Figgy does Retro

Last year was kind of wonky as far as the holidays went plus I didn't think my unit at work would appreciate Figgy as much so I didn't bring him out.  This year I had more time to bring him out and my new unit I thought would appreciate him more, so I gambled.  

I brought him to work one day as a decoration.  I had no intention on using him until Rachelle asked me if that was an elf on the shelf.  I said yes, his name is Figgy.  She got super excited about it and basically told me that I had to use him how he was intended to be used.  I told her okay...you're going to be first!

Since Rachelle left early that day, Liz and I decided to definitely make her the first target.  We needed a quick idea...

Instagram post:  Figgy was very naughty on Wednesday and made snow angels on Rachelle's desk with hole punch dots.  He made a huge mess but nonetheless put a smile on our faces. #elfontheshelf, #retro

The next morning she was super excited that Figgy visited her first.

Liz and I though we should do one for everyone!  We would have to come up with something creative that fit everyone (to the best of our knowledge) and when we knew they were going to be at work.

Our next victim was Alicia Maria and since she had some decorations on her desk I decided to make it look like he was stealing bulbs off her mini Christmas tree.  I had set it up to look like he had been caught in a booby trap.  We didn't have time the day before to set it up so we hustled getting it ready because she would be in the office soon.

Instagram post: Yesterday, Figgy got caught stealing bulbs off of Alicia Maria's Christmas tree and found himself upside down. #elfontheshelf, #retro

When she did arrive she was really excited that Figgy chose her that day.  There was a lot of giggling and smiling.  She saw that it was a WSU Cougar elf, she made sure to point out her purse was purple.  She is a Husky fan by default due to one of her kids.

Nancy, our world traveler, was next on our list to make smile.  Again, since we didn't plan the night before we had to get it done in the morning before she got to her desk.  Liz and I decided on an Italy theme since she had just gotten back from that in September.  We found a small bowl and cut up string to make it look like spaghetti, Liz had some Tapatio we poured on top of it, I had a small pizza, a small baguette and decorated it with some lights and an Italian flag.

Instagram post: Today, Figgy visited with Nancy and reminisced on their days while touring Italy, complete with spaghetti, pizza and a baguette. #elfontheshelf, #retro

When she got into the office she was smiling from ear to ear.  We knew we just made her day.  She thanked us for thinking of her and handed back everything.  I told her she could keep the Italian flag and she kept that in her cubicle.

This was starting a Figgy trend and I had to come up with some more ideas and supplies so I didn't have to repeat any.  I started getting on the internet to check out some of the ideas and came up with a few of my own. 

I took a day off to get a nail out of my tire so Liz was in charge of moving Figgy to another person's desk.  She couldn't think of anyone nor did she have any supplies so she stuck him in the front of our unit in one of our small Christmas trees.

Instagram post: Figgy, as inappropriate as he is, decided to climb the tree like a cat yesterday.  My cat doesn't even climb the tree!  Luckily, none of the decorations came off. #elfontheshelf, #retro

 Julie was our next target.  One of the things Julie and I have in common is that we both went to WSU.  I gathered all I could to make my football scene awesome!  That morning I got there a little earlier and set it all up.  Julie usually comes in after 8 so I had plenty of time to get it all ready.

Instagram post: Apple Cup rematch at Julie's desk today. Instead of the football being kicked through the upright, the husky mascot was kicked through the uprights instead!  Cougs win! #elfontheshelf, #retro, #gocougs, #wavetheflag

Julie smiled when she saw her desk.  Figgy strikes again!

I really couldn't figure out anything for Alicia so I just made it as weird as I could to get a laugh out of her.  The night before I went through all of my weird toys and artifacts and came up with an idea.  Alicia also comes in after 7 so we had some time to set it up before she got into the office.

Instagram post:  A nine duck open penguin?  Where's the horses?  The sleigh?  Figgy has definitely gotten to the holiday sprit very uniquely.  #elfontheshelf, #retro

She got to her desk and laughed.  She thanked me for the funny surprise.

 Jess was Figgy's next individual and he wanted to premier his band for her.  That morning I assembled his drum kit at her desk.  With much anticipation, I present to you, The Figgy Puddin Band!!

Instagram post:  Forget Rock Band and Guitar Hero, I present to you The Figgy Puddin Band!  Jess had him play for her all day and he even had time for an encore! #elfontheshelf, #retro

 Later on that day Jess came up to me and thanked me for such a creative use of the elf on the shelf.  She said her kids are going to love the pictures.

