July 31, 2000

I went to Toys'R Us with Jim today. It wasn't a planned visit; it was a spur of the moment thing. Not that all trips to toys stores have to be planned, not at all. I'm a big believer in toys, in fact, I often Christmas shop for adult friends at Toys'R Us.

Jim had stopped by my office and was having this soul wrenching decision about whether or not to go and look for Gameboy games. We both have Gameboys, we have even played head-to-head Tetris on occasion. And naturally, I kicked his ass. I'm very good… really! To ease his decision making I told him that I would go along. [I could see the gears churning in his head] He agreed.

We went to the local Toys'R Us, which is in Downtown Bellevue. I know what many of you Seattle people have to say about Bellevue… you think that it is a condescending snotty town or something. You know what? It might be, but at least Bellevue has parking. We looked around for a bit in the games section. I'm not one of those folks who needs to get the latest game system. In fact, the latest system I have is a Sega Saturn, which has been outdated now for at least two years. Still, I'm not one of the people who needs to get the very latest game. In fact, my favorite computer game is Spaceward Ho! 4.0, which was released in 1996.

We eventually wander to the die-cast car section. Jim collects models of classic cars. To his dismay, he also noted that they didn't have anything new. I quietly pointed at some of the models that he kept in his office and suggested, "How about that one?" He then replies telling me that he has that one… in his office!. Why do I do this? I don't really know, it amuses me.

We wondered to the action figure section where he looked at the typical grotesque monster action figures briefly. I found something that really spoke to me. It was Fowler. Fowler is one of the characters from Chicken Run. The plays the cantankerous, old, flying veteran which always had unpleasant words for Rocky. I don't know what it was. Either the fact that it was Chicken Run characters which were more funny than laced with testosterone, or maybe the fact that it was a crotchety old chicken. I don't know, but I had to get him. It was certainly worth the $6.50.

We left shortly after that. I remember that Jim got something, since he was in line in front of me, but I can't remember quite was it was. We returned to work after that.

July 31, 2000