How I Spent my Spring Vacation

 Hey everyone, so at work we had some major slow time and I had 3 weeks of vacation time, so I decided to take a week off from May 3rd to May 7th. I didn't have much planned, but I had some chores and fun activities to do, so here's what I ended up doing.

Monday was the "chore day." First thing was we went to our storage locker to get some shoes and bags for our upcoming trip to Arizona. The bins were a little berried behind my yellow store shelf, so that was a bit of an ordeal. We got her bag our, but unfortunately all the sandals she wanted were not in that bin. Oh well. Before we went mskate said she wanted a diet coke slurpee, and it had to be diet. I know I've seen them before, but 7-eleven rotates their flavors and they didn't have them at the 7-eleven that was on the way home from the storage locker. After the locker we went out to lunch to a local restaurant. Back when we were dating we used to go to all sorts of restaurants, but since covid we haven't done that. Well with things opening up we went out to a local restaurant. We wanted lunch but the place only had brunch available when we got there, so I had a brunch burger croissant sandwich and mskate had a salmon croissant sandwich with the croissant on the side (she can't have gluten, so if a gluten free bread isn't available I eat it off the side). We ate in an outdoor room thing, and I asked to turn the heaters on (and they let me). It was pretty good, I would go there again. After that we went up to our parents area so I could get my allergy shot and pick-up and drop off some stuff at the parents. I got my shot and then we went to a 7-eleven by the allergist. Unfortunately they didn't have diet coke either, so we went to my parents house. On the way to my parents, we went to the 7-eleven by their house and unfortunately no diet coke. We went to my parents house and picked up some muffins and said hi to my dad (mom was out, probably at grandma's). After my parents we went to a 7-eleven by her parents house, and again, no diet coke. She dropped off some snacks and other things for her parents to take on their road trip to Arizona (because it's a memorial trip for mskate's grandma, and we're flying). The rest of the day was kind of relaxed, but I did dishes and some other small chores. Oh, and because it was Star Wars Day May 4th, I made this little thing I posted to hugelol.

Tuesday was our fun day. Generally speaking things were pretty calm in the morning. After some breakfast we went to mini golf. There is a mini golf course some cities over and we wanted to try it out. It was a pretty fun course with a sea monster and ship theme. Here are some pictures I took.

Nothing super exciting, except I got some hole in 1s. I also found some golf balls that people hit into the water. Since it was still pretty early in the season only the little lake with the sea monster had water in it, and it was pretty shallow. I saw a blue ball in it and I fished it out. Mskate wasn't exactly thrilled, but I made the case that the place will appreciate it since I'm doing their work for them, and she said "OK, you can try twice." I only needed 1 try. Then in another where the water was completely drained I saw a pink and purple ball, so I jumped into the river bed and grabbed them. Below is my bounty.

At the final hole I did my yellow ball as a serious one for points, and I think it took me 3 strokes. Then while mskate was totaling the points I did this.

I won by 4 strokes. After minigolf we went to a 7-eleven, and alas, no diet coke. We did go to A&W where I had chili cheese fries and mskate got a diet root beer. We went home after that and just relaxed until it was time for the movie. We went to see Raya and the Last Dragon, and it was good. Want my review, here you go.

OK, that was Tuesday. Wednesday was a medical day. Mskate went to the dentist and I went to get my 2nd covid vaccine dose. I was actually supposed to get my dose on Friday, but the place had to cancel and reschedule. Lucky for me and them I took off all week so I could easily reschedule. I was a little late to the appointment, but because it wasn't very busy it wasn't a problem. I exercised my arm so it would hopefully not be very sore the next day, and one of the other people waiting in observation asked if that would help. I said "I don't know, but I always heard to exercise after an injection." I got home and ate some lunch. Mskate went to her dentist and I recorded this catholiccontriversy video (because I like to record in an empty house).

I also reorganized the shipping boxes and material in the storage room. I had to do this while mskate was out because if I didn't she would be saying "throw this out, throw this out." But now instead of basically filling half the room it doesn't take up much of anything. I also relisted some items on ebay and reorganized the games I have listed so I don't have to go far. I drank a lot of water and took some advil, and was good.

Thursday was the moment of truth, would I be knocked out by the vaccine side effects or be good. My dad and brother and mskate had reactions, but my mom and grandma didn't. I was lucky and all I can really say is I have a sore arm. Because of this mskate and I decided to take an impromptu get away to Columbus to go to the American Girl store for the 35th birthday promotion. We were only going to do this if I was feeling OK, and I was. I checked the FCC low power analog map to see if there were any low power TV stations, and since there supposedly are, I packed up the analog TV from the 80s. I'll let the vlog speak for itself, but I'll go through the details because I didn't capture everything.

[vlog coming soon]

First we went to the American Girl Doll store. We were going to check in first, but the hotel was 20 minutes away and the store would close in an hour by the time we got to the store. We parked and walked over to the store. This was the 2nd time I went there, and while I'm not into dolls I do appreciate the creativity of all the characters and accessories. Oh, and I REALLY like Courtney, the 80s doll, because I love 80s stuff. Back in highschool one of my classmates said "you were born 20 years too late, weren't you?" She has a working pacman arcade cabinet. Unfortunately they didn't have any of the floor models powered up, and the pinball machine for the 60s girl had the ball taken out of it, but it was still fun seeing these accessories. Oh, and now there's an xbox gaming set, and we're going to get that at some point because we both will appreciate that (I like the gamer aspect of it, and mskate likes the cute doll accessory aspect). We also got some mystery bags, and felt them to figure out what they are. (We also went to the candy store, I got sour ribbons, chocolate rocks, and candy bricks).

