Casino CHiPS

It was funny that my twin sister shared this with me today and we both agreed they forgot an important element of our childhood and teenage-hood... Those hunks from the California Highway Patrol. John and Ponch on CHiPS. We totally crushed on those boys!

Just by sheer coincidence, my favorite officer – Frank Poncherello – will by in my neck of the woods this weekend when I am back home for my nephew's wedding. Sort of.

My mother, who may or may not find any excuse to go to the casino, informed me that Erik Estrada will be at the Hole in the Wall Casino in Danbury this Friday. Danbury is north of Luck on highway 35. And the wedding is just south of Luck in St. Croix Falls.

He is hosting some game shows or something and mom is "eligible" for free tickets or something, likely a reward for her investments there. So the first person she thought of was me, since I actually met Erik (of course we're on a first-name basis) a few years back at Comic-Con in San Diego. "Wouldn't you love to see him again?"

Of course, Mother. But I don't think my 3 dates for the wedding would want to come a day early for that. Well, Jim, Tony and Carter all have to work Friday. For that matter, so do I.

I'll just have to hold onto the memories... as tight as he was holding onto me that day!

C'mon, a girl can dream. And she does!

Fall (Behind) Lineup

Remember when we had one chance to watch a show on TV and if we missed it, well, it was gone forever? I wouldn't have dreamed of missing Romper Room in the morning. What if I didn't watch and that was the one day she finally said my name??

She never did, by the way.

Decades later, when we realized we could use VHS tapes to record our shows, we occasionally allowed ourselves to miss something, as long as we had the programmable kind of machine (and we still kept our fingers crossed that it would kick in on time so we wouldn't miss Friends or Knots Landing).

Now, with "TiVo" and DVR'ing, it is easy to choose something else to do over television watching. A click of a button and it will record our important show while we get on with life. Then we just have to watch it before the DVR queue gets too full and starts deleting the "old" stuff.

This week was the main start of the fall season on most network and cable stations. Since I was busy every night doing work, going to nail parties and meetings, I have already started filling up the DVR space with Big Bang Theory, Modern Family, The Voice and some new show called Blind Spot, which looked intriguing. Not interesting enough to keep me up late at night, but I'm curious.

Since I got home at 9:30 tonight and have 5:40 a.m. class, I know I won't have time to catch any of these yet. Will have to see what "old" stuff I can delete to make space. Jim is just lucky that I haven't been recording the nightly airing of CHiPS. Oh yes, I am sorely tempted. I can't just watch it live with hubby in the same room. Don't need him catching me drooling.

At least I won't short-circuit the VCR!

Any recommendations for new shows that I may or may not have time to watch this season?

Dream Catcher

Dream catchers are a fascinating part of the culture of the Native Americans, originating from the Ojibwa (Chippewa) Nation, who believed that the dreamcatcher would alter a person’s dreams by protecting the sleeper from negative dreams by catching bad dreams inside its web and allowing good dreams to filter through the center hole and descend down the feathers to the dreamer. 

The slightest movement of the feathers would indicate the passage of another beautiful dream. Bad dreams, however, were trapped in the web and would be burned off by the morning sun.

If I had a dream catcher,  I'm pretty sure it would die of sheer exhaustion. There are too many psychotic dream factors to filter through any size "web." Trust me, as someone who remembers just about all of her dreams, this is true. 

In fact, Carter told me about an App for my phone that could help interpret dreams and their meanings. I think I broke the App today. I know I definitely stymied it, at the very least.

If I were to write a book about my "unique" dreams, today's chapter would be entitled: "A funny thing happened on the way to the Peter Frampton concert..." – starring an odd mix of characters: hubby, his high school classmate and friend Gregg, and our mutual friend and previous co-worker Jeff.  (With a significant cameo by Carter, who somehow scored a backstage pass). 

Yup. My mind is a mysterious thing!

And the App was not having anything to do with Peter Frampton. Even for me, that one is hard to interpret.

Typically, the only '70s stars of MY dreams are Erik Estrada and, yes, even more Erik Estrada.

May you have sweet dreams tonight! One of us has to!

Fact or Fiction?

Those of you who are Facebook users are quite aware there are hundreds of "games" that can suck you in and waste your time -- even more than Facebook already does!

Speaking for myself, that is.

There's everything from running a farm or bakery to playing virtual Candy slot machines. I have not tried any of them and do not plan to -- though I am highly tempted by Family Feud and Words with Friends. I may break down yet.

