I’m so happy!! You might recall that I removed Cranky (and any other toys) from my 40th birthday wishlist on Amazon because other things (above all the large-format printer) are so much more important right now, as well as pretty out of my reach. But I still wanted Cranky badly, as I have for years.
Well, our partner wanted to make a slightly upsetting thing up to me (so to speak) and he got me Cranky to console me. When he arrived, even the package was Thomas-themed all over: the box and the tape!
I can hardly believe he is finally mine!
Assembly was very simple. Just four screws. Cranky is LARGE!
Bulstrode is big too, you could fit an engine in him!
Here’s the entire set:
He exceeded my expectations, and I can’t wait to play with all my Thomas toys again. It’s been a while! ๐
We went to the mall today to pick out a nice present for a good friend and the lovely Christmas town with its multiple trains was already set up! ๐๐
Happy April, everyone! Boy, this was one stressful week, but it did have good moments regardless. Not only was our house painted this week, but we cleaned the back porch (a grueling task every time as you might recall) I was on my period for half the week, had to do our taxes, go to an appointment at the Social Security Administration office, I visited my mom to celebrate her birthday, and went on a couple of outings with my husband and our partner.
This is my sorry face
So if you are among the multiple people I’ve left on read these past few days… I am so sorry, and you are still on my mind, and not forgotten… it’s been a heck of a week… I’ll be catching up with messages as the week rolls on.
I also played a lot of Code: Realize ~Wintertide Miracles~ (I’m on Cantarella’s story right now) and we are watching Tenchi Muyo so I felt the above GIF was appropiate. ^_^
๐ Monday ๐
Monday was fairly quiet. I worked on commissions and did housework, but was a bit subdued due to my period. Our house began to be prepped for painting on this day.
For lunch, I made toasted rice balls for our partner and I. He’d never had them before.
Got to use my new Bluey plate, cutlery and bowl, so that made me happy.
And speaking of Bluey –here is a coloring book I got recently:
The pages are kinda thin, so I’ll just scan and reprint on thicker paper when I want to color it. This is actually how I preserve most of my coloring books, including many vintage ones!
๐ Tuesday ๐
Tuesday was the Social Security appointment (for my name change). It went smoothly, other than the security guard at the entrance being so intimidating towards everyone, especially older people who could not understand English nor understand what was going on. Even though inside plenty of signage indicates accommodating if you need an interpreter, the officer was aggressive and angry towards these poor mostly Latin people who barely spoke English and were so confused and even frightened by his demeanor. ๐
Once that was done, I walked to Target. I saw these traffic cones on the way that grass had grown right through. Seems the grass around them was mowed without the cones being moved a few times. I thought it looked interesting enough for a picture:
By the time I got home, a lot of progress had been done on the house painting. Here is a before and after at that point in time (I’ll have a final update next week):
I didn’t have much time to admire the house. I had to finish all my chores, and pack, and then our partner drove me to my mom’s. She and I went to dinner pretty soon after I got there to celebrate her birthday:
I had primavera pizza! It’s my favorite because it has egg:
Once we got home, my mom opened her birthday present. Christopher bought her a laptop (her computer was ANCIENT). She was really happy –Sweeney tested it immediately! Meanwhile, Shampoo enjoyed laying on a crinkly paper bag. To each their own.
๐ Wednesday ๐
Wednesday was my mom and I’s usual peaceful morning of TV, mate, and conversation. I also drew and played a bit of Code: Realize ~Wintertide Miracles~ here and there.
Gumdrop had his first taste of mate!
My mom had a really big surprise for me! She was able to find my favorite childhood cookies, which I have not had for over twenty years!
They have zodiac signs on them:
A close similar cookie was Pepperidge Farm’s chessmen chocolate cookies, but I think they were discontinued in my area a long time ago. I can’t find them anywhere anymore. Anyway, my mom got me like three bags of these, so that was a wonderful surprise!
For Wednesday night dinner, my mom made fries (my favorite)!
