Just a few rocks enjoying the cool

shade on a warm, breezy day.

This is how the setup for the Pan For Gold operation

at the Gene Autry Western Heritage Museum (Griffith

Park, CA) looked in 2010. It looked right at home out-

side on the Trails West portion of the museum. I'm not

sure how it fits in though now that Trails West has been

86'd and changed to the little Brentwood style thing

they refer to as the "ethnobotanical garden". Ah jeez.

Anyway, usually on Saturdays and Sundays families are

able to learn about panning for gold with this display.

These are the matches I bought earlier in the month. It turns out
that they do work pretty well and are able to burn for some fifteen
seconds or so in high wind. When these matches are blazing away
you can even dip them in water, pull them out and they will commence
to burnin' again. Stubborn little guys.  

I have had for well over thirty years some matches similar to these

but they were getting a bit long in the tooth and they are breaking

up a bit. So these will work to replace them.

Incredible.

Only in California is there an issue with lighting a match.

This poster for "Deadpool: The Second Coming" is hanging

in the lobby of the Regal Theater. I liked Deadpool and

in that spirit I think the poster is pretty funny. I bet a DP

fan would love to have this.

I had John Wick on DVD but he is SO bad-ass I was on the

lookout for an upgrade to Blu-ray, which I did, for ten dollars.

"What's your call sign, pilot?"

I went to Savers Thrift Store in Temecula California.

I bought a tin cowboy cup.

"T" is for Tex.

I stopped at Wendy's fast food to buy a Diet Coke and

when I got the cup into the car I thought... I thought...

Yep, pretty sure I am seeing a not so subliminal subliminal
message on that logo. Just to confirm my suspicions I did a
little research and yes, I AM seeing what I think I am seeing.

Apparently the Wendy's guys say it was unintentional.

Maybe this is old news. I have written before that

Wendy and I do not see each other often.

I bought this when I was about 11 or 12 at I think Ports 'O Call

in Long Beach or San Pedro. It was in a store with tons of incense

and bead panels to put in your doorway and big black and white

posters of Marlon Brando, The Marx Brothers and W.C. Fields.

There were also lots of Peter Max posters to put under black lights.

I bought it back when I thought that it was really

cool to have something like this.

Man, I was a rebel.

I told one of my worries to this
doll and look at his face.
 

Yeah, not too comforting.

My mom gave these "worry dolls" to me years ago. They are

tiny dolls made in Guatemala that you are supposed to tell your

worries to before going to bed for the night. After you unload

a worry to each doll, you put them under your pillow or in the

little box and then under your pillow. Now you will be able to

sleep peacefully through the night and wake in the morning

with no worries at all.

I need more dolls.

Happy National Popcorn Day 2018!

And still the Reigning King and Champeen

of Popcorn Poppers:

The Whirley Pop © Popcorn Popper!

I've been using mine two to three times a week for

four years now and it is still going strong.

 As I have written before, almost every
single kernel, every single time.

It's Dale Gribble.

When I was very young I went to Las Vegas with my mom

and a friend of hers. We picked up some information in the

lobby of the motel we were staying at. In with the info there

was a coupon for "Free Souvenirs!" at Diamond Jim's Casino

Center. We didn't mess around back in the day, so we went

down to what is now Old Las Vegas to get our souvenirs. 

The keychain above was my mom's. Each one had our initials

on the back in gold just like you see on the front of the one here.

Mine is around here somewhere, and the friend is not in our lives

anymore. Maybe he keeps his in the 1966 Ford Mustang that

we drove to Vegas in. Probably not.

We used to have a lot of fun.

Genesis. 1976. Starlight Amphitheater. Burbank.

Phil Collins. Bill Bruford of Yes on drums.

And the Lamb Lies Down on Broadway.

Monday.

I love happy cactus so much.

~ My 2018 Birthday Extravaganza Day Twelve - Epilogue! ~

I had a pretty good time this Birthday Extravaganza go around.

