Ah, sugar... Ah, honey, honey. You are my candy girl,
And you got me wanting you.*

 

*Sugar Sugar by The Archies

(Frogs at Michaels Craft Store)

I have been trying to be good for a while now. I have way too many

movie figures and I am just holding out for Ten Star (in my budget)

figures these days. But my car, it just... dragged. me. over there.

The action figure section seems to move further and further back

and get smaller and smaller. But sometimes.... hidden gems.

 

Not so much a hidden gem today, but I am a sucker for "Alien"

Xenomorph figures. This NECA  Xenomorph is from "Alien 3"

and is a "dog" alien, meaning it's host was a poor dog, torn to

shreds during the alien's "birth". Not my favorite Xenomorph,

but like I said, I am a sucker.

Must not stop at Toys R Us for another year.

A B C, It's easy as, 1 2 3.
As simple as, do re mi, A B C, 1 2 3,
Baby, you and me girl...

 

 I recently went to the San Diego Airport to pick somebody

up and before I arrived at the field I had to park a few minutes

in an effort to get my bearings. The freeways around there are

sometimes (for me) not easy to navigate. So I pulled into a lot,

got out of the car and put a few coins in the meter. All of a sudden

I looked up and realized that I was at the Maritime Museum of San

Diego and I was surrounded by ships and submarines.

I took a few pictures and the tall ship you see here is the HMS Surprise.

The Surprise is a replica ship built in Canada in 1970. In 2001 the

Surprise was sold to 20th Century Fox to be used as the Royal Navy

frigate Surprise in the movie "Master and Commander: The Far Side

of the World". In 2007 she was sold to the Maritime Museum and

restored and sails several times a year. She is beautiful.

And she was also used in "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger

Tides" as the HMS Providence. That was in 2010. Savvy?

No problemo.

I took this picture with my phone so I can

remember this floss when I go shopping.

This floss sucks. It breaks.

All the time.

No good.

Go back in time with me if you will, back to a happier time.

Today!

I saw "Suicide Squad" today. I had heard bad things, but I

thought it was good. I thought Jared Leto's Joker was good.

He sure is purdy. Anyway, Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn

was good. Will Smith's Deadshot was good. I had fun with it

and I will buy it when it comes out on Blu-ray. That is more than

I can say about a few of the movies I have seen lately.

I rate "Suicide Squad" 7.5 out of 10 "Good Night" baseball bats.

I have been waiting to see "The Purge: Anarchy" for a loooooooong

time. I never wanted to pay 15 or 24 bucks for it. I waited it out. Today

I found the one and only copy (at least for now) at the bottom of the

$7.88 bin at Walmart. Good deal. It might be good. Now I am holding

out for a deal on the third one.

 

From my 2012 visit to the Gene Autry Western Heritage Museum

in Griffith Park, Ca... This is John Wayne's iconic eyepatch and

bandana from his movie "True Grit" (1969). Of course we know there

were more than one of each, but perhaps these were screen used.

You never know. Note that you can see through the patch. That

must have come in handy.

Pretty sure this phone is used for only one thing,

and that would be calling Dr. Feelgood.

These two must have had an interesting exchange.

Big Lots has Halloween stuff! Yeah, I know it is a little early.

But for those of us who enjoy Halloween items year round,

no complaints.

It will not be long now before we go on our Annual Halloween

Crawl for 2016! There are many bones in our future.

I had never seen an "oven squirrel" until I saw my mom's.

Maybe I am sheltered. These guys are great. If you have

never seen one, you use them to slide hot oven racks in and

out as needed and generally just moving hot stuff about.

I looked them up online and there are lots of different looking

squirrels. My mom's here looks to be pretty generic. I will

never not have an oven squirrel now that I know about them.

This poor guy's tail is slightly scorched but he never falters

in his duties.

Barnes & Noble. It always seems so "snooty" in there. Hoity-

toity... And they are expensive for a lot of things. But I can

find some things in there that I cannot find anywhere else

except maybe for Amazon.com.

This time it is Alabama's album, Greatest Hits Vol. III. There is a

song that I have been really wanting to get: "I'm in a Hurry". And

there are other good songs on this CD as well. "Tennessee River"

being one.

This is also a test. But for this test I am posting a

picture of some popcorn I bought at Walmart for

one dollar. Popz popcorn. Just for a change while

I watched "Ender's Game" on Blu-ray, which was

pretty good.

This is just a test. Google/Picasa are having their

way with us again and it requires some relearning.

One of the things that I love about cactus is

even when Mother Nature kicks it over...

...it still survives and shows how beautiful it is.

C'mon now.... Who would not want one of these?

I took this picture at the Conan the Barbarian

show at Universal Studios Hollywood some

years ago. While looking at the pictures I spotted

a "Hidden Mickey".

I have always wanted to eat at Hometown Buffet, but

I did not because a mile down the road was...

 

 ...PIZZA!

 

Hometown Buffet: 0

Pizza: 10,346

I bought "I Saw The Light: The Story of Hank Williams" on DVD.

