Bankruptcy for Circuit City

Flick and I heard Circuit City was going bankrupt, so we decided to take a trip to the store to see if there was anything we would possibly want at a good price. Well, if you have any questions as to why they are going bankrupt, here is a story for you. We get to the store and there are signs everywhere stating up to "20% off everything". It seems like a pretty good deal. However, as we walked around we noticed that TV's, cameras, printers, etc. are all still WAY over priced. Circuit City is obviously taking advantage of their business going "out of business". We and the rest of the smart people in the world can just figure out that they set their prices HIGHER than they originally were, and have now just put "marked down" price tags on their appliences, making it look like you are getting a good deal.

But that's not even where this story was going. As we wondered through the store a little more, we came to the PC games. Flick has been looking into movie making programs, so we decided to take a closer look. He found one that seemed to be what he was looking for and decided with the 10% off, it would be a good deal on a $50.00 program. As I continued to look around I found something I wanted to purchase also. So we made our way to the cash registers. Now you should know, with all the people in the store trying to make a GREAT purchase on all these marked down store items, they have ONE register open...ONE.

Flick goes first. He sets his item on the counter and the young man scans the game then proceeds to get out a calculator and mannually figure out the discounted price. Now recall that the original price was $50.00. The young man says $37.50. Now, $37.50 is not 10% of $50.00 but by the looks of the man behind the counter he did not know what he was doing, so we went with it, considering his "screw up" was in our favor. So surprised at the low price, Flick just gave the guy his credit card and went on his way.

Then I stepped forward, placed my item (I'm not going to say what because it would be way too embarassing) on the counter. Again, the young man scanned my item ($9.99) then got out the calculator to figure out the new price. My total comes to about $8.50, which would be about right. So maybe this guy isn't as big of an idiot as we think.

At this time I look over at Flick and he is standing near the door surrounded by about eight (I don't know how to put this in a nice way) huge technology losers. You know the look: Big bellies, dark hair, balding, big glasses, un-shaven faces and arm pit staines on their nice collard white button ups. Anyway, I see one of them look over at Flick and say, "HELLO!! How are you this evening?". At this point I just want to laugh, as Flick just turns his head, with a WOW look on his face, and doesn't say a single word back to the man.

Laughing inside, I look back the the man behind the counter as he says here is your change ma'am. He gives me the 50 cents first then what he thought was $11.00. I look down and see that he actually gave me two $10.00's back instead of a $10 and a $1. In my head I am contiplating...do I tell him or no...do I tell him or no...well being the good person I am I say, "you gave me the wrong change back" and I hand him back a $10.

After doing it, I never thought if I were in that type of situation I would be honest. I always thought about me being on a hidden camera show and I would be the one person that looks like a cheapskate, but I guess I just under estimated myself. I sit there waiting for him to open up the register and just give me a $1.00. The man in line behind me says, "you know I saw that in a movie once, and the guy behind the counter was an angel." So I say, "well I must have done a good deed for the day then" and he says "yes you did." So I am actually starting to feel pretty good about myself but as we are talking the guy behind the counter takes the guy behind me's things and starts ringing them up. I'm kind of in shock for a moment because he still owes me a $1.00, I look over and Flick who is still being surrounded by the technology losers, and I just say "F#%* IT" (pardon my french) Lets get OUT OF HERE!!

Now, I realize that the store is closing and all of the employee's may just be reacting especially since the announcement came only three days earlier. But come on, people just standing around, one line open, and the guy behind the register being a huge idiot. If you say you didn't see this coming, then WOW!

AND I AM STILL PISSED ABOUT NOT GETTING MY $1.00 BACK AFTER BEING SO HONEST!!!!

