Museum Shock

Where to begin, that is the question. I suspect that I will not be able to smash everything I want into this post, nor will I get everything I wanted to write about on the blog before the end of the week. So you people out there in Internet land get to enjoy Phoenix longer than I do. I hope you're happy.

Yesterday my friend was in meetings all day, and mine had pretty much wrapped up for the week. Finding myself with a lot of extra time on my hands, I decided to walk down to the Phoenix History museum. My friend asked me if I was insane for wanting to go walking around in 109 degree temps. The sad truth is, I didn't even break a sweat. I got a slight clammy feeling to my skin and that was it. Some might accuse me of wearing a tank top and shorts.... I was in fact wearing a t-shirt, with a long sleeved sweat shirt over it. And jeans. Should I be concerned about my body's ability to regulate temperature? I'm starting to wonder.

A half an hour of walking, getting slightly turned around, and then arriving at my destination had me somewhat disappointed. It was closed. The times on the door stated that they should be open, so I approached the front door only to find a notice on the door informing the general populace that the Phoenix History Museum had lost its funding, and as of June 30th would be closing its doors. The neighboring Science Museum has acquired the building and all its assets and is currently trying to find a sponsor to fund it. I must be living in some hole, or abyss, because I had no idea that Museums weren't funded, at least in part, by the government. Or local county, city or governing entity. Where I'm from, yes, there is a small entrance fee sometimes, but nothing like what I'm finding here... and I have to say that I'm somewhat horrified. The Museums in Arizona don't get any funding through government. They're all paid for through corporate entities like banks, or Pepsi or something along those lines. O.O Excuse me, but if the only money coming in, is from a large company, what assurance do I have that they aren't pulling history make overs? "Re-Write it this way, or we'll yank your funding!" I'm damned alarmed by this.

Getting into the Phoenix Science Museum was also entertaining. Like Movie entertaining. You know when you go to see a movie, you fork over $8.00 for a matinee? Well just switch that to $12. Then go inside the theatre and you smell popcorn and decide to go get a bucket. You get a bucket because they give you no choice in many cases. Then ,maybe, you want some candy, or a soda. This museum was much the same. $12 entrance fee, and then good luck seeing half the exhibits if the entrance fee was all you were expecting to pay. Its cheaper to go see a movie. Granted the museum was under construction, so a lot of things were blocked off, but what was open was in poor shape. Many of the exhibits didn't work, or were visibly worn and in this case, should not have been. 90% of the staff were volunteers, and they did a good job, but wow... scary. I didn't take pictures, because there just wasn't anything in there worth taking a picture of. Thursday we're supposed to go visit the Heard Museum in the morning before the tour groups hit. I really hope things are in considerably better shape.

After hiking around downtown Phoenix for various reasons, I found myself back near the hotel, and treated myself to a salad for lunch at the Greek restaurant, which is right behind the Starbucks. The night before three of us came here for dinner and got Greek Fries to go with dinner, and my it was good. The dining establishment involved is called My Big Fat Greek Restaurant.

The food you see on the right is a Caesar salad, and it was very very good. In fact I've been eating them with abandon. Their Greek Salad is also extremely good. I haven't tried anything off the rest of the menu yet, but I did have a little bit of gyro from someone else's dish, and it was good as well. The gyro I've had before was really greasy and tasted a bit off, but this was near perfect. I've got a picture of the Greek Fries on here too, which is served with feta and another cheese, melted and mixed with a lemon sauce which gets poured over the fries. I don't generally like potatoes, but those were sooo good. I may have to get those again, but to share, because the plates they give you are enormous.

The fingers you see are those of my friends. Sarah would be at the other end of the hand on the left, and Nancy is the owner of the fingers on the right. I didn't eat many, but its was damned hard to abstain. Potatoes don't agree with me, and I'm not going into details. I did discover sweet potato fries at the hotel. Heh. Now those I can eat without troubles. In fact they give them to you in a cut down paper bag so you can take them with you if you don't finish. I took them with me and ate them slowly over the last few days. Soooo very very good.

