The Winter Court of the Insane, Philosophical Ladybug

Christmas was basically very nice. I did manage to capture the feel of a Christmas from my childhood, which I had so desperately longed to do. It made me very happy. I also discovered cutting many dolls and figures out of their packaging can really hurt the thumb. My skin is dry and it cracked a lot there.

One of my favorite gifts is the Encanto doll set I've been wanting for a year! I was so thrilled Azalea542 got it for me! I have them set up on a metal tray right near my bed. They can stand on their own, which is so cool. I also got the Bruno and Dolores dolls so I'd have all the released dolls. I hope they will make the other characters too.

Another lovely gift was a gift card from Ladyamberjo so I could get Sylveon. I was sick of missing out on the Eevee family plushies at Build-a-Bear and I wanted to grab her since she's a favorite. That outing was a time. Almost everything that could go wrong on that outing did. Thankfully, we managed to return with Sylveon or it would have all been pointless. It started precipitating. I objected. Dad insisted we keep going, for some reason. We had to stop and get something from my sister. We had to get gas and had a hard time getting the locked gas cap off. We got stuck in a ditch for which there was no warning sign posted. People were very kind and helped us get out, but it took an hour or more. When we finally got to the mall, some mysterious thing had gone wrong and the store was temporarily closed?! I waited a bit, left in discouragement, then tried calling before leaving the parking lot. They were open again, so I went back for Sylveon. There was already a line forming, so I had to wait a bit more. Driving home was a nightmare as the precipitation continued. But at last we made it!

I got some more Eevees and watched The Rings of Power. I loved it and named Eevees Merry and Pippin. ThickerThanLove sent me the Lord of the Rings bear from Build-a-Bear, squeee! He looks like Frodo, with brown curly fur and blue eyes. I need something to name Sam next.

I am still furious at Nintendo cutting off eShop access to 3DS and 2DS tomorrow. I spent most of this past week looking for things to snap up. There was a big sale on Capcom games, for some awesome reason. I got Mega Man Legacy Collection. Mega Man games are hard. I can't jump on the bad guys and they swarm me really fast. I can't blast them all. I'm really happy to have the games, though. I'll figure it out. I was disappointed I couldn't seem to find anything else. I already got most of the awesome stuff I could afford in the months prior. Then I finally thought to look up Phoenix Wright. Those games were also on sale, for an incredible $2.99 each! Even the trilogy set! After spending much more than I really intended or wanted to (especially on DLC), I have many Phoenix games. I wasn't going to get Apollo Justice, but NinetalesUK finally convinced me I should. If I happen to take to him and the other characters from his games, I probably would be upset to not have the first game with them. I am notorious for balking at things and then loving them when I finally try them. For $2.99, I figured I'd better get it.

I got Investigations for the iPhone, since that was the only way to get it. (Yes, I have an iPhone.) But apparently I will only get the first case and have to drop a lot more to get the rest. I don't know when that will be, since I've already spent a lot. I'm enjoying the first case. Miles is still my favorite; playing as him is wonderful.

I still wish someone could use Radley's sprites from Over the Nexus to make a video game with him. I wish I could do that. I have no skills and would have to learn.

I got my dad's HP laptop working again and downloaded Steam onto it. Then I got The Disney Afternoon Collection, which was on sale for $5. I have always wanted to play those games. Darkwing is hard like Mega Man. The Chip and Dale games are the easiest. I am enjoying them all, even though I'm having trouble getting very far in them. I'll figure it out.

I had plans to get the Leafeon plush at Build-a-Bear, even though I'd have to do the online bundle with unnecessary clothes. I still want to try to make it work even after needing to snap up all that Nintendo stuff before it's gone. I have tried for days to convince my brain it is foolish. My brain will not listen. It's the only way to get him. I'm hoping I can re-sell the clothes, at least the sleeper. I might like the cape enough to keep it, but the onesie seems very silly. I don't want to cover up all that beautiful fur. If he hasn't sold out yet, I plan to order him tonight. He will make a lovely Easter gift. I'm tired of missing out on the Build-a-Bears. I wish I'd got him and Glaceon when they were briefly in physical stores last year, and Umbreon when he was online again briefly.

Some family members wanted me and Dad to get on their Verizon phone plan with them and we'd get iPhones. Mine was free! It's 13. The camera is glorious and I've taken videos of the kitty. The space is also glorious. I have 128GB! And there's not a lot of bloatware. It looks like I can delete whatever I want to, too. I like using the iPhone as a gaming device, mostly. I see both pros and cons of it. It's much harder to type on; if I need to correct a mistake, I can't even go right to the mistake. I have to erase the whole word! There's no headphone jack. Clearing caches is much harder. Apparently I'm supposed to hit offload app, but the description sounded much more complicated than a simple clearing of the cache. It sounded like I would have to redownload the app any time I clicked offload! Some of those apps are big. I don't have time to keep redownloading them! I got my dad's Motorola Android phone since he didn't need it anymore. It has 64GB, which is also good. I like to use it for most other Internet activities since Google devices are easier to manage in a lot of ways. Two of my tablets have been dying a lot, leaving me with the Amazon Fire tablet and these phones. I am happy to have them all.

I found someone called ZakuraRain who will do beautiful pictures for only $3, $6 if it's colored! They call them doodles, but they're definitely higher quality than mere doodles. I've got four pictures from them so far.

Fanfiction writing is slow at times, but still going on. I'm writing some enjoyable Kalin and Radley stories. Sometimes inspiration flows.

I also finally put the collars and lapels on the Kalin and Radley plushies' coat and jacket. I need to take pictures. I was going to get silver snaps for Radley, but I couldn't find the right kind and then I wondered if even the lightweight duster kind would weigh the light material down a lot.

I finally got to do my birthday outing, but as I'd figured, I didn't find anything I wanted other than a plushie base, and a nice patriotic shirt when I exchanged a pair of pants. Target was sold out of everything I like to buy there! Aurgh! But I did decide, while looking at a small Disney Store Mickey Mouse that cost $23, that I was going to buy the 25 inch one on Amazon. I got him that night and he arrived two days later thanks to my Prime trial, which they offered to extend for another month. He is sooo soft, both the fur and the huggability. I love him! I keep him on the bed.

I also finally got Build-a-Bear's tuxedo cat to be Oreo. They understuffed her, as usual, and I don't know when I'll be able to fix it since I'm not comfortable going into the store with her right now and I don't trust myself to do it. But she's adorable! Definitely the most Oreo-looking plushie I've ever found.

For Halloween, I put down paper towel on our wall and then put spaced-out candy. We got more kids this year than we have in a while. Go figure. I guess with no trunk or treats, they go back to traditional methods.

I immediately felt like getting Christmassy the day after Halloween and I turned on the small trees. On Monday we got lights for the big tree, since some were about to burn out on it (and immediately did when I turned it on, oy). The new lights are gorgeous. Instead of the cheap brands we usually buy, these are GE. Love it!

