Times Up! (Title Recall) The vogue round

Can you match the pose with the title? (Note - not all the titles are represented here. I had to make the quiz a little challenging.)

Lolita

Dumbo

The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show

Dora the Explorer

Friends

The Emperor's New Clothes

Flight of the Bumblebee

Chinatown in the evening

From Chinatown Jan 2010

Chinatown is having a facelift. Unfortunately, it was still in bandages when I went for a wander last weekend. It is supposed to be finished for the Chinese New Year celebration - Feb 14. We will miss it, however.

A few photos with the new camera.

Roma Street Parklands

Happy Australia Day!

From EKKA 2009

Don't try to understand the flag pole.

I've got this thing for bird of paradise....

Not that I want to grow them. I don't care that much for them as an entire plant - but parts are very, very nice.

And, what is this white flower?

From Singles 2010

Reading the fine print

From Singles 2010

Be warned!

This is a guide only and is not a substitue for essential training in resuscitation.

On my walk this morning...

It is done!

From Singles 2010

And, I am very psyched. It is going to take time to digest the instruction manual and try all the fiddly bits. (Hmm, and I told Kevin that "Black Kevienna" was next on the agenda.)

Of course, not all of us are as enthused.

From Singles 2010

This is it.

Camera shopping has begun in earnest!

My choices are limited because I really, really, really want a viewfinder. I don't know how anyone with progressive lenses or bifocals can use the LCD screens to compose a photograph. (Imagine that! Someday soon I may actually be composing again rather than just pointing, shooting, and praying.) If I want something that will fit in my pocket, which I have liked about my compact devil camera, I have a choice between Canon IXUS's. In any case I definately want something lighter than my SLR. (I need to weigh it, I think.)

In preparation I looked at my photo-a-day blog from 2009 and tallied the various "kinds" of photos I take. To some extent these numbers are affected by the limitations of my camera. For example, there are only 15 photos(of roughly 300)taken in low light sitations and an additional 9 taken at night. I doubt that a flash was ever used as my flash beams straight from hell and people look like they're gazing into the warm glow of atomic bomb. Most of the photos were taken out doors: 34 landscapes, 13 buildings, 37 "other". Only 19 photos were of animals, including Zelda and only 14 were portraits or featured people. The vast majority were photos that relied upon the macro setting of my camera and/or were cropped severely to isolate details.

My deadline is Feb 12 when we will be off to New Zealand. Anyone with an opinion is invited to comment.

No doubt the makers of dental floss are puzzing

From Singles 2010

over the sudden downturn in their sales. FINALLY this week I got my tooth fixed and now a shiny new crown sits over the food trap that was (one of) my left lower molar(s). I wish I could say all is now well. But now I feel bruised and possibly more painful. Unfortunately, my dentist has a life and isn't open on Fridays (Saturdays or Sundays) and since I have a job I will be waiting until Thursday of next week to address this. Please tell me that sensitivity to hot and cold as well as constant low level aching and a tingling sensation in the bone and a feeling of fullness in the ear are nothing. Go ahead. I'm listening. At least with my right ear.

My Legendary Girlfriend

You see, sometimes I'll catch Alice looking at me while I'm watching TV and she'll have this huge inane grin on her face that really doesn't become her. I'll ask her what she's doing...

You see, Kevin. I'm not the ONLY one.

I'll give this book a C. Moments of humor...but it both drags and is relatively predictable.

I 've been thinking it is time to be more serious

From Singles 2010

Perhaps you've noticed that I haven't been here at the blog recently. I admit that this is in part due to my working 6 days last week, but also because I was thinking that maybe I need to start writing more considered essays. Dig deeper into the questions that plague my existence. Dissect and analyze my life, my thoughts, my emotions. Stop using this as a glob of silly putty with which I collect the most superficial imprint of my existence. Put in more of my heart, my fears, my secret desires. Open up. Stop being afraid to face the big questions of my world.

So, here it goes.

Who are these damn roaches and why do they come to our house to die?

Weird News Photos | NBC New York

Weird News Photos | NBC New York

I cannot find a way to show you this photo - you'll have to follow the link...to my nightmare!

January 5

From Singles 2010

Happy Birthday, Dad!

FAME!

Finally took time to rewatch the 1980 "Fame". Beautiful.

Our Boxing Day Rebellion!

From photo a day

Thanks to Christmas being on a Friday and Boxing Day, therefore, on Saturday, I got an extra Monday holiday. So, to celebrate we scheduled a whole weekend of Boxing Day Celebration.

From photo a day

We've tried to do it right - eating spaghetti, playing (Chinese) Ghost Stories (one win, one loss - though I suspect we only won because I convinced Kevin we should step down to the "Novice" level), and watching four (count them FOUR) Ang Lee films.

"Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon"

"Eat, Drink, Man, Woman"

"The Ice Storm"

"The Wedding Banquet"

And, that would be 16 thumbs up....