I hung up my longhorn hook thing whatever it is that I bought

at Boot Barn, although I am going to redo it with the screws that

I bought at Walmart yesterday.

I absolutely LOVE my cast iron pan that I found at Target.
Got a great price and man, I cannot wait to use it again, and
again... and again. Finding this pan was one of my main
objectives for this Extravaganza. The awesome

price was the cherry on top.

I had a very nice time talking movies and life with
an older woman I met at the theater when I went
to see "The Shape of Water".

And the bag I bought at Home Depot for my knife
maintenance overflow turned out to work great.
Everything fits inside and...

...the strop fits perfect. That was my main concern,
the strop. Good luck abounds.

And I also loved listening to the bullfrog croaking away in

the huge field/marsh(?) next to REI. That was terrific.

I go back to work tomorrow and it is an early early day so I have an extra

early bedtime. I am finishing off the leftover pizza (it is a'WAY better than

it looks) while watching a few of my favorite folks on YouTube.

I am thankful that I was able to do all of what I did during my Birthday

Extravaganza and that I was brought home safe after every journey. I am

thankful that my family is all at home and safe. That is it! I hope to do

this again sometime down the line.

Thanks for joining me and adios for today!

~ My 2018 Birthday Extravaganza Day Eleven! ~ 

 

It is another beautiful day at El Rancho De La Tex.

 

The lemon trees are loaded down today. Time to enjoy the next

to the last day of my Birthday Extravaganza Week.

One last movie to see...

"The Shape of Water". I have no idea about this movie.

It was directed by Guillermo del Toro so it could be kind of...

different. Popcorn and Diet Coke at the ready. Let's go!

Hey, I LIKED this movie. I really enjoyed it. And yes, it is a

different type of movie and I will be buying it when it comes

out on Blu-ray. Again, no spoilers except to say that among the

other good performances, Richard Jenkins is a treat again. He

continues to surprise me. And if I can put Michael Shannon's

real life politics on hold (difficult), I will say that I thought he

was great as well. I will rate this movie 7.5 out of 10 "His what

comes out of WHERE?!"s.

 

 After the movie I went over to yet another Target to look around

and see if they had "The Lion King" Blu-ray on sale.

And this I cannot understand. Well, I can and I can't. I can understand

all the vinyl records I have seen all over the place now as a nostalgia

thing, but I grew up with nothing but vinyl albums. I still have most of

them. If you ever had to schlep these things around to listen to music,

with a very limited number of songs, well, you would love CDs or MP4s.

I have over 5400 songs on my beloved iPod. That is just about every album

I have ever owned and then some. Sure, there are no pops and hiss on my music

now... but I can overlook this for the convenience factor... And no turning

over of records to hear the other half of the album. And "shuffle" is awesome.

Anyway...

Here is another thing I cannot understand. Of all the vinyl

 to put out there... THIS? Really? I mean, what's going on?

 

Oh, they had "The Lion King" Blu-ray on sale. I have had this movie on

my list for some time. I just never wanted to spend for it. But for the

Extravaganza? Done. This was the first movie we took our son to see. It

brings back memories. Especially the ending credits with "Can You Feel

the Love"... Makes me misty.... Ahem... Next!

 

One more stop. I need some screws to hang the metal

longhorn steer thing I bought at Boot Barn on Monday.

I bought some "stormproof matches". I am almost embarrassed that

I bought these. I don't take Walmart's stuff like this too seriously. I'm just

going to play with them.

 

Oh and I got this 24" grabber/magnet thing. These guys can save your bacon

if you drop something juuuuust out of reach. I have a really cheap one that

I bought at Harbor Freight years ago and it has really helped me a few times.

This is an upgrade. The magnet is much stronger and the grabbers are too.

And I also got the screws. Success! Victory is MINE!

I guess that is all for today. Tomorrow is my last day off. These days off

have been fun. This is only the second time in my entire working life

that I have had this much time off. I on occasion will have a long weekend,

you know the three day things. But I am going to do the more days off 

more often if possible.

