When you're married to a Stormtrooper...

...sometimes the birthday gifts are a little weird.

Ruf worked very hard to get his garrison of the 501st Legion in the Neiman-Marcus Adolphus Children's Parade in downtown Dallas last December. It was a hit with both parade watchers and the stormtroopers, so they've been invited back this year.

One thing that Ruf learned last year is that it's hard to get people lined up and doing what they're supposed to do from inside a stormtrooper helmet. Very hard. So this year, he's planning to be dressed as an Imperial Officer. Yeah, one of those Nazi-looking guys from Star Wars. (He needs an open-faced costume, and he has to be a bad guy since that's what the 501st is all about. Bad guy costumes, that is, not actual bad guys.)

We're having a local seamstress make the costume itself, but he really needed a pair of screen-accurate boots. (Screen accuracy is very important in this group.) The ones in the films were actual German WWII officer boots. I did find some in great shape and in his size on Ebay, but they were too expensive, and it really creeped me out to think that they were worn by an actual Nazi. And then it had me feeling sorry for the cow that had to die to make boots for a Nazi. And when I start feeling sad for dead animals, we're going down a path I really don't want to tread.

Instead I found a guy on Ebay who custom makes reproduction boots. That was much more up my alley, so I ordered a pair for Ruf for his birthday. One month and two days later, they arrived. Don't they look nice?



And a picture of my future Imperial officer wearing his new boots, shorts and t-shirt, his stormtrooper belt, his ridiculously-expensive giant rubber gun that has a proper name but I can't remember it, and a friend's Imperial officer hat:



I'd ask, "Doesn't he look handsome?" but I'm sure you're too busy laughing to answer my question.