Happy that the Vintage DC Comics Calendar is back!

Interesting choice for the cover of a 2016 calendar.  Does it have a twofold meaning?

I was pleasantly surprised when I walked into Books-A-Million at Edgewater Mall in Biloxi, MS, Saturday and saw a new Vintage DC Comics Calendar for 2016!  Asgard Press made these calendars in the past for a few years.  I always bought them because they were so awesome, but they haven't made them in a while.  I hadn't even heard that they were going to start making them again for 2016.  I always loved these calendars because they showed old DC Comics comic book covers.

The calendar cover is a comic book cover of Wonder Woman running for president.  Right off the bat, I realized why that cover may have been picked: in 2016, Wonder Woman is going to be featured on the big screen for the first time ever in Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, and also in 2016, there may be a woman elected president for the first time!  And I hope there is!  (Clinton, anyway, not Fiorina.)

The cover used for May 2016 is of Hawkman #1, from 1964.  I own that issue, and its one of my most valuable comics.

Oh, and this calendar is BIG, too, 11"x30" when opened up all the way.  And I got it for 50% off the suggested retail price of $21.95.  Calendar shopping is always best after Christmas, cause you can always get them for a lot of percentage points off!

Halloween and honor roll

+Barbra and +Kaitlin both made The Osceola Times last week!  Barbra handed out candy at a school for +American Greetings, and Katie made the honor roll at her school!

A Jedi wasn't the only thing Barbra was for Halloween this year!

Katie starting her senior year off right!

CC 2015

My company convenience started this past Thursday, May 7!  Yee haw!  The CC paper said I'm supposed to go back July 13, which would mean that I'll get 9 and a half weeks off.  But I might have to go back June 29, which would mean that I would only get 7 and a half weeks off.  But shoot, I want the whole 9 and a half weeks; 7 and a half is just getting started!  Hahaha!!

Fridays off in the past...Company Convenience in the future

This past Friday was my first Friday working in five months!  My Fridays off began Friday, October 31, when I called in sick to work.  After that, I started taking vacation almost every Friday through the end of February.  The only Fridays I didn't take vacation were the Fridays already given off by the company, which were the day after Thanksgiving, the day after Christmas, and the day after New Year's Day.  March 6 would have been the first Friday I worked since October, but we were given a bad weather day for the winter storm!  So March 13 was the first Friday I worked in 20 weeks!  (We did have to work on Saturday, March 7, however, so that was the weekend that my three-day (at least) weekends ended.)

But don't feel too sorry for me; I only have a few more weeks to work, and then I'll be off work for a while on Company Convenience again!

CC 2014

Got my Company Convenience started this week!  Yeah, buddy!  It started at 1:30 pm Monday, and it lasts until June 23.  That's almost eight full weeks!  Then I should get it again another time or two during the summer, especially during the month of August.  Awesooooooome.......

Dallas birthday trip for Barbra

Barbra and I went to Dallas two weeks ago. Barbra had been wanting for a while to see the Dallas Mavericks play in Dallas, so we went to the Mavs game for her birthday.

Shortly after arriving at American Airlines Center, home of the Mavericks

We didn't realize when I bought the tickets for the game a few weeks earlier, but the day that we would be there for the game was going to be the 50th anniversary of President Kennedy's assassination right there in Dallas! We didn't go to the site of the assassination on that day, but we had been there a year earlier when we went to Texas on vacation.

Site of the assassination in 2012 when we we visited Dallas

X marks the spot in 2012, although it has since been repaved and had another X put down

There's another strange coincidence to this trip that we didn't realize when I bought the game tickets.  Going to the Mavs game was my present to Barbra to celebrate her 41st birthday.  Dirk Nowitzki, the Mavs star player and Barbra's favorite player, wears number 41 for Dallas!

Two 41s!

Anybody want a ride in this cab?  Notice the star so that you know for sure what kind of cowboy they're talking about!

While we were in town, we checked out Galleria Dallas.  It's a pretty big mall.

21 weeks of goodness!

This week marked my first full (40 hour) week of working since April!! I had 21 weeks in a row of either not working or only working a partial week. My days-off work schedule went as follows:

-Week of April 15: 21 hours of sick time and a vacation day
-Week of April 22-week of June 17: Nine weeks of Company Convenience (voluntary layoff)
-Week of June 24: Two vacation days to go on vacation to Gulf Shores, AL
-Week of July 1: Two holiday days for Independence Day
-Week of July 8: Company Convenience again
-Week of July 15: 4.5 non-scheduled hours for lack of work
-Week of July 22-week of August 26: Company Convenience yet again, which began July 26
-Week of September 2: Labor Day, two hours of sick time, and four hours of paid leave

So now I'm back to working full weeks for a while, unless I take a day off here or there. But by November or December I'll be taking off every Friday until my vacation days run out March 1. Then I'll only be a few weeks away from Company Convenience again!

CC 2013

I just noticed that I post on here every year that I'm on Company Convenience, so...I guess I'll do it again this year! I've been off since April 22, and I'm going back June 24. That's nine weeks, baby. But hopefully I'll get off for the month of August too, just like I did last year! :-)

CC 2012

I've been late the last two years posting here on Blogger that I'm on Company Convenience, but I won't be this year. So here it is: I'm on Company Convenience...starting today!! WOOOOO HOOOOO!! Nine-and-a-half weeks, baby!!!! Today was our first day off, and we're scheduled to go back July 9th. Happy days are here again!!!

CC 2011

I'm a little late posting this, but I'm on Company Convenience! I'm currently on my seventh week. We were told we would get ten weeks off, but I figured all along that it would just be nine, because we always go back the second week of July. Oh well, I'm sure most people won't feel sorry for me that I only get nine weeks off instead of ten. HA HA!!