After shopping we went to the hotel. I drove there and checked us in, and just barely made it for dinner and drinks. Drury Inn is awesome, they have continental breakfast, continental dinner, and each adult guest gets 3 alcoholic drinks. I had a tequila sunrise, gin and tonic, and glass of white zinfandel. Tequila sunrise is a house cocktail, and and I always like to try house cocktails, and since it was free I decided to try a gin and tonic. We unpacked the car and got in the room. There was a problem with the original, 1-room room, so they upgraded us to a 2-room suit. I set-up the analog TV and tried tuning into the low power tv stations, but didn't get anything. I also tried installing crypto mining software on my travel laptop (because mining at a hotel is free to me electricity), but I couldn't figure out how to get the mining software working, so that was also a bust. It was a pretty quiet night after that.

The next day was an impromptu event. I realized we were outside Columbus, and low power stations are "low power, and therefore don't have far range," so if I was to get anything we would have to go back into Columbus, so mskate got to have another trip to the American Girl Doll store while I played around with the TV at the top of the parking structure (because the best place to get a signal would be high up). I had some trouble with the power inverter in the car, so I decided to try mooching electricity from the outdoor mall. I tried plugging into the outlets in the stairwell, and then tried plugging into an outlet on the side of a store, but those outlets were all turned off. I'm carrying this 30 pound TV up and down the stairs, plugging into all outlets I can find and not getting anything. Serves me right for trying to mooch I guess. I went back to the car and read the manual. Turns out the engine had to be on, go figure. I tried the channels but nothing. This is when I had the great idea to go to the GPS coordinates of the towers, so I plugged them in and we went to one of the tower locations. It was of course way out of the way, but it's my vacation I'll do what I want. It just so happened that the tower was right next to a cemetery, so we went into the cemetery and got right up to the tower. It didn't work. Apparently it was the Columbus NBC affiliate, and they were all converted to digital. Mskate wasn't going to put up with going to the other tower, so we just went home. I did a little research and while the tower was just 1 mile away, if it was broadcasting analog I would have been able to pick it up from where we were. It was still cool seeing a broadcast tower up close and personal though, and I think there was something the TV was picking up because there was a pattern to the static. We got Sonic for lunch because it was right there, and then drove home. I did a little bit of grocery shopping that night but it was pretty low key after we got home and unpacked.

Saturday was pretty low key. We listed some items on ebay, specifically an American Girl Doll mskate got but ended up not being one she wanted; she thought she got a historical doll but it was a truly me doll. I had a major craving for take-out pizza from this place that's on the other side of town, so I put in the order and got it. As I drove there I realized that garage sale season has started, so after lunch mskate and I went out garage sailing. She was looking primarily for American Girl Doll stuff, and I was looking for my nerd stuff or things I could sell easily. Unfortunately neither of us found stuff we were interested in, but mskate found someone selling new clothes her mom really likes for a great price so we picked up Christmas presents. I did come across a guy selling license plates, and while they do sell, I've found they're generally more trouble than their worth since ebay has a habit of taking them down and they don't sell for a lot. Oh well, it was mainly for an outing. While out garage sailing we went to a 7-eleven and while mskate didn't get a diet coke slurpee, she was able to get a sugar free vitamin water slurpee, so that a success. After garage sailing we went to the grocery and picked up some maraschino cherries and a grandma card for mothers day, and some snacks for our upcoming trip. I ended up getting "hard cherries," so my grandma will have to pace herself when she eats them. After dinner we watched Hunchback of Notre Dame on Disney Plus, so that was fun.

Sunday was Mother's Day. We went to church like we normally do, and then we got ready to go to my parents house. We got all gifts ready, mskate wrapped the presents and after a little waiting we went to my parents house. We arrived a little early and that gave us some time to just visit with my parents. Then everyone showed up. Here's everyone that came; my grandma, pepperbc and her family, and my grandma's friends J&P. We primarily talked about things, like their upcoming trip to Evansville. While talking about things, I brought up how I'm looking for low power analog TV channels, and how PepperBC has some up by her house on the other side of the state, and that they will pass by one on their trip. My mom and aunt may humor me on their trip and try to get a channel, but time will tell. Dinner was pretty good, my dad made roast beef and J brought rolls and pies. It was REALLY good. After dinner we did our sing along with J playing the accordion. We ended up doing a video call with the Evansville relatives so they could enjoy the sing along too. After that we gave the gifts. Everyone enjoyed what they got, and we made a big point to say "the cherries are alcoholic, don't eat too many at once."

All in all, it was a great week. I'm really glad I took it off and was able to be so filled. Yeah, it would have been good to be a little more "productive," but that's OK, vacation is meant to be fun. Well, this has been Pokematic, signing off, and bu-bye.

Grandma's 85th birthday and 60th anniversary part with the family

Hey everyone, oh man do I have a story for you guys. So my grandparents have been married for 60 years and my grandma has been alive for 85 years, and because those are some serious milestones my mom threw a MAJOR party for them, inviting all the extended family for a weekend long celebration that for me basically lasted all week, and for my mom, a year of preparation. I'll start out with the little bit of prep that I had. For me I made a video slideshow of my grandparents throughout the years from marriage until about now. These were the songs we used, in the order of use.

Mom scanned a bunch of their old pictures and that was a bit of a challenge, because pretty much all the pictures they marked as wanting them were from the last 20 years (grandkids). There were some wedding album pictures, and some with my mom and her siblings as kids, but most were grandkids. I'm like "uhhh mom, one of the songs is 'when your old wedding ring was new,' it doesn't match well if all I have is when the old wedding ring is old." She then found more pictures from the wedding and when they were newly weds, with bringing their kids home from the hospital and babies. I also found all the vacation slides of theirs I digitized for a Christmas present 12 or so years ago, from all the vacations they took with their kids (my mom and aunt and uncle) as kids. It worked out great.

