This Week In Libertyland

So Many Kitten Requests


Who would of thought that I would be writing about a pet.  I thought that only weird old ladies and strange shut-ins did that.  However, I have had people actually request that I post more pictures of our new kitten, Liberty.  

MMS this ones for you

I could just put up some pictures and a lot of you would probably like that, but I have to put down some words or I don't feel like a blogger.  I have had many cats over the years and each one has had its own distinctive personality.  Challenger was called that because the first day we got him as a kitten he got up on the bed challenged our other cat by hissing and spitting at her.  Dickens was not named because we were watching A Christmas Carol, but because he was a mischievous little dickens.  I got a Siamese cat when my dad moved to Oregon that he named Gully Cat.  My dad and brother were big Snoopy fans and in the Peanuts comic strip Snoopy feared not mountain lions but gully cats.  My Gully had a specific talent that not all cats do.  She would retrieve thrown objects.  When she was playing fetch her favorite thing to bring back to you was my dad's crumpled up cigarette wrapper.  That crackly sound of cellophane was irresistible to Gully.  More than one of my cats have succumb to that noise.  My wife also had cat that loved that cellophane sound.  It was a black cat with white paws that they called Lucifer, after the kitty in Cinderella.  My wife would tie a string to a celophane wrapper from a pack of cigarettes and hang it from a doorway.  Lucifer would play for hours.  As an aside, I bet you guessed that we both grew up in households of smokers.  In our house we would tie a string around the empty pack and also suspend it in a doorway.  Our cat loved to play with it.  Now Liberty, who was found on the 4th of July, is becoming a hyperactive kitten.  She gets what we have called for years the night time friskies.  Taking advantage of the nightly burst of energy is important for a couple reasons. First, it tires her out.  Getting her to play has the benefit of a good nights sleep.  The kitten won't be up all night attacking your hands and feet.  
Secondly, it is fun to watch her play and attack everything.  She loves to bat around a Sharpe pen that has been dropped into kitty territory.  I placed some beads into an empty water bottle but this only gets minor attention.  The Velcro on the computer charging cord gets major play.  Throw an empty toilet paper tube down and watch her go. With all these toys we brought out the tried and true, cellophane.  Now no one in our family smokes so we needed to find another source.  At the store one day, I bought a package of three small plastic balls that had a bell inside.  We opened the package an rolled one of the balls across the floor.  Liberty lowered herself into a crouch ready to pounce and turned away.  She could care less that the toy called itself a cat toy on the package.  The packaging was the answer.  Like a child that gets more entertainment from the box than the toy on Christmas Morning, the package would serve as more entertainment than the toy to Liberty.  The clear bag that the three kitty balls were wrapped was cellophane.  Now we have been dragging around an old polka dotted fabric belt for her to chase.  By adding the newly found cellophane tied to it, we have a delux kitten toy.  

Liberty look here.

Now, we will see some kitty antics as Liberty attacks her new lure.

What is this something new?

What did you do to my polka dot thingy?

I got it.

This is my captured prey.

It's trying to get away.

I got a bead on it.

Don't even try to get away.

My claw got it, now I bite it.

Get it bright eyes!

I am Libertysaurus Rex

Now, we have her played out. The Ant, my daughter, has done her job well. Liberty needs to get something to eat and she will be ready for bed.  Lately, the kitten has taken a liking to the comforter that was in Ant's crib when she was a baby. We recently were unpacking some boxes and threw it on the sofa.  The theme was Teddy Bear's Picnic.  Now almost eighteen years later, it is being slept on again.

Dreaming that she is Queen of the Beasts.

So if  I get more requests for Liberty pictures, I will try to keep my friends happy.  Thank you for reading.

Look Out Disney We Have Pins 1986- 1995

The Biggest Magical Milestones

Who knew this case hold memories.