I wrote the YGO fic with Nesbitt being tricked into accepting the Orichalcos. I'm just finishing it now. It didn't work to extend it very long due to his unique circumstances and also the fact that I rarely like writing duels, but I like how it came out. Very heartbreaking and very squeeful and I use a lot of my personal feelings and struggles with self-hatred in how I write for Nesbitt. At the end, the problem isn't gone, but he's starting to heal thanks to his friends.

I'm kind of obsessed with the 5Ds character Kalin Kessler. He is a pretty horrible person even before the dark force gets him, and then he completely turns his life around after he's freed. It feels very vindicating. People would tell me I was writing characters wrong if their personalities became different when they wanted to repent. Kalin is a canon example showing it happening. I think his redemption arc was very well-done. I play him a lot in Duel Links. I want to make a plushie of him, and I might use my current plushie base for that. I even sought out some nice, soft material I could use for his hair. I found the right color and everything. Problem is, I could only buy it in a set of a yard and a half for over $8. Oy! The things I do for my crafting projects....

(I also bought a talking Charmander. I wanted him for my birthday, but they sold out, and they just finally got a couple this past week. One disappeared right away and I decided I'd better buy the other instead of waiting to try asking for him for Christmas.)

I also actually want to buy 5Ds. I've seen enough of it to know that I want to see more, and I would prefer to just get the DVDs and watch it that way instead of streaming the episodes on my tablets. I still hate the setting of Domino in the future, but I just love the characters and that's what sells it for me.

Duel Links added Zexal. A lot of fans of it have wanted it, apparently. I honestly think it looks very childish compared to the first three YGO series (yes, even GX). The characters seem to be younger and their cards are out of this world ridiculous. Zubababancho Gagagacoat?! How can anyone take a name like that seriously?! **headdesk.** Maybe someday Duel Links will introduce a character or event that will interest me, like they finally did for both GX and 5Ds, but somehow I doubt I will ever be that intrigued overall. With GX, I love Jesse Anderson and will play as him sometimes, and I'll play as Tyranno only because David Wills voices him, but GX just doesn't enchant me overall. The setting of a duel school is still preposterous and I just can't seem to get invested in the adventures. They're either too slice-of-life, which I can't get behind when I'm not invested in the characters, or too dark. 5Ds, on the other hand, grabbed me with the Dark Signer arc and Carly Carmine, and then I got invested in all the characters and their adventures. Somehow, in spite of the setting of a ruined Domino City and the nonsense of Turbo Duels, it feels like a better follow-up to classic YGO, storyline-wise. (On the other hand, GX still uses familiar cards, which felt so good to see after watching 5Ds. But I was seriously underwhelmed by the GX Paradox Brothers episodes. Not epic like the classic series at all.)

On the 2nd we went to an open house. They've been building ten new houses near us and they allowed everyone to tour them before the families moved in. It's a company called Self-Help Homes; I think the deal is that whoever is moving in does a lot of the building themselves. It was mentioned that food would be provided, but not what. I looked up what's usually served at real estate open houses and turned up cake, so that's all I was expecting and wasn't surprised when we got there and found some. We didn't make it in time for the opening ceremonies, though, so it was probably announced there that they'd be serving an actual dinner after the house tours. While we were touring, I saw that getting set up and heard some of the other people talking about that. It was awesome to get dinner, especially after 90 minutes of walking! A hamburger with cheese, a hot dog, all kinds of toppings, Doritos, ice water, and giant chocolate chip cookies! Yuuuum!

The houses were all gorgeous. My favorite ones had huge bathrooms with the toilets off to themselves in nooks. One house even had a giant walk-in closet with a light off the bathroom! It was epic.

The weird thing is, while we were touring I kept having intense Sonic the Hedgehog nostalgia and thinking about getting that Amy Rose plush. Something about the touring or the houses or the time of day or the way the sun was coming in or all of the above was making me remember something Sonic-related, but I couldn't remember what and I still can't. It may have been a memory of around ten years ago when I was on a big Sonic kick in late summer. Or it could be a memory of when I got my first Sonic game set in July 2001, but that was a cloudy day, so I don't think so. In any case, it was very nice but also very strange. Maybe it was a memory of being into Sonic while taking those driving classes years ago, but I don't know what new houses would have to do with that. I don't know what new houses have to do with any of my Sonic memories, honestly. LOL. Maybe being on a Sonic kick and listening to the Sonic Adventure 2 soundtrack on our way to my childhood friend's wedding reception in her big backyard? I don't know. Maybe it's even as simple as the new houses being for families, and that reminding me of when I was a kid and just newly getting enthused with Sonic. It wouldn't explain the specific Amy Rose association, though. Then there's the thought that maybe I was associating the houses with anime, like Sailor Moon, and thinking about those characters' families, and how I got into anime in summer, and thinking of Sonic since it's also a Japanese property and I have many summer memories of Sonic....

I did finally get my gift card and order the Amy plush, and I got the last one. I was worried wondering if there was really one left or if I'd get a message that she wasn't available after all, but she was there and shipped and I got her the day before I needed to cancel the Prime trial, the 11th. She's so cute, and gorgeous, and so soft! Her dress is soft too. It's so hilarious that I would actually end up wanting an Amy plush, but realizing she didn't act out nearly as much as I'd thought really helped, because she was so cute and sweet in the episodes I was watching, and tough when she needed to be (not when she didn't need to be). I also like that sometimes she's kind of a voice of reason; when Knuckles flips out she usually stays logical. (Of course, then sometimes she's illogical herself at other times, heh. But I guess she's a pretty well-rounded character.) I love characters who are voices of reason; that's one reason why I love Gansley so much. (And I love Marc Thompson's voice for him in season 3; I could listen to that for ages. Help, I have a crush on a 60-year-old man (who isn't someone I've watched in stuff at various ages)! How did that even happen? Lol. I keep remembering this Charlie's Angels episode where Sabrina has a crush on a 60-year-old man because she loves his intelligence, and Jill and Kelly keep giggling about it. Of course, I certainly don't like the way Gansley acts with Yugi and Atem in their duel, but what I don't think people tend to realize is that if I write for a character for a long time, sometimes I end up falling in love with the version of them that I'm writing. Gansley is repentant in my post-canon verse, and combining that with his voice and being one of the logical ones of the group, well ... squeee. (And I think his "happy" sprite in Nightmare Troubadour is adorable.) Same thing with Nesbitt, minus him being one of the logical ones, lol. But I really love the way I've developed him in my post-canon verse. It's really those versions I'm crushing on, not what we see in canon where they're displaying such repugnant behavior ... although I do feel sorry for Nesbitt, especially considering his backstory in the original Japanese, and of course I love Gansley's canonical logical behavior trying to look after the others. Team Dad Gansley is adorable both in canon and in my verse, I have to say. Johnson doesn't seem to have any good qualities in canon unless he cares about the others, and Crump is so repulsive with his dirty-minded behavior towards Tea and Serenity in the original Japanese. The dub thankfully removes that, but he's still repulsively sadistic and I really don't have a lot of sympathy for him in either version. I do like the versions of him and Johnson I write for, though. I didn't think anyone except Lector was even deserving of a second chance until I re-watched the episodes enough to pick up nuances and realized that they seemed to care about each other. Then I really wanted to save them all.)

