Thanksgiving and Black Friday 2021 (and a bachelor weekend)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

Detroit Zoo Wild Lights 2018 Experience

Hey there everyone. 2 years ago I went to the wild lights at the zoo with Mskate, and we decided to go to it again. We were going to see "Instant Family," but our schedules weren't able to line up with the movie times, so we instead went with something that doesn't require us to align our schedule to a movie that is on it's way out. Before the wild lights, we went out to dinner at a place where she and her family go frequently. It's just a small family restaurant, and it was fun. We chatted and caught up after not seeing each other for a while.

Now for the zoo. We parked off the property to save $10 on parking, and extra exercise. We were able to get in easily. Our ticket was for 7:30 and it was like 7:20. While there was a line, we went in really quickly. Right off the start we saw some jungle animal lights.

Quite fun. What was really interesting was what they were doing at the penguin house. They put in a new penguin house last year, and while I haven't been in it, I'm sure it's quite neat. However, they did do some projection on the side of the building.

There was also this cool jumping frog lights thing. I saw it before, but here it is again.

We also took a selfie in front of one of the trees. We kind of went off the official path to get to it, so don't tell anyone.

Now for the really cool thing. Last year the only exhibit that was open was the reptile house (because reptiles require constant heat lamps and sleep whenever they do, unlike mammals who have sleep schedules), but this year the otter exhibit was also open. I was able to see some and get pictures.

The beavers were also out, but I wasn't able to get any good pictures of them. 

We also saw this really cool display where the lights danced with the music.

After that cool display, we walked by a Coney Island in the zoo. That was new to me, and just shows how long it's been since I've been to the zoo. We didn't get anything (because we just had dinner), but I just wanted to see "is this basically a full Coney Island," and it was. There were also a lot of different stands (hot chocolate, smores, popcorn, etc.), but we didn't stop at them because the line was long and we weren't hungry/thirsty.

Before the reptile house there was this cool bug light display.

And now we're at the reptile house. Mskate was a little weirded out by the reptiles, but I had a lot of un looking at the various snakes and turtles and others. Plus we were able to warm up. Here are the different animals I saw.

 

After the reptiles we saw some more lights.

One I really enjoyed was seeing the Rackam fountain all lit up. Mskate asked "why do they call it Rackam fountain?" and I didn't have an answer. Chances are it was whoever paid for it.

We saw more lights after the fountain, and this really cool video light display. Unfortunately it didn't show up well on video.

We did some more walking, and saw some more lights. Not much longer then we reached the turn around. There were some Rudolf displays at the loop, along with some more lights.

I know a lot of what I'm saying is "look at the lights," but that's primarily what it was. Check out some more lights, and more animated lights.

Now for some stuff I don't have pictures of (lol). One of the new things at the zoo is a Buddy's Pizza (a local chain), and while we didn't stop there, it was quite interesting to see it at the zoo. In the conference building there was a Polar Express simulator ride. I'm sure it would have been cool (I've done similar simulation rides in the past), but we didn't want to spend more money (it was $5 for a 10 or so minute show). However, we did see this cool "photos of nature" art exhibit on the 2nd floor. I didn't take pictures because that would have gotten me thrown out, but I can say they were really beautiful, even if there were some that were kind of gruesome (like a hyena chewing on a monkey's head). Yeah nature isn't always pretty. Right outside the convention center was this ice sculpture of a moose.

There was also a little ice rink and mskate wanted to check it out (because she skates, go figure). Unfortunately the line was pretty long, and they use artificial ice. We saw some more lights. There was this really cool "ornament made of lights" photo op thing, but the line was really long so we decided not to wait. We did see some cool animal print giant ornaments close to it though.

After the ornaments we walked through this cool light tunnel. Here's another selfie of us.

This was getting close to the end of this little journey. Here are the remainder of the lights.