Now for the start of everything. My girlfriend mskate came in for the party and she arrived Wednesday to stay in town with her parents (about an hour away from where I live). I also had a doctors appointment out that way, so we were going to have a little date night after the appointment. Well, I got caught in really bad traffic, and had to reschedule. I happened to be stuck about where we were going to meet up afterwards, so that just meant that we were able to spend a little more time together. We went out to dinner, and then walked around our little down town area for some fun. We went to the salvation army, and a jewelry store that was downsizing and had stuff that was 80% off, and a gamestop. We went to the jewelry store just for fun, and maybe I would find something deeply discounted that I could either flip in some years or make for a really nice gift, but it was all still out of our price ranges. The gamestop was mainly for me because she knows I like videogames, but she doesn't really care for them. We did find something we would both enjoy, a Wreck it Ralph 2 mystery figure. We decided to get one and depending on which character it was would determine who got it. She wanted a Vanellope, and I would have been happy with Ralph, Felix, or anyone else. It ended up being YES! and she decided she liked it for the in-joke and would rename her "yep." (I say "yep" when I want to acknowledge that I heard you but don't have anything to add to the current topic). As we were walking around, some kids decided to play the penis game as they drove by while we waited to cross the street. For those of you who don't know, the penis game is when you yell "PENIS" in a public area and/or at a complete stranger, commonly played by middle schoolers and immature high schoolers. We were just standing there minding our own business when this car drives by and this kid sticks his head out the window and yells "penis" at us. My girlfriend didn't know what the penis game was, and so I had to explain it to her, and how I didn't know those kids, and how it's kind of like a dare, and how he's probably not going to get in trouble with his mom because the driver was probably his friend, and how it was a game that some kids used to play back when we were in middle school and it's still around 13 years later. After our little date we went to my parents house so mom could fill us in on what we needed to do for the party. I'll save those details for when they come.

Now for Thursday night. All my family came in that Thursday, and so my grandparents hosted a dinner at their house. It was basically just at their house, because my aunt made the food and my mom organized the rest. With all the traffic and construction, it took me 2 hours to get to their house (it normally would take about an hour). When I got there PepperBC was already there, which was really fun catching up with her. My brother Vikingpolak was also there, but I see him far more often then all my cousins. My aunts and uncles were there, but I enjoy generation 3 (my generation). Not much longer before turtlegirl and her friend show up, which was more fun. An hour or so later MMT and R showed up, and we had fun catching up and making fun of each other. I might as well say this now so some of the events make sense; with this side of the family we make fun of each other to show we love each other. Light teasing and comebacks that are all based on personality traits and past stories is how we let each other know we remember things about each other and that we are close enough to have a little fun at each other's expense. It's not just limited to gen 3; gen 2 (my parent's generation) does that amongst themselves, and all the generations will engage in some light teasing across the generational gaps (gen 3 will poke fun at gen 2 and vice versa sort of thing). It's all healthy, we know when it's appropriate and when it's not, and is just something my family does.

Anyways, not long after MMT and R showed up we had dinner. Because it's my grandparents party, generation 1 ate first. After gen 1 got their food, gen 3 got their food. Someone in gen 2 asked "why is generation 3 eating after generation 1?" and I said "because gen 1 likes the grandkids more than the kids." That got a "savage" from my brother and my mom overheard the reaction but not what I said. Then in her own little teasing but could be scolding manner she asked if I was using "kind words." I repeated what I said and she thought it was funny and true. After dinner gen 3 decided to walk down to the liquor store and get some drinks. I remember back when it was a video rental store, back when I was like 4. We visited some more, and then I went home at like 8 PM, because I live an hour away from their house.

Now for Friday. This was our "fun day" where the different generations do what they want. Gen 1 and 2 went to visit with Aunt K, and gen 3 hung out around my parents area (except for turtlegirl and her friend, they went to a museum I think). Mskate joined us and got to get a little acclimated to my crazy family. Trying to find something to do was REALLY challenging. Here's how it went down, mskate, brother, and pepperBC said "I'll go with whatever everyone else wants to do," I'm suggesting all sorts of things (laser tag, zoo, barcade down town, my condo, bowling, minigolf, museums, other sight seeing, thrifting, etc.), and then R was being poopy all "I don't want to do that, I just want to check in at my hotel and get a good shower, and play fortnight while I wait" (he and MMT were staying in a hotel Friday and Saturday, but stayed with my parents Thursday night, and check-in wasn't until 3PM), and MMT was like "I'll do whatever R says, though I do want to do something." Looking back at past times, I guess it's normally Turtlegirl and I that break the tie of everyone else not having strong opinions on what we do. Eventually we decided to go bowling. I think I managed to convince my brother to vote hard yes on "lets go bowling" to break the tie, or maybe I convinced R to stop saying hard no, but regardless I got a single vote to break the deadlock. Mskate and I were both wearing sockless footwear, so we had to borrow socks from my family members; her from my mom and myself from brother.

This is where things get a little silly. Soooo, there are like 4 different bowling alleys in a 5 mile radius of my parents house, buuuuuutttt, only 1 was open. We first tried the one that is just down main street, but they apparently open at 6PM on Fridays. Bro, MMT, R, and pepperBC were driving together and Mskate and I were driving separately. We pull into the parking lot, I get out and start talking to them while they're in the car. Next we wanted to go to an alley that's close to their grocery store, but they've been out of business for over a decade (you wouldn't know it though, the place still has the sign and no notice of "for lease"). So then we called the combination bowling alley-movie theater 1 town over, and they thankfully were open. I haven't been there in a while, so I didn't know that they renovated and removed the lanes on the 1st floor, and neither did bro. So we get there, walk over to where the bowling alley was, and are all "where's the bowling, we want to bowl?" We were ready to give up, but then an employee overheard us and told us they're upstairs and we needed to pay at customer service. It was a great deal, $6 for an hour each. Mskate, pepperBC, and I played on 1 lane, and MMT, R, and Bro played on another. Apparently R was on his high school bowling team, and he wanted to show his skill to everyone. Well, this was the 2nd time I've been bowling in like 10 years, and I was never really good, but I found I'm pretty good when I go marathon. R was getting really competitive, and I'm like "oh whatever, I'm just here for fun." Well...I ended up winning. I scored something like 400 points over 3 games, and R only got like 380 or something. After our hour, he was lying down on the chairs saying "I can't believe I lost to [pokematic]."

