Hi, Folks, I need your help with something. A momentous anniversary silently slipped by on 31 December 2011, unnoticed by all but me. You see, that date marked…
The 10th Anniversary of my First-Ever Article
Yes, that’s right! On 31 December 2001 I posted my first-ever article here at This is Chris dot com. It was a rather tepid recap of the the logistics of that Christmas, which was the first one after Carrie & I moved in together, but which we didn’t actually end up spending together at all. So old is this article that all of its images are broken and I have no idea where to find them anymore!
In the ten years since then I’ve written 83 more articles. Some years were more productive than others. There was the shameful 2010 where I only managed to scrape out 2 articles, one of which was my ubiquitous, yearly Oscar article.
Now here’s what I need your help with, my dear & loyal readers. I want to write a 10-year anniversary article about my best articles. And since you are my dear & loyal readers, I know that you’ve obviously read ALL of my articles.
So I’d like for you to please leave a comment on this post with what your favorite articles of mine are. On the off chance that you haven’t read all of my articles (laughable, I know), here are some of my personal favorites:
All those who chose to oppose his shield must yield!
Here is a film with exciting action, interesting & sympathetic characters, and moments of real humor. It is in no way a bad film. It is also not really a great film. Captain America: The First Avenger is the epitome of a three-star film. [Full Review]
So the snow is still here, but it’s developed a new trick: the top layer of the snow has melted, fused, and then re-frozen, forming an incredibly thick crust of ice on top of the seven inches of snow.
In places this crust is up to a full inch thick
In a few spots it is actually thick enough to support my weight so that I am actually standing on TOP of the snow.
This was all about a month ago, but durn-it-all I’ve been kinda busy what with Skyward Sword and all, so I never got around to posting about it. But this was a fun day.
Some time before Chrissymiss, we were babysitting our friend who in 2011 was one of those little girls who comes out of that lady’s giant dress during Act II of Tacoma City Ballet’s Nutcracker. Part of our babysitting gig was delivering her to Nutcracker practice. So we decided to make an evening of it by going to some local Downtown Tacoma businesses.
Although Füdie had been open for about a month already, this evening just happened to be their official open house. Füdie has a really nice selection of not-commonly-seen wines and beers. The graphic designer in me also really adores their logo. They were doing some beer and wine tasting and it was all festive and nice. I’d link to their website but they don’t have one. I know, right? Here’s their Facebook page, though.
Just last night Carrie & I stopped by Füdie again because they were doing a wine tasting of all South American wines. It was good! We got a nice inexpensive bottle of red.
Anyhoo, after we were done at Füdie we walked through a hole in their wall. Yes, that’s right: Füdie is right next door to and connected to Stink Cheese & Meat:
Füdie & Stink are two complimentary and associated businesses, which is why you can walk from one right into the other. Stink is one of those little tiny places that specializes yummy unusual cheeses and salumi. They have a weekly Macaroni & Cheese and a weekly Grilled Cheese Sandwich, as well as other, more-stable menu items.
The three of us had their Antipasti platter for dinner, which has all sorts of yummy pickled things and paper-thin meats and fragrant cheeses. Very good! Unlike Füdie, Stink DOES have a website.
Where we dropped off our little ballerina. Carrie helped her change into her costume while I awkwardly waited in the hallway and tried not to seem too much like some creepy guy trying to catch a glimpse of ballerinas in their dressing rooms.
The Pantages is also a notable Tacoma Landmark because that’s where Carrie & I got married.
Anyhoo, then we walked down the hill a couple of blocks to:
Dorky’s is one of the best places in Tacoma. A massive, seemingly ever-expanding cavern of classic arcade games and pinball machines. Plus foods and drinks.
Much to my delight I discovered that Dorky’s acquired a standup of Raiden Fighters:
Lemme explain: back many, many years ago when the post-Fools Play ritual included going to an Olympia Red Robin, there was a Raiden Fighters in the little arcade room in said Red Robin. Geoff & I used to drop many a quarter into that machine in 2-player simultaneous action! It’s a pretty crazy SHMUP, with crap flying all over the screen to the point that it often gets nigh-impossible to tell what the eff is going on. Fun! Dorky’s copy had a bit of a wonky joystick, though, and the screen was a li’l washed out. Still, nice to see.
Carrie & I also played quite a bit of the Evel Knievel pinball machine while we were there. 2-Player competitive action! Carrie is quite good at that machine.
Dorky’s is also where they filmed this T-Mobile commercial:
You might remember Metronome Coffee from an earlier post on this blog wherein it served as the venue for Julia Massey, the Jesus Rehab, and Neighbor Gary. This time it served as a meeting place where we handed off our li’l ballerina to her mother, and were purchased some hot cocoa for our troubles.
Yesterday I finally took down the exterior Chrissymiss lights, the last vestiges of the holidays. It was a bit sad to see them colorful lights go back into the garage.
Fortunately, the sky had its own colorful lights yesterday to make up for it:
