Google Sky Map - on Android

I've finally left the Sidekick era and moved on to a new "smartphone". While I'll probably always be an Apple person at heart I was able to get a much better deal on a Motorola Cliq with T-Mobile.

The Cliq runs the Android OS and so far I have no regrets. There are lots of fun goodies to play with. Tonight I tried out Google Sky Map:



It's kind of weird to hold your phone up to the sky and point it at things to see what they are. It really works though... pretty cool.

G Muffin

This is how I roll...



Thanks Sarrah!

Bimbo!

Bimbo!



This one got a lot of play when I had my first record player. I hope to resurrect it along with Blinky The Lighthouse Ship sometime soon.

Geometron

I had to erase my dry-erase board this morning. This Geometron has been with us for several years. He has now been saved for posterity by Jeff's iPhone.



(All Geometrons carry ice-picks.)

Testing

You don't want to be in that box...trust me.

Saturday Tiki Find - Aloha!

This was a pretty good Goodwill find yesterday:



A nice Trader Vic's Aloha coconut mug. I don't have any exactly like this one.



I have a version of a Trader Vic's coconut mug that just has "Trader Vic's" inscribed on the bottom and no words on the sides: See this older post

Then I have another version of the mug that just has "Aloha" and "Trader Vic's" (no "Since 1934") on the side with "Trader Vic's" inscribed on the bottom: See this older post

This one has a "Trader Vic's" stamped in black paint on the bottom. I couldn't really get a good picture of the bottom but there are some good examples on Ooga Mooga.

I need to do some more research and see if I can put these in chronological order.

Coupon Of The Day

I had a REALLY GOOD coupon at Publix today.



They canceled it though. :(

(They actually missed the coupon altogether after trying to figure out what happened and reverse it... it was only $0.70 or so and it was the cashiers first day or something. I had $0.70 worth of fun watching them try to figure it out and asking to be paid in twenty's. )

Recent Tiki Finds: Leilani & Dynasty Green

Behind on the tiki postings... must catch up a bit.

3 or 4 weeks ago I picked up a Tiki Leilani mug at my local "antique" store. This one is supposedly pretty common but I've never come across one before.



This one is probably from Orchids of Hawaii as it seems identical to many of the ones I can compare it to on Ooga Mooga. It has "Tiki Leilani" around the base but it's hidden by the jungle in the photo above. The bottom is clearly marked USA.




There are two more of these left at the store if anyone needs one (I'm not a hoarder.)

Yesterday I ran across this guy at another "antique" store in Tucker:



I'm pretty sure it's a Dynasty Green Tiki (DW113) made by Dynasty Wholesale. You can see him here on page 3 of their catalog.

While not terribly special or hard to find as you can still get them today, it was interesting to try to identify. This one doesn't have any markings on the bottom while some of the earlier Dynasty models did. I'm guessing they dropped it from the mold at some point.

It's similar to the Shonfeld's Jagged Teeth Mug but the nose is slightly different. Both the Dynasty and the Shonfelds's are pretty much clones of an original Orchids of Hawaii R-5 mug. The biggest difference I can find is in the noses.

Dynasty:



Shonfeld's:



Orchids of Hawaii:



I hope you found this educational. I did.

Sky Guy

Last month my Dad celebrated his 70th birthday.

He's been fascinated by these "sky dancer" things so we rented one for his party.



He can do a pretty good imitation of one.



It was pretty loud, but it was easy to set up and use. Thanks to the folks at Monster Party Rentals for making everything easy for me.

Les Paul 1915-2009

That's a pretty good run. Obit HERE.

Les DID A LOT to make music what it is today. Thanks Les.

I'm off to listen to some Couch Flambeau.