Archive for December, 2006
Found a Dig Dug control panel in Michigan
Took some time today to get out and meet some other arcade collectors in MI. The first guy I met, Tim in Vermontsville, has a ton of games. I told him about some of the things I was looking for, and he said that he has an almost complete Dig Dug control panel in one of his other storage spaces. He said I could have it if I wanted, but that we didn’t really have time to go look today. He said that he would send me photos in the next couple of days, at my request, so I could see condition and see if I wanted to pay to have it shipping to me.
29th December 2006
Another whirlwind day.
We got up at a decent time, a little after eight, I checked email from any arcade people I was trying to meet, and everyone else had a little something to eat.
We headed off to the gym at about 9:30 for some racquetball and weights and such. Dad and I played first in the courts, and I was not nearly as good as I remembered. I wasn’t playing die hard, but I was playing to win, and I barely did. I did not want to leave with an injury though, everyone I know it seems has been injured doing something stupid while playing racquetball.
Afterwards Dad and I headed down to the weight room and sort of lifted together for about a half hour.
When we got home, Sarah and I tried to nail down plans for the day. I wanted to drive over to the Grand Rapids, Battle Creek area and see about three arcade game collectors. Somehow in there we were going to try to get her to see her friend, see if Justin could come along, and somehow end up back at the Varners at a decent hour, maybe dinner time.
In the end, Sarah came with me and Justin didn’t. We went together first to Vermontville. The collector in Vermontville was tucked away pretty far, but that didn’t mean he didn’t have much. He had built a whole addition to his house to have the games, it more than doubled his original space, and all of the space he built was filled with games. His gameroom, in the process of being finished, had about 10-12 games in it, some of them working some not. Out back he had another 12-14 mixed in with shelves and stacks of boards, parts, and everything else under the sun. I tried to remember all of the miscellaneous things I was looking for, but he didn’t seem to have most of them. He had some pretty interesting stories to tell on how he got all of the games in such a short time (5 years). Then, he took me to a family members house a little more down the road, and there he had another 100 or so games that we packed into a barn of sorts, it was amazing. A ton of stuff, mostly Atari games and nothing really rare, with different parts. It is just amazing how some people can get so many games. Like the guy in Nashville, people now seem to find him.
From there we took a ton of backroads to get to Middleville. We only got lost for a block or so, and we got to see some interesting parts of MI. I dropped Sarah off at the friend’s house so she could visit and catchup since it had been a year, and I headed off to the next guy’s house in Middleville.
His place was also tucked away, and it was a gorgeous house and land that he was on. He has a number of hobbies, die cast Mustang collecting, old console and game collecting, and of course he had about 6-7 arcade games in his basement. He’s a salesguy, so he was a little bit more of a conversationalist.
25th December 2006
Christmas day, we got to sleep in until about 9:00 am, and then we had a nice Christmas breakfast at the Rothe’s house with the Nobles. Mom made this awesome apple, raisin, french toast caserole, and we had a nice filling leisurely meal.
Christmas presents lasted until about 11:30 or so, it was quite a generous Christmas yet again from our parents. The highlights of mine were a book about building MAME arcade machines, a tool box, and a nice long wool winter coat, as well as a delayed birthday present from Ryan and Jessica, a set of cornhole with black and yellow bags with the Batman emblem sown into them. Sarah got a ton of nice looking blouses and pants, she is going to break the mold for hottie teachers.
We played a quick game of cornhole outside, it was cool but not cold without any snow on a nice mid winters Christmas morning. Soon after Sarah and I packed up and headed over to the Chapman’s.
Over there we kind of just hung out. I read my Arcade book, we sat and watched some tv, I napped a little bit, and Sarah helped mom get stuff ready in the kitchen after she got home from working earlier in the day:(
Dinner was great, a ton of food, including mashed potatoes, ham, and green bean caserole. Right after dinner we did gifts, and had yet another generous Christmas. Sarah got some home remedy books that she couldn’t put down, a car first aid kit, and I got a funny cereal bowl, some University of Michigan stuff, and a motorized wrench for easy adjusting.
