Happy Halloween!

From Halloween 2011

And, Happy Anniversary Kevin!

Halloween at 51 Hibiscus Cct!

We really should have had a party. It was, after all, our 30th sort-of anniversary. Still, I think we did pretty well decking the halls- both inside and out - especially considering that I gave away about 2/3 of my decorations last year in order to make closet room for Zupe.

Notes for next year...

We could use a really big spider for the front blind/screen thingy. Better yet would put it/them on the garage, but I'm not sure how to attach it/them. Keep in mind, I hate spiders.

Perhaps rebar spikes would let us use our tombstones. The styrofoam might be too thin.

Can always use more bats.

Must make finger cookies!

Visitors!!! Human visitors!!!

From Barb and Stephen

We only had one day to share something cool of Brisbane with Barb and Stephen. They'd already been traveling around Australia for over three weeks. They'd been to Darwin, to Cairns, to Uluru, to Sydney. They'd identified more than 345 different bird species.

But, they hadn't found an emu nor seen a koala in the wild.

From Barb and Stephen

I couldn't really help with the "in the wild" part. But, I could get them someplace where they could cuddle a koala. That has to count for something!

So, on Thursday morning we headed out to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary.

From Barb and Stephen

From Barb and Stephen

It was a particularly good day for Lone Pine. The dingo pups were running, jumping, wrestling. One of the wombats was awake! There was movement among the ever sleepy koalas including a koala fight! (Of course, you aren't seeing any of this. Here. Have an emu.)

From Barb and Stephen

After, we buzzed up to Mount Coot-tha to enjoy the view of Brisbane and the lovely botanic gardens. MY original plan would have been to go North to the Mary Cairncross Rain Forest walk and the Glass House Mountains - but that was an additional 90 minutes or more of driving. I think they probably had enough driving and it was going to be getting late.

From Barb and Stephen

From Barb and Stephen

Many thanks to Barb and Stephen for including us in the tour of their seventh continent!!

Zombie Walk - October

From Zombie Walk

You will not believe this. None of it.

This was our FIRST EVER Zombie walk

and

we did NOT dress up.

From Zombie Walk

You will note, however, that Kevin ended up "infected". I'm still waiting for him to turn.

From Zombie Walk

There were, as you'd expect from any plague, lots of victims. Interestingly, there were several cross genre zombies. Unfortunately, I don't have a photo of my favorite - the Snow White zombie carrying in a little basket the head of one of the seven dwarves!

From Zombie Walk

My mother suggested that the make-up might irritate Zupe's tender allergy-prone skin. So, even though I explained to her that in a zombie apocolypse you were either zombie or meat, Zupe remained pink and perfect. There were, however, plenty of other young zombies including one who's Dad was eating a(nother) baby's foot.

From Zombie Walk

Brains!

From Zombie Walk

Oh my God! Yet one more!!

From Zuperfliegen

This may not come as news to you, but I was gob-smacked to learn that the tune for "Baa Baa Black Sheep..." was the EXACT SAME tune as that of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star".
The story goes like this.

Kevin traded some games for this rocking chair. You've seen elements of the chair - mostly the back as it is supporting Zupe's super head. You may not have seen the cute little cat and dog that hang from a bar for easy play time. And, unless you've seen the video or been to our house or have one of these Fisher-Price chairs of your own, you wouldn't know that if you pull the bone that hangs under the dog, a little melody is played. For weeks I'd been singing along.

"Baa baa black sheep have you any wool?" (Though, to be honest I have trouble with the last line. Trust me here. Don't make me sing it.)

Then, one day, I said to myself, if not to Zupe, and then to Kevin - "Hey. The chair is playing a new tune!"

Kevin is the only one to respond. He said something like, "No."

My response, "Yes, I'm sure it used to play "Mary had a little lamb" (note- sheep song confusion... early sign of brain aging.) "Now it is playing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star"."

A day or two later it was playing "Baa, Baa Black Sheep" again.

It was about this time that I did a YouTube search for the two songs and compared the tunes and found that they ("Twinkle" and "Baa") were the same.

And, so I was happy and smarter and I had the option of singing either song when I heard the tune time after time after time.

Months past. Months.

One day I found myself singing along...."A, B, C, D, E, F, G..." (Go ahead. Check it out for yourself. I'll wait.)

(NOTE- This is not news to Wikipedia. Of course not.)

Hey Google!

From

This is NOT a silhouette of a dead tree. Really. NOT DEAD. I feel strangely emotional about the searches for "Dead Tree Silhouette" that refer people to this image. (Not that I'm unhappy having them come to my blog or enjoy my photo.) AND, it is not a tree in Australia. This particular shot was taken near Webster, Ohio in the U.S.A.

Now, enjoy the tree and remember that new leaves are sleeping in its branches.

Reality check

From Zuperfliegen

I spoke with my mother yesterday. That's no story. I speak with her almost every day. (We have a very good phone card.)

Anyway, she was saying that she was feeling a bit sad about me coming home to visit. She felt like she looked so old. And, she's gained 4 or 5 pounds.

But, then, she said, she saw my photo with Zupe.

Mothers. They really know how to pick you up.