Exploring Closer to Home

I meant to do more with the castle this week, but all that happened was leaving it out in the rain in order to get the stickers off. 

Just FYI, here is a very helpful tool that makes scraping tasks much easier than running your fingernails down to the quick or snapping a membership card to pieces: the Lil' Chizler.

I mostly use it to scrape labels off jars after soaking them, gunk off our cast iron skillet, and wax off the stove top.

There was a lot of exploration this week, though. Why is it so hard to prioritize exploring what is closest to home? For instance, I remember seeing the scenes from The Martian filmed at JPL, and feeling bad that I had never been in person in the the four years I'd lived here so far.  I finally went on a tour of JPL this week! It was a beautiful clear day to walk around the campus, and there was so much more to see than I'd realized. 

We also made a day of taking the train to downtown LA and Hollywood a few days ago. The sad part is that this was not all out of the blue, but because one of our best friends is moving out of the area today. I hate how we always wait for things like that to happen to explore the unique things that are within our reach. But it does make those times all the more memorable and special. 

The reason we included Hollywood on this trip was to stop in at Amoeba Records. We took all the movies we own that are no longer relevant to our lives for trade-in credit. (Though still a fan, I am never going to watch Pocahontas on DVD, as I never have over the ten plus years that I've owned it.)  Twelve dollars in trade credit and no definite list of albums or movies to search for can be a dangerous thing in a place like Amoeba. After browsing new and bargain DVDs, and circling the dizzying number of CD isles, I finally had to be extracted without arriving at any decisions of what to purchase. I'd like to think I'll be back soon, but I hope it won't take another friend leaving to make that happen.