They won't be outdone...

Apparently some of my stablemates were getting a little jealous of all the attention I was paying some of my traditions because they decided to get into the act, too, it seems.

Yesterday I was in my room, watching TV when I looked over at one of my shelf units and I thought it looked a little...off.  Upon closer inspection, I discovered several of my newer ones had decided to lie down and take a little nap...

I haven't looked, yet, to see if any of them are damaged and I don't know why just these ones fell over and not the rest on the shelf, but I'm guessing the bay Paso Fino is the main culprit.  Something caused him to fall over and take the others with him.  It looks like maybe Buttercream's leg may have kept any others from falling over.  Those are my older ones I got at the antique store a few weeks ago and several of them are G1 and discontinued.  I always knew those PFs were trouble.  hahahaha.  So, I took the picture and set them back up.  The PF doesn't really stand all that well so he's now resting against Kalahkaari's leg for support. 

Yesterday I was looking around on my iPad mini for lighthouse webcams I didn't know about and after following a couple of links I found this lighthouse in Maine that is for sale...

 Look at that view!

I don't remember if it said it's an actual, working lighthouse that is being sold as excess surplus or if it was built like a lighthouse and might be an active aid to navigation.  But just look at it.  It's selling for just under $2million and so totally worth it, in my opinion.  Of course, it's a huge fire hazard with all those trees and wood, but it's beautiful.  Definitely unique. 

Well, it's Monday.  I need to get back to work.  I hope everyone had a nice weekend.  I did laundry Saturday then my mom and I went out to dinner Saturday night.  I got the prime rib as usual and it was probably the best I've ever had there.  And the grilled mushrooms were yummy as usual.  I brought some of it home to have for leftovers today at work.  Can't wait until lunch.  Something we weren't able to bring home, though, was desert...

My mom said I should put it in my to-go container with everything else.  Uhm, no thanks.  Hahaha.  Some foods just shouldn't mix.  When I say that she says what difference does it make since it all ends up in the same place anyway.  Maybe.  But it should taste good getting there.  hahaha.

The weather is finally starting to cool down.  The past several mornings have been beautiful.  Cool and a little breezy.  Yay!

"Big Cat Series" by Breyer...

Happy Friday, Everyone! I am so glad today is Friday. I don't have any plans for the weekend other than laundry and shopping and my mom and I will likely go out to dinner at our favorite "real" (not denny's/fast food) restaurant tomorrow night because my brother will be out of town and he doesn't like our restaurant so we only go when is out of town or at NASCAR. Today's post was originally going to be about lighthouses, but Breyer changed that. I was on Blab earlier and someone posted about the new "Big Cat Series" they just started. The first horse is Kimbia. It's on the Smarty Jones mold and is painted up to look like a King Cheetah. Sort of. It looks more like a hybrid of a regular Cheetah and a King. As you can see from the below photo, King Cheetahs have larger spots that meld together more like stripes

The new Kimbia model has smaller spots like a regular Cheetah plus stripes like the King

When I first saw the model I wasn't too interested, but it quickly grew on me.  I love Cheetahs and while I don't like most decorators, how can I not enter for a chance on Kimbia?  I can't really afford the model, but I have to still try.  I do have a gripe, though.  They are calling this the Big Cat Series.  Well, despite its large size, Cheetahs are NOT true big cats.   There are only 4 true big cat species: Lion, Tiger, Leopard and Jaguar.  Any other cat, despite how big it might be, are not considered big cats.  The 4 true big cat species are all from the genus Panthera and are the only cat that can roar.  Small cats like Cheetahs and Mountain Lions can purr, but not roar.  Mountain Lions make a lot of different noises, including scream, but they don't roar.  Cheetahs can make noises that might sound similar to a roar, but trust me, it's not a roar.  Tigers make a noise called a Chuff that sounds similar to a purr, but is shorter in duration and is made by blowing air through their nose.  Tigers often chuff when greeting other cats and mothers reassuring their cubs.  Captive tigers also often chuff at keepers and people they deem worthy of the greeting.  I've been chuffed at.  :)  But I digress.