I was worried wondering if they'd even get any more Amy plushies in, as then it was saying "Unavailable. We don't know if or when this item will be back in stock." But I checked again and it said she'd be back in stock this week, so that's good. I have never seen something like this. All of these Sonic plushies are so popular and in demand, and they keep flying off the shelves almost as fast as Amazon can put them back! That should tell Sega that people still want quality Sonic merchandise. It's so hard to find Sonic stuff in stores right now and it's so frustrating. I love that I was able to get a shirt at ShopKo before they closed. I still feel a little sad that I didn't get another one I saw, but I didn't have much money and it was white and long-sleeved. I don't really like white for shirts because it gets dirty so fast, and I only wear long sleeves in public and in cooler weather, so I figured that shirt might not even get much use for a while. It was definitely more practical not to get it, but I still feel a little sad, especially when it's so very hard to find Sonic stuff.

I have to admit, in spite of the silly rivalry with Mario, it seems to me like Mario is clearly the winner in merchandise and almost always has been. There was a time when Sonic figures were around and more interesting than Nintendo figures, though, but that's long past. And there's a book about Mario that's readily available, while The History of Sonic book was never easily obtainable and went out of print before I could save up enough to get it. Sigh. I miss the days when Sonic stuff was easier to get and so plentiful. Even though the non-Boom ban is over, it seems like companies aren't getting back on track very quickly. Boom really ruined the merchandise scene and it's never recovered.

Then I have the problem that I love these Sonic plushies so much that I ... really want the actual Sonic one. The thought of petting a Sonic with minky-like fur just sounds glorious. But I think I'd feel more guilty getting another Sonic plush than I would for almost any other character, because my classic Sonic plush was such a close companion of mine as a kid, probably my favorite Christmas gift ever, and I never really wanted another Sonic plush because I was so happy with him. I know the plush isn't really alive, but it's really hard to think in logical terms like that, especially for someone sentimental like me who kind of wonders if the inner life idea could be true. Plushies and figures and dolls are alive to me, because in Jessie from Toy Story's words, "that's how they [the kids] see you [the toys]." I try to rationalize it by saying I have classic Sonic and why not get modern Sonic; they're different so it's not a betrayal of the classic plush; it would be nice to have a Sonic without felt spikes, etc. We'll see which side of my mind wins out.

The 4th was ... probably about the worst holiday I've ever spent. As a normal day it was okay, but as a holiday it was really lame. Two wonderful things happened, though: I reached the Big Five arc in my game that day and I got to role-play with Crystal. After that, the day went downhill and didn't stop. We didn't do anything as a family to celebrate and I wasn't even able to get a pizza. (I did finally get one next week after the Scottish Festival, though.)

The Festival was fun and we got to see the band The Fire again, which was awesome. I was a little sad they didn't do a full hour concert like they usually do (it was 45 minutes instead), but I guess they were worn-out from the heat. It was so hot, ugh. Although I don't think it was as bad as last year, where it was so stuffy it was hard to even breathe.

I wanted to find a pendant with a purple gem or rock so I could think of the amethyst ring I gave Lector in my fics, but I couldn't find anything like that. The jewelry shop I like so much didn't come this year, for some reason. The new store I liked so much last year was back, though, and they had some raw amethyst samples that were really tempting. But I really wanted something to wear and I didn't have much money, so I ended up not getting one of those.

It has been a really busy month. Most of this past week has been taken up with preparations for my sister getting re-married, and then the wedding was on Friday. Outside. In 97 degree temperatures. GAH. But at least it was at a beautiful place and there was some shade. The reception was pretty awesome. Most receptions around here only do dessert, but they did a meal! Cheese sandwiches and crackers and cheese squares and potato rolls and punch and nuts and M&M's and vegetable trays and gigantic pieces of cake ... ! Paradise! And on the way home I found the My Little Pony Bubbles at Target! This is G1 Bubbles, not G4 Bubbles. This Bubbles is yellow with blue hair, one of the two sitting down Ponies. I've wanted her for a long time. I hope I can find her friend Seashell too, because it would be too sad not to have her BFF. Plus, she's also really pretty, lavender with turquoise hair.

This week may be busy too; I'm desperately hoping we can have fun on our local holiday, especially since the 4th was such a bust as far as doing fun family things to celebrate.

And I finally beat the Nightmare Troubadour game, after many struggles against Yami Marik! I have to admit I oddly enough didn't have too much trouble with the other odd or difficult duels in the game. No one else really seemed to be on Yami Marik's level. I kept getting trounced to the point of utter frustration and aggravation, especially since I thought he was the final barrier keeping me from getting back to the Big Five. Finally some Internet searches brought up some advice and a gameplay video with good strategies I was able to use and I beat him. It was especially hard because I had to defeat him with Obelisk, and he kept destroying my monsters before I could get him on the field, and occasionally when I did get him on the field, Yami Marik did something else to make me lose, like play Ring of Destruction after already whittling down my lifepoints with Lava Golem.

Then when I finally beat Yami Marik, I found I wasn't at level 20 and I had to be at level 20 to see the Big Five again. I was just barely at 19. So there was some frantic dueling to level up, and occasionally a Rare Hunter or Yami Bakura showed up and screwed up my EXP. I love Yami Bakura and any other time I would have been happy to see him, but not when he ruined the EXP I'd got from Seto by causing me to lose before I'd saved again. He showed up a couple of other times and I beat him those times, so then he helped me get EXP. (I don't get any when I lose.)

It's been a delight to play against the Big Five again! I don't like that apparently I can only duel them in a row and have to start over if I lose to any of them, but at least I get to see them again in some way. I don't like that the game made it sound like they're possibly holographic projections, but I'll just insist they're real and this is their new job, lol.

I'm finally wrapping up my multi-chapter fic. I ended up feeling really badly for Pegasus, as through this fic and other ones of mine, he's seen or heard about characters getting second chances and yet he can't have Cecelia back. I don't even like Pegasus that much (mainly because of how flippant he acted about all the horrible things he did, even after he supposedly repented), but I felt like I was slapping him in the face and it just didn't seem fair, like that everyone is allowed back except Cecelia. (Of course, there are other characters who stay dead, but I don't think any case other than Cecelia's involves a loved one so unable to deal with the death as Pegasus is.) So I've set up a situation where Shadi's taking him on a quest that may bring Cecelia back. I was going to end the epilogue with them reuniting, but now I wonder if I should leave things with him on the quest and possibly have the next fic with more of the cast ending up on the quest too and having that be an adventure fic. Maybe it should be the one I've wanted to do for so long with the Big Five having to take Capsule Monsters trials. I'll think about it. That could take focus away from Pegasus, but I'm really not sure I could write a fic with him as a central character. It took me years to finish Until You Find Answers, mainly because I couldn't get into Pegasus's mind and was dreading his chapter so much.