I chose Ashley for the next one because she really loves the Seahawks and they play the Rams this next Sunday.  I had Liz get some of her Seahawk stuff from home.  I had some stuff with me already and we used some of Ashley's Seahawk memorabilia from her desk.  Liz and I set this one up in the morning before Ashley got to her desk.

Instagram post:  Blue Friday! Figgy was joined by the 12th elf today to support the Seahawks for their battle with the Rams this Sunday.  Ashley was pretty stoked to find out this morning she had been "elffed." #elfontheshelf, #retro, #gohawks

Ashley absolutely loved it and appreciated the 12th man spirit in the office.  We had fun setting it up for her.

I found some extra props at the store.  I heard Leslie loves to bake so with the help of Alicia Maria's props and Figgy, we made Leslie some gingerbread cookies when she returned to the office.

Instagram post: Figgy decided he would bake Leslie and the rest of Retro some gingerbread cookies today.  He sure knows his way around a kitchen.  #retro, #elfontheshelf, #gingerbreadcookies

I told Connie that she was next and told me she wanted something simple and not messy.  I told her I would let Figgy know.  That evening Figgy went to work on his surprise for Connie.  The next morning Connie was happy to get a homemade Christmas card from him.

Instagram post:  Figgy pulled out his arts and crafts and decided to share his hand made card with Connie this morning.  And he didn't even make a mess!  #retro, #elfontheshelf, #artsandcrafts

 The next day as soon as Taja left for the day, Liz helped me set up Figgy's next scene.  With all the cookies and arts and crafts the past few days he needed a relaxing atmosphere so he went camping!

Instagram post: After all the holiday hustle and bustle, Figgy decided to take it easy yesterday camping out and doing some star gazing.  He said it was relaxing and he is charged up for the new year.  #retro, #elfontheshelf, #campout

I had to wait until after the new year to finish the rest of our team because a lot of people were out of the office.  The next one on my list was Mark.  Mark is our expert on nerdy things such as Star Wars, Star Trek, Dr. Who and Battle Star Galactica...to name a few.  I got together my Star Wars stuff and Figgy was the center of attention.

Instagram post: While Mark was away for the holidays, Figgy was probably somewhere where he shouldn't have been and got caught!  I'm sure with the help of Chewbacca, Yoda and R2-D2 he can escape the grip of Darth Vader and his light saber.  #elfontheshelf, #retro, #starwars, #maytheforcebewithyou

Mark came up to me and asked if he could keep it up for the rest of the day and I said of course you can!  He told me this was THE.BEST.EVER!

Marnee was the next person on the list and her interests were hard to find.  I wanted to do a hunting theme but I had to settle with a back yard BBQ scene instead.

Instagram post:  Figgy bringing in the new year by grilling burgers and hotdogs for his Retro peeps.  He gave Marnee first dibs on the food choices and made her smile when she came into work this morning. #retro, #elfontheshelf, #burgers, #hotdogs, #grillin

She was very surprised yet smiley when she handed the stuff back to me.  I was glad I could put a smile on her face.

Tim grew up near Chicago and loved the Cubs.  I pulled out my mitt, Figgy also had a mitt and I printed out a few Cub logos online.  Liz helped me get the stuff up on his desk before he walked in.

Instagram post:  With spring training fast approaching and football season on the brink of being over, Figgy decided to bust out his mitt and baseball to support Tim for his love of the Chicago Cubs. #retro, #elfontheshelf, #gocubsgo

 Tim came in and immediately smiled at his desk.  He took a picture with his phone and sent it to his wife Stephanie.  She was pretty stoked about it too.

We were running out of ideas and days so I did a flamingo who ate all the hashbrowns to Liz and she had Figgy climbing up the Christmas tree trying to steal my 12th man flag with a shark booby trap.  We had some good laughs and it was fun posing him around the office doing random things that made people smile.

Until next December!

Next Adventure:  Christmas Eve, Snow, Seahawks and Star Wars

Christmas Tree Extravagenza

We probably should have gotten our tree last weekend when the weather was a little better but this was the weekend Ben could come with us.  I asked grandma and mom if the third weekend worked for them as well and they said yes.  We had to do it this weekend because next weekend would be too late and we had a lot to do to get the house ready for Christmas since we were hosting it again this year.

