How I Spent my Spring Vacation

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[vlog coming soon]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.