Christmas and Boxing Week 2013
Happy New Year to y'all. Here's how my Christmas and Boxing Week went.
Work ended at 1pm on Christmas Eve though I left just before that time to head to Brentwood Mall and mail my final Christmas card to Kevin in Fresno. I then transited all the way to Langley, quite surprised at the amount of people using transit and the rush hour traffic to deal with. When I arrived at Willowbrook Mall, a lot of last minute shoppers packed the mall. My older sister was finished her shift and was waiting for me with her husband outside as I checked Toys R' Us for a particular game but they no longer had it. At my folks place, my mom had some of the left over beef and rice dish she made earlier in the week, which I devoured. I relaxed a bit throughout the rest of the day but didn't bother watching any Christmas movies. The previous Friday night, Much Music gave a marathon of South Park Christmas episodes, the only time of year that they give and I'm glad I caught them. Laughed my ass off. Anyways, I went downstairs to visit my brother-in-law though my older sister was in her bedroom. We watched some Nostalgia Critic Christmas-themed reviews including The Christmas Tree (animated piece of shit!), Jack Frost (ugh!), Top 11 runners-up Christmas movies (awesome!). As a small Christmas gift, he and my sister got me an X-Men blanket.
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Breaking with tradition for the first time, we didn't open gifts until 5pm. My younger sister and her family had their first tree and gifts in their suite so they did their Christmas morning gift opening amongst themselves. After I got up and showered by noon, I puttered around on the computer to watch some Game Grumps episodes. My mom and dad made me a simple stir fry noodles and veggies to tide me over until Christmas dinner. At 4pm, my folks finished cooking and we had our family dinner together: lobster, steak, grilled veggies, corn, and fried potato slices. Of course, I didn't have the lobster but everything else was excellent as usual. It was the same family members as usual: mom & dad, older sister, younger sister & brother-in-law & niece, and I. Shortly afterwards, the presents we got each other were opened. I got $100 from my folks as Boxing Week spending money and $50 from my younger sister's family, all of which is very helpful. I got my niece a Crayola Sketcher Projector, while I got my younger sister and her husband a couple of PS3 games: Final Fantasy XIII-2 ( which I played and reviewed last spring), and Deus Ex: Human Revolution (Augmented Edition). My older sister was back downstairs with her husband as she went to the washroom but since it seemed she wasn't coming back up, I took the gifts from the tree and handed it to her husband downstairs. I got them a $30 gift card for Willow Video Games. For each family member (folks, older sister, and younger sister) I gave them select pictures from last year's Christmas inside the cards I gave them. The big gift for my niece was Zoomer, a robotic toy dog which was amussing. After thanking everyone for everything, I left at 6pm and my dad dropped me off at the usual bus stop. The bus I take to Maple Ridge only had one other passenger from the beginning of the trip all the way to the very end. No one to pick up or drop off so it went smoothly. The bus to Coquitlam had more people but it was another fast trip to Port Coquitlam. I didn't even miss my connecting shuttle to get home, just a 4 minute wait. At home, had a Christmas card waiting for me and even Peter left a couple of desserts for me to munch on.
Thursday morning I had a small bitch of a time getting to work. I was sure that the transit schedule was running on Saturday time as it was Boxing Day and not Sunday/Holiday (because of people wanting to get to stores early). I ended up waiting just over an hour for my bus to take me to Coquitlam station! I had to forego going to the condo complex up at SFU as there are no buses at the station (except at Production Station) that run on the Sunday/Holiday schedule. I got to my workplace at Brentwood just before 10am. It wasn't bad and as expected, some people thought Larry and I should have the day off. My manager and new supervisor, Roger (or Raj, not sure of his name yet), drove by. My manager was cool with my not going up to SFU and even said I could leave at 3pm! Awesome - my manager may be figuring it out (if you aren't going to give us a day off on a semi-holiday, then at least have us work less hours)! I finished my buildings in over 3 hours and napped for the rest of the time in my janitor closet while my cell phone was charging. I left before 3pm and transited to downtown Vancouver. My first stop was London Drugs on Granville. I saw a 64GB USB stick for $30, which I can use but left it for now. After I left, I realized I forgot to check for sales on photo albums as I need a couple of them. But given the crowds, I left it at that. I then went to Future Shop but nothing really interested me. Golden Age Collectables had 20% off the store and I wanted to