There are other interesting amusements to play along with, though.

Tonight a friend had listed 6 random facts about himself and instructed people to LIKE his post and he would assign them a number of facts to share, too. I decided to give it a try. He gave me 7 -- so here is what came to mind first...

Seven facts about me:

• 1. I live with the 2 greatest guys in the world.
• 2. I am spiritual but not necessarily religious.
• 3. I love to bake!
• 4. I hate to cook because I don't know how!
• 5. I have no athletic ability - so I write.
• 6. I eat ice cream almost 365 days a year.
• 7. I have been kissed by The Fonz AND Ponch

I'm pretty sure longtime readers of this inconsequential blog know all of that. But if you'd like to play along, let me know and I'll send you a number so you can share next!

It doesn't have to be real serious or real interesting, just real honest. I have plenty of facts in my life that many would think are "fiction," but we'll save that for another day.

Unless YOU want to go first...

In the Game

After being married to a coach for nearly 10 years, I have come to appreciate the value of a good strategy in every game. You always have to anticipate what's going to happen. Then, when it happens, know immediately what you're going to do next or where you're going next. This is true for any kind of game.

It's even true for garage sale-ing.

Seriously.

When we are faced with a village-wide sale, you gotta have a strategy to hit the most places in the least amount of time and possibly find something you really like or need or just want. Then you're a winner.

Today, Carter and I went to the village-wide sale in Port Edwards (on the south side of Rapids). First we had to stop at the walk-in clinic so they could check out the cough he's been dealing with this week. There is a Whooping Cough scare in the area and it has gone around his school, so I figured it was better to be safe than sorry. When you walk in and tell them it's something related to a cough, though, they quickly hand you a surgical mask (ala Michael Jackson) to wear. Just to be safe.

Turns out Carter just has allergies. So we got medicine and it's not a big whoop. (pun intended)

We were free to head to Port. We did park and walk a lot. Making lots of stops and really not having a strategy of what we hoped to find. I knew I'd probably find a few books and Carter said he just wanted to find "some good junk." Uh-oh. And he did. He begged and pleaded to buy a bar stool for $5 -- just to have down in the basement when he's playing video games or something. I finally talked him out of it when he found something better and far more useful -- a nice left-handed putter. Now that was a worthy $4 purchase.

But not as good as my big find. Ladies, feast your eyes on this...

For a mere dime, I got this collectible issue of Dynamite magazine ... well, collectible to Ponch fans like me! After that, there was no need to shop further! I won that "game"!

We had a real game to get to anyway. The kids Carter babysat for last summer were playing during the youth sports Opening Day today at the Kellner fields. Since hubby is a board member, he had to work it all day and evening -- selling concessions, helping with field maintenance and whatever else was needed. With games going on at all 5 fields, there was plenty happening.

We watched Aaron play at 2 p.m. and then went back to see Allie play at 6 p.m. In between there, I came across these guys at the park...

Yes, we had the Miller Park sausages (their twins, anyway) visiting our fields while my Twins were down at Miller Park beating the Brewers for a second day. Whoot!

Normally, I wouldn't pose with one but since our neighbor's son was working under cover, he humored me. I would not have wanted his job today. It officially got up to 89 degrees! Uff da.

That's one of the reasons Carter and I came home between those 2 games. Also, he had some reading to do and I had to start my mints. I learned I can make them at 65 MPH -- that's Mints Per Hour. I got one pan of 65 done and some laundry, then it was back to the park.

Came home and kept tabs on our nephew Colin's super stock race. He is racing over in Minnesota tonight at the Elko Speedway. I would have loved to have gone but we have a commitment tomorrow and I know I couldn't have driven back tonight. So through texts with my sister-in-law, we learned Colin qualified 6th, took 5th in the heat race and was slated to start on the pole for the 40-lap feature. Right now they are in a rain delay so I will just have to cross my fingers that he gets his "game" tonight!

In the meantime, this girl's gonna go hit the showers!

Happy Camper

Well my bags are packed, I'm ready to go. Am I forgetting anything?

Scrapbooks? Check.
Photos? Check.
Paper? Check.
Sleeping Bag? Check.
Slippers? Check.
Diet Dew? Check.
Chocolate? Check.
Red Licorice? Check.

That's about all a girl needs to survive a scrapbooking weekend!

I'm looking forward to attending my 8th Camp Crop-A-Lot, held at the Wisconsin Lions Camp near Rosholt. The only part of this that really feels like "camp" is that it is held at one -- plus we eat all kinds of fun junk food like a person normally would camping.

