Man, now I'm sorry I'm going to miss D*C. Thought about doing a one day thing since I live in town, but then I looked at the one day pass prices. Eep! Hope you have fun!

Well, I don't have kids, but I can reverse it. I end up doing tech support for my mother, and I'm almost 40. ("Honey, how do I save something??"). I definitely know more. :)

TJ's made it here a couple of years ago, but I've only been there a handful of times so far. I find them a bit pricey, though of course not as much as someplace like Whole Foods (one of the few alternatives I have). That'll teach me to move to the expensive part of town by not doing my pre-move research! It was a job relocation... I do use them to find Paradise Tea (aka the fruity tea that's served at The Cheesecake Factory) and I've been really impressed by a lot of their pre-prepared stuff. I just never get all that motivated to go that way instead of the other direction to my regular store. Guess that will be my new year's resolution. Branch out a bit more. I do kind of drool a bit when I get their mailers; they probably put out the only advertising pieces I'll not only read through but spend a lot of time going through. Those suckers are encyclopedic. BTW, no In-N-Out Burgers or Oingo Boingo here. I've heard many profess their love for I-N-O-B on TV and such, but haven't ever heard of the latter--not even sure what they sell. So not thanking you quite yet, but I'll give you a polite nod and smile for TJ's, how's that?

That would have been so much more awesome if they hadn't listed Rick Astley in the list of stars who would be appearing at the beginning of the show. Spoiled it! I mean, what else would he be there for, eh? Still loved it, even if I was the only one in the room laughing over it.

That is about seven different kinds of awesome.

I so loved MST3K when I found it back on the Comedy Channel when I was in college (back around '90 or so). I'd read some dry humanities text for class and then hear some reference to it by Joel not long afterwards (I suspect he had access to my syllabi, regardless of how improbable). It just wasn't the same after he left, even though Mike was a writer before then and I did like him as well. I missed the obscure references (and the invention exchanges). Such a great show!

Wil, you have definitely summed up a lot of what I've felt since election night. Eight years of being told I'm un-American for daring to question the path we've been on or for not drinking the Kool-Aid. I think a lot of people are tired of it, which is why there was such a groundswell of support this time. On election night, as I watched all the tweets filtering past, one bitter person took the first opportunity they had to post after the election was finally over that now liberals are suffering from contagious nationalism. So for eight years we're unpatriotic, but now we're too patriotic. Have your cake and eat it too, why don't you? I try to remind myself that the pols running these campaigns see the ploy of "My opponent is a _________" (fill in the blank--"far left liberal," "far right conservative," "socialist," "communist," or any other label they can demonize) as just that, a ploy to win the election. They don't seem to be bothered by the fact that many of the people they are trying to sway actually believe their words. When the campaign is over, they turn those words off (see any concession speech complimenting the race run by the winner) but those who have followed them are left believing the divisive words and left with such feelings of fear or hate that they cannot imagine ever working with their former opponent and new leader. This to me is extremely sad. I hope that politicians do take this as a mandate. I'm not naive enough to think things will go smoothly, but Lord, I sure hope it is better than it has been. It's so little to ask for, honestly.

That was awesome. The only thing missing? A York Peppermint Patty commercial. I think they bought every single commercial break during those Charlie Brown specials. Talk about a successful marketing campaign--I'm actually nostalgic for it.