Black Friday

I sometimes enjoy the occasional shopping spree. This usually involves heading to Express or Banana Republic with someone else (usually Michelle) to buy clothes and spend money I don't have...

But I refuse, at all costs, to participate in shopping the day after Thanksgiving.

The last thing I want to do is wake up at 3 AM after researching three dozen ads the night before, fight crowds of elbow throwing blue hairs and race to the closest retail store for the ONE thing I've been looking for. Don't bother, someone else is looking for the same thing, and they'll get it before you.

But, I wanted to find my Auntie Bobbie the perfect gift in return for the Corelle she gave me on Thanksgiving, and thought it'd be great to get her what she's been hunting for: a Wii Fit.

They were on sale at Sam's Club for $78.84. Since my mom has the membership, she'd need to come along. This morning, we piled into the car and headed to the west siide of GB -- traffic wasn't terrible, but there were still some crowds of people. It was about 11 AM. Not too shabby.

My mom and George had tentative plans to purchase a new flatscreen TV for their living room too. Mostly so George can play Halo 3. (I think he's addicted.)

On the list: a shiny new television, Wii Fit and a Columbia fleece jacket.

When you walk into the Sam's Club, electronics stare you in the face. In particular -- TVs. We got about 20 feet into the store, and stayed there for about an hour.

Since my brother came along, he was able to check out the different options and details for each TV, letting my mom and George know which were better than others.

He'd also ask questions like the refresh rate for the screen or the signal delay.

I checked out some cameras, the laptops and found some of the fleece sweatshirts (none my size.)

Finally, they chose a 46" Samsung flatscreen -- last one on the shelf.

We wandered around the rest of the store, showing off the TV to all the other shoppers. Checked out and hauled it to the car.

On the way home, we were pulling off the highway to the house, and my mom asked, "Did anyone look for the Wii Fit for Auntie Bobbie?"

Oops.