In the black?

Why oh why did I venture into Toys R' Us today? Because of a birthday girl. Jonathan is going to a party for a classmate tomorrow and we hadn't had a chance to pick up her gift until today. What a mistake.

As we pulled into the parking lot of the mostly vacant strip mall that Toys R' Us resides in, Dave and I knew we shouldn't have waited until the infamous Black Friday to go birthday present shopping. Then on the other hand we thought we would be getting a great deal on an otherwise overpriced toy or game. We would usually go to Walmart as they have most of the same merchandise that is popular with the kiddo's. But Walmart BF would have probably been a really bad idea.

We parked and actually got a pretty good spot so we were thinking that maybe the crowds have past and we were going to breeze through the store. (are you laughing at us yet?) As we entered the store we stopped for just a second to glance at the beginning of point disaster. With each step we took there were more and more piles of toys and games and action figures and whatever else had been tossed from a shelf to the floor. The end caps were loaded with "deals" that were not very good. It was obvious that anything they actually had with a reduced price, was already gone and the rest was just full priced merchandise that the stores had and probably hoping people would buy as well. But really, I have never seen such mayhem and disorder. Employees were telling customers that needed direction to a product that they had no idea where it was because everything was so misplaced. The price scanners on the wall were not working so there was no way you could tell the price of something unless you took it to a register. Some toys were out of boxes and you had to step over things just to keep from tripping over something else.

I saw the news about what was happening today in other areas. Some news so horrible it doesn't need to be repeated. And in other places reports of people getting a deal on a TV for over $400 off. Of course those people have been in line since Wednesday. And they really were too! Jonathan and I spent our day at Colour Me Mine and Barnes & Noble in Costa Mesa on Wednesday once I was off work. There is a Best Buy there and there they were. The people lining up for the sale that would happen 2 days later. Knowing they would be missing Thanksgiving they still put their tents up and waited. According to the news channel that was out there early this morning, people were taking shifts to be sure they wouldn't loose their place in line. I would never do that. Funny thing is, many of the same deals went online yesterday at 10pm Pacific. But then again, many things sold out FAST! I went on to Walmart.com last night at about 10:05 and the Motorola Blue Tooth ear thingy was already sold out. It was marked down to $18. See, that's a deal! Last year I did get in line at Walmart at about 4 am. It was fun and I got a few good deals. I probably would have done it again but truthfully I didn't have the money this year.

At Toys R Us we did finally end up with a game for the birthday girl. The original Mystery Date game. It wasn't marked down, not even a cent. But it's something she'll enjoy. So I wonder if the stores will actually be in the black after today?

TGIF

It's Friday! WHOO-HOO! This week has been a very short one. It went by so fast. And I can't even believe it's almost Thanksgiving and then Hanukkah and Christmas.

I haven't been blogging so much lately because I really don't have anything interesting to say. The days have been so much around getting Hey, That's Gourmet up and running that I haven't really thought about much else. We have advertising on Google and Yahoo now. If you search through many different words such as Brownies, Browniepop, truffles, even football you may see out little ad come up.

Dave still works at AAA and his and everyone else in customer service that is "technically" part-time actually can only get part-time hours until whenever. Dave's supervisor said he just needs to hang in there and it'll change back to where he can work 40 hours a week even thought he's a part-timer. So he's been doing just that. Also about Dave, his shoulder is getting better through physical therapy. I don't want to mention his seizures because I don't want to jinx him.

Jonathan has been great too! He reads really well now and will read a chapter book over one with a bunch of pictures. He is also still a stellar speller. But an angel he is not. He received a detention 2 weeks ago for throwing an eraser at a classmate during reading time. He said the child irritated him pretty bad before class and he was still mad at him but he still should not have thrown that eraser. He learned from it so I guess the detention was fine. But on the other hand he has never done anything like that and I would have appreciated the teacher just giving him a verbal warning. Nobody should get detention on a first offense.

Tomorrow we are participating in another boutique selling our chocolates and sadly it's the last one we are scheduled for. I was hoping to find another one before Christmas. If anyone knows of a boutique still accepting vendors on any weekend day except December 13th please let me know. I would love to be able to have one more chance before Christmas.

To my sister, I hope the conference goes well and you get to relax soon.

For all of you that have a blog that I read I will be sure to read them today. Sorry I've been so bad about that. It's just been CRAZY!

Have a great Friday!