The RollerBlog family has returned from our Great American RoadTrip of 2008, all safe and sound and remarkably still talking to each other.  Life is slowly returning back to normal here in the RollerBlog househould except… I seem to be running low on blog ideas.

So I thought I’d turn to you for suggestions.  Are there any seventies or eighties topics that you’d like to see covered in the RollerBlog?  If so please leave a comment below.

It has just been too long since we have taken a vacation. And that is why we have decided to hit the road.

Right now we are somewhere in the American Southwest, rolling around from state to state in my parents’ mini-van. We are seeing the sights, sleeping in tents, making s’mores, listening to various books on CD while we travel, and hopefully getting along famously.

I have scheduled some posts (such as this one) to magically appear while I am gone so hopefully you won’t miss me too much But I probably won’t be responding to comments and for those of you in the Entrecard community I won’t be dropping cards or approving advertisements until I return.

As my favorite Terminator once said… I’ll be back!

RollerKaty and RollerReggie with our old VW Bus…. several years ago.
And no this is not the vehicle we will be taking on our trip.

Alright folks - you asked for it!

Here are some photos from our seventies party:

The Fondue

The Deviled Eggs

The Pickle Cream Cheese Rollups

The Disco Ball

A Few of Our Guests, in their Seventies Finery

RollerReggie

Yours Truly, RollerKaty, Pictured with my Brother RollerJ

Now how will we ever top this next year when the RollerBlog turns 2….

Yesterday was the one-year anniversary of The RollerBlog.

It’s hard to believe that only one year ago I began my journey into the seventies.

To celebrate, we are having a seventies-themed party at our place tonight. I found the BEST SEVENTIES DRESS EVER at a vintage shop, and RollerReggie is all set to create a spread of “authentic seventies foods” including fondue (if we can figure out how to work our thrift store fondue pot), deviled eggs, squeeze cheese with Ritz crackers, and ambrosia salad. Yummmm!

I’m off to find a disco ball, clean up the house, and dig up some old seventies records.

Hooray, I have won an award!

Actually, two different bloggers have bestowed the same award on me in the past week, Flo from Mama Flo’s Place and Henson from Henson’s Hell.

The award is the Arte y Pico Award. This award was created to be given to bloggers who inspire others with their creative energy and their talents, whether it be writing or artwork, in all medias. When you receive this award it is considered a “special honor”.

And so, following the rules of this award, I shall now pass along this prestigious award to five of my favorite blogs. There are also a bunch of other tiresome rules that you can read at the Arte y Pico blog (my Spanish is a bit rusty and seeing as the entire site is in Spanish I’m not exactly sure what it is about. However the rules for the contest are in English).

So, without further ado, I hereby bestow the Arte y Pico award to the following five blogs:

Zeitheist

Mini-Obs

Deb on the Rocks

Cromley’s World

Monkey Fables and Tales

Feel free to pass along the award to five other blogs, or not, as you see fit. Congratulations and keep on blogging the good blog!

—

Newsflash! The RollerBlog has won the Arte & Pico Award yet another time, this time from Buddy’s Fitness News. Thanks Buddy!

The last entries are in for the RollerBlog’s Eighties Photo Contest! We received a total of six qualifying entries.

Here are all of the contestants, pictured in the order they were received:

1. Wolfgang, taken during the late 1980s.

2. Photo submitted by Debra from http://www.mamaflosatx.com. This picture is of her kids from the 1980s.

3. Photo submitted by Tim from Thailand, Land of Smiles of “without a doubt the best family portrait that could ever exemplify the 80’s”.

4. Photo submitted by Marcia from Giveaway City of her husband Bruce (circa 1980).

5. Photo submitted by WNGL from Zeitheist - picture of his 1985-1986 Student Body card from Sequoia High School (with personal details blotted out to protect his privacy).

6. A second photo submitted by WNGL from Zeitheist circa 1986.

And the winner is… (drumroll please…)

We have a two-way tie between WNGL’s 1986 self-portrait (entry #6) and Debra’s cute grandkids (entry #2). WNGL and Debra will split the grand prize and receive 750 credits each.

The runner-up prize goes to Wolfgang (entry #1). Wolfgang will receive a Star Wars air freshener!

Thanks to everyone who entered the contest. Keep on embracing your inner eighties self!

Disclosure: I happen to be friends with WNGL and related to Wolfgang which is a conflict of interest that I would normally avoid. However due to the limited number of entries AND the fact that their photos are so AWESOME, the RollerBlog family council has decided to award them prizes anyway.

The deadline for the Great RollerBlog Eighties Photo Contest is only one day away - now is your last chance to enter and win 1500 Entrecard Credits! Not to mention the the privilege of sharing your eighties past with the word!

