Last night I discovered something very peculiar about my dear lover:  he has seen the holiday favorite "A Christmas Story" WAY too many times.

 

Every year on Christmas day, TBS plays a 24-hour marathon of Ralphie, Randy, Flick, Schwartz, and that nasty little Scut Farkus.  Apparently, Josh's family tradition involves watching this marathon from 12 am to 12 am EVERY YEAR.

 

When Josh's mom and dad were in town to visit a couple weeks ago, we had been shopping and stopped in a movie store because they had a whole display of "A Christmas Story" memorabilia.  We decided to buy Josh a leg lamp night light and a trivia game.

 

Now, it's been a busy couple of weeks for Josh and I, what with his graduation and Thanksgiving dinner . . . so we hadn't yet had a chance to break out the game and start playing . . . until last night.

 

I use the term "Idiot Savant" loosely (because Josh is easily offended! *wink*), but really it's the only way to describe the unbelievable amount of USELESS knowledge his brain contains.  He did not miss ONE question.  That's not an exaggeration.  He knew every ridiculous factoid pertaining to the toy rifle, the hounds next door, even the name of the restaurant at the end.

 

Me?  I answered every question . . . with "I don't know".  Mind you, I HAVE seen the movie.  At least twice.  My mind focuses more on the story line, though, and less on memorizing every tiny detail that should arise.

 

Anyway, in the spirit of Christmas, I have decided to post one trivia card per day until Christmas day . . . Just to see what you all know.

 

Be sure to keep in mind that Josh got ALL OF THEM right.

 

This morning, the first card (for dare cards, there is more than one question; only one question for life lesson cards):

 

DARE:  What kind of car does the old man favor?

 

DOUBLE DARE:  What kind of soap has a piquant after dinner flavor with just a touch of mellow smoothness?

 

DOUBLE DOG DARE:  In what department store do we first see the BB gun?

 

(I'll post answers later!)

I can't believe the responses my last post got . . . it's amazing how much this blog has helped me to get through my thickest funks ("funk" meaning one of my many strange moods).  I just want to take a minute to thank everyone who took the time to leave me a note; it made me feel tons better.  This post isn't going to be very long . . . it's been a long day.

 

I went into work a little early today because the store is going through a lot of changes.  Yesterday we had roughly 12 regional managers tearing our show floor apart, moving shelves and furniture and putting new items on the floor.  The good news, we've got a lot of the stock out of the stockroom that was keeping us from getting around, the bad news, the boxes and paper and other bits of trash were left for us to clean up today.  The store looks much better, but it has been a very exhausting process.

 

Hopefully, the store manager, who is truly the cause of all this mess due to her lack of organizational skills (how a person like that becomes a store manager, I don't know), will have learned some very valuable lessons from this whole ordeal and will never allow her store to get this bad again.  She claims that it is entirely the laziness of the associates that has made the store this bad, but these same associates were working in the store three months ago, when the previous store manager had the show floor spotless and beautiful.  The other manager and I are crossing our fingers.

 

So . . . I'm tired.  I would go to bed, but I want to get some pictures posted on the blog while I have the chance to do it.  Plus, my whole family has been waiting for pictures, so I think it's important that I MAKE time to get to it.  I'll talk to you soon!

Spending this much free time at my parents' house has allowed me to cruise the internet and take a closer look into our weblog here.  I'm glad, too, because a) I don't just write for myself, I write for Joshua and anyone who will pay attention and b) I'm pretty sure Joshua is one of the only readers I have left (besides the four main "girls": Jenn, Jenni, Elle, and Sandra [haven't seen Bella in a while]).

 

So, I've taken a few small measures to keep the few readers I have and try to attract a few more.  Josh and I definitely have a theme here: Armed forces families.  It's not like I'm randomly writing about meaningless crap, but I do think I've forgotten just what this page has meant to me -- to us.

 

I'm spending my free time researching ways to emphasize our lifestyle so that perhaps we can connect with other all-American Air Force families just like ourselves -- or better yet, patriots who still believe that America is the place to be.  If I could make any new friends from any walk of life, my efforts would be a success.

 

When Josh and I started this space, our goal was to meet people and tell our story.  We have certainly met a lot of people, but what was the point of meeting them if they were to stop coming around when I didn't write?  That was my big mistake, I know -- I had a lot of readers after we had been featured on "What's Your Story?",  but I had to learn how to keep up with my busy life AND take time to write about it.  I regret that it didn't happen sooner.

 

So, you'll have to forgive me.  For the next day or two, perhaps the next week, I will be changing things all around just to see how they work.  It's time that I make clear what is important to us.