"Merry Christmas Charlie Brown!"

Okay, I know it's not Christmas time just yet, but the preparation has just begun! The tree has been put up, Emmy is going to write Santa a letter for the first time this year, Zach is going to have his first Christmas, and me...well, we have like no money this year. It's cool though, 'cuz there's nothing I really need. Lots of things I want but don't need.

Back to the tree though. Got a brand new one from Target for a whopping $29.88. The lights have been strung, the angel has been perched, and the ornaments...ahh, the ornaments. We have quite a unique collection. Let's take look at them now:



Okay, I know this isn't an ornament. Maybe 'cuz it weighs like 10 lbs.! Pretty neat though. Plays music and Santa and his eight reindeer circle around the base. You can see them coming up from the east.



Here is the plane that Santa flew before he got his reindeer. Reindeer don't use fuel so right there ya save money.



Batman: "The bat signal! Santa needs help!"
(hops into Batmobile)



Santa: "Thank you Batman! All these spoiled kids in the world has tripled my workload! How can I ever repay you?"

Batman: "Um...think I can get one of those...PSP's?"

Santa: (sigh) "You too Batman?"

The Mystery Machine


Freddie: "Okay, who let Scooby drive?"
Daphne: "Where the heck ARE WE?!"
Velma: "I think it's the forest."
Shaggy: "Like, for real man, we are way lost! Where are we going, Scoob?"
Scooby Doo: (thinking)Feed me crackers all day will ya...say your prayers chumps.

Santa Claus


Santa: "Lessee...Made my list...checked it twice...what time is it...ooh, 'One Tree Hill' is on!"

Spiderman


Spiderman: "I am keeper of this tree. I'm also stuck to it. HELP!!!"

Superman


Superman: "Wish I didn't have to carry around this 'Peace on Earth' globe everywhere. Sure is heavy. Guess I'm not as super as people think. I need a good cry."

The Three Stooges


Moe: "Alright, who gave me this wrench? I asked for a pie!"
Larry: "Want some seltzer to go with that pie Moe?"
Moe: "Why you lamebrain..."
Curly: "Someone say pie? I've got a pie!"
Moe and Larry: "SHADDUP!"

Yellow Submarine


George: "So this is Mike's tree huh?"
Paul: "Yes it is and he worked very hard on it! I'm impressed!"
John: "I once saw a tree in Times Square that was 100 feet tall, kid you not. What's this one...6 feet? 6 1/2 tops? Hmph."
Ringo: "We all live in a yellow submarine...yellow submarine..."
George, Paul and John: "(sigh)"

Did someone say more toys??

Of course they did!!! I'll get to those later. First let's recall Thanksgiving 2005 shall we?

Woke up at 7:30 because someone didn't want to sleep anymore which means I don't want to sleep anymore ha ha. Just kidding Zach, you know we love ya. Had breakfast of champions(Life cereal and Honey Bunches Of Oats mixed together with a side of cheese toast) then the 4 of us went to my aunt Susie's house for lunch as we do usually every year. Everyone oohed and ahhed over Zach and were so surprised at how alert he was. They always seem so surprised that I could father kids that are smart and bright ha ha. Played touch football at the high school with the cousins and uncles. Caught one pass for a touchdown so it was not all for naught. THEN we went to Cari's sister's house for meal numero dos. Some visitors were in town and normally I'm not a fan of meeting new people but they were nice. No more turkey till Christmas! I think that'd make a cool bumper sticker.

And now, some more toys that I bought a long time ago:

Dirtbag


Basically just a big dump truck, he and Roadblock were transformed merely by moving their legs and in one motion they were transformed, taking the fun and mystery out of figuring them out. Ah well, they're big so that makes up for it!





Here he is in robot mode. There's all kinds of missiles that attach to him and I have them. Just that I didn't know where they went until I went here.

Roadblock


Roadblock is basically the same thing except he's a bulldozer. Here he is in vehicle mode:





And here he is as a robot. Again, same missiles and weapons but I did not know where they went until now.

So there ya go, some more toys from my vast collection. Yes I really don't have anything better to do if that's what you were wondering. Dan's Toy Museum inspired me to take pictures of my stuff but he goes one step further and creates scenarios for them. Kudos Dan!!

"The Toys...Are...Alive!!"

