Dave and Bummers
I didn't post this last night because a) I couldn't get online, and b) I felt like crap.
It's getting to be that time of year where Laura and I feel the need to go to Dave and Buster's. Normally we'd go on a weekday, but as we're both working different jobs now and I don't get weekdays off (which, truth be told, does bug me), we're kind of stuck doing a night or a weekend. D&B is celebrating their 25th anniversary, so they have some deals now, so we up and went yesterday. I have learned one thing:
Going on a Saturday is bad.
The place was pretty full and a number of machines were busted. Okay, I understand, not everything will work all the time...but it sucks to swipe your card and have nothing happen. This happened twice. One was an easy fix; the game was just out of coupons. The other? It took probably ten minutes to hunt down somebody, and the game couldn't be fixed; we did, however, get two free swipes on the semi-driving simulator to make up for it (and we did get farther than before...did you know there's a tornado on the way to Texas?). The other thing is that people are allowed to smoke in there. I know there are smokers who read this, but I'll say it anyway: This sucks. This would be why I felt horrible once I got home, because being in a smoky arcade for several hours caused me to have a bad migraine. I got home around 7 and was in bed by 7:30 and basically didn't leave it until this morning. I still had the migraine when I woke up, too, and while a Motrin did kill most of it off, some of it still lingers. Ugh. Plus, we'd thought about going to Stratford afterward (I'd wanted to maybe see R, among other things), but we stayed so late that we just went home, which ended up being a good thing.
That's not to say all was bad. We'd had a bad experience with the wait staff at the D&B restaurant a few years back; that was not the case yesterday. And some of the games were still fun. The place has been moved around a bit, so one of our favorites (scrape the coins without knocking over the Aztec head on a stick, something like that) wasn't where we expected it to be. It's not quite the same, but it could have been worse. I did have fun with the boxing simulator, and holy cow, that's a workout. We both tried the jump rope simulator, with Laura making fun of me for not doing very well...until she tried it and realized it's not that easy. Skee ball was a bust, but the head-to-head trivia went okay. I was even worse than usual with the snowmobile ride, as the handles on mine were broken and you had to steer to the right just to make it go straight. Um...I don't know. We've definitely had better times there, so I think we'll just have to try to go on a weeknight in the future.
Meanwhile, I even got some errands done before we left. I ran to the bank and then went to have my emissions tested. They closed the place in Aurora, which was the closest one to my house, so I had to go to South Elgin. I wanted to get gas before I went but the gas station by my house was on the expensive side--$3.13. The stations on the way to work are at $3.09. I was going to the place in South Elgin, and I know gas tends to be cheaper up that way, so I waited and was rewarded by $3.06 gas. Sweet. Except the gas station was about five minutes from the emissions testing place, and they like you to have your engine running continuously for 15 minutes before you go there...hmm. Well, it ended up not being a problem, as I was trying to take a back route into there, but it was under construction so I missed the turn and ended up driving around scenic Elgin for exactly 15 minutes before I made it there. Sweet. And the wait time was only 6 minutes, which was far longer than the actual testing. Consider that one time at Aurora, I sat for close to an hour and a half. So, I'm good to go for another couple of years. I also amused the testing lady with my personalized plate; she said she loved to hear the stories behind them. Mine's based off of a nickname.
It's getting to be that time of year where Laura and I feel the need to go to Dave and Buster's. Normally we'd go on a weekday, but as we're both working different jobs now and I don't get weekdays off (which, truth be told, does bug me), we're kind of stuck doing a night or a weekend. D&B is celebrating their 25th anniversary, so they have some deals now, so we up and went yesterday. I have learned one thing:
Going on a Saturday is bad.
The place was pretty full and a number of machines were busted. Okay, I understand, not everything will work all the time...but it sucks to swipe your card and have nothing happen. This happened twice. One was an easy fix; the game was just out of coupons. The other? It took probably ten minutes to hunt down somebody, and the game couldn't be fixed; we did, however, get two free swipes on the semi-driving simulator to make up for it (and we did get farther than before...did you know there's a tornado on the way to Texas?). The other thing is that people are allowed to smoke in there. I know there are smokers who read this, but I'll say it anyway: This sucks. This would be why I felt horrible once I got home, because being in a smoky arcade for several hours caused me to have a bad migraine. I got home around 7 and was in bed by 7:30 and basically didn't leave it until this morning. I still had the migraine when I woke up, too, and while a Motrin did kill most of it off, some of it still lingers. Ugh. Plus, we'd thought about going to Stratford afterward (I'd wanted to maybe see R, among other things), but we stayed so late that we just went home, which ended up being a good thing.
That's not to say all was bad. We'd had a bad experience with the wait staff at the D&B restaurant a few years back; that was not the case yesterday. And some of the games were still fun. The place has been moved around a bit, so one of our favorites (scrape the coins without knocking over the Aztec head on a stick, something like that) wasn't where we expected it to be. It's not quite the same, but it could have been worse. I did have fun with the boxing simulator, and holy cow, that's a workout. We both tried the jump rope simulator, with Laura making fun of me for not doing very well...until she tried it and realized it's not that easy. Skee ball was a bust, but the head-to-head trivia went okay. I was even worse than usual with the snowmobile ride, as the handles on mine were broken and you had to steer to the right just to make it go straight. Um...I don't know. We've definitely had better times there, so I think we'll just have to try to go on a weeknight in the future.
Meanwhile, I even got some errands done before we left. I ran to the bank and then went to have my emissions tested. They closed the place in Aurora, which was the closest one to my house, so I had to go to South Elgin. I wanted to get gas before I went but the gas station by my house was on the expensive side--$3.13. The stations on the way to work are at $3.09. I was going to the place in South Elgin, and I know gas tends to be cheaper up that way, so I waited and was rewarded by $3.06 gas. Sweet. Except the gas station was about five minutes from the emissions testing place, and they like you to have your engine running continuously for 15 minutes before you go there...hmm. Well, it ended up not being a problem, as I was trying to take a back route into there, but it was under construction so I missed the turn and ended up driving around scenic Elgin for exactly 15 minutes before I made it there. Sweet. And the wait time was only 6 minutes, which was far longer than the actual testing. Consider that one time at Aurora, I sat for close to an hour and a half. So, I'm good to go for another couple of years. I also amused the testing lady with my personalized plate; she said she loved to hear the stories behind them. Mine's based off of a nickname.