Once Upon a Dream — Throwback Thursday

A week ago (the 9th), I had the unique experience of seeing the Disney animated version of Sleeping Beauty (1959) on the big screen!  What a treat!

I was poking around facebook (as you do…) and noticed around 3 pm that the El Capitan Theatre would be playing it that evening.  The El Capitan Theatre is an old-style movie theater in Hollywood (along the Walk of Fame, across from where they hold the Oscars, etc, aren’t we fancy) and owned by Disney.

Flashy lights! Sparkly LED screens! This is the marquee above the front entrance of the El Capitan.

They play exclusively Disney films there, and between runs of shows, they invite people to vote on facebook to choose an old movie to replay for one night only — Throwback Thursday.  (They just were playing Frozen, and now it’s on to sing-along Mary Poppins!)

Back in September 2008, they played it for a few days but I was unable to go.  Bummer.  I wasn’t going to lose my chance!  Sleeping Beauty is one of my favorite Disney movie I’ve come to love as an adult.  The art style is so detailed and incredible, it’s mindboggling to think of all the time spent on it.  Sleeping Beauty was the first (and one of the few) that they made in 70 mm — all the backgrounds were painted individually.  Eyvind Earle was the head designer, and did AMAZING work.

Background art by Eyvind Earle, from theartofsleepingbeauty.tumblr.com.

I love the soundtrack — it’s all from the Tchaikovsky ballet “Sleeping Beauty” (which I just had the fortune to see around my birthday this past year, what a treat!)  so it’s quite beautiful.  And, okay, I love Prince Philip and his voice actor’s singing.

“Father, you’re living in the past!  This is the 14th century!”

Love the old style poster!

So, being determined to see it, and realizing it was too late for anyone to really respond to facebook and say they wanted to come, I bought myself a ticket and headed down to Hollywood and Highland to be at the theater early to poke around.  So glad I did!

Rob Richards, resident organist, playing before the show.

Before every show, they have a live organist playing Disney music for a good 30 minutes beforehand!  His name is Rob Richards, and it’s an old pipe organ from a theater in San Francisco.  So awesome.  …I totally didn’t realize I asked him and another staff member if there were any costumes or props on display in the basement — they usually do a rotation of stuff every so often.  lol.  Good job, self.

I love pipe organ music — I’m probably in the minority though.  Check it out!  This clip is of the well-known song “Once Upon a Dream” as he’s finishing his set.  Sorry for the less than stellar quality and interference — people wouldn’t shut up, and my camera is old and sad. :(

It was really fun watching the movie for the first time on the big screen — everything was enormous,  the music was great, and it’s such a different experience getting to see it with a full audience.  There were lots of laughs about the small jokes, and it was cute to hear the little kids go GASP when Maleficent did something wicked.  (You know you’re in a herd of fans when they CLAP when the villain comes on screen for the first time…)

My next challenge is to get a better camera, borrow a tripod, and camp out to take pictures of the theater when there are less people inside.  Onward!

So many fancy details! This is one of the balcony areas on the second level.

Alright, sound off!  What’s your favorite Disney movie(s)?  Do you like seeing them on the big screen, or at home?  Would you ever go  to an event like this, Disney movie or other type?

Liebster Award — Paying it Forward

I heard about the Liebster Award after I was nominated by Steven — what a neat idea!  The idea is to get your fellow bloggers circulating around the internet, recommending others, etc, and getting to know each other better.

“I love you” gingerbread heart. These are common at Oktoberfest/other German festivals — you can buy them as souvenirs, they can be small like pin-sized or huge like a sign around your neck! People wear them with traditional outfits, or sometimes couples buy them for each other to wear around the festivals. Or you can buy giant ones and send them to all your friends, shrink-wrapped, never to be eaten unless you like fossilized gingerbread…

What I didn’t know, but makes sense — from a dedicated individual who has done a LOT of research on the award — is that the idea for the Liebster Award is rooted in the German word “liebster” which has a few meanings like kindest, nicest, valued, cute, etc. :D  (Edit: Thank you Lorraine for pointing out what needed corrections!)

Basically, you can choose to continue the chain (or not), and your goal is to answer a few questions from your nominator about yourself, then nominate fellow bloggers and suggest a set of questions for them to answer.

