bing!

Once again, I made my pilgrimage to Woodstock, IL for their annual Groundhog Day Festival (Quick recap - it's where the movie was filmed, they have the locations marked, a walking tour, a prognostication, etc.), and this year dragged the kid along. Yes, he ended up enjoying it.

We visited the filming sites, stepped in the puddle, visited the theater, drank to world peace (I had sweet vermouth - he had water), and took our pictures at Ned's corner.

Ned's corner, you ask? Watch and learn:

Being the social media guru (HA!) that I am, I posted the (completely unflattering) picture of me at the corner on Twitter and went about my merry way, completely forgetting about it until I got a notification saying that I had a response. What a rarity!

I took a look and found this:

@GoddessR_75 That corner looks fancier than I recall!

— Stephen Tobolowsky (@Tobolowsky) January 31, 2016

Yes, Needlenose Ned, Ned the Head, Stephen Tobolowsky, replied to my tweet. Oh, the simple joys of being a small town girl.

Anyway, Happy Groundhog Day, my friends! May your day not be cold, grey or last you for the rest of your life.  Here's to world peace!

holiday cheer

Hello friends!  Sorry I haven't been posting very much lately.  I actually started quite a few posts, but deleted them once I read how terribly grumpy I sounded.  I sounded a lot like this guy:

I'm also in the process of writing an epic post about something that's been going on with me recently.  It takes away from my posts about fun things, but I think it's kind of important.  You'll be getting that one within the next couple of weeks.

Anyway, I thought I'd take a moment and spread a little holiday cheer - my style.

So I hope your halls are decked, you're making yourself fat with all the cookies you're eating, and you are able to hold everything together for just a couple more days.

The stress will all be over soon.

Fa la la la la....la la la laaaaaa!

turkey day

Thanksgiving is rapidly approaching.  Again.  Already.

Really I've never been the biggest fan of the holiday.  I mean, turkey is okay, rolls and butter and gravy are awesome. Don't really care about cranberry sauce or stuffing, so I don't really eat that much.  We still live in the same town as our families, so it's not like we never see them or have dinner together.  It would be different if it was the one day of the year when family from near and far would get together, but that's just not the case with my us.

When I was younger, I'd wake up, watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade (too young to be put off by the bad lip syncing and sometimes actually excited by the people who were on the floats) we would hope for good TV marathons since our family didn't watch football, and around actual dinner time, the three (or sometimes 4-5) of us would have our turkey dinner, and that would be it.

I got a little older and at least we were given a day of awesome movies to watch.  The family would sit and watch Mystery Science Theater 3000's Turkey Day Marathon on Comedy Central every year.

Awesome side note here:  The Turkey Day Marathon is returning this year!  Granted it's online and not quite as long, but it's back!  Read more about it here.  I was sure to give Joel my suggestion (which he retweeted...geek squee!).  

@JoelGHodgson I think it would be appropriate to watch Giant Spider Invasion after watching the Thanksgiving Packer game, don't you? — Rebecca (@GoddessR_75) November 19, 2013

These days, between running between the two families' turkey dinners, our annual tradition is watching Home for the Holidays and the Thanksgiving program from Addams Family Values.

 

Well, this year we're going to change it up a bit.  We're going to be spending a good part of the day volunteering with one of the local clubs serving Thanksgiving dinner to people who don't have the money to make dinner of their own or don't have anyone to have dinner with.  This is something we've all wanted to do. Something to make the day special for us as a family by making the day more special for other people in the community.

 

And then we'll come home and watch the Turkey Day Marathon.  'Cause that's how we roll. 

 

Mmmm...rolls.

 

 

geektastic saturday

It was May 4th. 

(Okay, I started writing this post a looooong time ago and never got around to finishing it.  Sue me. 
No, don't.  I have no money.)

In geekdom, this is a sacred holiday.  It's Star Wars Day!  Why?  So all of us can go around posting "May the Fourth be with you" on Facebook, Twitter and every other annoyingly memeful social media outlet imaginable.  It was a day to don my Han Solo / James Bond mashup t-shirt (my favoritest shirt) and let my geek flag fly.


I bought this baby on riptapparel.com. 
Sorry, it was only available for a day.

This year, the day was doubly exciting for people because it was also Free Comic Book Day.  Now, I've never been a comic book person.  I mean, I might have had two when I was a kid, but I just never got into it.  My son has been into graphic novels ever since he learned how to read, but never really had access to comic books, so he was somewhat interested in going to get a few freebies to find out if it was something he'd like to get into. 

Sure, I'm game for new experiences - especially the ones with the word "FREE" in them.   

We headed out into the nearest comic store that was listed on the official Free Comic Book Day website and were greeted by two of the most stereotypical comic book "nerds" in the world.  They took one look at us, sighed, and said "Free Comic Book Day?"  I smiled and nodded.  They pointed to the back corner and said "Follow the path to the back corner."  Ooookay.  Thanks?

Per their directions, we followed the path to the back corner.  There we found wall displays of the latest issues of the standards - The Avengers, Superman, Wonder Woman, The Walking Dead, and a few anthologies for $35, and then there was a big bin of back issues that were 50% off.  A logical place to start, right?  Unfortunately there was no rhyme nor reason that we could see as to how they were arranged.  I'm sure there probably was some system, but being new to a store of this type, we couldn't see it.  Of course there was nobody there offering to help.  In fact it seemed like they hated this day for the very reason that it was created - exposing a new group of people to the immense world of comics. 

After digging around for a while, we finally decided on three back issues along with two of the free offerings.  The kid was sooo ready to get out of there. Apparently girls in bright pink wigs and men with bad BO who look like they live in basements aren't his cup of tea.  And neither are comic book stores. 

So, we bought our sampling of comics and went back home where I celebrated Star Wars Day with a movie marathon and he went back to his video games.  Geeks we are, but apparently not of the Comic Book Genus.

May the Force be with you....always.

appreciate an admin

Today is the day that my cohort in admin duties and I take bets as to whether or not the people around the office will remember Administrative Professionals Day (the holiday formerly known as secretary's day) tomorrow.

Once upon a time, we were treated to lunch out, alcohol and gifts.  As time went on we had lunch in, then a plant, then it was forgotten altogether and we were given "Oh crap!" gifts in the afternoon when a manager had time to go out and grab something quick from the local grocery store during her hour-and-a-half lunch break.  Last year, the two of us took ourselves out to lunch because we had no mention of the day at all...until someone asked us why we went out, word got around to our managers and someone ended up ordering flowers that arrived 2 minutes before we left for the day.  Look, it's not the gifts that matter, it's knowing that maybe for one day, for one moment, they'll say, "Hey...you're kind of helpful.  You do good work.  Thanks!"

If you're reading this and you know anyone who falls under the "Administrative Professional" title whether they're in your office, if you talk to them on the phone, or if they're a friend of yours, please take a moment tomorrow and thank them for what they do.  They probably don't hear it nearly as often as they should.

someecards.com always gets it right