As if that weren’t enough, she made a legit Argentinean bizcochuelo for dessert, another big treat. The mix was yet another childhood favorite that she was able to acquire recently through a shopping service.
After dinner, my guys picked me up. At home I had yet another wonderful surprise waiting for me! At first I couldn’t find Yoshi anywhere and I was sure our partner had hidden him or placed him in some sort of unfortunate situation, as he tends to do to my toys. But Yoshi turned out to be waiting for me on my desk, and he was holding the Limited Run visual novel I’ve been begging Christopher for!
It’s The House In Fata Morgana. I’ve heard many good things about it.
That, and watching TV and cuddling all together, made for a wonderful end to my day.
๐ Thursday ๐
I forgot to share this other surprise my mom gave me during my visit! Last time she got me the Mafalda figure and magazine. This time it was Manolito:
On Thursday I walked to Target to pick up an online order. I wanted to get one of these dino clickers, mostly as a desk fidget toy. His head and legs click when you move them. He’s really cute.
For date night, I made another massive snack spread, while the guys continued playing Kirby and I watched. Didn’t get quite so drunk on this day, but it was still a nice time.
Also, on this day, more engines arrived!
They are so, SO well made, utterly perfect in every way! I received Thomas, Percy, Gordon, and my favorite boy, James!
The facial expressions are great; Percy’s in particular is hilarious:
I wish they’d given James his angry face, but I love them all.
Can’t wait to get my hands on Henry, and Cranky when they remake him too.
๐ Friday ๐
Since we had our date night in on Thursday, Friday was our day out. First we went out to ramen!
The atmosphere outside was spooky. Not only was it rainy, but the Everglades were on fire, and you could clearly see the smoke amidst the clouds. Our car was covered in ash!
After lunch we went to Monster MiniGolf. It was really fun! We took this photo of one of the animatronics:
I don’t even know who won. I just know it wasn’t me and I had lots of fun. Before going home, we passed by Dollar Tree, where I got a couple of Arthur puzzles, a giant dinosaur coloring book, and a velvet dino coloring stand:
I also got a little bandana for my Grogu:
Then we went home to bed and watched TV for ages, it was very cozy. ๐ฅฐ
๐ Saturday ๐
Saturday was exhausting. I did lots of chores, and helped a bit with the porch cleaning (I did a bigger amount of that yesterday, but on Friday our partner did most of the remaining cleaning). Then I put all the furniture back. It looks wonderful, even if it was a lot of work:
I also redecorated the litter box area a bit. ๐ธ Some things still need to be hung back up (a lot was taken down due to the painting) but there’s only so much time in a single week…
The porch and chores such as laundry basically took my entire day, but I was able to relax a little in the evening.
๐ Sunday ๐
On Sunday our partner and I went on a little solo date, it’s not a common occurrence since we generally prefer to do everything the three of us together, but Christopher had been desperately craving some alone time to just veg at home without us being our usual obnoxious selves around him. ๐
We went to the Perez Art Museum Miami, and to Wynwood for lunch and a little ice cream. We saw some cool stuff but I didn’t get any photos other than these:
After that we were on a quest to find fancy soaps, which we didn’t find, but I got these cool crayons:
Then I made dinner and we just relaxed. That was the end to a week that was at times fun, at times stressful, but good overall, as most weeks have been lately. There’s a lot of love in our home and I feel very lucky, even if things are hectic sometimes and it seems like we never stop doing things. ๐
Hello, everyone! I hope youโve had a happy week! Itโs been very busy for us, as all weeks have been lately. So, as has become the norm for my blog, I just have one long post to catch you all up on the weekโs happenings.
For starters, I am sick again. It seems I had one week of relief in between head colds. Itโs very mild (milder than the prior one). Just really annoying. Anyway! Letโs begin.
๐ Curry Dinner! ๐
On Tuesday night, I made Japanese style curry. Iโve had many previous attempts that didnโt turn out so great. Finally I figured it out, trying a new recipe which I doctored a bit. My guys loved it, as did I, and Iโm looking forward to having it again with different meats.
