Happy Mother’s Day to all you Moms and women out there who have made a difference in a child’s life.

Here is a picture of my Mom with my brother and me on my second birthday:

My mom had four children over the course of seventeen years and this year my youngest sister is graduating from high school and my mom *finally* won’t have any more kids at home.  Mom is an incredibly caring, giving, smart, fun, and loving woman.  Now that I am a mom myself, I look to her as an example and just hope to be as good of a mom to RollerBoy as she was (and still is!) to me .

Love you, Mom!  And thanks for the Raggedy Ann doll (which I believe you made yourself)!

This Valentine’s Day, I am celebrating with my two favorite guys RollerReggie and RollerBoy.

On the agenda for the evening?  Heart-shaped cookies, pizza (one half eggplant & goat cheese and one half sausage & mushrooms), champagne (or razzleberry juice in RollerBoy’s case), and a viewing of the 1981 John Carpenter film Escape from New York.

Because nothing says “I love you” like a Kurt Russell sci-fi flick.

Earlier today we saw the movie Coraline in 3-D (highly recommended, by the way) and then went out for Vietnamese Pho soup so it has been quite an exciting day for our little family.

Happy Valentine’s Day!  I hope you are enjoying the day.

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Merry Christmas RollerBlog readers!

Talk about a winter wonderland.  I’ve been snowed in at our Seattle home and have been spending my days shoveling the sidewalk, purchasing thermal underwear, and walking to Safeway and back because we can’t get our car out of the driveway.  In fact, we can’t even make it up to my parents’ house for Christmas tomorrow due to the weather.  So, my dad is driving down to Seattle to pick us up so we can all spend Christmas together.  Awww.  (I know, I’m almost 32 years old, I feel a little old for this.  But you’re never too old to be spoiled by your loved ones, right?)

I hope you have a safe and a happy holiday!

Christmas 1972 with me and my big bro

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Alien Quadrilogy
Drool, drool, drool. The Alien Quadrilogy tops my Christmas wish list this year. The boxed set includes 9 discs, including the original Alien (1979), Aliens (1986), Alien 3 (1992), and Alien: Resurrection (1997), along with loads of extra features.

Barry Manilow’s The Greatest Songs of the Eighties
Since I have a blog on seventies and eighties pop culture, I have determined that it is my duty to own this album. I am especially keen to hear Barry’s version of Rick Astley’s Never Gonna Give You Up.

Darth Vader Bobblehead
I think I could use one of these bad boys on my desk at work.  You know, to remind myself of the badass that I really am.  There are a lot of other fun Star Wars-themed chotchkies out there, including a Darth Vader Toaster, a Yoda Luggage Tag, and for you real Star Wars geeks there is the all-new three-volume Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia.

A-Team Lunchbox
I don’t know what I would ever do with this vintage 1983 A-Team lunch box since I don’t pack a lunch any more. Maybe I could start carrying it around at work like a pseudo-brief case. Except I’m pretty sure my laptop won’t fit in there. Hmm… I’m sure I’ll think of some use for this lunch box to justify my unholy desire to own one.

A Christmas Story Ultimate Collector’s Edition
A Christmas Story (1983) has been a holiday favorite at our house for as long as I can remember. Who can’t love a movie that includes a kid shooting his eye out with a BB gun, a kid who is triple-dog-dared to stick his tongue to a light pole, a pink bunny suit, and a leg lamp? The Ultimate Collector’s Edition comes with a 2-disc DVD set of the movie (including one disc of extra features), a collectible cookie tin with cookie cutters, a red apron, and a cookbook with recipes inspired from the movie.

The Year Without A Santa Claus Deluxe Edition
And speaking of holiday specials, my DVD collection wouldn’t be complete without The Year Without a Santa Claus (1974), my favorite Rankin-Bass movie.   Who doesn’t love the Heat Miser and the Snow Miser?  We have this on VHS but I seriously don’t remember how to hook up the VCR any more so it is high time we owned this on DVD.

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As Thanksgiving approaches, I have been contemplating Thanksgiving traditions.  Like many other families, we will be gathering together with my extended family for the usual gluttonous consumption of turkey, stuffing, and pumpkin pie.  But we have a few unique traditions up our sleeves.  Below I have listed a few of my favorite RollerBlog family Thanksgiving traditions.

Fiddler on the Roof
When my brother was in college, he became obsessed with the movie Fiddler on the Roof (1971).  We began watching the musical on every Thanksgiving and it is now a bona fide tradition.  After the dinner is over and the dishes are put away, we head downstairs to the family room, crank up the old VCR, and soon the family is singing along to “If I Were A Rich Man” and “Tradition!”.  Granted, we don’t watch Fiddler every year (sometimes we do get Fiddler fatigue) but we watch it more years than not.  (This year I have the feeling we may not watch the movie because we are all planning to go see Twilight together…).

Dilly Beans
Dilly beans are green beans that have been pickled in a jar, like dill pickles.  My mom makes kick ass dilly beans and we have them every Thanksgiving.  Dilly beans are definitely one of the highlights of Thanksgiving dinner.