Jolie Bon's Bounce

From Singles 2009

He lifted his chin and rubbed the whiskers on his throat, the cast in his green eyes as ancient and devoid of moral light as those in a prehistoric, scale-covered creature breaking from the egg.

Meet Legion. Another fine, very disturbing Burke bad guy.

Another Burke novel where the lines of reality and the divine blur. Legion seems to be a demon with unexpected strength and supreme malice, an odor from hell and a second voice. Marvin Stokes is a traveling Bible salesman who pulls his suitcase of scripture tied to a roller skate yet is suffused with an air of predation. And, then there's Sal Angelo, a homeless, drug fogged Vietnam vet who claims to have been responsible for transporting a seriously injured soldier Dave out of the field and harms way.

The second tier of bad and good guys are more mundane: Tee Bobby Hulin - guitar player extraordinaire who's accused of raping and murdering a high school girl, his manager Jimmy Dean Styles, his lawyer, Perry LaSalle (of THE LaSalles), the prosecutor, Barbara Shannahan - who Clete falls for, a former "button man", Joe Zeroski, who's daughter has been brutally murdered, Joe's niece and various, ahem, associates... Someday I need to re-read one of these books immediately while I know all the characters.

And, of course, there's Dave and Clete. And, its a great Clete book.

He ran his big hand across the firmness of her back, the taper of her muscles along her hips.

"You're stand-up," he said.

"Not really," she said.

"You feel great, Barbara. Wow, do you feel great," he said, rubbing his cheek against her hair, petting her back, closing his eyes as he breathed in the fragrance and heat on her neck.

"So do you. But, Clete..." she said uncomfortably.

"What is it?" he asked, looking with alarm at her face.

"You're standing on my foot."

True to Form

From Singles 2009

More wisdom from Katie Nash - via Elizabeth Berg.

I think of how once I was standing in a church on Christmas Eve. There was a spicy scent of pine in the air, candles glowed, and there was baby Jesus in a creche on the alter. There was a sermon about love and joy, about redemption. And then everyone began to sing "O Holy Night". Next to me was a woman who could not carry a tune. At first I was so annoyed, listening to her. I wondered, Why does she sing so loud when she doesn't even know how? Then I looked at her and she was so pure, staring straight ahead, her face lit from within. Something moved into my heart at that moment that I did not really understand, but I understand it now: It is never about how good your voice is; it is only about feeling the urge to sing, and then having the courage to do it with the voice you are given. It is about what people try to share with each other, even if so many of us are so off-key when we do it. It is about saying we are somewhere, when what we mean is we are as close as we are able to get.

The thing about seasons is that when you're in one, you can't believe the others will ever come back. It feels to me like summer has its feet planted far apart and its hands on its hips: I am here.

Movers will come soon, Mrs Randolph told me, to take their things away. Then the house will be empty, and then new people will be there. A little time will pass and then it will seem like the new people have always been there. The way time and situations shift is a mystery of life. The way you can't count on anything staying, that's a sadness. Only yesterday, I saw white hairs in Bones' muzzle. I lay beside him, petting him, feeling so bad that he is getting old. For his part, he just wagged his tail and enjoyed the petting, which is what I mean about animals. They don't pace around, worrying. All they do is say, fine.

One thing I know. Anything we have, we are only borrowing. Anything. Anytime.

"Purple Cane Road" and "Mary Mary"

This is the one I'd been waiting for. It is the place I fell in love with James Lee Burke's Dave Robicheaux. I fell in love listening to Will Patton bringing life to Burke's words. The voice of Dave Robicheaux.

Unfortunately, this book is NOT available in Brisbane Australia's library system. By that I mean, it isn't available in print. So, despite my explicitly stated goal to read all of Robicheaux in order, I listened to "Purple Cane Road". And, I learned something. I learned the importance of the reader. (That is to say, it was not read by Will Patton.)

Now, since it has taken me 3 days after Christmas to get to the "twelfth day", it will come as no surprise that I actually "read" this book weeks ago. And, as a consequence my comments are very broad and lacking specifics. I'm not sure if my memory painted a story that the reality could not match or if the tale was tarnished by the wrong voice, but I was not blown away. Gosh, I hate to say that.

Similarly, while listening to Patterson's "Mary, Mary" was entertaining, it would not have launched me on a Patterson binge. Again, the narrator was all wrong for Alex Cross. This was exquisitely illustrated to me by his mispronunciation of the name Sojourner (as in Sojourner Truth.) No educated American, particularly an African American with a PhD would stumble over Sojourner. (Obviously, I was not entranced to have this error loom so large.)

If I had my act together

you would have received a Christmas card. And, it would have been very cool... looking something like this:

As it is, you will have to accept our (cyber) tardy well wishes for a joyful holiday and extra special new year!

With love in any season....

Ann, Kevin, and Zelda