One more day! Stay tuned!

~ My 2018 Birthday Extravaganza Day Ten! ~

Not a whole lot planned for today, but it IS my Birthday

Extravaganza Week, and I am taking time off of work that

I do NOT want to waste, so I decided to go to the movies

again today. I enjoy going to the movies a lot and I get more

points in the rewards club, so it is allllll good.

 

Today? "Insidious: The Last Key". This is Part Four in the series.

I have One through Three on DVD and pretty much enjoy them,

so I think this will be good.

Okay, Insidious 4 was okay. I had a good time with it (and the popcorn

and Diet Coke). No spoilers. There were not many other folks in the

theater with me, but there was a couple sitting about six seats over from

me in the same row. This couple made me feel like a pretty seasoned

horror movie goer. Every time there was a scare (jump scare or not) the

whole row of seats would jerk back violently. I saw most of the scares

coming, but not them. I thought is was pretty funny. What? Nawww....

Even though I see the scares coming, I still enjoy them. No worries there.

Anyway, I give Insidious: The Last Key 6 out of 10 Not So Empty Suitcases.

When it comes out on DVD, I will buy it to complete my collection.

 

Just one last stop today, World Market again.

 

I was hoping to find the hot handle holder for my cast iron pan, the one

that I really want. Nope. But I am going to try these until I can find that

one. Deja vu going on here.

Coming REAL close to the end of my Extravaganza now.

A little more to come.

~ My 2018 Birthday Extravaganza Day Nine! ~

Another beautiful Extravaganza Day. I am far from El Rancho

today. My primary destination for today is REI. But this Best

Buy is in the vicinity and I have a few things in mind, so I

stopped in here. Turns out I will have to keep the things I had

in mind in mind. They did not have anything that I wanted.

On to REI...

The REI store under beautiful Southern California skies. Two

of the ONLY nice things left in California, the sky and the sun.

Well, I had been planning for two months for my visit to REI today.

And wouldn't you know it? They had zero in stock of the items I had

been planning to purchase. Zero. I am starting to feel a little strike-ish

out-ish today. I did get some Lodge scrapers for my new cast iron

pan. I also bought a hot handle holder for the pan. It is not the

one I want, but it will fill in until I can find that one.

Here is something kind of nice.

This is the left side of the REI store.

And if you look across the driveway...

...and through or over the fence...

...there is a pretty big field, or should

I say marsh. Maybe it is a marsh.

Pretty dang big for this area. I took a break here for a while. It was

surprisingly quiet. And there was a big old bullfrog just croaking

away. It was really pleasant.

Onward. Two more stops.

I went into Walmart to look around. This Walmart is FAR from The Ranch

and I am just going to see if they have anything fun that the Walmart in my

area doesn't. As it turns out, not really. But hey, they have knives and I am

going to buy one that I have had my eyes on for a number of years that I

never would fork over the dinero for, but what the hay, it's my

Birthday Extravaganza Week.

I bought a CRKT (Columbia River Knife and Tool) knife. It is called the

S.P.E.W. Is that a terrible name for a knife or what? Anyway, the name

stands for Small Pocket Everyday Wharncliffe. Wharncliffe is the blade

shape and I have to tell you, that is a new one on me. I had never ever heard

Wharncliffe before. But then again, I have never ever had a Wharncliffe blade

style before. I am going to have fun with this neck/belt knife.

Jerry Brown is an idiot.

I also bought this movie that I can't WAIT to see. "Mother". Polarizing

movie. It stars Jennifer Lawrence and Gosh save me, I really like her. This

movie is supposed to be weird. It was directed by Darren Aronofsky of

"Black Swan" fame. I like him AND Black Swan. So we will see.

Holy cow the sun is going down and I

still have another stop to make!!!

Huzzah!!!!

!!!! More to come !!!!!