Anytime you take a trip down memory lane, you meet those moments where the Universe pays you a dividend.  While going through the Disney Magical Milestones from 1986 to 1995, it flashed that the year 1994 was the most important in my wife's and my life.  Our life was doing really good in the late 80's.  We were able to get to Disneyland every year.  Many of the Magical Milestones attractions and events, we looked forward to seeing.  It was a special time.  Disneyland was expanding and adding some of the major changes that we think of as Disneyland itself.  Where many of the previous Magical Milestones pins were a major part of my childhood and youth, that old 50th anniversary case is yielding some treasured moments of my adult life.  The Magical Milestones pins from 1955 to 1965 were my finest childhood memories not only of Disneyland but in my life.  The Magical Milestones pins from 1966 to 1975 were also my first steps into adulthood.  Expanding on those happiest moments and finding a someone to share them with was a major joy in the Magical Milestones pins from 1976 to 1985.  That someone is my wife.  My wife is a Disney girl.  Her uncle worked as a film editor for the Walt Disney Studios.  Growing up in Burbank, she attended Disneyland with her cousins many time.  She knew all the Disney films.  We were a perfect Disney match. 

The Magical Milestones pin for 1986 is a parade, the Totally Minnie Parade.  Disney has so many different parades.  Parades on a yearly and seasonal basis always changed to give the guests a different reason to visit the Magic Kingdom.  Depending on the time of year the parades vary in length.  I saw parades in the winter when the operating hours were shortened that started in Main Street looped around the Hub and returned backstage where it began.  Some parades are grand.  They originate on Main Street and continue all the way through the Magical Kingdom for the daytime show and then reversing the route for the night time performance.  The Minnie parade was a short parade.  It had dancers wearing 1980's styled dance wear, that really cool legging look, you know.  

Worlds longest lasting girlfriend

In 1987 the first attraction that was not a Disney movie opened. It was based on George Lucas's Star Tours.  Star Tours used the motion simulator to combine a movie projected on a screen while the audience was shaken, raised, and dropped in their seats.  I remember explaining it to my brother.  I put him in a chair and thrashed him back and forth and side to side.  I was explaining the attraction so he would consider joining us on a trip.  One of the clever "plussing" things in the rides queue are the announcements,  

"Departing Endor passenger Sacul, Mister Egroeg Sacul 

please see Star Tours agent at gate three".  

Egroeg Sacul is George Lucas spelled backwards.  The surprises are amazing.  Also the G2 Driods that are used as repair droids are the Audio-Animitronic geese from America Sings.  

Now serving more Galactic destinations

The greatest dream of mine once we moved from Southern California was to stay at the Disneyland Hotel.  We were never in a position to afford a stay there.  Finally, a sequence of events occurred that had me staying at the Disneyland Hotel.  It was really by coincidence on a Thanksgiving weekend.  I happened, on the spur of the moment, to drive to Disneyland just for the shrimp at the Carnation Plaza.  The lady I was with and I decided to stay over for the remaining days of the weekend.  By chance we tried the Disneyland Hotel on a lark.  They had a room and we checked in.  It was strange.  Here we were being escorted upstairs by a bell hop with only a Winnie the Pooh bear.  The Disneyland Hotel then was not owned by the Disney people.  It was owned in cooperation of Disney by Jack Wrather family.  In 1988, the Disney Corporation bought the property.  The Disneyland Hotel now was an extension of Disneyland.  The Magical Milestones pin for 1988 commemorates the landmark change.  Disneyland became the Disney Resort.

Wanna go?  We don't even need bags.

Since 1955, Disneyland was defined by the berm.  The raised mound of earth that served as Disneyland's boundary and the road base of the Disneyland Railroad.  Disneyland kept growing and they had to extend beyond the berm.  The first extension is now known as Critter Country.  The Country Bear Jamboree was opened there in 1972.  The area needed another anchor attraction.  That attraction was opened in 1989, Splash Mountain.  Splash Mountain completed the Mountains of Disneyland.  Let's hope there will be more.  Splash Mountain is a log flume ride themed with characters from Song of the South.  Br'er Rabbit, Br'er Fox, and Br'er Bear are involved in many adventures.  Mostly to catch the elusive Br'er Rabbit.  As told by Uncle Remus they are searching for their Laughing Place.  Just before you plunge over the five story drop and splash down, you are serenaded by them singing the song.  Getting wet is part of the charm, and our family has been soaked happily on several occasions.

