You know, I have been to some pretty crazy places and been in some pretty hairy situations in my life. I've driven a semi with a forty foot trailer through Riyadh Saudi Arabia during rush hour. I've been lost in a crowd of 400,000 people at the Indy 500. But this morning I experienced something that scared me. Something I will never do again. Black Friday. We found all sorts of after Thanksgiving deals in the paper but they were all in Traverse City. Deah and I decided to take advantage. Most of the sales started at 5 or 6 am so the plan was that I would get up around 3am and head down there (about an hour drive) so I wouldn't have to take the kids. I got to Meijer's at 5:30 and could not get in! It took me fifteen minutes to find a parking spot! I decided "scrub this" and headed to Menard's. When I got there they weren't open yet but there was a line that wrapped around the parking lot! I waited in the cold for about 20 minutes then there was a dash to the store. By the time I got in there were no carts so I had to get an armload, pay for it and come back. By the time I got back in they had sold out of most of the things on my list. I got another armload and got in the checkout line for an hour! This is insane. I really don't mind paying a couple extra dollars anymore just so I don't have to experience that. I have never actually seen people fight over items in a store. I mean a $44 DVD/VCR combo is pretty sweet, but are you really willing to wrestle someone for it? Next year I am internet shopping exclusively. Nuts to this stuff.