That was our little wild lights journey. It was really fun hanging out again. I didn't take nearly as many pictures this year, because a lot of them were the same as last time (you can check the old ones out on my myspace). Hopefully you enjoy this fun time. This has been Pokematic, signing off, and bu-bye.

A Short Vacation

Hey everyone, I have some vacation time and I wanted to take a little trip. I hadn't visited my godfather in a while, and I haven't seem mskate in a while either. Since they live in the same state and there was a holiday weekend, I worked it out with them to take a little trip to see them. Here's the adventure I had.

Friday I took a half day off work. I had a half day of vacation time and I wouldn't have made much better time if I took a whole day. I packed up all my stuff the night before and left from work. It's not like it would have been that much more of a drive since I live close to work, but I didn't want to get tempted to "take care of some stuff at home" because I tend to do that. It was a 4 hour drive with some stops along the way. Not many, but still some. I stopped at a Walmart and picked-up special beer for my brother and dad. There's this one beer they really like that's not available in our state, so I picked-up a case for them. I also wanted to see if there were any videogame things I can't find at my own stores (amiibo, DLC cards, etc.). Unfortunately they didn't. A funny thing was I was asked by a salesman if I had one of their local utilities suppliers (trying to sell me theirs). I told him which I had and he was confused, because it's out of state. He did recognize it though, so that was funny.

After some more driving I arrive at my godfathers house. My godbrothers (age 10 and 4) and godsister (age 7) were out playing, so they were the first to see me and really happy. I got out and gave everyone a hug. They helped me unpack my stuff and take it in. After all my driving, and difficulty sleeping the night before out of excitement, I needed a break. I just lied down for about an hour. Not really a nap, just "clear my head." After that I played monopoly with the kids, because my oldest godbrother loves monopoly. We had dinner later, and did some more playing. My youngest godbrother enjoyed climbing on me, because he's at that age. It's come full circle, because at that age my godfather was my human jungle gym, and now I'm the human jungle gym for his son. After the kids bedtime, I visited with my godfather and his wife for maybe an hour. It was nice having some adult conversation after kid time.

Now for Saturday. We went to daily mass as part of their daily routine. After mass we played more monopoly, because that's what they like. After lunch we cut down some dead trees. That was interesting. I remember last time I visited we did some demo work. It was pretty fun taking down the trees; demolition with chain saws, I felt so manly. The kids also enjoyed it, because it's not every day you cut down a tree. We originally were just going to take down 2 of the dead trees, but we ended up taking down all 4. After taking the trees down I suggested we take a break. It was cold, and while we weren't FEELING tired, I knew we needed to take a break because one's body does not get fatigued the same way when the environment is cold (I find it's a "go go go go go then BAM! can barely move" as opposed to a gradual fatigue with all other temperatures). What was really cute was my godsister wanted to make everyone hot chocolate. That really hit the spot. After our little break we chopped up the trees into logs for their log cabin project, as well as chop the limbs up for disposal.

Dinner was quite fun. We had a camp fire weenie roast. They have a little above ground fire pit with a cooking rack. I helped build up a fire. One of our traditions is our families go camping every summer (I've talked about it before), so having a little camp fire at home was fun for everyone. I did a lot of the cooking, because I like camp fire cooking. I had like 3 hot dogs, it was good. After dinner and the fire it was time for the kids bedtime. After they went to sleep we got the surprise tucked away. My godsister is getting a new bed for Christmas. Right now she shares a room with her brothers, and here's another cool full circle thing. When I was growing up my godfather had a bunk bed for when he had guests with kids stay with him (and with our camping friends, that happened kind of often); now his kids are using that bunk bed. Back to the story, their mom found a bed on craigslist and we had to find a way to keep it hidden. The headboard and footboard weren't that difficult but the part the mattress sits on was going to be difficult (it was the size of a twin mattress). Since we played hide and go seek the night before, I knew some of the good hiding places. I found we could stick it behind the deep freeze and it would blend in with the wall and shelf already there. Hopefully it lasts until Christmas.