Whew, the FF.net admins finally patched the virus problem!

And I am so chuffed and hopeful that Toys R Us will be coming back! I really really hope this Geoffrey's Toy Box thing will work so they may be able to expand back to their big stores. I seriously doubt the lenders planned all of this from the start, as that would be idiotic to let the store go bankrupt just to try to make money on risky ventures like this. Frankly, I do think they're idiots in another way, as they didn't realize the value of the store until it was almost too late yet they greedily wanted a ton of money for the Geoffrey character and such. I hope they can get the store rolling again. I've been eagerly trying to find out who they're partnering with. Some Midwest-headquartered store, so people think Meijer. I hope ShopKo, because it's Midwest, but it's also West. Maybe it's both; it indicated they were looking for more than one store to try this out.

For days Mom and I have been wanting to put up our old Halloween decorations, the cute black cat cut-outs and such. We only finally got to do it Friday night. I'm really happy we did, but I wish a time had opened up sooner. That feeling of childhood rushed back so strongly once they were up, especially that year I was nuts about the Beetlejuice cartoon and it was such a fun autumn. I did finally go over the episode guide again and discovered most episodes were Maybe and some were Yes; only about nine or ten were absolute No. That's not too bad, but I still don't know if I'll get the set. The heavy nostalgia sure makes it tempting, though. And I've never seen the movie. Part of me would like to finally do that, but I'm always leery wondering exactly what I might run into, especially with that sick cover picture. I never handle that sort of thing well....

Cosplay-wise, I never have been able to get the hair on my wig to stand up, and I had to make a cardboard Millennium Ring, but I did get gold foil for it and I think it came out pretty well. There's a picture of it on my figure box that's in scale and I traced it, then spent 45 minutes cutting it out of heavy cardboard. It probably took another hour covering it with the gold foil. And I needed a new wig that looked more correct style-wise, and when I got it, it was pretty much perfect (except, of course, that no hair stands up, lol). Everything was done just in time for the Halloween party, and I hope Halloween will go well too. I have a preview picture on dA, although I took it before I had the Ring done. I'll definitely take pictures with it on Halloween. http://meromeroyui.deviantart.com

I loved my Nancy Drew game. It looks like there was a fraud going on, although it was never expressly stated, and Nancy tried to think that the other ghost sightings were hallucinations from carbon monoxide poisoning that was going on in the house. But I don't buy it, especially since some people saw the ghost who were never in the house. So I will happily believe there was a ghost.

I also bought more Nancy Drew games. There's an Egyptian one I just had to have, and a haunted castle one. Those came on double bills with other creepy ones. The Egyptian one also has one about a monster in Bavaria, and the castle one comes with a New Orleans one about a crystal skull. I'm playing the Egyptian one now and adore it, but if it wasn't that the games take up so much memory, I would be sorely tempted to install another one and alternate playing them, since they all sound so fun. I should do that on the hall computer; it has much more space and could probably easily hold several games.

I had a Wal-Mart gift card and they actually got in more My Little Pony movie figures, so this past Monday I got the set with Capper and Rarity, because I love Capper in the movie and wanted the figure. And there was one Songbird Serenade figure amid a sea of new brushables, so I decided I'd better snap her up since I wanted her too. I was a little unprepared for the darkness of the movie when I first saw it, but on repeated watchings, I enjoy it a lot more. And I want the soundtrack.

I found a tablet. Near the beginning of the month QVC was doing a promotional sale on Amazon's new Fire tablet, and I was able to get a 16GB in blue for $59.99, just ten dollars more than an 8GB! I'm paying in the Easy Pay installments. I'm not to where I actually need it yet, but I really felt I should have it on hand for when I do, since when I do need it there might not be a sale. Meanwhile, it's great for YouTubing. I'm almost always charging a tablet now that there are three, lol. All used for different things, too.

I got a Target gift card and tried for days to figure out how to arrange an order to get the Kris doll on their website. But it wasn't easy, since the website doesn't have as much stuff as the stores. (Seriously, they don't even have the G1 Ponies! They do have a playset that has a Pony, but now it looks like I can't order that with Standard shipping. WTH.) Finally I decided, after learning that the sculpt may not be as good as I'd thought, that I'd wait on Kris, buy her in-store, and use my gift card to buy more Ponies. I did that on Tuesday and don't regret it, but I also discovered that they've taken away the Mego figure display, so now I wonder if they'll never put Kris in-store at all and I'm back to trying to figure out how to get her off the site. I don't want to buy her by herself; that would cost about $7 in shipping and handling fees! And my Red Card is messed-up. I don't know why they invalidated it; maybe because it was around when that data breach happened five years ago. I was supposed to get sent a new one, but I don't know that I ever was, and I tried to get them to see about it in-store once, but the cashier didn't want to. And I had thought the Red Card was just a rewards card, but now I learn that it's a debit (or credit) card with access to my bank account, and after the breach I'm leery of something from Target having access to my bank account, so I don't know whether I want to even try to renew my Red Card. If I did, though, I could get free shipping and buy Kris by herself, which is what I really wish I could do. There's just not much else I want on their website, although I would like The Monkees' Christmas CD since the Target version has extra tracks. But that plus Kris wouldn't add up to the free shipping minimum. And I'm really hesitant to spend as much as I need for that unless I have a gift card to cover some of it. I could scrounge up some other things on the site, like some Nancy Drew books. They have a few of the yellow old ones. I think I might be able to get another Target card soon.

When I got the Ponies, I also got some other things, mainly the gold foil and plushie crafting supplies. I still want to make David, and I turned the plushie I got on my birthday into Tea, and then I had the wild idea that I wanted to try to make Yami Bakura in Thief King form. Totally unnecessary, since I have that little one I commissioned years ago, but it sounded like such a fun challenge that I badly wanted to try. I'm working on him now and he's coming along pretty well. I've also been thinking of making Alister so I can make a Valon and a Raphael in scale to be with him. Although I'd be sad for my little commissioned Alister that he wouldn't have the others, heh. I may make the Ishtars too, although I'd run into the same problem of being sad for my commissioned Marik. I've thought of making Tristan too, and figuring I'd probably have to stuff the pointy part of his hair. I wonder how many cotton balls that would take.

That was a bizarre shopping experience, as the gear shift fell apart while running Dad's errands. Ugh. Rather, the button you push in fell out and then Dad couldn't push the thing inside the handle in enough and we were stuck in Park while he called places and no one knew anything (of course). Finally he had the idea to push a pen in there and he got the thing pushed in enough with that to get the car out of Park and into Drive and we were able to finish the shopping trip (mostly). I opted not to try going to the mall, as I was happy with everything I found and I was worried to get home.

