Some random thoughts...

We've had a bunch of New Years Eve parties, with games and such every year. Our typical party is centered around some theme and we'll play some related games. One year, for instance, we did candy bars. As each person arrived we put a button on their back with a picture of a candy bar (and the name for those who don't have whiz-bang eyesight). I have a neato button maker and enough stock to make a thousand buttons, so this is easy for me to do. The rule is a person can ask each other guest one question in the hopes of figuring out what it is. Does it have chocolate? Is it common? Does it have nuts? The questions are supposed to be true or false. This is an old party trick to get folks to mingle. Once we did cartoon characters and I made enough of them that there were "girls" and "boys" buttons.

Anyway, then everyone eventually figures it out or cheats and we move on to some group game. In one of the candy bar years I had imported a whole gross of Idaho Spuds, which these New Englander's had never seen. I also picked up a box of brand spankin' new Take 5 candy bars. We split into two groups and I had a list of ingredients. I would ask each group to consider if they thought their bar had the ingreedent in it or not. Each right answer gave that group a point. I suggested things like lequer, yeast, flour, potatos, etc. When it was all done I gave each group their candy bar boxes, so everyone could have one. I must say the Idaho Spuds were not very popular, but the Take 5 everyone wanted to know where I got them so they could buy them!

In the game show year, we set up the big screen TV to be connected to the computer and I wrote a Jeopardy game, with zoom-in questions and hand held plungers just like on TV. I made all the electronics myself, and wrote the software. That went over so well the next year I wrote up a hollywood squares game, where the stars were folks there at the party. This was also a big hit. In 2008 there is going to be a pinewood derby race. Again, my party comers are doing their own cars (which I provided) but I built the track and wired up the electronics. The theme for 2008 was "toys" so any races that came in close enough to be contested we duked out over Rock'em Sock'em Robots!!!

Here are some buttons from various years:

	The past years have been:
2002 - No theme just a quiet get-together that started out as a few friends and snowballed from there! 2003 - Cartoon Characters 2004 - Candy Bars - this didn't work out because it was on a wednesday night and hardly anyone came. 2005 - Candy Bars 2006 - Game Shows 2007 - Occupations 2008 - Toys! (and Pinewood Derby) 2009 - already planned (but a secret, remember?) 2010 - shhhh.... 2011 - 10th One! Ambitious, aren't we?


Ok, other totally random things about me!

I wear shorts all the time, even in winter and even when I plow snow.
I collect Lowell Spinner's Bobbleheads, I'v got a list of all they have ever given out and am only missing 7
Almost every single day, somewhere in there usually in the morning I stop and wonder how did I get here, where did all this stuff come from, and what happened to that dumb hick from the small village?
I have a secret cigar box full of little trinkets from my past which to anyone else would look like a bunch of junk but to me is priceless.
I always wanted to be "larger than life" but the only part I managed is the "larger" bit.