Easter Fun 2022

 Hey everyone, it's Easter time again, which is a fun time with our family. This year was a REALLY big year though, because mskate went through RCIA to join the Catholic Church at the Easter Vigil. I'll get to that soon enough but first I need to go through everything starting at Friday.

So every year my family makes soft pretzels for Easter, a Polish tradition we normally did with my dad's side of the family when we went to see them on Easter. We haven't done it with them since my paternal grandma passed, but we still do it with my parents, and this year IRA and my maternal grandma joined in. This does put a little challenge for mskate though, since she has pretty much all the food allergies, and most of those things are in pretzels. My ever accommodating parents found a way though, finding a good allergy friendly dough recipe online and making her special dough. We made her pretzels first to prevent cross contamination (no flour on cutting board, no pretzel residue in the baking soda bath, no pretzel crumbs on the baking sheets). The fun thing is we got to use our pretzel making template we got for a wedding present. Since Dad and I like Good Eats with Alton Brown, we made jokes about the unitasker. It was pretty handy though, because you shape the pretzel on the mold, and then it lifts off the mold to put in the bath, and then that can be used to fish it out. After making mskate's we made our normal pretzels, and it was really fun.

After the pretzels we dyed eggs. We had 2 different egg kits going, but we just couldn't get some of the colors to turn out right. This is where grandma really enjoyed watching us, because when we we little we would dye eggs at her house and it brought back a bunch of memories. One of the interesting things in one of the kits was an "egg glaze" which made the eggs shiny after dying. IRA and I had some fun with that, but the glaze was stale or something and didn't really spread well (it was kind of like a gelatin-jelly), and they didn't turn out very well. We also did egg sleeves, and mskate was really fascinated by those. Unfortunately my parents got "large eggs" and the sleeves were more meant for "medium eggs," but we were able to use most of them and they turned out well. It was a really fun time. At some point mskate and I made it to church, but I don't remember if it was before or after my parents.

Saturday was the BIG day, probably the most eventful of all the days. First off, mskate's sponsor and her husband came up on this day. We met them at a restaurant mskate and I discovered one night when I said "I don't want to cook, I want to go out to get Chinese at a restaurant," and while this wasn't Chinese it was a new restaurant. This was really fun since I haven't seen them since the wedding, and I get along really well with the husband (but I don't know him well enough to come up with a blog name yet, lol). We sat together and had some fun discussions about the trip up and jobs. I guess you can say we had brunch, because some people had breakfast foods and others had lunch foods. The restaurant is also along the water, so after the meal we went out and walked along the dock. The really fun thing was pointing out Canada (because we're close to the border, one of my favorite radio stations is a Canadian station, and if I set-up the TV antenna just right I can get like 4 Canadian TV channels). Mskate and I grew up close to the border and had short vacations in Canada in our youth, so we take "look, it's a foreign country" for granted, but for them it was really impressive to be able to be able to see Canada in person across the water. 

After lunch it was time for another big event. IRA and I are fans of Steven Crowder and when they announced that Dave and Steven would be doing a live show at the Royal Oak Music Theater (something that isn't too far from us, and I went there when I went to the Mike and Micky Show), we knew we had to do it. I picked up IRA and we found parking. Then we got in line and it was pretty crazy. The line stretched all the way around the block past the transportation center, a lot of people wearing Steven Crowder shirts, Let's Go Brandon, and MAGA. I know IRA wore one of his Crowder shirts; I want to say it was "piss off youtube."

When we were in line venue security came walking around distributing "legal to drink" wrist bands (this makes it easier on the bar inside, instead of everyone showing their ID everyone just shows the wrist band). I didn't have any plans on drinking, but I wanted the wrist band. While we were waiting in line I remembered I had my pocket knife on me (because if I'm not at my day job, I probably have my pocket knife on my person like a good boy scout), and I remembered "live performances don't want you to have pocket knives." I ran back to the car, dropped my knife in the cup holder, and ran back. I struggled a little to find IRA, but after calling him I reunited.

