Holiday Highlights
November 25th, 2006Sidenote: Ahem, it takes great skill to begin with a side note. If you are reading this via a reader, I suggest you pop on over and check out the site — I made some noteable updates. 
Big thanks to db who provides my personal tech support. He’s really good and barely laughes when I take the whole site down because of a newbie error and call him.
Now onto the important updates of the weekend thus far.
Um, do I need to say more? Yes, that is a Thanksgiving meal made by ME and eaten by Prince, Duke and ME. Oh yes it was yummy. Yes, the leftovers are gone. And finally, there was pie at the end of the meal. Oh, yes, I rocked Thanksgiving. It was also served on my grandmother’s china — which not only meets my birthday wish, it also is my FIRST meal I used the good china!! For a photo with notes (oh, yes, I’m learning the joys of Flickr) click here.
Thanksgiving night ended with Prince running out to join the crowds for an early Black Friday opening of CompUSA. By early I mean, opened at 9pm on Thanksgiving. While he did ok, he had fun people watching in the chaos. I’ll let him share his “joy” in his own forum.
On Black Friday, I was overcome by holiday spirit and decided that one of the big outings Duke and I were going to do was SHOPPING. There were a few times of thinking “What was I thinking?” But overall it was a good experience. Mind you I went to two places, Office Depot and Target. By the time I decided to go out, the crazies at 5am were fast asleep and yet I still got in on many “doorbuster sales” at Target. My local Target was very tame, though I have to wonder what drug they pump into the toy section that causes people to completely loose their minds. In less than 10 minutes in *THAT* section, I saw the following:
- An empty shopping cart, save a small boy younger than Duke, diagonal in a Main Aisle (in the WAY). There was no adult anywhere to be found. The child was unphased by his alone state. However, it caused me to slow and watch to see if a parent type would return. Am I the only person in the world who is shocked it was almost 2 full minutes before an adult came to move the cart. I hope this adult belongs to this child.
- An empty and abandoned Target version lark parked blocking an aisle opening. What makes this violation of the “Laws of the Shopping Carts” worse is that there this aisle opening was directly across from the display of the new video game Wii — and thus drew a crowd. (I’m betting the lark user was standing playing the Wii, but that’s just me.) This left a SINGLE cart width to pass on the main aisle between electronic and toys. As I stood waiting my turn on this new one-cart bridge, the mother who had the “right of way” chose THAT moment to stop and chat with her friend BEHIND HER.
- I stopped to look at something in the Toy Department. I was actually pushed out the way by (you might want to sit down for this one) an infant carrier. Yes, some mother actually used her infant carrier to push me out of her way. I should note that this store had NONE of the hot toys — where she was hurrying off to, I have no idea.
- Items 1 -3 all took place in the toy department. Now the fine folks at Target put all the super cheap items in a less travelled area with good aisle space to get around. I was actually able to walk down that area with next to no incidents, save one woman who was moving too slow for Duke’s taste.
- I now declare shopping for Christmas is done for Duke and Prince.
Finally, I pull into the driveway after the shopping adventure to find two boxes for me. One of them is present for Duke. The other one is HUGE. Hmm, what did I order, I think. I check the tag it reads for “Prince” — oh, ok, probably my gift from him. I bring it inside and don’t think anything about it. Duke takes his nap and I head downstairs to get some work done — only then do I see that the box has the brand of what’s inside. Let’s just say, I got a ROBOT! He’s been plugged in since yesterday, already he has cleaned the kitchen, the living room, Duke’s room (which can I just say it is great motivation to clean your room so the robot can come in), and the hallway. Thus far, I’m thrilled!! However, I hate to say that the animals have mixed reviews. Two are thrilled and two run for the hills.
Now I have a new challenge — naming the robot. I SO want to call him Robbie — but that seems SO pedestrian. I’m taking suggestions for our little robot, please help.
db:
November 26, 2006 at 1:09 am
shopping? The weekend after thanksgiving? Wow, that’s pretty strong. Why do you think I spent most of the afternoon assisting you? hehe
Name for a robot? I think Jefferson would be a right proper name for the mechanical vacuum. Or maybe Horatio.
Niki:
November 26, 2006 at 2:43 pm
OK, well for this I had to turn to the handy dandy Cyborg name decoder http://cyborg.namedecoder.com/ . “Snark” brings up Synthetic Networked Android Responsible for Killing. Perhaps that’s a bit much. “Queen” brings up Quantum Unit Engineered for Explorations and Nullification. Of dust, dirt, and hair, perhaps? Or “Queenie” - Quantum Unit Engineered for Efficient Nullification and Immediate Exploration.
From me of course - Networked Immediate Killing Individual. And for fun, check out Duke - Digital Unit Keen on Exploration - perfect!