ready for christmas and connie cobbler

okay...

so i'm hoping that everyone had a terrific thanksgiving and that all got a chance to sit back and relax with family and friends for a couple of days. or not. sometimes it's nicer not to be with family. depending on the family. 'tever.

i got to spend some good time on thanksgiving day with both my family and sharon's--where there was lots of food and drink at both--as well as visit with my friend, kathi and her family on saturday--where there was also plenty of food and drink. (somewhere in there, on friday afternoon, there was a ping-pong tournament between tyler, sharon, and myself and i was mostly awesome...!)

so, though i'm loving the continued mild fall-ish weather in our region (knock wood), it's given me a false sense of the season and so, though i've tried not to let them sneak up on me, halloween and thanksgiving seems to come and go rather quickly. i don't want that happening with christmas, so i'm doing my bit to get into the spirit early, listening to the dedicated christmas music radio station and starting to get out some of the classic christmas movies. it's helping, but i need something more...

some cool retro-christmas nostalgia.
something to tug on our heartstrings and take us back to those christmases of old...


oh, yeah...
here it is...


a little "scared of santa" to get the season started.













how 'bout it? got anything for me...?
send it in.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


so i've known my pal, james desalvo, since the early 80s when we were studying theater in college together. typical story; we lost touch in the mid-eighties and ran into each other somewhere in the late nineties, always chatting, always excited about whatever the other guy was working on. as a high school teacher in the winter and camp director in the summer--working weekends at the nearby second-run movie theater as well--i was always amazed that he had any time to work on anything on the side...but he did.

and so i'm proud to post here, james' first foray into the world of being a published author, as he presents--and i do too--




here's the description from the book jacket that illustrates it a lot better than i ever could...

"Connie Cobbler is a toy who had it all. She was the star of her own television series Connie Cobbler and the Pastry Pals. Her face appeared on t-shirts and she even starred in The Pastry Pals Movie. She was one of the brightest stars of Toy Town. Then tragedy struck. Her friend TIFFANY TART accidentally disappeared into the Custard River while filming an episode of Connie Cobbler and the Pastry Pals. Unable to save her friend and spurred on by grief, Connie Cobbler turned away from show business and became a hard boiled, root beer swigging private detective, dedicating her life to protecting the toys of Toy Town.

"Connie Cobbler's day begins with a tough case. BRENDA BOMBSHELL, one of the top stars in Toy Town, needs Connie to find her kidnapped dog. When Connie starts working on the case, she soon figures out that not everything adds up. Clues lead her to the missing pooch, but some clues also suggest that Tiffany Tart's disappearance might not have been an accident after all. The closer she comes to the truth, it becomes clear that someone wants her out of the picture. Permanently. Calling upon her best friend ACTION JIM, a former action figure who gave up a life of adventure for love, and the rest of her Pastry Pals, Connie sets out to discover what kind of toy would want her gone and solve the case of what really happened to her friend."


fun, right?
i'm sure you can gather the references. and i can promise you there are many more--and quite a few twists and turns--throughout this wonderful, fanciful book! give it a look and make my friend james happy!
you can see the book and read the first few pages at

http://www.amazon.com/Connie-Cobbler-Detective-James-DeSalvo/dp/0982917104/ref=pd_rhf_p_t_1



gotta go~!
smell ya later!
todd