Shopping day

Black Friday has evolved in the family over the years.. for more than a decade we simply just lost interest in shopping as a family or just started looking at things online. 

Usually we are traveling somewhere to celebrate our birthdays and Black Friday would land smack dab in the middle of a Disney trip!

This year it was San's birthday and both kids were with us and we decided to make the most of it. The girls went shopping bright and early while I did yoga. 

Then to make up for it, Jr. went shoe shopping with me. Three years ago I bought a pair of these Nevados shoes at Big 5. The display piece happened to be my size. Wanted a black walking shoe that could double up as something I could wear to work and this was perfect. It was 25 bucks then and I asked for a discount because it was the display piece and sure enough the store manager gave it to me for 20! Have walked at least 1800 miles in in over the three years and it is finally showing signs of wear on the outside and the sole. So went and bought the exact same thing yesterday! Jr. was amazed by my decision making. Told her, "hey, we went in and out and got shoes in 10 minutes because we know this works great!". This time it was not a display piece and was 30 bucks. Still expect to use this for the next three years!

The Salomon hiking shoes with ankle support that was bought ~2 1/2 years ago has also gone through at least 1500+ miles just with weekend hikes) and the ankle hooks are bent. The laces jumped the hooks during the grand canyon hike because over time the ankle support bends to fit my leg. While the tread is pretty good, wanted to get new hiking shoes. That was again a great bargain at REI. It was a 180$ shoe being sold for 80$. It did get the "paisa vasool" certification from both me and San. This time though I want to be able to replace shoes every year.  This waterproof shoe was actually Jr.'s recommendation. Apparently she had one in high school and early college and it was great. 

Then came the best part of "online shopping". "We" and I use that term loosely, are proud owners of a Karoke machine. San and the kids are allergic to noise, especially any sound that comes out of my mouth! However, after San tried a portable karaoke machine day before yesterday that one of our friends got to a party, she was convinced that we could use one at home. Spent two hours researching what was the best option and finally got this on Amazon. So Ta Da! This thing has many applications. . including but not limited to use as a public address system that can wake up the kids when they are sleeping late! They are not too thrilled about this purchase. The litle one has declared "thank god I don't live at home!" 

I am hoping that this will get me used to singing into a hand held dynamic microphone instead of the iPhone's wired earplug mic! 

In less than a day it will be back to the routine! Haven't blogged in more than a month as the day to day grind has been very busy. It is time to start posting little snippets again.. 

Hope all of you are enjoying the long weekend!