Once again I assumed my ticket was in the balcony, but the usher told us "no you're on the main floor, center." We weren't super close like I was with Mike and Micky, but it was still pretty close to where we could clearly see the acts. One thing that was really cool was the pre-show music was either Louder with Crowder parody songs or pogo. I want to say that the song before the start was the song they play before the online show, but I can't say for certain. The opener guy was pretty good, I want Steven to have him on the online show some time. Dave and Steven were hilarious. I don't remember a lot of the jokes they told, but it was really fun seeing them do jokes that weren't just about modern social-political topics. Dave's closer about the prostitute and White Castle sliders was gold. What was really neat is that a lot of the jokes were specific to South East Michigan since Dave is from Detroit and Steven's family is from Detroit and Steven used to live in Ann Arbor. Since they're high level comedians the jokes work if you're unfamiliar with the area, and I'm sure they use the same jokes elsewhere in the country, you could tell there was "hometown details" that were added, like Dave talking about "getting high at this house on Gratiot" (a street in Detroit) at this show is probably "there was this Detroit house I used to get high at" in other shows. After the show I dropped IRA off and went back to our house for Easter Vigil. Mskate was worried that the show would go too long and I would be late, but it didn't.

This was quite the ordeal. Mom and Dad brought grandma, and that was quite something. I struggled with mass, because they had a bunch of Easter flowers in the church, and I am allergic to pretty much all the flowers. After everyone was seated and situated, I stood outside by the fire they had going. As I stood out there I had the great idea of "if anyone joins me I will say 'surely you were with him' and see if they say 'I do not know that man.'" Unfortunately no one joined me so I didn't get to use that, but it got some laughs when I told people about it afterwards. My standing out there actually helped with the technical production side since I was able to give them a reference for "average height adult male" when framing the shot for the online stream and projected video inside the church for when they were lighting the candles off the fire. The mass was good, but twice I had to step outside and get some non-allergy air. The first time was about halfway through mass, and the second time was after communion. After the second time I sat in the back away from all the flowers, and that helped some. After mass when we were packing up my grandma, she told me "it's really late, you can stay at my house, I don't want you driving all the way home." I reminded her that she was at my church, and my house was much closer than her house. Bless her heart, but she gets very confused. After mass I took a hot steamy shower to clear my sinuses, and that felt good.

Easter Sunday, the day of celebration. Mskate's friends joined us for breakfast and we made these vegan pancakes that everyone could eat. It was a really weird recipe, since the batter was the consistency of cookie dough and not pancake batter. When we put chocolate chips in I originally said "put the chocolate chips in after pouring the batter," because with normal pancake batter you do that because if you mix it in the bowl the chips all settle at the bottom and the distribution is all off. However, because this was "cookie dough" the chips were all stuck on the top and melted into the pan without going into the pancake, so then I mixed it in with the batter in the bowl like I would with cookie dough. Mskate and I distributed the work; she mixed all the ingredients, I cooked them in the frying pan. The scraping scoop we had dished out the perfect amount, and everyone enjoyed my cooking.

First we saw the in-laws and we gave Easter baskets, just nothing super exciting. After them we went to my parents for the Easter party. Grandma and her accordion friends came over, and we had a fun sing along. We sang some Disney songs and old spring time songs, but what was really weird was singing "you are my sunshine" and "a tisket a tasket." Everyone knows the chorus for "you are my sunshine," it's a pretty common public domain song (and if it's not like how Happy Birthday was still under copyright until recently, it's part of the American cultural cannon). Well accordion friend printed off the verses for it and this was the first time any of us have heard it, and it turns out the song we all thought was an up-beat love song ("you brighten up the day like the sun, I can't imagine life without you here") is actually a depressed break-up song ("my life was full of light when you were here, but now that you are gone my life is dark and meaningless"). That was crazy. Then with a Tisket a Tasket, pretty much all of us only knew "a tisket a tasket, a [something something] basket," and we had the Ella Fitzgerald version which has the line "and if she doesn't bring it back I think I will die," which is a pretty extreme reaction to "I lost my basket." I think we had a pot roast dinner, and it was good.

Because Easter fell on a Sunday this year, I had the Monday after off. Mskate and I largely spent the day relaxing and organizing after Easter (new toys and candy, had to find places for them), and then I was like "it's been forever since I went to the movies, I want to see Uncharted." And so I found a theater that was playing Uncharted and I saw it. Since Uncharted is basically a videogame adaptation of treasure hunt movies, it translated to film pretty well. And that was my Easter weekend. It was pretty jam packed, and really fun. This has been Pokematic, signing off, and bu-bye.

