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[JillT]

Chi-town bear made a trek to Nashville with my sister to see Jackson.





I’ve driven back and forth from Nashville to Chicagoland 19 times and I decided now I should be getting on plane. It’s taking longer and longer to get there and no matter what route I take there are no more sights to break up the trip. Da bears take up too much space to take along, especially with all their changes of wardrobe, so the only plane trip they’ll be taking is if I go to Disney (land or world).

Rockgirl had a good time when she came in April, but Chi-town bear has never been to Nashville.

She came to see Jackson as a grand finale before they just start skyping to keep in touch.

“It was 59F today and it will warm up into the 60s for Friday and Saturday, but for the next two days it’s only going to be 49F for a high. Here, take this super soft and cozy blanket,” offered Shellie May.


“49F? I’ll be fine; we already had our first minor snowfall in Chicago!” said Chi-town bear, pushing it aside.

"We're weather wimps in this household," admitted Jackson.

Later they could be seen under the blanket watching TV.



Meanwhile, Duffy and Shellie May modeled their outfits.





My sister brought a beret for Francesca, which she greatly appreciated. "Merci beacoup!" she exclaimed, giving my sister a hug.



Duffy got a pirate outfit and Shellie May got a book we read from the library.



I adopted Milton, another weather wimp from Minnesota.



and Avery, the 20th anniversary Build-a-Bear. Bearami was excited to have a little brother and gave him the Snoopy pajamas, which suit Avery well!






JillT

[JillT]

I have no idea why now on postimage some of my images are not found or removed, but that's the best website I can find lately to upload my pictures.

I hope everyone had a nice Christmas, and I'm wishing all of you a happy new year 2018 soon.

My sister came to visit for Christmas.

I adopted some new stuffies, and some of da bears got gifts.



Cheyenne is in her executive outfit as she accepted a commemorative pin from Build-a-Bear.



Duffy received glow in the dark slippers and $20 and Shellie May received a book we read from the library first, and a new outfit.



Topa is my new Andean spectacled bear.







Tillie got a new dress from a British Build-a-Bear store and some lemon curd from Harrod's, which she is more willing to share this year.



Jillybean got a new blouse.



Zhu Xiong is happy about her new game, Portal Heroes by Mayfair, the same company who makes the Empire Builder crayon rail games.



Francesca got a new pink sweater shirt. It says bisous on it in silver.



"That means 'kisses'" she informed us, as she went around giving everyone kisses on the cheek.



Chococat, one of Hello Kitty's friends, came to live with us, arriving looking all dapper.



I also adopted Abominable. "Hey, MY name is Abominable," said the original Abominable in the house.

"Hey, duuuuuudde, I'm Abominable the SNOWMAN."

"Oh, okay, I'm Abominable the Mammott, room for both of us then," said my original Abominable stuffie. Whew!



I also have a Yeti from the Expedition Everest ride in Disneyworld's Animal Kingdom park, and a smaller one hanging from the mirror in my car.



Later, Chococat could be seen hanging out with Hello Kitty, who told Shaggy Duffy, "it's okay, I'm still your friend, too!"



JillT

[dazyhill]

Adorable pictures. I like Duffy's pizza t-shirt in the last photo

[JillT]

dazyhill, that is actually an outfit for a newborn ha ha, since Shaggy Duffy is 24" tall.

[JillT]

I don’t want da bears’ brains to turn to mush during winter hibernation.

Last year Shellie May resisted sleeping a lot because there were so many good new releases at the library. This year we have been disappointed in the recent selection, since the trend now seems to be romance novels and self-help books.

I introduced some of my stuffies to the Search-A-Word puzzle hobby and they are now going through them like water, as long as I provide Shellie May with colorful pens and they find subjects that interest them. Otherwise, it feels too much like forced schoolwork, and da bears (and Abominable) are not into structured learning or structured jobs. This way it stays fun for them.

Duffy is doing one for Skylanders video game, and Abominable is doing one for My Singing Monsters. Duffy is using his Duffy pen from Paris Disney.







Shellie May is doing one for famous bands, with her colorful gel pens, and Mohawkan is doing one for famous rock singers.




Duffy was wearing his new glow-in-the-dark slippers, which really DO glow in the dark, but not to where it’s a photo op. He’s totally cool with being a happy hermit homebody since that means he pretty much can LIVE in pajamas and slippers, his favorite attire.

JillT

[JillT]

We have all become happy hermit homebodies because I've lived here over a decade so we're pretty much done seeing the area, but it's still nice to get out and fill up my human interaction quota occasionally.