 So, anyway, I'm a tad annoyed that Breyer would call it a Big Cat Series and use a Cheetah as it's inaugural cat.  Oh well.  There's nothing I can do about it except roll my eyes and complain on my blog.  hahaha.

Yesterday on Blab someone posted a picture of their two Ichilay models for offers and said how different they were.  One had an arrow on its shoulder and was a lighter grey with not as noticeable of spots and the other had a red ring around it's eye, was darker grey and more pronounced "flea bites".  So I decided to look at my Ichilay to see which one I had.  I couldn't remember.  hahaha.  I have the red circle one, which oddly isn't listed on the idyourbreyer website.  I wonder why...?

I also have Halayi from Toys R Us.  I used my iPad mini to take the pictures so Ichilay doesn't look like she has spots at all, but they're there.

Well, I guess I better get to work.  My shift started a "few" minutes ago and I haven't done anything to show for it...work-wise anyway.  hahaha.  I'm glad I work in an office, though.

Have a good weekend!

So very tempting...

I don't know why I do it to myself, but I suppose I just can't help it.  <sigh>  I have NO willpower.  Well, I guess I do have some because I haven't bought every single pretty pony I've seen that I want.  No, the "no willpower" is looking.  I shouldn't even window shop because it makes me down that I can't buy when I want to.  Not right now anyway.

What am I talking about?  Stone Horses, of course!  I looked on the Stone Ponys website to see if there was anything new to look at and found two things.  The first is what they are calling a project book.

The description from the site looks kind of neat...
**In this book you will find a wealth of horse related learning opportunities, group and individual activities, and hands-on projects.  Adults with an interest in the model horse hobby will find valuable information here too.  Learn about showing your own model horse.**
The book is only $7.99 this weekend so I'm awfully tempted to buy it.  I'm not sure if it's worth the money since I don't know quite the inside is all about or even how big/thick it is, but it still looks interesting.

But then, of course, I had to look at the horses and I found this one called Castile

I just lubs him!  Very pretty caramel color and I love the facial markings and expression.  So I thought...hey!  I can do layaway!  But then I saw I have to put 50% down and that's just not in the budget this week.  I have to pay rent with this paycheck so all I can hope for is he'll be available in two weeks.  <sigh>  He's so pretty, though, isn't he?

Well, I'd better get to work.  Yay!  My friend and I decided that we wanted to spend at least one night at a fancy resort we used to work at (we weren't allowed to stay there when we worked there, but we could stay at other properties in the Marriott chain) so I need to earn my paycheck to be able to afford it.  hahaha.  No, it's not that expensive and we won't even be doing it until next summer, but...you know.   If I don't have anything to blog about tomorrow then I hope y'all have a wonderful weekend!  I get to do laundry.  YAY.

 

Highway Robbery!

It's highway robbery, I tell you what.  Well, maybe not highway, but definitely robbery.  Or is it extortion?  Yeah, that's it.  Extortion.  We have 2 snack machines in our break room here at work...one contains cold-kept items such as "frozen" pizzas, sandwiches (not frozen lol) and milk then the other is regular snacks such as chips and chocolate.  You know.  The basic necessities to get you through the work day.  We also have a Coke machine and a Pepsi machine.  Anyway, when the company switched from Sodexho to Aramark they switched out the machines and raised the prices on EVERYTHING.  The soda machines, too.  You used to be able to get a 20oz bottle of Coke for $1.00 and now it's .85c for a 12oz can.  Really?  But that's not the worst of it.  The cold-kept machine prices remained the same, but the prices on the snack machine went up.  It now costs $1.00 for a 2pack of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.  At WalMart, I can get a package of 8 singles for $1.00!  But this particular rant is about peanuts.  Yes, peanuts.  I was going to get some Pop Tarts to supplement my breakfast because I was still a little hungry after my bowl of cereal, but then I remembered I had boughten the last Strawberry-flavored one yesterday and all the machine has right now is Brown Sugar and Cinnamon.  No, thnak you.  So I looked at the machine and decided on a bag of peanuts.  I didn't realize it at first, not until the security guard pointed it out, but the package shrunk.  It's still 1oz, but in a smaller package.  That's fine.  But what ISN'T fine is that it costs $1.00 for that teeny tiny bag of peanuts