I got my YGO fic finished (although I still need to proofread and print it), and I've been doing that Wild Wild West fic based on my dream. It won't be very long, but it's a lot of fun to work with. I love writing for Snakes especially. I also need to finish a YGO fic I was doing where Yami Marik mind-controls Tristan for jollies and has him nearly kill Yami Bakura. Tristan is devastated, gah. And there's that fic where Yami Bakura is fading into the darkness but is saved. It's mostly done, if not all done, but I keep waffling on posting that one.

Awesome friends and family helped fix the attic, I found a tablet, and I've been playing Duel Links!

I wanted to go Best Buy to see if I could find a tablet shown on their website that they were clearancing. I don't think I found it, unless it was a different price in-store, but I found one cheaper than the Fire tablet because it was on sale (normally it's more expensive than the Fire). It's 8 inches and it's an Android system. I really felt it would be smarter to get one that already had Android stuff so I could know for a certainty things would work. I'll probably need to get a micro SD chip for it; I rather suspect by now that the stats I saw for the Steam version of the game are true for the mobile version too. On Steam it said 4GB of storage was the minimum, but 8GB was better. Which means if it is the same, it could technically fill up the whole tablet, it seems. There's a way to format micro SD so it can be part of the internal storage, so that would definitely help even if I could only get a 2GB chip. Right now the only thing I'm using the tablet for is Duel Links, which is just fine with me. Clearly I badly wanted that game since I was willing to pay $40 to get something to play it on. And since I find it completely worth it.

Wednesday was a very long day. I had insomnia, was super exhausted all day, and I have to go back to the dentist for more work. But one nice thing is that I've never been afraid of dentists since two of my brothers are dentists and I go to them.

Toys R Us ... honestly, I felt blank. They're only charging 10% off of most everything, which just makes me go WTH. K-Mart was doing 30% by now. And there was no Ladybug stuff. But they say they restock with stuff from their warehouses each day, so maybe later they'll get awesome things. Borders did that too; they had a much better inventory towards the end than they'd had for years, sadly. I'm hoping maybe they'll bring in some of the Sailor Moon figures, since they sell some online. But they'll have to bring the prices down more than 10% to make it worth it to me! At the nearest store especially, barely anything seemed to be gone. Maybe it still doesn't feel real yet, or maybe it's that for ages it's felt different than the store it was years ago, but I couldn't seem to work up any emotion while I was there.

I felt I needed to visit both Toys R Uses before deciding what to do about other things, so we went to the one an hour away after the dentist and then came down to the closer one. Best Buy was across the street and I spent a long time trying to find the tablets and then trying to decide on the best tablet. When I saw the sale price on the one, I was astounded. At first it looked like they didn't have any, but then the guy and I found one stuck in the wrong slot. I debated between it and the Fire and finally chose it for the reasons stated above. I had to wait a long time to get checked out, but everyone was really nice and so far the tablet has been really good. Hopefully it will continue to be, especially since I'm really only using it for that one thing. A 16GB would have probably been wiser, but I just couldn't afford that. As it was, I was only able to get this tablet right now because Mom was able to help me with the cost. Squeee.

My Target coupon came in right before we needed to leave, and then I couldn't get Dad's computer to cooperate to print it. But the nice lady at the dentist office let me print it there when she heard us talking about it! Since I'd already bought a tablet by the time we got to Target, I decided to check Target for the retro My Little Ponies. They were out, but I saw they had one copy of The Dark Side of Dimensions for the exact price of the gift card. I was extremely tired, hadn't seen anything else there I wanted, and I have been wanting to see that after all, for curiosity and completion's sake if nothing else, so I decided that was a great way to do it and it came home with me.

Since it's a verse all its own, not anime or manga since it contradicts both, I was able to view it as a separate entity and enjoy it for what it was. I was a little disappointed not to hear the classic gravelly Yami Bakura voice in the flashback, but I was happy to see him at all, even though it was a seriously disturbing scene. Gah. And the best line was when Yugi pulled out these weird Apple and Lemon Magician Girls and Seto exclaims, "You're fighting me with fruit?! You're mocking me!" ROTFLOL!

I found it interesting that Atem never speaks. He had so little screentime, but it was pretty epic when he showed up. I'm sure it had nothing to do with the Millennium Puzzle and everything to do with Yugi collapsing at the point of death. And I'm actually not sure that Seto went to the afterlife to see him at the end. I think now that maybe the original assessment that he went to the past is more accurate, because Atem was wearing the Puzzle, and he wouldn't have been wearing that in the afterlife.

If anyone is curious, here is what I found that contradicts the manga:

- Shadi teaching a bunch of kids about love and peace, yadda yadda. Shadi was a messed-up guy, as shown in the early manga, and he didn't understand about love and friendship. Yugi had to teach him.

- Bakura's father is not dead in the manga. Yami Bakura says in the final arc that he's the owner of the museum and that's why he, Yami Bakura, was able to get in.

I thought Joey was kind of mean to Tristan about the Duel Disk, when he starts yelling that Tristan broke it and he wants the new one. He knew that he'd asked Tristan to fix it, WTH. So it apparently wasn't broken by Tristan. But I loved the scene where Joey's memories are fading and then his memory of Atem is still there and that brings him out of the villain's world and back to reality. Very powerful! That is one of my favorite Joey scenes in any verse, I think.

I liked that it showed how the Ring warped personalities. I think that's canon to the other verses and it definitely makes Yami Bakura more sympathetic. However, what was weird is that the way they presented it, it almost looked like they were saying that the Ring only changes people but there isn't a separate entity there possessing them. We know that Zorc was in the Ring and that's why Thief King flipped out even more than he already was, and the other verses make it very clear that Bakura is being possessed by Yami Bakura; it's not just that Bakura is being corrupted by the Ring. After Zorc was destroyed, it's curious that the Ring is still a problem. I guess dark essence like that doesn't leave so easily. I'm frankly not sure Zorc can ever be destroyed, since he's the personification of the darkness in people's hearts, but that's a discussion for another time.

To be honest, even though the creator wrote the movie, it felt like a fanfiction. Things were so hand-wavy, like the contradictions with other verses and the stuff with the Ring corrupting everybody even with Zorc gone. But I had fun watching it and there were things I liked, and I'm happy to accept it as another verse. The main anime, the Toei anime, the manga, the video games, and this movie are each a separate verse. Of them all, I like the Toei anime the least, but I do remember enjoying Bakura and Yami Bakura's episodes and I should try to dig those up again.

Anyway, I'm glad I got it. I'm happy I was able to use the gift card for it!

And Duel Links.... Oh wow. So I had to wait to try it until the tablet charged for the first time, so I took a short nap out of exhaustion and then it was ready. Duel Links took a while to download and install, but they showed pictures and blurbs of all the characters and that was fun to look at. I'd had so many disappointments that I couldn't let myself believe it was really working until I logged in for the first time and got the game going.

I picked Yami Yugi as my starter, because I'd learned I had to beat Yami Bakura with him as part of the requirements for making Yami Bakura playable. And if I hadn't started with Yami Y, he wouldn't have become available until after Yami Bakura, so I had to go with him. But I was just as happy to, since Duel Links is definitely more manga-based and Seto is, hence, even more of a jerk.

