Author: Jere

For those of you not keeping track (and why aren’t you), Becky has posted a couple of updates to her blog since we’ve been back from AZ. One of them has a few pictures from our adventures in the month of May. And not to fear, I am going to work on getting her 72-odd AZ pictures posted online soon for all to peruse.

So the kids are home from school for the 2nd straight day. It’s like really cold or something here. After an unusually warm December with only a tiny hint of snow, the start of February is starting to remind me of my Montana days. It’s 0º F right now at 10:30a. The high today is supposed to be around 15º, which will be the first time we’ve even been in double digits in 4 or 5 days. Yesterday when I left for work, it was -10º with -22º wind chill. I love it, when are you all coming to visit?

Anyway, schools are all closed because of the temperatures. Yesterday part of the problem was that half the busses wouldn’t even start in the morning. We’ve been pretty lucky as we’ve had no problems with either of the cars. I think I’m the only one in the family who doesn’t mind when it’s this cold though. Becky and Ashlee are ready to move today I think. Nick probably doesn’t mind the cold though since he’s just been hanging out with a friend playing both Lego Star Wars games.

Happy birthday to everyone’s favorite brother down South. He’s actually lucky enough to have his birthday on a p-day (I think). Enjoy, and don’t get too carried away today!

Ever since the Wal-Mart debacle of ’97, Becky and I usually refrain from participating in the post Thanksgiving Day ritual “Black Friday”. We got up really, really early that morning only to view first hand the utter chaos that is 5am at Wal-Mart the day after Thanksgiving when advertised specials “inadvertently” leave out the “only 1 of this item will be available per store” small print in their flyer. Since then I have never re-entered myself in the only 1 item available at this insane price competition. And I think Becky has one done it only once since that time, getting little baby Nick a bouncing Tigger early one morning at a KB’s (after the literal hustle and bustle and barely escaping with her life).

It’s usually not too difficult to restrain ourselves from the desire to take part, as usually at Thanksgiving we are visiting with family somewhere other than our own home and we just send them out while we “watch/sleep” the kids. But we were at home this year, and after putting the kids to bed after a great Thanksgiving, Becky was poring over the Friday ads. There were several things that caught her eye (enter the dreaded just run don’t keep walking into that room where you know the killer/monster is music here). I started getting the “vibe” that she felt like enough time had past, and we weren’t visiting with family, and that she was actually considering going out and trying to snag some of the deals. I felt concerned for her because we definitely weren’t up to subjecting our innocent children to the mayhem, so that meant that one of us would have to fly solo into the maelstrom (probably Becky as my resolve to refrain from participation was much stronger than Becky’s at this point).

Seeing how some of the deals involved a couple of “male” favorites (Circuit City, Staples), and doing what I hope any concerned husband would do, I offered to get up really early, hit the electronics, then come home and Becky could go out and hit the rest of the stores. Becky thought that sounded like a good idea. So good in fact that the idea quickly turned into “since you’re going to be up and about anyway, you might as well hit the other stores while your out too”. And before I could fully comprehend what was taking place, I was shown a stack of advertisements with items she wanted to try and get circled for me, and she went to bed. Uh, what just happened here?

With most stores opening up at 5, my original plan was to get up around 5 or 5:30ish. Having showered the night before, I crawled out of bed with messy hair, put my contacts in, threw a knit cap over my bed-head, armed myself with the cell phone, my wallet, my mp3 player, and a cherry dum-dum pop, and was out the door in less than 5 minutes. Time, about 6:55am. Temperature about 25 degrees. First stop, Circuit City, since it was the closest (I could have walked to it).

I pulled up to the entrance and saw a line outside almost a block long. I mistakenly took these for the PS3 suckers since I figured at a full 2 hours after opening, there’s no way this could be the line to get in. Going up to one of the “guards” (some poor regular schlup relegated to exterior crowd control), it was confirmed. That semi-six-flags-esque line was the line to get in. You’ve got to be kidding me, nothing in that store could be that worth it.

This fell out of the realm of my willingness, so I hopped back into the car and headed to stop number two, Staples. As you might guess, pulling into the Staples parking lot I was presented with yet another line outside the store of people waiting to get in. This line was only about half the length of Circuit City’s, but since any exterior line is outside of my jurisdiction, I didn’t even park the car, I just headed over to stop number 3.

