Wienermobile sighting

I met with Cheryl this week at the Block in Orange at Cafe Tu Tu Tango. She's the talented artist who draws most of my images and many of Judi-Kins. I was picking up artwork of some new loteria card images, including la mariposa (the butterfly) which I have been promising to the ladies who own the Mariposa Gallery in Albuquerque (one of my all-time favorite galleries). She also completed some new Christmas images a la Little Elaine's style (whimisical, cute, but not gag me cute) and I gave her a few ideas for additional stamp images. She and her sister are leaving for Borneo in the next couple of weeks; they are really adventurous travellers! Anyway, as I was leaving the Block heading north on State College near the Big A (Anaheim Stadium), the wienermobile was heading south on State College and made a turn on Katella. I was so shocked I just shouted, "the wienermobile" and didn't think quickly enough to turn and go after it for a photo op. I have not seen the wienermobile in person since I saw Engineer Bill and Little Oscar in Granada Hills at the Vons in 1959 or 1960. My husband had a wienermobile sighting a few years ago on the 101 near Santa Barbara. There is a tunnel going north on the 101 and he was heading south on his motorcycle from a race at Laguna Seca in Monterey, and what should come out of the tunnel as he's passing it -- the wienermobile! Supposedly they have modernized the wienermobiles (yes, there is a fleet of them) but it looked the same as the one I remember when I met Little Oscar. We happen to have a collection of wienermobiles, and thanks to Carol, my friend Patrice's sister, we were able to add a "kiddie car" wienermobile to our collection, a few months ago. The seller was in the Sacramento area and my husband won the eBay auction, but the shipping charges were pretty steep. Carol lives near Sacramento and was willing to pick up the wienermobile and transport it to southern California because she had a driving trip planned anyway, so it now resides under our stairway in the dining/living room (it's probably 4 feet long). It was well-used, but it's quite a converstion piece! I do have a stamp of the Wienermobile, and the wiener whistle, and the phrase "everyone loves a wiener" for any Wienermobile aficionados out there...I also have a stamp of a chef who (if you squint your eyes) looks a little like "Little Oscar." In my last couple of postings I mentioned that I had photos to share -- bad news. My hard drive crashed last week taking all my stored photos with it. Some I have on CDs from friends, but others are gone forever...serves me right for not backing up my hard drive. I am hoping to be able to retrieve some of the photos, but will probably have to depend on my friends to share theirs (our trips to New York, Santa Fe, San Francisco, etc.). Ciao for now, e.