My twin sister is on her way. So she'll meet me there in the early afternoon. It'll be nice spending some one-on-one time with her -- among 50 other women -- while we scrap our favorite family memories.

My goal is to finish my 2008 album (with such memorable highlights as snuggling with Erik Estrada) and get a good start on 2009. We'll see how it goes. They extended camp an extra day this year so I will not be dragging my tired keester home until Monday. Whoo-hoo!

I'll likely be away from any type of computer, so I probably won't blog. It's not because what happens at camp, stays at camp. It's really not that wild!

I do wonder how the "boys weekend" will be at home. Sounds like there's a fish fry with Jim and all 3 boys tonight then a birthday party for Colin sometime this weekend, too. They won't even have a chance to miss me! And I will be looking at pictures of all of them all weekend so it'll feel like they are right there with me.

Next to my large Diet Dew and my bag of red licorice!

Hey, there's cars here, too!

I was feeling a mixture of relief and disappointment today that the freak show was way toned down. I guess Saturday is the "family" day at the car show. I didn't shoot my first picture until 2 o'clock! Then I decided I better get some car shots, too, since this is a car show after all!

They had the red carpet rolled out (literally) for the real stars of Johnny Depp's new Public Enemies movie. Since most of the movie was shot in Wisconsin, this car and dozens of others owned by Wisconsin collectors, were used. Most of them were black. I told the owner of this one that I'd remember it when I see the movie since it's red!

Speaking of star power... So I was joking about the whole Erik Estrada thing, but I still got my aging '70s TV star fix today...

Doesn't Greg Evigan from BJ & the Bear look like he's saying, "Come here, Robyn. I've heard about you from Ponch and Fonzie"?

Onto other interesting sights...

New weight-lifting plan? Doesn't look as fun as my Zumba class!

Cesspool cleaning over lunch hour... Hmmm, a good reminder of the importance of a college education.

Warning: This one is PG-13...

I know. Obviously single -- because I don't know many wives who'd let him out of the house (or back in) after wearing that!

Gotta love the car show!

Woodworking

I'm not sure how that phrase "coming out of the woodwork" originated, but I wonder if it has any direct ties to words like Back Woods or Jack Pine Savage. Just wondering...

Today was the first day of the Iola Old Car Show. Since I work in the automotive publishing division housed in that same village, I am working the show, set up in a little "decorated" trailer, promoting my new project and our trusted old ones as well.

Since today was mainly a day for swap-meet vendors and the like to mill around the grounds, it is considered our slow day. In other words, prime time for people watching. And trust me, everyone was coming out of the woodwork...

Now to set the record straight. I know I am nowhere near perfect. I have physical, emotional and mental issues aplenty. So I have no right to judge people. And I try my best not to judge them based on their income (or lack of it), their physical fitness (or lack of it), or their dental plan (or lack of it).

I try. But don't always succeed. It just becomes interesting.

As the temperature rises, apparently so does the self-confidence meter. And people who shouldn't be shedding clothes, are. There are those, too, who haven't found a comb -- for the top of their head or their shaggy beard. I had one interesting fellow who actually had an eyebrow comb-over. Seriously. When the wind blew, those eyebrows were sticking straight out at least 2 inches (I have a witness).

But not to be judgmental (shame on me), I will say that I can't label all car-show attendees as such. The people I meet are mostly kind old gentleman wearing sunglasses or glasses, a trucker's cap and a car cruise T-shirt, all looking so much alike they start to blend into the same person after awhile. I find myself thinking, "Haven't I helped you already today?" And that was only the first day.

I am looking forward to 3 more days of observing what or who is coming out of the woods next. Who knows? Maybe Eric Estrada will show up on his CHiPs bike! Like I said, you never know...

25 Random Things...

There's a "chain list" going around on Facebook (social network Web site) now where members write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits or goals about you. It's not hard to think of 25 things. It's hard to stop at 25. I still have so much more randomness to share!

Anyway, here is the list I shared. I might have to do one called "Another 25 random things..." at some point.

1. I am afraid of heights, rodents and large insects. I get nervous around big dogs, too.

2. I have a twin sister who has always been half a head taller than me.

3. I used to hate coffee but then some genius invented the flavored stuff. I still need to add milk or cream, though.

4. I could probably live without caffeine but am not willing to try -- yet.

5. I never knew how much a person could love until I became a mom. My baby is 10 and is the center of my universe.

6. If I could live on three foods, they would be ice cream, popcorn and just about anything mint.

7. I have probably been on a diet of some kind (or needed to be on one) since I was 16.

8. I am a huge fan of the Minnesota Twins and have seen them play in the Dome dozens of times. I'm looking forward to the outdoors experience in a year.