"Everybody's got a laughing place"

1990 Magical Milestones was another parade to celebrate the 35th Anniversary of Disneyland.  Party Gras consisted of six large balloons of Disney characters.  There was a large Minnie Mouse in a Carmen Miranda styled fruit adorned hat.  Mickey's balloon was dressed as Sorcerer Mickey.  As in Mardi Gras in New Orleans, costumes are very chic.  I even bought a Sorcerer Mickey beach towel.  Of course, Donald Duck was seated on a big ball cruising down the street.  The balloons looked huge because of the smaller scale of the Main Street buildings.  Would Mickey go anywhere without his trusty pal Pluto? No way Pluto was there floating by big as life.  The last of the six was Roger Rabbit.  Who Framed Roger Rabbit was released in 1988.  There were several smaller floats that were from other Disney films.  I was not fortunate to catch any of the traditional Mardi Gras styled beads which were tossed to the crowd along the parade route.  Nor was I able to garner one of the Party Gras coins which were part of the party favors.  These coins were like the Doubloons distributed at Mardi Gras.  

Toss me some beads

Okay, I have had too many afternoons free.  During those misplaced hours, I watched Disney Afternoon.  It was a block of two hours of cartoons especially created for syndication for afternoon viewing and Saturday morning airing on the television channel, ABC.  They had shows that were created just for Disney Afternoon.  Duck Tales, Dark Wing Duck, TaleSpin, and Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers were in integral part of the cartoons.  There were many memorable characters that were included in Disneyland's Afternoon Avenue.  This section was located between Fantasyland and It's a Small World.  Young people were given a map which they were to get stamped.  Don Karnage, the Beagle Boys, Rebecca Cunningham, and my favorite Gadget Hackwrench were in costume among others.  The 1991 Magical Milestones pin remembers this short lived Disneyland area.

Maybe Scrooge McDuck can give me some money.

OMG! Before anyone ever thought of using that acronym, my wife and I both said it about the 1992 Magical Milestones pin's event.  One evening we were walking towards New Orleans Square.  There was a crowd gathered on the edge of the River's of America.  We stopped standing near the back.  A cast member said, "You'll need to move up.  There is a spot right there you can stand."  We asked what was happening.  "It's Fantasmic."  We took the advice and waited.  What we saw was beyond entertaining.  It was a thrilling, emotional, and heartfelt show of good and evil.  Mickey Mouse battles Maleficent in an epic struggle.  Music, laser lights were incorporated bringing Disney movie scenes and villains into Mickey's dream scene.  As an audience member you feel the spray of water that emanated from the river.  That water in the struggle erupts into fire.  You feel the heat drawing you into the show.  It was then that my wife and I turned to each other and said, "Oh my god."  

With Sorcerer Mickey how can Evil win?

Beyond the berm is where we are going again.  After the demise of Disney Afternoon Avenue, the stroll toward It's a Small World was not as thrilling if it weren't for the opening of Toontown.  To get there you travel under the Disneyland Railroad tracks marked by the berm.  Toontown gives you the perspective that you are in the cartoon.  Mickey's House, Minnie's House, and Donald's Boat are all there just like the cartoons.  There are many laughs and gags that you would see in cartoons.  It is a favorite spot for my family. The Magical Milestones pin show the goofy population sign that is located at the outskirts of town.  It contains rotating symbols and character that never really means anything but whimsy.

Meet me at Pluto's Dog House for a real hot dog.

1994 was my wife's and my magical milestone.  It was the year my twins were born.  Disney should have commemorated this event.  That year two incredible Disney fans were brought into the extended family.  Disney had an event of minor importance, The Lion King.  It celebrated the birth of a new king of the beasts.  However, for our family it was a movie that came out in 1992, Aladdin.  In that was a song that became our families theme song.  We sang it to our children.  Not only was it a song and lullaby it was a philosophy that we lived our lives.  We still are, eighteen years later, following the songs meaning.  The song "A Whole New World" still holds a special place for us. 

Simba wasn't the only notable birth that year.