Several people pointed out after I posted last that I had neglected to put up a picture of the Teddy Bear I made. This was because I hadn't taken a picture of it before I posted last. I've remedied the situation, and here is my bear.

There were three choices for color when we finished the tour off. Turquoise blue, black, and a Holstein cow black and white pattern. And that would've been all the choices, except that one little boy had somehow glommed onto a bright orange bear and that was the one he wanted to stuff... Attempts to dissuade his choice resulted in a pitched fit that was in many ways extremely ineffective. To me at least. So, our wonderful tour guide went into the back again to see what other color bears he could come up with. He came back with White, Honey and some other color that is escaping me at the moment. Obviously I got the Honey colored bear. Other popular choices were the cow pattern and ... actually I'm not sure anyone got the black or turquoise colored bears. There were two orange bears by the time we were done. Several cow bears, and one bright pink bear that wasn't even on the menu, but Stuffington was very accommodating where this tour was concerned. Each bear got their own ribbon set up. You could have gotten clothes for the bear, but that can get expensive. Thus, all the bears left naked except for a bow tie. That sounds oddly X rated....

There was also a request for a better picture of Fargo the Guide Dog (Guide Dogs for the Blind). He's Sarah's Guide Dog, and he's disgustingly cute. He also sleeps on me sometimes at night. Heh. He also doesn't like the camera, so I have to sneak up on him. Even so, he managed to look miserable. Or perhaps sleepy. So here we go:

And since we're doing this now, this is Yancy from Seeing Eye who guides for Nancy. No jokes please. I don't generally like German Shepherds because they tend to whine, but he doesn't. He talks, but doesn't whine:

And yes. Yancy is a gorgeous German Shepherd. Standing, sitting, sleeping, working or otherwise. He's a gentle soul.

I'm going to see another movie this morning, and then... who knows what I'm doing. That is, I'm going to see a movie if its not too crowded in there. I hate crowded theaters. Yesterday I went and saw Despicable Me, which is a kids movie, so it was predictable, and steeped in good morals, but it was fun anyway. :)

New Friends, Old Friends, and Teddy Bears

Just because I like to torture myself on vacations, I decided to go to the American Council for the Blind convention in Phoenix, AZ. Actually, one of my oldest friends had been talking about going to this convention all year; last year really. It takes a while to save up money for these things. Anywho, in the weeks leading up to the convention the person who she would be sharing a room with backed out on her, leaving her without a roommate and a rather hefty room bill. She was suddenly unsure of whether she would be able to go and was upset. So, I stepped in and said, "You can use me as a roommate. We haven't seen each other in two years." Then in a small panic, because I HAD NOT been saving up for this, I began stuffing money away in order to pay for half the room. All of that aside, I'm here, and have been having a grand ole time with my friend, and all of her friends.

Yesterday was an all day event, in which I got to meet three wonderful little girls who all have partial or no ability to see. Their particular disorder can also cause behavioral issues, which was present, but to a MUCH lesser extent than I've seen in perfectly healthy children. They were great, and we all had a ball. Our small troop of 12 got together in the lobby of our hotel at 9 a.m. where we all climbed into cars and headed out for breakfast at an IHOPS. We got lost for 20 minutes, then pulled into an IHOPs we found at random, and it turned out to be the right one. I could be getting the facts wrong here, but in my defense I was in the back of a large vehicle with a hot Guide Dog, and two little girls who talk a lot. We laughed a lot too. The food was good, and then we left for the Stuffington Bear Factory.

And here's the proof. We all crawled out of the car and hustled inside as fast as possible. Our arrival was slightly after 11 a.m., but it was already 112 outside and some of the girls aren't heat tolerant at all. There was also the guide dogs who were (and still are if we don't put their boots on) burning the heck out of their paws walking from the parking lot to the front door. There was a slight wait for the rest of the party to figure out where the factory was. That ended when we were told that the rest of the party was already there and waiting on US. Um.. ooops.

