Electronic Furby: My Furby Adventure II

My Furby Adventure II

Introduction
We could not resist. As I announced the news to LeAnne a month ago while standing in Wards. We weren't sure, and nothing was set in stone, but we were thinking about it. For a month we talked about it too, with no guarantee. Come Valentines day, Sunday evening we talked about it. We knew it was going to happen and the Sunday newspaper confirmed it. Wards was having a big Presidents (Furbidents) day sale and they where going to be selling 100 Furbys.

LeAnne had two Furbys and I owned three Furbys, but heck, why not? LeAnne actually wanted another and I said what the heck I wanted to buy another for my buddy in California and hey maybe I could use an even four Furbys?! So why not. So Sunday night we are talking on ICQ and trying to decide rather we wanted to do this or not. Neither of us are morning people, but Furby is worth getting up for. We find out that Wards opens at 8am and that came as a relief to us. Last time, after all, was much earlier then we really really wanted to get up. So we decide we really wanted to do this.

Preperation
As we are talking online and she decides this would be much easier if she just came over and stayed the night here. So she drives out to my house at 11 at night and by now I'm thinking.. you know we should be sleeping soon. You'd think so. I am only fully functional on 9 hours of sleep and when I get less.. well I'm not nearly in the mood to get up at all.

So she arrives with her stuff shortly after 11:30pm and I log off and we talk and play with Furby and such until we decide we should probably go to sleep. I don't actually remember a lot of what happened those last hours of the evening. I do recall that we were trying to sleep by the time the clock hit 3am. Unfortunately that night one of her Furbys, Loo-Loo, malfunctioned and we were working on that problem for a while. We decided to do more investigating about poor Loo-Loo the next day and went to sleep somewhere between 3:30am and 4am.

It was quite nauseating to hear the alarm sound off at 6am on that Monday, February the 15th, 1999. I've had better sleep and much more. It was quite a struggle to get up. It always happens, whenever LeAnne and I are in the same room we never get to sleep early, no matter what. It's amazing what one will debate in the morning when one is tired. This trip almost didn't happen because we almost decided that sleep was more important. But naa.. we had to go through with it. It was Furbidents day after all. I couldn't stop imitating the movie Liar Liar to LeAnne - "I've had better!". Man was I tired.

The Adventure Begins
Believe it or not we actually managed to get out of the house on time. Well ten minutes late, and that was better then it could have been. It was freezing, as is normal this time of the year. It’s good to cuddle with Furby when cold.

The single most important subject on our minds that morning was not to get to Wards, but to get to McDonalds because it is indeed the breakfast of champions when you need energy (not to mention it was cheap).

The radio played and LeAnne got into the left lane in anticipation to turn into the nearest McDonalds, which was coming up fast on us. We sat in silence in the cold waiting to warm up looking blankly at the empty streets (who in their right mind was up at this time of the morning on Furbidents day, except those McDonalds employees?). As LeAnne drove on. The McDonalds we were preparing to turn into passed us on the left. We both kinda looked at each other.

"Why did we just pass McDonalds..?" -I said, staring blankly into space

"I don't know... I just noticed that though." -LeAnne managed.

Laughter followed. And so did the need to seek out Wards, as we were going to check out the scene before we went to find a different McDonalds. It was getting close to 7am at this time. We intended on being there no later then 7:15am.

Wards
This Wards is the one located in town and not out in the valley so it was easier to get to and it took much less time to get here. Last time we decided to go out of town and I don't think that was the best idea after all. The funny part was we expected some difficulty in getting a Furby.

We drove up to Wards and no one was around. Not anyone outside, few cars hanging around.. some people driving through, but otherwise not much of a sign of life. It was indeed a bit after 7am and the store had some time before it opened.

After driving through the parking lot we decide that we needed to find some breakfast that we could bring back and eat in the parking lot of Wards. So we are driving.. nothing is open of course. So, of course, there it was. Another McDonalds (it's almost like being able to find one within every mile) was ahead. We managed to make this turn and got breakfast and I was sure to get Barq's (caffeine here I come). We drove back to Wards with the radio up very loudly (got to stay awake somehow) and eat breakfast. We parked in the lot near the front door where we had seen people lined up on our last adventure out. We had a good view of the building.