It's all so fun! Most of the Standard OC duelists are okay, although I'm not crazy about Andrew, Josh, or Christine; they are very arrogant. The really little kids are adorable, especially Bella, and I like Daniel, Meg, Hailey, and ... is it Ashley? And there's one called Jess who's really nice. My favorite, though, is David. He looks like Duke's store manager, except he doesn't wear glasses, and I've headcanoned that he is Duke's store manager, wearing contacts. LOL. I haven't seen him for several Stages now. I wish he'd come back.

Things got much more interesting when canon characters started to become available, of course! I got Joey without too much trouble. Tea took a bit longer, and Mai took a lot longer. But I got to duel them until I met the requirements for making them playable.

The goal I was working on the whole time was getting to Yami Bakura, of course, although I wanted the other characters too, especially Tea. I've had a blast playing as her and Mai, and Joey too. One of the most epic duels was where Tea beat Seto in like five turns! I accidentally unlocked the GX world and Jaden, but I have no interest in that side of the game and I'm kind of glad that they're separate, LOL. I don't consider GX canon. I have nothing against the characters; it's just that I don't like the concept of a duel school and I don't like what the show did with the original characters when they popped up.

So, Yami Bakura. I wondered if he even would show up at Stage 13, because only two sites were reporting he would and other ones were still saying he was event-only. I wonder why they don't update. But to my delight and relief, yes, he was there, and so were a lot of other characters! Including Yugi! Squeee. I thought Yugi was still event-only!

My first duel against Yami Bakura was incredible. Not just because I'd longed for it for so long, but because it came out so well. I saved it and I hope to record and post it to YouTube. One requirement was to play against him using no spell or trap cards. Gah. Another was the Yami Yugi one, and I had to play with Yami Bakura being at Level 20 experience. I did both of those in the same duel, and for the first time I was able to play Slifer the Sky Dragon! It was incredibly awesome. Later that night, I had a duel with Tea playing against him, and that ended up fulfilling the requirement of winning against him with 2000 lifepoints or less. I was really wondering how to achieve that one, since you know, I wouldn't know how to go about deliberately losing lifepoints. As it turned out, I didn't have to do that deliberately, LOL. I also saved that duel.

The hardest requirement was dealing out 3000 points of effects damage to him, thankfully not all in the same duel. I have a starter card that deals 300 points, and that certainly helped, but I needed more. I got a bunch of card packs and found a couple of cards that really seemed to help. There was an awesome dragon that deals out a lot of damage if one is sent to the graveyard and you have another copy of it available to play. I built Mai's deck up with the express purpose of dealing effects damage to him. He and she had several interesting duels where they toyed with each other, dragged it out for ages, and finally Mai would get in some damage here and there when the right cards came up. The deck also worked on Joey, but Mai had very little luck using it against the Standard duelists or The Vagabond. (I'll have to change her deck around now that it's served its purpose.) Then tonight, Tea won Fire Sorceress (or is it Sorcerer? It's a girl, but it might be Sorcerer....) and I was able to give that to Mai to deal out the final points I needed! Eeeee. It was so exciting to at last see the message that he was unlocked! It is totally manga verse, as he delivered one of his creepy manga lines, but I will just pretend he didn't say that and it's anime verse instead, since anime voices are used and anime is my favorite verse. I played my first duel as him after fixing up his deck (all the characters come to me with really bad decks I have to fix), and he won! So much fun. I can hardly wait to play as him some more. I also want to unlock Ishizu and Rishid. I've been actively working towards that by playing Light cards and traps.

Oh, interestingly, people were saying that it was obvious Yami Bakura was a character Seto created for his VR world, but I actually had the impression that it was the real one. All he says is, "Memories.... Virtual Reality.... I see, Seto Kaiba." That sounds like Seto got the real one and somehow stuck him in there, and he was aware that it was a world based on memories of what happened. If he himself is only a memory made to move around, he would hardly be aware of that, LOL. I will continue to believe that Duel Links is augmented reality, as depicted in the movie, and the real people are just all in there. Joey certainly indicated that he was real and had been plopped in there when he showed up. Tea too.

I think too much about things.... While watching Yami Bakura vs. Yami Marik again, I started pondering again on the shadow left in the Millennium Puzzle. He spoke like he was fully Yami Bakura and knew what was going on, but he was left in there before Battle City ever began. How did he know about the duel? Since he is part of Yami Bakura's spirit, does that mean Yami Bakura is aware of everything he does and thinks? Or did he not know of the shadow's adventures until they merged at the beginning of season 5? It's always confusing to me when characters in media can split off pieces of their spirit, because of that perplexity. Is it the whole person, as far as personality and memories go, or is it only a part? Was Yami Bakura with Bakura in the Shadow Realm while the other part of him was in the Puzzle? I write it as such. And I got a weird plunnie of him running across a part of his spirit he'd left somewhere and forgotten about, and what would happen if that part didn't want to be good and they had to face off. Weird stuff, but the whole concept of splitting off parts of your spirit is weird anyway, so it lends itself to weird ideas.

I also got an idea for another hurt/comfort picture and I finally had the chance to sketch it out tonight. It came out mostly exactly as I'd pictured in my mind. It has Bakura embracing an extremely limp Yami Bakura around the upper torso and burying his face in the thief's shoulder while crying. Yami Bakura is in his classic form. His head and neck are falling backwards, his visible arm is very limp, and it's all in all a rather curious pose. It's hard to really describe it. One reason I like hurt/comfort art (besides the obvious reason of exploring feelings and interaction) is that it allows me to practice drawing all sorts of strange poses.

Last night I was watching Cannon, an episode where he investigates a girl's death from doping up on drugs and then falling out a window, and got a plunnie where Yami Bakura finds Bakura at a schoolmate's house, completely drunk from being tricked into drinking spiked drinks and swinging in a window in his underwear. Yami Bakura is horrified and outraged. Bakura falls and Yami Bakura catches him, and then he enacts punishment on the creeps responsible for getting Bakura into such a state. He makes them feel the hangover Bakura will feel and also have the sensation of falling over and over. It's not a permanent spell, but he says it will last until they regret what they did to Bakura. Even when Yami Bakura tries to be good, he can end up acting like Yami Yugi in the Toei anime and the early manga volumes. And he doesn't see anything wrong with that. He feels he's enacting justice. Makes sense to me, since what he wanted in ancient Egypt was justice, before Zorc got hold of him and warped him the rest of the way. He will probably always have that dark streak; that's one way I keep him quite the character! I have the first draft of the ficlet written and I quite like it. I need to re-read it and see if it's done. I also need to get the next chapter of the multi-chapter finished. I'm having a little trouble with this segment and am getting easily distracted. Hence why I'm writing epistle entries instead of working on it!

So the car is not fixed. But my brother (the one who gave me the $20 for my birthday) let us borrow his car.

Traffic was frightening. But everything went well!