Right inside the front door the kids quickly discovered the giant bear. This thing made everyone look like they were in miniature. I forgot to ask if it had a name, but I'm guessing he does. He's just too cool not to have a name. Of course the girls were all over the bear in under 2 seconds, laying on his legs, pulling on his arms and they got in trouble for trying to shimmy up onto his head. There are signs to either side that tell you not to crawl on his head. I suspect that kids have been lost to the large crevasse that is the hole between the back of Big Bear's head, and the corner of the room.

This situation was remedied fairly quickly when our tour guide showed up and said,"Okay, if you could follow me this way we'll get this party started." or something to that effect. I didn't take a picture of him. Sorry. But he did give us a wonderful tour of the back room where they stuff all the creatures for orders. There was an order of German Shepherds with collars reading Champ for the Vice Pres. Apparently they are for a program running somewhere, but since my brain is reenacting the last gasps of a beached fish, I can't remember what it was.

They have a rather surprisingly small work staff, but he said that if they get a huge amount of orders, they sometimes double the staff as needed, but apparently the usual number back here is 8 people. They also use old fashioned sewing machines, because they're made of metal components rather than plastic, which can break off easily into a random stuffed toy. Since their goal isn't to maim the general public, they stick to the metal machines. Surprisingly, parts for their machines are still being manufactured in the U.S. and are readily available for order on-line. You can see part of one in the picture to the left.

They had an entire wall devoted to plastic fur. You can see the bolts of fur along the back wall in every shade of color and texture you can think of. I will confess to taking this picture because I swear this Teddy Bear is smiling at me and even if he wasn't, he's just too damned cute. They literally had bears and other stuffed animals of a fake nature piled everywhere on tables, bins and in some cases; floors. Thus we have the teddy bear with half made teddy bears on one side, made teddy bears in his lap, and.... I lost track of everything that was to his right. This company does put a lot of work into these bears though, and they pay some serious attention to the seams and stitching. They showed us the stuffing machine first. It's a large machine that sort of looks like a circus box car, with a tube sticking out one side. You take your stitched, but hollow bear and stick him on the tube, step on a peddle, and the machine starts stuffing the bear for you. All you do is move the bear around to make sure all the limbs and body have filled out. It was damned fast. Stitching up the Bear's back was even faster. Then they use a little vacuum with a comb to suck up stray fuzz, and pull the fur that got suck in the stitches free. Which means you don't see the seams as much. The last step is to give your bear an air bath. They have a pressurized air system that you just run the bear under. It blows away any random fluff left over. The best part of this entire process is that you get to do this all yourself. Yes, I have another Teddy Bear and I MADE this one!!

After we were done, our very kind driver took us all back to the hotel, were we all pretended to be dead for a while, before we met back in the lobby for a dinner run. We went out to a very good Mexican restaurant and had lots of fun telling stories. There was also a walking band that would go from table to table and play different songs in spanish. Really cool experience. It was late when we got back to the hotel and we collapsed in the room.

In fact, this is basically what we did when we got there.

Fargo gave us all a good example to follow. :)

I'll see about posting again, but considering the hotel is charging an arm and a leg for internet service, my posting will all depend on whether or not I can get to the Starbucks!

The Little Fishies Three... sorta...

Soooo, as .... whoever reads this blog knows, I set up an aquarium a couple of weeks ago. Its a little three gallon tank, with an eclipse water wheel system. From what I researched this a nice system, that perhaps cleans itself a little too well. For an aquarium to work properly there needs to be a certain amount of biologic activity going on in the tank. It helps provide the water with oxygen, and that in turn helps keep the fish, frogs, crab, or whatever you put in the tank alive and healthy. This means that when you set up the tank you need to let it run for a day or so to let the crap they put in the water evaporate or destabilize enough for the first fish you put in to keep swimming. Considering the water that runs out of our tap smells like a swimming pool at the best of times, and a bottle of chlorine at the worst, I let mine run for a week before attempting to add fish.