9. I was a camp counselor and lifeguard for two of the best summer ever at Luther Point Bible Camp.

10. I love writing. My first "published work" was an essay I entered in the county fair in 4th grade. They gave me a blue ribbon after I convinced them it was my original work -- not copied. I don't remember much about it except it was called "Life." Pretty deep for a 9-year-old. I now blog daily and try to keep it "On the Light Side."

11. I love the sun.

12. Every year I spend a "Wild Women's Weekend" with my 6 sisters somewhere in Wisconsin or Minnesota (and this past year at my sister's in Texas). It's a great time to reconnect and relax.

13. I have one brother. Everyone feels sorry for him, growing up with 7 sisters. I think he turned out alright. In fact, better than alright. I admire his faith, determination and creativity.

14. I never considered myself a potty mouth ... until I tried golf.

15. I love the '80s.

16. I used to have an evil cat named Rastro who soured me on the whole cat thing. Now we have a princess feline named Sylvester and she has changed my mind.

17. As a journalist, I have met a handful of celebrities from Al Gore to Thomas Kinkaide (lighthouse painter). My favorites were Erik Estrada and Henry Winkler because they give good hugs.

18. I like lighthouses. My teenage stepsons get a kick out of counting how many we have in the house. I don't consider myself obsessed.

19. I have probably tried every craft out there from cross-stitch to ceramics. I'm pretty much a scrapbooker these days with occasional breaks for beading.

20. Growing up in the 1970s, I became a fan of the Purple People Eaters. Although, the Vikings have broken my heart many times since, I just can't jump off that bandwagon.

21. I am not an athlete by any means but I somehow ran 2 5K races in the last few years. I love to play volleyball, too, when anyone's game.

22. I was raised Lutheran, went away from church for awhile in my wild 20s but now have a stronger faith than ever. I am a spiritual being, not just a church-goer.

23. As much as I love to talk, I don't pick up the phone unless I have to. I think I used up all my minutes in the '90s.

24. I live by the motto: "One day at a time." Sometimes, that's one hour at a time...

25. My best friend in the whole wide world is my husband Jim.

Picture Perfect?

Now that I've sent out all my Christmas cards, I can finally write about our not-so-perfect photo shoot.

I had warned the big boys that when they came over for Thanksgiving that I'd be taking a picture of the three of them for the Christmas card. So I set them up in front of the tree and coaxed a smile out of them. It wasn't until I checked the photo on the little screen (what did we do before digital cameras?) that I noticed Clay's shirt. (Take a good look at the photo above.)

"Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms." What?

Thankfully he had another t-shirt underneath that one. Just guessing a shirtless photo wouldn't go over too well with a segment of our Christmas card population. So we did a retake and I get another good smile out of them and the photo shoot is over. Pretty painless.

For my card, I like to layout and design the letter to include more than one photo. I kind of didn't ask permission to include the priceless picture of Ponch and me. But I did give hubby a proof and, after the eye rolling, got the OK to keep it in there.

The big boys said, "Wow, Robyn, you sure meet some cool celebrities. First Henry Winkler and now Erik Estrada." Yep, I could hear the sarcasm dripping off that one. So what if those two are in the 60+ club? That just means I'll love Jim even more in 15 years!

I promised them all that if they meet anyone famous next year I'd include their picture, too. But I'll settle for our brown-eyed dimpled boys in plain white tees.

Dancing with the Stars

They mentioned on the radio this morning that it's Patrick Swayze's birthday. Funny, he just happened to be on my mind.

I caught part of Dirty Dancing on TV yesterday. For those of us chicks who like the movie, we can pretty much count on finding it somewhere on cable at least once a month. I rarely see it from beginning to end, but if I can just sit down and watch it for 15 minutes, I can get my fix.

So they said that Patrick is 56 today. 56! Now, before you go thinking I have this thing for older men (i.e. Erik Estrada, Henry Winkler, etc), it just happens that Mr. Swayze was my first brush with fame. Well almost.

In 1995, I moved to Wisconsin Rapids to work at the daily newspaper. One day in December, someone called the office and said, "Did you hear Patrick Swayze was in town?!" The managing editor asked if I wanted to cover the story. Are you kidding me? I eeked out a hyperventilated "Yes!"