Star Tours was an undeniable success.  It took a non-Disney movie and made it into a phenomenal ride.  Working in collaboration with George Lucas was important in the next attraction.  George Lucas with Steven Spielberg made old time Saturday matinee cliffhanger style movies in the Indiana Jones franchise.  In 1995, the Indiana Jones Adventure opened.  The ride and the queue were thrilling.  As you wind your way through the the Temple of the Forbidden eye, you see excavated artifacts mined from the mysterious temple.  After a Movietone newsreel tells you of the wonders and riches that people have taken from temple, Indy's sidekick Sallah tells you of the Curse of Mara's Eye.  You need to ride the attraction several times because the enhanced motion vehicle can take different routes.  I was shocked once when instead of one of the doorways we went through the wall to the Fountain of Eternal Youth.  

I still carry me Marabic translation card in my wallet.

Now the true adventure begins at this point in 1995.  My wife and I get to fulfill the promise of the song, "A Whole New World".  We would be able to show the real world and the Disney world to our twins. 

"I can show you the world" 

"Take you wonder by wonder"

In the the next ten years of Disney changes, we get to share them all with our family.  I will be able to also share them with you next time.  

          

Selling My Collections

Tuition, Tuition, Tuition

I come from a long line of pack rats.  My granny and my aunt collectd all sorts things.  Many were objects of art.  They both loved Art Deco.  Some of the Art Deco items they collected were French Glass and Cameo Glass vases.  These items are not only old they are historic.  This is what makes them valuable. Did my granny and aunt collect them because they were valuable?  No, they collected them because they liked them.  

Now these pieces have passed on to me. I was raised to appreciate these pieces. Not for their worth but for their historic beauty.  Now times are hard.  I don't have to tell anyone that.  My twins are starting college.  If you read my blog, you know my daughter has chosen University California Santa Barbara.  Parents with children in college all know that it has gotten really expensive. Also, the costs just seem to be going through the roof.  The roof which was a families major asset is not a help anymore for collateral nor equity.  These facts have led me to viewing some of my collections as a source to raise some tuition money.

Andre Delatte was a pupil of the famous School of Nancy. He founded his glass works at Nancy in 1921.  He distinguished himself during this period with the production of glass that featured vibrant colors.       

Andre DeLatte

Nancy is a city in NW France

Emile Galle built a manufacturing plant in Nancy. He created his own designs from beginning stages through production phase. Emile Galle personally created most of his glass work designs.   However, he was known to make alterations and approve the designs of his talented team of designers and craftsmen.   His studio was called Cristallerie D'Emile Galle,  Pieces made from 1904 - 1914 are signed "Galle`" with a star added (these only were created during the period of 1904-1914).  

Galle Glassworks

Note the star in the signature

Take close inspection to see the signature

Here to the Galle is in the dark portion

Auguste Legras was a glass worker who bought the factory at Saint-Denis, near Paris, in 1864. He knew great success with his famous enameled colored and acid engraved glass. In 1897, he bought two others big factories.  His son, Charles Legras, succeed in1909 and the production was stopped during the WWI.  He reopened in 1919 until 1931 and produced many original new Art Deco works.

Beautiful Legras Vase

Legras signature

Muller Frères was a French glassmaking studio that was located in Luneville, France. The studio was known for  producing art nouveau glaswork vases. The Muller family originally came from the Alsace region of France. Family members worked together with Emile Galle before starting their own business.

Muller Fres

Muller Fres signature

Muller Fres pastoral scene

Muller signature

Loetz Glass Works of Bohemia was famous for glass art pieces.  They produced glass for sale in the French market.  However, the French glass studios were renown.  It was going to be hard competing against Daum and Galle.  Loetz labeled the pieces for sales in France with the signiture "Richard."

Loetz Bohemian glass for Paris client

Paris market items were signed Richard

Daum was crystal studio in Nancy, France.  It was first founded in 1878 by Jean Daum. His sons, Auguste Daum and Antonin Daum, manged its growth during the Art Nouveau artistic movement. Daum manufactured employing the Pate de Verre process for art glass and crystal sculptures. Daum used techniques included working with colored powders, acids, enamel and with fluorine hydrogen. Together with Emile Gallé, and other prominent artists, they founded the famous Ecole de Nancy, school of Nancy.