I am so glad mom and dad got a pick-up truck last spring.  It has come in handy for various things throughout the year including taking our stuff to the dump, picking up limbs in the yard, hauling refrigerators and getting Christmas trees.  Ben and I headed over with our recycle and met mom at their house to get in the truck and pick up grandma.

We headed over to Gerritt's Greens.  I was glad it wasn't raining but the ground was muddy from the previous rain we had over the course of the night.  We found a parking spot, got out and locked the doors.  We walked over to the fire pit and intercepted Lynn.  We visited with her for a while.  We talked about what we've all been doing, the trip to Ecuador, our jobs, family life etc.  In return she talked about being a grandmother and traveling to various parts of Asia.  She offered hotdogs and Ben ended up eating one with his hot chocolate. I had a small candy cane and a cup of hot chocolate I ended up spilling by accident so I got some more.

We picked a saw and a couple of knee pads and headed out to their L-shaped Christmas tree farm.  We started on one side and snaked our way through the rest of the trees.  I like Douglas Firs but there really wasn't that many around anymore.  Greg had planted some during the years past tree cycles but they really weren't ready to be cut quite yet.  They were still little trees.

After about 20 minutes of searching, Ben and I found the one we wanted and I had Ben cut it down.

Grandma had also picked out one that would work for her and we helped her cut it down.  Mom on the other hand, was really picky and wanted a smaller one and not a Douglas Fir. 

She informed us that dad wanted to put it on a small table instead of having a full grown 6-7 foot tree in the house.  It was going to be hard anyway because they were redoing that room anyway and the floor still needed to be finished.

We took our trees to the truck and threw them in making sure we knew whos was whos.  We paid Lynn, I usually pay for grandma's tree as her Christmas present each year, told her thank you and were on our way to grandma's house to drop her and her tree off. 

We offered to take it into the house for her and put it in her tree stand.  She thanked us and we left to take mom and her tree back to her house.

When we got there, I had Ben take our tree out and tie it on the top of the Escape while I helped mom bring hers in the house.  I told mom to have dad help her get it ready so it didn't sit there for days and get dry like the one did last year.  We said we would see them later because we had to go get the decorations and stuff out before Ben has to go to work.

Friday after work I cleared out a spot for the tree in the dining room since we had to move a lot of our stuff around for people to live here with us.  Now that we have a free room open I put all of it in there for the time being.

Saturday afternoon, while Ben was at work, I got the tree in the stand and dug through all the boxes to find my decorations and ornaments.  My cat, Calvin, watched me the entire time.  He really wanted to chew on the tree when I wasn't looking.  It took me about an hour to get the tree in the stand, the lights on it, the garland and all the ornaments and I stepped away for not even a minute and my cat was eating the tree.  Ugh!  We were going to have to put the sheet around it again this year.

The sheet kept him away for the most part but he still ate the tree a few more times when the sheet was off of it.  We were just about ready for Christmas but the tree was the last major thing we needed to get done.  Let the Christmas holiday begin!

Next Adventure:  Figgy Does Retro

Sunday Night Football: Eagles vs. Seahawks

A few days before I get a message from Ben asking us if we were doing anything on Sunday and I said not that I can think of.  I asked why.  He said Del couldn't go to the Seahawks game (he is a season ticket holder) and offered us the tickets.  I asked Ben if he had anything he was doing and he had to work and was very disappointed.  I told him I could ask mom if she wanted to go.  So I called her and asked.  I told her I had to know now so he didn't give them to someone else.  She immediately said yes but I told her that he wanted $100 each for them.  That was a steal of a price considering most tickets in the stadium are over $300 or more even though we were up in the 300 level with most of the visiting team.  The seats we sat in last December were free because someone else bought them but the price that day if you were to buy them were $1200 each because they were like 15 rows up from the field.  Insane!

I just couldn't believe we were going to another game.  Two of them back to back seasons?!  I wish I would have gotten to go to one of the games in 2013.

Del had emailed me the tickets so I printed them off and made sure I had them stuck to the door so I wouldn't forget them.  I told him we would pay him at the Christmas party in the upcoming weeks.

I asked mom what she would like to do beforehand because we were going to the primetime game which started at 5:30.  She said she didn't know and we would wing it once we got there.

The day before I got all of my stuff ready including my see through bag, hand warmers and my layers of clothes I probably would be wearing by the end of the night.