๐ Christopher’s 38th Birthday Dinner ๐
Wednesday was Christopherโs birthday! He got his remaining presents in the morning, and in the evening, we went to The Capital Grille in Downtown Miami. It was an extremely fancy restaurant, a real treat, so I dressed up a little.
Christopher was… excited.
All the food was wonderful, but I didn’t have my phone (forgot it in the car) so I didn’t take many pictures. Here is one of the appetizer, though, Tuna Tartare:
It was spicy. We also got a picture of Christopher with his birthday dessert:
๐งธ Toklo ๐งธ
Toklo now has a new ribbon and shirt. He still needs his name necklace, I’ll work on that next week.
The shirt is pretty funny, it was a Build-A-Bear online exclusive.
๐ Date Night ๐
For date night, we had one more round of playing with our trains before putting them away. We’ll probably play again in a month or two; I’m sure I’ll want to, as my new Thomas things begin to arrive later this month.
A little video…
Toklo got to play with us too:
The cats always love to observe and walk among the track. They don’t destroy anything, they just get excited by it all.
Afterwards we had tea. They gamed for a bit while I kept fiddling with Instagram, setting up my new art account. It was a nice, chill end to a lovely evening together.
๐ดโโ ๏ธ Rosie ๐ดโโ ๏ธ
Have some cute photos I took of Rosie. I woke her up from her morning nap and played with her a little. She is such a soft, sweet little thing!
๐ฅ Pancake Breakfast ๐ฅ
This weekend, Christopher’s mom and grandma came to visit and celebrate Christopher’s birthday. We went to Nami Sushi for Friday night dinner and to a Thai place on Saturday evening. On Saturday morning, we had pancakes. Christopher made me a mouse-shaped one, so I decorated it:
It was very yummy!
Unfortunately I spent a lot of the weekend in a very crabby mood due to being sick. I am not very sick, but it is annoying. It makes it harder to do anything, and I am constantly sleepy. It also got a lot colder on Saturday night, and the cold makes me lazier. Hopefully I get my energy back again real soon.
๐ฆ Goodies From This Week ๐ฆ
I have a few new things to share. One is this new top I got on Etsy. It appears very wrinkled in this photo, but it’s really very cute:
I also got a Super Mario coloring/sticker book and a Camp Cretaceous activity play-pack:
Finally, we went on a Goodwill stroll yesterday, and I had two happy finds. One is this lovely old storybook:
And the other is this awesome, massive Sesame Street blanket that I covered my futon with. I love it! It is like new, and only six bucks.
That is all for this week’s post. I am tired, and busy… I hope you all enjoyed your weekend, and I look forward to sharing another week of art with you as I get back to my drawing board on Monday.
Yesterday Christopher’s mom and grandma arrived to visit with us during the weekend. We had truffle burgers and fries for dinner, that we made at home, and drank and played video games. It was a lovely evening.
While our friend and I were out getting grocery stuff and alcohol, I came across this really cute whiskey bottle so I had to take a photo:
Today we were up early in spite of drinking late at night, because the day’s main event was the Silver Lakes Community Garage Sale. Our first and only huge score was right at the beginning and I’ll let the next photo speak for itself:
All of that was $65, almost all of it new in package –basically all items were $10, or $5, or such, it was absolutely ridiculous and keeping my cool was a challenge. I can’t wait to have a nice romantic evening with Christopher, playing like dumbasses with our trains again. ๐ฅบ๐
Afterwards we had I โค Mac & Cheese for lunch (great as always) and Menchie’s for dessert:
Tonight we are dining in again, but no less fancy for that fact. We will be having teriyaki salmon and rice, and I expect another evening of games and snacking, soon as I can finish updating my blog and get back downstairs. I’m almost all done updating it now, sans for one post and a bunch of fitness ones. I’m really sorry I neglected my blog for so long… really trying to get life back to normal. ๐
Today is finally over. It was an incredible, wonderful day! Christopher and I are both so exhausted we can hardly move or think straight. We had a lovely time with our friend doing all sorts of fun things, but I don’t think what we were doing mattered that much, just that we were together.