-Hammer

NASCAR lives on

So today I was watching the news during my lunch break and I happened to catch one of the best stories of the year. Normally when I watch the news it is very depressing to see how many criminals are out there and the messed up stuff they do. Every once in a while those messed up people will surprise you with a funny story even though it may not be that funny.
So the big news story for the afternoon today in Charlotte was that some man had something stolen from him. The item that was stolen from him was a NASCAR Championship ring. This nearly brought me to tears because I was laughing so hard. Now, I will be the first to say that yes I did jump to conclusions and I also stopped listening to the rest of the news story.
Here's what I think, first of all how does the guy know he didn't just lose it???? Well, odds are if someone broke into this guys "House" aka trailer, there must not have been too many valuables around. I mean who breaks into someones house and only steals a ring...maybe if it was a ring that was really valuable say maybe a princess or queen had I could understand. But someone broke into a house (trailer) and stole a ring. Here is what I think happened. Some guy decided to break into some other guys trailer home...(big mistake first of all, you'll either get shot or won't find anything)...after ransaking all of the Budweiser from the fridge he looked around to see if he could find some valuables. After not finding any authentic NASCAR gear in the closet he looked towards the dresser and saw the most beautiful ring he had ever seen. He took the ring and got away.
Now the news reports this story but they leave out some details...they leave out the trailer and call it a house, they don't interview anyone because the mullets would give it away, and they don't repeat anything the owner says because he drank too much Bud the night before to remember where he actually put the ring.
Anyhow, that is about it, I just got a kick out of that being the top story of the afternoon.

-Flick

Charlotte Holiday Party

So Flick and I were invited to a holiday party through my work. When given the invitation, my co-worker says to me, well of course you will go, you don't know any better, you're new around here. Well he was exactly right. When I got home that evening I told Flick of the party and he also agreed to "why wouldn't we go". The invitation says, "Free Food, Beer and Drinks, until it runs out". So why would we choose NOT to go! Even if we weren't new, that's just silly. So when the weekend of the party came: (1) we were excited because we actually had something to do, (2) we weren't going to have to spend any money and (3) we were looking forward to seeing how a few drunkin-ADULT southerners acted after a few free drinks. Well, walking into the bar we felt pretty special because we were actually at a private party...which you could not enter unless you had the invitation.
(Flick starts typing now)
I didn't really know what to expect but there was a good chance we were going to get to experience something different again. At first it was kind of awkward because we didn't really know a lot of people and we didn't have anywhere to sit. After about fifteen minutes hammer's co-worker offered us a couple of spots at their table...this is where things took a turn for the better. We were close enough to the band that we had to yell to each other but we also had a front row view of the dance floor, which unknowingly would come in handy for us later. After talking to the local folk for awhile we noticed that there was a buzz amongst the crowd of fifty or so people. That buzz was the fact that everyone was starting to get a little drunk. As we were sitting there talking everyone at my table was staring past me towards the dance floor. I turned around to see the drunkest person there out on the dance floor bustin' a move. She was dancing with her drink and heels on...not a good combo. The band was a jazz band and I was really starting to get into it. After a while the drunk lady on the dance floor had danced with at least seven different guys and was now starting to look towards our tables direction in hopes of finding another dance partner. This is when I became frightened and tried to hide behind my beer bottle. All of the sudden one of the guys at our table popped up and went towards the dance floor. This guy hadn't really said anything all night and was sporting an awesome mustache and had a hint of a mullet growing. He got up on the dance floor and danced with, but not touching, the dance superstar. For the next three minutes we witnessed the most awkward contorsions, jolts, movements, and head swinging we had ever seen out of a person. Hammer and I started laughing at first but then we realized that he was serious. He finally got done and came back to the table with a whole new swagger about him. We could tell that he was really proud of what he just did and I'm sure he just couldn't wait to get home so he could tell his NASCAR buddies about it. After this happened we had a few moments of silence while the band took a break...luckily they came back out and after a quick trip back to the bar so did the dance superstar. We noticed that she had hit a new level and was starting to sway. She got really close to the band and on one occassion she got tangled up in some wires and stumbled, this of course caugt our attention and as we all turned to look she was finally done in by the wires and she crashed to the ground. She took a good spill but being the champ that she was she dusted herself off and was back at it in no time. We didn't stay too much longer after that because a guy sitting behind me, who sounded like a NASCAR announcer, was starting to get really drunk and was making things really uncomfortable. Apparently, it is okay to get drunk and make inappropriate comments to strangers about the other strangers that you're with. And he started talking about confederate flags and stuff like that which signaled to me, it was time to go. Nonetheless, we both had a good time, and got to witness some funny drunk people. I will be able to live forever with the memory of the best three minutes of dancing I will ever see.

