The Christmas Blog, 2019 Edition

Hey everyone. Ahh another year another Christmas which means it's time for another Christmas blog. Unlike other years where I broke up certain things, I'm just going to combine it all. You'll see a lot of similar things, but this year the big new thing was mskate and I dating, which added another layer of fun.

I suppose things kind of really started back at Thanksgiving where I did black Friday shopping (technically amazon prime day, but the only point of note was I had a box of presents in the middle of my bedroom for half a year). Normally I would do a big Black Friday blog like I've been doing for the past, 8 years? Well this year was pretty uneventful. I hung out with IRA as we went to various stores. He really enjoyed the adventure since I've gotten it down to a science (there's a 10 mile loop that I follow every year to hit the stores I want to, and it's always the same order). Since he's much younger than I his mom, my mom, and mskate said "pay close attention to him, DON'T LOSE HIM!" Having heard this, he played a little joke on me and hid at one of the stores. I picked up a lot of things for my family and self, including 2 fry pans that I originally was going to get for myself, but then decided to gift to my dad and brother (brother recently bought a house and needs things, and I know at some point in the 24 years I lived with my parents I destroyed a pan at some point). I also picked up some gloves I plan on donating to various "keep the poor warm" campaigns. It was a fun night and a lot later than IRA is used to, struggling to stay awake as we were finishing up. I also bought some wrapping paper at Black Friday that lasted almost all the presents. Mom and dad had 1 with news paper and a strip of left over wrapping.

Now for the start of Christmas things. Mskate and I have made a small tradition of going to the wild lights at the Detroit Zoo (read the other blogs here and here). For the most part, it was a lot of the same as previous years, so I won't retread everything (plus the pictures would be very similar as they were last times), but it was also different enough to warrant the new visit. So in the same vein I will try to showcase some similar but different. Once again we went to the restaurant that is close to the zoo beforehand, and then parked in double secret locals only free parking. A lot of the lights were similar, but were in different locations. Like last year there was a cool display on the side of the penguin exhibit, and there were cool animal lights.

One thing that was a little different were the beavers weren't completely in bed, so I got to see one swimming in the exhibit. Yay. The otter exhibit was also open, but they were all asleep. Oh well. I did get to see some reptiles at the reptile house because since they have heat lamps that need to stay on constantly they don't have the same kind of "we need to sleep" schedules like the mammals. We stopped at the artic café just to get our bearings and warm up a little, and I saw on the menu they had a "wild bacon stack." That got me excited, until I saw it was just a bacon cheese burger.

Oh well, I wasn't hungry anyway. We also saw this really cool "light decahedron" thing, that projected onto the ground and surrounding areas. There was also the "choreographed light field" where the lights danced to the music, which I think was there last year. Video of both below.

We also went to the wild life photography exhibit, which was really good. I can't show any images of it, because "no photography," but there were some really great images. One that really sticks out to me was one taken from the bottom of a lake looking up at the lake weeds to the surface of the water. It gave off this feeling of being in a forest looking up at the sky, but it was different because of the lake weed. We also bought some kettle corn, which was really good. After the zoo I hung out with her family for a little bit, then I went to my parents for the night.

Now for the festivities with my dad's side of the family, I spent the night because the next day (today) we were going to see my aunt and grandpa. The big gift I made for them was raspberry jam with my late grandma's last raspberries that have been sitting in my deep freeze for years. I made probably 4 different trial batches to make sure I figured out how to make jam, and from those trials I made jam for my family. I even strained out the seeds and pulp for my grandpa since seeds don't like him. Mom brought up how it was just like grandma picking out the onions from the beef broth because "I don't like onions." Some more fun was my cousin recently had a baby and we were able to facetime with them so everyone could see the new great granddaughter/great niece. We also set-up my aunt with the special photo sharing app they use, so she and grandpa can see the baby. It was a great little visit.

The 23rd was my "break day," and it wasn't a great day. Long story short, things broke down on me and I wasn't able to "rest." You can read the full story here. Back to fun.