We really missed the sorts of days we’ve been having. I think we both thought at times maybe days like these were gone permanently. And, the exact way these days used to be, is in fact gone. Things change, those are memories. But I think these are even happier days and happier memories. I want to make so many more.
My day was off to a good start right from the get-go. I took my walk and came across a squirrel friend who had a big nut:
After my walk I did all my chores and changed into the outfit I prepared for today. I felt pretty cute in it.
Then I played Legend of Mana and worked on today’s warm-up while we waited for our friend to arrive to spend the day with us. Christopher also showed me a bunch of fun YouTube videos and we enjoyed that little time together.
Finally our friend was there and we headed out to a train store I’d long wanted to take Christopher to, but it was shut down for COVID until recently. I brought Heidi along today!
The train place certainly was fun, I took a lot of pictures:
They had a bunch of Thomas items but no Thomas Wood or Thomas Wooden Railway. However, these O-Gauge of James made my heart leap. I wish I could have bought either of them, I just love James so much.
But, I’ll always have my little wooden James, the first train Christopher ever bought me, on our outing to the train museum, and he will always be very special to me.
After the train store, our friend took us to a French place he knew well. It had a lovely atmosphere and the food was amazing (in particular, the cheese plate we started with) but service was rather poor. They were having a party, and it slowed things down to the point that we didn’t get our cheese plate until the 35 minute mark, maybe longer? And our main meal 15 minutes after that or so. We were so desperately hungry by then.
I forget what I ate… some sort of crรฉpe. It was good and that’s all that matters.
After this, we went to the house to hang out a little. Christopher napped while we checked the needed ingredients for dinner. Then we woke him up and dragged him out with us to shop for what we were missing.
I helped my best with dinner, while Christopher and our friend took care of the meat –the hard part– and some other stuff. I prepared rice (poorly, Christopher had to save it) and made pretty good chimichurri.
The picaรฑa was amazing:
Here it is served with the rice and beans:
And a final photo of it by itself (no Heidi) for good measure. It was so good, I can’t post just one!
I am WAY too full. But, my heart is also full. I feel so loved and looked after, and so happy. In a little bit I’m gonna be watching anime with Christopher while we cuddle, and then I’ll be falling asleep with these warm happy feelings. Tomorrow I’ll wake up full of energy and start the day with my walk… then the lawn… then some art. It’s a good life lately.
My dear friend Mwako arrived today! He’s visiting for a few days. The last time was a couple of years ago. Normally, unless something happens, I see Mwako once a year, either at a convention or when he visits here or sometimes both at once. But with Covid, it’s been a while.
It’s always a lot of fun when Mwako comes but for this visit in particular, I’ve got a lot of kiddy activities planned for us to do together. I’m really looking forward to that.
I was very busy all morning –chores and commissions– but here is the outfit I picked for today:
After I finished my chores, Mwako and I went grocery shopping. I hadn’t been to Walmart in a while. I saw a really cool dinosaur in the toy area which I may have to get my hands on later… ๐๐
When Christopher got home, the three of us played with our trains and watched Thomas The Tank Engine. That was a lot of fun.
At some point I left them and went to make dinner. I made teriyaki chicken rice bowls with avocado on the side. I tried to make Mwako’s area as cute as possible.
Tomorrow we will start off on our adventures. I’m sure I’ll have tons of photos to post, so look forward to that!
Hello everyone! ๐ My weekend is wrapping up so itโs finally time to write a proper post telling all that happened since Friday morning. It was a fateful and eventful day, with big highs and big lows but overall fantastic really, when all is said and done. Letโs do this!