For just a little bit more I can get either WalMart brand peanuts for $3.97

or Planters brand for $5.98

and both are 35oz containers.  That is so much a better value than the little teeny weeny package from the vending machine.  Each week I go grocery shopping and each week I tell myself I'm going to buy a can, but I have yet to do that.  Maybe this weekend.  I like sea salt and while Macadamia Nuts with Sea Salt aren't very good, I'll bet Cocktail peanuts are.

But you know what?  Even with that complaint...I GAVE MY PEANUTS AWAY!!!  Yup.  A co-worker stopped by to see how I was and I told her I was better.  This morning I had a stomach ache, but then I ate breakfast and now I feel better.  She mentioned she was starving so what did I do?  I gave her my peanuts.  Because that's just the type of person I am. 

They say the temperatures are supposed to start dropping around here and by the end of the week it should be only in the upper 90s.  I can't wait for the cooler weather.  I definitely do not like living in the desert!

Blab has been down since, what, Sunday, I think?  Some hacker got in and messed it up a bit and so they've been trying to fix it.  I'm having some withdrawals, but my story-writing is benefiting for sure.  I wish it was my horse story that was benefiting, but I'm still having troubles with that one.  No, it's my whale trainer story I've been trying to write since 2005.  hahaha. 

Well, back to work!

"Mike! Mike!  Mike!  Mike!  What day is it today, Mike?"  It's hump dayyyyyyy!

The cost of the hobby...

No, this isn't going to be a post about how I never seem to have money when cool new DAH colors are released...even though they did just release two new colors that I really want...bay roan and flea bitten gray.  No this is more about...I guess you can say it's about Supply and Demand and people "taking advantage" of that.

Now, don't get me wrong.  I do believe everyone has the right to charge what they want for the models they buy, especially if it's a model in high demand and limited quantity...I just sometimes wish they wouldn't do that.  Take Valiant, for example...

He is a special run from Just About Horses (man, I miss that magazine) and only about 350 were made.  He's on the Idocus mold, which I conga, but I have yet to see him sell for less than $225 and never with a time pay option.  I don't get why people feel the need to charge so much more for a model than what they actually paid for it.  But yesterday I saw a more up-close photo of him and I've decided that I don't really like his dapples.  They look a little too fake-ish to me.

Unfortunately, my brother is one of those people who would charge more than he should just because he has a model that is a variation of the regular run and because he has the box.  He thinks he could ask for more just because he has the original box.  I tried explaining to him that the box itself isn't going to be worth much with the model since the model was removed from the box and displayed so it was not an MIB or NIB.  I told him he would have to disclose the fact that it's been displayed and he said he didn't have to and I told him it was dishonest.  He didn't seem to grasp that concept.

Another example is when I was at my local dealer on Tuesday picking up Snowman, we were talking about Breyerfest and how I wanted to go.  They really encouraged me to go and said I should buy a ticket "just in case" and I could always sell it if it turned out I couldn't go and that if I did that I might even make a profit.  I told them I wouldn't do that and their response was "Well, you could."  I don't know.  When I was younger and Garth Brooks was in his prime I had 3 tickets to his show and they were, like, 14th row on the floor.  My dad said I could sell them for a profit because the money I made would last longer than a couple of hours of enjoyment at the concert.  Why does everyone think money is the most important thing?  Yes, it's VERY important, but it's not THE MOST important.  <sigh>  Maybe I'm an idiot for not being like everyone else and getting what I can, whenever I can.  I'll be the first to admit I have expensive tastes.  I have expensive hobbies with the model horses and photography.  But what can I say?  I grew up with a friend whose family had more money than mine and I got to enjoy going out with them.
------------

I had to stop because I'm training on new stuff at work and I wasn't going to make my co-worker sit there while I finished my entry so it's now 2 1/2 hours later.

