DownNDirty

I started working retail when I was 15 years old in 1995 at K-Mart. Our town had one of the bigger/better K-Marts in the region and really still does good business all things considered. K-Mart was open on Thanksgiving Day even back then but our hours were something like 8:00 A.M - 6:00 P.M. And then we didn't reopen until 5:00 A.M. on Black Friday. I worked that madness from 1995-2001 before I was able to get out of retail and into banking. As a 15 year old kid on my first Thanksgiving/BF I was totally shell shocked. I had never seen anything like it and was not prepared for what happened. I'll never forget standing on a chair over the automatic doors and triggering the sensor on Black Friday for the doors to open. The people literally knocked the chair out from under me and I hung over the door while people ran between my legs trying to get in the store for the big ticket items. As someone who was forced (no choice in spending time with family) to work the 8 hour shifts on Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday every single year I really hate it and sympathize to the retail workers who have to be on hand. I thought we had it bad - and really putting the screws to the high school kids by making them work 8 hours on the holidays was bad - but this madness is even worse. I can't imagine how big of a scheduling nightmare this will be for the stores. And how bad of a deal it will be for their employees who will maybe be forced to work some during the day on Thanksgiving, come back that night, and then likely work a long shift on Black Friday and into the weekend.

My mom's favorite color is purple. Last year my wife and I got my mom a new tree since she needed one and bought her all new decorations. We got a ton of purple and silver decorations for the tree too. Mom has some nice clear glass ornaments with white or gold on them and we used some of them in the tree too when we decorated it for her. The lights on the tree are all white and can be set to do like 10 different things. Mom was really happy with how it looked and I must say even though I'm a "manly man" lol - I also enjoyed the purple theme.

I usually have to use a vacation day as I work in banking. I'm currently trying to get a new job and if I get that one I'm afraid that I'll be working Black Friday. But at least I'll have a good job so I'm not going to complain either lol. I've only missed one Black Friday in the past 8 or so years. From 96-2000 I worked at the local K-Mart here and was always working 12 hour days on Black Friday. I almost want to curl up in a fetal position when I think about my first two Black Friday's. The first one because I had NO IDEA at 16 how crazy people could be. Then for my second one we advertised we were going to have 30 Furby's scattered through the store like a treasure hunt. I was the person who unlocked the doors that day. We had to stand on a chair to get those automatic doors to work and flip a switch. I was up flipping the switch and when the doors opened I literally HUNG there for 3 minutes as people went flying under me trying to get in the store. Those insane people tore the store to shreds looking for the Furby's. Now I'm part of the Black Friday crowd - but after working in retail for 4 years - I try to act like somebody especially on BF when I know the employees are having the hardest day of work in their year.

THAT'S the chair that tried to kill me!!! In my local Staples I swear it was under a sign that said $129 - maybe it was just under the wrong sign. Or was that an online deal only? Even so it says regular price $99. I wouldn't mind having another one of those chairs - it was a good chair until tonight.

I know there are usually some pretty good deals on office/desk chairs on BF but I guess I've overlooked them this year. Reason I ask......the chair I got 3 years ago at BF gave out tonight, literally. I leaned back and heard a pop in the chair and the next thing I knew my feet flew over my head - taking the pull out computer tray with me. I flipped over and slammed into a desk. Have a nice little pump knot on my head, a shiner, sprained wrist, and a big gash on my arm that probably could have used a few stitches. DANG CHAIR!! Oh well - guess it was a good time of the year to break though. Has anyone seen any decent chairs for sale at a good price? The chair I had was a nice swivel chair that is being sold at Staples right now for $129 - I know I got it for around $30 on BF 3 years ago - same chair. Don't need to be fancy but would like something to accommodate a 6'3 285 pound guy. It's just in my den so I don't care if it's fancy or not - would prefer one that don't kill me too.

There are tons of great Christmas movies that I love. My favorite is a dead tie between A Christmas Story and National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. I especially like the Christmas Vacation unedited version as it just makes it that much more hilarious than the TV version. Also a big fan of Scrooged, Santa Clause: The Movie, and all the cartoons. I liked all of the cartoon versions of the Scrooge story - especially Mr. McGoos Christmas Carol which I haven't seen in forever and Disney's Christmas Carol with Donald Duck. How about Garfield's Christmas? I always loved that one as a kid - just seemed like a great cartoon Christmas movie. Of course I also have to throw in Charlie Brown's Christmas here as well as Rudolph and Frosty. I'm sure some will think I'm a little "off" but this isn't a movie........I always enjoy watching the Food Network holiday celebrations with all of the stars brought together. For some reason it just makes me all warm and fuzzy.

I'm new to the MP3 scene but my wife really wants one for Christmas. I think I have weeded through this topic and websites enough to determine that I want the Creative Zen Micro 5GB with the FM Tuner for $149.99 from TigerDirect.com. Looks like it is getting tons of favorable reviews and has good storage space. I do want some advice though: What online MP3 service do you all suggest? Are there any that have music and audio books all on the same site? I know she would probably enjoy the audio books as well as the music capabilities. Any help here will be greatly appreciated. DD

I tried reading through most of the posts here and I apologize if this has been asked before but I'm about crosseyed from reading all of this madness. I have a couple of questions: 1. What is the difference when an ad says HD Ready as simply opposed to HD? 2. I'm looking for a good, cheap HDTV for my game room. I'm on a fairly limited budget and would like to have an HDTV for my new XBOX 360 and my DVD's. Any suggestions? I'm talking hopefully under $500. Also, when a program comes on television like some sporting events that says "presented in HD" if I have an HDTV will I see it in HD? Sorry, just don't know all that much about HDTV's. Thanks in advance. DD