After bowling we went to the Mexican restaurant that's close to the theater-alley. This was another one of those "indecisive things." I wanted to go to the noodles restaurant that was down the road, bro wanted to go to the Mexican restaurant, R was saying "I don't want to go there," and everyone else was "I don't care." Because I didn't want another hour of deadlock, I changed my vote to the Mexican place just to make it 2 against 1 against 3 no opinion, because my hunger was greater than "I don't really care for Mexican food." I had a burrito, without much of the fixings that they include; "you can have 2 different proteins" just beef, "what 2 sauces do you want?" none, "what kind of beans do you want?" none, "you get up to 3 different vegie things" just lettuce, "you sure, I mean it's all included in the price?" yes. I basically had a $5 burrito for the price of $8, but that was worth the price of not having deadlock. We all got a table and visited while eating. After lunch MMT and R left us to go check into their hotel, so then bro, pepperBC, Mskate, and I hung out at my parents house for a while. We watched the 1980 Popeye movie on plutotv. Well, I watched Popeye, PepperBC and Mskate and bro took naps, though PepperBC and Mskate at least started watching the movie with me and then fell asleep where they were sitting. After the movie we walked down to the ice cream parlor, and then we walked down to the card and game shop my brother frequents. Bro was really in his element, and since pepperBC and I are both geeks we didn't feel too out of place (even though table top isn't our thing), but mskate felt very out of place since she isn't really into any of this stuff (though I'm slowly introducing her to things, and she enjoys some of it). We were there for a little bit, but thankfully bro realized we weren't that into it and so we left. After that we went to the minigolf place by my parents. MMT and R caught up with us, and I think turtlegirl and her friend joined us. I don't quite remember, but it was a fun time. Nothing really exciting happened, except that I did pretty well and I think beat R again, and he's really into minigolf. I guess because I spent so much time at that course I know the holes really well, even though I can't remember the last time I played that course. After the mini-golf I took mskate home and went home myself.

OK, now for the main event. And ho boy, this was something else. I picked up mskate and we headed over to the hall. We got there an hour early, so we drove around a little to find something to do, and we decided to go to Meijer. I found a smash bros Daisy amiibo, which was great. We went back to the hall, and mom exclaimed "please tell me you brought a change of clothes!" I was wearing my cargo shorts and a polo shirt, because it was a hot summer's day and the weekend (I have to wear long pants for work), so I figured I'd wear my cargo shorts. Apparently that went against mom's dress code of looking nice (even though all the pictures would be from the waist up). So mskate and I went back to Meijer and I bought a pair of kaki long pants. A lot of other men at the party wore shorts, and I was a little pouty about it, but not to the point that I was causing problems (because I'm better than that).

OK, so now for the 2nd crazy situation. Remember how I said I made a video presentation to project against the wall? So there was some miscommunication with that. I was under the impression that the hall had a projector we could borrow. I asked mom if they had a projector, and I guess she asked "would we be able to project a video," and the hall took that to mean "is there an open space to project an image on." I go to the office and ask for a projector, and they said they will give us a projection cart. 10 or so minutes later and I'm like "uhhhh, where's the projector? You were giving me the projection cart." Then they were like "yes, here is your cart, you can put a projector on it and project on the wall." And I'm like "no, I need a projector." "Oh we don't have that." I go over to mom and, let me just write out the script.
Pokematic: Mom, they don't have a projector. You said they had a projector.
Mom: What? Wait, you said you were bringing a projector.
Pokematic: No, I didn't; I said I'm bringing both of my computers so I'm covered no matter what inputs the projector has. I don't have a projector.
I know my mom thinks of me as a tech guy, and for the most part I am, but I wouldn't have asked "do they have a projector" if I had a projector. So now we have basically all my aunts trying to figure out where we can get a projector. Thankfully someone remembered mom works for a library and maybe we could borrow one of theirs. She called up her people at the library and she had z-man pick it up on his way over. Crisis averted.

So now the party is going. All the guests are showing up, and it was fun. MMT enjoyed hanging out with AG again. So fun story time. When I was a senior in high school and she was a sophomore, she came up for some event, and she said "hey [pokematic], invite all your friends over and we'll have a party," with the plan being "I'm going to meet some cute senior boys." Well, when zeldamaster93 and mbinski showed up, she quickly realized "oh yeah, Pokematic's a geek, of course his friends are also going to be geeks," and she was definitely one of the more popular girls at her school. Well, AG showed up and since he's a hockey player he was able to fill the "cute boy" desire, even if it was just for 10 minutes. So it was a fun little reunion for them, though he kind of stopped being a "cute older boy" in the 8 or so years since then. There were also a lot of picture taking, and my grandparents were so happy to finally be able to spend some time with mskate. The lunch was good, and I piled on the food. I played the video and everyone loved it; they told me how much they loved it and that I did a really good job on it. Some people shared some stories, and my grandpa said some that were a little inappropriate (because he doesn't understand the concept of "appropriate for mixed company" anymore).