Anyway.  I guess...like I said, I know people can charge whatever they want, but if they really want to sell horses they aren't doing themselves any favors by setting a price so high.  No, I know I don't have to pay the high prices and it's up to me to decide how much I want to spend on any given horse, but it sucks that I have to choose sometimes between having a few dollars in my bank account versus a model I don't really need but would really like.  I won't get into what I think of the people who buy multiple models to turn around and sell for a profit.  hahaha.

Speaking of my Breyer dealer, I found out on Blab last week about a new model that is due out in early October.

It's an Indian Pony on the Appaloosa Performance Horse.  I have two others on this mold and I like it even though I don't have more than the 2.  The ones I do have are older...Appaloosa Performance Horse from 1974-1980 (probably got mine closer to 1980) and Diamondot Buccaneer from 1996-1997.  A couple of on-line dealers are doing pre-sales of it and apparently there's a chalky version of it that will have more Native American markings such as the war paint.  So I sent a message to my dealer via FB to ask if they knew about him and if they're going to get him or they can get him.  Hopefully they will because I really like it.  If I have the ability, I'll probably get both versions, but I'll be happy with either one.  It's rumored that 1 in every 6 will be the chalky version so how many my dealer will end up with will depend, I guess, on how many cases they get in.

So, I have a pen obsession.  It's better than it used to be because I used to be in the hospitality industry and it was easier to grab pens that were left lying around.  I used to have probably 75 or so just from picking them up at places where I worked.  One resort, for some reason the maids would have a bunch of different ones and would leave them lay around in the linen closets where we got our towels from and sometimes they'd just end up in my pocket.  hahaha.  Surprisingly, I don't have any pens anymore from any of the hotels/resorts I used to work at.  hahaha.  But I have newer ones.  Mostly San Diego and Las Vegas

Some of them I use in my story writing while others I just have.  Hahaha.  The ones on the left are from Scripps Institute of Oceanography, Sea World, San Diego Zoo, Discovery Cove (got that on Ebay) and Seattle.  The ones on the right are from hotels I've stayed at or have found different places, but mostly ones I've stayed at.    The gold pen in the middle is from the Mirage in Las Vegas and is a really nice pen.   My co-worker brought that back for me and it's my every day work pen. The one below it is from the Bay Club Hotel in San Diego and I really like it because the pen is teal.  Not the ink, but the pen tips.  I've only stayed at that hotel once, but I love the pen.  The one above the gold one is from the Venetian in Las Vegas and I just got that on Saturday from a friend who'd grabbed me a couple when she was visiting family over the 4th of July.  She said everywhere she looked for pens they were out, but I think she just doesn't know how to look for them or get them.  Oh well.    The Venetian pen is really skinny and metal, which is unusual since most casinos put the nice pens in the rooms and the ballpoints in the public area.  The MGM pen is a good example of that.  The "public area" pen is the grey ballpoint that is just above the red ballpoint from the Rio and the one they put in the rooms is the black one below the red one.  Not sure how I ended up with 2 Mandalay Bay pens in different barrel colors and I don't know what happened to my Bellagio pens.  I had room pens only and both disappeared.  The Monte Carlo only had regular ballpoint pens for both the rooms and the public areas so the one in the picture is one I bought at a gift shop.  All of the regular ballpoints I got from my 2 stays there were chewed up pretty good by one of my kitties who likes to chew on pens...usually while I'm using them.  hahaha.  Silly kitty.  Anyway, I've stayed at Bellagio, Monte Carlo, Mandalay Bay and MGM plus a couple of off-strip chains.   I know you just loved reading about my pen collection.  hahaha.

