God bless the USA

Photo from: http://publicdomainclip-art.blogspot.com/2008/09/world-trade-center-911-tribute-in-light.html

Peanut butter, Owls, Rabbit, Venus Fly Traps, Snake, Bamboo, Winged Monkeys

Friday, September 2
My mom made peanut butter pie. I had never eatten it before and it's so good! My mom grew up in Hamburg, Arkansa and at school, the cafeteria ladies served peanut butter pie for dessert at lunch. Back in August, my mom found the recipe on a website where people reminisce about their lives in Arkansa. My mom and I had been so busy and tired from our jobs, making the pie kept getting put off till this day.

I walked to Rite Aid in my town to browse the aisles. The weekend before last, I browsed in there hoping to find scrapbook stuff or a cool notebook with blank pages because I want a non-virtual log for my toy drops for The Toy Society but there wasn't scrapbook kits and none of the notebooks appealed to me. This Friday, I was in luck and found my toy drop log book! An adorable blue hardcover notebook with owls in rainbow colors all over it. The pages are lined (with an owl in one corner on each page) but the notebook is so cool I don't mind about the pages being lined instead of blank.

Saturday, September 3
On our way to the Windsor fair, my mom and I stopped at a Goggins IGA so mom could browse the wine section for a specific wine for the inn she works for. Her job at the inn is making registrations, showing boarders to their rooms, setting out tea and cookies, making cookies if there isn't any in the cookie jar for tea time, washing the used tea cups and saucers, setting out a bottle of wine and glasses for boarders to help themselves to, running around shutting windows when it starts raining, and I'm sure there's more she has to do. The couple running the inn do this stuff on her days off. My mom didn't find the wine at the store. We saw Venus fly traps in the plants and flowers section near the entrance and I wanted one! I'd never kept a Venus fly trap plant before. We stopped at a favorite ice cream shop in Dresden that's closing for the season on Sept. 11. I tried their raspberry milkshake for the first time and it was yummy. I don't recall drinking a raspberry milkshake before then. Mom wanted to stop at her favorite tanning place in Augusta for a quick tanning session. I sat out in the car and spent the wait drinking my shake, looking at my new Venus, and making its traps close.

After we entered the fair, my mom and I bought corn dogs to munch on. We love corn dogs at fairs. My mom and I looked at many varieties of cows, ducks, chickens, pigeons, goats, and sheep. I petted and fed goats and sheep in the barns where customers are allowed to do so. We also saw some alpacas and a serious lack of horses. I think the only horses I saw were a pair of black draft horses used for carriage rides. The only amusement ride my mom and I did was the bumper cars once. She shared a bumper car with me and I was appointed the driver. My mom pretends to be nervous sharing a bumper car with me because of my wild driving. ;)

More stuff we ate was a baked potato with chili and cheese (me), a sweet italian sausage in a roll with spicy bell peppers and onions (mom), and both of us have apple dumplings with vanilla ice cream and fried dough sprinkled with cinnamon. At a booth selling toys and children's books, I found Rabbit for my TY zodiac Beanie Baby collection. I'm missing only Monkey, Dog, Snake, Rat, and Pig. There was a barn selling maple ice cream and maple cotton candy. I love maple cotton candy. Last time, I had some was at the Cumberland fair last year. I bought two bags of maple cotton candy. We walked around in the exhibition hall where there was all kinds of stuff that had went through judging including crocheted goods, sewn goods, homegrown vegetables, artwork, photographs, taxidermy animals, and baked goods. It was cute seeing little kids' Pokemon card and Star Wars toy collections on display there.

I saw the guy who offers people a photograph taken with his boa constrictor for $5. He was doing the same thing the first time my mom and I saw him at the Topsham fair in August. In fact, I had my picture taken with the boa constrictor twice at the Topsham fair. The first time was with my mom. When the photo was taken, the snake's head had slipped behind mom's head because my hold on its body was too loose and its body slowly tightened on my neck. In the photo, I appear apprehensive with my eyes looking sideways in mom's direction while my mom smiles nonchalantly at the camera and the snake's head is hidden. I was disappointed in the photo because I wanted to be smiling at the camera and the snake's head to be exposed so I returned to the guy for another picture take. For the second picture, I sat with the boa constrictor by myself and smiled at the camera while holding the snake properly so its head could be seen. I was very pleased with the second photo and having it helped me like the photo I wasn't satisfied with. My mom kept the first photo and I kept the second one. I wanted to ask the guy what his snake's name is but was shy to ask. I was shy to ask at the Windsor fair too. At both the Topsham fair and Windsor fair, the guy's booth is across the path from a zoo tent with goats to pet and feed and exotic animals only for admiring: a toucan, an armadillo, baby alligators from Florida, and tortoises. My mom and I think the boa constrictor guy is a friend or relative to the people running the zoo tent.