Sunday was a quick day with them. Their oven went out so I helped move the new oven from the garage to inside the house. After church I said my goodbyes because I had to go see mskate. They didn't realize I wasn't going to stay for lunch, but they understood I had other people to see on my trip (well, everyone above the age of  9 for sure). The drive to mskate's wasn't that bad. She's about an hour from my godfather's. I gave her a call when I was maybe 30 minutes away and we made plans on what movie to see. The options were The Nutcracker and the 4 realms or Illumination's Grinch. She wanted to see Nutcracker more than Grinch (she doesn't care much for Dr. Seuss), but being a good friend she offered an alternative in case I didn't want to see Nutcracker. However, since I will probably see Grinch on my own and probably wouldn't see Nutcracker alone, I said we should see Nutcracker. On the rest of my drive I came up with a funny Seuss rhyme about what we were seeing.

We're not going to see Dr. Seuss
I know you don't like him because his words are too loose
Instead we'll see the cracker of nuts
A movie I know we will like luts.

When I arrived I told her my little rhyme. It got a chuckle. We said hello and I set-up her Christmas tree timer. It wasn't too long before we went on our way to the movies. The Nutcracker was alright, I'd say worth a rental, but nothing really worth going to the theater for. After that we did some charity Christmas shopping (she had to get play-doh, and I helped pick out a fun set) and explored the down town. She wanted to explore there kind of since she moved there but didn't want to go alone (and since she's a smaller woman and there were some slightly sketchy stores, I don't blame her). It was a nice little downtown though. We went to a used book store where I got a batman and superman compilation comic. She wanted to get something for her brother but wasn't sure what. Since I like a lot of the same things as her brother, I picked out a comic book adaptation of Batman Forever. I don't remember what she got for herself, but she liked it. It was a cute little book store, full of all sorts of books, and a trap door that lead to the cellar. After the book store we went to the goodwill across the street. Unfortunately I didn't find any unique VHS tapes, or videogames, so goodwill was a bust. At the end of the street there was a music store, with CDs and vinyl. I looked through the vinyl comedy section and found a Steve Martin album and a Monty Python album for cheap. I bought them. We also saw the Coco soundtrack on vinyl, and it was a really cool picture press. Neither of us bought it, but it was cool to look at.

After our adventure we had dinner. We considered going to this Irish Pub that was in the down town, but after looking at the menu online we decided against it. Instead we went to one of the bars we found on our little adventure. I had a super grilled ham sandwich with fried onions and barbecue sauce and one of the house cocktails. Mskate had a cheeseburger with a gluten free bun and a diet coke. When she ordered the options were red, pink, or no pink. She got a little confused and said red. After ordering I made sure she really wanted a rare burger. Turns out she got a little confused because she's only used to rare, medium, and well done and she really wanted no pink. When our waitress came back with our drinks I told the waitress about the mistake. Our dinners were good, and so was my drink. When we got our bills she was kind of surprised my dinner was cheaper than hers even though I got a drink. Well the hamburgers are more expensive and the gluten free bun added some money. After dinner we went back to her place and watched The Greatest Showman. I hadn't seen it, and it was really good.

After the movie I left for my hotel. I booked one that I thought would be close, but turns out it was on the other side of the city (and it's a wide city). The fun thing about the hotel was they had on demand, and nickelodeon. Since I have playstation vue I no longer get nickelodeon, so I was able to watch season 9 SpongeBob. Yay. During the middle of the night the smoke alarm in my room started chirping, so I had to change rooms, at 2AM. That was an experience, but at least I got a bit of an upgrade. I left the luggage cart in my room all night.

