gnomes gone wild

Chuck the Duck hit up ATL this weekend and was negatively influenced by some wild and crazy gnomes whilest innocently sitting on our front porch! You can see what else he got into here: http://picasaweb.google.com/maryvig/ChuckSWeekendOfAdventure

G'nome Family Album

So I'm thoroughly enjoying my time off and finally managed to organize and update a brand spankin' new 'gnome family album' on kodakgallery.com, complete with captions detailing the gnome timline, and in perfect chronological order ;) This is by all means an exhaustive compilation of every g'nome pic in my possession! You can check it out here: http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=6ro274n.707qevxz&x=1&y=-z1cw46

And, now, because pleople are always asking, "Hey what's the deal with the gnomes?" I thought it's high time I post a not-so-brief history of our little g'nome operation.

It was the spring of 2005. Natasha's birthday. Xine and I had no idea what to get her, so we hit the dollar store armed with a gift basket and a 20 and went crazy. That's when I saw him standing there on the shelf with his little green hat, holding his beard with one hand and saluting me with the other. I had to have him. I bought multiples, and we added him to the bday basket. Natasha loved him, and so did everyone else. The craze began. This also happened to be right around the time that a huge group of our friends graduated from UAB. Everyone was getting ready to go their separate ways for jobs and grad school, so we came up with the great idea to send identical gnomes out with everyone and take pictures of them in their respective parts of the country. The gnomes also accompanied us on many road trips and even Europe trips, though some people (cough *KP* cough cough) forgot them... Many pictures of course resulted.

Not long after, travelocity took their 'roaming gnome' campaign national, resulting in their red-capped guy gaining huge popularity. And then these guys made the headlines for kidnapping a neighbor's lawn gnome and taking him on a whirlwind cross-country spring break road trip, where he met Paris Hilton of all people (eww). After that, we got a lot more cooperation on the road, and our gnome has now met a few celebrities himself, and while the fanfare has died down considerably, we do still enjoy a good gnoming when given the opportunity. Thanks to some lovely friends, I now have quite a little gnome collection. But I still love Gunther, the original, the very best and have even immortalized him as a Christmas ornament for my tree. Tee hee!

And there you have it folks, the complete gnome story, once and for all!

p.s. Yes, I have now finally seen 'Amelie' and I get why everyone asks me this everywhere I gnome... ;)

a 'sprinkling' of g'nome love

Breaking gnome news. Christmas came early this year! Friday was my last day at good old UAB and my lovely co-workers graced me with a brand new gnome! And he's not just a gnome, he's been embellished with Heineken caps to fit in with the drinking theme of my party ;) AAAANDD... wait for it... wait for it... he's a SPRINKLER! Yep, hook a hose up to this guy and you've got yourself a party. Come spring I'm mos def hooking this bad boy up in the front yard for the neighborhood to enjoy... assuming we're allowed to water by then ;) Posting a pic here for your enjoyment. And I shall call him GIL.

Also, since my dear friend Nina outed my gnoming ways right there in front of all my distinguished colleagues, I of course made them all pose with the new gnome ;) Pics are posted here: http://picasaweb.google.com/maryvig/UABGnoming Ahhh... how I do love a good gnome! Enjoy the pics, and happy gnoming...

Gnome News

We were in Centennial Olympic Park tonight, enjoying the balmy weather and taking pictures for our Christmas cards, when suddenly we were approached by an attractive bald man followed by cameras and a tv crew. Next thing we knew he was in our Christmas card pic, and we were being filmed for the CNN Headline News program 'News to Me.' After chatting for a bit, we learned the bald man was the show's host, Eric Lanford. Now I know what you're all wondering... and oh yes, he held the g'nome. Though we were chided for not recognizing him, we claimed ignorance because of our lack of cable and he was very nice and funny. As we were parting ways, we couldn't help but notice someone in a bunny costume. Now THERE'S a story. Eric headed over to check it out and turns out it was a group of German tourists who also filmed a bit for the show with him. Quite a night in the park! The show will air next weekend on CNN so if YOU have cable, you should definitely check it out. It airs every Saturday and Sunday 12:30 pm & 5:30 pm ET. You can also check it out on the show's website: http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/news.to.me/

Lithuania? Really?

So we're watching the Amazing Race tonight and Phil announces that Lithuania is the "land og nomes," and that tonight's Road Block challenge in the Lithuanian town of Rusiskes involves searching the village for the Travelocity roaming gnome among “100 of his closest Lithuanian gnome friends.” Well, I got all excited and Shannon said "I guess we're going to Lithuania..." until much to my dismay, I google "lithuania, gnome" today and all that comes up are freakin references to the show. So I'm thinking Lithuania is a little less the land of gnomes than Travelocity is Amazing Race's biggest corporate sponsor... sigh...

New Yorker Gnome

Our pocket-size travelling gnome, Gerald, whom I must admit creeps me out too much to be frequented on the blog, took an impromptu trip to NYC with Julie & I this week and had his pic taken while visiting the Statue of Liberty. Pic posted here. Creep away tiny gnome, creep away...

gnome in san francisco

Gunther did San Francisco this weekend... dirty dirty gnome that he is. You can read all about our trip on our travel blog, flyingwheats.blogspot.com!

Gerald's christening

The newest addition to the g'nome family was officially christened on his first-ever trip to visit Christine in Boston. Here is a picture of Gerald in Plymouth, where the pilgrims first settled and home to the infamous rock of course. Gerald is pocket sized and solid, making him quite the travel companion. He fits easily into a pocket or small designer purse, for example, with no problem whatsoever. Welcome Gerald, you creepy creepy faced gnome you!