Next, we did the pickle find as tradition and this year Emily got it. There was desert, the girls did some kitchen cleanup, and then we sat down and watched the movie that Emily got as her pickle find prize. We finished off the night we some more tv and then headed home for another restful night.
24th December 2006
Today was church, so we didn’t get to sleep in. After church we came back to the Rothe house and had some family time, played some Sequence and watched the Elf movie with Wil Ferrell.
At about 8:00 pm we headed out to go over Gagnon’s for the Christmas Eve tradition. The kids were playing Scene It Jr., and we kind of visited some with Kathy and Kevin and had some wine and stuff. The kids are all really growing up fast, Morgan doesn’t even look the same. To end the night they watched Elf, so I used Kevin’s computer and caught up on some email since we just got done watching that movie two hours earlier.
We went to the candlelight service at church, said hi to a couple of people, then headed home and went to bed. The Chapman’s did some celebrating at their house like usual, but we held off and got some rest.
23rd December 2006
We got up at a decent hour, one of those “I’m Awake” type things. The Varners made us a nice waffle and bacon breakfast, and Justin and I played some more games, and we all sat around, relaxed and chatted until about 12:30.
We headed into town and stopped at my parents hour to drop off all our stuff so we had room in the car, said hi for a minute, then went to the Chapman house. Emily’s boyfriend was heading back home to Detroit area so we wanted to see him before he left on Sunday.
We spent the rest of the night there, Andy and I watched Ice Age 2 and chatted, and the four sisters went out to “Bath and Body Works”, or so they said. We had some dinner, and then did Christmas with Andy, and then finished off the night watching one of his gifts, “Superman Returns”.
22nd December 2006
Good day at work, got to take off a little early and get ready for our trip up to MI. When I got home I had a ton of stuff I wanted to do, mostly to get ready tech wise:) for the trip, and some things I wanted to have ready in case I met a bunch of arcade people later next week.
I got home early enough that Sarah was still doing kitchen stuff, laundry, and then wrapping gifts. Before we left, we did a little gift exchange, I gave her the things I got her, a deep dish piece of cooking wear from Pampered Chef, cranberry in color, and a second set of plates she has been wanting for awhile, we registered for them. We didn’t end up leaving until about 5:45.
We stopped at the Varners for the night. We did a little gift exchange, Justin got me a cool Superman hat, and a hand held and portable extension cord wrapper for the arcade auctions. Sarah got some fun stamps for her classroom. Justin and I opened the bottle of Port we got him and enjoyed that and later some whiskey sours and played videos games all night, the Mr. Do, Contra, and some games on the Super Nintendo. It was a fun night for us. The girls went out and did some grocery shopping for awhile and some other stuff.
21st December 2006
Left work today a little earlier than I had planned, but we had some good news and something big happen, so that had some affect on it. I came home with intentions of going to the gym, but I didn’t feel like I had time to do both that and be back in time to get to the faculty Christmas party on time like Sarah wanted. So I played with the Zune instead, and we still ended up leaving late:(
The party itself was fun as always, and crowded as always. So many people and a new face or two. Met a weird connection to a swimmer friend back in GH. I had some of the punch and started to get a headache about 8:30, so we left right after the gift exchange, around 9:30.
Got home, and didn’t feel like doing the work I wanted and needed to, so I popped in “The Matador” instead that I borrowed, watched that, and went to bed. Sarah watched and noted who she gots gifts from in her class and what she got, there was a ton of stuff.
20th December 2006
Got a free lunch, essentially, again today. Our office building had a Christmas party with pizza and cookies, so that was something to look forward to.
Got home from work later, and made a call to Walmart to see if they got anymore of the FM transmitters in for the Zune. They didn’t, but the girl found one tucked away behind some stuff! So I had some dinner and went down there and got it. It is a piece of junk, just like the reviews said. It doesn’t pick up the stations that are supposed to be dead clear at all. I will get to test it out tomorrow more on my drive, but hopefully by the time we get back there will be a couple more release dates on third party transmitters.
Sarah was home when I got back just after 9. She spent the night working on her gifts for the kids, and we decided a little more about our plans for Christmas and such.
I had a brain fart for most of the rest of the night, so I played with my Zune and album art, and read a little bit of my electronics book and went to bed at a decent hour.
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