Lord of the Rings Marathon
RollerBoy spends every other Thanksgiving Day with his mom, so when that happens we tend to do the whole Thanksgiving thing on Friday.  This means that RollerReggie and I have to think up something to do on Thursday.  And, voila, the Lord of the Rings marathon tradition was born!  We own the extended editions of all three LOTR movies (which equals 12 hours of viewing time) so it actually takes some planning to see all three movies in one day.  The first time we tried to do a LOTR marathon we didn’t quite make it through all three movies (I feel asleep during the exceedingly long scene at the end of the last movie where Frodo says goodbye to his hobbit buddies).  This time we are getting up at the crack of dawn so we are sure to fit in every minute of hobbity goodness.

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It’s going to be a scary Halloween.  Scary weather that is.  The forecast predicts windy, rainy, stormy weather here in the Pacific Northwest… the perfect kind of weather for staying home and staying dry.

So this year RollerReggie and I have decided to embrace the middle-aged sticks-in-the-mud that we really are and stay home.  No parties, no costumes… just a tub full of candy for the occasional neighborhood kid who is desperate enough for candy to brave the weather.  And a scary movie.

The question is… which scary movie?  There are plenty of good ones from the 1970s and 1980s.  The Omen (1976), The Exorcist (1973), Dawn of the Dead (1978), Day of the Dead (1985), and The Shining (1980) are just a few of my personal favorites.

For this Halloween, however, we have narrowed it down to either Halloween (the 1978 version) or the original Nighmare on Elm Street (1984).  I vaguely recall watching these movies years ago… but it has been a long time and I don’t really remember them.

So which do you recommend? Halloween or Nightmare on Elm Street?

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3.3

1976 was a very special year, and not just because it happens to be the year of my birth. 1976 also marked the 200th birthday of the United States. In celebration of the Bicentennial, the US issued commemorative coins and sponsored other events such as fireworks displays in an attempt to whip the country into a patriotic fervor.

In The Collectible ’70s: A Price Guide to the Polyester Decade, Michael Jay Goldberg devotes an entire chapter to the Bicentennial. All kinds of items were produced during this time period to commemorate the occasion (and to cash in on America’s fascination the Bicentennial). From Betsy Ross linen wall hangings and official NRA Freedom Bicentennial belt buckles to Liberty Bell-shaped cookie jars and commemorative Bicentennial air sickness bags, one couldn’t escape the Bicentennial fervor that was gripping the country.

But wait, there’s more! Check out this psychedelic video produced by the United States Information Agency specifically for the Bicentennial:

Happy Fourth of July, all!

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Easter eggs galore!

This morning the Rollerblog household awoke to a household booby-trapped with eggs hiding in all sorts of sneaky places.

Rollerboy spent the morning hunting for eggs (I can see a few from here that he missed, actually - he’ll have fun finding those in the next few months). Rollerboy also got an Easter basket filled with candy, a whoopie cushion, a rubber chicken that releases jelly beans out of its rear end, and a cute fuzzy white rabbit. As an added bonus the rabbit quacks when one touches its little furry little paw.

(The “Easter Bunny” did not realize this when purchasing said white rabbit at Fred Meyers yesterday. The “Easter Bunny” also failed to remember that Rollerboy can’t have Cadbury eggs this year because of his braces. Oops!)

I’ve never really understood the fascination with combining various cutesy animals together at Eastertime. Rabbits and ducks? Rabbits and eggs? Rabbits and… well anything?

So we decided to mix it up a little this year and dial down the cutesy factor. We have The Star Wars Holiday Special at Christmastime, why not bring a little Star Wars love to Easter as well?

That’s right, we created our very own Star Wars Easter Eggs. We made a dozen or so eggs, four of which were egg-sized versions of R2-D2, Yoda, Darth Vader and C-3PO. The Darth Vader egghead even came with his own cute little Darth Vader hat.

Wait a minute - cute little Darth Vader hat?

Now we’ve gone and done it - instead of making Easter less cutesy, we’ve cute-sified Star Wars.

Oh, the horror!

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Nothing says Happy Easter like the 1974 television special “It’s the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown.”

It’s The Easter Beagle Charlie Brown

Happy Easter, all!

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Image from TVGuide.com

Nothing says “Happy Valentine’s Day” like the 1975 Charlie Brown TV special “Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown.” Charlie pines for the little red-haired girl, to no avail. He watches with dismay as valentines come flooding in for his dog, Snoopy, while he does not receive a single one. At the end of the episode he does finally get his valentine - a used one given to him out of pity.

Poor Charlie.

I remember watching this special as a kid and relating to it - giving and receiving valentines at school was always an exciting but stressful experience. I would give valentines and candy hearts to everyone in my class, but for the boys I really liked I would carefully choose hearts that said “Hot Stuff” or “Call Me”. If I dared. And then I would wait expectantly in the hopes of receiving candy hearts with equally heartfelt expressions of love in return. Which of course never happened. My candy hearts always read “You’re Nice” or something lame like that. Sigh.

Thankfully I no longer have to worry about lame candy hearts or manufacturing 35 cards and cupcakes prior to the big day. This year, I got the best Valentine’s Day Card ever courtesy of Mr. RollerBlog.

Happy Valentine’s Day, y’all!

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