I’m not normally a person who gets too affected by the weather, but even I had a case of ‘get out and do something no matter how trivial’ this past weekend.

We’ve been planning to do opening day at Kings Island since we got our passes back in December, then at the beginning of the week my daughter got invited to a birthday party the same day. Luckily it was in the morning (11am-12:30) and it was on the way to the park. No biggie, we’d just get to the park around 1pm.

Everyone was pretty exicted about finally getting back to the parks after such a slow season last year. We were up and ready to roll with little effort. We stopped by and picked up one of my daughter’s friends who was also going to the party and hit the road shortly after 10:30. The party was at a place called The Magic Castle. The place was just a dumpy little fun center with an arcade, tickets games, mini-golf and crap like that. Clearly a low rent operation. The funniest part to me was that it shared a parking lot with a driving range. So here on a Saturday morning you had beat up mini-vans pulling in and frazzled moms and snot nosed kids heading one way and pulling in beside them was the uppity, executive types getting the golf clubs out of the back of the Mercedes. There was a contrast there that I found humorous.

So to blow time while my daughter was hanging at the birthday party we stopped in a Morris and checked out furniture for an hour or so. Some decent stuff and great prices. Stopped in briefly at the Thomasville store right next door as well. It was one of those things where you start realizing what utter crap you have in your home. In fact, we have been talking new couch for a while now. The one we have is 7 years old and has taken quite a beating over the years. So by the time we have to leave, we’re convinced we need a new couch. (and sadly, we probably do)

We made it to the park and had a great day. Not a ton of rides, but just a good time being out in the spectacular weather.

Got home a little before nine and made some kind of Turkey Mignon wrapped in bacon thingy that turned out to be really yummy. Played a couple of games of Uno with the kids (my kids dig Uno for some reason) and they crashed shortly after leaving me to play with some of the pictures I took at the park.

Slept in Sunday morning, but soon enough everyone was itching to get out again. The bright idea to go check out couches came up and we decided to see what else was out there. Turns out that there’s a Midwest Clearance Outlet right near us, so we went to see what they had. Decent deals if they happened to currently have something that worked for you, otherwise not much to be excited about.

Left there and passed a nice little subdivision/neighborhood we’d noticed had several houses for sale and that we’d seen before and thought looked pretty nice and slipped in to see what the deal was. The area was great, and the houses were nice upper-mid range homes. There were a few for sale and a couple had open houses happening later in the day. Blew a few minutes and decided to continue on our couch quest.

Hit up Value City Furniture next. Some so-so couches. Nothing really grabbing our eye, but some decent beds at great prices. (we’ve been wanting a new bed as well, but we don’t really need one)

After that we hit up Sofa Express and found tons to love. Two couches in particular stood out. The only problem was the sheer size. Big monster sectionals that curve around. We’re just not sure our living room can handle them. We plan on going back later this week and getting some sizes and seeing if it’s possible.

At this point the kids were kinda bored with furniture gazing, but it was too nice of a day to go sit at home. Aside from furniture, we’re also due for car upgrades. Just not right now. Our actual time frame is within the next year-ish. But still on a nice day like this, why not just continue our daydream/preventive shopping and hit up some dealerships and see what’s out there and what we like. The first baby steps towards a future purchase.

We hit up the Wendy’s Drive-thru for Frosty’s and continued on. Coasted through the Ford dealership first. Not big Ford fans, but the Edge is an interesting vehicle. Next up was Nissan. We spent the most time here. We’re pretty loyal Nissan customers (for 8 years now) and are familiar with their line-up, but nothing beats getting out there and kicking tires. Good times. My wife is hooked on the idea of a Murano. Admittedly, they’re nice little vehicles. The damn salesman was intent on pushing the fully loaded one our way. It was fun to check out, but I’m not sure I’ll be dropping 39k on a loaded Murano anytime soon. Still, it was pretty nice.

Stopped by Chevy & Toyota that were nearby as well. Nothing of interest in the Chevy lot and the Toyota lot was small. I’d still be interested in hitting a better Toyota dealer. Cut back across town to a Dodge/Chrysler/Jeep dealer. I’m a big fan of the Chrysler 300′s and after toying with a few still am – probably even more so than before. The big surprise was the new Sebring. They’re actually pretty nice and the base price was under $20,000. Definitely a consideration for a ‘cheap’ new vehicle. But man, I really dig the 300.

Nothing of interest on the Dodge and Jeep fronts.

Next door was a used car lot so we figured we’d nose around there. Used car salesmen are so sleazy. Nothing too interesting there either and honestly, with the prices of used cars anymore, I’d just rather stick with a new vehicle. Who knows?

Finally headed back home to make dinner, only to realize that we were feeling too lazy and everything seemed like it would take too long to make. So we got back in the car and finished the day with a stop at Abuelos. I hadn’t eaten there yet, but Jamie had been in a few times. Good stuff. Got a huge platter thingy with all kinds of different tacos, tamales, tortillas and other “T” foods. Wouldn’t want to do Mexican all the time, but as an occasional stop, it’s now in the rotation.

Got home and considered the couch thing some more. I’m convinced the couch we saw at Sofa Express is WAY too big for the room and that it just seemed smaller in the showroom setting. My wife thinks I’m insane. We do plan on going back in the next couple of days to get actual measurements.

Caught the Simpsons and did a few little things around the house. At 10pm logged on and did this week’s podcast with Jeff. Good fun as usual. Tucked everyone in afterwards and sat down here to check on some stuff and write this post.

I had a really good time this weekend. Yay me!