Duffy knows putting on street clothes is a requirement of going out in public, but he sometimes still tries to sneak into places with slippers, his favorite footwear.

We took a venture to the original location of Martin's BBQ in Nolensville, TN. It is only 10 minutes away but they are really competitive about selling out of stuff early so since we like Bar-B-Cutie and they're more consistent on availability, we just haven't gotten around to trying Martin's until now.











We got a little of each of their sauces to go.



And enough food to feed us all coming out of winter hibernation.

The mac and cheese was good, and the broccoli salad was the best I ever had. I enjoyed their cole slaw on the pulled pork shoulder sandwich. As far as the meat, both the baby back ribs and the pork shoulder were tender and juicy, but we didn't like any of their sauces. They were way too vinegary and spicy, even the sweet dixie sauce. Oh, well. It was good quality, just not our taste. The hush puppies were a bit dry. The pimento cheese sandwich was decent. I actually saved it for later and then grilled the bread with butter.


JillT

[shellie may]

Looks delicious!!! What lucky bears, to enjoy such an amazing meal!! (We are not fans of overly-vinegar-y stuff at my house, either)!!

[JillT]

This weekend is Tennessee Game Days, an open gaming party. I went in 2009, 2010, and 2011, and then I sort of got lazy about going to random open gaming parties playing games with strangers LOL. However, 13 is my favorite number and this is their 13th year, plus da bears have never gone. It is held at the Franklin, TN Marriott and their attendance has grown to 700 people.

It is Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and while it is mostly open gaming they do have a few events, and a flea market of games on Saturday for an hour.

Well, you can imagine, da bears were psyched! Duffy got dressed and even put on SHOES, and Shellie May and Zhu Xiong wore their new shirts from Bloomington, IN Build-a-Bear, although they switched with what they picked out as to who wore what now in public. Shellie May graciously let Zhu Xiong wear the new shoes they got in Bloomington, IN.



Here they are with our badge, which includes a black cat on the logo since it is their 13th year.



The party starts at 8 a.m. on Friday and runs until Sunday around 6 p.m., although the library to check games out closes each night at 10:30 p.m. and doesn't open until 9 a.m. the next day. The conference rooms are open, though, if people bring their own games to play (or buy some at the flea market).

Even though we arrived an hour after it opened, some of the 435 games in the library were already checked out. There were about 100-150 people there (I'm not a good judge). They had the one main conference room open with ability to double it (open another wall up) once it got full. They also had a few breakout rooms for events (none of the events sounded fun to us; many of them were groups of 4 games that you had to commit to and many times we only liked 1-2 of them).



You use your badge to check out a game (they scan the game and the badge). If you need players or someone to teach the game you can put one of these on your table.



We wanted to try 'Splendor' which is a very popular game about gems. Shellie May put up the "players needed" sign and we waited.



A boy of about 12 from Huntsville, Alabama came over to play it with us. We really liked it. "Well, and it's nice that the rules are only two pages of print!" said Duffy.

"True dat!" said Shellie May.

There is also a kids corner with some games I remember playing in my childhood when we had a large collection also.



JillT

[shellie may]

Da bears look amazing!! Duffy's outfit is adorable!! And his shoes are so cute!! I recognize a lot of those kids games, also!! I would love to own a Pirates of the Caribbean version of Battleship one day!! 💕🐻❤

[JillT]

Shellie May, I like your emoticons.

[JillT]

Zhu Xiong has turned into a party animal when it comes to board and card games. This is the third year that Nashville has had an all day gaming event for International Tabletop Day. The first year I didn't know about it. Last year I went hiking instead. This year we are going.



AND it's FREEEEEE!

This is the host. He runs a website called Meeple Mountain. Remember, meeples are the little playing pieces that modern board games use alot instead of the old fashioned knobby pieces.



"It's official," said Zhu Xiong as she went to tell Duffy and Shellie May.



JillT

[JillT]

Less than 24 hours after the invitation was sent out, Nashville’s Tabletop Day has 330 participants out of a capacity of 700. International Tabletop Day was started in 2013 by Wil Wheaton, an actor who was born in 1972 in Burbank, CA and who has acted in Star Trek: The Next Generation and The Big Bang Theory.