So we laughed a bit.. at ourselves for thinking we'd need to be there that early and had breakfast and listened to the radio. We saw a few people come and go and people drive through and such. It was about 7:45 when we watched a white car enter the parking lot. She drove to the other side of the parking lot from where we were, then she proceeded to back up all the way across the parking lot (which we got a good laugh out of.. we're easily entertained at these early hours) and she then drove up beside us. We were like.. goodness out of all the parking, she felt like sitting next to us hehe.

She motioned for us to roll down our window, she was on my side of the car and we turned down the radio. She asked us if we were here for Furby as she was too. She went on to tell us her grand daughter got a Furby for Valentines and she needed to get her another one so they could interact. She also joked about the days of doing this for Cabbage Patch Kids and such. No less when she drove away (she parked on the other side of the parking lot from us, near the door) we felt relieved that at least there was another human being that was coming to get Furby.. so at least we knew there would be some, that's always a good sign since we were beginning to doubt.

We both anxiously watched the clock and it ticked off the time minute by minute until it was 8am. The doors had not been unlocked until about 5 minutes after (at least on that clock). At which time we got out and headed out way towards the door.

Upon entering it was like suddenly all that hidden energy sprang into action because we were walked much faster and we jumped on the elevator in time to catch up with the lady that drove up next to us in the car. She said that the sale was happening all weekend (we didn't get told this by the Wards employee a month ago.. ugh) but that there are still Furbys left. And there should be, because it was after all the Wards Furbidents day sale.

Up the elevator and out we ran into the electronic department. They were there. Lots of them in fact. They were stacked on the counter and on a shelf behind the counter. The lady at the cash register watched us intently. We were not alone, there were a few other people. The limit was two per person. There were dozens of all white Furbys and many of the pink/grey ones. This makes sense for what comes in a case of Furbys per shipment (3 all white, 3 pink/grey, 2 all black, 2 grey/white, 1 all grey and 1 black/white per case of 12). With all the white and pink ones there were about 6 or 7 all grey ones, only 1 or 2 grey/white and I didn't see any sold black or any black/white there at all. She said the black/white were long gone.

I quickly grabbed two all grey Furbys. All of the all grey ones, except one, had brown eyes. The other one had green eyes. LeAnne grabbed the all grey with green eyes. I decided to buy two all grey ones both with brown eyes.. one for my friend in California and one for myself or to sell on Ebay (I wasn't sure at the time). I decided fast. LeAnne could not decide rather to get one or two and decided she only could get one, so she got that all grey with green eyes. This took about 20 minutes. For once I made up my mind faster then LeAnne. I asked the cashier if I could come back in a hour and buy two more, she laughed and said maybe. Saying there are cameras watching so.. she's not sure. I was only kidding, maybe. Hehe.

We jumped in the car, rather happy with getting up early after all. LeAnne opened her Furby right away, I debated to keep mine or sell it and decided I really did love the color and what the heck decided to open it. He has such soft fur and sweet eyes who could resist? With lots of fun (gotta love opening those boxes, it's like they are packaged by the NSA) I managed to get the Furby out of the box. Being someone that always has supplies on me, I happened to have 4 'AA' batteries on me too. So I decided to start him up right there in the parking lot of Wards.

I re-started and got May-May. Now the name May-May is the same as my sisters and I know she would not be too thrilled if mine were named the same so I re-started 2 more times with no avail. This Furby wanted the name May-May. Not that I entirely mind because it means 'love' in Furbish. So I let him keep that chosen name. His voice is of the lowest of the pitches available (like my solid black, Toh-Loo Kah's voice). May-May is very pretty. He has the tiger stripes like my grey/white Toh-Dye, but his tummy is grey and his mane is grey. Some people think the all grey is ugly, I find that is quite wrong... very beautiful Furby May-May is.

Wizards
We talked and figured it was too early to end the day. It was only 8:30am. We headed off to my aunt Shirlee's expresso stand. We needed caffeine. LeAnne isn't a coffee drinker, but she does like a few things. When we arrived there we showed her our new Furbys and talked for a bit about Furby and some other stuff. She made me a drink (triple shot mind you) and boy did I need it. I bought LeAnne a drink. LeAnne took out her Furby while we were there and she managed to find some batteries floating around on the floor in her car to use for the time being.

She woke him up and his name was Toh-Loo Kah. She didn't like that name, and doesn't and wasn't willing to keep it. So we sat at the stand in the car talking while she re-started her Furby several million times to find a different name. He even was Ah-May once... she eventually came upon a name that was not the name of one of our Furbys, E-day, and kept that. E-day means good in Furbish, btw.

