<p>I tried the Best Buy fiasco. No luck there. Evidently people were lined across the parking lot by 4am. Of course by 7:30am when I went, all the sale items were long gone. One clerk, who I asked about a camera and a GPS system, said all sale items were gone in the first 15 minutes. I did have luck at Linens and Things and got a couple items at a good price, then took off for home–can’t handle that many people for very long.</p>
<p>Just bought a 37-inch HD LCD teevee off the 'net. Seven hundred bucks and I still haven’t put my shoes on. Store? What store?</p>
<p>We stayed overnight in downtown Chicago last night after Thanksgiving with relatives at the top of the Hancock Building. Today we wandered among the crowds on Michigan Avenue for about an hour - but all we bought was Garrett’s caramel and cheese corn. It was fun and crazy in the city - fabulous weather - and we were so relieved we didn’t need to actually shop there. We did stop at a Kohl’s on the way home and bought DS a leather jacket at 50% since we realized he has nothing between a nylon shell, a sweat shirt, and a ski jacket. Only had to wait about a minute to check out and we also got a $30 coupon to use in the next week. I think it’s the first time I’ve ever been in a store on Black Friday! My favorite years are when Chanukah starts right after Thanksgiving so you’re forced to do all your shopping before. Then you just laugh through December!</p>
<p>Took S1 shopping for new running shoes. Sporting goods store is right next to Kohl’s and we expected parking lot to be a mad house. It really wasn’t bad and we found his Saucony running shoes on clearance marked down from $85.99 to $45.99…yea!</p>
<p>S2 had the bad luck. He and a friend went out to the mall last night. When they came out found that someone had hit his truck in the parking lot. No note or phone number left of course. He will have to have a new bumper and turn signal light which will cost several hundred $$. Last month his truck was broken into at sch. and stereo and Ipod stolen plus window broken out. We still haven’t gotten all that replaced. Merry Christmas.</p>
<p>Shopping part 2. Mrs. WashDad and I went to a local furniture store that has a sale going on. We now have a new sofa and chair to go with the teevee. </p>
<p>My hands are shaking and I’m sweating. This is more rank consumerism than we normally do in five years…</p>
<p>spent all my shopping money flying D home from Boston for Thanksgiving. That was the BEST present I could buy for H and myself!!! Worth every penny :)</p>
<p>Well, S took ME shopping - for the things we did not get him for his birthday (or, rather, got the wrong brand). He took up cycling this year at college and emailed me a list of cycling gear and apparel a few weeks back - I never realized cycling could be such an expensive activity?! I asked him if some of it couldn’t wait until Christmas since the season MUST be nearly over in Boston! He said he’d be sending an even longer list for Christmas…</p>
<p>let me tell you my story of black friday shopping…</p>
<p>got to staples before they opened, got in line, they were walking down the line handing out vouchers for a few select items, i was given a voucher and told to go in to the voucher line to claim the items. so, 30-45 minutes later i get to the front of the voucher line and hand in my voucher and suprise suprise they are out of the item. I was pretty ticked off… and that’s the end of my shopping at staples… and believe me, when I say i’m not shopping somewhere, i mean it. They wasted about an hour of my time. if i wouldn’t have gotten a voucher i would have left right from the beginning and gone to another store that had the same thing (circuit city). by the time i got there they had ran out, 30 minutes prior to me arriving.</p>
<p>Their loss.</p>
<p>Packmom-
Bummer about the truck–a double whammy! That’s a shame. Maybe if someone messes with the truck again younger s can run in his new Saucony’s and catch him!</p>
<p>Bummer, fendergirl. Consider shopping froe electronics on <a href=“http://www.edealinfo.com%5B/url%5D”>www.edealinfo.com</a>. When you look for what you want, be sure to select the option that pulls up all the deals in the past 12 weeks (or something like that)… not just this weeks deals. I’ve found some incredible bargains through that site.</p>
<p>The <em>only</em> shopping I’ve had the ooooooooomph to do this holiday after my 2:00 a.m. Best Buy fiasco on Friday a.m. has been to buy my son’s ticket home for Winter Break. Given that I spent $650 for Thanksgiving ( 
), the $218 I just paid for the winter break <em>IS</em> a deal!!! :)</p>
<p>Full disclosure – after getting the vapors from buying an HDTV television (our first NEW TV since 1988!), a new sofa, and a new easy chair (our first easy chair !EVER! in 28 years of marriage), I went completely crazy and bought Mrs. WashDad a $5 quad tall hazelnut breve. I had to put my debit card in the freezer when I got home. The worst crowd I faced was at the espresso shop…</p>
<p>WashDad~</p>
<p>You can take me shopping any day…but, can you make the last item a Grande Mocha Frap?? Thanks! :)</p>
<p>Well, OK, B, but I think the Frap is ALL I could afford now. We had to spend all of our money before filling out the FAFSA forms…</p>
<p>Well, the frap is MORE than <em>I</em> can afford right now, so it’s a deal! :)</p>
<p>I hate crowds, despite (or perhaps because of) my place of residence. I’d never fight them for a few <em>maybe obtainable</em> bargains. However, amazon.com had a dartboard for $10…got that for S’s future (fingers crossed) dorm room. Also got a set of KitchenAid cookware for $100. Steered toward both bargains by gottadeal.com. (The people on that site are WAY weirder than on this one, btw. <em>GRIN</em>)</p>
<p>Well, I bought a phone charger, to replace the one I lost, at the local Verizon store. Does that count?</p>
<p>Washdad, I don’t even know what a quad tall hazelnut breve is. I get that hazelnut’s a flavor, and tall is a size (though I’m clueless as to what size that is in this context) but I’m totally stumped by quad and breve. It sounds like three different words for size.</p>
<p>I’m too dumb to order coffee anymore. How any of you handle electronics is a mystery; I take my hat off to all of you!</p>
<p>I missed the good sales on Friday because our extended family recorded a CD. My D’s and I went on Saturday expecting the big sales and were disappointed that they had discontinued many of the big sales. They wanted jeans for Christmas and we settled for 30% off instead of the 50% off that they had offered on Friday. The crowds seemed pretty light on Saturday.</p>