see if there were any cool busts or action figures but nothing really caught my eye. I then went to Chapters on Robson Street. As usual, they had their 30% off all hardcover books. I went up to the 3rd floor to where the gaming books were. Immediately I noticed something I've been wanting for a while - The Sky: The Art of Final Fantasy. This is the boxset of Final Fantasy artist Yoshitaka Amano and contains his beautiful artwork for the first 10 games in the series. He is probably my favourite living artist as I fell in love with his artwork when I saw it in Final Fantasy VI back in 1994. Dark Horse Comics released this collection in 2012 but it sold out quickly. This re-release is the same but the books are a little larger and lacks the unique extras that the original release had. Still, it's a lovely collection and I snagged one immediately. The price was $100 Cdn. I was tempted to buy a strategy guide or two but left that for now as the The Sky was pretty heavy! I went to the religion section next and found 52 Little Lessons from It's a Wonderful Life by Bob Welch for $18. Since it's one of my favourite movies, the religious and philosophical messages resonate deeply with me and this book looked like a great read so I took it. At the cashier counter, I found that The Sky got a 50% discount at the till instead of 30%! 52 Little Lessons got 30% of course but wow, I didn't expect to save more money on Sky! I used a $25 gift card that I've held onto for 5 years and the bill ended up being $40.20 with taxes. The significance of the gift card is that I was going to give it to Kevin as his Christmas gift but he died before it could happen. I put it away and only remembered about it around a year ago. I still kept the card sleeve that has written on the back: To: Kevy Wevy, From: Stevey Weevy, Amount: $25 (yes, we were cute with our names in our household :"> ). Anyways, I walked to Little Sister's on Davie to go look for a Colt Butt Beautiful 2014 Calendar for David as it's his favourite. They were sold out. I spent the next while examining every calendar for whoever had the most men with their asses exposed. I got a Lucas Entertainment 2014 Couples Calendar for $15.95 with 25% off added. Oh, there were about 5 months worth of exposed butts on the calendar LOL! I was done with downtown and took the bus (with a woofy bear driving it!) and skytrain from Waterfront all the way to Metrotown. It was packed of course so I went to only a couple of shops. First was Calendar Club and Go! Games and Toys. I grabbed the last copy of The Legend of Zelda 2014 Calendar plus also got a Mass Effect 3 one too, both were 10.19 with discount each. I was tempted to get any of The Hobbit ones but they needed more of the woofy dwarfs. The Lord of the Rings calendar didn't even have one picture of Gimli so that's a no-no. I didn't seem to care for the Star Wars, Star Trek, and even Wizard of Oz ones for this year. I dunno, past years had better art or film captures. I saw a couple Audrey Hepburn calendars which my younger sister would die for so I called her to ask if she wanted me to pick them up for her but got voice message. Foolishly, I forgot she would be busy at work given the day. She would eventually text me back saying to not worry about it but thanked me for thinking of her. So I bought my two calendars at 40% off with a total of $22.80. The last place in Metrotown was Sakura Media but their sale was shit and they get worse every year compared to their earlier years. I left Metrotown before 6pm and walked over to the Hilton Hotel nearby as Daddybear Doug was staying there on business and to meet friends. We played around after I had a nice shower. I checked my cell and found a text from MasterG that says he bought a new TV and wanted to know if I could come over on Friday to help set it up. After leaving Doug, I called him and said that since I was in the area, I could swing by in under half an hour. At his place, we first had some leftover turkey dinner which was my first meal of the day. Besides MasterG there was his friend from Bellingham, WA, Charlie, and fellow Knight & roomie, Wayne M. The dinner was very nice. Afterwards, we set up his new Samsung LED 55' (Series 6, 6030) 3D HDTV. His old big screen TV of over 10 years finally bit the dust and the timing was perfect to buy a new one. We set it up but when I put on the TV, it had lines and a "tear" that obscured the picture that I knew it was a transporting or manufacturers accident. We spent time repackaging the TV to take it back to WalMart, specifically the one closest to where I live in PoCo. Charlie's car could fit the TV so we loaded it in and he followed MasterG and I back to WalMart. I've never been in this WalMart before but it was big and looked like a good place to shop. The exchange was easy and the electronics department guy was fucking hot! WOOF - stocky with nice trimmed orange beard! Definitely going to shop there more often LOL! MasterG dropped me off at home and in effect, saved me from having to lug all my things home on transit (especially The Sky).
