Random Pictures Collected on the Internet...

OK, so there has been a lapse in posting for almost a month, and some of these might not seem quite as timely anymore, but I have collected a few pics here and there that I thought you might enjoy...Here goes:

Do I really need to tell you why this picture is awesome?

This photo was taken in somewhere in Queensland, after the Cyclone hit, and the tides brought salt water into a fresh water lake. Something made it glow. I do not know the science, but I do love the image.

Um, OK, this is Fergie, in a LEGO dress...complete with LEGO bracelets. A little strange, but fascinating, and LEGOs are cool, right?

Sunset over the Raj Mahal

I took these pictures tonight, while standing on the front veranda on the second floor. I was boiling water in the kitchen, and when I glanced out of the living room window, I saw this magnificent sunet. The building in the photo is the Raj Mahal, once the location of an Indian restaurant and several shops. Now, it is the home of the owner, and there is talk that it might soon be knocked down to make way for a national chain grocery store. It would be a shame. It is a wonderful structure, and it makes for great pictures...

Thanks Dada! i can see what you mean. he doesn't really look like him, but he reminds me of him. i'm going to try and get better at posting on this blog, and i'm sorry that i haven't been doing it nearly enough. here's my blue hair in case you lose the file, or i decide to dye it a different color by the time you get back. Love you Dada.

-Riley

Greg Mallek has an Australian Double

So I had been talking about this guy on TV here who reminds me of Greg Mallek. I am no longer convinced that he really does look that much like him, but there is something about him that reminds me of Greg nontheless. The guy's name is Shawn Micallef, and he is the host of a telelvision show called "Talkin' About Your Generation", or simply Your Gen. It is a gameshow of sorts, where regular comedians are paired with special guest celebrities (all of whom are Australian, and therefore unfamiliar to me). They compete in teams of two, with three teams total. Each team represents a generation group (Gen X, Gen Y and Baby Boomers). The comedians and the guests are teamed according to which generation they are actually in. The questions are themed, and often funny, and there are unusual stunts and challenges they have to do. I am reminded of "Whose Line Is It Anyway?", in that there is nothing actually won (well, a trophy found at a garage sale is given to the winning team...the trophy changes every week), and the point of the show is to laugh. It is quite funny.  I saw it the very first night I was in Australia, at the hostel in Sydney. It was a Halloween special, and Shawn/Greg was dressed as a zombie. I think that is why the association with Greg is so strong...the Halloween connection.
Anyway, here are two pictures of him that I found on line. Tell me what you think...



Happy Birthday

13 years today!!! I am in shock :) I bought a cake, and took a picture of my own bad hair to honor this most auspicious of days.
I love you, Riley....

I know this looks like a jungle, but it is really just my back yard. Can you see the clothes line on the right hand side? Those giant palms are the banana trees....the ones that are currently growing bunchs of bananas, and which will be home to flying foxes as soon as the sun goes down. I wanted all of that to be a part of your birthday...Can you hear their wings flapping?

Forgive the mullet...but the 80's are coming back, right?
Happy Birthday, Ry...

Happy Valentine's Day!

OK, so this probably should not have made me laugh when I saw it, yet it did. So I decided to share. Happy Valentine's Day, and I will give a real post soon.

New Roommates

Well, I know I already sent an email with a picture of one of the new roomies, but as I was looking through all of my recent pictures, I decided a post might be in order. So here are my new roommates:

This is Jasper. He is around 10 years old, and he likes to come up stairs after his real owner has eaten dinner and settled in to watch the news in his bedroom. He (Jasper) will often come up, and go out on my deck (like in this picture). He will then lay down in the sitting room just outside my office, and wait for me to go downstairs and cook. He will follow me back up to lay at my feet while I eat and watch TV. When he realizes that I am done, and there is nothing for him, he will go down to the second floor, and sleep on the couch, something I guess he only started doing after I moved in. With one person asleep on the first floor, and the other on the third, I think Jasper likes to be right in the middle. Does that remind you of anyone?

I haven't named this guy, but he roams the house at night, running away from me whenever I get near. He cruises the wall that runs from the second to the third floor (here, he is in hiding where the wall meets the roof on the third floor), and after being here for a few days, he relocated to the bathroom at night. I scared him (and he scared me) a couple nights in a row as I went in to brush my teeth before bed. My heart stopped as he ran up and down the wall trying to find a place to hide. Although you can not tell, he is about four inches long. A little bigger that the newts. On more than one occasion I have seen baby geckos, about an inch long, on the ceiling. So maybe this "he" is really a "she." Buster II, anyone?

Haven't named him either. Hope I don't have to. I saw him one night crawling on the ceiling way above my head. The third floor has a peaked roof that is probably 15ft high at its highest point. He was way up there. The next night, I saw him in my office, about five feet from my desk, bur hidden between a beam and the wall in a space about three or four inches wide. I could not reach in there and kill him without fear of missing him and scaring him away. I left him alone, keeping one eye on him for a few hours. He never moved. So I closed my office door when I went to bed, and in the morning he was gone. I haven't seen him since. As you can see, he is mostly legs (long hairy legs), but the area he covered on the wall was about 3/4 the size of a playing card (or a yu-gi-oh card, if that is a better comparison). I am told they are called huntsman, and that they are harmless. They eat bugs, don't make webs, and do not have the tendency to hide in clothes and such. They are wood spiders, and like hiding in nooks and crannies of the house or the woodpile.
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huntsman_spider
According to wikipedia, they are found all over the world. I keep finding them in my living space. Creepy!

In a final note, the 'Oprah in Australia' shows have begun airing here, and are on four nights in row. I watched last night (The cat is out of the bag), and I learned this much- I don't really like Oprah, but the rest of the world seems to. I find particularly annoying her "Let's get Ready to Rumble" voice that she uses several times on camera while here, speaking to a large crowd. If you see the shows, you will know exactly what I am mean.
However, to be clear, Oprah is NOT one of my new roommates.