CC 2010

I think every year I mention on here that I'm on Company Convenience. Well, I'm a little late mentioning this year, because it's almost over with, but hey...I'm on Company Convenience!

I'm the one who bought Action Comics #1!

Well folks, as I'm sure you've heard, a copy of Action Comics #1, the first appearance of Superman, was sold at auction this week for $1.5 million. (And if you haven't heard, you can read about it here.) Anyway, the buyer was anonymous...until now! I'm happy to reveal that it was me! I've been saving for this issue for a while now, and so when I saw it go on sale, I just had to snatch it up! It's been graded and put in a protective sleeve, and they're saying that the buyer may not ever take it out of the sleeve...yeah right! I'm tearing that baby open as soon as I get it home! Reading it while I eat me some cookies! I'll try to to get too many crumbs on it. Oh well, read more about it here!

Kiss and Star Wars In Concert both playing in Missouri RIGHT NOW!!!

Missouri is rocking right this minute!! Tonight, Star Wars In Concert is playing in St. Louis, and Kiss is playing in Kansas City! And they both started at 7:30pm! Of course, Kiss had an opening band, but by now Kiss has taken the stage, so at this very second Kiss and Star Wars are both rocking Missouri at the same time! But I'm not at either one, cause I saw Kiss in Little Rock, and I'll be seeing Star Wars In Concert in Nashville Sunday. But Missouri is the coolest place in the world tonight, buddy!!

Kiss is back!

Kiss is back, buddy! Last week they started their new North American tour, and next week they'll be releasing their first studio album in eleven years. And here lately I've been hearing Kiss songs on the radio, and a couple of stations are giving away free tickets to the Little Rock show. Speaking of the Little Rock show, that's the one I'm going to, cause Memphis isn't on the first leg of the tour. Will Memphis be announced at a later date? It should be, because the fans voted on where the tour should go, and I think Gene Simmons said the top 60 cities would be on the tour, and Memphis made that cut. Or will Memphis get SHAFTED, like it did with Van Halen (with Sammy Hagar) a few years ago, which I wrote about a few times in my blog back then. I'll tell you what, if Kiss doesn't come to Memphis, I'll blame it squarely on FedExForum, cause for some reason I think that they just don't like for too many big name acts to come their establishment. Why, I don't know. But we'll see!

Some more company convenience

Just got some more company convenience. I'll be off for a week and half. Now that's what I'm talking about!!

I saw the space station!

Just saw the International Space Station for the first time! It passed directly overhead for five minutes, from 9:40pm to 9:45pm. If you were looking for it, you couldn't miss it; it looked just like a moving star. I've seen parts of it in person before, before they were attached to the rest of the station: the first time on January 1, 2000, at Kennedy Space Center (awesome way to open up the 2000s), and the other time just two months ago, when I visited KSC again (although the parts I saw two months ago haven't been taken to the station yet.)

Thank you for the championship, Memphis Grizzlies. Signed, Los Angeles Lakers

The Los Angeles Lakers are about to win their next championship. And it's all because of the Memphis Grizzlies.

Y'see, last year, Memphis traded all-star player Pau Gasol to the Lakers for...um...well...nothing. He was traded for like a draft pick or two that Memphis has probably already given away, a player or two that I don't think are with the team anymore (and that Memphis knew weren't going to be with the team for long), and Pau's brother, Marc Gasol. Now, Marc is a good player, but hey, there are a lot of good players in the league. But Pau Gasol is an all-star.

Oh, and there's another thing, too: Jerry West. West has been with the NBA for a hundred years as both a player and an executive. 95 of those years he was with the Lakers...5 of those years he was with the Grizzlies. He left the Grizzlies in 2007 to go back and hang around the Lakers again. The very next year, Memphis traded Pau Gasol to Los Angeles for nothing. West had it planned all along.

As soon as Gasol went to the Lakers last year, I knew that they would come close to winning the championship last year, but that they would defintely win it this year. My only slim hope of LA not winning was if LeBron James and the Cavaliers played them in the Finals. But the Cavs choked just like they always do. And LA is on its way to a sweep of the Finals against...get this...the MAGIC.

So when the Lake Show kisses and slobbers all over that trophy Thursday, and the rapist Kobe Bryant is all smiles (after looking pissed off after every play in the series, even ones that go in his favor...why is he mad when he makes a shot? Is he effed up in the head?), all I've got to say is...you're welcome, Los Angeles Rich Man's Team...we gave it to ya!!

Company Convenience time again, buddy

It's the most wonderful time of year again...time for...Company Convenience!! A time where I'm off work and can do whatever I want to do, all day every day, and get paid for it! Now that's what I'm talkin' 'bout...

Chewie gonna make me famous!

I sent the picture of me and Peter Mayhew (aka Chewbacca) that I had taken at Star Wars Celebration II to Star Wars Insider magazine. They have a section called Bounty Hunters that contains pictures of people that had their pictures taken with Star Wars celebrities. Maybe they'll publish my pic in the magazine and I'll be famous again, like I was a couple months ago when I walked onto the background of the Grizzlies' live pre-game show on TV!

Barbra and I to be on The Amazing Race!!!

We made it! Barbra and I have been applying for years to be on The Amazing Race, and finally we’re going to be on there! We just got the call today. At first, Barbra didn’t really want to do it, since she doesn’t like to fly, and we’d have to fly to all the different locations via airplane. But when I reminded her that we’d be playing for a million dollars, she said “Where’s the jet?” For more about this awesome news, click here!