Back Friday

I usually avoid the stores like the plague on this weekend, but my mom and I saw a couple things in the Target ad that would be worth the hassle. Jen finds out that I am going to attempt to shop and adds to the list. So I have a total of 4 things to get. Two things for mom for presents, a v-smile game for William and to look at a new digital camera for me. I set the alarm for 5:30 with the attempt to get to Target by 6:00am-ish. I figure if I slept through the alarm that it wouldn't be any big deal. Of course not getting to bed until almost 2:00am made that a huge possibility. So the first I hear the alarm is 6:00am. I get up, throw on my clothes and a hat and head out the door. Target it not the far of a drive for me (thank God) so I am there at about 6:15. As I pull into the parking lot, it is filled all the way to the McDonalds parking lot. I find a spot in this little known side parking lot next to the store and head in. It is a madhouse. There are no carts at all available. Of course the biggest crowd is back in electronic where I want to go as well. All along the way they have pallets fulls of merchandise at pretty good prices, but I am there for 4 things only and to get out. I fight my way to the back of the store past people with carts (I don't know how they are able to maneuver through that crowd) and past the display with $4 DVD's. The first thing I look for is mom's items. A TV and cordless phones. Everything near the TV's is gone but I hear that they have another pallet in the Men's dept, so I head back over there... nothing...crap I am 0 for 1. I head to the cordless phone area and there is a huge hole where the phones were.... crap I am 0 for 2. I head to the v-smile area so see a bare shelf...crap I am 0 for 3. I go up to the counter to ask about the digital camera where the guy working the counter picks one of the top of a HUGE pile behind the counter.. so I am 1 for 4. I decide to walk all over the store just in case they have stacked the other stuff I needed someplace else. That and occasionally they would wheel out more merchandise, so I decided to hang out in case they brought more out. I saw that someone had one of those TV's in her cart and asked if it was the last one. She told me it wasn't, but she did see the last one go a little after 6:00am. While I was walking around I notice that there is a huge line at the back of the store. I decided to see what they were waiting to get (and to see if I wanted one too) and soon realize that this is the line to the checkout at the FRONT of the store. Crap. Is waiting in this line really worth a $84 digital camera. But I remembered that they were checking people out back in electronics and there were only like 4 or 5 people in line. So I head back and get checked out pretty quick. Overall I would have to say I have done Black Friday once, and unless there is something I REALLY REALLY REALLY want, or able to get a good deal on, I won't be doing that again.
After I left the store I decided to head up to grab some Tom's Doughnuts at the Higher Grounds coffee house on Dupont. I grabbed a dozen and headed home and waited for everyone else to wake up. After breakfast and general merriment, the Q's packed up and left to visit some friends in town. Jen had to go into work. And I just stayed around the house. We decided to have a get together with friends that night, so I threw together some of Carrie's cookies while Andrew was down for his nap. Around 8:00 or so Jeff and Paula showed up. Then Kevin and Lisa (who were also in town) showed up. So we sat around and visited while the kids ran all over the house. We finally got kids to bed around 10:30 again and the party kinda broke up after that too. Jen got home around 11:30, so we ended up sitting around and visiting till 1:30am again. I was planning on doing something early Saturday morning so again this was a good idea. Next... Saturday Thing