Not So Best Buy

Image by Ron Dauphin via FlickrThanks to Best Buy, it will be a Merry Christmas for my son this Christmas.  Unfortunately for a lot of other people, Best Buy will end up being the Grinch that Stole Christmas.  Best Buy was overwhelmed with online orders this year and recently announced that several order, even some placed in November, would be cancelled an unable to be shipped in time for Christmas.

Just prior to Thanksgiving, I had posted that I was considering trying to take advantage of the Black Friday sales in order to buy my son either an xBox 360 or a Playstation 3 for Christmas.  A friend of mine who stops by here on occasion suggested I look at Best Buy's website because they were going to have a lot of the Black Friday deals online with free shipping.  So, Thanksgiving morning, I found one of the systems on line, ordered it, and received everything I ordered within a week.

Earlier this week, my friend posted that he was Scrooged by Worst Buy.  He actually had placed his order on November 19th, well ahead of the game.  When he was wrapping presents a week or so ago, he noticed that this particular item was nowhere to be found.  He searched his emails, found confirmation of the order, but could not find a shipment confirmation.  Upon logging into BestBuy.com, he discovered his order had been cancelled.  So, my friend was left without a key gift just one week before Christmas.

His experience was the first I had heard about issues with Best Buy and their online ordering.  However, the proverbial excrement has hit the fan as more news stories have broken about Best Buy's ability to fill orders placed online.  Today, I have heard stories on the radio and the local evening news about people who have just been notified that their orders will not be filled with just a few days before Christmas.  One person posted that she ordered the same item that I did, one day later, and was just notified that her order was cancelled.

Naturally, Best Buy is getting a lot of bad publicity for their inability to fulfill orders in time for Christmas.  Even more disturbing is the reports of bad customer service in the aftermath of their screw up.  Thankfully, I didn't have an issue with my order.  I only had two items, so I tracked it daily from the time the order was placed until received.  Hopefully the folks who were disappointed by Best Buy's poor performance were able to find the gifts somewhere else, but a lot of people will probably think twice before ordering from them again.

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Hurry Less, Worry Less at Christmastime

Image via WikipediaAre you one of those people who sometimes dread the whole holiday season?  I know there have been times in my life when I just wanted them to be over.  You get overwhelmed by the constant barrage of holiday events and activities.

Is it any wonder that we can get stressed out by the holidays.  It all starts with Thanksgiving, moves quickly to Christmas and ends with the New Year.  They really are three distinct holidays with their own special meaning and significance, but they all seem to run together these days.

I remember when there was a bit of a break between the different holidays.  Christmas decorations wouldn't go up until after Thanksgiving.  Now, the stores start putting up Christmas decorations in early November.  I even was at one mall that had Santa Claus out two weeks before Thanksgiving.

Personally, I want to relax and enjoy each of the holidays for what they represent.  I don't want to get caught up in all of the hustle and bustle.  Usually it is a case of easier said than done.  Fortunately, I found a pretty good little book called Hurry Less, Worry Less at Christmastime by Judy Pace Christie.

The book is filled with nice little tips and techniques to simplify the holiday season.  There are great suggestions on how to cut back in some areas without feeling guilty about it.  At the same time, she teaches you how take time to focus on what is truly important and how to integrate new traditions with your old traditions.

It all starts with imagining and writing down the type of holiday you want.  She encourages you to realize you can't change everything at once, but to focus on that which is most important to you and try to change a little bit at a time.  Then each year becomes a little bit easier to move towards your goal of a relaxing holiday season.

Unbeknownst to me, I had already started to incorporate a few of her ideas into my own holiday activities, but I never formally thought about them.  I learned to cut back on the number of gifts I bought for people outside of my wife and son and not feel guilty about it.  I have started my own traditions with my wife and son.  I try not to feel guilty if I can't or choose not to attend every holiday invitation.

My holidays aren't always stress free and without drama.  There are times when I still spend too much or get too involved in activities.  But I am working on it.  Here is hoping that you can have a less worrisome and less hurried holiday season this year and for years to come.