We left the house at 6:30am. The ceremony was at 8:15am, so we went to Dunkinโ Donuts to get breakfast first, since Dunkinโ was the first thing my mom and I ate when we landed on the US almost 20 years ago at 4:00am. ๐ฉ So on such a special occasion, of course we had to start with that. We met my mom at USCIS in Hialeah.
The ceremony, I have to say, was really lackluster. ๐ I did expect that to a degree, with COVID and all, but the masks, the social distancing, the Judge having to be there over Zoom, none of that was the issue. Even not being able to have guests there was much of an issue to me.
More than anything, it felt like this particular USCIS location didn’t give the event the gravitas it deserved. The thing that sucked most was that the USCIS employees werenโt ready, so as the Judge was talking to us, and saying all of these important things, they were talking over her. ๐ Wtf?! They were trying to get everyoneโs paperwork and such and we just couldnโt hear the Judge. All stuff that should have been done before we entered that room.
Another thing was that, for all they tell you to dress to mark the dignity of the occasion, there were people with tank tops, torn jeans, visible panties (?!) which did also kinda spoil the mood for me a tad. ๐
But even that wasnโt the worst. At one point the Judge asked that we all take out our paper with the Oath of Allegiance. No one had it because they failed to give it to us! So we all repeated after the Judge as best as we could but that was so upsetting, some of the words were hard to understand. This was also the Oath with which you renounce allegiance to your country of birth. It’s a big deal and was supposed to be so solemn. And EVEN AT THIS TIME, some employees are still talking over the Judge and walking around! Give me a break.
Another bummer was that the video of Biden welcoming us didnโt play. I was looking forward to that so much. And then the Judge asked us to take out the little flags we had been given but we had been given NO FLAGS! I was so upset by this too. We did get our flags by the end, with the Naturalization Certificate, after the ceremony was over. But not on that special moment. Worse yet, we could see on the livestream that people at other locations got them properly and in time.
As we left we did get some photos outside with me holding my little flag, though, so that was nice:
With ChristopherWith my Mom
Here is my Naturalization package… ๐ the flag, certificate (I edited out all sensitive info) and my voter registration and passport papers to fill out! It’s official!
Later, during the party, I got a frame from our friend Fern to put my certificate. I’ll frame it and put it on the wall this week. I got a stand for my little flag too. Displaying everything properly this week.
We were supposed to go to lunch with my mom a couple hours after, so we went to our house to relax a while until it was time. I was so excited about this lunch! But alas, it was not to be, because…
โ๏ธ Elliot’s Emergency Vet Visit โ๏ธ
Elliot got very sick, very suddenly. He must have been developing an UTI for a few days. But he was fine, eating and drinking well, playing and running like crazy. Suddenly, he began crying, dragging his front on the rug, panting heavily and desperately, trying to pee everywhere, without success. So right before we were about to leave for lunch, my mom had to go home and we ran to the vet as an emergency.
It was clear that Elliot was suffering terribly all the way. Between that, the lackluster ceremony, and the canceled long-awaited celebratory lunch, my spirits were so low. It felt like my day might be ruined. How can I be happy when my kitty is suffering.
Elliot had to have multiple medications to treat his infection, and manage his pain. We went home with a $330 bill… I didn’t even dare ask that we still have a meal out. We went home and I did my best to cheer up as I continued getting the house ready for the party, but at this point I wasn’t in the mood for partying anymore. ๐
๐ฑ Patriotic Kitties ๐ฑ
As I cheered up and decorated I began to fool around. I may have gotten Kotoko and Rosemary involved:
She tolerated it fairly well.Bursting with patriotic spirit!
No Elliot, because he was sick, and no Tomoyo, because I didn’t feel like being hospitalized.
๐ฅณ The Party ๐ฅณ
I was barely ready when guests began to arrive. ๐ฒ The first was my new friend Shelly and her boyfriend Ben. Shelly is a very sweet girl whom I met online almost two years ago. We were supposed to attend Little Scouts together but that fell through because of… stuff happening in both our lives, and soon after I became so jaded on having new friends and doing kiddy things together, that I didn’t pursue further and you know, time just passed, and then COVID hit.