Nica-gnome

Christine spent Spring Break in Nicaragua, con Natasha and G'xine (Dos). They took some fabulous pix - I'm posting my facvorite here and the rest can be seen in the KodakGallery album (http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=6ro274n.7nnnbe6b&x=1&y=dxau5p) - among them, the beautiful Nicaraguan countryside, fun times with stray dog, refreshing water in a bag, the fun goes on and on!

honeygnome

Well Shan & I are old and married now and I forgot all about updating the blog until today. But Gunther of course accompanied us on our honeymoon last month and you can see pictures of his travels here: http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=6ro274n.5vvqegs7&x=1&y=-7kacp6

He was also featured in several pictures in our photo guestbook thanks to some mischievous wedding guests who had a little fun placing him in different locations around the Church.

And Natasha has informed me that G'xine Dos is currently travelling around Nicaragua visiting different P-Score volunteers and being very well documented, both by photo and log book. Yay!

g'nome going away party

G'xine suffered a tragic accident en route to Nicaragua and thus had to be replaced with a new, improved g'nome who will appear in pics from the Nic hilariously eating some kind of corn-looking food from a sack. We sent him off in style with a going away party (and by "we" I mean me, alone in my apartment taking pictures of a porcelain gnome figurine and chuckling to myself). You can see pics here: http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=6ro274n.7gc1a6x3&x=1&y=-wu1u94

gunther does a wedding

Gunther made the trip down to P'cola with Shan & I this weekend for Clint & Jessica's wedding. I believe it was the first official g'nome wedding sighting ;) I was tempted to tuck him into my bouquet so he could walk down the aisle with me, but thought better of it. G'nomes are not appreciated by everyone I guess... But how hilarious would it have been to have set him in some discrete location on the altar so that he was in every wedding picture? Mwa ha! ;)

MO ROCCA

Mo Rocca came to the Alys Stephens Center this past Saturday, so of course Gunther had to get his picture made with him!! That's 3 celebrities so far, 1 signer of the Constitution and several frighted pedestrians! Yessssssssssss!!!

g'nome update for the new year!

We finally have photographic proof that g'xine DOES in fact exist, in all her crippled glory. She is pictured here with Natasha & Mary. She was the very first g'nome... awwww... :)

I've added new Boston g'nome pix to the online album: http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=6ro274n.7nnnbe6b&x=1&y=dxau5p
When you're in the Slideshow you can skip ahead to the new pics by mousing over the little squares at the bottom to find ones you haven't seen. Benjamin Franklin, foot-kissing, Freedom Trail + more! Enjoy.

And don't forget - please send any g'nome pix you've taken to maryvig@gmail.com and I will add them to the ever-growing album :) I've posted the most current version of the registry below. Let me know if you notice any errors... the other way wasn't tracking correctly, entries kept disappearing on me. So I'll just do it this way for awhile... yes, I made a spreadsheet ;) Ha. Surprised? Didn't think so. Anyway, we have g'nomes in 11 unique locations - 3 countries, 7 states baby!!!

Happy g'noming!

*the registry*

b.c. g'nomes

So g'nome fever has officially spread to boston! Some of xine's law school friends saw our g'nome pix, etc. and requested a special g'nome delivery from AL. However, I seem to have bought out every g'nome in the b'ham metro area, so there was a bit of a panic. But then I found another funny pose/version of our beloved g'nomes to send to boston college so all is well. I am posting a pic here of the b.c. army of g'nomes :) Please note that these g'nomes have their legs crossed (v. gayly) with hands resting on knee. So v. gay and lovely. I heart them v. much.

gilmore w/ the bartender @ cheers

new g'nome pics + new g'nome!!

Rashi brought me a *fabulous* cubicle-warming gift today. Here he is.... Bartholomew!!! I'm calling him Bart for short. He's much bigger than our other g'nomes (and manish). I heart him... :)

Steve Hofstetter recently sent in some pics of G-Unit's travels. I've added them to the album with the others here: http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=6ro274n.7nnnbe6b&x=1&y=dxau5p

1st celebrity sighting!

So Aaron Ruell & Jon Heder (aka Kip & Napoleon of Napoleon Dynamite) came to UAB and we got a chance to meet them and take pics, etc. So I had to pull out Gunther. I think they were a little afraid of me as they look less than thrilled to be holding the g'nome, but hey - I wasn't leaving without this picture! Enjoy :)

g'nome publicity

Some of you may recognize the name Steve Hofstetter from facebook. He's the comic who's trying to get 100,000 friends on fb. Anyway, check out this page from his website and see if you recognize anyone ;)
http://www.stevehofstetter.com/shirts.cfm

*** G'nome Registry ***

This is where you can record your g'nomes g'name and their whereabouts. Pictures are encouraged! Happy g'noming! Please include your name as well as your g'nome's g'name, birthdate & location. You can copy and paste the template below, and then just click on comments to leave your g'nome info. And then I'll add it to the list! If you have yet to name your g'nome and need some inspiration, check out www.babynames.com/Names/G

Please use the comments feature on THIS POST only :) That way all the little g'names will be together in one place.

Thanks, and Happy G'noming!


G'name:
Birthdate:
Location:

And here are all our g'noming pics so far - thanks much for all your submissions!
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=6ro274n.7nnnbe6b&x=1&y=dxau5p