Bulbasaur is definitely striking. But I couldn't justify paying so much for him. Plus, honestly, he looked hard to cuddle with. They had all the Pokemon in the store, as I'd hoped, and I decided I really wanted Pikachu the most. But I think I'll get Eevee too at some point. She's so cute!

$28 still seems a lot, but somehow Pikachu seems bigger now than he did two years ago. Maybe that's because since then, I've seen what else is available and how small the other sizes are. And at least I got $5 off the price thanks to the coupon that prompted the entire outing! The Turtles on the last round were $28 too (although I got 30% off on the one I bought on that round, Michelangelo).

While we were out, I decided to check Barnes and Noble on the off chance that maybe a stray Sailor Moon figure was still on clearance. Naturally not; they were all bought up by this point. I'm glad I got to get a couple last month when the sale was on.

I've also wanted to check another Wal-Mart to see if they still had the Pokemon hat I wanted, and maybe The Johto Journeys too, because I do crave some more Pokemon and there are definitely things I like about Johto. The Wal-Mart I tried had both! And I got both. The hat had reached $2 in clearance price! So awesome. I love clearance! I hope I won't regret the DVD purchase. Hopefully there will be enough awesome Johto episodes to make it worth my while. And I'm obsessed with the theme song. Never cared much for season 4's theme, but as soon as I heard season 3's theme years ago, I fell in love with it.

I listened to the Pokemon Christmas album again and found it just as amusing as before. Then I started fooling around on YouTube playing random songs, and I've also decided Pokemon Live is awesome when all the Pokeshipping subplot stuff is omitted. I love another, abridged production I was shown and still need to see in full, and I love the utter, wonderful crack of Dexter being sentient and having a song. **snerk.** That kind of crack is in line with the Turtles' stage show, I think.

Somewhere along the way, I ended up stumbling on this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYdRJyFAnMY

I'm kind of obsessed with it too. A bunch of girls and a dad got together and this happened. LOL. Fun times. And I love Meowth's clothes and hair, I think mainly because they remind me of Scott on Carmen Sandiego.

So all in all, I'm having a Pokemon obsessed moment again, like I had last month. It's fun.

I'm also moving steadily along on the Turtles' fic. I think I've reached a snag and I hope it won't last. Snags are annoying and not fun.

Now I'm debating whether to post another Pokemon chapter right away. I think the one chapter a day thing is wearying to the readers, even though they're short chapters and that's usually what I do if a story is mostly written. But I ended up adding more to the chapter because I decided the fight scene needed to be shown more than briefly summarized. I'll need to look it over again before I post it. I'm wondering if I should hold off until after Thanksgiving to post the rest. Many is the year I posted something on Thanksgiving and had very little luck with reader response because of that.

Also debating if Brock will blame himself for James ending up forced to sacrifice himself protecting Ash, as Crystal pointed out how protective Brock is of Ash and Misty. This is Team Rocket, but under the circumstances, I wonder if Brock might think it should have been him instead of James. On the other hand, he might not because of his siblings and how devastated they would be. (And Ash and Misty too, of course.)

What a day. I had maybe one hour of sleep, dozing holding the Baxter plushie and curled up against the other two. Then when I opened the curtains, evil gravity's evil cousin velocity caused me to bonk my toe on the edge of the cupboard so hard that it bruised and swelled up. Luckily, I don't think it's broken because I was able to move it after it happened, but ugggh. Even putting on a sock to go out hurt.

I wanted to see our K-Mart one last time and also to get the snow cone maker, and I thought the only way to do that was to tag along when Dad took my sister to work early in the morning. But something went drastically wrong when we went to get her and we apparently ran over something sharp, because the tire blew out. She had to go find our brother's car to take. And our tire size is very hard to find. Wal-Mart has a new one, but we really can't afford a new one when money is already so tight. Dad has been trying to find a used one.

EDIT: We have two cars here that don't work right, and one of them has the right size tire! Squeeee. So he just put one of those tires on the working car! Yes!

When the temporary tire got on, he was nice and decided to take me to the store anyway, even though we didn't get to take my sister to work, because I'd tagged along thinking I was going to get to go. And I did find the snow cone maker! And not much else. Gah, it was so sad seeing the place so bare. Everything they had left was moved more to the front of the store and yellow tape roped off the completely bare areas. There was only one half-aisle of toys left, plus three toy kiosks. There were pieces of all kinds of merchandise in other departments too, but the only section that really looked like its former self was the greeting card area. And as if it wasn't sad enough, someone had to decide that playing When Will I See You Again on the loudspeakers was a good idea. Um, no. We'll never see K-Mart again. I found out the one down South is also closing, so there will be no more in the state at all. Not a song I wanted to hear under the circumstances. Especially running on one hour of sleep.

We checked every tire place in town and no luck. Then I had trouble going back to sleep when we got home because I was wide awake. And because there was construction work right across from my window. When I finally went to sleep, I think I only got about three and a half hours.

I was glad to get the snow cone maker at such a good price ($4.80, down from $16!), but I could have done without seeing how sad the store looked. I almost wonder if I would have rather I'd got it on a previous visit, even though it would have cost a bit more, and then not seen K-Mart this week. I don't think I want to remember K-Mart the way it looked today. I think I want to remember how it looked before all this nonsense started, when there was no inkling that it would go away and it was always fun to visit and see what they had available and what might be on clearance. So I'm going to record the floor plan.

When you go in, just to your right are some shelves with changing merchandise. Usually it's quilts, but sometimes it's toys on clearance. To the left is the customer service desk. Up ahead is the women's clothing department and things like a jewelry chest of drawers made by Jaclyn Smith. I usually turn right, past the greeting cards on the right and the jewelry on the left. Dad usually goes to the pharmacy past the greeting cards to wait. Then comes housewares on the left, followed by snacks. Farther down on the right are the mattresses and appliances they started selling. We got our dryer there last year. Past those are the movies and TV shows. We got so many awesome deals on stuff there during holiday and birthday times.

Just diagonally to the left is the seasonal area. During Christmastime there are many trees set out. Some are white, some are green, most are pre-lit. Some of them turn by themselves. There are also lots of inflatables and other lawn decorations. During Halloween, the aisles are filled with spooky stuff, both the aisles past the media center and aisles to the left, beyond the open area. The open area with the Christmas trees usually has the trees during the Halloween time. Turn left past the open area and the holiday aisles and walk down to the toy section. There are several aisles of regularly priced toys and a special clearance aisle. The clearance price will fluctuate based on the week. Just beyond that is auto stuff.

Keep walking and turn left again. Now it's the back wall. The sports section is there, with furniture just beyond it. Last year we got a bookcase to serve as a pantry cupboard (not the one I got bonked on today). Just beyond that are men's clothes. Sometimes I find Turtles shirts there, like that one with Fly Baxter they briefly had last summer. It was right around the corner from the bookcases. Shoes are opposite this section. They have a poster of the 87 Turtles in the shoe section for some reason. I probably should have asked if I could have it.