I really wanted to see this one. Tom Hiddleston did a good job but

overall the movie was a little long and a little TVish. Elizabeth "Scarlett

Witch" Olsen played his wife Audrey and she sang a bit. In the movie her

singing was supposed to be terrible, but I liked it. Anyway, it seemed to be a

showcase for TH and he is pretty good. I love him as "Loki" in"The

Avenger" movies. 5.5 out of 10 Cheatin' Hearts.

And yeah, it is brush fire season again. Always some added summer stress.

Being evacuated is difficult enough, losing your home? I pray that we never

find out how that feels.

P.S. I entered a contest with Stetson to win a reproduction of the hat

that Tom wore as Hank Williams in the movie. Winning that would

be fantastic and near impossible.

 

 Happy National Day Of The Cowboy 2016!

July 23th is National Day Of The Cowboy. NDOTC is

dedicated to (from the website) "preservation of America's Cowboy

heritage so that the history and culture which the United States

Congress's National Day of the Cowboy resolution honors,

can be shared and perpetuated for the public good, through education,

the arts, celebrations, gatherings, rodeos, and community activities."

~ National Day of the Cowboy Website ~

Happy Birthday America 2016!

I went to the movies again. I got to go later at night. That is my

favorite time. You know I love to close the theater. And with the

points I earned with my Regal Crown card this movie was FREE!

This time I saw "The Shallows". It is a killer shark movie. It was

okay. The popcorn was better. I give the movie about 5.5 out

of 10 barnacles. Blake Lively did a good job. The shark looked

real. ...I don't know. I am just difficult to please lately.

I am looking forward the the "Magnificent Seven" remake. I know,

it is a remake, but it is a WESTERN. And even though Denzel

Washington is not one of my favorite actors, he never fails to

deliver for me. Never. He SHOULD be one of my favorite actors,

but he just is not. It does not make sense. Anyway, "The Shallows"

is worth a rent when it is released on DVD. I won't be buying it.

My son was driving (passenger) by the

Capitol Records building in Los Angeles

and sent me this picture he took.

I did put those little dice beads I bought at the

Indian Store on the lanyard of my Becker BK7.

But to be honest, my heart was not into this project.

I just felt I needed to get it done. Bad mix.

I have been kind of tired lately and it was difficult for

me to gather the interest to do a good job on this. The

lanyard is all but useless. The knots are terrible and

the dice are nowhere near where I wanted them to be.

The whole thing has a kind of whimsical look to it

but whimsical is not what I was shooting for.

I will redo it sometime in the future. This knife

deserves a MUCH better less laughable job.

Somebody put the bird feed a little too close

to the ground today. I cannot safely shoot these

little varmints in this area. Backstops not secure.

As cute and fun as these guys are to watch, it
does not outweigh how destructive they are,
especially in large numbers.

It wasn't easy to get this picture either. Two things

they are, are aware and FAST.

I went to update my eyeglass prescription.

I figured ten years was a long enough stretch.

It looks like the Duke boys were over

to The Home Depot again today.

We are big on knowing the temperature here at

El Rancho De La Tex. These are the "outdoor"

devices for the "Indoor/Outdoor" contraptions.

These things are great. When you reach a certain

age it is nice to know if the heat you are feeling is

real heat or your imagination or a blasted ailment.

It is all very exciting.

I got one more from the Indian store. While there

I found these awesome little dice with pretty large

holes in them.

I think they are going to find a way onto my knife

lanyard much the way the skull from the Indian Store

ended up on my smaller knife. And I do not think that

I will need to enlarge the holes in the dice as I did with the

skull (a difficult proposition, at least for me) to make them

fit. I will do this soon. I am still not sure what configuration

to use for the lanyard.

 One of the reasons I had gone to the Indian Store

was to find a cover for my Bic lighter. If you are

going to carry a Bic, you might as well make it yours

is what I say.

 

 I found this beautiful cover there. It is

made by a gent name of James Martin. He is

of the Navajo Tribe. The stones are turquoise and 

coral. The case is sterling silver.

 

The back is adorned as well. Mr. Martin makes many

beautiful pieces and he is worth checking out. I feel

like I am carrying artwork in my purse.

"You see, I understand you men were just playin' around,
but the mule, he just doesn't get it. Course, if you were to
all apologize..."

A "Clint Eastwood poncho" at the Indian Store that my
son and I really enjoy visiting from time to time. I think
we all pretty much know that this poncho is not anything
like the one that Clint wears in his westerns,
but it's cool anyway.

 

The ancient carving that I stumbled upon while

out hiking around March of last year is still

in my possession. This primitive artwork is proof

positive that bow ties go back eons. A real find.

LOL... Yeah, I know, this is kind of stupid. But I
KNOW there is somebody who is going to want
to know that bow ties have been around for so long.

Done and done.

I like Motel 6. I've stayed at Motel 6. But I feel I should

be a bit more educated regarding their WI-FI before I go

about tossing all of my personals through their airspace.

As Peter Marlowe said in 1965's "King Rat", "Bit dicey."

Tooth pulled. Aftercare supplies. I am still out of it.

Nothing to eat for 3 days. Not much sleep. That starts

changing today. I called in sick to work for the first time

in over a year. And I still felt guilty about doing it.