Funny thing happened on the way to the petstore ...

"Of all the gin joints
in all the towns in all the world" ...
in search of a heater for Sqyrt (his water was getting a bit chilly), we discovered that Santa and his wife were there yesterday. Now that wasn't especially surprising, as many a pet lover indulges in paw prints (pictures) of precious pets with Saint Nicholas, some clad in festive attire. What was surprising is that we knew the red-clad couple (well actually only he had the suit) - it was friends we hadn't seen for quite some time - Lee and Cathy! That's Lee! Really!


I still remember when we first visited our church, they invited us join them for a delicious lunch at Burger Town USA; and the white refrigerator in our kitchen is a blessing from them. He'll be graduating from his ministerial studies this month and they'll be moving yet further away soon. Our prayers and blessings will be with them. It was great running into you. And Happy Birthday Lee!
By the way, the heater works great; Sqyrt is most comfy now!

field trip nature'ly

It only seemed natural since I was off to go on the young one's school third grade field trip. They walked to the nature center (great for my steps which have been lacking of late). We left the school for the Mary Vagle Museum & Nature Center about 8:30 a.m. and returned around 2p.m. in the afternoon - a five mile trip (12400 steps including all the activities. If you like getting goosed; snake'n through trails at a turtle's pace, you'll enjoy it.


Former ranger Rick very animatedly guided us through activities through out the day. Rick introduced is to a Rosy Boa and a California Kingsnake, and a box turtle. We learned about words like native, chaparral - did you know some seeds need to burned to live, and arachnid - you probably know spiders aren't insects, but did you know they are related to crabs?


What's really great - us parents who volunteered for this arduous ambulatory endeavor have first dibs on the next field trip, which I believe is the San Diego Animal Park ! Alright! It is truly a blessing when your child has a wonderful teacher. I want to thank her, Mrs. Rangel, and Mrs. Delgado too. It was a pleasure to spend the day with them, the other parents, and the children.



The Center has some upcoming events that might be of interest (see the link) - one in the near future particularly, a Halloween Haunted Hike, Friday, October 26th 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm. It just happens to also be our voting location. How kewl!

Meet Myrt the Sqyrt!

Well, this is Myrt the Sqyrt Tyrtle! I use Myrt, but the youngest likes the name one sister came up with - Sqyrt. Other name candidates were Spyke (from the Land Before Time) and Roddy (from Flushed Away). Fortunately we didn't go Teenage Mutant Ninja turtle - although Myrt's initial injuries might have qualified, nor did we go with Vyrne (it just seemed a little too Over the Hedge ;-)).

We moved Myrt the Sqyrt from temporary housing to the new permanent housing - like those makeover shows. But there's a basking rock anchored to the side of the aquarium that it doesn't like (they require basking time - so that will have to be changed. The husband and I shopped for turtle habitats the other day - and expensive proposition. Maybe Myrt should remain homeless? We ended up with an 'everything you need for your turtle' kit from Petsmart. We also went to Petco and the local pet store to get the full assessment of turtle habitat information. If you buy everything separately you go way over the kit cost. But with turtles, the filtration system is very important because keeping the water clean is a more difficult task - we may have to upgrade. So while we have blueprints for a grander home for Myrt the Sqyrt - complete with basking reef and all - this is home for now. Welcome to the family Myrt!

Maydays!

Mayday Mayday Mayday! Where is the time going? The youngest has about 8 weeks left in the second grade (applause) - we did not like that teacher (military school for free).

A turtle risked life and shell to enter our yard this weekend. To its dismay, our dogs were very entertained when the kids came to its rescue. 'To keep or not to keep' now is the question - whether it is too costly or troublesome to give the youngest the pleasure of having a turtle and where did it come from anyway? I spent the lunch hour addressing such questions at PETCO. Of course a naming process has began -- turk? Slider? - anything but Shell!

The giant went to an Orange County auction and bought a car - yippee! We've been sharing mine of late.

Getting back to my blog title, the phrase, first used on May 1st, 1927, comes from Mayday which wiki says "is an emergency code word used internationally as a distress signal in voice procedure radio communications, derived from the French m'aider, meaning "help me." It is used to signal a life-threatening emergency by many groups, such as police forces, pilots, the fire brigade, and transportation organizations. The call is always given three times in a row ("Mayday Mayday Mayday") to prevent mistaking it for some similar-sounding phrase under noisy conditions, and to distinguish an actual mayday call from a message about a mayday call.

The holiday, May Day, itself is May 1, and refers to any of several holidays celebrated on this day. May 1 was a traditional summer holiday in many pre-Christian European pagan cultures, and many elements of these holidays are still celebrated on May 1 today, such as the Maypole. While February 1 was the first day of Spring, May 1 was the first day of summer: hence, the summer solstice on June 25 (now June 21) was "midsummer."

Besides the two major May holidays, Mothers Day and Memorial Day and Believer's Ascension Day (17th) and Pentecost (27th), also proclaimed for commemoration this month are Cinco de Mayo and Armed Forces Day (20th).

I've been struggling a bit with motivation which reminds me of a word from one of our daughters (and she knows who she is) - disencouraged. I like it! Thanks be to the Lord (not the lord that Sara called her hubbi) and the husband, I've been able to push past these feelings enough to keep on my program.

On the movie tip, we recently enjoyed 'Corpse Bride' - I liked it, 'Night at the Museum' - I loved it, and 'Deja Vu' in which it was great to see work from Erika Alexander from the "The Cosby Show". The movie was very captivating, in some ways reminiscent of Denzel's the 'The Bone Collector' and appears to have similarities to Cage's movie. We shall see. Meanwhile the husband bought me 'Beauty Shop ' with Queen Latifah and an 'old school' cast with people I haven't seen in awhile (from "Martin" Laura Hayes, 'the Cosby Show' Keshia Knight Pulliam, "The Jamie Foxx Show" Sherri Shepherd, and others)t o give a 'looksee'. Meanwhile we are so behind on '24' and all of our sci-fi regulars, not to mention movies we've purchased.

I'll try not to be a stranger. You too okay?