Now it's Monday morning. I slept in and had some continental breakfast. I got fruit loops and ate them while I watched SpongeBob in my room. Afterwards I checked-out and went to the videogame store that's close to her. I bought 16 PS2 games and a PSP game. They were cheap and kind of all over the place in terms of genre. The guy behind the counter asked if I was filling out a collection. I told him how I'm working on a complete north American set, and how I'm 20% of the way there (2100 games for a complete set, and I have 400). He asked if I have one of the most expensive games yet (which came in recently and was on their ebay page); I chuckled and said "no, right now I'm working on getting all the cheap stuff." I always enjoy bringing a big stack of PS2 games to the counter and seeing what the clerk says. After the store I went on my way home. I wanted to check out this entertainment center with arcade and go carts and more that I passed on my way down, but when I got there I found out they're closed on Mondays. Oh well, I needed to get home anyways; not because anyone was expecting me, but I had to get ready for work on Tuesday. I did find a goodwill on the way home, and found an interesting collectors edition of Jurassic Park and The Lost World Jurassic Park; what makes them interesting is they're a 2 tape set with the movie on one tape and bonus features on the other tape. All in all it was a really fun trip. I look forward to the next little adventure. This has been Pokematic, signing off, and bu-bye.

Christmas and New Years 2017 Craziness

Hey everyone. Here's a blog I meant to get out earlier, but I've been so busy I just didn't have the time. First and foremost, I moved. Yeah, moved out of my parents house to my own place. I'm now much closer to work, and I'm kind of wondering what I might do with the extra 2 hours I have every day. Basically every moment I wasn't doing a Christmas activity, I was packing my stuff and making runs to my new place. I'm still unpacking, but every day I get closer to "fully moved in." Now on to the fun stuff. And for future reference, whenever I say "kid(s)," I'm referring to someone that is not in my parent's generation; (s)he is not necessarily under 18.

First, the Christmas party with my mom's college friends. Oh it was fun seeing them again. One thing you need to know, one of the "kids" is an army vet. I made a couple of tasteful army jokes, such as asking him if they ever sing the Mickey Mouse theme song on patrol. To play along, he shushed me and said "that's a secret." Then there's the thing that my local hospital does. Every night in December, members of the community go outside the children's ward and shine flashlights up to their window and they shine them back. It's a nice little thing we do to show the hospitalized kids that have to be away from family and friends during the time of year. We were running a little late to get over there, so we jogged over. While we were jogging I chanted "one-two-three-four" in my best drill sergeant impression to my vet friend. He just turned to me and snarked "shuuuud-up." We made some kids happy, even though it was really cold. At the end of the night we always get all the "kids" on the couch and take a picture. We've gotten big over the years, and every year it gets more fun cramming onto the couch.

Now it's Christmas Eve. Every year we exchange gifts with my mom's side of the family on Christmas Eve. It started as a way for our grandparents to give my brother, cousin, and I our gifts from them and with my mom's side of the family. Us kids used to go to the McDonalds that's right by their house so Santa could set-up, and it's still tradition to do it. Though, with it being so cold this year and my grandparents not getting any younger, we just brought the McDonalds in. It was a fun little time. After spending the day with them, we went to church and had Christmas Eve mass. My brother and I drove my grandparents to church and the roads were REALLY bad. I was almost in an accident. After mass we took my grandparents to the Irish restaurant they like to go to on Christmas Eve. While they went to dinner, I went to a little Christmas party held by some old church friends. I haven't seen them in like 8 years. While I was never really close with the kids, it was fun seeing how much everyone has changed since then. While I was just getting comfortable to visit, my grandparents called and said they needed my brother and I to pick them up. While the roads were bad, I gotta say, I love driving at night in the snow with my car all warm. There's just something about "man concurring nature" that makes me feel so alive. That was Christmas Eve.