A Visit to Santa Claus

Image via WikipediaImage via WikipediaImage by Getty Images via @daylifeThe Thanksgiving weekend is coming to an end which means it will be time for my wife to try to get our son back to school tomorrow.  It also means that Christmas is right around the corner, actually just four weeks from today.  With such a short break between Thanksgiving and Christmas, it also means my son will only be gone for about 3.5 weeks before he comes home for Christmas break.

I am happy to say that I am basically done with my Christmas shopping this year.  There may be a gift card or two that I have to pick up between now and Christmas.  Yesterday, I received an email informing me that the presents I bought for my son on BestBuy.com were on their way.  I am so glad that I was able to find the items I wanted online at the Black Friday prices rather than fighting those crowds.

I did not hear of any major incidents near me, but there were several prominent news stories about man's inhumanity to man during the Black Friday events.  Talk about the Spirit of Christmas.  NOT!  There was the woman who pepper sprayed fellow shoppers to gain an advantage in getting an Xbox she wanted.  There was somebody who was shot during an altercation during an attempted robbery when the victims left a store with their Black Friday booty.  Then there were other incidents as well.

Today, we were going to take our son to visit my parents before he goes back to school tomorrow.  Unfortunately, they were doing some work at their church this afternoon and were unavailable.  So, we made other plans and took our son out to Arundel Mills Mall to go play some skee-ball and other games at the Dave & Buster's.

After we left Dave & Buster's, we went into the FYE store to get him a new DVD to take back to school.  When we were leaving, we were looking at some of the games available for the Playstation 3 that I ordered on Thanksgiving for his Christmas present.  He confirmed that my decision to buy it and the Madden 12 game was the right one when he told us he wanted Madden 12, a hockey game, and a NASCAR game for Christmas.

We told him that he would have to tell Santa Claus what he wanted for Christmas.  Normally, my son does not want to visit with Santa, but there was no line to visit with ole St. Nick.  My son, who is too big to sit on Santa's lap, walked up to Santa and shook his hand.  He proceeded to tell Santa the list of games he wanted for Christmas.  It will be so much fun watching him open his presents in four weeks.

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Happy Thanksgiving

I would like to take this time out to wish everybody here in the States a very Happy Thanksgiving. I hope that everybody can take some time to reflect on all of the things in your life that you can be thankful for, no matter how small they may be.  No matter your situation, I hope you can find something that you can be thankful for.

For me personally, here are a few things that I am thankful for:

• In this tough economy and high unemployment, I am thankful to have a good job.
• I am thankful that we were able to pick our son up from school on Tuesday for the long weekend together
• I am thankful for WilyGuy for tipping me to BestBuy.com for Black Friday deals so that I have already finished my Christmas shopping and don't have to fight the crowds tonight.
• I am thankful for all of my family, friends, and those of you that take time out of your day to come here to read this blog

Now, everybody go ahead and party like it's 1621!

Pilgrim Song - Party Like it's 1621! by JibJab

Black Friday

Image via WikipediaI don't usually partake in Black Friday deals, but I might have to this year.  Those doorbuster specials usually start way too early in the morning, and I hate fighting the crowds.  Besides, they usually have a limited number of the hot deal items and there is no guarantee if you get up at 4am to get there for the early morning opening that you will get what you came for.

About the only year that I got up early to get to a Black Friday special was the year that the Furby toys came out.  For some reason, my wife really wanted one.  I got up to the Kay Bee Toy store about half an hour before they opened and the line was outrageous.  Fortunately, my sister in law was already in line waiting to get one for herself, so I got in line with her and got the Furby.

A little more than a week ago, I posted about how I was considering buying my son a new gaming system, either an Xbox 360 or a Playstation 3.  Over the weekend, I went to a Game Stop store to ask a few questions about the different systems and the games.  While talking to the clerk in the store, he gave me a copy of their Black Friday sales flier.

Right there on the front page of the flier were the two systems that I had been thinking about getting for my son.  I had been leaning towards the Xbox, because it is the least expensive of the two systems.  It will be on sale for $50 off.  In addition, one of the games that my son would want to play, Madden 2012 will also be on sale for $20 off.  So, if I can get to the store in time, I could get him the system and a game he wants for less than the normal price of the system.