…now… my pool isn’t that large, and the author’s recommendation is to pick people with less than 200 followers — but I feel like most of the blogs I follow have a ton of followers!  Oh well.  So, in the spirit of the honey badger (“I do what I want!”), I will be nominating or highlighting the blogs I follow with a short explanation of why I like them, so feel free to mingle!

My questions from Steven:

1) If you had to chose, iPhone or iPad?
iPad, which unfortunately can’t replace a desktop for me…but it’s got a big enough screen for movies and internet, you can play games without your eyeballs imploding, and it’s great for being portable to share photos with those who are less tech savvy in my life.  …and I’ve resisted an iPhone this long, I can keep holding off a little longer. ;)

2) List your top three cuisines? (For example, mine are Indian, French, Japanese)
Oh…bother.  I don’t know.  I guess Mexican, German, and … American?  (Okay, California/Arizona Mexican, specifically.  And plantains.)  I don’t know.  I love Italian dishes…idk.  It’s complicated.

3) What movie in 2014 are you looking forward to?
My brain is suspiciously blank, I feel I’m forgetting something.  Well, the last Hobbit movie OF COURSE!  And I just saw a trailer for Winter’s Tale (with Colin Farrell, apparently based on a book) and it looked very interesting — set in Edwardian times but then timetravel to modern times and some supernatural business with a white horse.  That sounds not interesting, but go see the trailer!

4) Are you a dog or cat person?
I’ve only ever owned dogs, and I don’t think I can see myself owning a cat.  I do like cats though.  I’d get a ragdoll cat if I did get a cat (aka the most doglike cat around, but they’re adorable!).

5) And your next holiday destination is to . . . . ?
No ideas yet. =\  In a perfect world — Germany, New Zealand, and Belgium.  Realistically — I think my family may finally get off their collective rears and go to Yellowstone National Park.  If we slack off with that, then maybe Seattle.

6) Which fictional universe would you like to be in: X-men, Harry Potter, Star Wars?
HARRY POTTER all the way.  Come on.  Star Wars is an awesome universe, but Harry Potter is just so interesting and complete — all the best things of our current real world, plus magic and an incredibly detailed magical world.  Owl post.  Traveling by fireplace.  Magical sporting events.  HOGWARTS. :D

<3 Yeah. I’m a Hufflepuff. It’s not a bad thing, and we’ve got the badgers on our side. ;) By Snellby on redbubble. And I have the shirt. Hahah.

7) You find one hundred dollars (or the equivalent in your currency). What do you do?
Probably save it.  Hahah.

8) Smoker or non-smoker?
Non-smoker.  I’m sensitive to smoke, and plus it’s really expensive. o_o

9) About food, you can only chose two is it: Tasty, Cheap, or Good For You?
Oh, no, the worst conundrum!  Ideally, tasty and good for you, but… realistically, probably tasty and cheap.  Mmmm.  Tasty food though.

10) What kind of music are you into?
Movie soundtracks (Lord of the Rings, anything Disney, Narnia, Gladiator, etc).  Musicals. Things playing on the California rock and alternative stations from the 90s.  (KROQ!)  Vocal singers… (In the style of Michael Buble, Josh Groban, Seth McFarlane, etc.)  Scottish Celtic rock (Runrig!).  I’m drawing a blank now!

Ich liebe yarnbombing. (AKA one of these things is not like the others!) City of Munich Museum. ;D

Blogs you guys should check out!

Made by Steven: Slow cooking from around the world, here in Japan — Former Los Angeles-kin, currently in Japan cooking up a storm.  Two current favorite posts are about turkey –how to use the entire bird in a useful way, and what to do with turkey skin.  Great pictures with the recipes and ideas, as well.

Loving Food, Fashion & Life (LFFL) — Great down to earth blog with a variety of post topics that anyone can relate to — recent posts include mac and cheese (!), the plague of new horrible lightbulbs and where to find alternatives, and her love of soccer.  I really like that she always posts a takeaway thought of the day related to each post. :)

The Girl in the Little Black Dress — She’s 16 and a fashion/daily life blogger from France!  I haven’t gotten to dig back in the archives much yet, but I love her approach to life.  The post that made me follow her was when she and a friend zipped around town taking pictures of people they thought looked stylish for any variety of reasons — kudos to them for having the courage to ask people to take pictures!  I was way more timid when I was 16.

Find the Beauty: Photography by Cynthia Mackowick-Traun — I found her blog through the Freshly Pressed feature, and stayed for the beautiful pictures of farms and countrysides.  Apparently she has dachshunds, so now I can’t leave ever. :D  The post that caught me originally was a collection of pictures of a decaying farmhouse in North Dakota — sad, but neat and intriguing and beautiful!