Beyond that is the baby section. Turn left to walk past it and there you'll find the boys' clothing section, followed by the girls' section. Now you've made a complete square and the registers are to the left of you, along with huge baskets of products on sale in the middle of the aisle. Last year they had a bunch of chocolates on sale and we got a whole lot for presents for people, and kept some for ourselves too.

Wooow, what a long day. Made even longer by the fact that I only got four-ish hours of sleep. I had plenty of time for a good sleep, but my body refused. Ugh. As soon as the batch of wash I'm doing is done, I hope to sleeeep.

First thing was that Dad wanted to visit an old friend. We got lost finding the street. But finally we did, and as soon as I saw the place, I remembered vividly being there years ago. It was also August back then, August the 5th, but temperatures were cooler and I waited in the car and wrote and observed some kids at the house across the street. It was honestly an outing I remember very fondly. We drove around the area afterwards and I saw a bride running through her front yard to the back yard. Apparently she was having either the wedding, the reception, or both on her property. We stopped for gas around 8 and I observed that the sun was going down. It was a hint of autumn on the way and I was thrilled. I even remember what I was writing: it was the early chapters of my YGO mystery Ballistic in Boston, when the Jackie Chan Adventures character Viper showed up. I'm not even fully sure why the memory of that outing makes me so happy, as I don't recall finding anything awesome while shopping. But it was such a nice, peaceful street and I was happy to sit there and write and watch those kids and I loved the hint of autumn.

Anyway, this trip out, it was way too hot to even think of me staying in the car. It was practically 100! Uggggh. So I went in. Luckily, the visit didn't last much more than thirty minutes, and the man was very nice.

K-Mart was ... oh brother, a mess. Unlike our K-Mart, which tried to keep order despite closing, this one was helter-skelter, especially in the toy department. Everything was everywhere! I had to dig through the toys on all shelves to make sure I didn't miss something awesome. Only by doing that did I find a Miraculous Ladybug figure, one of Marinette in casual clothes. That was awesome, and she was 10% cheaper than she would have been had I bought figures when our K-Mart had some. The dream that shook me up so much regarding that show seemed to be more in the background, so I snapped her up. Cat Noir was unfortunately the subject of the horrible dream and seeing his picture on the back of the card made me chill a bit, so I don't know if I would have got a figure of him had I seen it. Looks like it will still take a while for the dream to fully stop upsetting me. It's not that I'm leery of Cat Noir; it's just that he reminds me of the dream and it was extremely upsetting to me.

I also saw a doll of Chloe that looked amazingly accurate, but I don't like her and won't like her unless she shapes up this season, so I opted not to get that even though it was a temptation from the high level of accuracy. Then there was a figure of Marinette as Ladybug, but it was a fancy figure that could twirl, and even with the discount, I didn't think I should get that right now because I need to help with grocery money. So I just got the other Marinette figure.

Didn't see any 87 Turtles stuff except another of those Leonardo hats that really hurt to wear. There was lots of Nick Turtles stuff, though. And I find myself regretting I didn't get the snow cone maker. I wanted it badly at our K-Mart, but I couldn't get it then. This K-Mart didn't have it quite as cheap yet, so I still didn't get it. Now I'm thinking that for the sake of 10% more, I really should have, because it's unlikely I can get back to our K-Mart before they close and also unlikely that they will still have any of that product. I didn't realize I wanted the snow cone maker so badly. I'll see how I feel after sleep.

The class reunion had wonderful food! Potato salad, and potatoes drenched in butter, and chicken salad, and lettuce and tomato salad, and chicken teriyaki, and buttered rolls, and so many wonderful desserts! Cheesecake! Lemon cake! Eclairs! Some other cream puffy thing! Ice water! And luckily, I remembered to bring sandwich bags so I could smuggle food out if I didn't finish it all. There were also lots of leftovers on the buffet table, so I decided to help by running off with some of them. I'm not sure if the hotel just throws away the leftovers or what. I heard that if the roast wasn't completely finished, what was left of it would be thrown away. So wasteful! Why not let the employees have it? But anyway. I wasn't interested in the roast, but I ran off with the food I did love.

Aside from the food, though, I have to say that I was underwhelmed by the reunion. It didn't last long, and while I was grateful since I wanted to do more shopping, I was sad at the same time because it felt like there really wasn't much to the reunion and there really should have been, when it's the last official one they're going to have. Five years ago, they had an elaborate program with people singing fifties songs and I just adored it. This time, the program was very short. Everything, including the dinner part, was over within a couple of hours. Nobody seemed to want to stay and visit for long after the official festivities were over. I'm glad my focus switched to being excited more for the shopping, as otherwise I would have been tremendously disappointed. Part of the reason I looked forward to it for five years was because of how awesome the last one was.

I also felt a little less connected than I did the last time. That may be because my main interests right now are cartoons rather than 1950s shows, although I still adore them as much as I ever did.

Since things let out earlier, I debated whether I wanted the big F.Y.E. or Toys R Us more. I chose the former, and I don't regret it. I found an 87 Turtles shirt on clearance for $3! I also saw that they had been selling a shirt with the Team Rocket crew on it, but I couldn't seem to find any aside from the display copy, sadly. I'm planning to try to find the shirt online later.

We needed to grab a couple of items at Wal-Mart, so we hurried across the street to it. When we lived at the old house, that Wal-Mart was always my favorite. It always seemed to have more stuff than other Wal-Marts.

It didn't disappoint. After years, I finally got season 4 of The Wild Wild West! Squeeeee! And for cheaper than Amazon was selling it for! This is honestly the first time I've seen season 4's DVD set in person. I exclaimed out loud when I saw it and I immediately snapped it up. I have taped copies of those episodes, but I bet they're cut for commercial time.

I also saw two Baxters in the figure area! I didn't blog about this yet either, but I've finally been getting some more work and I felt I could offer the Baxter I had to my friend as a gift, as originally intended. And I was very happy that he wanted it and was thrilled with it! I'd like to get him another to make into Barney, as he's expressed the desire to have a Barney too and wishes he could find the figures in his area, but I wasn't sure I should get one right then after I'd had a mini-shopping spree and when I need to help with grocery money for at least a while. And I think the stores down here will be having more of him soon. The one two towns over is finally getting ready to sell the Mutagen Canister line! So I didn't get one. Hope I won't regret that too.

So overall, an awesome shopping time! And I am totally exhausted.

Also, I finally figured out how to get the tablet's Bluetooth keyboard to work, so now I can use it like a mini-laptop. Squeee. It will make typing long messages on the tablet very plausible and pleasant! Usually I've avoided typing long messages on the tablet and wait till I get back to the laptop. Now I won't necessarily have to, depending on what I'm doing while using the tablet.

I got the keyboard hooked up in case I wanted to take the tablet and write story scenes using the keyboard, but I'm glad I didn't. I only had a bit of writing time while Dad was visiting with his friend, so I did it the old-fashioned way, in a paper notebook.