Christmas 2018 Festivities

Hey there everyone, it's Christmas time once again. Ahh Christmas, a time for family, presents, food, specials, cold, lights, and all sorts of fun. My local city hall has this pretty neat light display on it's yard, everyone's in the spirit. So what did I do this year? I'll start with the wild lights with Mskate, because that's the first Christmas-like thing I did. I won't go into full details here (because I already made a blog about it), so here's the quick. Mskate and I wanted to do something together, and this was something we could do together. We saw some animals and nature art, and of course a lot of lights. It was really fun.

Now for Christmas Eve. As we do every Christmas, we exchanged gifts with my grandparents Christmas Eve. First we went to McDonalds like we do every year, and then we exchanged gifts. I got a monopoly game (Monopoly Empire), peanut butter protein bars, peanuts, various chocolate candy (mainly in the Reese's variety), Uncharted the Lost Legacy, and movies; Tag, Ready Player One, SpongeBob Sponge out of Water, Wreck it Ralph on 4K Bluray, Hotel Transylvania 1 and 2, and Shawn the Sheep Movie.

I gave my grandparents a red lobster gift card and chipped in on the build a bear present. After their house we went to church at my parents perish. It was a good service. Afterwards we had Chinese dinner at my parents house (because they're the only ones open on Christmas Eve). I played with my hamster at my parents house. He was doing really bad. I think he recognized it was me, but he didn't want to crawl, or sniff, or investigate, or anything. He was doing really bad, but I'm glad I got to spend some time with him (for reasons you'll find out soon enough).

After my parents I went back to my place. I went to midnight mass to get my Christmas Day needs. I also watched some "ready to expire" content on hulu and crackle. I got a good night's sleep and got ready for the following day.

Now for Christmas Day. I packed up my gifts for my family and read the birth of Jesus story in the bible. I made it to my parents house and we exchanged gifts. I'll get into what I got, but first what I gave everyone; I got my brother a roll of duct tape and Homer bucket from Home Depot, I got Dad a bottle of Rib Rack BBQ Sauce and a coffee tumbler, and I got Mom a gallon of hand sanitizer and peace of mind getting the sty on my eye checked out a month ago. Now here's what they got me; 2 ornaments, a robe, funnel cake maker, a set of A Christmas Story glasses, a nerdy wall clock (every number is a math expression), candy canes of unusual flavor (lemon head and atomic fireball), Reese's cups, amazon gift cards, lemons, and a star note $20 bill.

And now it was time for, as my mother put's it, "spring into action." They were hosting Christmas this year, and we had to prep the house for everyone to come over. Thankfully all I had to really do was put the leaf in the table. I was able to watch some of A Christmas Story on TBS thankfully. I don't think I saw the entire movie this year, but I saw at least 75% of it.

Now for some shenanigans. My aunt and her family weren't going to make it this year because of illness, and they are normally the ones that bring hour d'oeuvres. This meant we needed to get some, which meant finding a place that was open on Christmas. First I went to Meijer, and they were closed, then I went to Target, and they were closed, and then I went to Walmart, and they were closed. Eventually I went to RiteAid and got chips and dip, because that's what they had available. I got home and then my grandparents showed up.

This is where it gets kind of sad, with a little bit of "sitcom wackiness to lighted the mood." Remember how I said my hamster wasn't doing too well? Well, mom said "go pick up Upsilon and have him visit with everyone." I went to pick him up and knocked on the glass like I normally do. I picked him up, and he was cold and stiff. I held him close to my ear, and he wasn't breathing nor was his heart beating. After I broke the news to everyone, my family got what we needed and had a little funeral for him in our back yard. Well...not before other things happened. My brother went down to the basement to get his shoes and there was a loud crash with him yelling. Mom told me to ask if he was alright, and I did and he said yes...but he wasn't coming up stairs. Turns out, he knocked over his computer and it fell on the floor. I don't know if there were any problems, but it could be REALLY bad. By the time he finished setting up the diagnostics, the rest of our guests arrived, while we're trying to have a hamster funeral. It was like something out of a sit-com. We said our goodbyes and went back to the party. Now we were just visiting for the most part.

Dinner was pretty good. We had pork tenderloin and ham, and a bunch of other fixings. Afterwards we gave my grandpa his birthday gifts (because he was born on Christmas). We also sang Christmas songs played on the accordion. One song was Santa Clause is Coming to Town, and I wanted to sing the Jackson 5 version, lol. After the festivities I took the plate of goodies meant for my aunt and her family over to Mskate's family, because "they'll enjoy them," and that they did.