-Hammer and Flick

Wal-Mart in Charlotte

Before today, I have never walked out of Wal-Mart with a smile on my face. I am usually pissed off at one of the following; poor service, crappy products, annoying staff, disgusting staff, slow people walking down the aisles, trashy people, kids screaming and running around, creepy people, and always my favorite creepy, weird staff. I always think it will be fun to go there and just look around, but usually after ten minutes I am so irritated that on occasion I have just put everything I have in my arms on a random shelf and walked out. Not only that, while I am trying to walk out the dumb people walking in can't read the ENTER or EXIT sign and usually are blocking me from leaving. Then you enter the parking lot which is basically a free for all. People driving the wrong way down the lanes, lazy fat people walking down the middle of the lanes, and kids running around nearly getting hit by the old timers who are driving a car that they have no idea how to drive.
All of that being said I had the experience of a lifetime at Wal-Mart tonight. Now I did have to ignore a lot of the usual things that happen but here it is. As we were walking in we saw what looked like the typical greeter. He fooled us good with his mullet and missing teeth. As soon as we were close to him he gave a full extended arm wave and a very enthusiastic HI YA'LL AND WELCOME TO WAL-MART. This typically would have appalled me but this guy was so happy and enthusiastic it took every ounce of my energy not to high five the guy.
We finish our shopping and pay and we are now on our way out. We thought we could sneak out without having to say anything to the greeter but once again we mis-judged him. HAVE A GREAT DAY AND THANKS FOR CHOOSING WAL-MART. I responded back to the man with a thank you and take care. He refused to let me have the last word and once again gave an enthusiastic response, YOUR WELCOME AND HOPE TO SEE YOU SOON.
If this guy doesn't win employee of the month, then I want to meet the guy who did because he must be a class act.

-Flick

WI versus Charlotte: The differences we see

Flick and I have been here for about two months now and I think it’s safe to say there are some differences between our new home in Charlotte and our old homes back in Wisconsin. Of course there are some obvious differences but there are some small ones too. Again, many of these are just our opinions and thoughts and not facts by any means.

1) Well the big obvious one is weather of course. We have enjoyed getting phone calls of it snowing in WI while we are experiencing 75 degree weather. Haha to all of you back in WI! =) But people here think 75 is too cold and they close down pools for the season at the temp.

2) People really do love their fried chicken and biscuits. Not only is there KFC, but Chick-fil-A, Bojangles and Churches, all selling some sort of fried chicken. And they are on every corner; it’s like the Starbucks of LA. During lunch hour at work, it’s all they ever want. I find it quite humorous! With all the fried chicken places, it leaves no room for places like Culvers or cheap breakfast places like Perkins.

3) Ya’ll is said and written in messages. It really is used ALL the time.

4) The variety of frozen pizzas is very slim in grocery stores. In WI you have a whole wall of freezers filled with different brands of frozen pizzas. Here you are lucky to find two.

5) Milk is expensive, while beer and liquor are generally cheap.

6) There are dollar stores everywhere.

7) People rarely use their blinkers while driving but they usually drive the speed limit. Illinois people would never last.

8) Every single neighborhood is named. It is written on a decorated sign with flowers and bushes surrounding it.

9) Speaking of landscaping, to mulch around trees and bushes they use pine needles not wood chips or small rocks like people in WI would use.

10) Many of the people here aren’t actually from here.