So, a month or so ago (I may have told this story in passing on my blog actually) a pest control truck was parked across the street from my house. I’d been looking for someone to do pest control inside our house and I saw a girl near the truck; I thought, great! I want to support a woman-led pest control business. I never see that. So I ran outside in my rainbow socks like a crazy person.
I approach the truck and ask, and this girl, who’s now in the truck with a gentleman, looks at me really intensely while explaining that they only do outdoor pest control. I go back inside and get a text from Shelly, the girl I didn’t get to meet long ago, and she’s all like, did you just ask me about pest control?? Of all the crazy coincidences, right?
Anyway, thankfully Shelly is better at remembering people from photos than I am. We began texting again but I couldn’t manage to make some spare time to meet, so I invited them to this party, and thankfully they both came and hopefully weren’t too put off by my obnoxiousness. ๐ They were both so nice.
A lot of people began to arrive soon after them. Some couldn’t make it, but people who I wasn’t expecting to see made it, and we had a great turnout. Christopher made great burgers as usual and a lot of the snacks I got were eaten.
I wrote a lot, so I’m going to interject with some pictures here:
Something that I was NOT expecting was presents. Danny and Amanda gave me a card and fifty bucks that I had a lot of fun spending at Barnes & Noble the next day (more on that later.) My mom in law came dressed in patriotic colors and gave me a flag cookie, a $50 Amazon gift card, a beautiful bracelet with USA flag colors, and at some point I lose track of what was from her and what was from Grandma… I got a pole and a USA flag for the house, and I do mean a real proper full size all-weather flag, and I believe one was from my mom in law and the other from Grandma. There was also napkins and a tablecloth and a garden flag, and a dish towel, all USA themed, it was really all too much… I was floored.
Grandma also sent this pair of flags. I have a similar one already on the porch, so I will rotate them as they wear out:
There was a lovely note from Grandma too. My friend Jen got me some fancy liqueur and my very dear friend Kris and his lovely girlfriend Sivan got me a tic-tac-toe set. You may not think this sounds very special, and I was a bit puzzled, until I opened the actual pieces and screamed. Here it is in the library!
It’s handmade in Puerto Rico. Needless to say, they know me well…
We drank a fair bit. Christopher is such a delightful drunk.
I just get more obnoxious. For my drink, I asked Leo to pop the cork in my champagne, and he somehow broke the mouth of the bottle and cut his finger, so I gave him a Cinderella printed band-aid and filtered my champagne through a Keurig reusable pod. There were no crunchies. ๐
Here’s more drunk Christopher. This was near the end of the night. You can hear my mom in law telling him to just be quiet. Lol.
Christopher rarely drinks and for this reason I LOVE it when he does. He’s the best kind of drunk, just fun and happy. We had to carry him up the stairs though.
My mom in law took several photos, but most of this night’s photos were taken by my friend Andrea, who, by the way, came looking SUPER patriotic. She’s very good at just constantly taking random candid photos for which I am always grateful.
Here’s a selfie round-up:
Speaking of Andrea being great at capturing moments, some DDR actually happened since Christopher fixed the machine. Here he is playing with dad-to-be Leo:
Here’s both Christopher and I, happy and drunk. A wonderful night almost over.
I took this photo right before getting in bed. Getting Christopher to bed was a whole ordeal. Bert was a big help. Christopher was so happy and loopy, poorly coordinated and consequently difficult lol. As soon as he passed out after brushing his teeth, Kotoko protectively lay on him.
And that was the end of this wonderful night. One more thing I want to mention is that I got to hang out with my old friends for a long time, I mean my pre-Christopher friends, for the first time in years. Properly, I mean.
You see… a few years ago, I felt so fulfilled by Christopher and by the couple of friends that we were deeply close with at that time, that I unconsciously (or perhaps somewhat consciously) stepped away from my old friend group, I can even say I pushed my friends aside. The friendship we had with that couple truly and utterly filled my heart and the free time in my weekends. When it wasn’t that, I was so absorbed with my furry friends and my new weird lifestyle that I felt it didn’t merge well with my old friend group. I didn’t lose touch completely, but I did by a big amount.