Daum Nancy

Three flowers of different color on this Daum piece

Raised texture on this Daum Nancy

So, now I am ready to allow these pieces to be sold so that my daughter's tuition can be paid without stripping all the money from our family.  If anyone is interested in purchasing any of these pieces please leave me a comment and we'll arrange a sale.  Also, I am selling the Disney cookie jars featured in previously in the May 14 and the May 31 blog posting.  Remember all the procedes go to the college education.  

Liberty, Not Again

Found On the 4th of July


I am sorry for the sparseness of my post lately.  Things are crazy in this house.  First, my daughter had to go to her orientation to UCSB.  This was going to be my big exciting trip.  When I looked at the possible dates for orientation, I saw that they were having a session on July 16th and 17th.  In my boyish mind this was fantastic.  I could take her to orientation and since Santa Barbara is two hours from Disneyland take a vacation.  July 17th is Disneyland's birthday.  I dreamed this perfect trip.  

Mickey is turning his back on me.

Then my adult mind punched me in the mouth.  There was this thing called money.  Dang, twins have always been expensive but two of them going to college at the same time is a killer of boyish dreams.  There will be no Disneyland trip for me.  This bummed me out.  But your kids come first, that is what they keep telling me especially my wife.  


They say things happen for a reason though.  I guess Liberty coming into our life was the reason.  As I wrote in the July 7th blog, Liberty is the abandoned kitten a friend found and we decided to nurse back to health.  So with kitty duties someone had to stay home to continue to care for Liberty.  I have had many cats before so I was elected to stay while my wife went with my daughter.  Liberty is beginning to become more playful.  So, 4:00 in the morning she is ready to play.  Now Midasgold is my avatar on Tetris Friends.  So when I have free time, I enjoy playing on my laptop.  Now my laptop has two attractions for Liberty.  The first, it is warm.  Young kittens need to be warm so having her on my lap near the laptop is a good spot.  The second attraction is my fingers constantly moving playing the game.  Fingers, hands, and feet are toys to kittens.  So sleeping lap kittens soon become finger attackers.  

Found the warm spot.

I have lost games of Tetris because of the kitten waking up and going for my fingers.  She first wakes up and sees the minos dropping on the screen.  She finds that fascinating and reaches out to touch the screen.  Soon there is a full blown adventure on the keyboard.

Ready to pounce

Now I only play team games.  So, many players have heard the excuse that the reason I lost was because of the kitten seized game control.  I, also, have friends that read my blog.  Thank you, all of you who do.  They have seen Liberty on the blog.  Some have even requested that I post more pictures of the kitty.

It is hard to push the space bar this way.

This one's for you Plumpgnome.

You giving up Midas?

Finally, I give up playing because it is impossible.  My screen is going crazy.  My Spotlight is searching for 8888jjnndjoo------ because these are keys pressed by Liberty.  One day an application called Voice Over was activated.  This application is to allow blind users know what the cursor is on and reads the text.  I have never used it and didn't even know it was a function on my computer.  I didn't know how to turn it on.  It was so annoying having everything meticulously read to you by Alex, the electronic voice.  Annoying Alex aiding me in my search of the key strokes that would TURN IT OFF.  In the mean time Liberty settles in for a rest after her mischief.

No playing for me.

Now I need to get her interested in something else.  Shoes are always good.  I lift her down and she spots my shoes.  She dives in and attacks the shoes inside and out.  Liberty claws and chews on the shoelaces.  Those little plastic ends, the aglets.  Diving inside head first.

Chewing off the aglets

After a playful period two things have happened.  She is sleepy and I am wide awake.  My wife has a little red cervical pillow she uses when watching TV.  This is handy because if she falls asleep she has neck support.  It stops the most dreaded napping failure of bobble heading.  You know your head flopping around forward and back and side to side until it wakes you up.  When the pillow is not in use, it is tossed to the couch.  This pillow has become a favorite snuggle spot for Liberty to nap.

 Shh! Maybe I can sneak in a game of Tetris.

Is that a keyboard I here?

Ok, that is what is happening with the kitty.  I hope this week to get a totally different collection blog out on the French cameo glass that I own.  Please hang in there.  There is more to come.