Black Friday!

On Sale $34.99

Yes, I shop on Black Friday.  I have been getting up in the wee hours of the morning to shop 'til I drop, every Black Friday for about 15 years.  Maybe longer.  I remember the good old days when stores would give you prizes, merchandise and even cash(gift cards) to come into their store.  We would race around from store to store getting all of the goodies and then do our shopping. And by race I mean it.  We could run from one end of the mall to the other.  Meier & Frank(Macy's) had a $15 gift card and Sears did too, and they both opened at the same time!  There haven't been much in the way of giveaways this year, but plenty of good deals.

The problem with this year was that stores started opening earlier.  I liked it last year.  Stores opened at Midnight and I was done with my shopping by 3am.  I am a night owl, so that's about my bedtime.  This year though, stores opened at 8pm.  Lots of people, still full of turkey, and maybe a little too much liquid holiday cheer, crammed into the stores.  So many people came out for the first time ever and boy were they cranky.  "There's too many people!"  "This is crazy!"  "Why don't they have an unlimited number of these $5 items that usually cost me $40!  What a rip off!"  There were lots of angry faces, lots of grumbling and complaining, lots of bored kids, lots of annoyed husbands, lots of line cutting and rudeness all around. 

Now I miss the days of "Doors Open at 4am".  The grumpy husbands and kids stay home.  There's lots of people bundled up with their coffees, chatting and making new pals while waiting in an ice cold line, too excited for a good deal to be in a crabby mood.

People shouldn't have to leave their loving family early on Thanksgiving to get presents to make their family happy on Christmas.  It makes no sense! 

Retail workers shouldn't have to miss out on Thanksgiving entirely because they have to work, even if some do get paid more to work on that day.

My plea to major retailers, at least hold off until midnight! 

Sea Wees

I just loved the Sea Wees in the 80's.  I thought they were so cute and fun to play with in the bathtub.

My all time favorite blog www.PlaidStallions.com has got a great post which includes the entire 1982 Sea Wees Catalog and another post with the 1980 Sea Wees Catalog.

You can also check out this blog for all things 70's including some fun fashion mockery!  This blog is not only totally awesome, they have their own action figure you can purchase, his name is Brick Mantooth.

eBay items ticker from Auction Nudge

Awesome T-Shirts at Target NOW!

Target usually has some pretty awesome t-shirts in their men's department.  I saw these cool threads last night.

"It's All Good in the HOOD!"  ET T-Shirt

Yoda in 80's Sunglasses Long Sleeve Baseball Shirt.

 

Shipping or buying online for the holidays?

I love toys!  And the best way to find the cool toys you want is the internet, but that involves shipping.  If you are buying for Christmas, keep the shipping deadlines in mind to get your awesome gift there on time!

 Take note of domestic shipping deadlines. Ensure gifts will make it to your buyers in time. Here are the USPS®, FedEx, and UPS® ship-by dates:

December 14—Parcel Post®
December 20—First Class Mail®
December 21—Priority Mail®
December 22—Express Mail®

Everyone knows Aliens Love Reese's Pieces!

1980's Reese's Pieces Ad

eBay Item Widget from Auction Nudge

16mm Theater "Chicken Power, A Fowl Look at Economics"

I just can't get enough of 16mm films!  The simple joy of sitting in your classroom on a Friday afternoon watching films so that your teacher can take a break.  The click, click, click of the projector, or getting to be the lucky kid who gets to load or rewind the film, good times!

This film stars the SAN DIEGO Chicken!  It's called, "Chickenpower, A Fowl Look at Economics".  Basically the film is trying to convince us that it is a good thing that gas and energy prices have gone up!  Yeah right!  This is the late 70's when gas prices tripled.  They say that now that prices have gone up we will learn to conserve gas and energy.  Cut to over 30 years later and we are still working on it.

The San Diego Chicken has his own radio show!  Who knew?  I didn't think he talked.

When the Chicken goes to the store and can't find his favorite bird seed, and he is outraged!

Can you believe how much it costs to power the Chickenmobile? The San Diego Chicken must find a better way to get to the ball park.

He could try the bus, but the fans will mob him!

He could try hitch hiking, but it's dangerous!  The driver is eating a bucket of Chicken! YIKES!

He could make some new friends by hopping on the back of a Chicken truck.

Energy efficient modes of transportation took the Chicken too long to get to the field.  The game is already over and the San Diego Chicken gets a stern talking to by the owner of the team!

The San Diego Chicken get a scooter to save money and get to the game on time!

But, at home the electric and gas bill is too high also!

So, the San Diego Chicken goes out and buys an Energy Saving Wood Stove to warm the coop.

But them he has to chop his own wood!

Then he tries to insulate the coop, but that's not so easy either!

I guess he's going to have to turn down the heat in the bird bath.

 

Pac-Man Headstone - Happy Halloween!

I woke up one morning this summer with this great idea in my head for a Pac Man tombstone.  I wrote it down right away, because I always forget my morning inspirations. 

In my hometown there is a fantastic home haunt, called the Davis Graveyard.  They work miracles with special effects in their front yard, to delight Halloween passers by.  They put massive amounts of money and time into their yard each year.  A few years back they started sharing their ideas in classes.  We jumped into the first class, "Making Your Own Tombstone"  and have been making a couple more each year.  These babies are quite a bit of work, but so fun and a great creative outlet.

Here are a few others we have done.

Here Lies our Beloved Stan, his only sin was being a Yankee fan. 1918-2004  Red Sox fans would recognize that 1918 is the last year they won the World Series before the curse of the Babe.  And 2004 is when the curse was broken.  Maybe  it was all Stan's fault!

This year we are having a little pet cemetery.  This is Zero from Nightmare before Christmas.

"All that time thinking outside the box for this?"  My friend Rocky came up with this clever idea, and I knew I wanted to be the shape of an old time coffin.

This is my mom's! 
 

I'll share more of the graveyard later this month!

Jody