It's December 24th, and it's time for Christmas with my mom's side of the grandparents. They paid for a lot of the things I bought for myself on black Friday, and I got them each a little gift. I also gave mskate half of her presents then, the clothes ones. They gave me candy, some movies, a cordless mini-vacuum, and Kingdom Hearts 3; and some scratch offs, but they also gave my brother and mskate the scratch offs too. I got mskate a yellow dress and pink fuzzy sweatshirt. She liked both of them. I got my grandma afresh dish washer cleaner with a build a bear gift card taped to it (she likes build a bear), and I got my grandpa afresh washing machine cleaner (no gift card). The reason I got her something else and not him is because we made grandpa's real gift a new 43 inch 4K TV. We realized his current TV stand was too small, so I'm trading him one of my TV stands. One of the funny things was since my mom worked for the mall Santa she was able to get the boxes that the "Santa Snow Sticks" came in (a little present for the kids after getting their picture taken). Since we were getting so many boxes grandpa kept asking "where did all these boxes come from?" and no matter how many times we explained, he still didn't get it.

We went to church afterwards for Christmas Eve mass and mskate went home to go to mass with her family. It was a Catholic Christmas Eve mass, nothing super special. After mass we went to the restaurant my grandparents always go to on Christmas Eve after mass. Normally my family has Chinese food, but my grandparents wanted us to join them this time. Normally drink orders aren't THAT interesting, but ever since I was of legal drinking age my grandparents insist I get a glass of wine when we go out because they know that's my alcohol of choice, even though wine is overpriced at restaurants, and most of the time I just plain don't want a glass of wine with my meal. Mom knew they were going to insist I have a glass of wine with dinner and that I shouldn't get it "because it's too expensive," and I told her "no worries because I don't want a glass of wine with dinner." Well that wasn't good enough for them because when I said "I'll just have water," "no [Pokematic], you can have a glass of wine, we're paying for it." "No, price isn't the problem, I just don't want a glass of wine." I had some difficulty figuring out what I wanted, because they have a very limited menu on holidays and nothing was really "speaking to me." The brisket sounded good, and had sides I would have liked (broccoli and a potato gratin). Initially when I said "I'll get the brisket," they said "oh no, you like prime rib don't you, get that instead," probably thinking "because it's cheaper that must mean it's inferior, and [Pokematic] is only looking at price." I said "no, the prime rib doesn't come with sides I want, and I like brisket as well." Well, as we were ordering our waitress got the message that they were out of brisket, so I reluctantly had a steak. I say "reluctantly," because it was an expensive cut I normally can't justify cooking to my liking (well done) and it came with sides I don't like (baked potato and asparagus). I asked if I could substitute, but unfortunately that wasn't an option. Well this put my grandma in a tizzy, "because I want my little boy to have food." She offered me her sides, and I had some difficulty explaining "that won't do me any good because you're getting the same sides I'm getting, which means I won't like those sides." I was able to trade with other people in my family though, because they preferred asparagus to broccoli and baked potato to gratin, and the steak was good, just not worth that much in my opinion.

My grandma got prime rib and ordered it medium well, and for some reason my grandpa wouldn't stop talking about "how it was cooked how she liked it," like she wasn't sure she would like it. Mom got frustrated because 5 minutes of "this is how you like it, this is good, they did it right," was getting annoying and obnoxious, like he was implying that it wasn't done right. Well after dinner and time to box everything up, grandma didn't want to take home the half of a prime rib she had left. For people that love food so much, they sure do struggle with the concept of left overs and finishing the good food you paid for at a later time. It's not like it was all cut up or anything that would "harm the structural integrity" or something, just "she didn't eat half of it" and it looked like a complete meal. Mom tried to explain "this is enough for a lunch or something, it's a good piece of meat," which to her meant "this is something you should give to your starving grandsons" (which for the record neither of us are starving). Well because she was adamant, my brother took it. Good to see some things never change.

My mom took my grandparents home after that and we put out the luminaries. My parent's neighborhood does this really cool thing where everyone gets 6 white paper bags and 6 tea candles with a little note that explains what to do, except for the people on the end of the blocks or with large lots who each get 10. I know this because my mom was block captain for 3 or 5 years and it was my job to assemble the kits. Anyways, the instructions are to fold the end of the bag over some to keep it open, put something in the bag to keep them upright (like rock salt or kitty litter), put the candle in the bag on the stabilizing material, and light the candle. We figured out that if you put the candles in a dixie cup they have a better chance of staying lit and make it easier to light them and put them in the bag. We made ours and the across the street neighbors. A day or 5 earlier I had to take apart the couch to look for something that fell in it, and I found one of my brother's lighters. I initially put it along with a pocket knife of his I found as well in his stocking as a gag, but then we needed it for the luminaries. Nothing more to say on that. I spent the night at my parents house just so I wouldn't have to drive all the way back to my place and all the way to my parents house in a 12 hour period.

