Happy Berated Birthday.

Last week I had, for the first time in decades, a birthday party! Sure, only a half dozen showed up and two of them skipped out after dinner, though it was considered to be a natal anniversary for me. (#65, don't ya know, so I didn't want it to pass in silence.)

I was even given a few prezzies. A care package of cookies and treats including the following:

The top three items are almost finished, I have yet to sample the others. Best present of all was a Piggiless Bank. I'm not sure how Zane knew I'd like it.

If you click this link, you can see it in action.

After dinner, we went bowling and I am definitely out of practice! The other attendees skipped a trip to the pub, but Zane was kind enough to buy me a beer or two. Two young lads got chatty with him, though once they slithered away, I decided to take my celebration in my own hands and convinced some lassies to take a photo with us.

When their third pal joined us, they all sang "Happy Birthday" to me and we left shortly thereafter (sans ladies, alas.)

I grabbed a cake on the way home and sang the tune again, solo this time.

I held off writing about my prezzies until now for yesterday, another friend who was visiting her daughter in Okinawa, gifted me with these:

I am very pleased with this mascot, ルーティ (Rooty) and she brought me an Orion beer 

SO, Happy Birthday to me!

My New Years was wholly uneventful by choice. I watched a dorky movie

and drank a few brew.

Unfortunately, Bib flew off the handle when I was washing him. Sigh.

New Year's Day was spent hanging around the apartment and I broke out a couple of my Dragons. 

Happy Ryu Year! (Ryu = 竜 = dragon)

Hey my blog is approaching a million hits! I need to figure out how to monetize this. (Sure most of the hits may be Bots, but it still seems impressive!)

Have a great 2024, cuz 2023 sucked big time for me!

Decking My Halls.

When I Santaed (is that a verb?) on Wednesday, the kids and staff gave me a lovely parting present, a nasty head cold. Just a whole lot of snot, thank you very much. Last night, I didn't feel like blogging so I just watched this movie and went to bed.

Hey cool, Andrea Martin is back!

Today, I had a lesson with some adults out in Tagajo and en route home, I dropped into the Mandai there and picked up an ornament and caught a present to put under the tree.

 

Not a bad little flick, one can see where Bob Clark scammed some ideas for his Black Christmas two years later. I've seen that version a few times, mainly for Margot Kidder and the UofT setting. Maybe it's time for me to watch the sequel.

Silver Chewie will be given to my agent/manager/handler for Christmas when I see him at Royal Park Hotel tomorrow as their main Santa.

I watched the guy put this brand-new Superior Spider-Man in the UFO Catcher bin and figured out how to win it. I scored it in 5 tries!

Speaking of ornaments, I have two others from this series, BP and Grogu. I haven't seen an Iron Man for sale yet.

 

Black Panther is very well camouflaged in the tree, while Grogu perches nicely in my Halloween Tree. 

This display is permanently in place throughout the year, I think Jack needs some dusting.

I'm all huddled up in a blanket and my Gremlin socks and think I'll retire early. I have a full day of HoHoHoing tomorrow.

Rudy, the Orange-Toed Horsey.

I remember when I was 10 or so, I wrote a spoof of Rudolph called, "Rudy, the Orange-Toed Horsey", and much to my chagrin, it never caught on so I didn't equal Weird Al in fame and fortune.

'twas inevitable that this video would creep into my 25 Days of Christmas, so here it is.

 

This postcard came with the DVD.

One of the uncut scenes.

Finally, one of Santa's reindeer didn't follow Rudolph very closely in the fog!

25 Days of Christmas...

I was flipping around my Twitch Channels and watched a bit of Final Wars and Destroy All Monsters and then switched over to a Cartoon channel. (CartoonBlast if you wish to check it out.) Well, they've entitled their feed, "The 25 Days of Christmas" and I've decided to steal their idea. First, I watched Mickey's Christmas Carol (1983) which features some cool cameos by Jiminy Cricket, Mr. Toad, Willie the Giant, the Weasels, and others. Here's a snippet, search for the whole thing yourself.

Next Toy Tinkers (1949) with the Chippendale Dancers Chip & Dale and Donald. 

Good Will To Men (1955) is an incredibly bleak but fascinating short by Hanna Barbera. 

Finally a Silly Symphony of The Night Before Christmas.

I'll try and add some cartoons daily. There are plenty to choose from!

Meanwhile, being the 1st of December, that means it's Calendar time. Here are my Star Wars and Jurassic Park entries for this month. 

Last year's Chibi-Godzilla calendar.

Picked this up yesterday for a buck. I may find a place for this Kubrick on my tree. (If I had one.)

Since Poker night was cancelled, here's the next best thing. (Scott Hilburn)

Lastly, I just can't get away from posting Godzilla stuff. I scored 4/6 tumblers at a buck a piece and a tea cup. Far cheaper than a full price Kuji at 900 yen.

I'm off to bed soon, I have an early morning of HoHoHoing with the kiddies tomorrow!