I hope everyone had a nice weekend.  Mine was good.  I got to see my friend Lori for a few hours on Saturday.  She was in town with a co-worker of her sister's for an NFL game and the other girl let Lori borrow her truck so she could come see me.  We drove around for awhile.  We went to the resort we used to work at then drove around and looked at some of the fancy houses in Paradise Valley.  We saw a convoy of Google cars out taking pictures.  That was pretty cool.  Lori said she wanted that job and I said she'd have to move to California since Google was headquartered in Northern California and she said she could handle Northern California.  I then showed her where I worked and the houses with horse property that I like to drive by and look at.  At one point we decided maybe we should get some dinner and pulled over into a shopping center so she could text the girl she'd come with and ask if she wanted to go to a vegetarian buffet near where I lived.  Andi said she wasn't hungry and was watching college football and told Lori to enjoy herself.  As we sat there I happened to look up and see a glowing red sign across the parking lot.  I asked Lori if it was a Cold Stone Creamery sign and she said yes and so we went and had ice cream for dinner.  hahaha.  I had a yummy Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup concoction.  It was chocolate ice cream with a swirl of peanut butter and had peanut butter cup chunks.  Wow.  Eventually, though, she had to take me back home and take the truck back to Andi.  It was really nice of her to let Lori use it so she could come visit me.  It's kind of funny, though.  Lori and I have seen more of each other in the past 11 months than we have in the previous 10 years.  She only lives about 6 1/2 hours away but she isn't really all that conveniently located.  I'm not going to drive to St George alone and while she lives only 2 1/2 hours from Las Vegas, I don't really want to fly to Las Vegas then spend the time in St George.  She likes visiting Arizona, but doesn't always have money to make the drive to Arizona.  She agreed, though, that it's been nice seeing each other so much (even if it was because of family issues) and said we should try to make more of an effort to get together when money allows.

Well, I guess that's it for now.  It looks like my work load might actually be increasing at work, which is good.  I went home early two days last week because of no work and I'd rather go home than sit around and do nothing, you know?

**update**  I found out that the little silver Venetian pen is actually refillable and uses a refill that some of my others do.  Hurray!

Hurray for new horses!

I actually bought him on Tuesday, but didn't get around to removing him from the box until last night.  hehehe.  That's very unusual for me, for sure.  Anyway, I bought a new horse on Tuesday.  It's one of the mid-year releases from Breyer and is sort of a portrait horse of a real one.  They've done him before, but as a special run through Toys R Us.  I wasn't collecting at the time and apparently missed out on a lot of neat horses.  But I got the new one and it's on a mold I already collect so now my mini-conga has grown by one.  So, without further ado, here is Snowman...

Snowman is on the Idocus mold.  I still need Idocus.  hahaha.  Oh well.  Anyway, this guy is a lovely flea bitten grey with very nice shading on his muzzle.  I really like him and wish I had a huntseat saddle set because I think he'd make a good mold for that.  So, now I have 4 models on this mold...

Wapiti, Ravel, Buttercream and Snowman.  Yay!  I'm not sure if I'll try to get the others on this mold, we'll have to see.  I imagine I will get more, but we'll see.  I may just decide to get the newer ones as they come out, although there's past ones I wouldn't mind having.

So, three days in a row last week I looked up and saw I'd had a collapse...Thursday...

and Friday:

Saturday I photographed with my cell phone and the photo was bad.  It always involved the same three horses...my 2 Roxys and Mistral Hojris.  I could not figure out what was causing them to fall and it was driving me nuts because it never happened in my presence.  Until the 4th day.  The top drawer of my dresser was open and one cat was  lying in it and the other cat was on top of the dresser.  The one on top of the dresser wanted to get on the bed so he jumped over like he usually does and when he did so he bumped the shelf unit, which caused the horses to fall over.  I know that the day before the dresser drawer had been open as well, so I at least know what happened those two days.   So I guess the lesson here is...when you have one cat who likes to jump...don't let the other one lay in what he likes to jump off of.  hahaha.

Thank goodness it's Friday!  My oldest friend (we've known each other since 1978 when we were in 3rd grade) will be in town for an NFL game so we'll hopefully get to spend a couple of hours together.  She's coming with someone else and I've never met the other person before.