Now it's Christmas Day. My family exchanged gifts. Get a kick out of the thoughtful gifts I got my family. I got Dad a string of exterior solar power LED lights, Mom a box of dry erase expo markers, and my brother an LED pocket flashlight. Now you might be thinking "those aren't thoughtful, those sound lazy," but no; Dad loves exterior accent lights, Mom loves writing things on her white board, and my brother loves pocket flashlights. Now, because I was in the process of moving, I got a bunch of home appliances, like a George Foreman grill, fry baby, and the piece de resistance, a crockpot. That's a running gag in my family, because when I was in 2nd grade I swear my little brother got a crockpot for Christmas. Of course I'm the only one that believes it and I'm probably remembering events wrong, but it's a fun story. In highschool my parents got themselves a new crockpot, so they wrapped it up and put my name on it one year. Now as a 24 year old, I really did get a crockpot for Christmas. After some hanging out and watching A Christmas Story on TBS (because I needed to atone for A Christmas Story Live), we got ready for hosting Christmas at our house. We had my grandparents, aunt and uncle and cousin, and my grandparents close friends. We visited, had dinner, and did our sing-along, because grandparent's friend plays the accordion and we always have a sing along with polkas and Christmas music. After some family visiting, some close friends from middle school came over for fun. It was great catching up with them. Good fun.

Now for the first day of Kwanza we had Christmas with my dad's side of the family, my grandpa and aunt. There isn't much to talk about, other than we visited. Here's a question, what do you get a 90 year old man? Kind of difficult, but he likes meat, coffee, and is great grandkids (oldest cousin's kids). So, we got him steaks, 5 pound bags of Dunkin Donuts coffee, and a photo mug with pictures of his 2 great grandsons. He really liked them. We gave my aunt the same photo mug, and she really liked it.

Now I'm not quite sure what day this happened on, but we had the get together with my mom's best friend since elementary school and her kids. We grew up together, and it was really fun seeing them. I don't have a lot to really talk about with this one, but I remember it being fun. There was also another day where I got together with Mskate. We hung out at my new condo and watched Treasure Planet. I suggested we watch Muppets Treasure Island but she wasn't too interested, but didn't know what Treasure Island was. I said "well, you know Disney's Treasure Planet, it's like that." She said she never saw Treasure Planet, but she loves the soundtrack. I said "OK, we're watching Treasure Planet." She enjoyed it, and she really did and wasn't just trying to be polite (because she does that every now and then). It was fun.

Now for New Years. It was hosted by one of our camping friends with most of the camping friends. We've been doing it for years, on and off. It was quite fun ringing in the new year with them. What was quite fun is one of the "kids" works for the same company I work for, so we had fun exchanging some war stories. All the "adults" enjoyed hearing about how I bought a condo. A fun thing was the hosts were sitting a hedgehog, named Quilium. It's been a while since I saw a hedgehog in person, and it was seeing another friendly small mammal. The hosts have some younger kids that were the primary caretakers, but like kids do they let the hedgehog go under the couch, so getting him out was fun. We also ended up playing XBOX after a while, and I said "man if I knew you had an XBOX I'd have brought my controller," (they only had 2 controllers). A funny thing was 2 of the host kids were arguing and another host kid said "you 2 need to behave better infront of guests," to which one replied "they aren't guests," and I added "at this point we're all family," and then one of the other "kids" said "for years I thought we were all cousins." We also played ping-pong, and they didn't have a ball for a good 10 minutes. Lucky for them, I carry around official bear pong balls with me wherever I go, for situations like this (I don't play beer pong, but I got them free at college). Around 11 PM, one of the "kids" (who was 26, just not in the parent's generation) wanted to make an alcohol run. We almost did, but through a combination of tired, rural area without a close liquor store, and really cold temperatures made us decide "we'll just wait until we go camping in the summer and can walk to the liquor store that's right off the campground." We watched the ball drop and everyone hugged each other "Happy New Year." About 30 minutes afterwards we left. I drove home because Dad was tired and Mom doesn't do directions. The roads were pretty clear. I guess all the "12:01 partiers were home" and the "up till 3 are still partying."

Overall fun time. New Years Day was pretty slow. I spent the night at my new place and went to work the next day. Overall, it was a fun time. But I'm quite glad it's over since my days were constantly getting ready for new parties. Well, this has been Pokematic, signing off, and bu-bye.