Sunday, September 4
I made a video of Victoria Wood's "Return to Oz" song with subtitled lyrics. Back in August, I posted about discovering the song. I couldn't find the lyrics anywhere on the Internet so the subtitled lyrics are what I thought I was hearing and there may be misheard words. I caught a flying ant on my window and stuck it in the Venus' container. It took ten minutes before a trap claimed it.

Monday, September 5
After my horse riding lesson, my mom and I went to Augusta so she could buy lattice at Home Depot. After we got the lattice at Home Depot, we went to Red Robin for supper. I ordered the sauteed 'shroom burger (I love mushrooms :)) and a peach milk shake. I'd never tried a peach milkshake in my life and the one I had there was awesome. I made sure to finish the shake because it came in a tall glass and I didn't think they had carry-out cups but I knew they had carry-out boxes so I could leave with my burger and fries. After our meal,  I suggested to mom that we stop at Wal-mart to look for small, live lucky bamboo that's woven into the shape of a gate because I want one. I was positive it was at the Wal-mart in Augusta I saw such things at. The Wal-mart in the Brunswick didn't have them when we went there three weekends ago. We only go to those two Wal-marts and the one in the Augusta is a deluxe version and offers more things. I did find the lucky bamboo "gates" in the flowers and plants section and chose one to take home.

I learned there's a Youtube video with a large chunk of the Princess and the Frog section of the "Disney on Ice: Dare to Dream" show. The video was filmed by a mother (?) who attended the show with a couple of kids.

Facilier's intimidating friends turned out funny-looking. They look like winged monkeys! lol But I want to see that show! It seems wonderful!
_________________________________________
I'll post pictures of the peanut butter pie (and share the recipe!), my mom and I with the boa constrictor, my Venus fly traps, my lucky bamboo gate, my toy drop log book, and my TY zodiac Beanie Baby set. Also I'll post the "Return to Oz" video I made!

Geek zodiac signs for me and my family

I'm Sky Syndrome at the forum "Ultimate Disney" and someone posted a link to a Geek zodiac in the off-topic section a couple of days ago: http://graphjam.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/funny-graphs-year-of-the-supes.jpg

I'm a wizard, my dad and sister are time travelers, my mom is the undead, and my brother is the Daikaiju. It's funny that that is what my brother is. As a kid, my brother was a fan of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and had toys of the Zords (animal-shaped vehicles) and they attach together to make a Megazord, a humanoid robot. Often the climax of the show's episodes is the Rangers using their gigantic Megazord to fight a gigantic monster.

Spirited Away adoptables

A little while back, I talked about a lady named Lavonia who owned a Whisper the Winged Unicorn fan site with a complete list of the Whisper books. She had other fan sites and none of them are up anymore. One of the sites named "Little Colorful Candies" was a tribute to the anime film Spirited Away. The best part of the site was the adoptable soot sprites (aka Susuwatari), which she drew and colored herself.

Fortunately, I have the whole set of the adoptables.

       

      

      

       

She requested that people adopting a soot ball(s) and placing them on their own websites add this button with a link in it back to the LCC site.

I'm a Toy Dropper!

I've joined The Toy Society and today I dropped my first toy. The Toy Society is a group of toy makers who leave their hand-made toys in public place for strangers to find and keep. A letter containing an explanation of The Toy Society and contact information for the group is included with the toys so strangers finding the toys can send their find stories if they want and the stories will be added to The Toy Society's blog.

A picture of the yarn doll for my first drop on a shelf in my bedroom. I wrapped a piece of cardboard with jungle-themed paper and taped the The Toy Society letter on one side and on the other side I taped a tag stating "Take Me Home, I'm Yours". When I bagged the gift-wrapped cardboard and the toy, the toy would sit right under the tag.

Dropped: Super China Buffet in Waterville, Maine

My mom and I wanted to go to Waterville for lunch at Super China Buffet (a favorite restaurant of ours. Going to Waterville is a rare treat because it's an hour drive from home) and watch Fright Night at the cinema theater a little down the road from it. I thought the Super China Buffet was a great place for my first toy drop. When we came into the restaurant, I decided right away to leave it at the vending machines when it was time to leave. After a wonderful lunch, we stopped at the vending machines to leave the toy and I took pictures of it with my digital camera. We left the restaurant and as we headed toward our car, we saw a little boy with his parents going to the restaurant's doors. In the car, we drove by the doors and the toy was still sitting among the vending machines and the family was gone. I wonder who collected it and if they'll send a message that they found it!