11) Apparently parents don’t believe in having their children picked up by the school bus. The lines in front of the high, middle, and elementary schools of parents waiting to pick up their children at the end of the day are ridiculous.

12) City busses have their own little section on the highway to avoid traffic, which is nice.

13) There are at least 3 car accidents every morning and afternoon during rush hours, turning the highways into parking lots very often.

14) There are speed humps not bumps on the roads, mostly through neighborhoods and around schools.

15) There are security officers in front of or at the door of almost all buildings/businesses.

16) People freak out, stock there cabinets and not drive anywhere if they hear there will be a chance of snow.

17) The news isn’t worth watching because it’s generally about people being murdered, which I guess would be true in any bigger city (it’s not anywhere near where we live of course).

18) They don’t sell Spotted Cow down here, which makes us both very sad.

19) They call “Downtown”, Uptown. We didn’t know WHAT they were talking about when we first moved here.

20) Some of the clubs uptown have people in the bathrooms that dry your hands for you so when you go in there for the first time drunk, don’t freak out and think that someone is trying to steal your purse.

21) In waiting rooms where it should be quiet and you would talk in a whisper…people are loud.

22) People are friendly, always using expressions like sweetie, hun or darling.

23) Appetizers are smaller than you would expect them to be, while the meals are usually larger than you would expect. Their side salads are huge!

24) They ALWAYS ask to see your ID if you order an alcoholic beverage anywhere.

25) Gas stations have different prices, even if they are right across the street from one another. And it's not just a penny, it's sometimes 20 cents.

26) It takes about a half hour to go anywhere.

This is what we see so far, there will probably be more to come. So things are pretty different here from WI. Some good, some not so good but we LOVE it here anyway.

~Hammer

NASCAR Race: Bank of America 500

First of all, the reason that we went to this NASCAR race was because we got free tickets for signing up for our cable and Internet. Thanks to Time Warner I got to experience something that I never thought I would ever actually do. That being said, here is an overview of "Race Day."
Prior to actually leaving for the race I went online to do a little homework on the big event. I read a what to bring list and some of the items were: 1) bring sunscreen 2) bring ear plugs 3) don't wear white if you are in the first ten rows 4) bring a cooler with enough beer to get you through the race 5) bring your scanner 6) get to the race at least six hours early. Now, looking at this list might create a few questions, I will answer any questions about the list in the rest of this entry.
So, the night before the race we went to the store to get some beer. Now, you can't just buy any kind of beer for a NASCAR race, so I decided to go with the Diesel. Of course by Diesel I mean the symbol of NASCAR, Budweiser. Later that night I talked to my buddy from SC and he said that you can bring a cooler into the race and put pretty much anything you want into the cooler except any glass. This was a shock to me because you normally get kicked out or a ticket if you try to bring beer into any kind of sporting event.
The morning before the race we put all of our Budweiser into our cooler and loaded up some snacks or sandwiches. After reading through the do's and dont's of the race I realized that our cooler was too big to bring into the race so we decided just to bring our beer in a backpack. After both of us changing clothes a few times we decided on fairly casual outfits and I wore a white polo because we were in the 43rd row and the dont's only said no white shirts for the first ten rows.
Now we were ready to go, the race started at 7:40pm and we left for the track at 1:30. We got to Concord, where the race was, at 2:00. We sat in traffic for about 30 minutes and finally settled on a parking lot that was $20. This looked like an alright spot, it was in a very hilly area and there was one car to every eight trucks. We noticed that there were a lot of people tailgating which seemed pretty cool but we decided to head over to the track to check out the hospitality tent that we got tickets to. We had about a quarter of a mile walk to get to the track and on the way we got to walk by the camper section where people had been there for a week. Walking by this section we saw a lot of NASCAR flags and confederate flags. Once we got to the cross walk kitty corner from the track we really started to notice the clothing and physique of the fans. Every where we looked there were mullets, people had NASCAR hats, shirts, jackets, visors, chair cushions, and socks. We also noticed that there were a lot of cut-offs, however I was really surprised by the lack of Jeans that had been cut-off to make jean shorts. Then again it wasn't that warm out on Saturday.
We finally made it to the track and we realized what a circus it was. There were tents and booths everywhere. So we decided to start at one end and find our way to the Time Warner tent. As soon as we hit sponsor row we saw that Old Spice was giving away Luffa's. I laughed and made a joke until I saw that they were Ricky Bobby Luffa's, they looked hilarious, we got two. After walking by a couple of other giveaway spots we found our tent area. We got to our tent and we entered into a raffle they had going. We ended up winning a Jimmie Johnson model race car that was signed by Jimmie Johnson. The other people there really glared at Hammer as she walked up to claim the prize, I think they could tell that we weren't NASCAR fans because she didn't let out a scream when she won the car.