The good news, for me at least, is that Game Stop is won of those stores that are opening up at midnight Thanksgiving night.  While there are some complaining that these stores should open later so people can fully enjoy their Thanksgiving holiday, it actually works better for me.  It is much easier for me to stay up past midnight than to get up at 4am, especially on a scheduled day off.

I have pretty much decided that I will head out to try to partake of this particular Black Friday event.  Hopefully I will get there early enough to get the Xbox and the Madden game.  About the only hardship that I can foresee for me is that it means that I won't be able to partake of much wine on Thanksgiving.  A small price to pay if I am able to get this for my son that night.

Back at School

My son has been back at school since last Monday after coming home for a long weekend over Thanksgiving.  On my last update, which I wrote the night before we were to take him home.  I was concerned at the time that it would be a challenge to get him to return back to school.  Let me tell you, it was more than difficult. 

Whenever my son thinks we are taking him someplace he doesn't want to go, he will drop to the ground and refuse to move.  We found out that they were able weigh him at school and that he weighs in at 186lbs.  Needless to say, if he drops to the ground, my wife and I can not move him.

We decide that on the day we were to return him to school, that we would take him someplace he liked to go.  He had been asking to go to IHOP over the Thanksgiving break, so we decided to head out to IHOP that morning.  As soon as he got out the door, he dropped to the ground.  After about half an hour, we finally got him to the car and headed to breakfast.

We finished breakfast, and we headed out the door, he dropped to the floor in the restaurant.  Once we got him out of the restaurant, we had at least three more incident of his dropping to the ground.  Two of them were in the parking lot between two cars.  After several minutes, I walked to a nearby fire station and enlisted the help of some firemen to help get him in the car.

Once we got out to school and went in for the Christmas party.  We had a pretty good time while we were there.  I got to meet a few of the other people at the school who work with our son.  At the party, Santa Claus was there.  My son usually doesn't want to see Santa, but he sat on his lap and told Santa something he wanted for Christmas.  Still, our son wanted to go home, and at one point asked me to stay with him.

I call daily to check on his status.  The good news his first week back was that he was attending school daily, and was eating lunch.  Unfortunately, at the dorms he was not eating dinner.  The weekends for him at school have been the most trying.  Those are the days that he usually doesn't eat anything.  I had almost gotten to the point where I dreaded calling to check on him because I was concerned he wasn't eating.

On Sunday night, I called and he was down at a social.  He loves going to those so he can dance.  The best thing was that they reported that he ate well that day and had an overall excellent day, watching football and decorating the Christmas tree.  Then yesterday, he refused to go to class and spent the day in the dorm.

There have been several good reports, but for every good report there has been some negative.  It is a major adjustment period for him and for us.  On the positive, he is starting to interact more with the other kids in the dorms.  One day I could hear him in the background laughing and playing with the others.  Then the next, he spends it in his room.  Only two more weeks until Christmas break.

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Update on School and My Son

It has been three weeks since I have written an update on my son and school.  There were a lot of things going through my mind that day as we took him to his new school.  I was concerned about how difficult it would be to try to explain to him that we would be leaving him that day and not seeing him for two weeks.  To describe his eating as picky would be a severe understatement, so there were major concerns about him eating while he was out there.

Surprisingly, getting him to the school was much easier than I anticipated.  Saying goodbye wasn't, and I don't think he understood when I told him that I would see him in two weeks for Thanksgiving.  With me being the worrier that I am, I called the school every evening to get an update on how he was doing.  The initial reports that we got that first week were encouraging.  He tried a couple new foods like hash browns and some salad.  His teacher said he was adjusting to the schedule and working well in class.

At the time, I considered writing a post about my adjusting to his being gone.  When he is here, he basically dominates the television.  It is rare that I get to watch what I want on television, when I want to watch it, and without interruption.  Then there is the issue of buying him all the food that we buy special for him.  In addition to the benefit he would get from being at the proper educational facility, there were benefits to me in terms of my personal leisure and savings on the weekly grocery bill.  Still, the bottom line was that I missed him immensely. 