That morning, I left around 11 and I made sure I had everything packed up in the Escape and since I was heading into Rainier and had some time I took the recycle with me and dumped it off at the transfer station.  I told mom I was on my way and just left the dump so she knew how much time she had before I got there.  Mom was ready, threw her stuff in the back and we headed towards Yelm.  We also stopped by the bank on our way out of town just in case we needed some money.  Between the two of us we had $80.  I wasn't sure how the parking situation would go.

We got onto Reservation Road and followed it to I-5.  I wasn't sure how the traffic would be either.  Traffic was glorious.  There weren't any accidents, no traffic, no construction, no nothing.  We got to Seattle in no time.

We got off at the stadium exit and took 3rd to downtown because I told mom I had an idea.  This past summer Groundspeak started awarding certain geocachers the ability of publishing virtuals.  This virtual cache is part of a limited release of virtuals created between August 24, 2017 and August 24, 2018.  Only 4,000 cache owners were given the opportunity to hide a virtual cache.  I, sadly, was not one of them.

She said sure so we found a side road that took us waterfront, which has changed since the last time we were down here, and found a parking spot.  I knew we would have to pay money to park.  It cost us $16 to park for 2 hours!  Insane!! Luckily we only come here maybe twice a year.

We decided to go up to Pike Place Market before we walked along the waterfront.  We headed up the stairs and walked up Post Alley and through the area with the gum wall.

Even though it was winter there were a lot of tourists enjoying the second germiest place on Earth!  We headed out to the main street in front of the market and found the exact spot for the virtual cache, Pike Place Market (GC7B9XN) and took our picture to prove we were there.

I don't care about other cachers but virtual caches are probably my favorite type of caches and there just really isn't that many in Washington I haven't gotten.  When I found out they were allowing more vituals to be published I was super stoked.

We wandered around the market for a little while.  We paid for two hours so we were going to use the entire two hours.

We decided we wanted lunch from the waterfront so we walked back down and found our favorite place, Ivar's Fish Bar.  We ordered and I waited until she came back from the bathroom and then we traded places.  When I came out our food still wasn't ready yet.  I took a few pictures. 

We took our fish and chips into the outdoor patio and ate our food.  We talked about how we thought the game was going to go.  Since we were in the gauntlet of our season and we've lost some key games I was just hoping for a well played game.  Of course I wanted the win but I just wanted them to play a complete game with the best team in the NFC East.  I also hoped that the Seahawks would make this game worthwhile for us.  Mom didn't eat all of her French fries so we fed the rest of them to the seagulls.  One snuck up on me and stole some of the French fries because I was not feeding them fast enough.  I was kinda on edge because I didn't want them to bite my fingers.

Our two hours were almost up and we walked back to the Escape.  We had to start heading to Century Link so we could find a decent parking spot.  Hopefully the spots we've been parking in for years were available.

The places over by 8th, Holgate and Massachusetts have changed so much since the last time we've been here.  They basically made it really hard for people to park here for games.  I couldn't find a spot to squeeze my vehicle into and I was very sad we actually had to spend money this time on parking...and it wasn't cheap.  We drove around the block a few times to find a spot.  We found one across the street from the Goodwill at some business called MacMillian Piper which specializes in import and export shipping.  We backed in and paid the guy $25.  I was disgusted that I finally had to pay to park...but I knew it would happen eventually.

We made sure we had everything we would need, hid some of the possible "stealables", locked the Escape and started walking the few blocks towards the stadium.  I wanted to be at the game somewhat early so we could explore some of the activities Touchdown City had within the field house.  The walk was pretty typical since we've done this walk a lot over the years and the normal "homeless" people looking for handouts were staged in the same areas as well.  You always see this old lady sitting in a wheelchair attached to a oxygen tank holding a cardboard sign asking for money.  It always made me sad seeing her sit here every time I come here wondering if she had no family to take care of her.

Earlier I had posted that mom and I were going to the game and one of my friend from WSU were also going to be at the game and told me that she had a tailgate set up off of 1st Ave near the Showbox.  I knew were that was! Mom and I wandered over there and tried to spot Jess.  I haven't seen Jess in at least 10 years.  I saw her amongst her tailgaters.  She ran over to me and gave me a great big hug.  It was nice seeing her.  We visited for about an hour and caught each other up on what we've been doing, some of the trips we've been on, people we've seen and were just glad we had some time to catch up for a bit.

