The directive from Will was to "clean house."

And we did.

So now we're hosting an auction.

Wonder who had this rattling around in the back of his closet...

A full list of items isn't available yet, but here's what's caught my eye so far:

We're closed for the season, right?

And just when you think you can come up for air, Hollywood calls again.

Here's a news release we just sent out:

HOLLYWOOD RETURNS TO SPENCER COUNTY

SANTA CLAUS, IN-----Just a few weeks after the departure of the "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" television production crew from Spencer County, the producers of the popular NBC primetime game show "Deal or No Deal" are planning to visit the town of Santa Claus this weekend.

"We just got the call this morning and are working with businesses and attractions throughout Santa Claus to get ready," says Melissa Miller, the director of the Spencer County Visitors Bureau. "It's a little bit crazy, but we're all frantically trying to decorate for Christmas before the TV crew arrives Saturday morning."

Santa Claus resident Skip Allen received word this week that he was selected to be a contestant on "Deal or No Deal," which is hosted by Howie Mandel. Allen, who is the general manager of Santa's Lodge, auditioned twice for the show, first in Evansville and then in Metropolis. He and his family will be flown to Hollywood later this month for the taping of the show, which will air on Christmas Day.

"We're encouraging everyone in Santa Claus to go over the top with their Christmas spirit this weekend," says Miller. "Since this show will air on Christmas, it will feature a 'day in the life' of the town, so just about anyone might end up on TV!"

By the way, the Extreme Makeover show that was shot in Spencer County will air on November 12.

Surely, you've all memorized the stats for The Voyage by now, so you know about it being the world's top air-time wooden coaster.

A reporter just emailed to ask how many "moments" of negative-g riders experienced with each lap this season. (He admitted to losing count after 21.)

Checked in with Korey Kiepert of The Gravity Group and here is his response:

When looking through the airtime numbers for The Voyage, we had previously used a criteria that anything less than 0.25 Gs would be considered airtime. Using that same criteria, there are 24 locations of airtime no matter whether you sit (the front, middle, or back of the train).

This very kind email arrived yesterday from Mark A. of Valley View, Ohio:

I would like to personally congratulate you on hitting the million attendance mark for 2006. I took my family to your park for our first overall visit in June of this year. Coming from Cleveland, Ohio, it was well worth the drive! Since we have season passes to Cedar Point, we wanted to start to visit parks outside of Ohio. We were very impressed with how clean your park is and how each and every one of your employees made us feel at home.

The second day we visited your park was on a Saturday and I remembered your web site telling us that is was going to be a very busy day. It was, but I felt your staff did an excellent job of dispatching guests through queues and even though I could tell the park was crowded, we were still able to accomplish everything we wanted to do that day.

You have found fans for life as we will be back next year. We want to thank you very much for a lovely trip and I am thrilled that you reached this milestone. We wish your park the very best for 2007 and look forward to seeing you then.

Been wrestling all season about whether to share this story.

Snakes, after all, cause many people to get the vapors. And here I am, fresh out of smelling salts.

But in light of the movie that's getting so much attention these days, it's time to unleash.

Back in late April, before The Voyage opened to the public, we held a photo shoot of the new coaster in action.

I hung out with the photographers, partially as an escort but also to pick up any tips about the best place to stand for photographing The Voyage.

The bottom of the second drop is a really good spot. You can get close enough to it that the train full of screaming riders is in the foreground and you can also show the enormity of the coaster with the first drop in the background.

Sounded good to me. When the photographers moved on to their next angle, it seemed silly not to snap off a few of my own.

Although The Voyage is basically out in the dense woods, there's a nice little access road just to the west of the structure. An occasional butterfly will flutter by, but that's about it as far as wildlife encounters.

Feeling safe, I assumed the standard photo-taking position. I could hear the train click-clicking up the lifthill. Standing perfectly still and holding my breath, I was ready for that train to soar down the first hill, sail up the second, and I would take that perfect photo just as it filled the frame.

But it was not meant to be.

As the train was still heading up the lifthill, I felt the bottom of my left pant leg shift slightly.

Hmmm.

A little low-ground breeze, perhaps?

Stalwart and determined, I continued to squint through the viewfinder.

Seconds later, another sensation at the bottom of my slacks.

Must be standing near a rogue clump of grass growing up through the gravel road. Yes, that must be it.

The train was just about to crest the lifthill. No time to check out the weeds.

But then...

My ankle started going numb.

At that point, it was time to check out the woman-eating plant.

But it wasn't a plant.

Looked like a long, bright-green shoelace, actually.

How in the world did a shoelace make it all the way out here? Doesn't look like something one of the construction guys would have worn.

And even Lord Chadwick doesn't get that carried away in his dress.

But it wasn't a shoelace.

Shoelaces, after all, don't have little hissing tongues. Not even the bright green ones.

Snake?

SNAKE!

A snake, wrapped snuggly around my left ankle. With enough snake left over to extend another 15 inches or so, doing a poor imitation of a discarded shoelace.

So, I did the snake dance.

Frantically shook my foot and leg so that Sir Snake would come loose and slither off, never to be seen again.

The snake would have none of it. Must have been enjoying the ride. And the slight hint of Bounce Ocean Breeze on my white anklet.

Time to step up the dance.

In one fluid moment, my left foot returned to the ground and my right foot stomped on the hissing end of the beast.

Get OFF!

With a mighty yank of my left foot, I managed to rip my leg free of the reptilian embrace.

Not to worry; my stomp did no harm. May have knocked a bit of sense into the serpent, actually, as he quickly slithered toward the edge of the path.

