pieces went, as did the ice tea I brewed the previous day. I intended to make my iced-tea and lemon drop moonshine cocktails, but I forgot so we just had iced tea. I also brought some of my home made bread, and everyone really liked that. After breakfast we went home. Mskate and I drove home separately, and I dropped her off at her parents house with all her stuff. Well, except for her camp chair; that got left in my car. Oh well, I'll return it later. All in all a great time. This has been Pokematic, signing off, and bu-bye.

2019, a Year in Review

Hey everyone. To end off the year (or start the next due to the time of writing), I figured I'd do a little "year in review" kind of thing.

Since this is my "adventure blog" though, I should probably give a little "adventure" I had on New Years Eve. A family from the camping friends group hosted a New Years Eve party, like they do every so often. Normally someone in our camping group will host a new years party. I went over to my parents and we went to their house. I brought a bottle of wine, 2 liter of Sprite, and my home made pickled carrots. They went over pretty well. I ended up playing Monopoly with some of the "people of my generation" (I can't call us "kids" since we're all in our early 20s and such) for like an hour and a half, and even though I joined later taking over for someone who wasn't doing well, I managed to drag out the game for a while. After Monopoly everyone played catchphrase for an hour or so. Then it was time to watch the ball drop, and we all had glasses of Champaign (or for the non-alcohol drinkers, sparkling apple juice). It was a really fun time.

Now for the year in review. Lets start this off with the first and most major event, I got a girlfriend. If you've been following my blog, my longtime friend mskate and I decided to give dating a try, and it's been a wonderful experience. We've done so much together, like SpongeBob the musical and Dayton historical park, multiple weddings (like this one), many movies I probably wouldn't see otherwise (like the art of racing in the rain, and Lion King 2019), and a lot of other fun. I'm looking forward to a fun 2020 with her.

Another really cool thing is I got to see multiple minor celebrities live in person. First there was Tommy Wiseau at a midnight screening of the room. He was a really interesting dude. I also got to see Mike and Micky from the Monkeys and I was so close I could see their wrinkles. I also Jay and Silent Bob IRL, but I was in the nosebleed seats. There was also Toby Mac in concert, whom I saw with mskate.
While meeting Tom Green was at the end of 2018, I still want to include it, because I also got my friends together to watch his run on big brother.

Lets see, this was also a year I did multiple collaborations. I want to start off with the one that probably had the most reach, and that was the Animation Lookback Cartoon Network Part 7 April Fools Day with AniMat. That was a really fun collaboration that was my idea. I was a patron of his for years and I said "hey, you didn't cover ALL Cartoon Network has to offer in your 6 parts, can I make a request for you to review Animation Lookback Cartoon Network Part 7," and he said "that's a good idea for an April Fools video." There was also the String Cheese Commercial I did with one of my friends on hugelol. This was a commission from one of the other guys on hugelol, and for correctly figuring out what a nonsense video of me in an oddish cosplay (which was from my review of Detective Pikachu), BackseatDriver made a guest contributor. There was also my podcast with bio. But the big thing was my 2nd major multi-user collaborative project, Vidmewashere 2 Electric Boogaloo. Here's a little behind the scenes; this only happened because some guy with a sega said "here's my story if you make a sequel" and stoonios getting real life in the way of videos the first time, and realizing that there were SOOOO many different avenues I didn't use when trying to find people with the original vidmewashere (like lost media wiki discord, youtube, and vidlii). However after finding all the people I could (this time drama crew), and general disinterest from many people, I think I've exhausted everyone that is willing to discuss vidme. If anyone else wants to take up the vidmewashere mantel, you can and I would be happy to contribute. I wonder what kind of collaborations I will have in 2020.

One thing that was very surreal for me is 2019 was my 10 year anniversary of my online presence (as catholiccontriversy). It's kind of weird looking back at that, just thinking "I've done this for 40% of my life."

One of the funny things that just kind of happened was one of my first Pokematic videos was SpongeBob Truth or Square for SpongeBob's 10th anniversary, and this year was SpongeBob's 20th anniversary with Big Birthday Blowout. I reviewed both, and remastered my Truth or Square review. It was kind of weird remastering the Truth or Square video and seeing just how much I refined my character, with the comparably slow delivery and weak expressions. Looking back at the last 10 years, sorry Happy Gamer, I had plans for you, but since your videos are so hard to make, you get maybe 1 a year. But speaking of "improve as an artist," 2019 was also the year I decided "I'm going to rereview Catcher in the Rye and give it the thorough destruction since I didn't have the chops to do that when I started." I unfortunately didn't finish it because it was so rage inducing and was taking a serious toll on my sanity, plus I wanted to focus on vidme 2. I'm like 75% of the way through the book though, so I'll be able to finish it in 2020. Plus, I found I'm serving an underserved market with my "Holden Should Have Killed Himself" video being a top result for "catcher in the rye sucks," and "Catcher in the Rye is Meaningless Dada" being the ONLY result for "catcher in the rye dada."

I'm going to finish this. I owe it to myself and the world. The musings and thoughts I get when I think about analyzing catcher and why it's so bad are great, and I just need to refine them to cohesive arguments and counter points to "this is one of the greatest books ever." I have a pocket notebook that is about half full of notes and an entirely separate folder on my audio recorder for dictation.

I think that just about covers the major things that happened in my life. What, were you expecting a reflection on current events and news? No, there are so many other people doing that, I just want to reflect on my own life. This has been Pokematic, signing off, and bu-bye.