Last Wednesday night, I looked through all the toy drops done in the USA recorded on The Toy Society blog for Maine toy drops, which took several hours (The drops are not divided into state labeled categories. The USA has 990 toy drops today and was about a handful less on Wednesday night) The records go back to November 2008. When I finished looking through the records, I had five Maine toy drops. California and Washington are the states with the most drops (I didn't count what they had but I saw their names for drop locations far more than other states' names). In May two years ago, someone else had made their first toy drop in Waterville and the drop site was a playground.

I'll be keeping records of Maine toy drops on my blog for my interest (and the interest of anyone else who cares).

Drop #323 left at the North Street playground in Waterville on May 21, 2009

http://thetoysociety.blogspot.com/2009/05/drop-323.html

Reply from finder: No

2009 Christmas Drop #177 left at a McDonald's in Winslow on December 24, 2009

http://thetoysociety.blogspot.com/2009/12/09-christmas-drop-177.html

Reply from finder: Yes (http://thetoysociety.blogspot.com/2010/01/found-christmas-drop-177.html)

Drop #1258 left at Buker Community Center playground in Augusta on July 3, 2010

http://thetoysociety.blogspot.com/2010/07/drop-1258.html

Reply from finder: No

Drop #1362 left at the Common playground in Gardiner on August 30, 2010

http://thetoysociety.blogspot.com/2010/09/drop-1362.html

Reply from finder: Yes (They replied in the comments section of the toy's drop entry)

Drop #1363 left at the Lou Buker Community Center playground in Augusta on August 30, 2010

http://thetoysociety.blogspot.com/2010/09/drop-1363.html

Reply from finder: No

Wow! Till I made my drop, Maine hadn't seen a toy drop for a year! I can't believe there wasn't a toy drop in Maine for The Toy Society's Christmas Drop 2010 (on the last weekend before Christmas, toy makers drop their toys and hope to break the previous year's record of drops made on the last weekend before Christmas)

Chinese zodiac animals for me and my family

Dad - Horse (1955)

Mom - Dragon (1964)

Me - Ox (1985)

Brother - Horse (1990)

Sister - Goat (1991)

Return to Oz had a theme song?!

I was looking up score for the 1985 film Return to Oz on Youtube and I stumbled on a song used to promote the film in the UK. It sounds pretty cool and makes me feel nostalgic. Return to Oz is an enjoyable movie.

I also found out about a song the Scissor Sisters made using the film as an allegory for crystal meth abuse (weird). Eerie song but I like it. Here's a wonderful music video someone made with the song and video clips from the movie:

Wow! Humans can train themselves to echolocate

I found out about it today and seems most of the world already knew for a while. But I hardly watch TV so I don't catch the shows that highlight special abilities. I found out about it while looking up how bats would react if people mimicked their clicks. I end up discovering blind people can teach themselves echolocation to get around.

Disney is weird about when they want to appease soccer moms

In the 2002 film Lilo & Stitch, there's a scene with Jumba invading Lilo's house to capture Stitch. Jumba throws his open Swiss Army knife at Stitch and it stabs the back door and sticks out the other side and Pleakley who is standing outside the door shrinks his body back from the Swiss Army knife's tools. In a early version of the scene, Jumba's Swiss Army knife has sharp tools and Pleakley shrinks away from a hatchet, a syringe, and a circular saw.

But for the soccer moms, in the final version of the film Jumba's Swiss Army knife has blunt tools and Pleakley shrinks away from a toothbrush, a comb, and a tube of toothpaste.

The 2009 film The Princess and the Frog has a scene with Frog Tiana and Frog Naveen being pursued by three hillybilly men wanting to catch them for food. One man throws two handfuls of knives at Tiana and she arranges her body in a crazy pose against a tree trunk and the knives stab the bark around her and between her appendages but she's unharmed and flees.

It's as though the people scripting the scene decided "To heck with what the soccer moms would think. Let's do our way!" I couldn't help comparing this throwing knives part to the Swiss Army knife part in L&S and wonder why anyone cared to alter it for soccer moms.

Proud Owner of a Female Tauros

I've been a Pokemon fan for 12 years. In July 2009, I learned of and joined a cool website call Global Pokedex Plus, where you adopt and hatch Pokemon eggs to fill up your Pokedex (a database that records information of all the different species you've obtained). My username there is Galactic Anthem. Trying to complete the Pokedex isn't the only thing people like to do on the site. Another thing people like doing is hunt for shiny Pokemon. I have a nice collection of shiny Pokemon there and I'll post about them some other time. Shiny Pokemon have different colors than their species are usually seen with. A horse Pokemon called Ponyta has red flames covering its body but a shiny Ponyta has blue flames. Shiny Pokemon are hard to come by and highly valued. A person decides what Pokemon they want a shiny of then start obtaining and hatching eggs of that Pokemon till they hatch the shiny. The amount of eggs it takes to complete a shiny hunt is random. One person can hatch a shiny Ponyta with the first Ponyta egg and another person can hatch a shiny Ponyta from the 626th Ponyta egg. I've been on a hunt for a shiny Tauros, a bull Pokemon, since October 2009. On the 23rd of last March, I hatched a female Tauros.

