.
After I got proofed last week while buying beer at the supermarket (which caused the wiseacre behind me to burst out laughing) I didn't think ANYTHING could top it as the nicest thing someone has said to/about me in 2011...until this.

Thank you, kind sir.
Holy Crow....what the heck is this, Anything Can Happen Day???

Nice surprise...then again, for those of us trying to budget our clix purchases, maybe not so nice.

Also, if you play at a venue that only stocks as much as is pre-ordered -- and exactly that much, no more, no less -- I can only wonder how that will work out.

Wow...

I'm probably going to wait on the Superman FF Pack. It's not even a question of money as it is that a) it doesn't feel as if it's a rush item and b) I haven't done anything with my main Superman set pieces. I'd be rushing to pick up something I might - maybe, but not likely - do something with over the Christmas/New Year's holidays.

It looks like a nice set - the dials, all the way down to the keywords - gave me fresh hope for what we may see in the Hulk FF Pack versions.

Aside from making dinner and running out to pick one of my sons up after work, I've been catching up on some email and trying to catch up on some comics. I can't believe it's almost 11 again.

Right back atcha, my friend.

Not too long after making that tough decision and saying goodbye to my buddy, I had drinks with a friend (and fellow Lab owner) who offered these words of comfort: you show an animal love by providing it with a good life and being selfless enough -- and loving it enough -- when the time comes not to let it suffer.

That worked for me.

Good words to live by.

I've always felt that way, but couldn't put it into such relevant words.

I'm up way too early today. Off to work a double, see you all later tonight.

Should be a busy, somewhat long work day for me, but not a double.

I'm still not quite able to accept that one week from now will be Thanksgiving.

This is the first year in maybe forever that I am not so much looking forward to that weekend. Never thought I'd work retail, but yet here I am.

I work Thanksgiving evening and the Saturday after. I'll miss Black Friday, but I don't know if that's going to matter much in the grand scheme of things.

My condolences. I left my last retail job behind early in '88.

I'm only dealing with retail impacts on these things via my sons, who are currently working in that sector. One has off, the other may still be stuck with his usual shift, but at least that's 4am to noon. Neither of them are working in places that are likely to see real holiday traffic (not spots where people would be doing Christmas shopping for the most part) so they shouldn't be seeing the worst of it in their current work.

One son's looking to get in at Target, though, primarily as an issue of pay, but that's another can of worms.

Anyway, we're aiming to do the usual for us, which will see me making Thanksgiving dinner but it taking on the automatic status of -- back-up? Instant leftovers? See, we go on Thanksgiving to have dinner with my in-laws. After we get home, the dinner I cooked largely the night before and early morning of Thanksgiving, which has been stored in the refrigerator, can come out in portions for reheating. So, with small variations the menu's set through Friday.

Being much more of a DC than Marvel guy -- and one who likes Superman -- I can't say I'll be able to wait too long, if at all. If I felt differently, I likely would have rushed to edit my Secret Santa Wish List to ask for the Superman FF, then let the process of wishin' and hopin' begin.

But this neat little (relatively) item sounds too good to me to lend itself to an exercise in patience.
Well, now I wish I'd rolled out of bed sooner. Sorry I missed you, Dana.

Suddenly I am reminded of that proverb about he who stays up to hoot with owls cannot expect to soar with eagles. Think I got that one from a certain Philosophy prof.

Or is that something I remember from a "Kung Fu" rerun?

Seriously...I know what that's like, hours-wise. I recall my double-down days, working 4 -12/12-8 in a hospital ER and the memories now seem like I'm watching a movie about some other guy. How the heck did I DO that?

Then again, all these years (decades) later, I'm doing two 12-hr. shifts on weekends. Of course, I'm also working far fewer hours per week nowadays.

That said, here's hoping the time flies until you check in here again.

Understood. I'm sure I'll get it in time, but I'm already looking at so many pieces and maps I've not used and have no immediate plans (seen opportunities) to change that that just adding more doesn't feel like a priority -- especially since the week after next I'll be having the single-clix booster Hulk items landing here, and two weeks later that main set and FF Pack -- all involving characters at least some of whom are much closer to my heart.

Part of the incentive in getting the housework (also involving a little furniture moving, but mainly a mix of cleaning and weeding out of things to make more efficient use of space) is to make it easier for me to casually set up home games again. It's been too long.

Whew...you know, depending on one's age, I think working holidays can appear to be an even balance of positive and negative, so it presents itself as a good trade-off.

Holy Crow, as a young guy looking at the pay incentives, I would ASK to work them --- Thanksgiving, in particular, which included the bonus of a free turkey dinner. I won't say that this was during a time when I pretty much thought everybody in the family would live forever, but as it was, I didn't give much thought to how precious holidays can be when shared with family members, for reasons that go beyond the fact that my mother and aunt cooked a better turkey.

Of course, that kind of wisdom often comes later than we'd like. And so it goes...

As for the present, as somebody who works 12-hr. shifts on Saturday and Sunday -- and being the most recent hire, at that -- at a place that operates 24/7, it's not lost on me that Christmas Eve and Christmas Day as well as New Year's Eve and New Year's Day fall this year on....yup.

The good news is that this does not involve retail. I do have some retail experience as a seasonal worker during the holiday shopping period and...Holy Crow!....what an experience that was.

The only thing I'd like less than that (working in retail sales during the holiday shopping season in general and on Black Friday in particular) is being the code enforcement guy in our local village whose primary job is to issue summonses to beleaguered shoppers who don't make it back to their cars in time. Talk about a way to say thanks for shopping here instead of going to the mall...

But hey, we do what we must and carry on. After 20 months of unemployment...well, brush my teeth and call me smiley, I'm just happy I HAVE to work ANY day!

Minus the free turkey dinner, I can easily remember those times -- wanting to work some of the holiday shifts, especially since there were those additional pay incentives -- time and a half. Probably the best was one spot where we were paid for the holiday and received time and a half if working during it, and so it was double time and a half for those hours.

Now, of course, the silent mantra has become "work harder, expect less." But that, too, is a different topic.
Yep. That's part of what finds me intent on focusing on the holidays this year more than I'd been doing. It's too late in several instances, but that's no reason to build more regret for the future.
Yep. We can only try to make the best of it.

I'm willing to accept that I'm very interested in seeing it work out this way and so may be deluding myself, but: The more I look it over the more I think the Hulk set looks as if it will play well with the other Marvel sets of the past couple years, especially as one blends them together.

At first I was seeing that it blended with the Cap set felt very naturally, and then I quickly spread that to Web of Spider-Man. I've since come to include GSX and even Hammer of Thor. Certainly, there are some stand-out, greatly empowered pieces in some of those sets, so HoT and maybe GSX may not feel as comfortable a fit depending on which characters one likes or especially which dials one is attracted to, but it's feeling as if it's mostly going to work together well, at least for my purposes.

HOLY CROW....just got the call...I'm working on Black Friday! And while the job has nothing to do with retail, my travel route involves taking highways that snake past major malls...

That said...
Yes, and then came the check we received and the shock of seeing how much we actually netted, after taxes...
Different topic, yes, but the same one that also covers the "work smarter" variations of the theme.
Making good memories...the best -- and truly priceless -- legacy of all.