Now for Christmas Day. I put my family's presents out the day before, and I wanted to make sure I got done before mass. It was kind of funny how eager I was to open presents, just like a kid. I got more candy and chocolates, movies, and super monkey ball on switch. I got my brother a pocket knife (which he added to his pocket immediately), a tactical flash light, and a frying pan. I got my mom parchment paper, chocolate chips, and oatmeal. I got my dad a grill cleaning thing and frying pan. Because I couldn't remember who I bought them for, I got my dad and brother a set of plastic beer glasses. I also got my mom and dad a year supply of foaming hand soap. Everyone enjoyed their practical gifts. My brother got my dad and I...well I'll just let the picture speak for itself.

He's going to email us amazon gift cards, and he wanted to have some fun with it. Next was mass. It was a good mass.

After that was Christmas with mskate's family. I bought IRA a target gift card and a star wars happy meal toy, and gave mskate the last of her gifts (an instant camera and accessories, and I Want To Eat Your Pancreas). Her family also got me some things, more candy/chocolate and Spiderman Far From Home. It was a re-gift since IRA got it and already had it, but that's OK with me. Her mom also gave each of us a kinder surprise egg, and it just so happened that each of our toys was just right for us (mskate got a little pony, I got a little bike, and IRA got a little alligator). I also had brunch with them, over easy eggs. After gifts mskate and I went to get her grandma from her assisted living facility. Getting her out of the assisted living, into my car, out of my car, and into their house was very similar to helping my grandparents. She even gave me a little card, which was really nice. After that I had to get back to my family festivities.

PepperBC and her family had already arrived, and it was fun catching up with them. They recently got new phones which means they're able to play Pokémon Go, and Aunt K is really into it. Apparently we had some pokemon in our front yard, so she was playing when she came in. A little bit later my grandparents showed up, and we had to help get them into the house. It was just like earlier today. Not too much later their friends showed up with the accordion and pies. We basically spent 2 hours hanging out and then it was time for dinner; ham and pulled pork, with green beans, corn, rolls, and mashed potatoes. I had it all except for the mashed potatoes (because I don't like mashed potatoes). We all had to squish into the dining room table, and my grandpa and I didn't get to use the good China since we can't be trusted with it.

After dinner mskate joined us for dessert and sing along. I had 2 slices of pie, 1 lemon meringue and 1 chocolate, and 1 scoop of ice cream. That was about as much as I could afford to eat. After dessert we had our sing along, singing various different Christmas tunes like we do every year. After the sing along my great aunt called and wished my grandma and grandpa a happy birthday. While she was talking to them mom got her present for mskate and I. She got us matching warm ponchos. It's a cute little couples thing for us. Not to much longer it was time to open birthday presents for my grandpa, because he's a Christmas baby. It was a fun little time. Then there was some fun excitement with my grandpa getting a major cramp in his leg. He stood up and then it was crazy pain. He felt really embarrassed over how he couldn't do much and needed us to hold him up. After 5 minutes of holding him up I told someone-anyone to get the walker. We got him to the good chair and had him rehydrate. It wasn't very good. Mom got them home, PepperBC and her family got headed out, my grandparents friends got headed out, and I got headed out.

The 26th and 27th weren't much to talk about. I wrote a "your 3 minutes" blog for the 26th. On the 27th I went to see Star Wars Episode 9 (read review here) and went grocery shopping. I made the mistake of going grocery shopping when hungry, so I bought $180 worth of food on sale, saving $50. I also had to figure out which TV stand I could give to my grandpa for his new TV. I realized my garage TV stand would be perfect (right size, can hold the cable box and DVD player, and grandma's knick-knack decorations).