My heart goes out to the people in New Jersey and Colorado.  It hasn't even been a year since Hurricane Sandy and they were working to rebuild after the devastation at the Jersey Shore when tragedy strikes again...

I think it ended up being an 8 alarm fire and firefighters from 30 neighboring cities came to help put out the fire.  Apparently it started in a custard shop.  One business that was destroyed has only been re-opened since July.  I feel bad for them.  And then there's the flooding in Colorado.  Many communities have been affected.  I know people in the area, but they're all okay as far as I know.  I can't imagine what they must be going through.  Currently the death toll is at 3...hopefully it won't go up any.  <sigh>

I hope everyone has a good weekend.

Lotsa Rain and a Ceiling Collapse...

How's that for an attention getter?  It was quite an interesting weekend. 

Recently I think I may have mentioned that my mom wanted to go look at getting a new refrigerator so she and my brother went on his day off the Thursday before last.  I think she was looking to get another side-by-side like the one she brought with her from Payson when she moved in with us.  Well, it's not what she got.  In fact, she got a refrigerator I've always wanted...a freezer on the bottom kind.  Yay!  They finally delivered it this past Friday but had to wait about 12 hours before putting anything in it so it had a chance to cool down.  Man, I LOVE this thing

It has shelves in the door that are deep enough to put a regular gallon jug of milk in it.  My mom said that my brother had asked for a drawer (it has 3) to put his breakfast stuff in it then said I could have a drawer, too.  I had been thinking of asking if I could have one to put my lunch-making stuff in since I usually make my lunch at the breakfast bar in the lower left corner and my lunch boxes (bento stuff) are in that white thing to the left of the fridge (just the top one) so needless to say, I jumped at the chance and quickly moved my stuff into it.  Now I don't have to walk back and forth if I forget something, which I often do.  This refrigerator is taller than the old one but it's also deeper so guess what?  I keep hitting my arm on the handle.  There isn't much in the freezer yet and if you open the freezer then try to open the refrigerator afterwards it won't open right away so I have to try to remember to open the fridge first and then the freezer when I need to get my ice packs out for my lunch.

On Sundays my mom and I go to breakfast at a nearby Denny's before doing our weekly shopping.  We've known since April that they would be closing to remodel.  They need a new roof, new ceiling and pretty much a whole new interior.  This was very evident yesterday.  We usually like to sit at a booth by the window, but only if the window isn't obstructed by something painted on it.  We got there yesterday and all the window booths were taken up and some were closed because of leaks so we chose one where I could still see out the window.  When a booth opened up, one of our regular waiters said he'd get it cleaned up so we could sit there and I said that was okay because we liked an unobstructed view and that window had paint on it.  No problem.  Well, a couple of older men came in who are there weekly as well and they sat at that booth.  A few minutes later they moved to a different table because the ceiling had started to leak.  It started out as a drip but soon it was a steady stream.  I kept looking up at the tile because it was starting to bulge and I had a feeling it was going to collapse.  I was going to take a picture of it, but I'm still learning the ins and outs of my newest phone (just got it thursday) and didn't get a picture before it fell but I got it just after.

If my mom and I had agreed to move there, it would've fallen on her head because she would've been sitting on that side of the booth.  I'm glad we didn't move.  Anyway, they're finally going to remodel the interior starting next week so my mom and I will have to go somewhere else to eat or just eat at home.  We'll see.  This Denny's has been there forever and it's going to look VERY different when it's done because they're doing stuff to the outside, too.

Well, I'd better get to work.  Before I do, though, I have a small gripe.  There is a scrapbook supply website I like to buy my travel scrapbook stuff from.  I hadn't looked there in awhile so did on Friday and saw they had a paper/die-cut set for the Grand Canyon.

It's a very nice set except for one thing...the image on the paper?  That's Lake Powell.  I think it's called Horseshoe Bend or something.  So, people, if you're going to sell stuff that is for the Grand Canyon...please make sure it is actually the Grand Canyon shown in the picture.

Happy (soggy) Monday!