Snack Machines and cacti...

A few weeks ago we were notified by email that they would be removing the coffee machine in the main break room.  I don't drink coffee and the hot chocolate the thing spit out was gross so I didn't really care and most of the people that drink coffee around here either bring some from home or belong to the coffee club a couple of employees set up.  Anyway, we weren't told when it would happen so I forgot all about it...until last week when a co-worker told me they were in there removing the snack machines.  What?!  Obviously this caused quite a stir.  Why would they remove snack machines that were used daily by many people in the company.  We don't have any other options except an overpriced convenience store up the road or a 10 minute (one way) Circle K.  Eventually, though, it was found out that we'd contracted with a new vending machine and they were only replacing the machines.  My co-worker said the soda machines were still there, but that wasn't exactly true.  A little while later I went to the break room to check out the new machines and was quite amazed.  ALL of the machines had been replaced, Coke and Pepsi, too!  And boy are they fancy!  I finally got a chance to take a picture a little while ago...

They have card readers for using credit cards and debit cards.  Wow!  Now, before you wonder just how expensive these machines are, a can of soda is 85 cents and the snacks range in prices with none of them being over $1.25, but when they run out of change or you don't have any handy, those card readers are sure going to come in handy.  There's a 4th machine around the corner that has cold food items such as sandwiches and things.  It currently only has a few offerings and is usually empty more often than not.  Hopefully this new vendor will be better at keeping it filled.  Those prices did go up, which is a real bummer.  I am still waiting to see what they will put in it to justify the $4.00 and $5.00 cost.  Charging $3.25 for a couple of White Castle burgers is ridiculous so I can only guess what will be for the higher prices.

So, this morning at about 3:30 or so I was lying in bed when one of my cats "flew" to the window.  I heard a scratch on the screen and was briefly concerned someone was trying to cut their way in (the window was open), but our front yard is desert landscaping so it's covered in small rocks and you'd hear if someone was outside because it makes crunching noises.  Eventually Temecula lost interest and I was able to relax enough to go back to sleep.  Well, when I went to leave for work this morning, I saw this...

Just yesterday I commented to my mom that the cactus was leaning pretty hard and she said it would probably fall soon.  This is possibly what caused the odd reaction from my cat at 3:30 since my room is on this side of the house.  It's a shame the cactus fell...half of it anyway...as birds nested in it.  I'm confused as to how it fell the way it did.  It was leaning towards the other cactus, but it fell to the side and the one arm it had was on the side it was leaning.  It's just very strange.  The other one in the yard seems to be doing okay and isn't leaning at all.

My weekend was pretty good.  Did my laundry Saturday.  Mom and I went to IHOP for breakfast Sunday.  It was pretty good.  We haven't been to Denny's in almost a month because I was getting bored with it.  We're now trying to eat more breakfasts at home on Sundays and only going out once or twice a month.  My mom's birthday is this Saturday so we discussed where she might like to go for dinner.  I have to remember to talk to my brother about it.  My birthday is 3 weeks from tomorrow and we'll probably go to Outback Steakhouse.  Usually we go to Logan's Roadhouse and my brother will probably vote for Texas Roadhouse.  I don't care so long as I get prime rib and I don't have to drive.  hahaha.

Well, that's about it.  Have a good one!

Aphrodite...next in the Greek Goddess series...

Imagine my surprise when I saw an email from Breyer just a little while ago, inviting me to enter to win the next in the Greek Goddess series, Aphrodite

It hasn't even been a month since Hera was announced...more like 3 weeks.  I don't think I've ever heard of them releasing two that close together.  Some speculate it might be due to the goof at BEB where they gave one away instead of Cafe au Lait, but I don't know.  It does seem a little odd, though.  The Strapless mold isn't one I conga.  I don't have any of her, in fact, but because I've already seen what she looks like "in person" (I didn't see her in person, but I saw an 'in hand' photo, I know I like the coloring so I entered for her.  If I hadn't seen her and went based on the pictures from Breyer

I'm not sure I would enter, but it's a moot point now.  hahahaha.  It's another short entry...today until Monday night so I don't have to remember quite so much to enter.    When they give you more than a week or whatever, that's when I have problems remembering.  My old brain, I guess.  They also raised the price on this one.  Hera was "only" $135 and Aphrodite is $165.  Oh well.  If I win, I win and I'll pay for her.  If I don't win, I won't be hugely disappointed.  <shrugs>  We shall see.