Now for the final "Christmas" event on the 28th. Mskate and I went to see Frozen 2, dad and I set-up grandpa's new TV and TV stand, and hold our Christmas party with my mom's best friend and her family. Frozen 2 was really good. I saw it already but mskate hadn't, and she really enjoyed it too. The TV went well. Grandma was worried that a new stand wouldn't be able to hold her knick-knacks, but when we brought the stand in and started setting it up she was happy. It was a little difficult to explain "no, you're getting this new stand and I'm taking the old one," but eventually they understood. The TV was also a little difficult for grandpa since he couldn't use the cable remote on his TV, so I ended up doing the "put tape over the buttons you don't use" thing. Now for the final party. It was a pretty calm event, basically everyone hanging out and talking. We had pizza for dinner and leftover sweets for desert. We also did a little gift exchange where I got a "make your own bouncy balls" kit, and I'm going to have fun with that. After gifts it was getting late. I drove mskate home and we said our goodbyes.

And there you have it, Christmas 2019. I guess I also saw zeldamaster93 on the 29th, but all we did was get pizza, give each other gift cards, and hang out for like 2 hours. All in all it was a really fun time. 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.

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.

The Wild Lights at the Zoo

Hey everyone. So I guess every year at my local zoo they set-up a light exhibit where you walk around half the zoo and see all the lights in the shape of animals and other cool things. Mskate suggested we do this since it's a fun thing. We were going to do it the weekend before Christmas, but due to scheduling issues and whether, we decided to go the weekend after Christmas. Here's the little adventure that it was.

So I go over to her house and we got ready to head over to the zoo. She lives rather close, so we drove to to her "locals secret free parking" place. On out way there we saw a woman drive slowly by the fence getting the "side-line free show" from the back streets of the suburb that's next to the zoo. It was a small walk, but it saved us $7, plus it allowed us to get this picture.

Yeah, it's not dark enough to see it yet. Oh well. It wasn't time yet. There were 2 ways to buy tickets; pre-order in advance for a specific time, or same day on wait. We did same day on wait. I'm REALLY glad I brought my credit card because mskate just brought cash, and the only way to get our tickets was with credit card at the automated kiosk. She reimbursed me after I bought both of our tickets. So, now we play the waiting game. It was kind of cold, so I'm glad I wore warm clothes. Well, except gloves, and that's why I kept my hands in my pockets when I could. They separated us "at will" people from the "in advance" people.

 It wasn't fun on the other side of the barricade.

We were at the front of the line because we were paying attention to where we had to go. It was still about 15 minutes before they let us in after they let everyone else in. We just chatted and got caught up while we waited for it to get dark and be let in. But then they let us in, and it was great. We gave the ticket people our tickets, and mskate was a little upset they didn't let us keep our ticket stubs because she scrap books, and wanted to use this in her scrap booking. I did get her a map since they were only going to give me one. She also saw the "prism glasses that make the lights rainbows" and all that. She wanted one, but since this wasn't my first "vendor event," I knew those glasses would cost extra, and I was right. She didn't want them knowing they cost extra. Once we walked in we were greeted with this large, decorated tree. I got a nice photo with it.

After seeing the light tree, we saw some cool lights. Like these.

(In the future, all pictures without me will be uploaded to myspace)

It was already really pretty, but it felt weird not going to the butterfly house or penguin house. But outside the penguin house, I got this picture with a penguin statue.

After the penguin, I took this short video while walking.
Check out this cool tree light set-up.

After the tree the path had all these lights. Some of which were animated, like these.

They also had other animals. Here's a fun picture of me "petting" the light elephant and "hugging" the light hippo.

We walked down the path and saw a lot of cool lights. Mskate was walking faster than I did, so I kept having to tell her to slow down. I felt like I was with a younger me since "[Pokematic] slow down and enjoy the scenery" was something I heard a lot as a kid. lol. After walking through this cool walkway thing, (pictured below) we came up to a "rest area and giant slide" area.

We didn't do the large slide, because that was extra. Also, we were a little big for it. Well, I was a little big for it. Mskate could probably just make it, but still, extra. The rest area was a converted picnic area with drinks (including beer), crafts for the kids, pictures with Santa (who wasn't there since it was after Christmas), and a couple places to sit. We didn't stay to long, but I did get this funny picture of me "warming my hands" with a giant candle light.

