About my blog name...

I guess now is as good a time as any to share about why I named my blog "Married to the Empire." When I married my husband almost 9 years ago, I knew that he liked Star Wars. What I didn't know was that he was soon to become an avid collector of Star Wars things. Interestingly, it's turned out to be a really fun hobby for both of us!

It started out innocently enough with the acquisition of carded action figures and a few ships. It graduated to a full-blown collection in need of its own space. Hence, the Star Wars Room was born. He has not only decked it out with an impressive collection of new and vintage action figures, but he also built all the furniture himself with a Death Star-inspired design!

Ruf designed and built a truly impressive (and very, very large) diorama of Dagobah Swamp (Yoda's home in exile). It was so impressive that he was invited to display it at Star Wars Celebration III in Indianapolis in 2005! It was rather surreal to see the actors from the Star Wars movies looking at my husband's work and pointing things out to their kids!

But all that still wasn't enough. He decided to become a Stormtrooper. There is a really amazing group out there called The 501st Legion. The 501st is a "professional" costuming group. By professional I simply mean that they have extremely high costuming standards for membership. It has to be a really, really good costume. This group consists of only the Star Wars bad guys. These guys (and a few gals) are so much fun! They do all sorts of charity work, and it never ceases to amaze me that little kids actually will run up and hug stormtroopers or Darth Vader!

How do I fit into all this? Well, I've enjoyed helping him amass his collection over the years. We used to make toy runs together back when there were tons of new figures out in the stores. We go to sci-fi conventions and toy shows together. Often I tag along when he "troops." We even had a Star Wars vacation one year! (I need a few more years before I'm willing to do another one. Five straight days of Star Wars is a bit much for me!) My online name became Ewokgirl because I think the Ewoks are just the cutest things.

Admittedly, this is not the life I pictured when I was a little girl. (A huge plantation house and unlimited funds was the general dream. LOL) I never would have thought I'd be married to a geek and attending sci-fi conventions! But you know what? I wouldn't trade this life for anything!