I started with three Red Phantom Tetras, because they're easy to take care of and they tend to poop a lot. Face it people. Poop makes the world go round. Actually anything that falls into a cycle of life makes the world go round, but for the sake of this story we'll be talking of fishly poo. It allows bacteria to start the afore mentioned cooking. In fact starting out a new fish tank is called "cycling the tank." For a blissful week, I had three little tetras. Three little extremely SHY tetras. They're supposed to school in a tank, but these guys just hid inside their little treasure chest. It was a trial trying to get them to eat, so I was probably feeding them more than they should have been getting. Don't get me wrong. I was not by any means over-feeding, because the little buggers were too scared to eat everything I put in there. So, I made sure everyone got a mouthful and then stopped for the day. These are small fish, so I was breaking up the flakes so they could eat... except the littlest fish managed to get ahold of the biggest flake. Which caused him get too much air in his system. Which then caused an air bladder problem... which resulted in his untimely demise. Yes. Guilt sits heavy upon my shoulders.

Thus I find myself with the little fishies two, instead of the little fishies three. They're even worse now about swimming around the tank. Time is spent lurking behind the big rock on the right, or inside the treasure chest on the left. If I turn on the light they hide behind the treasure chest next to the intake filter where I can't see them at all, and since I turn the light on to feed them, they totally miss the tiny pieces of munchies I'm attempting to give them. I am told that this will change when I add more fish, but that's another couple of weeks down the road, after the tank finishes cycling. There are worse things than shy fish though, so I will put up with having to find them to make sure they're alive every day until I can add more fish.

On a totally separate note, I got back around to watching Bleach episodes. I'd let them run for a while so I can watch a bunch all at once. Episodes 266 to 272.... O.o WOW!! That's all I'm sayin'. And if you WANT to know what I'm talking about, then watch Bleach from episode 1, and hang on for a good ride. Its not the best series I've ever seen, but I certainly have fun watching it. I'm also letting One Piece run, but I suspect that's going to take longer to finish the specific arc they're on. I'm not entirely sure it'll end well either, but I still love all the characters, so I'll watch anyway.

And.... We're Back!!

Today, I left home early. Once again, I was driven to run for the sake of my poor eardrums. They can only take so much Banshee singing. Thus I found myself at the pet shop getting dog food. Yes, I was brave enough to go get dog food again. Anyway, after that, I tootled off to my Physical Therapy appointment. That was actually kinda funny. I've really been keeping up on my exercises and it shows. There haven't been any hand tremors since Friday, and even that was slight, and partially due to me using my hand a lot during a pencil drawing class. This results in me getting some strengthening exercises to go with the ones that do a traction type movement with my neck. I was so happy to be able to do the drawing again, without my hand going bonkers that I brought in some of my art to show him. It really meant a lot to me that he got me back to the point where I could draw again. He was totally floored. LOL! Oh, that was funny.

Afterwards, I wandered over to The Big Salad Shop for lunch. BEST SALADS EVER. I eat lunch there a lot. While I ate lunch I sat on the patio, ate lunch and read a book. It was so nice. Free time has been such a rare thing for me over the years. On the down side, I discovered that my feet really need some sandals. The Halflingers are great during Winter, Spring and Fall... but not so good when the temps hit 95+, which led me up the street to the shoe store where I put a pair of sandals on hold until I get my paycheck. Then I suckered myself into looking at type of bicycle I've been eyeballing for about two years. I have a bike, but its a serious mountain bike with a seat built for the numb-of-ass. My posterior is just a tad more delicate, and the position of the handlebars are awkward. I love the bike, but it's just not built for a ride to the grocery store any back. It's built to take you down mountain sides and up the next with extreme efficiency. Don't get me wrong. It's an awesome bike, but ... not so good for cruising around town.

So, I drooled on a bright red bike at the bike shop, and found out that they have lay away. Really... you have lay away? Oh, man. I got myself out of there before I could get myself in more trouble. The brand name and model of the bike left with me on the back of a business card. On the way home, I passed my Dad and Sister heading down the hill... Which meant I was going home to a house with an abandoned Banshee. ... joy. Upon arriving home, he was indeed crying and carrying on. Being one that has a low tolerance for loud noises, (and I do realize the irony of this) I plugged myself into a pair of earphones, jacked it into my ipod and cranked up the volume. Then proceeded to put together my fish tank. Which I got three years ago at Christmas. I figured it was about time to set it up. Procrastination is one of my specialities.