On the Breyerfest front, they released another model.  This one is a tent model so you don't need any special ticket times or anything.

Champagne Wishes is done on the Blue Grass Bandit mold and is rather nice-looking.  I liked the black and white Lady C from last year better, but this one would be nice to have.  I don't have any BGB models and I doubt I'll try to get one, but you never know.

It's Friday.  Hurray!  I have no major plans for the weekend.  It's my turn to do laundry.  Yippee skippee.  hahaha.  It's supposed to be in the 80s all weekend, which is a huge change from the rain we got last weekend.  Bummer.  But that's what I get for living in Arizona.  Heh.  Even if I could talk my mom and brother into moving to a state with nicer year-round, I probably wouldn't because I have a decent job and decent jobs are hard to come by these days.  I've been here for almost 13 years, the longest I've been anywhere.

Anyway, I guess that's it.  Have a good weekend!

Breyer's Big Easy Bash

So, this past weekend was the Big Easy Bash in New Jersey.  How I wish I could've attended, but they limited the number of people that could go. . And, well, let's face it...I couldn't afford to go. hahaha. They really need to do something big on the West Coast again, even though it wouldn't include a tour of the Breyer offices and such.  And they need to do it with giving me enough notice ahead of time that I could go.  Oh well.  Maybe they'll have another Passage to the Pacific, maybe not.  They used to have Breyerfest West or whatever it was called, but they stopped doing that several years ago.  Attendees were given a tour of the archive room and allowed to see some of what's planned for the future, but they weren't allowed to take pictures.  I don't know if I would've been able to keep myself from doing that.  Apparently some people were trying to be sneaky with their cell phones, but as far as I know, no pictures have cropped up yet.

Anyway, so there was some pretty cool models to be had during the weekend and I wanted to share some of them.  None of the pictures are mine, they come from different people on Blab, but I've indicated who shared them.

by PolarVrtX

The two on the left were the "celebration" model Cafe Au Lait.  He turned out real nice and if you notice, the one on the left appears to be a little darker than the other one.  The blue and white Sherman Morgan on top of the Fjord and the 3 traditionals on the right are all from the "special run" store as are the two little paint Stablemates. 

by wcpegasus

 I really like the bay Totilas and wouldn't mind finding one on the secondary market somewhere down the line, but we shall see.  Not many of them were made and they seemed to be pretty popular.

**edited** This guy is named Excalibur and was the table centerpiece that one person at each table won in a drawing. Orrdinarily I don't really care for the mold, but the color is quite delicious (thank you to Niki for providing the info!)

by wcpegasus

 One blabber, when she opened her package for Cafe Au Lait got an interesting surprise

by RebeccaAnn414

This is the next model in the Greek Goddess series...Aphrodite.  There's some speculation as to whether this was a goof or intentional, but a lot of people are looking forward to the next drawing for this series, me included.  I don't have any on the mold, but I'll definitely be entering.

Finally, they had a couple of small Stablemate offerings.  The first one is on the Chrome mold from Breyerfest last year and one I hope to conga, but I don't know if I'll add this one in the future.  The color is kind of...not really my thing.  His name is Bourbon Street

by jkira

But this other one...Moon Pie...I have one coming.  Hopefully she'll be mailed today.  I spent more on it than I normally would a Stablemate, but only 200 were made and the price I paid seemed to be the going rate everyone who was selling theirs for.  I did see a couple at higher prices on MH$P so I'm glad I held out a little while longer.  Of course, if I waited even longer I probably would've gotten a better price, but again,  only 200 were made.  The mold is Dungaree and is also from 2013 BF, which I also have.  Actually, I have 2.  hahaha.

by PolarVrtX

My weekend was pretty good.  It rained off and on all day Saturday.  A small tornado touched down about 5 or so miles east of us.  And we didn't just get some rain.  When it rained it really came down

It was pretty cool.  The airport recorded almost an inch of rain, which is almost a record.  Or maybe it did break a record.  I don't remember.  But boy did it pour.  And we got some thunder and lightning, too.  Not much lightning, but some.

Well, it's Monday.  I'd better get some work done today, don't you think?  hahaha.

Probably not a very good idea...

So, during lunchtime I went to a party supply store about 3 miles north of my office to look for Mardi Gras stuff to incorporate into a bento box lunch on Tuesday.  I didn't find anything I really wanted to spend money on for just one day and it was all too theme-y for other uses.  Anyway, Party City is in a strip mall and it was super crowded, which is normal for a Friday afternoon.  Or really any afternoon during lunch since there's several food places in the center.  Anyway, I was trying to find the store and when I drove around the building, the first thing I see is...

