This 'n That Time - Pre-Christmas Edition!

Figured I should probably do a catch-up of things here... and I'll make this a bit more freeform than usual!

So, last weekend, we decided to buy a living Christmas tree for our first Christmas in our new house. While the kids napped, Jessi went out and bought a 6 1/2 foot tall tree in a pot, which was delivered free. However, it was not brought into the house! That, I had to do.

I got out my handy-dandy hand truck (bought back in 1987 or so), loaded the tree onto it, and rolled it around the back, through my office, and into the family room. And later that day, I noticed my back was aching pretty badly, to the point where I couldn't even stand up straight!

On Sunday, I called my doctor's office, and got the on-call doctor, who called in a prescription for a muscle relaxant, which helped enough to get me to sleep that night, but on Monday I still called in sick so I could go to my regular doctor to get it checked out.

Turned out he didn't feel my back was damaged to the point where I needed to do more than take it easy for three or four days, but he did give me a prescription for Vicodin for the pain.

On Friday, I went back to work, but even then my back was still bothering me, to the point where today, while we were out and about, I bought a cane to help me get around (and take the pressure off my back when walking and getting up from a sitting position).

Now, to rewind... this past week was the first week that myself and two other designers from the newspaper I work at were going to work at a different location, out of our "sister newspaper" in Tacoma. Since, frankly, I'm the workhorse of the department, my taking four days off work really threw them for a loop, so that by the time I showed up on Friday, I really had to kick some serious butt to get things done on time!

Rewind again... last weekend, snow hit Olympia, and in our area in particular! It got worse as the week progressed, to the point where Jessi's work was closed down for most of last week. There are places in our yard with drifts over a foot deep, and Jessi can't even get her Matrix out of the driveway!

Fortunately, my Aerostar Van has all wheel drive, and I was able to get it out of the driveway and out to the grocery store.

Tonight, there's more snow coming... there could be seven more inches of snow by the end of the day on Sunday!

Some excitement, eh? Hopefully, I'll still be able to get the van out of the driveway and onto the street on Monday morning so I can get to work (after all, with the Christmas holiday coming up, we'll be on early deadlines). I'll probably still end up using the cane for the most part for a few more days, but I'm already noticing a difference in the level of back pain just since I started using it today!

Christmas Comics Cover Countdown Day 20!

Christmas Carnival (one-shot)


Spaceman Discovers Christmas (one-shot)


Four Color Comics 1064


Walt Disney's Christmas Parade 5


Walt Disney's Christmas Parade 9

Slideshow: Ghost of Frankenstein!

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Movie of the Week: "Creature With An Atom Brain"

Here's another Movie of the Week that may or may not be available when this posts!

Give-A-Show Fridays: Casper the Friendly Ghost and the Whirlybirds!

Christmas Comics Cover Countdown Day 19!

Donald and Mickey Merry Christmas from Firestone 1949


Walt Disney's Christmas Parade 2


Woolworth's New Christmas Book (one-shot)


Bugs Bunny's Christmas Funnies 5


Christmas at the Rotunda (one-shot)

Children's Book Theatre: Superman BLB Chapter 7!

Cool Stuff: Still More Batman Stuff!

Check out all those Batman pins and buttons... one wonders why the seller included the Daredevil one!



You'll never get lost with this Batman Wrist Compass... well, unless it's not pointing to North, or you have no ideal how to use a compass...



Batman Desk Set! I still think there's something vaguely disturbing about that Batman pencil sharpener...



Check out these cool Batman records with die-cut sleeves! All of these records were also included in a Batman album...



Batboat, manufactured by Ducan (yes, the Yo-Yo people!)!



Batman Felt Patch!




Batman Flying Batplane by Remco! Now, here's a huge coincidence... the day I'm writing this post (September 13, if you must know), I found one of these listed on eBay, and saved the photo, because I didn't remember having it saved before! And now, here it is!



Batman Board Game by Hasbro, 1967! I've always wondered why it appears Robin is flying on the box art.



Batman Girls' Wallet, based on the box art for the Aurora model kit!



Batman drinking glasses! I wish I had larger photos of all of these to show you.



Batman house-slippers!



Different Batman house-slippers, that don't make it appear like Batman's got red skin and goes shirtless in costume!



Ideal Toys Batman paratrooper! Perhaps more valuable than the AHI one, but not quite as cool-looking!



Batman Jewelry, plus there's that Batman compass again! Click for super-size options.



Batman Jigsaw Puzzle Game!

And there'll be more Batman stuff to come... next time!

Christmas Comics Cover Countdown Day 18!

Justice League of America 110


Christmas on the Moon (one-shot)


Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies Comics 159


Walt Disney's Christmas Parade 1


Four Color Comics 178

By the 10's: Aquaman!

About time I hit Aquaman for By the 10's, eh? Aquaman had been around in the DC titles for a while before earning his own title (and that thanks to a few Showcase appearances)...



I don't know whether or not this was Quisp/Qwisp/whatever the heck his name is spelled, Aquaman's otherdimensional imp friend, on the cover for issue 10...



Issue 20... the kind of cover that sets up a question that you have to read the book to find out the answer!



Issue 30... did anyone else find it odd that Metamorpho was chosen to be a pall bearer, and not Green Lantern, Green Arrow, or Flash?



Issue 40, an amazing Nick Cardy creation!



Issue 50, and the amazing covers continue! Too bad the book only lasted another six issues. Aquaman would find future space in Adventure and Action Comics... and then he'd get his own title again... a couple of times!