Bike odometer: 483 miles
Weight lost: 49 lbs.
Hours of sleep last night: 9
Hours billed last week: 20
Current reading: The Prince by Machiavelli, Against All Enemies by Richard A. Clarke
Recent listening: Recent Tracks from last.fm
Recent viewing: Chiefs at Colts, Spartans at Hawkeyes, Kingdom Hospital, Man vs. Wild
Recent playing: Wii Sports, ExciteTruck
Recently accomplished: Best of 2006, cleaned and lubed bike, re-installed applications on Graham’s computer, added memory to Tina’s computer, a little garage cleaning, dried most of the van carpet
Imperative To Do: Pinewood derby cars, call mechanic, RMA old Tivo drive, re-partition Thomas’ hard drive, finish drying van carpet, vacuum van carpet
Cool Link: History of Religion (in 90 seconds)
Vital Statistics
Bike odometer: 478 miles
Weight lost: 50 lbs.
Hours of sleep last night: 7
Hours billed this week: 0
Current reading: The Prince by Machiavelli, Against All Enemies by Richard A. Clarke
Recent listening: Corinne Bailey Rae by Corinne Bailey Rae, Coverville
Recent viewing: Countdown, Alamo Bowl, Dolphins at Colts, Rose Bowl, 20/20
Recent playing: Wii Sports, ExciteTruck
Recently accomplished: Tree recycling (for Cub Scouts), cleaned and lubed bike, cleaned contacts on stove burners, Best of 2006
Imperative To Do: Best of 2006, call mechanic, RMA old Tivo drive, re-partition Thomas’ hard drive, re-install applications on Graham’s computer
Cool Link: No Wii for Christmas (comic strip by Joy of Tech)
Vital Statistics
Bike odometer: n/a
Weight lost: 50 lbs.
Hours of sleep last night: 8
Hours billed this week: 14
Current reading: The Prince by Machiavelli
Recent listening: Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me, Coverville, Corinne Bailey Rae by Corinne Bailey Rae
Recent viewing: Sportscenter, Suns at Mavericks, Comedy Central’s Roast of William Shatner, Dr. Who
Recent playing: Sketchfighter
Recently accomplished: Paid bills, bought Wii, finished Thomas’ “new” computer, created my Mii (which looks just like me according to all accounts)
Imperative To Do: Finish garage, finish old blog entries, call mechanic, rake, fix laundry room door, RMA old Tivo drive, Best of 2006
Cool Link: Wii for Christmas: Thomas and Graham opening their box of cash to be used for purchasing a Wii (which we did two days later).
Wiiquest, Part Eight
This morning Tina decided to call around the Targets before we left to spend our gift cards at Borders (thanks, Uncle Buddy). The first one she called in Fairview reported that they had units and, after some wrangling on the phone, they reserved one for us. Thomas and I jetted over there shortly after and successfully acquired our Wii! I bought ExciteTruck with it. Graham and Thomas have agreed to split the cost of an additional Wiimote, but they are still hard to find.
After the purchase, we met the rest of the family at Buddy’s house for lunch. We hooked the Wii up to Buddy’s TV and tried out boxing, golf, bowling, tennis and ExciteTruck. Part of the fun is playing but a large part is also watching other people play. Everyone enjoyed it before we were off to Borders and now home. Thomas is configuring the wireless internet connection and will probably spend the next hour setting up his Mii.
Wiiquest, Part Seven
Bedtime: 2130
Awoke: 0430
Target Store: Fred Meyer, 164th Ave, Vancouver WA
Arrival: 0500
Place in line: 1
Wiis Available: 0
Target Store: Fred Meyer, Mill Plain, Vancouver WA
Arrival: 0515
Place in line: 1
Wiis Available: 0
Last possible day before Christmas. The freight guy came out at the first Fred Meyer and let me know there were none. Contrast that with the second Fred Meyer where the operator refused to put my call through until after they opened. Why are you even answering the phone?
I borrowed an empty Wii box from someone at work. I’m going to get 250 one dollar bills today to put in it and then we’ll wrap it up with a note.