I told Jess to have a great time at the game and mom and I headed towards the stadium.  There were a lot of people to wade through as we got closer to the field house.  We got through security and into the field house.  We really weren't sure what to do since we rarely come to games. 

We ended up wandering around.  We got free rally towels from AmFam and toured some Seahawks history and got an autograph from Randall Morris, who was a running back for the Seahawks from 1984-1988.  It was fun visiting with him for a few minutes.

We checked the time and it was time to head up the stairs and into the stadium.  I got my tickets out and got in line.  I handed them to the lady to scan and they wouldn't scan.  She told me they were from last week's game.  My stomach dropped.  We got out of line and I immediately tried to get a hold of Del on Facebook messenger.  I typed out "Del, you sent me the wrong tickets."

Within a few minutes he responded with, "Crap, sorry, let me resend them."  I told him it was okay and that I received them.  I told him thank you and he told me to enjoy the game and that he wished he could have been able to make it.  I had to use my phone for the tickets, which was weird, got back in line and had the lady scan them again.  We got into the stadium and it was glorious.

Now we hike.

The last time Del gave me his tickets was preseason two years ago and Ben and I went.  His seats were on the 300 level about halfway up.  I remember how tired and sweaty we were by the time we got to our seats.

Even though it was getting cold when mom and I got to the seats we were tired and sweaty.  I sat down and hoped we didn't have to get up for any reason.  The one great thing about getting there somewhat early is we didn't have a ton of people sitting in front of us being dumb.   However, as the game got closer and closer to starting more and more Eagles fans started filling in the seats all around us.  Oh how lucky we are!  I've heard how terrible their fans were and they didn't disappoint.

Some real stupid Eagles fans sat right in front of us.  There were about five of them and they absolutely horrible.  They complained, they yelled at the refs, they rubbed their good fortune into the Seahawks fans faces, they exclaimed their quarterback was awesome (even though he played his worst game this season against us tonight and got hurt for the rest of the season), they rubbed it in our faces that they had a better record than us and it was so satisfying watching their team self destruct while the Seahawks took an important game away from them.  Our great plays and teamwork sure shut them up.

At half time it was 10-3 and mom wanted something to drink and made me go get it.  She gave me $10 and I had a few dollars on me as well.  I walked the corridor to see how much and what kind of drinks there were.  I had enough for two drinks, exactly.  While I stood in line it was very entertaining.  I got to see how stupid the Eagles fans really were.  It was amazing.  They brought up the past, they talked about Carson Wentz, they talked about their schedule, they talked about how great they were, they argued with each other and other Seahawk fans.  The part that got me was that they were arguing with each other!!  Someone almost started a fight with each other!  What is happening!?  I paid for my drinks and hiked back to our seats.

I told mom what happened and she just shook her head.

The third quarter we started pulling away and the five guys in front of us actually got really quiet and one even fell asleep!  The Eagles played all or nothing in the third and fourth quarters.  Going for it on 4th down instead of kicking the field goals and Wentz fumbled it in the end zone which was the turning point of the game for us.  We took it and ran with it...literally.  The Eagles fans started leaving halfway through the fourth quarter and some of them actually came from Philadelphia for the weekend...that probably wasn't cheap to come watch your team lose to the Seahawks.  Haha!

We pulled away even further and beat the Eagles 24-10.  Wilson went 20-31 with 227 yards and 3 touchdowns.  For the most part both teams were pretty equal except the Eagles led in turnovers, first downs and total yards.

I knew it would take us a while after the game to walk down to the corridor and snake our way down to where we entered the field so we just sat there for a minute while everyone else left their seats.

When we finally got out of the stadium it didn't take us very long to walk back to the Escape.  Getting onto the freeway was another story.  I always managed to second guess myself on which lane I had to be in to go south on I-5.  This time I was in the correct lane and didn't have to cut anyone off.  The drive back to Rainier was smooth sailing.  I dropped mom off and headed home.  I knew we would get home late but it's one of those things that you embrace that night and into the following day because YOU got to go to a Seahawk game and YOU let everyone know about it.

One thing that I wish I could have done is been able to go to a game during the 2013 or 2014 seasons because you just never know when your team will be that good again.  I sure hope it lasts for a while because it makes watching football more exciting when your team is one of the contenders.  

I got home just before midnight, grabbed a shower and went to bed because 6 a.m. comes awfully early.

Next Adventure:  Christmas Tree Extravaganza