Friday after work I went back to Langley. At Blessings Christian Marketplace, they had some books on sale and while one peaked my interest, I let it go for now. I went to the cards section and found they were 50% off so I took a box. Nothing more after that so the cards came out to be $8.41. At Willow Video, there seemed to be a few good deals but I got a game that wasn't on sale and noticed it was recently pulled off most store shelves: Kirby's Dream Collection Special Edition for $43.54. I've been meaning to get it for a while and it seemed like the right time. Nothing at Toys R Us, nor EB Games, and Target too inside the mall. The next night after my folks I went to the PoCo WalMart and got 3 Disney Blu-Rays that were on sale for $24.97 each: Mulan & Mulan II (3 Disc Special Edition), Oz: The Great and Powerful, and Brave (3 Disc Collector's Edition). The total was $83.90. When I got home a package was waiting for me on my desk and I knew what it was, my copy of Ultimate Marvel VS Capcom 3 for PS3 that I ordered from a US retailer on Amazon.ca.
Peter was finishing a fisting session given by David when I got out of bed on Sunday after noon. He and I went to the IHOP near Metrotown for some late brunch. I had some red velvet pancakes that tasted well with blueberry syrup - YUM! After IHOP, I went to London Drugs across the street and bought a 2L bottle each Pepsi and Pepsi Max as they were 99 cents each. I wanted to also get Dr. Pepper, both regular and diet, but they were sold out. I also bought a small photo album and some photo page refills as they were 20% off. After putting everything in Peter's trunk and sending him off, I forgot to buy my 2-zone January transit pass so I went in and got it. I then went to Best Buy across from Metrotown and got me a Lexar 64GB USB 3.0 Jumpdrive for $33 (was better than the one back at London Drugs). Back at Metrotown, I went into Chapters and while I saw a couple of interesting books, I refrained from buying them knowing that I have been spending a lot lately. I then took the skytrain and bus back to Coquitlam Station and checked out Coquitlam Centre. Future Shop didn't have much and so I went to the Bell store to see if I could get the Samsung ATIV Windows 8 Phone that is difficult to find these days. Sadly they didn't have it nor did they have any Windows 8 Phones. The clerk was suggesting I consider Android and while they're pretty good, Windows is my preferred choice. I didn't bother checking Target so I left the mall and went across the street to Best Buy. I wanted to buy a couple of 3D Blu-Ray movies that were on sale but relented and thought it would be better to buy online.
I tired again on Monday after work to check if any Samsung ATIV phones were available at the Bell and Samsung stores in Metrotown. Turns out they are being phased out and no more stock is coming in. This really puts a damper on finding a good Windows 8 Phone. Before heading back to MasterG's place to set up the TV, he texted asking me to stop at the same London Drugs I was at just the previous day to pick up an ink cartridge. Funny thing was, I just entered that LD when I got the text. I bought a 2L bottle of regular Dr. Pepper and 7up but there was no diet Dr. Pepper at all. I picked up MasterG's ink cartridge and got to his place. Before we could set up the TV, he wanted me to set up an entertainment shelf which took me two hours to do. I have very little skills in carpentry but managed to follow all the instructions and get it set up. MasterG, Wayne, and I had a nice roast beef dinner before setting up the TV and I gave them their belated Christmas card - the last one I had to give out. I had three pictures and said that MasterG gets to pick the first picture to keep for himself, then Wayne second, and Pat got the remaining one on his computer desk. After dinner, MasterG and I set up the new TV on top of the new shelf. I plugged it in and put it on... but it wouldn't go on! When I hit the power button on either the TV or remote, the Samsung logo appears for only a split second and then the TV goes off. The manual recommended for troubleshooting is to hold the power button and let the red light blink at least 5 times. I do that numerous times and the TV just keeps showing the Samsung logo for that split second. So it seems this TV is also a dud. Poor MasterG, he was disheartened and angry. We were going to call Samsung's customer service but we found out the landline connection was dead! We used MasterG's iPhone instead and called Shaw customer service. We had a really great guy and explained the situation to him. The phone problem happened likely because of my unplugging or moving the cable by accident as I was setting things up but it resolved itself. The other thing he did was activate the HD cable box that MasterG got earlier that day. It took him over half an hour to get it activated (since there was no TV to connect it to, it takes longer to get it working) but he got it going. By the time it was all over, it was too late to call Samsung. MasterG and I put the TV and everything back into the box then he took me back home. We don't know how he is going to get the TV back for a refund as Boxing Week was about to end and prices on TVs go back up. At most, he may have to go with a slightly inferior model. I got my first package from Best Buy online waiting on my desk: BioShock Infinite and Gears of War: Judgement for Xbox 360 which were $39.18.