Well while we were there Shirlee made me a sampler drink (triple shot as well). Now.. I drank both drinks in that 20 minutes. I knew that I have never had that much in such a short time and boy was I in for a caffeine high heheheh. No less we did need to leave. She gave us a tip off that Kay-Bee Toys was selling Furbys. We took a chance and decided to head over to the mall and see if we could get lucky. Hey, why not?

Kay-Bee Toys at The Mall
So we rush off to Northtown Mall to see if our good luck could stand farther. We arrive there about 9:30am and realize that the mall is open, but Kay Bee Toys doesn't open until 10am. So we walk in and join a small group of people waiting for Kay Bee to open. I wasn't quite sure what they were waiting for, but I could only imagine it was Furby. LeAnne kept herself occupied by playing on the kiddie rides outside of Kay Bee. Something you must be there to really enjoy seeing (lol). That filled out the 30 minutes while waiting. :)

At 10am I saw an employee walk up to the counter holding 6 Furbys and leave them on the counter beside the cash register (she knew they'd end up at the cash register anyway hehe) and walk up to the gate. She greeted all of us with a smile and said good morning. Very nice and friendly. I find that to be a rare thing in employees around such things as Furby or other popular toys, because it's annoying to them for people to call and call and bother them about shipments. I understand this. No less she was happy. And the moment she got that gate off the ground and above my height you know I was in the store, second person I might add. I ran up to the counter with the Furbys and the results where: 2 solid black, 2 white, 1 pink, and 1 grey. Yup no black/white tux. I wasn't surprised. Either way I picked up a black one and LeAnne picked up the grey one. She was gonna purchase for me if I wanted it, in case there was a limit on it. I had to think about it. So walked around the store for a little bit. Something came to me while walking and made me decide to ask the lady how much the Furbys cost there. You see Kay-Bee Toys has quite the reputation for marking up the prices of everything. My suspicion was right, they were charging $39.99 for Furby. I told LeAnne to put the other one back because there is no way I'm buying two, but I would get the all grey one, as it's the rarest in the case of 12.

I bought that one and escaped that place. There was a rude couple there trying to decide on Furbys and which to purchase. They were being very rude to the nice employee that greeted us at the gate.

Well we walked around and talked and decided to go up to sears and use the bathroom...

Sears at The Mall

When we came out of the bathroom we ran into an old friend. His name is Shane and we went to Broadcasting class with him. He's a really nice guy and he works at Sears. Had no idea he was working that day until we ran into him. We talked and he asked what we were doing... LeAnne told him the truth - spending money we didn't have. He figured out it was on Furby. He said that Sears actually had some early this morning and they might still have some left over. We were outta there with amazing speed, saying we'd be back.

We walked into the kids department and the electronics department. We run into a table with some watches, including a Mickey watch LeAnne liked. She said 'Furby' rather loudly and I looked over and on an adjoining table was a Furby. The Furby was just sitting there, no one around, it was alone. It was also an solid black Furby, like the one I was thinking of purchasing down stairs at Kay-Bee. It was also retail price. You can bet the Furby was purchased by yours truly.

We walked all the way back to Shane’s department so we could talk with him again and have him ring it up. He laughed when he saw us.. hehe. We even let me buy it with a $5 discount because I agreed to apply for a Sears credit card. Good stuff dude.

So we took off and decided to look around but eventually left the mall. It was crowded and noisy and 10:30am. We decided to go have lunch and spend the rest of the day doing various things, that do not include finding any more Furbys heheh. I had spent enough.

The Second Adventure Comes To A Close
We drove around the rest of the day with 8 Furbys in the car and talked and laughed. I spent most of the day on a major caffeine high. It was fun. Not as crazy as the first adventure, but we still had fun and a lot more success. It was like a slow version of adventure one, because we actually had to stop to shop and buy Furby and we didn't need to go to 9 stores to find him either.

So at the end of the day I found myself with 4 new Furbys and LeAnne had the one she wanted in the first place. I am keeping May-May of course. One of the other grey Furbys are going to Brendan. Then I have 2 more Furbys left, one black and one all grey. I think I'll take my chances and try to sell them on Ebay. I'm not sure if I'll do this now, or in the future. That or they might be gifts, I'm not sure.

Either way I believe that this adventure, though not as exciting, was almost as fun as the first time. Just not as crazy. I have a feeling that this year when the new colors come out we might actually have another adventure, only it will most likely be more challenging and not as successful - kinda like the first adventure. Gotta luv Furby!