OK, now for my little "I told you so" story. Because it has been a while since my grandpa last wore his suit and gained a lot of weight since then, his pants and belt didn't fit well anymore, and he really needed suspenders. Meijer didn't have suspenders in his size. AG had a pair of drinking suspenders in his truck (it holds shots), but those were too small on him. Mom is freaking out "how can we make it so his pants don't fall down at church?" Let me once again write out the exchange.
Pokematic: I have the necessary stuff to make a makeshift pair of suspenders.
Mom: Really, you have suspenders that will fit grandpa?
Pokematic: I have 2 straps that are 3 feet in length, and about 15 feet of elastic cord, I can make a pair of suspenders out of that.
Mom: Really? Where do you have that?
Pokematic: In my shorts. ARE YOU GLAD I BROUGHT MY SHORTS!? Be prepared. That's why I wear cargo shorts with all sorts of random things in it.
Mom: OK MacGyver, you and bro take grandpa to the bathroom and make him some suspenders.
After that, I rubbed it in a little. "See mom, it's a good thing I brought my shorts. We would be in trouble if I didn't wear shorts." Nothing too serious, but enough to let her know "I was right." I was, at church when they were renewing their vows his pants didn't fall down.

After church we had the after party at my parents house. It was pretty simple, but still kind of crazy. We had birthday decorations, a birthday tiara, and birthday brownies. Since my mom is into brownies, she frosted some brownies and stuck candles in it. We all just continued to visit, and enjoy just the family, and remembered the old days. There was some "musical chairs" because everyone kept taking "the good seats," and I remember one time there was just enough room on the couch for me to sit down, and so I did. It was a pretty chill night. After some time I took mskate home and went back to my place.

Now for Sunday. Sunday was basically "whoever's left, hang out at my grandparent's house." Well, first I stopped at my parents house. It was like the aftermath of a college party, with so many people sleeping in chairs, on couches, and the air mattress in the middle of the living room. In "my family likes to tease each other" fashion, my mom and aunt planned to make today the "surprise birthday party for my uncle even though it's in 5 months." The plan was to reuse the birthday girl banner and balloons from Saturday night, and put the birthday tiara on him. As they were plotting, saying things like "oh man, he's either going to laugh at this or hate it, either way it's going to be great," I told them "yeahhhh, I warned [mskate] that we like to tease each other kind of hard, and we do it to show we love each other," and they were like "yeah, it can come off as kind of harsh, but we all know it's in good fun." We packed up everything and went over to my grandparents house.

Everyone had what I call a sleep hangover (didn't sleep much the night before after tiring themselves out), all except me. I went to bed at around 11 or so, whereas everyone else was out until like 2. They went to some bars and did karaoke or something. Oh well. I wanted to do some things, but they didn't feel like it, so we basically just lounged around all day. My uncle thought the princess birthday was funny, so that was good. One thing I did manage to do was pick up the CRTs from pepperBC's parents. I took my uncle back up to his place and drove back with 2 CRTs for my future video wall (that way my aunt and pepperBC still had the car and could drive back). My great uncle didn't realize what I was doing with them and thought I was going to scrap them.
Great Uncle: I find people throwing them out all the time, I'll save them for you.
Pokematic: no, please don't, when people throw them out that normally means they don't work.
Great Uncle: well of course they don't work. Why do you want them working? Ain't you just going to take them apart and scrap them?
Pokematic: No, I'm going to use them to make a video wall.
Everyone was asking where mskate was, but she had to drive back home. I was telling everyone "she had enough of our family for a while," and they understood perfectly well.

So that was basically the weekend. It was great being able to see everyone again, and even if things didn't go completely according to plan, it all worked out. I also enjoyed introducing mskate to everyone. Well, this has been Pokematic, signing off, and bu-bye.

Evensvill trip 2012

Here's the compilation of all my daily blogs from the trip. If you read your 3 minutes, you will have already read them. Even if you did, read the forward for some background and some things I forgot.

Forward.
Here's some back ground. I have one female cousin who lives in Michigan, same state as me, who came with us down to Indiana. I have 2 female and 1 male cousin, 2 aunts, 1 great aunt, one uncle, and one great uncle. I had fun with my great uncle but I can't remember the day and I forgot to log it. He has an amazing garage and lives where my grandma and her brother and sister grew up. The old home stead. There was also a time when there was a thing about most people outgrow there awkward phase by the time they're in their late teens. I said I out grew that a while ago, but my aunt that I stayed with said that I'm still rather awkward. Yes but I'm not awkward about being awkward. Now for the fun time.

7/11/12 Trip day 1

Woo hoo, first day of family trip to Indiana. This time my grandparents didn't come so we were able to do the trip in 1 day, 10 hours. We watched bang theory season 1, and king of kong, fist full of quarters. There is this awesome video game store that was on the way, but moved so now it isn't. Still had to stop though. It's called Play N Trade, and they have everything, from NES to 360. It's amazing. Well when we got there, it was closed. When I checked the web site, there wasn't anything about it being closed today. There was a sign that said "closed July 11th, reopen the 12th." It's Wally World from National Lampoon's Vacation.

Once we got there, we visited and had fun. We went out to a local restaurant where I had a brain sandwich. Yes you heard me right, and no I'm not going zombie. It's deep fried pig brains, with pickles, on a bun. I can't imagine it'd be the healthiest thing, but it's my treat when I come down. Here is a picture

Here's something that was interesting that happened soon after we got back from the restaurant. There was a fight that broke out in front of my cousin's house. I didn't see it, just heard it. I then saw the aftermath with the cops. There were 5-6 cop cars at one time. And then there came an ambulance. It was crazy. Don't get action like this at home. It's scary but in a weird way cool. Until tomorrow.

7/12/12 Day 2

Today was fun. We went to Holiday World in Santa Clause Indiana. We've been going there, well the family has, since it was just Santa Clause world. We have video footage of the family on the couple of rides that were there when they were kids. Well a lot has changed since then. Here's what we did.