Ever get in one of those creative urges? The ones where you want to accomplish something that people will look at and go "Oooh...ahhh..." and so forth. Well, lately that feeling of euphoria has gotten into me. So much so that I have a bunch of unopened action figures in my garage that I wanna rip open and do...something...I don't know what exactly...but this ain't goin' away and some of that stuff is worth serious coin but only if unopened. So...I shall resist the urge for now...and since I have a ton of stuff that's already unopened, why not take some pictures and let ya know what they are!



The Constructicons:
I have no idea why they made a yellow set of these (which is kinda unattrative). I bought these for a total of $33 back in 1999 so I didn't go into hock over them. They are:

Mixmaster (cement truck)
Hook (crane)
Scrapper (payloader)
Bonecrusher (bulldozer)
Long Haul (dump truck)
Scavenger (steam shovel)



Here they are in vehicle mode...look completely different don't they?



This is Optimus Prime from the Machine Wars series. I showed this to a friend one time and he about flipped. He was all "That ain't him!". Guess he's from the Generation One era.



As you can see, they fixed up the ol' tractor trailer a bit.



Combaticons: These guys were used in a few episodes from the 80's and then seemingly forgotten. They are:

Onslaught (tractor trailer)
Vortex (helicopter)
Blast-Off (space shuttle)
Swindle (jeep)
Brawl (tank)



There they are in their vehicular mode.



This is Bruticus. As you can see, all five combine to form one superbot. The story is quite interesting how he came about (you can read about it here). I bought these in 1994 simply because they were they only ones around. Would have bought others but it was a slow time for the franchise I guess.

So there ya have em...I have boxes of these stuff that I will try to get documented before I die. If I should fail, I will have my daughter Emily or son Zach take over for me. And yes...they will.

I Once was "Lost"...but now...am found...

Remember "Must-See" tv? The shows you just HAD to watch because if you didn't, you would literally die? You know the ones I'm talking about..."Seinfeld", "Friends", "Cheers", etc...and then there was the dry spell. Seemed like there was nothing good on the ol' tube for years. And now...they're back!! Leading the way is what many consider the best action-drama show since...oh, I don't know..."Magnum P.I"? Anyways, I am of course referring to "Lost". This is THE hot show of the year, and I should know. I correctly predicted that "Arrested Development" would eat it at some point this year and lo and behold, Fox up and slashes it to shreds in the middle of it's 3rd season.
Anyways...I didn't watch Lost much its first season. Wasn't until they reran it over the summer that I got into it. And now...I make it the highlight of my Wednesdays to get the kids to bed by 8pm EST so I can snuggle under my sheets and see the adventures of Jack, Sawyer, Ana Lucia, and of course...my boy...biggest bad-ass since Shaft...John Locke, played excellently by Terry O'Quinn. Here's a picture of him staring someone down:

What's interesting (and maybe a sign of things to come) is when you go to Yahoo Image Search and type in "John Locke" (which you can see by clicking here), you get THIS GUY:

John Locke (1632-1704): Public servant and philosopher, Locke identified the basis for just law and government that serves rather than rules. His major work on socio-political philosophy, Two Treatises of Civil Government, introduces the distinction between liberty and licence.

Hmm...does anyone think this could have anything to do with Locke's role on the island? Something tells me it might!! What are your thoughts on "Lost"? Lemme know! And be sure to click my map at the top and let me know where ya are!!

"First prize!!"

Is this not the coolest Halloween costume like ever?? I hope my son and/or daughter choose to wear something like this one day. Pipe dream? Yeah, probably. Ah well. Dad can dream, can't he? I try to remember the costumes I had when I was a kid. Can't remember but one of them. Batman. Complete with black facepaint which I was allergic to. I remember Dad saying "Oh, you'll be okay. The sub-zero temperatures (we were living in Canada) should help take the edge off." He really looked out for me, didn't he?

And now Thanksgiving is right around the corner. My favorite part of this holiday is...when it gets chilly...and you're so full of turkey you sprout feathers...and you just fall asleep wherever you happen to be sitting...ahh, good times.

"Here's...Zach!!"

Born on Halloween at 9:51am, Zachary Clark Overall weighed in at 7 lbs. 2 oz. and was 20 inches long. He already is getting a good head of hair which is kind of a relief 'cuz hey, no one likes a bald kid, ya know? His hobbies include pretending to be asleep until I go back to bed and then letting me know he ISN'T and being very demanding when he's hungry.



"Um, no pictures please. His Highness is resting."



"You talkin' to me?"



Here he is with his big sister Emily.



"Yawwwwn..."