My spirits rose a little as I pulled into the Target parking lot about 7:20am. Things didn’t seem to be very severe from outside as the parking lot was not chaotic and it was very easy to find a spot near the entrance. As I walked through the doors though I noticed the line to check out went about 3/4 the length of the store and about 1/2 it’s width. But determined to give Target it’s fair chance (it is one of our favorite retail places to shop), I headed to item 1 on the Target list. On the way I saw that item 1 on the Circuit City list was even $4 less here so I grabbed one (Becky would be proud and thank you CC for not managing the flow of people).

The only item on the Target list was abundantly available in multiple colors. Uh, nobody mentioned multiple colors. Now what? It was too early to call Becky at home, so I made an educated guess (which worked out well) and headed to check out. Target has a ton of check-out lines and they were all open so the one big line was now a manageable line. Better yet, there was no line at one of the express lanes.

Right next to Target was stop number 4, Meijer. For those non-midwesterners, think of a Super-Target or one of those Wal-Marts with attached grocery store. The Meijer parking lot was less full than even a regular shopping day. Once inside though I realized why, as most of the items had long since been cleaned out. I did find item 2 on the Circuit City list for the same price so I picked that up as well as another deal for an item that wasn’t on any list. I only had to wait for 1 person at the self check-out lanes. Even though the few small items on our Meijer list were already gone, it was another smooth visit (better than a normal visit to Meijer).

Stop 5 was Lowe’s, and it was just across the street. Again, ample parking, and the one item on the Lowe’s list was readily available just as you walked in the entrance and check out was only a short wait. So the last 3 stores turned out to be very productive with no fuss.

Lowe’s was supposed to be the last stop for me, but since it was only about 8:45am, I decided to give Staples and Circuit City one last try. The external line was gone when I pulled in to Staples. As I walked into the store, they were giving out “tickets” for the items on sale. If you got a ticket you were guaranteed your item. I got a ticket for each of the two items on the Staples list and headed for the check-out line which ended at the back of the store. They were very up front about letting us know that it was about a 45 minute wait to check out. No one was actually shopping as everyone was in line. The Staples employees were nice enough to actually do your shopping for you while you waited in line. Just tell them what you wanted and they would bring it to you. True to their word, almost 45 minutes later I was checked out.

Becky called while I was in line at Staples and I let her know things hadn’t been too bad so far and that I was going to try Circuit City then come home. The line outside CC was gone when I parked, but inside was total chaos. You could not find anything. Stuff was there, you just couldn’t find anything through the mass of people. It took about 15 minutes just to navigate myself to where the only remaining item on the CC list was located. There were people taking naps in aisles (never a good sign). I found what I was looking for, and another item and got into a check out line (I think).

The problem with Circuit City is they have check out counters scattered throughout the store. So you don’t actually find one, you have to be actually lucky enough to stumble upon one. Then finding the end to that particular one is another 5 mile trek snaking through aisles. The line I was in was going slower than the wait for a woman’s restroom at a sporting event. Me and a couple of folks near me in line were envying another line that seemed to be actually moving.

After almost 45 minutes of standing still (well, I think I did move about 2 or 3 feet), me and a few of my cohorts jumped to the line we’d been eyeing for a while. We even attracted a few from another line not too far from us. Fifteen minutes later I was headed for the car, my work was done.

I walked in the door at home at about 10:30am. It wasn’t too bad an experience. I was able to get more deals than I thought I would even though I actually waited in check-out lines longer than I actually spent shopping. And what did I learn from this experience? Next year we’re traveling for Thanksgiving, and Circuit City is on the never set foot in the day after Thanksgiving list (Wal-Mart and Best Buy are the current residents of that list).

We’ve all done it before, locked ourselves out of our vehicle/home. I remember when we first moved out here locking my keys in the trunk one day after work. Becky had to drive 35 minutes to come and save me. Well today it happened to Becky. She was loading Ashlee (to take her to preschool) and Frankie (to get his nails trimmed) in the car when she remembered she needed Frankie’s immunization records. She back in the house, grabbed the paperwork, and ran back out leaving her keys by the door.

Luckily our neighbor was home so she could call and leave me a message. While she was waiting for me, she managed to get one of the windows open but realized she probably wouldn’t be able to get in anyway. So she came up with the brilliant plan to let Ashlee do it. So she lifted Ashlee up, put her through the window, and in no time at all Ashlee had the front and the back doors open. She’s turning out to be pretty nifty to have around in those situations.

I asked Ashlee about it later after coming home from work and she just brushed it off like it was something she does everyday. I though it was pretty funny.