Now, other than seeing one of our old friends sometimes (since I had a terrible and very painful falling out with the other) that “couple” friendship is gone and it left a huge gaping hole. There’s no more hanging out every weekend, no more meeting up to cook a meal at our place or going to an art walk or a thrift sale. It took a long time to get used to that. But I didn’t feel like just trying to rekindle old friendships either. I was left quite jaded and afraid by that experience and a similar one that followed. No longer in pain, but tired by it, just jaded.
Now a lot of time has passed since the last truly painful, traumatizing stuff. Two plus years. Other bad stuff happened but it’s more easily brushed off. And I saw my old OLD friends again. Almost all of them came. They didn’t have to, you know. None of them forgot me. They all came to celebrate me and treated me as if I’d been part of the group in the same way the last five years (which I have not been.)
I felt more comfortable and more like myself among them than I ever did before. Like the old me and the new me came together and I’m comfortable again. And now I better see how precious friendships are. I was so careless with them.
Our MAD anime group had its share of drama but most of us have always gotten along and sorted out conflicts. I knew that before but didn’t realize its value. My friends are all very different but they are good people and I’m really lucky to be back among them after I kind of discarded them temporarily. Maybe I thought I didn’t need them but that is not true. No friendship should ever be taken for granted. We get less in a lifetime than we think, and I was and am lucky to have them.
We have the next MAD meetup planned, at our place! I haven’t hosted one in years, so I’m really excited. It’s on June 12th.
Sorry to get so verbose… let’s move on to Saturday!
๐ Saturday ๐
Since I didn’t get a nice meal with my mom, my mom in law treated me to the same place I wanted to go to for Saturday’s lunch (The Tavern). I brought Beanie along for this one:
I had crab cakes, teriyaki brussel sprouts and cole slaw. I wanted to have crรจme brรปlรฉe for dessert but in the end I was just too full.
After this we went to the book store. I saw this cute book but I didn’t buy it, I got a picture though:
It KILLED me that we ran into Thomas stuff, and they had Harold, Edward AND Cranky!! I didn’t dare ask Christopher for any of it… ๐ He’s been spending way too much because of me. But seeing this stuff in person and not getting it was kinda killer, haha… at least I got a photo:
It was Cranky I wanted most of all. ๐ญ But now, for what I DID buy. I got this Sesame Street tote:
It’s big and very thick and fits my iPad:
I also got a couple of dinosaur books and a li’l T. rex friend:
These books may be for little kids, but I want them for character design tips and ideas. The illustrations are amazing, and the quick facts are super useful:
Later we went to Brandsmart. We didn’t buy anything, it was just to look. Brandsmart always feels larger than life to me:
After that we went to Phแป 79 for dinner, and then home. Before bedtime we played Rummikub and Mille Bornes. I had patriotic cakes with my new dino friend:
I went to bed very tired and happy. It was a wonderful day.
๐ Sunday ๐
Sunday was a quieter affair. I got up, had my coffee and got ready to head out on my walk. I wanted to check the Pride section at Target. Speaking of, my pansexual pride bandana did come in, at least, which you can see in the photo above.
It was a rainy day, everything gray and dull and wet. My outfit really stood out (and I’m not even holding my dinosaur umbrella here):
Before I went out though, my mom in law helped us install our brand new flag!
โค๏ธ๐ค๐ Installing The Flag โค๏ธ๐ค๐
Honestly, they did all the hard work. But I made sure the flag didn’t touch the ground.
Placing the pole!
We had to get at least one photo of me next to it:
Here’s the way the flag looks from the door, and from the street:
Here it is waving in all its glory! A waving flag makes a beautiful sound. I never paid attention to it until now.
At dusk we brought the flag in. We won’t actually take it out again until Thursday, as that is when we will be installing a light so it’s not in the dark at night.
