Reliving My Childhood

As a kid, I think nearly everyone who grew up in the 80's wanted to own a full set of "Care Bears" I personally never owned any, my wife had a homemade one, my brother (the same one who went on to love Star Trek) owned a small (6-8 inch) grumpy bear  and one year for Christmas my mom and grandma spent all night sewing at least 10 from this set for him

We played with those floppy flat bears for years

well, about a year ago, when my kid still didn't spend any time with the electric babysitter (he still really doesn't) we hooked him on "The Care Bears Movie" 

it was the only thing he wanted to watch, 

he wanted to watch it multiple times a day, 

things are better here, but there is still an undercurrent of CB love, as you can see...

Top to bottom,  Playful-Heart Monkey, Tender-Heart, Share Bear, Christopher, Good-Luck Bear, Lots-a-Heart Elephant, Work of Heart, Daydream, Funshine and Cheer Bear

at about an average price of $1 a bear(/monkey/elephant etc...) I can drown my child in what I wish I had, for less than the cost of  a single of them when they were new

NCC1701

When I was a kid, my family (particularly my father and two sibblings) were super into Star Trek, we would gather together as a family at 6 each Sunday to watch the newest episode of the current series

There are 2 nerd terms that I'm aware of in star trek fandom; Trekkie and Trekker

 Aas I understand it, I am a Trekkie, I've seen the majority of episodes from most of the series's and I'm familiar with many of the main characters and their relationships to each other

 

My brother on the other hand is a Trekker, if he was more outgoing, he would have probably owned a costume to wear to his Star Trek conventions, (I did accompany him to two of them, and an anime convention too, which was much better)

Tim Russ' mom was at one of these events (he's from my hometown)

In fact, my brother could name all of the characters that weren't named in the show, he collected (and still has) multiple thousand "Star Trek the Collectable Card Game" cards

source  He would also correctly recite the "stats" of the characters during the show, and comment on how useful they would be during game play

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 but perhaps the oddest thing that my family did, in relation to star trek, was have the occasional birthday for a character where my father would buy the plastic figurine of the character for the cake

For some reason, Nelix one of the most annoying characters was one of my favorites

 really

The last clown standing (Please Vote)

Welcome one and all to the Creepy Clown Olympics, where we pit clown against clown in the mortal combat of inflicting permanent mental trauma! 

This week we have the 2-dimensional competition,

lets meet the contestants:

First we have Binkels, he likes to sneek up on children from the toy box

"I just want to play with you"

Second we have Carrot Jackson, who seems a bit preoccupied

“Why can't you share your bed? The most loving thing to do is to share your bed with someone. It's very charming. It's very sweet. It's what the whole world should do.”

OK... Next we have his brother Listless, the recovering sad clown

"Once you realize what a joke everything is, being the Comedian is the only thing that makes sense."

and finally we have the tag team: Borzak and Ringo, working towards a darker tomorrow

"you're such a tasty looking doggie, ywess you are!"

PLEASE vote for the most disturbing clown in the comments,

Results will be posted Monday!

Nothin' But Knit

Hey Sexy!

Is it hot in here, or is it just your wool content? 

 

 

You must be a sweater 'cos you got me feeling warm all over

Shelf Life

I think I figured out what the Easter bunny does in his off season (you  know to pay for all the eggs and candy)

My wife and I recently started participating in one of those farm to house produce programs,the food always shows up at the doorstep, before we wake up and

and we didn't receive a shipment last week

Perhaps he was busy?

The program talks about how everything is locally grown, but if you look into the details some things come hundereds if not thousands of miles, 

The banana's are always green

"I prefer beautifully chartreuse"

However the 3 pounds of Broccoli we got last time seemed quite happy on the shelf until we used it

 

One of the best parts of the program is we can exclude things we don't want, 

we asked not to receive any corn

"he tries to hide it but, it makes him sad"

A Tall Drink of Water

On Saturday I mentioned that I collect decorative dishes, but It boggles my mind that people would A) buy things that can not be used at all and B) frighten small children.

Lets delve into the rationale of such consumers when it comes to buying something as simple as pitchers-

For example, is there perhaps a hidden metaphor in drinking from the mind of a chef?

Maybe it's a way of making up for all those times mom wouldn't let you drink from the cow creamer?

Or possibly some people just don't understand that to drink like a fish, you don't need to drink from one?

HAPPY EASTER!!

It's a nice day for a

White Wedding!

Easter Goodies

For as much as I make fun of them, I actually have an odd obsession with buying decorative plates, I have dozens of plates that are really good for only one or two occasions a year, here are some examples:

I bought this for $7 and it is so adorable I don't even mind that it's not really possible to put away

just ended eBay auction for an identical one was $40 with shipping

and this is adorable and perfect for the over the top tea parties my wife and I have was amazing at only $4

currently going for $25-30 with shipping on eBay

But my current exciting find was these books we'll be distributing as prizes tomorrow at the family easter party

Nursery Crime Novels, Buy a copy for next to nothing at Amazon

only $1 a copy, I bought them out

Do you have awesome yet impossible to store holiday dishes? tell me about it in the comments

Happy Earth-day

OK everybody, lets get out there and do something "green!" 

like:

 

Prevent forest fires!

and since it is Friday, a little earth lovin' nostalgia

 Now go hug a tree!

Easter's of Yester-Year

When I was a a kid we had these weird plastic bunny "baskets" that were kinda like giant Easter eggs (or should I say "Spring Spheres") and every year another one was broken, crushed under piles of Easter flotsam, this is exactly what they looked like:

source

no, that photo wasn't from a thrift store, they never would have made it, but the next one is:

These baskets were the replacements for the prior ones, and nothing seemed to break these, which is a shame, we didn't really like them but it does explain why they still turn up at thrift stores

and who's Easter is complete without excessive references and plugs for Bambi

here we have Thumper and a cross between Bambi and Wile E Coyote

or  especially his friend Thumper

What really gets me is that this is a licensed toy sold at Disneyland

For reference this is how they looked in the movie

Share your Easter memories in the comments

It's in the baggage or Say uncle

I think all of my uncles are either dead or divorced from the family, but I still had to deal with creepy ones when I was young (not all were, just most) 

They would come around every couple of years and pretend that they were well loved parts of the family. One of the things that they always did was bring each of us a "gift"

no, thankfully not this

Often the things one in particular "brought" were obviously as stolen as the regestration sticker on his pickup. I remember at least one occasion my siblings and I all got together to ask our parents when we could throw away the gifts

who is the target audience for this exactly?

There was also the occation when a few hours after he arived, one uncle called us over "remembering" he forgot presents, and proceded to give each of us something that was already ours he had seen us playing with... 

as Charlie Sheen would say: "Winning!"

just cross a duck with Frankenstein and a paper bag and voila

 but perhaps the worst thing about when those uncles came over would be the unavoidable, creepy, awkward hug...

"ahh luuuvvvv yewww soooooo muchhhh"

oh the memories

Easter Munchies

It's April 20th and while of course that isn't significant at all I thought perhaps you might want a snack, ya know, just cuz...

A gauge: How to tell you've had too much... 

you know...  

um, oregano...

 YES or NO

A) you try to give this guy a carrot ...

 

"I prefer chocolate"

B) You decide to go for the ears first

"Lets hug!"

C) you really think this is an egg

"look just help me with the zipper OK?"

D) You ask for his number before passing out

"sure you can call me, it's 1-800-JB-BEANS"

How did  you do? 

please tell me in the comments