You may also recall me threatening to return on Wednesday.

It was a long morning at work, so I was considering running out to this Toys R Us as part of a very late lunch (like, after 2pm). I was looking forward to being away from the office, as I haven't taken a real hour lunch in weeks. So I'm discussing the merits of the plan with Arthong and Shovesy. They suggest that I call and ask Toys R Us about these games.

The thing is, no matter what they tell me over the phone, I'm not going to believe it. If they say "Yes sir, you bet we have those" I won't believe it because I'll be convinced they misunderstood my request and I'll be looking at a stack of PS2 Buzz games and a copy of Flubber on DVD. If they say "No sir, we do not have those for sale" I won't believe it because how in fuck can they not have two week old games in stock. It's the kind of thing I have to see with my own two eyes and as I expressed this devout desire I pointed right at my eyes with two fingers to illustrate how serious I was about it.

So I make the trip. They have Wiis in stock again, by the way. Microsoft Office-caliber sign on the door.

The empty de Blob cases are still stacked ass out. I ask the clerk; she claims that means they're now sold out. I inquire about Buzz Quiz TV for PS3. She glances over at the PS2 games and says "There's a PS3 one of those?" Then she does a half-convincing lap past the endcaps. Nope, no Buzz Quiz TV there. Finally she locates a similar ass-out stack of Buzz Quiz TV on the racks behind the glass. Welp, that must be sold out as well!

There's some skids of mailing boxes forming a wall by the cash register. I idly wonder if my games are waiting inside that prison.

I got soup from Panera Bread for lunch. To go.

Over IM I tell Rhon that I want to go to another regional Toys R Us after work. This one is probably just as close to us since we moved north a tad, but we're still unaccustomed to thinking of it as being within our striking distance.

We get there around 7:30pm. Clark is all late-night-weird. He likes going shopping, but he's just worn out enough to start being uncooperative.

We really should make this branch "our" Toys R Us. Although it doesn't have a modern layout or exterior (old star-R logo... and the ugly solid blues and yellows storefront from when TRU was trying to look like a ride at Universal Studios), it has more of what we want. The RZone is comparable to our usual store, but there's twice as many action figure aisles, plus a larger clothing section that always seems to have racks of stuff on deep, pink-sticker discounts.

Clark and I head to the RZone. De Blob shells on racks, actual games behind glass. I peer over to the bottom of the PS3 section; big boxed Buzz Quiz TV sitting there alongside the other middlesized games like DDR and Active Life Outdoor Challenge.

My local Toys R Us must be the bottom of the food chain. Last to receive shipments, no one motivating the staff to get stuff racked. Not too long ago, my TRU had to split its footprint and become a Babies R Us / Toys R Us location. The Babies portion got the short end, happily, but it seems possible that the overall lackiness of the TRU half may be in part due to that unfortunate twinning. For further insult, there's a massive building right next door that sat vacant for years before it become a fucking Ollie's Bargain Outlet. Ollie's is one of those stores that snaps up waterlogged merchandise and other items that fell out of the semi one day... and then passes the savings and the cholera on to you! An aggressive Toys R Us would have purchased that building and created an R Us shopping park with ferris wheels and pony rides and people willing to sell goddamn video games sometime during the week they come out.

I think my lesson is finally learned. Toys R Us #1 is fine for fly-bys and impulse trips... but when I truly need a new game, it's Toys R Us #2 all the way.

Clark likes de Blob. He gets to paint things.