Month: December 2011

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...And Little E Makes 3 ToyBox

The Mystery Box

Previously, on Scribblings From The Public Restroom Stalls Of The Gods… I revealed that Little E is gettin’ a bunch of cool stuff for Christmas. He’s old enough for his first “action figure Christmas,” which, in my childhood, was just the best thing ever. I don’t have nearly the budget (or the helpful economy) that my folks had when I was growing up, but by golly, this year’s toy haul is gonna be pretty close to an “extravaganza” rating thanks to some judicious shopping.

There’s just one hitch: a bunch of Super Mario figures I got him were already opened. So how do I wrap those? … Read more

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Critters

I miss my horse

Sultry

Five years ago today, I lost my big beautiful brown Arabian horse. It was, and still is, one of the worst things I’ve ever seen with these eyes in my entire life.

I still miss that big beautiful horse. She had health problems that forced us to give up on trying to breed her (which, for most folks, eliminates the only reason you’d own a horse of that age), and she wound up becoming a great big pet.

I remember her laying down and letting me sit next to her and lay my head on her belly on sunny days. Or just strolling around with her following me. She knew I was “her person.” I only had her for seven years, but you’d swear we’d grown up together. I had never owned a horse before. And the way it all ended… I can never own a horse again. I love horses, but this just broke my heart.

I wish she could’ve stuck around long enough to spend time with Little E. I think they could’ve had a special bond too. I would’ve trusted her with him – she was always very gentle around me.

In a way, her replacement showed up the same day – we weren’t even taking applications yet. And the boy loves that cat. There’s some small consolation.

I still miss that big horse.… Read more

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...And Little E Makes 3 ToyBox

The droid he’s looking for

Wall-ETo talk about what Little E is getting for Christmas, one has to realize that in some respects, the boy lives in a little bit of a time warp. He likes old cartoons (to give but one example: he’s a sucker for the animated segments of the Super Mario Bros. Super Show, which I dug out simply because he’s so crazy about the games… he’s not quite so crazy about the Captain Lou live-action segments.) This time warp is a bit of a bubble that he’s entered simply by spending a lot of time in my room with me. We play Super Mario and Pac-Man on the computer and on the Wii. He watches Pixar movies of an older vintage than Cars 2 (his favorites: Wall-E and Toy Story 2).

Of course, toys tied to a specific thing like a movie or a game have a very specific shelf life: as soon as the thing’s off the market and no longer making money for the studio, it’s very rare for the merchandise to stick around. Not everything has the seemingly eternal staying power of Star Wars. And this… is what drove me to eBay to do some Christmas shopping this year.

In my previous blog entry, while ruminating about not wanting to saddle someone else’s kid with toys built around a super-violent story, I also mentioned being keenly aware of the risk of saddling someone else’s kid with something completely lame. This Christmas list for Little E was derived from listening to him talk about what he’d like to get over the past year. Everything here is something he’s said he wants. Other family members will get him clothes and books and stuff, and believe me, I’m grateful for that. That leaves me open to get the cool stuff for him. Everything was paid for by me eBaying off some of my own stuff to raise funds.

Here’s the cool stuff. … Read more

Categories
...And Little E Makes 3 ToyBox

The droids you’re looking for

DroidsSo Little E brought home a note from his day care a couple of weeks ago, announcing the annual Christmas party. All boys were supposed to bring a boys’ gift, girls were to bring girls’ gifts, and everything was supposed to stay under $10 – the usual drill, really.

What’s amazing is how much I agonized over what to get. Pardon me while I be a big hippie for a few minutes here. … Read more

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Home Base

Merry Geekmas 2011

Geekmas 2011It’s that most wonderful time of the year!… if you want to ogle my Christmas tree’s worth of Starfleet, that is. The tree went up on Saturday night, much to the boy’s delight, and thanks to Portia knocking the artificial tree off of its high storage shelf in the utility room (she’s a little climber) and chewing through some of its wiring (she’s a little menace to society), we had to get a new tree this year. The Mrs. insisted on getting a real one. It’s pretty, and it’s nice, but it was a huge pain in the butt to set up, and it’s shedding twigs and needles everywhere. Furthermore, the cats love it… with a little bit of seasoning. They’re biting small branches off the bottom of it. Obviously our cats have an anti-Christmas-tree jihad going on here.

The new lights that were purchased along with the tree are incompatible with the connectors for my box full of Hallmark Star Trek ornaments, so sadly, unless they’ve got stuff that works under its own power, they’re all “dark” this year, making the traditional picture-taking a challenge. The Christmas Starfleet is on silent running. … Read more

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Funny Stuff Home Base

CAGED SUGAR!

CAGED SUGARSo see if you can follow me on this one.

My wife grabbed a bag of sugar out of the pantry, something about needing to mix it with some kind of exfoliant stuff she’s been using. Rather than put the sugar back in the pantry, she’s been storing it… in Maria’s old cat carrier. Which is plenty clean, but it’s just an awfully strange place to park a sack of sugar, y’know?

After walking by this strange sight numerous times, I finally asked her “What’s up with the caged sugar?” And she told me.

So help me, I still think it’s a weird thing to do. So I’ve taken to walking past it and saying “CAGED SUGAR!” in a deep, Blaxploitation-movie-trailer voice, followed by bow-chicka-wow music, because it sounds for all the world like a freakin’ women’s prison-break flick from the ’70s.

We’re weird.… Read more

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Critters

In the end, there can be only one

To my wife’s considerable delight this morning*, Gabby went outside and bit the head off of a squirrel. (No squirrel-sized quickening was observed, so we can assume that this was a clerical error and the squirrel was not an immortal.) Alas, Gabby has been banished to the outer reaches** for the day for this.

I’ve gotta give her some squirrel-killing style points, though. … Read more

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Home Base

Also available in Craigslist flavor

As the first round of eBay stuff is boxed up to head out the door, I’m also hawking my wares on Craigslist, in the following “for sale” areas:

Musical Instruments (I figured this was the best place for studio gear)
Baby & Kid Stuff
Photo & Video
Farm & Garden

The eBay auctions – the buyers of which I’m very grateful to – gave us a little bit of breathing room; these listings are very much in the decluttering category, with just a hint of “I’d rather you came and picked it up than have me ship it.”

The Kick arcade machine will probably be going on Craigslist fairly soon unless anyone else wishes to claim it. I’d like that stand-up refrigerator worth of space back. There’ll also be another round of eBay pretty soon, and so help me, I got word that someone actually bought a “Sizz” T-shirt, an oddity I designed back in my game-collecting days. A surreal coda to my day.… Read more