Critique Collective — Paul writes about art, which is definitely not my strong point.  However, I really enjoy reading his posts and learning more about the art world, as well as reading interviews with young artists (such as this one about a collage artist).  I love hearing life stories!  I get excited when I sew a few straight lines to make an infinity scarf, so it’s even more rewarding to read about these people’s accomplishments. :)

Travel Tips and Pictures (TTP) — Short and sweet posts about travel.  Since I talk SO MUCH, I can definitely appreciate quick simple posts!  I got some good reminders and new ideas from their post on how to buy reasonably priced plane tickets, and how to just start planning a trip.  Sometimes we forget that not everyone out there is the uber-savvy travel/internet user and that they may not know the “basics” about something we take for granted.  (That goes for any topic, not just travel…. for instance, I know ZERO about fashion or makeup.)

Covered in Beer — Hahahah.  I usually gravitate towards photography, food, or travel.  This blog is nice and different for me in a great way — it reminds me there’s other things in life. (Also, the blog title is great!)  I loved his post on how to not get sick!  XD

Ich liebe Milka. Actually, it’s not really great chocolate, but…it’s got a purple cow. And it’s “German”. (Swiss — Nestle.)

Whew!  You’ve come this far.  Congratulations!  Now, for anyone who cares to participate in some good old fashioned get to know you Q&A… step right up!

1. Tea, coffee, or other?
2. Did you have a favorite stuffed animal or other toy as a kid?
3. What would you dress up for Halloween (or costume party, convention, etc) as if you had an unlimited budget?
4. Mac, PC, or build-it-yourself?
5. What’s your favorite season?
6. What do you like to read?  (If anything… I hope you like to read if you’re blogging!)
7. What movie (or two) could you just watch every weekend?
8. Where did you get the idea for your blog?
9. I sincerely hope you like pizza — what are your go-to toppings?
10. What IS the best thing since sliced bread?

I am physically incapable of writing a short post.

Impromptu iPod Eavesdropping

Alright, I can’t be perfect and alliterate everything. This is a first and a test — I’m posting from a tablet!  (Okay, I may have cheated…I centered the pictures and added captions from a real computer.)

A friend of mine and I met for lunch, but the first place we tried was closed! Yelp and their site said they open at 11, we got there at 1…ghost town.

So we got BBQ instead. I haven’t had BBQ in a while — I can’t even remember what style they had. Memphis maybe, but I also have a sneaking suspicion they just mix and match anything they want to give people options.

Since it was 86 F/30 C and sunny here (sorry folks everywhere else!) we decided on an unscheduled stop at Trader Sam’s Tiki Bar, which is located near the pool area of the Disneyland Hotel (adjacent to Disneyland, Downtown Disney, etc). PERFECT. The weather felt great, they have outdoor couches to sit on (and fireplaces when it’s cold), and since it was midweek around 2:30 pm, it was nearly empty.

The front of the menu, and the view from the patio. Sorry iPod, you’re not the best camera…

Score. We sat outside in the warmth like lizards for about a hour, blissfully eavesdropping on the business people at the table near us — they were discussing ideas for small Disney-themed products for places like the Dollar Store. Choice quotes include: “we gotta jump on ring pops” and “light up suspenders” and “just to be clear, Jumbo Eggs are NOT an innovation”. Hahah!

Moral of the story — take some time to relax and take a break, sometimes you’ll be unexpectedly entertained. :)

Everything is themed. Everywhere.

They updated the pool area to have slides that look like the monorail and with the retro sign, plus waterfall! How cool. It’s pretty new. Again, apologies for terrible quality. :(

I can’t resist walking by the candy shop in Downtown Disney — you never know what new candy apples will be on display!

Faluda with Friends

Alright, and a lot of other things too…  On Friday night, I was invited out to try Burmese food for dinner at a local restaurant (by the same friends who hosted the tea party I wrote about).

Apparently I’ve lived a mile and a half away from this place and never knew it existed.  I suffer from a deplorable lack of diversity in the places I go eat.  I’m a creature of habit… I mean, I like a lot of different foods and cuisines, but I tend to go back to the same places because I liked what I ate so therefore I want to eat it again.  Forever.