Wiiquest, Part Six
Bedtime: 2330
Awoke: 0430
Target Store: Fred Meyer, Wood Village
Arrival: 0500
Place in line: 1
Wiis Available: 0
Target Store: Target, Division
Arrival: 0700
Place in line: 2
Wiis Available: 0
I called all the Fred Meyers and none of them received any units. There was little hope for Target, but they have a later opening time, so it was worth a try. This afternoon I’ll call the GameStop stores and tomorrow morning I’ll do Vancouver Fred Meyer again.
Wiiquest, Part Five
Bedtime: 2130
Awoke: 0430
Target Store: Fred Meyer, 164th Ave, Vancouver WA
Arrival: 0530
Place in line: 3
Wiis Available: 0
Target Store: Fred Meyer, Mill Plain, Vancouver WA
Arrival: 0615
Place in line: 3
Wiis Available: 0
I could have waited in line at Circuit City until their 1000 opening time, but Tina had physical therapy at 0800. Tomorrow is going to be Part 4 repeated.
Wiiquest, Part Four
Today was freight day for Portland Fred Meyer stores.
Bedtime: 2100
Awoke: 0350 (20 minutes before alarm)
Target Store: Wood Village Fred Meyer
Arrived: 0430
The trucks arrived at about 0530 and left an hour later. At about 0630 I called the Glisan Fred Meyer to get directions in case I needed it as an alternative. Expecting to get the phone system, I was surprised when a real person answered and put me through to Electronics. They told me they had no Wii’s, but I now had a great idea. I called Electronics at the Fred Meyer where I was waiting and asked if they had any Wii’s. They did not. Next I called two more to find the nearest and to get the lowdown on their inventory.
The nearest at 148th and Division said they would not complete freight until after 0800, so I motored over there where I waited with a small crowd of about 10 people. There were six in line when I arrived, but there were others that later got out of their cars. There was no orderly line and I could see that it had the potential to turn out badly. At 0700 the store manager let us in and gave us the lowdown. They did not expect to have freight completed until 0830. They would not hand out numbers (which has been customary in all my experience with this) until they knew if they had any. If they did have any, they would award them based on a lottery system. Needless to say, the woman who was first in line at 0500 was more than a little upset.
Fast-forward to 0815 after extensive browsing of the very small electronics department. The inventory clerk informed us that they had received no units.
Tomorrow is Circuit City freight day and Fred Meyer will have another freight day on Friday. If nothing else, I was able to figure out a better plan for Friday based on today’s experience.
Vital Statistics
Bike odometer: n/a
Weight lost: 44 lbs.
Hours of sleep last night: 5.5
Hours billed this week: 4
Current reading: The Prince by Machiavelli, Feminism Is For Everybody by Bell Hooks
Recent listening: XO by Elliott Smith, Either/Or by Elliott Smith, The Lost Christmas Eve by Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Jimmie Rodgers, Not For Kids Only by Jerry Garcia & David Grisman
Recent viewing: Sportscenter, Bengals at Colts, Eagles at Giants, Medium, Discoveries This Week, Man vs. Wild
Recent playing: Sketchfighter
Recently accomplished: Sorted and stored computer stuff in garage, attempted to RMA hard drive (Seagate website messed up), reorganized workbench in garage, waited in line, called many Wii resellers
Imperative To Do: Buy Wii, dry van, finish garage, finish old blog entries, call mechanic, build new computer for Thomas, rake, clean garage, fix laundry room door, RMA old Tivo drive, Best of 2006
Cool Link: A Charlie Brown Scrubs Christmas
Wiiquest, Part Three
I awoke shortly after 6:00 am with two stores on the agenda for the morning:
Fred Meyer, Vancouver WA
Arrival: 7:00 (opening)
Wiis Available: 3
Wiis Sold Before Me: 3
Arrival time for first in line: 5:00 am (with no guarantee there would be any in stock)
Target, Mall 205
Arrival: 7:20 (40 minutes before open)
Place in line: 1st
Wiis Available: 0
Target, 122nd & Glisan
Arrival: 8:10
Wiis Available: 0
I hit the last Target on the way home. I drove 23 miles altogether. Tomorrow is a big day as it’s a stocking day for the all the Portland Fred Meyers.