Now for the period between Christmas and New Years. I had plans, fairly big plans for my online presence. I was going to update my website (I still have some videos I need to link to my website, and fathom reviews to upload), film some of the more ambitious ideas I had, edit together vlogs I made that are years old at this point, and some other things. But then, I got sick. I don't think it was the flu or anything serious (my temp was either normal, or a little low), but I was REALLY lethargic and didn't feel like making anything. I was able to watch all the stuff I wanted on hulu and crackle before they expired, so there was that. I did film a review to something a friend sent me, so there's that. Hopefully it ends up being good. I drank a bunch of orange juice because I think it was a vitamin C problem, and that seemed to help.

Now for some more festivities. December 30th was when I went to see my grandpa. Here's something that was pretty cool. I was still a little congested when I went to church; not lethargic anymore, but still a little sniffly. Since my grandpa is 91 years old, our family is really careful about "don't see him when you're sick, you'll get better but he might not," so it was really touch and go if I would see him. Well when I took communion, my nose instantly cleared up, and all that was left was traces of being sick. It was a tiny miracle, and was too perfect to just be a coincidence. Visiting with grandpa and my aunt was really fun. He has the same career background I have, so I'm able to talk shop with him and he really understands what I'm talking about (unlike the rest of my family who just nods along at things that sound impressive). It was a fun time.

Now for New Years Eve. Normally New Years is hosted by one of our friends, but 2 of their kids were sick or injured, or something. Oh well. So that I wouldn't just watch Dick Clark's alone, I invited over ZeldaMaster93. I haven't seen him in a long time, so we basically spent 3 hours catching up with Dick Clark's in the background. We watched the ball drop, and it was the ball drop. We reminisced about our New York band trip and how we saw time square and the ball. I also made us cocktails of my own creation. He doesn't really drink, but that's because he doesn't like the bitter taste of alcohol in things like beer and wine. But when I make my mixed drink, you can't really tell there's alcohol in it, because it tastes more like the mixer. He was good to drive though; 1 ounce of alcohol over 3 hours, even for a lightweight that's nothing.

Now for New Years Day. Remember how I said I had family that wasn't able to make it to Christmas? Well my parents threw a make-up party New Years Day, and that was fun. I brought my NES Classic and SNES Classic, because my aunt and cousin are fans of 8 and 16 bit Nintendo. We played that for an hour or 2, mainly just jumping around between the 2 player games on the NES. We also talked about my cousin's doctoral program, because we're all impressed with the only doctor in our current family. It's not "medical doctor," so that makes things all the more interesting. While talking about how my cousin basically has her masters now, my aunt and mom started talking about how they got their masters and what they had to go through, and I just kind of joking said "I got my bachelor's." We did some gift exchange, and it was nice.

Faster forward to the 5th (everything else is just work), and it's time for another and final party with my parents. A little "last hurrah of the season" if you will. First thing my brother and I did was take down my grandparents tree. We took down all the decorations and such. It was OK. Then afterwards I went back to my parents house and waited for the final guests to arrive (my mom's best friend from childhood and her kids). While my parents and brother were busy straitening the house for the party, I watched TV. I didn't feel any guilt; none of the mess was mine, and I moved out so now I'm a guest. Since I have playstion vue I don't have all the Viacom channels (nickelodeon, nicktoons, paramount TV, etc.), so I watched the cartoons I don't get at home. It was just like going to my grandparents house and watching cable when I was a kid (we didn't have cable until I was 8 or so). When they got here we visited, talked about their dogs (because their dogs are fun and funny), and it was a good time. We did a gift exchange. My aunt got me some glassware and Pokémon stuff (including a vintage pin that she found when cleaning). Though the best was when she gave my dad something in this gag box. It was this "nap hood" thing that "covers your head so you can nap wherever you want." I saw the boxes on Shark Tank, so I knew what it was and that dad had to open it (and inside was a gift card and ornaments), but mom and dad were actually excited for it because dad likes to nap in the living room and pull his hood over his eyes. Yeah that was funny.

And thus marks the end of my Christmas season festivities. All in all it was quite fun. I also did this OC week thing on a meme website I'm a part of. I'll probably make a video or blog about those later. I also got my first patron, so right now I'm working on my first patreon backer milestone video (everything wrong with cinemasins Jurassic World). I'll catch you next time, but until then, this has been Pokematic, signing off, and bu-bye.