When Cartoons Didn't Suck

Happy birthday to me! Actually, it's past my birthday (that was the 13th), but every day since I've got back to Seattle (Thursday afternoon) has felt like my birthday. God, I love this town! I've just been positively giddy. I told the clerk at the local Fred Meyer that her produce was absolutely beautiful, and I've been singing "There's No Place Like Home for the Holidays" every morning in the shower. Gosh...I've been having so much fun just breathing cold, crisp air. Hell, and going to restaurants that serve breakfast! What a novelty!

Fact is that, while I've adapted to Paraguay, and can live there just fine (something I probably couldn't say with complete honesty six months ago), I certainly haven't "fallen in love" with it. I just conveniently forget all the things we're missing when we're not here. Tonight: fresh cracked Dungeness crab at my mom's house! No, not at a restaurant, are you insane? Pick it up at the supermarket, in season, for an exceptionally reasonable price...they'll clean it for free and you melt the butter!

[we had to get the car tabs renewed and an emission test this morning (after a friendly parking enforcement person pointed out the expiration), and my wife was just all smiles about it. "It's so nice to be somewhere the system works!" Efficient bureaucracy: there are a lot of anti-government haters that would miss it if it were suddenly stripped from them. Also nice? Being able to run to the grocery store after midnight and pick up quality diapers. It's the little things, people. I had to call AAA not once but TWICE yesterday to jumpstart my 13 year old battery that had lost its charge in the arctic cold front Seattle's been experiencing, and even with the wait it still didn't derail my plans for the day. That's just awesome]

Another way it's been feeling like my birthday is because I've been unwrapping a new "present to myself" daily. I ordered several things on-line over the last month or two and they were all (with one exception) waiting for me when I got home. One was my copy of Warriors of the Red Planet (Beta) which came from Lulu, is beautiful, and needs its own separate blog post. But most of the stuff I ordered were DVDs of several old TV series including Wizards and Warriors, but much more fun/nostalgic for me are the (animated) Tolkien trilogy (Rankin/Bass and Bakshi) plus Thundarr the Barbarian, Sealab 2020, (not the humorous remake Sealab 2021), and Jonny Quest. I can (and probably will) write a complete blog post or two on each of these marvelous cartoons, but suffice is to say, hey, remember when people were making cartoons for children that didn't suck?

Okay, got to go...Dungeness calls!
: )

Delicious!