And now I will share with you a quick snap my cousin took of our lovely cake topper. The new hubby and I wanted to really express ourselves.. so what could be more us than a custom “Han and Leia” cake topper made out of vintage figures?!  Han is sporting a ribbon bow-tie and I made Leia a lace cape.

YEAH. THE DISNEY FREAKIN’ AFTERNOON. It’s only been on my list of holy grail recordings since I started collecting. I am ecstatic. I will probably update this once I finish watching it, but so far, Ducktales has been first in the lineup. SCORE!

It’s been authenticated all over the place. So relax, rejoice, put on your best 80′s gear, and get out some glitter to throw around because this is Truly, truly, truly outrageous! Mark your calendars for May 28th, and if you don’t have the Hub, get it now!!

Daniel, my fiance and I were out on a date downtown in the city enjoying the sights (and the typical Seattle weather) and doing a few of the things we love most. After an enjoyable lunch on the waterfront, an encounter with an EPIC old van from the 70s painted with a Star Wars motif (pics to come!) and a quick jaunt to the arcade, we set out for some thrifting!  We had a lot of good finds, but most notable of all was my darling’s discovery of  that certain something I had desired for a very long time…

He took my hand and while grinning from ear to ear, led me into the electronics aisle (I had wandered off to another section) He told me what he was pretty certain he’d discovered.. and lo and behold, yes, my alpha male found me a beta!!  “Laura, I think I just found you a Beta player” I jumped with excitement and joy and a look of disbelief. He was just as thrilled with getting it for me as I had been with his discovery!  It’s a gorgeous Sanyo Betacord model, made in Japan. Unknowing if it would even function, naturally it was coming home with us.  Luckily, upon plugging it in and testing it out with a tape, we were thrilled to see it was in excellent working condition!

I’d often picked up the odd BETA I’d find here or there while at garage sales or thrift shops over the last few years, with the hopes of someday being able to play them. Finally, at long last  I can!! How wonderful to know that our dream of a defunct media room is becoming a reality bit by bit..  now all we have to do is organize our spare room, get all our old gaming and video systems set up, and find some way to display and store the massive amount of tapes we’ve got.  I  see a trip to Ikea in our future very soon…..

Testing out the player with a tape of Disney's Five Mile Creek

日本を助けてください   Nihon wo tasukete kudasai!

On a more serious note, I figure I might as well spread the word via any outlet I can. As you know there has been a disastrous outcome due to the tsunami in Japan. As someone who has studied the Japanese language and culture for many years, Japan is near and dear to my heart. I thought I’d take a moment and provide a link to the official American Red Cross donation page where contributions go to help the relief efforts in Japan and throughout the pacific.  Please consider taking some time to donate.

どうもありがとう Domo Arigato

Thank you very much

- ジェムガール

(Jemgirl)

Of course, I had to wear my Tron tee to show off my nerdy awesomeness.  Since it was sort of last minute, I regret not thinking ahead about bringing some of my vintage Tron merchandise with me to get signed. I told him how I’d been a fan for years and was glad to see the film have a rise in popularity again. He smiled and laughed when I told him I had the original VHS and CED releases of Tron. Very cool to have met him, and later he was just wandering around the con, so I smiled and said thanks again to him.

After about an hour of getting semi-lost around the convention center (which was huge, and I had never been in before) I somehow managed to find my way around, check out a lot of cool stuff, spend way too much money, and meet up with my friends. That is, after playing phone tag with them for over an hour.  Seattle is full of nerds, so its no surprise that Emerald City Con was packed and is ever increasing in popularity.  I managed to get a text back from my pal Mike, and took a break from the craziness, I met up with him for some pizza after checking out a panel by Boom! Studios. I love that in the context of where we were, it made total sense to answer my phone and reply ‘I’m behind the unicorn’ as to where my location was.

I had the pleasure of meeting several artists, and getting a couple commissions done. I was thrilled not only to finally be able to pick up the first 4 issues of Boom Kids new Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers comic (which I hadn’t been able to find, anywhere!) but I also picked up the Darkwing Duck annual and had artist James Silvani do a custom Darkwing Duck cover sketch for me (update to come later, as I still have to pick it up from a friend of mine, after a full day at the con, I totally forgot to grab it before I left!)

Other highlights include:

Very cool gal cosplaying as Synergy from Jem

Me & R2D2

Me posing ala He-man outside a make shift castle grayskull that one of the exhibitors had set up on the side of their booth.

Meeting Dan Parent,  current Archie comics artist who began working on Betty and Veronica in 1987. He’s doing an Archie style portrait of me that I should be receiving via mail sometime soon   Can’t wait to see it!

Hanging out with my cousins, who are all decked out in their Marvel gear.

And now for all the cool stuff that I purchased:

Two packs of vintage TMNT trading cards, with original box, for $1.50

Wuzzles and Moondreamers DVDs

Old comics: Madballs, a couple of 80′s Archie digests, 90′s Disney Afternoon, a couple of Marvel Barbie comics ( I LOVED those growing up!) two issues of Amethyst Princess of Gemworld and a Silverhawks comic

New Comics (all Boom! Studios releases)

Muppet show, Darkwing Duck annual and Rescue Rangers issues 1-4

Close up of Muppets comic. A special edition for ECCC, Miss Piggy and Kermit skydiving over the Space Needle   !!

All in all I had a FABULOUS weekend, so much fun. I will definitely be going to more cons in the future! Possibly even go really nerdy and dress up next time.  Sigh, well the only complain I have is  that I must have picked up some kind of cold while there, because a few days later I got sick, and currently still am. Gah, I’m tired just from blogging. Other than that life is going great, I’m thrilled with anticipation for my fiance’s return shortly, and hopefully I”ll be feeling much better by then.  More blogging to come soon! (cause it’s not like I have much else to do at the moment :p)