We went on the Legend, a fun wooden roller coaster. We went on the log flume after that. I rode with my girl cousins, and they didn't want to get wet. Well the right way to not get wet is to put the heaviest person in the back so the water flows under the boat, but they put me, the heaviest person, up front. Well since they wanted to use me as a shield, I decided to get them really wet, while still keeping my pants dry. I leaned as far forward as I could. I got them wet. We went on the Raven, world's number 1 wooden roller coaster. It was fun. Went around to different rides in fourth of July and Halloween. After lunch, we went to the water park that's there as well, and it's included. I enjoyed the park. There were some slides. One that is like a toilet bowl where you spin around in a funnel thing. It's fun.

After the water park we went to Thanks Giving. We were going to do the Voyage, voted America's best roller coaster. Unfortunately there were problems that caused us to not go on it. I went on the turkey gobbler, which is basically a moving shooting gallery. It's fun. There is this glass blowing shop in the park and it's fun to see what they had. My brother bought a glass sword a couple years back. They had drinky birds. Here's a picture.

After we got home I had a standing contest with my cousin who's a dancer. Black belt vs dancer, who can stand on 1 foot longest? We went on for about 10 minutes. My foot was killing me, but I worked through the pain. She on the other hand, her calf and hamstring were starting to hurt. Her mom interfered and just stopped her, since she knew I would win. I did win. Now we're watching lilo and stitch. Until tomorrow, later.

7/13/12 Day 3

Boy today was fun. First we went to Adventureland where we went go carting and mini-golf. When go carting I won both times. I lapped my brother and cousins both times. Then at mini-golf my one cousin won at 48, my brother right behind her with 48 1/3, and then my other cousin and I tied for last at 51. I watched most of Monty Python's and now for something completely different with my other cousin who likes the Pythons as well. After that we watched their turtles eat crickets. It was funny because the turtle was chasing them.

After that we went to a Chinese buffet. I had lots of Steak. They had good teriaki steak. I made myself a rice ball, or what is close to one that I make one. Just steamed rice and salt in a bowl because I don't feel like making a ball in front of my family. Afterwards I had an ice cream with a cone I dipped in their chocolate fountain. Great idea on my part. After the buffet I went to my aunt's who's cleaning out magazines. I looked through them to see if there was anything of value. I found that the children's digests had adventures of tin tin serialized so there is probably some money in them. After that we were going to watch National Lampoon's Vacation, but the DVD wouldn't work. My one cousin was all "I ain't watching no stupid vacation movie. Marty Moose, I hate that Disney Channel crap. Derp Derp Derp." I told him "this movie is rated R for swearing and sexual content." That shut him up quick. When the movie wouldn't work we watched this Betty White DVD of her series "Life with Elizabeth." She is funny. Untill tomarrow.

7/14/12 Day 4

Today we didn't do much. I hung out with my cousins most of the day. I looked up the prices and what not for my aunt's magazines. If we wanted to, I was going to rent National Lampoon's Vacation through Amazon instant video for $3, but there wasn't enough interest. I was the only one who wanted to watch it with everyone, but no one else wanted to, so I just saved $3. Oh well.

It wasn't until we had our picnic at my aunts did things become interesting. We had everyone over at her house where for starters the grill didn't want to light. So instead of grilling we George Forman Grilled. They were fine. I went to church with my other aunt and great aunt. They have a really nice church. The big highlight for me for the night was when my uncle thought one of my cousin's friends was my brother. Edited to hid names, here's how the conversation went.
Uncle: "[brother] I didn't recognize you."
Friend: "that's because I'm not [brother]"

It might have been a had to be there thing, but was funny none the less, and it's my blog so I'll say what ever lame story I want. We packed up to be ready to leave the next day. So until tomorrow.

7/15/12 Day 5

Today was head home day. We left at about 7:20 my time. My cousin who came with us and I watched big bang theory season 2 the full ride back. We stopped at play n trade. Turns out that the place is a family business and there was a funeral on the Wednesday that I was going to go initially. I got this Play Station pinball game for $3 and a set of 5 gameboy game cases for $1. It seemed like there inventory shrunk since the last time I went.

Now we're home. Cousin with us is really into video games. First I had to try my new game to make sure it works, which it did. After that she and I played super smash brothers melee. It's been forever since I played so I was quite rusty, and she's never played, so we were at rather even playing fields. We were called to dinner after about 30 minutes. When her parents came to get her, we all had fun talking about our trip for an hour or so. Now to put this all together in a full blog. Laters.

Alright, hope you had fun. I know I sure did. This has been Pokematic signing off and bu-bye.

My Texas vacation

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Now that my ad support is done, time for the fun stuff, my Texas vacation blog.

Texas vacation day one
Hey everyone. Today marks day 1 of my Texas vacation with my Texas relatives. We flew on a plane and stuff. I had to empty my backpack of fun. I took all my hand helds out and narrowed it down to my dsixl, psp, and ds classic, and respective charges and games. But I neglected to fully charge them, so with the terminal outlet ports, I had my phone, dsixl, psp, and ds classic all charging on the same terminal. Dad jokingly said the lights dimmed as I plugged in. Here's a picture.

Well then my aunt came and picked us up at the air port once we arrived. We're staying at there house. They have a pool. And again I'm writing this on my dsixl and sending to my email. I might be able to get to a computer, but they're mac, and I refuse to use apple. Today was kind of boring, but it'll get better.
 
Texas day 2, water park
Hey there. Day 2 on my Texas vacation. Today we went to a water park called the Schlitterbahn, pronounced shlit-ter-bon. It gets the name from German. But first I need to talk about the ride here.
I think I mentioned in the last blog that my aunt is a PC to mac convert. If I didn't, she is. I'm a hardened anti-apple, and she is a pushy apple cult member. It was quite an interesting ride with our bickering. We're comparable to a hardened democrat and republican arguing over political issues. It's actually kind of funny. Here are some texts I sent to my best friend on the car ride up.