Chickens On The Porch, Where Art Thou?

Alrighty. If anyone is wondering where Callie is from Chickens On the Porch, she is currently without Internet connection. If everyone is now wondering how I managed to get online if there is no Internet connection, its because I fled the house Saturday after work, and am currently making use of a friends wireless system. With their consent of course. BUT for the near future there may be a small space where there aren't any posts from either of us. Just thought I'd let you know. Never fear. If worse comes to worse, I shall put Mom in the car with my laptop and drive her down to the library where the Internet service is FREE, and on ALL THE TIME. Thus, she may post.

In the meantime, hang in there. We're working on it.

Banshees Really DO Exist!!

They do! They really do! We've all seen them too, because every human has at one point in their lives been one. We know them as 2 year-olds. My nephew for instance is currently in his banshee stage, with a shriek that can, and quite possibly has, peeled the paint off walls. Sorry to say I have no actual proof of this, but believe me. Its the only thing that can possibly explain his ability to push the decibel reading off the scale. Thankfully he comes with a pacifier. If you plunk him in front of the TV and run Kiki's Delivery Service, he's extremely quiet. Until its over, and then... You'd better be quick on the play button. My dog's brick splitting bark sounds so tame now. That's probably a blessing of sorts. I no longer jump out of my skin when she barks right behind my back. She sneaks up behind me and does that, and I'm fairly sure she laughs about it too. Thank god she can't take pictures.

The shrieking aside, my sister's kids are all good. I keep telling myself that the littlest one is just a baby, and I'm being dumb when I climb walls to escape the noise. So far I've not been terribly effective at convincing myself of that. Ah well.

On Monday I had my second physical therapy appointment. It seemed to go well. The PT wants to keep things very simple because that's what seems to be working for me. I have a suspicion that this thing in my neck may never completely leave and I will be doing these little exercises for a long time to come. At the moment though, they are allowing me to function at about 90% of normal. Unless I forget to do them, and then I'm back to a dying fish for a hand. Always fun for parties and attempting to eat spaghetti. OR I've got an odd wimpy feeling to the arm, and slight numbness down the inside of the arm to the wrist. Either or both can happen, and I'm not always in a position to fix it with the exercises. Its a learning process for now, but at least it's working.

After the appointment, I drove home in the little rental. Nice enough little car. In fact it was nice enough to drive right back down the hill later to see a movie. I decided on Prince of Persia, which wasn't a bad film exactly, but it rang hollow. I really didn't give a crap about any of the characters. The action scenes were fine, the dialogue wasn't bad, and FX were top notch. However this whole thing basically falls into the same category as National Treasure. A movie that has everything I love in a film, but totally fails to pull me into it. Everything fell rather flat, like walking into a very clean glass door. You'd like to be inside the party with everyone else, but something is preventing you from getting to it. I'm not saying this was bad film, because for many people I'm sure it was great, but for me... eh. I should've gone to see Killers.

And! I've got my car back! It looks brand new. The place that did the repairs gave me a detail job on the car too. The only thing that was a little screwy is that there was sap all over the car, so they couldn't give it a wax job. Therefore I get to get it further detailed in the near future, and I get to figure out how its getting sap all over it, given it lives in a carport. Odd. Anyway, I've got my car back!! Soooo happy!!!

ACK!! An AWARD!!

I am in an extremely foul mood today. There is no real particular reason for it, just that I wanted peace and quiet and instead my sister and her kids are invading for two weeks. Starting at 6pm or so today. I'm not going to say anything else about it because I start moving from merely agitated to outright angry. As bad as this sounds, I greatly dislike having visitors to the house. That includes relatives. I would be exceedingly happy as a hermit. A CLEAN hermit. With chickens, goats, dogs, and at least two mules. I'd be good.

