Black Friday...

Man oh man, was that tiring or what??? We left to go at 4am. I swear they are opening up earlier and earlier for those crazy sales. We got to Walmart at 4:15, so officially 45 minutes of anxious shoppers, just counting down the minutes to checkout. The lines were huge when we arrived and only got longer. I maneuvered quite easily through the madness though, I played it smart and didn't grab a cart. I was wandering around the electronics/photo center. There was a kodak camera 6.1 megapixel camera I was considering at a whopping $199. It wasn't that I needed it, I just want a camera that sits in my glove box for those moments you can't plan. My 20d is far too bulky to carry at all times. I thought about leaving the rebel under my chair in the van, but I honestly don't trust anyone, I'd hate to be out my digi rebel even if it is just my backup. People just suck, you can't trust anyone.

Anyway, I was standing around when they unloaded the pallet of kodaks and I still had 15 minutes to go. My brother was standing around with me, my mom had already gone to the car. To buy or not to buy... Well since I was there :oP I waited out the few minutes and grabbed one up and picked up a 256mb sd card for 13.88? It's all good. There was a woman who was crowding out the line to check out and she hadn't even gotten her stuff yet. I hate that. I, of course, asked the checkout lady to ring my stuff up as I was handing it to her. I could feel the woman burning a hole in the side of my head, but I really didn't care. I had places to go, money to spend. I quickly swiped my card and was swiftly making my way through the gobs of people. I was stopped at the door to make sure I paid for what I was walking out with, which took maybe 7 seconds and I was on my way. 5:04, we hit the freeway. That's not too shabby, considering it takes a minute to get to the freeway. So 3 minutes after the big announcement (on your marks get set go!) we were headed to our next stop.

5:17 we drive by Best Buy, oooooh heck no. People are in line just to get into the place and they'd been open for 17 minutes. I was looking for mp3 players for my girls, just little cheapo ones, I didn't want to make a huge investment unless they really like them. Okay, next stop ToysRUs... well that makes it easy they don't open until 6. Off to Walgreen's, they have cheapo mp3's there, a little tooooo cheap though I still didn't get them. We waste too much time at Walgreen's and the goofy part is, their sale didn't start until 7!!! They had other sales though, good ones for wrapping paper and foil gift tags. (buy one get two free or something like that!) Good deal, but we were missing out. My mom went through the other checkout line and the lady was VERY concerned my mom's tags weren't ringing up on sale. UGH! Anyhow, $1.07 & 10 minutes later it's 6:05. Target is already open and we aren't there. LOL

We fixed that shortly though. My mom dropped us off right at the front door, again I didn't grab a cart. (actually I needed one here.) Here I wanted a printer dock for my girls and another kodak cam for cub1, cub2 already has a kodak digi. I quickly grab all the dvd's that were advertised and looked of any interest to me. (simpson's season w/homer's head, not sure what number :OP, family guy season 3 I think, but lot of good that did, we already have it, and Lost season 1, and sex and the city season 6 part 2 :o) I am running out of space here already and don't have the camera or the dock. I grabbed the camera printer dock a couple aisles over then I hurried to the counter and waited in line, the camera was in the back of the counter. Woohooooo! I'm done. Or so I thought.

Hubby wanted me to get the Tumbling Tigger, and cub2 wanted the operation game. So I head off to the toy department, still no cart. I grab all the stuff plus a battleship game for cub1 and head back up to the front of the store. I am about ready to drop all the items, every which way and my brother came to the rescue!! Yay! We're outta there. We hit the checkout line for 10 items or less and turn around, there's mom at the other lane. Oh the timing. We have been doing this so long together I think it's down to a science. This was my brother's first year. Only time will tell if he got hooked or not.

By this time it is not quite 6:30 and we are headed across town to Shopko, still looking for an mp3 player or 3 :oP We luck out and get a parking spot right up front. Again, no cart. I go in and grab the last mp3 player for $99 (half off) for hubby. (shhh... he doesn't know LOL) Actually it was just a stupid little tag that had the price and the numbers/barcode on it. So I basically paid for a piece of paper. I paid 9.99 a pc. for 3 movies (that travelling pants movie, fever pitch w/Drew Barrymore, and Constantine.) Not really for anyone in general, but it was a good price. We were stuck waiting for them to bring me that player for about 10 minutes, I would have been upset, but I'm nearing my imaginary guesstimate of how much I wanted to spend by this time. Again, my mom is already in the car, man is she quick~ :o) They bring it out and we fight our way out through the crowds again.

My mom then asks if we want to go eat since that's what we do every year, only the restaurant changes. After a quick breakfast, we were across the way from the other walmart and it is not even 8 yet, so the sale is still on. So wtheck, we go again. I picked up some more 256mb cards and a dvd player/recorder for $68. Not sure if that is something we even needed, but oh well.

I was so dang tired by the end of that though, all I could do was come home and sleep. It wasn't the shopping or the getting up early part it was the getting to bed so late factor. I didn't get to sleep until 2:30 and had my alarm set for 3:45. That is just plain stupid. Fun, but stupid.

I was supposed to go out with hubby and make his 2nd print today. He went alone and it is done, turned out quite well. I'm really excited to be giving the business a little boost like that. He has 2 orders to fill right now, so I guess that makes my spending a little easier to swallow.

To top all of that, I got a new cell phone (motorola v276) and a new printer (epson 2200) The price on the two was just too good to pass up, so I don't feel screwed LOL. I still have to figure out the printer, unfortunately my computer froze while charging the inks, so it doesn't recognize them. It's a huge printer though. It oughta help out with the biz quite a bit. We have an art fair coming up on dec. 9th and we will be printing our own greeting cards with hubby's designs on the front. They are pretty good sellers though, at least they are for the people who are helping "boost" our biz.

Well that's it for now. I'm sure I'll find more to blabber about later, so until then I'm outta here.