"My aunt was trying to convert my mom by saying crap about how 'steve jobs is an innovator.' I jump in yelling 'DON'T LISTEN MOM! OUR FRIEND IS BILL! OUR FRIEND IS BILL!'"

"My aunt and I are arguing over her iPhone. Just told her windows phone/android can do any of that. And told her windows can get xbox live and iPhone can't. i won. score one for Microsoft/google"

We're something. Now onto the stops.

We went to this gas station called Buc-ees. For those of you who never went to one, you have missed out. It has incredibly nice bathrooms on any level. Millionaire estates are probably the only cleaner bathrooms on the market. I would show pictures, but not sure if bathroom pics are legal. They have this impressive food counter. That I can take a picture of. Here it is.

Then there was the wide selection of jerky. Here you go.

Here is me with Bucky.

More impressive pics up on my myspace.
Now for water park. It's a nice place. I rode this river ride called "the Congo." It went all the way through the park. I got stuck in certain parts because of the poor current. More to come tomorrow.
 
Texas day 3
Hey world, day 3 in the lone star state and day 2 at the schlitterbahn. Before I get into my awesome day, let me say I'm quite close to quite literally telling my aunt to f*** off with the apple crap. If she doesn't, I will blow up and drop an f bomb every other word. Oh well, on to fun stuff.

There's this racing slide that if done properly, you will go flying. It's fun getting air. There's this tower with 3 different slides. One that is a coaster like ride, one is a big family raft slide, and one that is a lone tube. The coaster was really fun, and so were the others. Then there was this lazy river that isn't lazy at all, and by that I mean it moves really fast, and has this wave that travels the whole river. It's called the torrent river, and I made a joke about "so where's my free copyrighted material." Torrent joke, lol. Then there was this artificial surfing wave. I'm not great by any means, but I'm novice level probably. I don't just go in and fall out. I will go in and do some belly gliding. I tried to do some tricks, but wiped out. Once almost losing my trunks. Then there's this lazy river that has it's entrance powered by the water from the wave. It's hard to describe, so I'll jut say it's awesome.

Now there's the other part of the park that is focused on river rides. It's basically tubing down rivers but they're artificial rivers and artificial falls. There was this one called the Congo and it basically it basically crosses the entire park. I got stuck many times and had to get out to move. Fun time.
Unfortunately they didn't have the souvenir dip n dots cups this time. My family still uses that souvenir cup bowl thing. But at least I got 5 admission bands from this. I love admission bands. When I get back I'll take a picture.

Well that's it for now. Later.
 
Day 4, I think
I'm starting to lose track of the days as you can tell. Today wasn't very interesting. We came back from the water park. We packed up and I'm a lobster. I am burned like crazy. Wow I hurt. I applied aloe and it helps. On the car ride home I watched hellboy and ghost rider on my psp. I have them on umd and they're both good movies.

We unpacked and applied more aloe. I then watched TV until time to pick up the dog from the animal resort. And I'm not glorifying the kennel by any means. Even the most outspoken PETA advocate would approve of it. She has her own large room, with a door to an outside patio area, super well fed (she put on weight last time), and has this wide open space to run around once a day with all the other dogs. They also have these special rooms for old, fragile, or aggressive animals that has a TV and comfy bed. There is also this bird in the lobby that'll whistle and is fun to whistle back at. I think it likes me because of the "ohhh hotie" whistle it kept giving me after we whistled some. Darkenedoptimist look out.

And now for the play by play of the format war between my aunt and I. She is weak in her apple attack after my iron clad defence. But I owe some of my power to the spirit lifting articles about why apple sucks. I need my Microsoft fix after being in this house of apple, and searching why apple sucks on Bing using my Nintendo dsi browser really helped. Thanks mac-sucks.com for the spirit lifter. My aunt I think doesn't realize that all she does on her icrap she can do just as easily, and I believe better, on a PC or android. She makes these photo slide shows on her mac and says she can make a DVD or put on YouTube. But what she does she could easily do with Microsoft photo story, and photo story is a free download. She also gloats about the GPS locator and netflix on her iPhone and you can easily do that with an android smart phone. I've made it a point to point that out. Maybe I should be nicer, but her time has come. I'm winning. Later.

 

from my counts day 5 I'm pretty sure
As you can tell by my title, I have almost forgotten what day of the trip it is. This time it isn't because of tiredness, it's because of fun. And man was today fun.

I wake up today afraid that my micro SD card for my phone is missing because of a dream I had where we were copying data off others in the family phone onto my card because I'm the only one that bought an SD card. We have done this before but unlike last time, we lost the card somehow in the dream. I wake up slightly panicked because I have data on that card and I saved up many swagbucks for it. I get my phone and it's in the slot on the phone where it should be. Dreams are weird like that.

Well today we went to the Main Event Fun Place and The Salt Lick Barbecue, the place was on man vs food. The main event is comparable to Dave and Busters or CJ Barrymore's. It has arcade games that use game cards that store money and ticket credit things. But not only that, but also billiards (didn't say pool to prevent confusion), bowling, mini golf, rock climbing, and laser tag. They had this promotion going on where for $15, I could have unlimited rock climbing, mini golf, laser tag, billiards, and bowling (but I'd have needed to pay to rent shoes, so didn't do that.) I had fun rock climbing, even though I'm kind of weak in the upper body strength. I got up to the top about 4 times, and maybe halfway up the other times. I played mini golf twice, the first time being serious with scoring 8 over par, and the second time just being a goof off round (mainly because I was pressed for time second round). Billiards was good, even though I just played myself. Laser tag was really fun. This one was different then other types I've played. For starters we had limited rounds and lives. Once we ran out of either, we had to go back to home base and and get more. It got annoying, but added strategy to the game. And speaking of home base, we were on teams and had to shoot at the opponents base.I got highest score in base tagging on my team and 3rd in that overall. I got 2nd on my team and 4rt all together. There were 28 people all together and 14 people on a team. That's pretty good, even if I kind of camped. It was a multi-level play area, and no one was on the second level, and easy to shoot at the base target. Then shoot those that did the same from the first floor. Hurray for camping.