That truck and trailer is taking up at least 5 parking spaces RIGHT BY the businesses.  Wow.  I wouldn't care so much about it being there if it was parked further back so it didn't interfere with other traffic.  As far as I could tell, there were no horses in the trailer.  I then went inside the party store and when I came back out I noticed this one...

Now, at least this one is parked in such a way that it doesn't interfere with the flow of traffic nor does it take up any parking spaces.  It did, however, contain a horse.  Bad Idea #2.  The temperature is probably at least 75 to 80 degrees right now, which means the interior of the trailer is likely over 100 degrees.  The side windows were down, but still...that's really a bad idea to leave your horse in the trailer.  I was at the shopping center for at least 10 minutes, if not 15, so these two vehicle owners weren't just a "quick run in/run out" type thing.  There was a pet supply store near the party store and they "may" have been in there, but they could also very likely have been in one of the restaurants.  I felt bad for the horse that was stuck inside the 2nd trailer.  Not only because he was forced to be in a trailer for who knows how long on a pretty warm day, but if you look, you'll see where the vehicle came from...Alaska.  Who trailers ONE horse from Alaska to Arizona for a show?  If they are here for the rodeo this weekend, are the points that important that you MUST participate?  They might be stragglers from the Arabian show that ended Sunday, but again, one horse?  I can't imagine trailering a single horse all that way for a show, but then again, I've never been on the show circuit so I don't know the mentality.  Another possibility is that the Alaska trailer, they just moved here, but...I don't know.  I just wish they hadn't had a horse in it.  If they're here for the rodeo, why not leave your trailer at the nearby show grounds then come back and get your lunch or whatever?    Oh well.  Something interesting about the trailer is that it comes from a dealer in Texas.  hahaha.  You don't really go through Texas to get from Alaska to Arizona or vice versa.  Maybe they bought it secondhand from someone.  Who knows?

I'm glad it's Friday.  It's supposed to rain tomorrow, but we shall see.  It was only supposed to be 76 today and I think we've passed that so I'll believe the rain when I see it.  I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Bonne Fete

Although with a name like Bonne Fete (Happy Birthday in French), he would be better as a special for the Big Easy Bash with their Mardi Gras theme than Breyerfest, but boy am I glad he's not.  This is a definite MUST HAVE that I will HAVE to find a pick-up for.  Are you ready?  Are you sure?  Okay.  Hold onto your hat...

I LOVE this one.  I MUST HAVE this one!  But since I'm not going to Breyerfest I must now find someone to do a pick-up for me.  It shouldn't be too hard since there's always ads on MHB and MH$P from people offering to do pick-ups, but considering the paint job on this guy, he's going to be popular.  AAAAA.  I MUST have this horse.  Wow. 

Now that I look at him, though, I wonder if he's supposed to be Silver Bay and that's why he's part of Breyerfest and their Silver Anniversary.  I can't see too much of the mane, but the tail makes it look like he can be a Silver Bay.  It doesn't matter, though.  I must have him!  Oh, did I say that already?  hahaha.

I went to Blab to see if anyone was talking about him and was about to start a thread about him when I decided to check the one about BF exclusive models and saw that they were.  Boy am I glad I looked.  I always feel bad for the people who start a thread about something and someone tells them there's already another one on the same or similar subject.  Like, the bread about the exclusive model thread and someone else started one about a specific model.  Another person said they were already talking about the model on the other thread.  I just want to say "So what?"  The new thread was about a specific model, not all of them.  Oh well.  Anyway, back to this new SR tent special...apparently some people think the mold looks wonky.  I don't know the specifics behind it.  To me the Big Easy Bash one looks wonky, but that's only because of the face markings.  I don't think Bonne Fete looks all that wonky, but I may be blinded by the cool paint job.  I have hopefully found someone to do a pick-up for me, but we'll see.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed.  She said she did pick-ups for someone in Oregon last year and asked her for a list of her three favorites.  Well, this is really the only one I want so then what?  I dunno.