His first weekend at the school was a bit more difficult for him.  He prefers to stay home on the weekends, and watch TV, play video games, and surf the internet.  The school plans a lot of weekend outings and activities, which he shows no interest in.  They do have socials where they play music and have dancing.  He really enjoys and looks forward to those.

When the second week of school started, he had a difficult time getting back into the routine, but had a another good week of classwork.  Towards the end of the week, he started to have a lot more difficulty, especially in the eating department.  By the end of the second weekend, I was extremely worried because he had basically stopped eating and drinking entirely.  It became a concern at school as well, as they had us pick him up a day earlier than the original Tuesday pick up date.

He has been home almost a week now.  As soon as we picked him up, he started drinking again, and he has been eating his usual fare since he has been home.  Tonight, he and I went out to Watkins Regional Park in PG County, MD to see the Winter Festival of Lights.  It has become something of a Thanksgiving weekend tradition for the two of us.  As we were driving home, he looked over at me and said, "No school tomorrow, Daddy."

Tomorrow is the day we are supposed to take him back to school.  They are having a Christmas party.  When we picked him up last week, he talked about coming back to school and going to the party.  However, based on his response coming back from the Festival of Lights, I have a feeling we will have a difficult time tomorrow.  More importantly though, is the eating.  This time, he is not supposed to come home until just before Christmas, almost four full weeks.

I am not sure what will happen over the next four weeks.  The one thing I know for sure, is that it will be another four weeks of worry on my part.  I am not sure what will happen if he stops eating and drinking again.  He obviously needs to drink and eat.  He also needs to adjust to his new situation.  My son, even with his disability, is a bright child.  If he thinks he can continue to manipulate the situation and get to go home by not eating and drinking, he will display those behaviors.  Pray for us.   

Happy Thanksgiving

Image via WikipediaHere is hoping that everybody out there has a wonderful Thanksgiving with all of their family and friends.  Our family is having a quiet Thanksgiving at home for a change; just my wife, my son, and I.  The turkey will be going into the oven shortly and the smell of roasting turkey will fill the house.  It is one of my favorite smells.

While we should do it everyday, Thanksgiving is a time to reflect upon those things that we have.  In no particular order of importance, here are some of the things that I am thankful for in 2010.  Some of them serious, some of them not so much.

• Our family is in relatively good health.
• We have survived my son's first trip to live at his new school, though it was not without its own share of drama.
• I have a good job that is allowing me the opportunity to have the time to deal with taking my son to and from school.
• We have the love and support of our extended family on both sides of the family.
• We have a roof over our head and food on the table.
• There will be three football games to watch today.
• I have plenty of red wine in the house.
• We still live in the greatest country known to man.  God bless the USA.

Happy Thanksgiving everybody.

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Music Monday-Gary Allan "Tough Little Boys

In light of the fact that today was the day we took my son to live at his new school, I felt that "Tough Little Boys" by Gary Allan would be an appropriate choice for Music Monday today.  I know that the lyrics are based on a dad for his little girl, but I can tell you having a boy is just as tough on some of us, at least for me.  It will be a long two weeks until I see him again for Thanksgiving.

Come join Music Monday and share your songs with us. Rules are simple. Leave ONLY the actual post link here and grab the code below and place it at your blog entry. You can grab this code at LadyJava's Lounge Please note these links are STRICTLY for Music Monday participants only. All others will be deleted without prejudice.

eBook Readers- Kindle or Sony?

Image via Wikipedia

Thanksgiving is over, Black Friday is behind us, so it is officially the start of the Christmas shopping season.  I did something yesterday that I rarely do on Black Friday.  I ventured out to the mall, but not for any of the early bird door buster specials.  None of those deals were on my shopping list. Plus I did not want to have to deal with the huge lines and stampedes of people.  As it was, I went in the early afternoon, with a set list of items in mind.  The mall was still very crowded, but I was in and out in about an hour.  Mission accomplished.