After the main event we went to the salt lick. It was amazingly good. I had amazing brisket and ribs. So much meat. And since we did family style, it was all you can eat. I ate a lot. And for desert, I had a burnt end. It's the end of the brisket that is almost nothing but pure flavor. Here's a picture of me eating it and one in all it's glory.

The salt lick is one of the few places in America with an open pit, according to man vs food. I actually knew about the burnt end due to him. Here's a picture of the open pit.

It's amazing. If you're ever in Austin Texas and love barbecue, I highly recommend the salt lick. And if you're bold enough, ask for a burnt end neer the end of you're meal. Best taste sensation ever.

Well that's it for today. According to my parents there isn't much of a plan for the next few days. Expect some apple arguments. Later.
 
probably day 6
OK this is the 3rd time I've tried to write this blog. Basically I went to church, played jenga, and played monopoly. They're Methodist and I'm catholic. I felt out of place. Then I played monopoly, and lost. I would go on but I don't want to lose the signal again and have to start over. Bye.

AFTER THOUGH EDIT: I think because it was an apple wireless router or the airwaves were congested with icrap that's why I wasn't able to fully connect.
day 7 from my bad count
Day 7 I think. Today was a trip to walmart, Costco, and a really great barbecue place. It was also the day where I played the classic xbox in the futon room. My relatives have this room with a futon, a TV, a classic xbox, and the only VCR in there house. I typically will be only time that TV gets used. Poor TV, and poor dell sitting in there garage. Can't remember if I mentioned the sad dell, so here it is now.

OK, so now onto the trip things. I went to walmart with my mom, dad, and aunt. I looked at the electronics like normal. Then because I'm in Texas and on a vacation, I decided to get my girlfriend a souvenir. It's a snow globe with Texas stuff. I can tell you this even though she follows my blog. Why you might ask? Because I'll post this after I give it to her. I'll take a pic when I get home.

(Because it got confiscated by airport security, the picture will not happen)

So now onto Costco. I looked at the TVs and played with a samsung tablet. By my anti-apple opinion, it's a billion times better than the ipad. Stupid apple, just give up already. Oh, and another great thing was finding and buying Wallace and gromit the complete collection. It has a grand day out, a close shave, the wrong trousers, and a matter of loaf and death. Haven't seen loaf and death, but have seen the others, and love them. Then there's the bonus features, which sound great.

After a while at home, we went to whataburger for lunch. It was a while at there house. I took a picture of me in front of it. Here's the picture.

We don't have them at home, so it was really cool. They are really good tasting. I then played oddworld, Munch's Odyssey on the classic xbox in the futon room. I love that game and wish it was compatible with 360 so I could get a copy. Damn it's such a great game.

Well after hours of oddworld, we went to dinner at this amazing barbecue place. I had the ribs, and with that comes unlimited rolls, pickles, and other sides. So good. Oh man, to think the vacation is almost over. Well I better charge so I can be ready for the plane ride home. Late

 
I'm sure because I'm putting the blog together on my PC as we speak, day 8.
So today was the last day. We got packed up and went to the air port. Now for some security stories.
 

You know how I have a giant key chain? Well I know I've mentioned it and it has been in some videos. Well I needed to take it off for security, for obvious metal reasons. Then I had to take off my belt because of the buckle. I'm doing this while in line waiting to go to the checkpoint. In this, I have my id in my mouth all ready to hand to the security guy that was checking ids and boarding passes. I get ready to hand him my id and he says "just put that down here," pointing to a spot on his podium that is under his black light. I never knew that if you hold your drivers licence under a black light that circles will show up. Seeing that he wasn't wearing gloves, I don't blame him.

 
Last day I mentioned an amazing snow globe I got for my girlfriend. Well to save money my family packed in all Carey-ons because it's now $25 to check a bag. Well we didn't think about the snow globe being over liquid weight. Unfortunately they had to confiscate it. I got her a new one in the terminal, but it's not as awesome, so I won't do a picture.
 
We board, and take off. We're in the air, and something strange happens. The pilot comes out of the cockpit and goes to the bathroom at the back of the plain. Then after he returns, the copilot does the same. I know they're people with needs too, but I thought that after 9/11, they lock them in behind this door that won't open unless on the ground. I know I heard that somewhere, or something to that nature. It was just interesting.

 

Well now I'm home, with my PCs, and standard definition TV, and 10 gaming consoles, and 70-90 degree climate. Ahh it's good to be home.

Miscellaneous Texts that I saved

I sent these texts to my friend. Some are up in the blog, but others aren't.

"I am super giddy. After the constant nonstop apple throwing at my steel wall PC faith, she was starting to oxidize the wall, but then I found this site using my ds browser, and Microsoft Bing, and found this amazing site called mac-sucks.com and now I'm titanium re enforced."

"My aunt and I are arguing over her iPhone. Just told her an android or windows phone can do that. And that windows can get xbox live and her iPhone can't. I won. Score one for google/windows."
"My aunt is a downgraded Microsoft to apple convert. She won't shut up about how good it is and is trying to convert us. Apple cult members are one reason I hate apple, and she doesn't realize that all the gloating just puts more nails in the coffin. Just a few minutes ago in the car aunt was talking to mom about the 'awesomeness' and how 'steve jobs is an innovator.' I jump in and yell 'don't listen. Our friend is bill! Our friend is bill!'"

This was a funny thing another PC friend told me. If apple Friends ever say how awesome apple is and ask what can PC do that mac can't, just say "Right click."