I am now old enough to stop trying to pretend that I can fool people into thinking I’m not a geek.  Read that again because it is both well constructed and important.  If you don’t like geeks, you aren’t going to like this.

On the Saturday before the premiere of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, I, along with my family, committed the ultimate act of committed geekdom:  we attended the Lord of the Rings Marathon at our local theater.  All three Lord of the Rings Extended Versions on The Big Screen.

12 hours of movie.

14 hours at the theater.

One day.

One Ticket to Rule Them All.

Being a True Fan, I arrived slightly ahead of the rest of the 25 people who attended.  We got good seats.

The end result was an insane theater food bill, a little bit of a headache, and an AWESOME day watching an extremely well told 12 hour story.  Only five days later, it was time for the midnight premiere of The Hobbit.  I organized family and friends and ultimately had a group of 11 people ready with pre-purchased tickets for The Hobbit midnight show.

My daughter attended wearing an awesome homemade Galadriel costume.  I suggested to her that I could go as Gandalf, but she had a better idea:  Go as director Peter Jackson.

I consented.

It’s amazing what black dye, a flannel shirt, round glasses, and a faux Oscar can do to transform your appearance.  By being Mr. Tolkien Movie, I had ample opportunity to rub elbows with die hard fans.  I also got to try out my hard-won Kiwi accent.  (Tip: always say “Hobbit” so that it sounds like a question, and pronounce it haaaw-BET) Continue Reading…

I have nothing personally against crepes.  They are full of yummy goodness, but they are now creeping into places where crepes once feared to tread.

You see, Bob Evans had a farm.  I went there when I was a kid.  It had cows and chickens and lots of pigs.  Bob founded a restaurant chain and probably became a go-zillionaire, but he didn’t move to Manhattan or open a capuccino bar.

He sold lots of sausage.  He had a barn.  He wore a hat.

I never met him, but he was a smart guy.  His restaurants have always served breakfast all day, which is the greatest invention in American Culinary History.  Breakfast isn’t just the most important meal of your day, it is the most awesome, especially when you’re eating it sometime other than first thing in the morning.

So I sat down recently at our local Bob Evans Restaurant in eager anticipation of breakfast-y goodness, only to find unmistakable evidence that some urbanite with a degree in Culinary Arts has obviously gotten the menu choices into his grip.

Right between the Pot Roast and the Big Egg Breakfast is the Most American Breakfast of All, the Farmer’s Choice… and one of the options is a fruit crepe.

A fruit crepe.

Farmers don’t choose fruit crepes.  Farmers don’t ask for fruit crepes.  Farmers don’t even know how to spell fruit crepe, not because they’re stupid, but because they’re fruit crepes. Click to Keep Reading and Would you like More Coffee?