In the popular, slightly hideous vernacular of 2010, a number of totally amazeballs stuff happened around here in the past twelve months. Here’s a bunch of random, quirky, awesome (and local) items ...

• Kids make massive hopscotch course around entire Third Ward Neighborhood block.

• Eau Claire is referenced on The Simpsons.

• Local Kubb activist Erik Anderson brings the National Kubb Championship to Eau Claire.

• The Chippewa Valley becomes home to both a World Boomerang Champion (Dan Johnson) and a World Ultimate Frisbee Champion (Pat Niles).

• A Chippewa Falls woman tracks down her own stolen wedding dress on Craigslist, and then leads a sting to catch the thief.

• Two rogue deer break into the Stout Ale House and are apprehended by patrons (this was not so amazeballs for the deer).

• UWEC alum Mark Proksch duped midwest TV stations, getting on air as “yo-yo master Kenny Strasser” and then landed a small role on The Office.

• A man from Chippewa Falls took a spectacular photo of the aurora borealis over Lake Wissota, which got picked up by a number of national news organizations, culminating in an ABC’s Prime Time World News interview.

• Renee Dillenbeck becomes the first female full-time firefighter in Chippewa Falls.

• Spearheaded by the idea of Lakeshore Elementary fifth grader Lee Roback, a large group of locals broke the Guinness World Record for “Most People Dancing with a Hula Hoop.”

• A cook at Jake’s Supper Club fought and disarmed a totally drunk, totally disgruntled, and totally gun-wielding patron.

• UW-Stout’s Rube Goldberg team wins nationals in 120 steps.

• A kid in Chippewa Falls invents a curved brat bun which is then produced by a local bakery.

• Local Cold Stone Creamery franchise wins national contest, earning $5,000 for the Literacy Volunteers of the Chippewa Valley.

• And holy crap, local musician Peter Phippen is nominated for a freaking Grammy.