As it happened, by the time the tip had been called in, the hip-swiveling star was already on his plane back to California. So it was one of those after-the-fact stories the readers of a small-town paper like to read about -- even if we clearly missed the boat. (It was my first story to make the national wire, though, so I had that small victory to hang my dancing shoes on!)

I did uncover that the reason he was in town was to see his orthopaedic surgeon, who'd recently moved to the area from California as well. I had a good interview with the doctor, who told about me about Patrick's bad knees -- due to dancing on Broadway, etc, not just on the Big Screen. The good doctor felt badly that I missed the story but promised that the next time Patrick was in town, he's call me and I'd get the interview.

For months I waited for that call. I mean, shouldn't you try to see your knee surgeon on a regular basis? As my luck (or very bad luck) would have it, during that same time frame, HIPPA regulations went into effect. Those are the federal privacy rules that say our doctors can't tell anyone who they are treating and why -- and they certainly can't tell a star-struck reporter that her heart throb is in town.

Dang! I imagine by now he's got his own local doctors so I can't expect to see him sashaying down the streets of Rapids anytime soon (make that, never!). But you never know. Stranger things have happened to me and my quest to meet the stars -- let alone dance with them or snuggle with them.

Happy birthday, Johnny Castle!

I'm Grounded

Well I think my feet are grounded again after floating on my "Ponch high" for a few days. I know, I need to get a life, right? Trust me, a busy day at work, thrown in with a few of life's challenges pretty much can put me back to normal at warp speed (oh no, I must refrain from those Trekkie phrases).

While I certainly enjoyed being back at work and showing off my autographed photo (plus the blog), it was a crazy day after being out of the office since Thursday. Plus, hubby is dealing with a bit of a shake-up in his department so we're not sure what the future holds in store there. Uncertainty is certainly a bit scary, but who knows, it could mean something good down the road, too.

On the home front, we had the van in the shop again -- just a month after it was in the last time. The expensive "tune-up" has prompted us to think about vehicle shopping, even casually, just to be prepared. It sure has been nice not having a car payment for a few years!

When we got home and got the mail, we got the news our dear middle son did not do well in summer school. Well, let's not sugar coat it. He flunked both classes. I can't even express in words our frustration and disappointment. He is supposed to come live with us again in a few short weeks for the next school year. Judging by his effort (or lack of it) this summer, I see this is going to be even more challenging than his stay at the end of last school year. Yes, we're up for it. Yes, we want to help, more than we can say. The question is, will he let us? Lord, help us.

So, when I think how silly I've been about meeting an aging, former TV star, I'm not embarrassed a bit. We all need silly, snuggly moments now and then to ease our tension and create a memory that will bring a smile to our lips as needed. It's therapeutic actually. Thanks, Dr. Estrada!

Dateline :: San Diego

TRAVEL LOG: Back from Comic Con International in San Diego! At first I thought I'd never get there. Typical travel woes -- flight delayed at takeoff so missed my connection (by hours) in Minneapolis ... almost missed my later connection there ... was paged over the intercom and had to run through the airport (good thing I was wearing tennis shoes and a sports bra) ... then when I finally got to my hotel in San Diego, half my clothes were wet and sticky (the old "contents may shift during flight" applied to my hairspray in my suitcase). Luckily all was forgotten when I saw the great view (pictured above) from the hotel.


SAY CHEESE (or is it CHIPs?): Yes, my teeny bopper fantasy came true! Can't you still hear my heart pounding? I met my dream boat.
I was so nervous waiting in line, that when I got up to the table, I couldn't stop myself. From talking, that is. I actually ended up telling Erik Estrada the whole poster story. I mean really, me speechless? Did you think that was going to happen? He posed for a picture with me (above) and then said, aw, c'mon, we can do better than that. So he put my arms around him. I did not protest. And we got the nice snuggling shot at right. Then he autographed a picture for me and I floated off to lunch. Even though I couldn't stop smiling, I did feel a wee bit guilty. I called up hubby and said, "I just cheated on you with Ponch." He said, "Good for you!" Though, I know he didn't mean that! He was just letting an old lady enjoy her silly moment. (Thanks, hon!)

STAR POWER: If you follow celebrity sightings at all, you may have heard that Paris Hilton was out at Comic Con on Thursday, the day before I got out there. I saw other stars but was not able to get decent photos.

While working our magazine booth, I saw the pre-teen that plays Zack on The Suite Life of Zack and Cody. (Carter knew what I was talking about and thought that was cool!)

