Godzilla!, Tiny Wildlife Rescue, and Australian Treasure!

Last Week I experienced a particularly nifty day...


Godzilla!

After work, I'd met some friends at the Loft Theater to watch the last movie in the "Cinema Atomico - The Cold War Goes to the Movies" series sponsored by the Titan Missile Museum.
We saw the original Japanese version of "Godzilla" from 1954. 
(In Japanese with subtitles in case you were curious.) 

Yes, I am that geeky. However, I'm way less geeky than some of my friends - such as the clever gent who was offering excellent Godzilla movie trivia! 

• The man that throws the switch when they try to electrocute Godzilla was the Director of the movie (appearing in the movie a la Hitchcock). (OK - I only saw an arm throwing the switch not a whole man.). 
• The Godzilla cry/sound was made by rubbing a rubber glove across a cello (Think about it! That's exactly what it sounds like, isn't it?).
• There was more, but I did a poor job storing them in my brain.

The Loft Art Director did an excellent intro; very funny, informative and charming. They drew some names for Raffle prizes - including a Geiger Counter and an overnight stay at the Titan Missile Museum (Do you see the Cinema Atomico correllation?).


The Loft also presented a short "educational" film before they started Godzilla.
It's called "The House in the Middle" - produced by the "National  Clean up - Paint Up - Fix Up Bureau"in 1954.
No, I'm not kidding.
If you've got 12 minutes - go take a look at this, uh, innocent time capsule of 1950's American Nuclear Perspective.
(I have to repeat one audience comment offered during this movie short: "Lead Paint". Go. Watch. You'll understand when you see it....)

I couldn't remember having seen the original Godzilla when I was a kid. Odds are I did 'cause my little brother was a serious Godzilla fan. (No, we were not around for the original movie release...)
I knit on 3 projects during the movie.
I have to confess, I knit on so many 'cause I had technical difficulties on two that required sight to repair/correct - but I did make some good headway on all three! (2 pairs of socks and a lace shawl.)

Tiny Wildlife Rescue!
I came home to find a very tiny Gambel's Quail chick in my car port. 
It was a little late for quail to be out foraging and becoming separated from one of their little ones (they roost at night) so I called the local Vet (Valley Animal Hospital) that works with Forever Wild Animal Rehab Center and they said to bring him on over.
(I have to note that Valley Animal is not my regular Vet, but they have always been very kind and supportive when I turn up with Wildlife-needing-assistance. It happened more often when BobCat was still alive and, uh, patrolling the neighborhood - but that's another blog).

I cropped down a box from the recycle bin, tossed some tissues in the box, put on my work gloves, and went to collect the wee one.  Oddly enough, when I came out to collect him, he started for me almost immediately and then he trundled right to my gloved hands. (I had to wonder if my shoes somehow resemble parent-quail).

(it's only about 2 inches or 5.08 cm)

I checked around for parents/siblings but none could be seen or heard so I drove the chirping little one to the Vet.  They said Forever Wild would pick him up in the morning. (I also dropped off a donation to Forever Wild since I was especially adding to their workload.) I understand the rehab folks will raise him to be released back into the wild.


Australian Treasure! 
(Also a "Blogs to Explore" review...)
And then I came back home and found spiffy things from England and Australia in the mail!


Via Ravelry I wandered over to the blog of Pom Pom in early February. She's an English lady living in Australia. She has organized the World Wide Knit in Public (WWKIP) day in Sydney for the past couple of years (A Much larger event then our improving WWKIP Day attempts here in Tucson) and her voice is somewhat familiar to me from the Sticks and String podcast Easter Show reviews. I enjoy her blog observations and humor. I am curious but rather ignorant about her comments regarding Australian politics - but I find them educational and interesting. (Not unlike when the Yarn Harlot comments on Canadian Politics.)
I became intrigued by her blog and continued to visit.
And I began to submit tentative comments on occasion.
Although Blogs are generally "out there for all to see", I do sometimes feel as though I've wandered into a private forum; as though I'm reading someone's diary.
However, Pom Pom was particularly kind and welcoming of my stray comments and questions.

As it turns out, she blogs every day for her Blogiversary month of March. So, there were more blog entries to visit and I continued to occasionally leave comments.

Pom Pom was able to blog every day but one in March. An illness and death in her family drew her back to England on short notice.
I was not alone in leaving notes of sympathy, concern, and support on her blog.

Another tradition of Pom Pom's Blogiversary Month is to use a random number generator (family member) to pick two numbers that would correlate to two comments left on the blog during the month. One Australian commenter and a commenter from somewhere else in the world are gifted with a prize. 


The random number generator happened to pick one of my comments and I received Treasure from Australia in my mailbox:

 This lovely yarn, Scrumptious Lace by Fyberspates, is very tactile and lustrous - and, as noted by a friend of mine, is the colour and sheen of a deep red rose. Pom Pom indicated that she'd chosen it for me when she was in England.
She also enclosed a note on a spiffy Sydney Postcard and my "bag-lady" heart sang when I realized she'd also gifted me with a bag from the 2010 Sydney World Wide Knit in Public Event. 

What an amazing day!
A ginormous Japanese Radioactive Lizard, a tiny/helpless Arizona Quail chick, and English/Australian yarn-y blessings.

Treasures from 'round the world.