As of this moment, we have only received three entries. So, your chances of winning are pretty high.

Don’t fear your eighties past. Embrace it!

For more eightiespiration, RollerReggie has graciously supplied some photos from his hunky, skater past. Alas, he cannot enter the contest as he is one of the judges, but he can hopefully inspire you to share your own eighties pictures.

SkaterReggie circa 1986

PhotoBooth Reggie circa 1987

And, last but not least, Tim from Thailand, Land of Smiles has submitted a photo that he claims is not of his family, but that it is “without a doubt the best family portrait that could ever exemplify the 80’s”:

The RollerBlog Eighties Photo Contest is underway and I am delighted to share the great entries we have received so far.

Unfortunately, we have only received two entries. So, alas, this will be a short blog post.

On the bright side, if you have not yet entered the contest, the odds are certainly in your favor. Now is the time to embrace your eighties self and share your 1980s photos with the world. 1500 Entrecard credits or a Star Wars car air freshener (mystery aroma) are in store for the lucky winner - and that lucky winner could be YOU!

Contest Entries

This first picture is from my cousin Wolfgang, taken during the late 1980s. Note the fanny pack, the backwards baseball hat, the sunglasses at night, AND the t-shirt with a wolf (did I mention that his name is Wolfgang)? Truly an eightiespirational photo.

This second picture comes to you courtesy of Debra from http://www.mamaflosatx.com. This picture is of her kids from the 1980s. Cute!

For good measure, Debra also submitted a picture of herself circa 1965. So, not exactly from the 1980s, but still a great photo.

For more eightiespiration, I submit to you the following photo from a Sony TV brochure from 1981. Not only does the brochure feature a mime, but the mime just happens to be a friend of ours. Alas, he no longer practices mimery, but his work lives on through the magic of our new digital scanner and the Internets.

To celebrate The RollerBlog’s recent venture into the decade of the 1980s, I’ve decided to hold another photo contest. This contest will be similar to The RollerBlog’s seventies photo contest … but this time the disco balls are out, and the skinny ties and big bangs are in. Bring on your eighties photos!

The photo of me to the right, circa 1988, will hopefully serve as a little eightiespiration. Note the pony tail on the top of the head. Note the laser beams in the background. Note the glazed eighties expression. See? You get the picture.

The grand prize? 1,500 Entrecard Credits! If you are not a member of the Entercard Community feel free to join the contest anyway, and you will win the satisfaction of being a RollerBlog super star!

The runner-up prize? A Star Wars car air freshener that I picked up at the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame gift shop. Never been used!

But wait! There’s more! The first 10 people to blog about this contest and include a link to this post will be awarded 50 Entrecard Credits! Please let me know by commenting to this post and I’ll send send you 50 credits via Entrecard. (Aren’t a member of Entrecard? Learn more about Entrecard here)

To enter The RollerBlog’s Eighties Photo Contest and win 1,500 Entrecard Credits, all you need to do is submit a picture of YOU from the eighties. Or your family. If you were not around in the decade or if you have lost all of your old photo albums then you may adopt a family and send in a picture of your dream eighties family instead.

The contest ends at midnight Pacific Daylight Time (PDT), Saturday, June 7, 2008. Winners will be announced shortly thereafter. I’ll be posting all of the entrants to The RollerBlog for all to see AND a link to your blog so only submit those pictures that you don’t mind sharing with the whole world. (I reserve the right not to post entries that I find offensive or are not in the spirit of the contest).

Winners will be chosen by a vote of the RollerBlog family members: RollerBoy, RollerReggie, and myself (RollerKaty). We’ll be looking for pictures that truly encapsulate the decade, with extra points if YOU are in the photo.

To enter the contest:

• Send your eighties photo to rollerblog AT gmail DOT com
• Send a link to your blog
• Include a note describing who is in the picture and the year it is taken (if you know it)

Good luck!

The votes have been counted, and the results are in!

Due to the breakdown of the voting, we ended up with the top 14 movies instead of ten.

And so, without futher ado, I present to you the top seventies movies of all time:

1. Star Wars (7 votes)
2. Blazing Saddles (5 votes)
3. Close Encounters of the Third Kind (5 votes)
4. Jaws (5 votes)
5. The Godfather Parts I and II (5 votes)
6. Alien (4 votes)
7. The Deer Hunter (4 votes)
8. A Clockwork Orange (3 votes)
9. Grease (3 votes)
10. Monty Python’s Life of Brian (3 votes)
11. One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest (3 votes)
12. Rocky (3 votes)
13. The Exorcist (3 votes)
14. Young Frankenstein (3 votes)

Thanks to everyone who participated in the RollerBlog’s unofficial survey. 57 movies were nominated in all, many of which I have never seen before. I am looking forward to watching them all.