I saw Breckin Meyer posing with some fans (he's pictured second from left). I first remember him from the movie Clueless, but he has been in other movies and has a production company now with Seth Green and someone else.

I'm not a big Trekkie or anything but I saw and took blurry pictures (not allowed to use flash unfortunately so not worth posting) of two cast members from Star Trek: The Next Generation. Jonathan Frakes, who played Riker, is still quite handsome. Levar Burton, who played La Forge, was there, too. You non-Trekkies may remember him from the Roots mini-series from way, way, way back when. (Yes, I am dating myself here.)

I managed to catch up with the distinguished Ray Bradbury and snap his photo. The longtime SciFi author (Martian Chronicles, Fahrenheit 451, you name it) and inspiration will turn 88 next month. He still drew a crowd of respectful admirers. That was pretty cool.

I also had dinner with the guy who writes the 24 comic strip, based on the action-packed television show starring Kiefer Sutherland. I learned the crew got to go to Africa to film a 2-hour movie to air in November as a prequel to the beginning of the next season. Cool! It was an entertaining dinner! Kiefer was somewhere at the show (I mean con), but I missed him. I did get to see his co-star, Adoni Maropis, who played Fayed in last season's story line. I got his autograph and photo (yes, I even snuggle with fictional terrorists.)

Probably a good thing I drew the line with the real stars and not all the wannabes in costumes. There were a ton of "Jokers" from the new Batman movie. Some Hellboys (yuck) and some Indiana Jones look-alikes (or trying to look alike). Then there was everything in between. Lots of characters I was clueless about. Some people I think just decided to color their hair or face or wear skimpy outfits. (I know what you guys are saying: Where are those photos? I felt too weird asking.) I may post a few of those but sleep -- in my own bed -- is a priority tonight.

Overall, I would say it was everything I expected (the geek factor) and more. I was surprised about the stars. It has really evolved into a Hollywood event (which many traditional comic book dealers have mixed feelings about). There certainly was a lot of energy and excitement everywhere. It was huge, almost overwhelming. So much going on. I for one, am looking forward to going again so I can see what I missed!!

Will I see MY "iron man"?

I am a bookworm at heart. Always, always had and have something I was reading or looking forward to reading. Stories that make me think or solve a riddle. Books that teach. Pages that offer me an escape or just plain entertain me.

The entertainment value of reading cannot be overrated when it comes to kids. If you can capture their interest in some way at an early stage, you may have a reader for life. That's where comic books come in.

As adults, we tend to think of them as picture books with light stories. True, I didn't learn a lot from Archie and Jughead or Uncle Scrooge the Duck, but it got me reading. These days, anyone who saw the new Batman movie over the weekend, will tell you comics can have some deep, dark, very adult story lines, too. That's why there are still millions of comic book readers of all ages out there. And this weekend, I expect to see at least 125,000 of those.

I'm flying out this morning to San Diego for the international comics convention, simply called Comic-Con. If you would have asked me a month ago if I was excited to go, I likely would have said something along the lines of, "Excited to go to Geek Fest? I don't think so. I'm just going because I have to for work." I've since changed my tune the more I've learned about the event.

It's not just about 40-year-old men living in their mother's basements with boxes (I think they call them "long boxes") filled with their super-hero stories. (Though I do expect to see some of that with the extreme collectors donning costumes.) The show has also become a key time for television networks and movie studios to unveil their next major project (last year Iron Man previews were huge) or offer up some of their stars for autograph sessions. It's a pop culture entertainment extravaganza!

OK, I confess that what got me excited was looking over the list of stars (past and present) doing autographs. Only a few people would understand my excitement when I saw Erik Estrada's name on the list (and the rest of you are probably groaning!). My first thought was that I wish I still had my poster of "Ponch" that hung on my bedroom wall as a teenager. But then I would have to explain to him why there is a hole where his flashy white smile should be. Darn lip gloss deteriorates paper, I learned, after many kisses good night! Now, I don't even know if I'll get the chance to see him, but if I do, I may just be speechless for the first time in my life (something everybody reading this blog would understand!).

So I'll be taking a few days off here but hope when I get back on Monday I'll have some exciting things to report! Now the question is, will I fit right in out there or finally be one of the "cool kids"? (No need to respond to that one! )

And sincerely, no offense intended to comic book buyers, readers or collectors. I am sure people say the same things about my scrapbooking cult! That's why hobbies are known as "passions."

Live long and prosper ... or something like that!