(I dressed her up with flowers. ^_^)

Her personal page: http://gpxplus.net/info/fOadd

Tauros is a species that is 100% male, ask any Pokemon fan. What I had was an awesome glitch Pokemon! I kept her, named her Bertha (after Big Bertha, a black chick wearing a red outfit with spikes in the Super Mario Bros. film, who falls in love with Mario), raised her to Level 100 (the highest level a Pokemon can reach), and show her off in my signature on the Global Pokedex Plus forum, Global Trade Station Plus. She has a relaxed nature and because of that, she likes any berries people feed her. While hatched Pokemon are occupying their owner's party (the party can hold up to six Pokemon and all the other hatched Pokemon in the owner's possession are stored in boxes in the PC aka personal computer) they're fed berries by their owners and other people playing on the site to help level them up. Depending on their nature, some Pokemon prefer to be feed a specific berry and some are happy being fed any berry.

When I finally find the shiny Tauros, he's going to be Bertha's mate. I'll place them in the Daycare (a place for breeding Pokemon) and find out if they can be a breeding pair. Boy, if they're able to breed, won't people who adopt their babies be surprised when they check the heritage of the offspring and see its parents are both males and discover one male is actually female.

Want to know what my Chinese zodiac is? The ox/bull. =D

Helping to keep the list of the Whisper the Winged Unicorn book series alive!

A decade ago, a woman named Lavonia made a great Whisper the Winged Unicorn fan website named 'Rainbow Forest' (the name of the forest where Whisper lives in the books). It had a list of all the books in the Whisper series, scans of the book covers and illustrations, book summaries, and character profiles. I was very grateful she made the site. Unfortunately, the site isn't up anymore so I'm providing the book list for people trying to collect the whole Whisper series. Happy hunting! :)

• A Wish for Whisper
• Christmas in Rainbow Forest
• Cry of the Wolf
• Curse of the Dragon
• Flying is Fun
• Journey to Julie's Heart
• Rescue from Rainbow Forest
• Shadow of the Hawk
• The Secret of the Dark Hollow
• Trap of the Hunter
• Whisper the Winged Unicorn
• Whisper's Golden Friend
• Whisper's Magic Mirror
• Whisper's Secret Dream
• Whisper's Mysterious Adventure
• Whisper's Lonely Heart
• Whisper's Rainbow Treasure

I finally gave into temptation to start this blog

I've had this Blogger account since 2007. It was originally created so I could comment on Baby-sitters' Club snark blogs. In 2009, I started thinking hard about creating a blog to post tributes of my favorite characters and use a lot of pictures to make the tributes look like mini galleries. I ended up never making it. I guess I didn't want the blog to be strictly about character tributes. Plus I spend way too much thinking about my ideas and some I don't even try to pull off because I'm afraid they won't turn out right. I conceived an idea for an Dr. Facilier/Friends on the Other Side (characters from the 2009 film The Princess and the Frog) tribute video back in January 2010 and I've kept myself in the brainstorming stage ever since. This tribute video would be unlike the other tribute videos on YouTube to these same characters and I imagine people would find it darn clever. Perhaps one day I'll complete that tribute video...

I named my blog after a quote belonging to Don Bluth. Back in the 80's, he started work on an animated film based on the fairy-tale Beauty and the Beast. He described the tale as "a tender love story that says, 'a thing must be loved before it's lovable.' The loved before lovable part touched me. I'm wary of people because I'm not skilled at socializing. A person has to treat me well for me warm up to them. But there's nice people who can turn out to be not nice after all and I have a pretty sad self-story about that for another time.

Why does my blog's url has horses and seals in it? I'm a huge horse fan. I collect horse/unicorn/pegasi stuff and taken english style riding lessons at the same morgan horse farm for the past six years. The seals are for the volunteer work rescuing seals I do with my mom here in Maine. We've been volunteers since 2006.

This blog is a variety blog. It could have movie reviews, book reviews, fanmade videos other people made that I like and want to share, photos I've taken with my digital camera, my seal rescue experiences, ranting, my favorite character tributes, and whatever else I feel like posting in it.