Ah, but I was quicker.

The fun was not yet over.

"Get back here you so-and-so! No one will ever believe this; I'm taking your picture!"

Like a madwoman, I chased after my tormenter and snapped the following:

Ah, but he got the last laugh.

Just before he disappeared into the woods, the fiend posed for one final shot.

It was not until I'd returned to my office and got a good look at the photos that it became apparent.

The little asp somehow knew the first letter of my last name:

Or perhaps the long and lanky fellow has a coaster design all his own?

I found this to be stunning.

And no one caught it.

Whew! I thought it was a complete give-away.

It started on July 7.

Wanted to show one of the ... um ... more interesting photos taken by the editor of our local paper during our fireworks celebration on Independence Day.

Okay...so now that you know what's what for '06 ...

... do you get it?

Look carefully.

Squint a bit.

Maybe tilt your head.

No -- the other way!

A bit more ... a little more ...

Okay, I'll do it for you.

There! Looks just like a turkey, doesn't it?

Okay ... well ... an exploding turkey. But a turkey nonetheless.

Right?

Is this a sign?

A message of some sort?

What does this mean?

When I discovered this on July 7, I just couldn't keep it to myself. I forwarded the photo to Will, Mrs. Koch, and our directors.

The sole response to that email: Paula, you really need a vacation.

As the clock ticks louder and louder, counting down the minutes till opening day, all our different crews are out and about doing whatever it takes to get the park ready.

The painters are hard at work. It's hard to tell sometimes, because they have such a rollicking good time slapping on that paint. They're a hilarious bunch of guys. (We tease them it's because of the paint fumes...)

This is Don modeling the spring's finest paintwear. (Thanks for not making a face at the camera, Don.)

I asked Rick, our graphic artist, to estimate the amount of paint we go through each season. He had to brush up on his math skills to arrive at his answer...

Up to 1000 gallons a year.

Wow. Color me amazed.

Important Notice to all new Hosts and Hostesses: It really helps to "break in" your spiffy new white sneaks before the first day of work.

Now, that doesn't mean to drag them through a mud puddle the way my older brothers did as we trudged to Sacred Heart Elementary on the first day of school each year. I mean wear them for a while, walk in them, stand in them. Wiggle your toes. Adjust the laces. You'll be glad you did.

Years ago, Holiday World's “uniform room” was located right outside of my office. A few of those years, we bought hundreds and hundreds of pairs of shoes so our employees didn’t have to go shopping somewhere else for their uniform shoes. We were their sole provider.

All those tennis shoes…well, they stunk! Not a stinky-feet odor, thank goodness, but the rubber, or whatever it is on the soles of the shoes, created an interesting work environment.

Usually there was someone on hand to help outfit the new folks. But once in a while, some poor little newbie would wander cautiously into my office and whisper, “Do you have this in a size 7 narrow?”

Comfortable shoes are very important for park workers. We warn everyone at the Job Fairs that most of our positions require a lot of standing. Broken-in shoes help ease that transition as your entire body adjusts to being vertical for hours at a time.

Rachel and I took a HoliBlog photo walk through the park the other day. We made sure no one was watching and she snapped a shot of one of my new sneakers:

Can you tell the size of someone's shoes from a photo like this? Well, in the interest of fair disclosure, I'll tell you. I wear an 8½.

No big deal, right? Nothing to be ashamed of, certainly. Probably downright average.

Long ago, at a former job, my boss decided at the last minute to fly several of our staffers to Los Angeles to attend a huge food show. We all worked for Pizza Today magazine, which originated here in Santa Claus, Indiana (the pizza capital of the world, hadn't you heard?).

Normally, I'm not a girlie-girl like-let's-go-shopping-okay? type. But when the others asked me along, what the heck.

After picking out nice outfits which we hoped would make us look a little less like "country girls" (remember how Nellie used to sneer at Laura and Mary?) we headed over to the shoe store.

We were chatting happily, heading down the aisle toward new footwear. All of a sudden, I realized I was alone. Where did everyone else go? Hrrumph! Over in the aisle for Size 5 and Size 6. Good grief, I'd never noticed these women had such tiny appendages. How did they manage to balance themselves in even a gentle breeze?

I survived their teasing that evening, but never did find a suitable pair of clown shoes for my freakishly large feet.

Two days later, we checked into our hotel in Little Tokyo. It was a bit of a cab ride from the convention center, but we were lucky to find rooms at all.

Imagine my delight when I saw there was a shoe store right across the street. Surely in L.A. they would have some stylish shoes for me. I dropped off my luggage and headed over for a look. Only window shopping, as the store was closed for the evening, but it would reopen about 30 minutes before we were scheduled to leave in the morning. And there, in the window, was just what I wanted.

After a lovely stroll through Little Tokyo and a good night's sleep, I was ready to go. I waited patiently outside the shop's door while the owner hustled down the sidewalk to greet his first customer of the day.

"Good morning!"

"Good morning, sir! Am I ever glad to see you! Those navy blue pumps in the front window are exactly what I need. If I could just slip into a size 8½ I'll pay you and be on my way."

The store owner glanced up at me with a look of momentary confusion. A split second later, I had my answer:

"No, no, no! Nothing that big! Too big! Too big! Maybe four, maybe five -- that's all. Nothing so big!"

This is a family blog, so I won't tell you my usual closing line to this story.

Suffice to say, the food show was a great experience. And despite tromping around all day in a huge convention center, my tootsies remained fairly happy in my not-quite-new, purchased-in-Indiana, comfortable, broken-in shoes.