I think that’s everything. A very busy week looms ahead, with cleaning-up to do, overdue warm-ups, immigration paperwork for my mom, answering lots and LOTS of congratulatory messages, and scheduling doctor appointments.
I’m going to take care of my snails now, and then head to bed. Thank you so much to everyone who read this!
Here, have a train photo dump! After a month of playing, this is our setup before being dismantled. I’m sure we will make another in the future, but for now we need the space. This takes a LOT of room. ๐
Nothing else to add, really… just wanted to share the photos. Oh yeah, and it turns out our three new battery powered engines (Percy, Diesel and Thomas) are actually not compatible with other brands of track. So I’m trying to decide whether to modify or sell them. ๐ค
Good morning everyone! I’m still doing lots of things… even more laundry, still unpacking, very busy… I did say I would make an additional post to share my new treasures and souvenirs, so here we go! In no particular order…
These are the Thomas & Friends Wooden Railway goodies we snagged. Three battery operated engines! Diesel, Percy and Thomas. Very happy with these finds!
Then, as you can see, we got a few “destinations”. A water tower, a search light, a quarry mine tunnel and a winter fuel station!
The store had a lovely friendly attendant who surprised me with a cute little doodle of Thomas when we went to the register to pay! ๐ฅฐ
Here are some goodies from The Sound Exchange in Tampa Bay. We found a brand new record of the music from Tales From The Crypt (which we are currently binging!) a Laserdisc featuring How The Grinch Stole Christmas and Horton Hears a Who, and another of the Dead Poets Society.
Something else they had at the Sound Exchange was old books and magazines. I decided to take this one, from 1966, partly because it had some pages about dinosaurs.
It’s an interesting little magazine, with lovely illustrations. It was one hundred percent brand new, as it must have looked the day it was made.
Continuing the dinosaur topic, we visited Mojo Books & Records across the street from our hotel. This is actually a place we visited on our second anniversary trip. We loved it then and now! I decided to look for more dinosaur books, because why not. I found a few:
They are all beautiful, but my favorite is the first one (The New Dinosaurs). The biggest book, The Prehistoric World Of The Dinosaur, had a child’s drawing inside:
I almost discarded it, and perhaps eventually I will, but Christopher pointed out that some kid loved dinosaurs and this book so much, that he carefully drew them and placed the drawing inside. Thinking that, it felt wrong to remove it.
And now, let me share the best part, which is my haul(s) from Dinosaur World! One haul wasn’t enough… Christopher took me back on Saturday. He really indulged me all weekend long. ๐๐
First off there are these tiny, tiny books! About the size of my hand. Little stories about dinosaurs.
I got a visor and a tie-dye shirt! ๐โจ
I found a wonderful foam dino in the same general vein as Mojito and Fuit Gummy, but a completely different color and pose. I think he will make a great friend for them! I’m calling him Churrasco.
I also got this medal which I will hang from my cork memory board:
And a few more odds and ends; a patch (also for my cork board, at least for now) a pencil case and a rubber bracelet:
They had so many beautiful statues… it was really very hard to pick what to buy. I ended up getting this little guy:
And this beautiful… beautiful, massive gal… The jewel of everything I got this weekend. I adore her. I could go on, but I’ll leave you to look at the photos:
And that’s it! There are a few things that stayed in my mind as “wish I’d gotten that” but I had to stop somewhere. ๐ One was a foam triceratops that I didn’t buy at the store where we got the Thomas stuff. I looked for it online, and all I could find is that it’s by a brand called Best Choice and is out of stock everywhere. Another was a raptor lamp at the Dinosaur World, and a lenticular print, also from there… but I’m sure if I’d gotten these things, there would be something else I regretted leaving behind. So it’s alright. ๐
I do wish Christopher had found more things he liked, but he didn’t really. We both had a good time, though.
Anyway that’s all for my trip, I have to go grocery shopping now. Hope your week is off to a great start!