Everything is Looking Up

Have a busy, fun end of summer ahead.

My oldest and his wife are getting settled in Fuji-shi. They haven't actually SEEN the mountain yet, but their camera is at the ready for that momentous day. In the meantime they are getting settled in. They have a two-bedroom apartment. At 6'4", my son has to duck to go through interior doors. The bedding and refrigerator had to be replaced and a great deal of leftover belongings from the previous tenant dealt with, but it sounds like things are coming together. It seems that the staff at his new school appreciates his willingness to pitch in. He says he is feeling better than he has in a "long, long time."

I've been fairly lazy. I've done a little weeding (not much) and have harvested lots of sweet pea, scabiosa and Apricot Chiffon poppy seed.

The joke around here is that Monday must be Disneyland day. Ha. Ha. I went two Mondays in a row. On the first day I treated myself to all of what they call "the dark rides," the rides that we used to enjoy when I was really little. I enjoyed noticing a lot of details that I didn't remember from before, like Mr. Toad's hands.
Of course, this area went through a major renovation in 1983 and so a lot of what I'm seeing is different than it was when I was a kid. Like this elephant stack on the Dumbo ride,

and I was noticing for the first time the wavy glass on the Pinocchio ride (although, to be honest, it might have been like that when I was little, too, and I wouldn't have paid attention).
I think the last time I rode the carousel was when my youngest was not quite two (which would make it 27 years ago). I was debating whether to get in line or not when the "calliope" started to play "Once Upon a Dream." Since the carousel has a Sleeping Beauty theme, it seemed like some kind of direction so I got on and enjoyed the ride.
And, no, I still need to lose more weight before I will challenge my knees to get me up on a carousel horse. The bench worked just fine.

If I can find it again, I'll post a video of what I call the water dance at Pixie Hollow. I heard some kids call it a water jump this week, but since the jumping is choreographed to music, I'll stick with my dance label. Just a fun fountain that I find relaxing and happy.

I know most people think of the rides when they think of Disneyland, but if I am lucky enough to hit a day when Ragtime Michael is at the keyboard, I settle in for an afternoon and evening of some amazing piano. The man has the gift, no doubt about it.

We've had some wildlife excitement around here. About 15 years ago, my mother's neighbor gave me two clutches of baby desert tortoises that she had hatched. A little over a week ago I was in the back yard collecting seed and looked down into the tortoise pen to find...
I was so EXCITED! My son is into reptiles and so we think we have them safely incubating under lights in the kitchen. Apparently you can't candle tortoise eggs like you can chicken eggs so we don't really know if they're viable or not, but we're hopeful. Every baby animal is cute, but tiny baby tortoises are really cute since they are just tiny replicas - right down to the claws - of the adults.

Now that the Japan-bound are there, we are back into the process of re-arranging the spare room into a combination music room and sewing room. Where did all this stuff come from!?! It's taking forever. Considering that I've been flinging stuff for five years now, it's proving to be very difficult getting rid of what has now survived two or three rounds of making stuff go away (the Rescue Mission loves me).

I have a lot of great "field trips" in the works in the next couple of weeks, but rather than take time to write about what I WANT to do, I'll wait until I can write about what I did.

Hope summer is going well for you, friends. Most of you will be jealous to hear that my part of SoCA is experiencing an amazingly cool summer; I've been puttering around comfortably all day today in a sweatshirt. Do not envy me, as we are all sure this means 100+ temps at Christmas.

Eeeeuuuwwwww.