The Online Journal of Melissa Mularski

A few days of calls, e-mails and waiting paid off. Last night GameStop sent us the code to redeem Juggernaut for the XBox 360 game Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2.

After school today Owen did his homework right away, then I entered his code for him. It worked. Hooray! He’s trying him out now.

If you’re having problems getting your code, e-mail or call the GameStop Corporation:

• orders@gamestop.com
• 800-883-8895

Friday 09-18-09

• Body pump at the YMCA — 60 minutes

School (Owen), workout then work (me). Market Day afterward (yay!)

After that we came home and Owen did his homework while I made him dinner. With his homework done, and dinner eaten, Owen played his new Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 game for a short time while I made dinner for Michael and me. I’d made Owen’s early because he had to leave for a First Lego League workshop.

Once our dinner was done I drove Owen over to the FLL meeting. The boys were super riled tonight and had a great time. I picked him up, we came home and all had some dessert before Owen’s bedtime. Sweet dreams little buddy!

Wednesday 09-16-09

• Body pump at the YMCA — 60 minutes

OK, so Owen got Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 for the XBox 360 today. We pre-ordered it from GameStop, only because that is the only store that gives you an extra freebie: you get a code to unlock the big baddie Juggernaut!

But to get the code, you have to jump through some hoops, which is somewhat annoying. I can suspect to people that aren’t very internet-savvy the hoops are extremely annoying.

1. You needed to pre-order the game. You can’t do that anymore unfortunately, as it was released today.
2. Then you had to take home your receipt and go to www.gamestop.com/MUA2VIP, where you enter your receipt number, name, e-mail address, phone number (all required!) and gaming platform.
3. Then supposedly you wait. They say you’ll get VIP access to some Marvel stuff on their website within 2 business days of submitting your information. They also say, “Codes for the Juggernaut unlock will be emailed when the game releases.”

Interesting thing about the phone number…we got a call from a voice recording yesterday afternoon  telling us to go to our local GameStop that night at 10pm for the pre-release party, and to pick up our game at 12:00am. (Owen was all for it, I told him no way). When I went to buy the game today and asked how their ‘party’ was, they said they weren’t open and had no idea why I got such a call. They said several people came in today fairly ticked off that they went there at night to get their game and came upon a dark store.

Anyhoo, it’s 8:25pm CST and we still haven’t gotten the codes. I was a little concerned I entered something wrong when I registered, and as the store took my pre-order receipt I wasn’t sure what to do. I tried the GameStop corporate office in Texas and found out the Juggernaut codes will begin to be e-mailed when the game is released, and that I may get my code anytime today or possibly tomorrow. They looked up my e-mail address and sure enough, I’m in some secret queue somewhere that hasn’t been sent a code yet.

You think they might want to put that tidbit on their Marvel Pre-Order web page so people aren’t calling them all day and night?

Owen rode his bike to school for the first time today! He did a great job, and was really proud when he was parking it at the school’s bike rack.

After I dropped him off I ran from job to job, finishing just in time to pick him up at the end of the day. We went to his FIRST Lego League workshop, then he went to his Webelo meeting. There are several new Webelos this year. At the end of the meeting their scout leader showed them a DVD he made of their summer Scout Camp. It was awesome!

When we got home, we went through a list of about 30 artists his art teacher gave him. He got an assignment where if he writes 5 reports on artists during the year, and goes to a gallery/art museum and writes a report on that, he’ll get to go on a field trip at the end of the year to the Chicago Art Museum. We looked at art work from each artists, and from that he:

• crossed out the artist’s name (definitely does not want to do a report on the artist),
• put a squiggly name next to the artist’s name (maybe will do a report on the artist), or
• put a dot next to the artist’s name (definitely wants to do a report on the artist).

I didn’t count how many he chose as definites or possibilities, but I know there were a lot to choose from. Now he’s going to have to narrow it down and start on his first paper. It’s due the first week of October.

Sunday 09-13-09

• Elliptical trainer
  • Laps: 9.1
  • Time: 44 minutes
  • Calories: 443
  • Watching: Intervention on A&E: Donny

We finally got to meet my first nephew today, Gavin! Aunt Eileen had a party at her house for Mike, Eleanor and their beautiful 3-month old baby. It was great to see him, hold him, and hear him chattering up a storm. I’ll post photos soon.

My mom came over tonight, in preparation for picking up Mike, Eleanor and Gavin tomorrow. She, Michael and I went to Fish Fry and a Flick at the Lakefront and saw Caddyshack.

It’s official, our dishwasher is dead. Not entirely dead, but dead enough that it really needs to be seen by a technician. We were planning on at least replacing the door soon to match everything else going on with our kitchen remodel, so we decided it was time to just let it go. Maybe someone else can figure out what’s wrong with it and get a few more years’ use out of it.

We figured this was going to happen as it’s been slowly dying over the last month and a half, so we’ve been researching replacement models: Consumer Reports, asking people, reading reviews on lots of appliance websites. Today Michael found a highly recommended make and model at Lowe’s. It was heavily discounted because it was a display model. We bought it, put it in the van, and within about an hour and a half, without any help, Michael had it installed. He rocks.

It looks great and is ultra quiet. So far, so good.