After my shift on Tuesday, I cashed in my paycheque and Christmas bonus at the VanCity on Shaughnessy and then went to Safeway next door to pick up a cheesecake sampler for the VASM New Year's Day Party. I then treated myself to Quiznos as the coupons I've been habouring for a couple months expired that day and I never used a single one beforehand. When I got home, I immediately got to work on cleaning the house. First thing was taking out all the garbage and recycling. Second was disinfecting surfaces and counters in the kitchen. Third was disinfecting the sinks and toilets in the house. Third was vacuuming most of the house and shit, was there a lot of debris and dust on the floor! And finally, I had to mop all areas. I started on the 3rd floor doing David's bathroom, the entrance of his room, my bathroom, the entrance of my room, the entrance of the guest bedroom, the 3rd floor hallway and then the stairs all the way down to the 2nd floor. I then did the kitchen and was vacuuming the 1st floor while letting kitchen floor dry. After it was dry, I had David go upstairs to his room while I mopped the rest of the 2nd floor which included David's computer area, the hallway, and the living room. I took my laptop upstairs and we puttered around in our bedrooms waiting for floor to dry which took at least half an hour. After it was okay to go back down, I mopped the 1st floor which had the laundry area, the washroom, hallway, and foyer. The stairs back up to the 2nd floor finished the job which took me at least 3 hours but damn, did the house look a lot better! I then finished work on my Heavy Rain blog entry and managed to get it uploaded just 5 minutes until 2014 was birthed! David and I toasted the New Year with a glass of some champagne though I only had a sip as I hate the stuff and gave the rest to David. He went to bed shortly after while I started to play some Doom 3: BFG Edition.
I got up half past noon and played some more Doom while waiting for Peter and anyone else for the VASM New Year's Day Party. In the end, it was only Peter who arrived so it was a party of three. We wanted to order some pizza from Pizza Factory but they were closed. Peter drove me to a nearby Chinese restaurant but it was closed too so we went back home and checked Dominos Pizza and Pizza Hut online. Pizza Hut was too fucking expensive so we went with Dominos. We ordered 3 large 3-topping pizzas (2 ham, pineapple, bacon and 1 pepperoni, beef, bacon), cheesy bread, and cinnistix. All together it was $44.08 so it was within the budget. Peter drove me to the Oxford Street location and picked it up. When we got home, we had our pizza and cheesy bread while we watched Milk on bluray. David and Peter never saw it but I saw it in theatres 5 years ago. During the movie I had most of the cinnistix and near the end we had our slices of cheesecake. David got chocolate, Peter got strawberry swirl, and I got a chocolate; caramel; and pecan slice. David didn't bother watching the epilogue of the movie and went back to his computer. As I was watching the extras, Peter eventually said goodbye and that was the end of the party (I'll do my small review of the movie in my mid-January monthly entry).
I have some good news from today: MasterG managed to refund his Samsung TV at a different WalMart and got the same TV with a better deal and warranty at the Best Buy across from Metrotown. We set it up and it works perfectly! Awesome picture and colour! The new cable box was working great too and everything was connected into the TV. Everyone was happy and that was the end of that high drama! At home, my package containing 4 DVD copies of The Angry Video Game Nerd Vol.7 had finally arrived! YAY! All 3 of my siblings will be getting their copies now! The three other packages I'm waiting for are from Best Buy: Indiana Jones 4-Film Collection on Bluray for $33.59, Man of Steel on 3D Bluray for $19.03, and Metal Gear Solid Rising: Revengeance on PS3 for $22.39.
So while it was another busy Christmas and Boxing Week, it felt like a pretty good one with plenty of game and movie deals. Sadly, there were no action figures and busts to get. The one thing I'm going to regret for next Christmas season is there will be a lack of Christmas cards to send out. Canada Post has up'ed the price on letters within Canada to $1 per stamp! There were some guys who emailed and messaged, thanking me for the cards while others who haven't. Those who haven't replied in any way I'm going to write off for cards next year to save costs and an email will suffice.
Wish you all a great 2014!
- Steve "Cub" M.
Sneak peak at some of games for 2014:
Xbox 360: Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, Gears of War 3
PS3: Mass Effect 3, Super Street Fighter IV, SoulCalibur IV
Wii: Sonic Colors, Kirby's Return to Dreamland, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
PSP: Final Fantasy I, Final Fantasy II
DS: Tetris DS, Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia
Xbox: Capcom Vs. SNK 2 EO, Street Fighter II Anniversary Collection
If I'm lucky, I might be able to finish my KJV Bible reading this year or at least, the Old Testament.
Oh yes... and I'll be starting to work on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine too!