This is a follow-up on my June 24th one, which I utilized mostly to arrange a meet.
A little back-story. I decided to start learning Kwijibo. This is NOT going well. That’s OK, I just need more practice.
Friday and Saturday, I had back to back shows. This was covered in the June 24th edition. Wednesday, we hit the road to Disneyland. 405 mile drive we did in a record setting 6.5 hours, which was “on cue” with the in-car navigation system. I’m not going to get into that. Deciding to learn Kwijibo on Monday certainly didn’t help.
My accommodations were complicated. Let’s just leave it at “family” and hope that is passable. The problem is, well, I’m as white as can be and English is all I speak, and they are Vietnamese, most of whom do NOT speak English, so once I walk in the door, I’m pretty much just sucking up floor space. That’s not to say all of them speak only Vietnamese, many do speak both. Three kids and one adult were HIGHLY interested in my modest/pathetic yoyo skills.
So, slight re-cap:
405 mile drive on Wednesday. Myself, wife, 4 of my kids, and an aunt and uncle from my wife’s side who speak little to no English but I’ve met before and I like them. They are visiting from Vietnam.
Unwind by throwing a bit. Capture interests.
Thursday:
Day 1 of 2 at Disneyland. Due to the kids being “difficult”, lots of time was wasted. We have annual passes, but were unable to get to California Adventure to check out the new Cars Land. We actually never made it out of Disneyland. I won’t get into the inefficiency of the bus systems to the park and back from the Toy Story parking lot. Let’s just say my wife and I have sort of perfected a more workable system. But I’m not here to rant. It is wat it is/was. The interesting thing was that this is peak time and the lines were way down. For the most part, no lines over 30 minutes.
After Disneyland, we return to where we are staying late. No throwing. Too tired.
Friday, pretty much the same as Thursday, except we take the aunt and uncle mentioned above with us, and they had a good time. Ended the day with taking my son(the thrower) on Matterhorn. The new Matterhorn seems faster and the second Harold encounter seems closer. The mountain looks better than ever! Again, no California Adventure Park. No throwing either afterwards.
Saturday, late start. Lots of early throwing. I show some 1A, 5A and 4A. The kids are going nuts and so is one of the parents. They want in on it. We agree to go to Redondo Beach so I can visit Sunshine Kite Company. I’ve got no interest in salt water, grit and sand. I was also asked to get yoyos for them to start with. Not to sidetrack, but to get to Redondo Beach was a fight in and of itself. There are closer beaches, but since I’m kinda stuck at the mercy of people not speaking English and dragged any places I don’t want to go as a result, I am “humored” or “indulged” for this outing. It’s a nice beach. I saw some pelicans catching fish. The waves aren’t too bad, not surfable, but good to have fun and splash in.
Now onto the reasons I wanted to head to Redondo Beach. As I said, there’s been mention of the Sunshine Kite Company. The other was Newbies United wanted to meet up there. So, two good reasons right there.
First, onto the Sunshine Kite Company. It’s a shack. Literally. However, don’t judge a book by it’s cover. Inside is a good selection of YYF and YYJ. Inventory is down right now due to the construction and a upcoming move into a real facility. The people are wonderful, nice, and knowledgeable. The selection, while down, was still pretty good. I ended up getting a pair of Unleashed in colors I didn’t have, as I already have a pair of Unleashed. Sure, their prices are higher than at YYE, but YYE makes it up via volume. Yeah, I paid like almost $48 for the pair, rather than closer to $36 at YYE, but hey, sometimes you gotta support local business! I also got 3 Fast 201’s and a ONE for the noobs I was asked to support.
Anyhow, if you’re in the area, stop in here. Serious.
Newbies United was running late, but the meet was well worth it. Fun, friendly, a good time. I let him play my Actic Circle, KLR, Sky Walker and Phenom. Wife was rather tolerant and let me enjoy myself!
Anyhow, after that was done, back to where we were staying and teaching the kids how to throw. The eldest kid was getting it using the ONE. Still needs work but he’s getting it. The parent(not that kid’s parent) was getting it! One of his two kids is kinda young, but will get it! The youngest kid, not getting it, but doesn’t want to be left out. At 4, its a bit young for some. The 4th, a no-show.
One of my kids lost her Legacy II. Fortunately, it got wrapped up in some clothing and ended up with the dirty clothes. I think she’s finally gotten to the point where she’s ready to progress and move on. In case you need that spelled out, I think she’s ready to start taking her throwing a bit more seriously.
Andre, I expect to see commission checks! I recommended them to come this way for purchases! I can be paid in YYE store credit!
Anyhow, Sunday was the drive back. I’m writing after the drive. I’m wiped. That location we stayed will be one of two locations we start to visit on a regular basis down there. There’s a second house we may stop by too. Why? Yoyo check-ins! Sunshine Kite Company will be at least a once a year visit.
July 2nd’s plans: After resting, keep on kwijibo, 4A L/R pops and maybe stuff some 5A tricks in there. 2A is looking like I need to work on 1 handed looping still on my dominant hand.
Inbound items:
The Duncan Butterfly XT’s arrived literally MINUTES before we left on vacation, so of course I took the package with me. I bought a 4 pack. A bit light and the bearing sucks but I’m cleaning the bearing. It uses a C-sized bearing and a starburst response. I’m not going to for dead unresponsive, just longer spinning. At 53 grams, they need some heft to them. I’ve done some cap swapping. They come blue with green caps, green with blue caps, orange with red caps, red with orange caps. I ended up making them solid colors. I may order some more. Make 1 unresponsive with a bearing change, and another unresponsive as well with weight rings, and yet another responsive but with weight rings. The blue one is mine, the orange is with my son. The green is with my daughter, and the all red is going to be going to theroybit. I’m cleaning the bearings for the red and blue right now. Buying more for the purposes of mods is something I can hold off on.
My son got his “first metal”, a Magic T6 he picked out himself, based on mine. However, the first metal he received was his Metal Drifter. The T6 came while we were on vacation. A T9 arrived for me in the same box, my 2nd T9. Now if I get into Asquared, I’m set! Not to push anything, but 7 days from China: nice and fast!! I simply do not understand how this seller is making money off them, but that’s truly not my concern!
Other goodies set to come soon. Getting a Nessie paid for soon. A Cascade is in my near future as well! Shipping is being delayed so a package of stuff can arrive rather than as individuals.
Case-Making: I like keeping the collection neat and organized. Although I have MORE case-slots than throws(in other words: I have room for more), I’m making another case at the moment just to handle any sudden jumps in inventory. This case will only hold 30. I won’t mention the big case, it comes from a competitor but it’s something. Another case that just came in, also comes from a competitor, not bad but has some shortcomings. A case I just finished has some strengths and weaknesses(I cut some foam too large) but is more strength than weakness. This new case I’m about to make will only hold 12, but hey, it’s from a case I was otherwise gonna trash. This other case I have laying around is going to get trashed as it has a broken latch so I don’t want to bother with it.
Goals for this week:
Complete the case
Secure getting Nationals.
See about securing my status with working Worlds(just need to get permission and buy a plane ticket).
Progress on kwijibo
Updates may or may not be coming. I gotta get cracking on another pair of shows coming up.
Keep throwing, change your strings! If you wanna talk Disney, PM me!
