Webb Family Blog

One business that I’ve been looking forward to since I first heard about it, has just opened; Fry’s Electronics. I would have made the link to their home page, but unfortunately, their home page is in no way related to their stores… different products, different prices, no listing of store locations or hours. If you are unaware, Fry’s build their stores to have a theme. There has been another Fry’s in the area, but it was acquired from Incredible Universe, so it had no theme. As Roseville has long been associated with railroad stuff, they decided to build the Roseville store with a California Railroad History theme. Fry’s is my kind of electronics store. If you are an electronics hobbyist and need test equipment, you can get it at Fry’s. If you want software or ANY computer-related piece of hardware, you can find it on the shelves at Fry’s. If you want consumer electronics, they have it. If you want appliances, they have it. If you want movies or music, they have that too. If you don’t want to wait in line to buy something, chances are you won’t need to, as they have 70 check-out stands with people directing you to an open register.

As I already mentioned, the Roseville Fry’s Electronics store has a railroad theme. Along Interstate-80, the top of the building looks vaguely like a railroad trellis. On the front side of the building, above the main opening, is a large “water tower”. Just below this water tower is a steam locomotive that has crashed through the wall and appears like it may fall (it won’t). Once inside, the flooring looks like there are railroad tracks on the floor. There are several steam train mockups around the store. Above the displays around the perimeter of the store are murals of railroad history throughout California and some of the produce from California that is shipped by rail. In the center of the store is a café. It is in a building that says that it is the Roseville Hotel and Saloon, in a very rustic motif.

On opening day, my partner Todd arrived around 6:30AM when the store actually opened at 8AM. The parking lot was full at the time, including a large gravel lot adjacent to the property. He mentioned there was a long line to get in. I had to wait until I got off work, but I went straight there. I had to park out in the gravel. It was shoulder-to-shoulder in the store. I went over to the computer hardware section and was approached by a salesperson. I mentioned that I’d been considering building my wife a new computer. He pointed out several specials, including two motherboard/CPU combos. One of the combos was essentially a free motherboard with the purchase of a CPU and the other was a free CPU with the purchase of a motherboard. As I wanted to make sure the computer had good processing power, I went with the free motherboard option, costing $170. I then got a 300 GB hard drive for $60. I then needed RAM. I got 2GB of dual-channel PC5300 DDR2 for $90 and a $40 mail-in-rebate. For a case, I went with a no-frills case for free ($50 with $50 mail-in-rebate). I thought I had a working optical drive at home, so that is all I got… seeing as though it was going to be a replacement, I wouldn’t need a monitor, mouse or keyboard. I didn’t put it all together until Saturday night. After building the system, I realized that the optical drive I had didn’t work. I went back Sunday morning. It wasn’t nearly as crazy then. I picked up a nice CD-R/W, DVD±R/RW drive with LightScribe technology for $40. I also purchased a few other miscellaneous items as well. One of those miscellaneous items turned out to be flawed, so I had to return it. At that point, Fry’s had been open for 3 days, and this was my third visit. I finished building the system and plugged in a KVM (device that allows one monitor, keyboard and mouse to be shared between two computers). As I was installing all the software, it became obvious that the graphics built-in to the motherboard really sucked. The text was blurry. It is now Monday. Kellie and I stopped at John’s Incredible Pizza on our way to Fry’s and we purchased a new graphics card. I was able to quickly install that. The graphics card was $60 with a $15 mail-in-rebate. The graphics are now crisp and sharp. Basically, I have built Kellie a very nice computer for a relatively small amount of money. Fry’s has been open for 4 days now, and 4 visits… I better break that trend quick or we’ll be out of money!

It has been nearly another month since my last post. After having a terrible time and eventually dropping a class in school, Kellie and I have been retaking the same class. I am very glad that I did. I went from having the worst teacher, to one of the best teachers. This teacher stimulates thought and is quite supportive.

There are some new businesses that have come to Roseville that have made me happy. First off is John’s Incredible Pizza. I first experienced John’s in Bakersfield in 1999, when I was a travelling nurse. It has pretty decent pizza with decent prices… but that is just the tip of the iceberg. John’s has all you can eat salad, pasta, pizza and desert bars. If they don’t have the particular kind of pizza you like out on the bar, you can make a request. I have one particular pizza that I really like when I go there. It sounds odd, but it is actually VERY tasty. With my pizza, the first thing placed on the dough is a thin layer of spicy peanut butter. Then they put down traditional pizza sauce and then traditional vegetarian toppings of mushrooms, olives and peppers with cheese. They garnish the pizza with little peanuts in the shells, since you can’t tell that it is a peanut butter pizza without the garnish. After I pick up my food from the bars, I need to find a place to eat. I have several choices. There are themed rooms in which to eat. One room has an extreme sports theme, with TVs showing extreme sports programming. Another room is a cartoon/children’s theme room with TVs showing cartoons. The next room is like a mountain lodge, with a river-rock fireplace, antler chandeliers and round timber beams. This is the quiet room with no TVs. The next room is geared towards guys… a sports themed room with a big screen TV and several smaller TVs with ESPN or live sporting events being shown. The last main room is a room with soft-rock music videos on the TVs. Each of these rooms are quite large about the size of seating at most restaurants. Now for the other half of the building…. There are several private party rooms where kids can have celebrations away from all the regular customers. Kellie’s cousin, Katie, works as a party host for these party rooms. The party hosts prepare the rooms and provide some decorations and make balloon animals. Next, there is the indoor amusement park. There is one attraction there that makes me laugh. It is a spinning ride, where there is a large merry-go-round holding a small pod with 4 seats. Each of these pods can also spin, much like the Teacups ride at Disneyland. The faster you spin the wheel in the middle, the faster the pod spins, meanwhile the whole pod swings around the room. This whole ride is on carpet. Most people go there AFTER they eat. Not a great combination if you ask me. They also have bumper cars and many arcade-type games. There is a small bowling alley. When I say small, I mean EVERYTHING is small. The ball is about the size of a softball. The pins have a string attached at the top and are reset by pulling up on the strings. It is kind of interesting and fun. I highly recommend this place.