I think I am pretty much done with my shopping, but when you don't have a whole lot of extra money to spend, it is easy to be done early.  Now I can go about the business of avoiding the malls and trying to figure out what to tell my wife when she asks me what I want for Christmas.  I usually try to tell her not to bother getting me anything since I am pretty much the only person working for pay.  Besides, there is usually nothing that I particularly want other than maybe some books or iTunes gift cards.

I do enjoy reading, and part of me really would like to get one of those eBook readers.  With my job, I have to attend a couple trade shows each year.  I also have to occasionally visit some of our stores in different airports across the country.  Whenever I have to travel on those instances, I almost always carry at least two books with me.  The appeal to getting one of the eBook readers would be the ease of carrying only the one light device versus a couple of bulkier, heavier books.

The first question to be answered would be is the convenience worth the cost involved in purchasing one.  If the answer to the first question is yes, then the second question would be which one to get, the Amazon Kindle or the Sony eBook Reader.  Both have their advantages, I am sure.  With the Kindle, everything is wireless.  You can be on the road and just download a book directly without the need of a computer.  Plus I have seen some blogs advertising that you can read their blog on the Kindle.  The Sony reader is less expensive but it does require that you download the book to your computer and sync your reader to the computer to load the book on to the reader.  Although I did see that Sony is coming out with a wireless version.

I have only seen the Sony version and it looks pretty cool.  I am hoping that I have literate readers who have gone through the decision making process and have bought either the Kindle or the Sony.   If so, please comment here about how you decided on the model you bought and how happy you are with the performance.  What features do you have on your reader that you just can't live without?

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Giving Thanks

In all seriousness, though, Happy Thanksgiving.  I hope that you have the opportunity to enjoy the day and pause to give thoughts to those things that you do have reasons to give thanks.  For me that includes:

1. Having a family that is in relatively good health overall.
2. Having a job to go to that puts food on the table and covers the basics.
3. Living in the greatest country the world has ever known.
   

That is not to say that things couldn't be better.  I could be MORE thankful if:

1. Traffic wasn't so horrific on the beltway to and from work.
2. I only had to work one job to make ends meet.
3. My next door neighbor could keep his damned dog from barking constantly and if he would buy a set of headphones so I wouldn't have to hear his music (he don't listen to George Strait)

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Music Monday-Sawyer Brown "Thank God For You"

Since Thursday is Thanksgiving Day, I decided to select a song for Music Monday that gives thanks. It may not be exactly the meaning of what the holiday is truly about, but it's kind of fun. Sawyer Brown and "Thank God For You."

Come join Music Monday and share your songs with us. One simple rule, leave ONLY the actual post link here. You can grab this code at LJL Please note these links are STRICTLY for Music Monday participants only. All others will be deleted without prejudice.





PS: Because of spamming purposes, the linky will be closed on Thursday of each week at midnight, Malaysian Time. Thank you!

Happy Thanksgiving

Last night, as I was browsing around YouTube to try to find something cute or funny to use for my Thanksgiving post, it occurred to me that Thanksgiving has become just another holiday that has lost it's original meaning. Thanksgiving originally was a time to celebrate the harvest and to give thanks to God for the harvest and for continuing to sustain us. We continue to have a feast to commemorate Thanksgiving, but it has come to mean a lot of other things: a four day weekend for a lot of people, football, and the start of the Christmas shopping season (speaking of holidays that have lost their original meanings.) Not that there is anything inherently wrong with any of these things, but they do not remind of us the true meaning of the holiday.

So, instead of something funny or cute, I decided to reflect on the true meaning of Thanksgiving and post some of the things that I am truly thankful for.

• My son, who I love more than I ever thought I could love someone and has taught me a lot of valuable lessons about enjoying the moment, which I need to be reminded of more than I care to admit.
• My wife, who frequently thinks of little things that she knows I would enjoy, like the two pumpkin donuts I had for breakfast this morning.
• My family and friends, for being there with their love, advice, and support, both emotionally and financially, during tough times.
• My country, which in spite of her flaws is still the greatest place to live and provides us with a standard of living that is the envy of the world.

So this year, when you are gathered around the table stuffing yourself with stuffing and the rest of the bountiful feast, look around you, enjoy the moment, think about all you have, and truly give thanks. Have a very happy Thanksgiving.