FALUDA. Yum yum yum. I’m easily swayed — this was my favorite of the three desserts.

This friend is very detailed and thoughtful — she wrote to the group beforehand: “As a reminder, Burmese food is influenced by China, India, and Thailand.  They are not necessarily known for spicy heat.  Their flatbread is similar to Indian paratha bread. They use a lot of fish sauce and fermented fish paste in their cooking, along with tamarind, lemon, and pickled tea leaves.”

These are deceptive fish chunks. The veggies and sauce were excellent though.

When she talked to me about it in person, she kept mentioning “pungent” and “fish sauce”.  Now… I’m not exactly a fish person.  I don’t like the texture, and the taste doesn’t do anything for me, and the “fishy” smell makes me gag.  Sorry Romans, I love you, but garum (fish sauce) by the boat load?  No thanks.

So I went in with a mostly open mind, determined to try everything but attempt to eat around the fish chunks if I had to.  Luckily I was able to avoid fish chunks, and was only assaulted by unexpected fish sauce once!

Curse you, unexpected fish sauce. This was otherwise probably delicious fried rice.

My overall assessment?  GET IN MY FACE, FOOD.  Faster if at all possible!

We had probably nine or ten dishes.  The fried rice had cashews and even hazelnuts I think (which I love!) but also the dreaded fish sauce.  The taste was sooo strong, unfortunately… I loved the veggies and sauce from the other fish dish above — it did not have a fish flavor, but was nice and rich.  We had tea leaf salad — strong and bitter!

This is not tea leaf salad, but I have no idea what it was. Sort of like “anything goes” coleslaw.

My favorite main dishes were the pickled mango curry sauce with pork, and then a veggie stew (multiple types of veggies) with tamarind in the sauce (yum!) — tamarind is a citrus fruit, strong also, but I like it.  I can’t even remember all the other dishes — we received a spreadsheet ahead of time with all  the proposed choices!  I love organized friends. :D

This is the pickled mango curried pork — delicious, even if it doesn’t look that way.

After fish stew (I held off) and rice and OH my gosh the best things also — “golden triangles”.  Basically phyllo dough triangles filled with curried mashed potato, dipped in tamarind sauce.  DELICIOUS.  And I’m not even a fan of mashed potatoes!

Then there was dessert — my favorite like I mentioned, was the faluda (pictured above in uber-pink).  Apparently there’s endless varieties, but the one we had would have normally been served in a tall glass ice cream cup like an ice cream soda or fancy tall sundae glass, and layered.  It included tapioca balls, agar slices, rose flavor, milk of some sort I believe, custard (yum), and ice cream.  Sounds weird, tastes delicious.  We also were served coconut agar (like jello jigglers sort of…very plain), and a coconut cake-thing.  It reminded me of if you had leftover cream of wheat, and then added coconut milk to it and sort of baked it into little squares.  Light flavor, slightly strange, but also deceptively addictive!

After dinner, we walked next door to a local pan-asian market chain store.  I’d also never been inside, what a fun experience!

Hello, giant bamboo…shoot…things. These were the size of very large sweet potatoes!

My two friends proceeded to show me around the entire store, pointing out what all  the fresh veggies and fruits were for, what all the dried ingredients did… which frozen bao buns were the best… and of course, my favorite — thai iced tea ICE CREAM.  Oh man.

I noticed in the meat section they even stocked New Zealand venison! How cool, right? I don’t even think I can get venison at our local grocery stores — maybe Whole Foods, but I dunno. Of course, being me, I couldn’t help but be juvenile in the meat section…

Me: “lol.” Friend: ” *points* …pizzle? What is PIZZLE?” Me: “Think about it.”

All in all, a very educational evening! Delicious and very cheap for the amount and variety of food we got to try — $12.25 each (for 9 of us) including tax and tip.  7 or so dishes, 2 soups, rice, tea, and 3 desserts.

Verdict:  A+, would eat again.

Have you guys tried anything new recently, or have you been meaning to?  Have you ever had Burmese food, and have any recommendations for me?

Is there anything you’re craving right now? Because I definitely played a bunch of food categories in QuizUp last night, and it made me starving.  I want a Belgian waffle from Belgium.

Zero to Hero, She’s… Hercules? Yeah, no.

The song from Disney’s Hercules was probably the first thing that came to mind when I saw WordPress’s peppy blog boot camp posts (Zero to Hero).

