The Nest continued to be all colorful and sparkly and shit…

Another year has somehow passed by already, and that means I’m contractually obligated by the rules of this blog to provide another year end review of what all did and didn’t happen on Evil Squirrel’s Nest.  And although The Nest’s content continues to be about as predictable as a pair of loaded dice, there were still some nice surprises and small triumphs along the way to keep things interesting for the small handful of people who still check in here after all these years!

At least you’re all pretty awesome for a small handful…

The Nest continued to answer each week’s Share Your World questions on Thursdays, including what wound up being some of our own questions.  For the latter half of the year, I asked did a small intro for a different Shelf critter at the beginning of each SYW post, and then asked a potential question based on that critter.  Melanie was kind enough to compile the questions after I’d asked four or five of them and made them into special editions of Share Your World with some nifty Photoshopping to go with each one.

Those tidal waves are from Mitzi sticking her big boobs in the Pacific Ocean…

The Shelf Critters also got in on my latest countdown, which pre-empted the Dusty Vinyl Archive on Mondays beginning in August.  The Top 30 Shelf Critter Request songs, which still has its top 8 entries to go, had me choose a song that represented one of my better known critters and rank them based on my personal taste… each one containing a small skit with Evil Squirrel and DJ Scratchy along with the featured critter.

And some nifty artwork that’s drawn rave apathy from everyone!

Almost as soon as I started the SCT Request countdown, I came up with an idea for another Top 30 countdown I want to do… so be on the lookout for that in a few months!

For the fourth straight year, I came up with another unique concept for a SCT Advent calendar to count down the December days until Christmas Eve.  This time by doubling the size of the traditional “Twelve Days of Christmas” song.  It was pretty fun until I had to start freestyling each day’s “gifts” in the second half…. that wasn’t as easy as you’d think it would be!

Good thing I’m a heavy drinker…

While I’ve managed to keep the Shelf critters fresh by working them into other projects… their actual proper series continues to produce new episodes only once in a rare while.  2021 matched the previous year’s output with just eight new episodes of Shelf Critter Theatre to show off my demented nature.  One of my favorites to make was inspired by a tongue-in-cheek comment from Fran about how unfair things are for Buster… featuring Buster, after his expected death scene, returning to the Shelf as an angel to try to right SCT wrongs.

Featuring Buster on the grassy knoll!

Random Image Inspiration, my Wednesday feature, was hardly seen at all… though I did attempt it many more times than it was actually posted.  What did make it into virtual print this year was kind of fun…. like how to rid your island of colonists, the all-seeing colo(u)r wheel, the Shelf critters reenacting the signing of the Declaration of Independence, how to give protesters their comeuppance, and time travel to the exciting future of 2021!

And Vinnie, who knows how to have a good time.

A new feature I started up on Sundays back in May spun off those random and oddball things from my life I’d been sharing as SYW intros.  The Weekend Threesome, despite being one of the more suggestive titles of any feature I’ve ever run, compiled three small tidbits from my week I felt like sharing for your reading pleasure.  And though I missed a few weeks in the aftermath of my June hospital stay, along with the past two Sundays, rest assured the Threesome will return this Sunday with one of the more WTF things from my storied Mecca career…

Not an angry customer, but I love any excuse to use this image…

As always, February brought the Contest of Whatever to my blog for the eighth straight year.  The theme was X, which seemed hard for everyone despite my having Shadow show how many fun interpretations it had.  In the end, it was Merby coming home with the overall win for all the nostalgic fun of Generation X…

Who cares if the dog just used it as a bidet? That didn’t faze us.

There were squirrels, of course.  There are always squirrels!  They’ve been a mainstay of my blog during all ten of my years in business… and Saturday continues to be the day my squirrel photography shines!

Ooooooh! COOL!!!!!!!!

And that squirrel photography was the first half of my extended celebration of Evil Squirrel’s Nest’s 10th anniversary, which passed on Christmas Eve.  My favorite squirrel pics from my first nine full years here have already been featured on Tuesdays, with this year’s excellent crop to come next week!

Wow…. a lot really did happen here this year despite it seeming like just another weekly feature assembly line routine.  And now that 2021 and our first ten years are in the rearview mirror…. here’s to 2022 and the next ten years being just as wonderful!  We can only hope…

Even if it ends up like a turd on a platter… The Nest will still make it funny!