Yesterday we had pet drama going on and my mom asked if I could get off work early to help her take care of it.  She asked that I call her and let her know so she could make the vet appointment.  Well, when I called to let her know I'd be home an hour early like she'd asked me to, she asked if I'd gotten my brother's text.  I said no and she said that he'd made the appointment for 10am so I didn't need to come home early after-all.  Well, I'd already gotten the time off so I decided to go do an afternoon horse hunt.  All the times I've seen them it's been earlier in the day...before 10am...but figured it wouldn't hurt to try later in the day.  Besides, I needed time to myself and wasn't ready to go home and face Curley being gone.  After 15 years it's not easy.  Well, I didn't see any horses, but I didn't really expect to.  I was bummed for sure, but I try to look at it this way...if I don't see them every time I go looking it makes me appreciate them more when I do see them.  I don't want to take for granted that they're always there to see whenever I want.  It would be nice if they were, but I'm glad they aren't.

Well, I hope everyone has a great weekend!

No Me Winnie...

So, on Saturday I posted about the new Greek Goddess model Breyer was giving away to Collector's Club members. A beautiful blue/grey appaloosa named Hera. I entered every day there was to enter, which was only 4 days, then waited (im)patiently for an email saying I'd won the chance to buy her. I'd even managed to get a couple of people to enter for me as well. They were supposed to contact the winners today and nobody seemed to be getting emails. I had the internet turned on on my phone so I'd see when the email came in, but I wasn't getting anything. Then I saw I had an email and immediately went to look at it, only to be told it was from Amazon. So I went to Blab to see if anyone had gotten notification yet and saw that some people were getting "buy now" when they were logged into their account. Immediately I went to my account, but...I got the dreaded "sorry, this contest is now closed" bar. So I went back to Blab to comismerate with my fellow losers. Someone posted that they got the bar, too, but the purchase to buy was on the CC home page so I quickly "ran" back to the CC page, but there was no option to buy. I'm bummed, sure, and there's still a chance one of my other two people (one has already said they didn't win) who offered to enter for me will win, but if not, that's okay, too. Wow, there's a lot of commas there, huh? hahaha. Anyway, if I am unlucky all the way around, that's okay and I won't try for her on the secondary market. My wallet will be happy for that. And at least one Blabber who congas the mold won so I'm super glad for that.

Oh well. Anyway, my weekend was good. I had a 4 day weekend and went horse hunting on Friday. I did see a small herd in a different spot than I have before, but there was too much brush where they were and by the time I got turned around, I couldn't find them so they must've went deeper into the desert. Bummer, for sure, but that's okay. Every day I DON'T see them while out looking makes me appreciate when I do get to see them. I decided not to do anything on Monday and just hung out with my mom. I got nothing done over the weekend that I would've liked to, but that's nothing new. hahahaha.

Happy Tuesday!

**eta** There's already one ad up on MH$P for sale and while it's not at a huge mark-up, they're definitely taking advantage of those who want the model.

Hera...first model in Breyer's new Greek Goddess series...

So, I was without decent internet service yesterday.  And by 'decent' I meant something bigger than a small-ish cell phone (I have a Motorola Defy XT) so I didn't get into my email until about 4:30, I think.  I was surprised to see one from Breyer about a new series.  Last year it was Greek Gods and this year it's Goddesses.  So I went to the website and...omg...

What's not to like about this gal?  The coloring is very nice and the mold is pretty neat, too.  I don't have any on this mold, but you don't have to conga every model nor only buy models you conga, right?  So I'm entering daily for her and I have two people on Blab entering for me, too.  The Greek God series from 2013 weren't really all that exciting and I wasn't too disappointed to not win any of them and the one I did win wasn't for me, but the Goddess series is off to a good start and I really hope it's a sign of the models to come in the Goddess series.  I wonder, though, about the Big Cat series.  They had the first one last year and nothing since.  Not that I mind, but I'm curious.

Now I'd like to vent a little.  Each Saturday my mom and I make a menu for the coming week for dinner.  We try to make something all three of us like and we often try to get my brother's input.  Tonight we were doing our weekly menu and trying to get his input and he goes off about how we're eating foods with too much fat in it and he needs to change his eating habits.  Blah blah blah.  Well, beer has a lot of calories and he drinks a LOT of beer.  So again, I ask what he'd like for dinner that is less fatty and he says he doesn't know.  Really?  I just don't know what to do with him sometimes.  And for the record, we don't eat tons of stuff that is considered fatty, but we can't have chicken 7 days a week.  And it's up to him to not drink tons of soda, gallons of beer and snack the moment he walks in the door.  <sigh>. Oh well.

I hope everyone is having a good weekend.