It gave of a small amount of heat, but it was just a light bulb. It made a good goof though. However, outside the rest area we did find an actual gas heater. We warmed our hands by that for a couple minutes. It wasn't to far before we got to the "organizations and motion simulator" building. It was open so we could warm up, use the bathroom, and optionally ride the motion-simulator. We didn't ride the motion-simulator because, extra. We warmed up and took in what we just saw. Outside there was this cool "dancing lights" with the lights on the pillars changing with the music playing. Check it out.


That was cool. Outside the building there were some more animated lights, but these were of dinosaurs, particularly pterodactyls. Here's a gif of it and a video with me making pterodactyl noises.

Not to much farther did we come to the big fountain. Because it was winter the water was drained and not flowing. Oh well. It still looked cool at night.

If I had some change with me I would have thrown a coin into the empty fountain because that's what I did all the time as a kid. It was nice. After the fountain we walked a little further and saw some more lights. We also found a warming fire barrel. I warmed up by it. I was regretting not bringing gloves.

We saw some more lights (pics available on myspace). Then we saw this cool dancing lights and animated ball. Oh man was this cool. Video below.
A little more down the way, we found this wolf emblem lights thing. Here's me "howling" with the wolf.

Yeah. At this point we were approaching the end of the walkway into the zoo. This is where the polar bears and main zoo cafe was. The cafe was closed, as well as the polar bears. But we did see this cute little polar bear light statue.

Mskate wanted her picture with it, so I took her picture with it on her phone. At this point we reached as far into the zoo as we could. Everything was blocked off. We saw some more lights, and stopped by a chimp exhibit. This wasn't the BIG chimp exhibit, but it was one of them. Unfortunately the chimps weren't out, because it was past their bed-time. However, I got a funny picture of me at the little statue.

Yeah, it's fun to goof and have someone to take the pictures. As we walked, we came across these fun barricades. I got behind one and acted out what the scene was.

You're not supposed to go beyond them (and we didn't), but it doesn't cause much harm to walk directly behind it and take a picture. As we walked on we came to the other side of the animated ball. I tried to have Mskate take one of those "forced perspective" tourist shots of me "holding" the ball, but that kind of failed.

Yeah. Oh well, she isn't into camera work like I am. We continued to walk and see some more lights; some new and some from a different perspective (pics available on myspace). We missed this on our first viewing, so I got this picture of me with a light T-Rex.

I'm trying to mount it lol. We saw some more lights, but then we got to the reptile house. If I'm remembering a zoo overnight with the cub scouts properly, zoo mammals have specific bed times and are conditioned to know their bed times and sleep inside during the night so they are more active outside during the day. Zoo reptiles, however, don't have bed times because their constant heat lamps, permanent enclosures, and general lethargic nature allows people to see them at night without disturbing them. These reasons probably aren't completely correct, but we were able to see them at 7PM, long after all the other animals were asleep. Here's me riding the brass turtle statue.

I tried to take some pictures, of the animals, but the lens kept fogging up. Oh well. I really enjoyed it, but then again I really enjoy reptiles. Mskate however, didn't like it all that much, because she doesn't like reptiles all that much I guess. She enjoyed the warm though, and so did many others since it was warm in there. I did get this funny picture of me with a cobra statue.

After I took my picture there was a dad that wanted a picture with it. His son was afraid of it though, and thought the snake was going to bite him. Kind of funny. We left the exhibit and saw some more lights. We stopped at the otter house because it was warm. Mskate was all "why are we here, the otters aren't even out?" It was warm though, and made for a good "disappointed goof" picture.

After the otters there were more lights, and these cool animated frog lights by the amphibian exhibit. Here's a gif of it.

After the frogs we saw a lot more lights (see on Myspace). Near the end there were these construction penguins for their new penguin exhibit. Here are some pictures of me goofing with the penguin lights.

This now brings us to the butterfly house. We're right close to the enterance. I did see this sparkly rain deer, and tried to take some video. I realized I was filming vertically, so enjoy this little banter.


That was mostly it. Here's a picture of the exit.

It was cool, and once we got out of the main gate, I got a good picture of the entrance.

That was really fun. I'm really glad Mskate suggested that we do this. Sure, it was cold, but we saw a bunch of cool lights for cheep. It's also been a while since I've been to the zoo. It was fun to hang out again, so that was fun. I think we might have to do this again next year, but we'll make sure to order our tickets in advance. Make sure you check out the myspace gallery for all the pictures. Well, this has been Pokematic, signing off, and bu-bye.