We got passes to go down in the pit

In front of Dale Jr.'s car

Finally, we got into the race and we found our seats. Once again we had no idea what to expect. Once we were seated, I finally realized what a scanner was...and everybody had them. They were little hand held screens/radios that you could listen to and watch the race on, during the race. The next thing we noticed is that every single person in the stands brought a cooler in, and yes they all had them packed with beer. The race was about to start and there was a BUZZ in the stands. Everyone was drunk and the car had started to go around the track. After five or so laps the pace car stopped and you could hear the might roar of the cars as they took off getting up to 170mph. And here they come, everyone was standing and cheering it was great. Then the cars made it to our turn and we realized why we had our ear plugs. The thunderous sound of the cars cruising by in an instance was quite intense. Now we stood and waited for the cars to come back around and once again everyone cheered and pointed woohoo.

Lap One

This went on for about ten laps and then finally we were able to sit down. At this point the cars were spread out around the track enough so that we had a thunderous roar the entire time...it was intense. Finally right down in front of us we saw some sparks and some smoke, everyone stood and pointed...yes, our first crash. Admittedly, it was a pretty weak crash but hey it was a crash. I then looked down at my shirt and realized that I had black stuff on my shirt, it was debris from the crash. Apparently you shouldn't wear white no matter where you sit in the stands.
After 180 laps of this we finally decided that we had enough and we left, but not without an experience of a lifetime.

-Flick

The Mountains, The Beach and NASCAR

The first couple weeks living in Charlotte went very well. I knew we had picked the right apartment because of the location and neighborhood. Everything we needed was right down the road. We searched for parks where we could play soccer, tennis, and run every day. Since we didn’t have jobs yet, we really looked forward to doing those types of things every day. I started to really enjoy the area, we found a fun bar where we could watch the Packer games, which was huge! So everything was going great so far.

Flick’s parents came to visit three weeks into our move, which was wonderful. It was nice to see some people from home and just converse and go OUT! I loved that we were able to actually go out for dinner rather than just sitting at home and eating. While they were here visiting we drove out to the Smokey Mountains, which was so much fun! We went exploring for waterfalls. We visited Whitewater Falls, Hooker Falls and Triple Falls, each very amazing.

Triple Falls

The next weekend Flick and I decided to go to Myrtle Beach. That was so cool for the both of us! We both absolutely love the beach and to be able to go there on a random day was so amazing! We spent the whole day there, enjoyed a great dinner and saw a captivating sunset.

This past week, I got a phone call at 7 am. It was FedEx. They wanted to tell me they had a package for me. So I waited for this package and it ended up being two tickets to the Bank of America 500. I was like OHhhh my gosh…I can’t believe this. We got free tickets through Time Warner Cable. Flick and I decided we were going to go. A number of people in the south go nuts over NASCAR stuff so we thought we would try to “fit in” with the “culture”. People from Wisconsin really got a kick out of this. NASCAR in Wisconsin is definitely considered a southern thing. Anyway, we are both really excited to experience our first “RACE”.

~Hammer