55th, 20th & 50th

You know how sometimes if you break up your routine by going out and doing something on a Thursday night, Friday just kind of seems like part of the weekend, even though you still went to work? That’s kind of how Friday the 16th felt to me.

Thursday night we went to Disneyland. Our annual passes have black-out dates throughout the summer on the weekends, so if we want to go, we have to go on a “school night.” It was fun and felt like we had snuck out of the house without asking permission from someone! Tony wanted to ride Star Tours before they redesign it. I wanted to pick up a special 55th anniversary map — 55 years ago that Disneyland opened in California. We managed to stay late enough to watch the fireworks, which I always enjoy.

Friday night we hung out with Tony’s Little Bro, and a long-time friend. Later we went and saw the movie Grown Ups. It was silly and goofy and I laughed and laughed.

Saturday was a double-decker event day. We started by going to Mazda Miata’s 20th Anniversary celebration at Mazda’s Research & Development Center. That’s where it all started over 20 years ago. I remember when I first saw the Miata, a blue one… someone had parked it, and left its top down. I wanted one but figured I could never afford one. Then one of the ladies in my office bought a red one, and she made so much more money than I did, which affirmed my assumption. It took me 6 years, but I finally saved up enough money to buy a used 1992 red Mazda Miata. Oh, how I loved that car…. with its pop-up headlights and chrome fingerpull door handles.

Six years later and over 200,000 miles on the odometer, I was devastated when a truck blew off a stop sign and pulled out in front of me. I t-boned him, and my poor little car was totaled. The guy’s insurance company settled with me, which provided a hefty down payment for my next car: a red 2002 Miata. The one I currently drive.

So the 20th Anniversary celebration was like a trip down memory lane for me. They had clay design models, time line pictures, various concept models, and also the design team who imagined it and brought it to fruition were there, talking and answering questions. It was just a really fun event for me. Plus they fed us and gave us goody bags.

Concept models…

One of the clay models…

The design team…

The Starship Enterprise version (Tony’s favorite)…

Saturday afternoon, we attended the 50th wedding anniversary mass and reception for some long-time family friends. The mass and ceremony when they reiterated their vows was, simply put, quite lovely. They must have spent months planning and practicing (their adult “kids” provided the music). Every detail was attended to, the food was delicious and the reminiscing was touching.

I know the food at an event is not supposed to be the main focus, but I didn’t get permission to post any pictures of the grown-up people (I take liberties when posting pictures of my nephews), and the caterers were truly artists… so just imagine that everything else was as imaginative as the food and you’ll have a small taste of it. So to speak.

Everything in this basket was created from vegetables and fruits…

Yes, please…

Just a small taste…

I spent much of my Sunday enjoying the plants in my back yard — pruning them, splitting their roots and re-potting them. The rest of the time, I spent in the pool swimming — my hour long lap marathon in the morning, and then our nephews (and their parents) came over for some pool time in the afternoon. It’s remarkable how hot it’s been here, given how cool it was just a couple weeks ago. It’s been hot enough that I was dripping sweat while outside working with my plants (ewwww!) and the pool is running nearly 90°F.

In other news, my mom is off traveling in China. My cartoonist friend is traveling in Europe (and blogging about it), and a guy at work gave me one of the biggest zucchinis I’ve seen in about 10 years (since I grew my own).

It’s a good thing he gave me one, because I think it’d be wrong to covet thy co-worker’s zucchini.