Duffy has promised to wear actual shoes and not just slippers. He wore shoes for Tennessee Game Days, too. I guess this is a good way for me to gage his enthusiasm for any outing, since we’re mostly homebodies now. I mean, I already ran a casual household, but he has sometimes taken it to the extreme, like for Martin’s BBQ, when he put on real clothes, but still wore his favorite (glow-in-the-dark) slippers that he got for Christmas, although admittedly we were only gone from the house for 35 minutes so I can sort of see how putting on shoes wasn’t worth it for him for that.

[JillT]

What happened to 62 pages? It was at 327 and now it's down to 245.

[JillT]

Now photos are no longer showing up, just text? Waah.

[JillT]

Duffy, Shellie May, Zhu Xiong, and I went to Nashville Tabletop Day today.

Da bears are all wearing GenCon pins (and I wore a GenCon t-shirt). They want people to understand they’re smarter than the average stuffie and will be friendly competition for any game placed in front of them.



“If we made it to GenCon 50, we’re obviously REAL gamers,” said Duffy.

Shellie May was excited when we got there to find out that it was held at the community space of a library. "We haven't been to THIS branch yet!" she said excitedly. "Games at a library what can go wrong?"



When we got inside Zhu Xiong looked at the game library. Unfortunately, to discourage theft they require your drivers' license or government ID of some sort to check a game out. PASS (but we met a lady from Boston who had brought her own games and who wanted to play some "Play to Win" games and didn't mind giving up her ID so we stuck to her like glue.



Then I went to get da bears' picture next to a mural but Shellie May had already lost an ear flower. I retraced our steps since we had just walked in but alas, it was gone. Oh, well. Duffy lost his round spectacles last year. It isn't the first time da bears lost an accessory and it won't be the last.



Zhu Xiong was psyched to get a picture with the host, Andy Matthews. There were 700 people in attendance but Andy was a great host, there were tons of door prizes and play to win games (although I don't have texting on my phone because I was getting charged for adverts so I had them turn the feature off and that's how you found out you won), and there were plenty of volunteers going around to make sure people were having fun.

Andy was like, "Aw, what a cute, bear, I love her!"



Anyway, a great time was had by all of us. The two play to win games we played with Pat and another person, I just put their cell phone numbers down next to my name so they'd have another chance to win. Plus we got a few ideas of games to look up in case we want to buy.

We are ALMOST out of space at home, though.



"Always room for another game," said Zhu Xiong, "especially now that we're happy hermit homebodies. We have plenty of time for the hobby."

JillT

[dazyhill]

A most impressive collection of games!

[JillT]

Do DEE do. That's the sound of da bears twiddling their thumbs.

"Oh, look!" said Shellie May, who was browsing on the Nashville Public Library's website. She discovered an interesting sounding podcast.



One of the librarians at the library recorded six pages worth of titles!



Shellie May is a happy listener, indeed. Undaunted by losing one of her ear flowers last week, she just moved this one to the center.



Shellie May turned up the volume on the bose speakers so da other bears in the next room could listen from the comfort of their shelf.



"And look, those of you who don't live in Nashville, TN can just go on itunes and subscribe to the podcast there," she adivsed.



I see a few titles I vaguely remember from my own childhood so I'll be listening, too. I remember "East of the Sun and West of the Moon", a Norwegian folktale. Yup, they have it!

[shellie may]

Oh wow!! The folk tale podcast sounds really cool!! I love ShellieMay's center flower!! And what an amazing collection of games!! Wow!! And da bears pajamas in that photo are so cute!!!

[JillT]

I went to visit my sister in Chicagoland for 9 days. We spent a day in Rockford, IL and they have a Build-a-Bear store. I adopted two new bears, Iris and Owen. Iris is named after the Greek goddess of rainbows. Owen has white peace signs in his fabric.



We got the pawsport stamped.



Meanwhile my sister was able to find Duffy another pair of professor spectacles. When I got home he was so excited he put them on even though he wasn't doing anything close-up. Iris and Owen started climbing the stairs to meet da other bears and Duffy, Shellie May, and Peace Hippie came down.



"Groovy, now I have a peace brother," said Peace Hippie excitedly, bringing her peace necklaces to share.





"Which one do you like?" she asked. Owen liked them both so he wore one of each.







"Since you're named after a Goddess, you can have a turn on my throne," said Shellie May. "We'll worry about your wardrobe when it cools off in here."



There's always room for another bear at my house.





Jill T

[shellie may]

Cute!!! It's hot here in Southern California too! The bears in my family agree with your ShellieMay!! Wardrobe is not a necessity today!! They are also waiting for things to cool down before they get fashionable!!!! 🌞🌞🌞