On a brighter note, somehow I got an award from "Little Messy Missy". Thank you Little Messy Missy. This was the last thing I was ever expecting. I didn't think I wrote enough on this thing to ever gain award attention. Definitely a brighter spot in the day though. So, basically I think the rules go that I thank the person who gave it to me. Done. :)

Then tell everyone 7 things that you probably don't know about me, and given that I don't like talking too much about myself, that should be relatively simple. The last one was that I was supposed to pass this award on... Which could be a problem given that I generally don't read a lot of blogs. So, I will hold onto this until I run across people who meet the criteria.

1. I'm afraid I already gave this away. I harbor a deep need for solitude.

2. I still sleep with a little pink plush elephant.

3. I absolutely abhor dresses and skirts. Give me jeans any day.

4. I have a polished stone collection that I keep in a fish bowl. Every once in a while I take the fish bowl and dump the stones on a table, and then look at them for hours.

5. I don't like chocolate, unless you offer me raisinets. Then I can eat an entire bag. Most people get chocolate cravings... I get cravings for Nori (that's the dried seaweed they use for sushi), and eat them like potato chips. Yes, I know. Weird.

6. I want tons of plants in my room, but I've got a black thumb.

7. My favorite movies are from the 40s and 50s. Hollywood lost something when they hit the mid 60s, and they haven't gotten it back.

Lately I've been watching a lot of Anime online. There are a couple of sites that have some really good quality shows, but you have to take a good look around before you find them. About 3 years ago, I came across one at work called Mushi-Shi, and loved it. There are some Animes that have this wonderful soothing feel to them. You can watch them hundreds of times, and the feeling never really fades. Mushi-Shi was one, and Natsume Yuujinchou (translates to Natsume's Book of Friends) is another which I just found. When I'm really stressed out I find myself going back to it to watch. It has a soft melancholy feel to it at first, but as the show progresses and the main character finds that he's not as alone as he thought, you find yourself smiling by the end of the half hour. If you have ever seen "Spirited Away" then you may like this, but its not quite so action packed. This is much quieter, and built around a kind teen who can see spirits and has never quite fit in with whatever relative he was sent to stay with. When he finds himself with the last people willing to take him in, in the country, he makes a real effort to fit in. You can find this Anime on CrunchyRoll, and other places, but I'd suggest the first because of the quality of the media. You'll have to put up with some obnoxious commercials, but its worth it.

On to the shoulder update. I'm not sure what's going on with my shoulder, and neither is the physical therapist. His conclusion was that this was not run of the mill whiplash, and that he'd need some time to pinpoint the issue. Since he's not sure what's going on, except that whatever is causing it is in my neck, not so much in the shoulder, he could only give me one exercise to do. It helps a LOT. This doesn't cure it, because it always comes back, but it just involves a little traction to the neck, and my hand acts normally, my shoulder doesn't hurt much, and I'm pretty much normal. For a while at least. Which is VERY cool! Now... If I can just get my car back. I'll be happy.

I zoomed through another book instead of finishing off the two I'm in the middle of, but I couldn't help it. It was an Ilona Andrews book, and I absolutely LOVE her writing. First book was "Magic Bites" and then she went roaring right through another 3 books. They're so much fun, and I'm constantly cracking up at the images my mind creates from the descriptions. If you want a light read with modern day magic, then this would be for you. They're fun!

After I caught the little Imprezza Speedball, Dad took me out for pizza, and then we went and wandered around Best Buy. I found "The Watcher in the Woods" for $5 roughly, and got it. I hadn't seen it in so long I'd partially forgotten the story, but I remembered liking it. This was one of Disney Studio's oddball creepy movies. Another was "Something Wicked This Way Comes" which is one of my favorite Ray Bradbury books, but the movie adaptation was very well done. Anyway, I finally got to sit down and watch "Watcher in the Woods" today, and it's still good, with probably what is one of the last appearances of Bette Davis before her withdraw from films. Good movie, and I'm glad I got it.

Ah yes... Eat a Cookie!