It’s bouncy!  It’s upbeat!  (Skip ahead to about 28 or 30 seconds in to get maximum uplifting gospel goodness.)

I love the idea of Zero to Hero — get new bloggers to get their feet wet, challenge old bloggers to reprogram their brains, all in small manageable chunks.  I may be a little too cocky about my blog, but I decided to skip around — I’ve got my theme (for now…) — but I want mooooore!  What’s a fire, and why does it, what’s the word? Buuuurn!  Wait.  Sorry.  Wrong movie.

I’ve beaten the top menu bar into submission, though I think it needs a little help.  What I’d really like is a font change, and a color change, but I’m not shelling out $30 a year or whatever just for that.  I’ll figure it out.  This post takes care of Day 6… I think I’ll tinker some more with backgrounds or widgets.

Now, for a text widget to explain my blog in more than the little blurb at the top… I’m not even sure what I want in the end.  I guess that can wait until a few more posts, get my feet wet, that sort of thing.

I think the more appropriate song for this NEW BLOG 2014 YEAHHH business is “I Can Go the Distance” (also from Hercules).  Because who can say no to Michael Bolton cheering you on with corny lyrics?

Yikes, check out that hair.  Yay 1990s!

Timetravel Tuesday

It’s a thing now.  I promise.

Back in 2006, I went to Oxford, England for a study abroad program between my junior and senior years of college.  I was sifting through my old livejournal, and realized I had been trying to decide between taking summer school in Texas (for who knows what reason) or pinning wishful hopes on a study abroad program.

Breakfast daily at St. John’s College dining hall, before being served our choice of English breakfast items. Look at all that silverware! You’re even missing the sight of the great silver soup/cereal spoon. ;)

Wow am  I glad I was able to choose study abroad.  I think only one of my close friends from high school studied abroad, but I knew it was a thing that a lot of people did, and I had always been insanely interested in medieval history!

While I may have made the occasional questionable decision — “Mmm…. custard. One pound and 1.5 ounces of custard for 1.05 pounds. Two bucks for like a pound of custard!!” (<–Taken from my journal.) …overall, I can definitely say that five weeks was a transformative experience for me.

My rabbit made appearances in various places around my room after the ‘scouts’ (the college housekeepers) came by daily to tidy or change linens.

And because I’m one of those crazy documenter-types, I’m so glad I took lots of notes, took a zillion pictures, and wrote long journal entries about my time there.  It was probably a good thing that Facebook’s policies at the time limited me to 60 pictures per album…

The basement of Blackwell’s Bookshop — taken from the designated “best photo op” vantage point! By the way, there’s also I think… 4 floors or so above ground, full of books. Book paradise!

First and foremost though — this trip really taught me that I could be independent, go places on my own, and things would be awesome.  It worked. :)  I took the train to a remote country home for a tour, I took the train to see a musical in London, and I took the train to see a renaissance faire at a castle!  Those deserve their own posts… all in good time.

Have you ever traveled alone, or ever wanted to?  Where would you go or what would you see if you didn’t have to factor in someone else’s decisions?

No shortage of things to do in the center of town!

Just a Light Breeze

The lower deck of the TSS Earnslaw on Lake Wakatipu, after leaving Queenstown, New Zealand.

A highland cow (well, bull? steer? anyway, it’s a dude obviously) feeling right at home on Walter Peak Farm. (Across the lake from Queenstown.)

Yikes! Back on dry land, supposedly… the wind never seemed to quit, and if it wasn’t raining, the lake was making you wet if you got too close.

The first real stop I made on my trip to New Zealand was the town of Queenstown, on the southern end of the South Island.  It’s located on the edge of Lake Wakatipu, and is the home of many adventure travel tours!  Even though we were there in “summer” (early December), we still managed to freeze our butts off, and it was super windy virtually the whole time!  I know I’m from California, and I’m unused to cold weather… but… come on, when I’m promised summer — I don’t expect ICE and 37 degree (F) mornings!

(This post brought to you by the horrifying -20 degrees F my relatives are complaining about in the midwest…poor midwest!)

One day trip we took was to a sheep station and demonstration farm (Walter Peak) by way of antique steamship!  Real Journeys has a variety of excursions in the area — we took the TSS Earnslaw (twin screw steamer) and chugged across the lake to deposit us at the farm.  That was insanely windy too. ;D  The ship had a resident piano player for singalongs, and aside from the expected sheep demonstrations, I got to pet a highland cow!  They’re unexpectedly slobbery.

(More detailed posts about New Zealand are forthcoming…this was meant to be a picture post, but I couldn’t help myself. :P )

Billy Hill and the Hillbillies, or… All I Wanted For Christmas

I’m a Disneyland nut.  I’ll just put that out there.  So when I heard a few months ago  that a certain musical act from Disneyland was going away at the end of the holiday season, I went on a tiny panic.

Billy Hill and the Hillbillies — they have played at Disneyland for 20 years, mostly in the Golden Horseshoe.  They mostly play bluegrass and folk music, though on occasion they would do heavy metal in bluegrass style… ;D  Lots of jokes interspersed.

So when I heard that January 5 would be their last show, I was sad and wanted to go visit to see their show one last time.  (I heard today’s shows were great, and they were packed!)  Now, despite living in Southern California… I don’t have an annual pass.  I wish I did!

I got very lucky though — a former professor of mine just happened to send out a mass email to my old department email list, and asked “Does anyone want to go to Disneyland on December 23 or 24? We have two extra tickets!”  … … … DO I?!  YES!  I hemmed and hawed, thinking “well, it’s been three hours since she emailed, I’m sure they’re snapped up already.”  … … … Then I said what the hell, and emailed her anyway.  I was the first person to respond, so we got them!  YES!

My mom and I first went when I was in junior high, and we LOVED the show and its ridiculous humor.  See, they’re “all” named Billy.  “My name is Billy Hill, and this here is my brother Billy.  And my other brother Billy.  And this is Billy.”   Then he would eventually bring out his “pros-teeth-us” to help him get into the country music mood.

Ahh.  I guess you have to grow up with it… hahah.  I’m going to miss them.  The fiddle and banjo renditions of holiday songs were a great last memory!  I’m a big sucker for nostalgia and memory, so Disneyland feeds right into that with their love of anything retro and constant anniversary of this or that.

Anyone have any favorite shows or attractions that don’t exist anymore, but still hold a place in your heart?

I don’t think the castles are going away any time soon, but lit up at night, they just look amazing.  Ahhh!  Swoon.

Tea for Ten

I was invited to a tea party today — nothing too fancy, but boy did my friend outdo herself!

She loves trying new recipes and experimenting with new foods…undaunted courage.  Last month, she invited 25 people over to learn how to make tamales — our instructions came from a youtube video, and nobody had tried doing it themselves before!  (They actually came out pretty good, too.  Win!)

So today she made tea sandwiches, and salad, and soup, and scones, and various things in puff pastry.  Aaaagh I love puff pastry!  Most everyone was able to bring over a teapot or teacups, so I think we had a good 8 or so different types of tea going.  Not too shabby.

Near the end, she brought out some dragonfruit — I’ve had it as sorbet before, it’s a little plain and needs some sugar, but overall it’s quite nice and mild.  But boy does it look crazy!  It’s bright magenta on the outside, but the fruit inside is basically white, with little black polkadot seeds.

Crazy, right?  Apologies for the poor quality… I only brought my ipod with me.  I’d definitely try it if you see it in the stores, or perhaps try an Asian market if you have one nearby.  (Make sorbet!  Extra fancy points if you put the sorbet back in the dragonfruit skins, like boats. :D )

Have you ever tried it, or anything similarly else you’d never seen before?

 

Welcome! Hop in. :)

Well… after meticulously documenting my various trips and events in my life on various platforms (livejournal, paper journal, twitter, facebook, brain cavern, etc) … I’ve decided to start a hopefully more well-rounded blog.

I live in Southern California — actually, I was born here too.  (It seems rare enough to mention!)  I’m a librarian/archivist by trade, and I love documenting my experiences with words and pictures.  I’m also an incurable “helper” so I often attempt to give advice (solicited or not, hahah) — perfect for a travel, food, etc blog, right?  :)

Me ready for Disneyland a few years ago.

I love history and books and architecture and old things and food and memories, so I hope this place can inspire others to share their stories too.  I do like hearing about others’ experiences too — what can I say, I’m nosy!

Farmlands next to Lake Starnberg, Bavaria, Germany.

Since I’m not sure what is next on my plate, I’ll be interspersing posts from various times in my life.  You can look forward to things near and far from me — California, Wyoming, Iowa, Disneyland and Walt Disney World, Arizona, Washington, the United Kingdom, Germany, and New Zealand — for starters!