Cole Candids

Lola is a nice normal cat. She sleeps normally, eats twice her weight in food, and likes to shred the toilet paper. Cole is a little more bizarre. He sleeps like he is dead and he likes to sleep in things. Like this:

This is how he normally sleeps. Wherever that might be.

He really likes to spend time in the bathroom.

Or to watch when people are talking in the kitchen.

He just flops over. Dead asleep.

Water is his favorite thing. Usually just water from the kitchen faucet, but the bathtub fascinates him as well. However, when the water actually enters the bathroom he flees.

Some days he methodically removes all the laundry from the basket so that he'll fit into it better. Very considerate of him.

This is his favorite way to watch Lola eat the toilet paper.

As I showed in a previous post. He loves bags. And boxes. If he can't fit his big head in them, then he shreds them to get rid of the temptation.

Puppets on the Mountain

Yesterday I had the distinct pleasure of being invited to World Net Academy's first puppet show. Brooke and Kyleigh put on the production. They made tickets, invitations, puppets, sets, and had snacks. They forgot to write a script, but after an hour of puppet mania we felt like we had all read the book as well. It was full of intrigue. There was smoking until it killed you, drinking, death by other means (maybe, that part was fuzzy), Happy Hank the Christian friend, mountains, and moral conundrums. The cookies were good too.

This advertisement greeted us as we walked in. I had to hand over my ticket before I was able to enter the theater room.

Brooke and Kyleigh before the show. The raising of the curtain was rather ingenious. They pulled on those ribbons from the other side and the curtain raised up from the bottom.

I think the puppets are sleeping. I also think that coffee canister was a wagon. I think.

The wagon, the school/house, and the mountain.

Mid way through there were some technical difficulties. So Randi jumped up and the show went on.

The puppet cast.

The girls made all of the puppets and the props.

I think that blonde one with the nose hair is Happy Hank. I think. 

 We had a lot of fun and the girls did a great job. I'm always excited when I get to join in on craziness happening downstairs. Especially of the puppet variety.

Foto Fridayness

Well hello Foto Friday, it's been a while.

A bike rack, for motorcycles. Looks like its being used to its full potential.

McDonald's is currently taking us back to 1955 in its current burger and fries incarnation.

I need to have a post for all of the photos of Cole in things. This is a bag that was filled with goodies. Currently it's full of cat.

So, my produce is the epitome of organic. Straight from the farmer. Which is why this ridiculously large eggplant caught my eye. It's practically squishing the other poor eggplants in the box.

Lots of Womens in Thess

This last week I had the amazing opportunity to escape work for a few days and spend some quality time with women from all over the Balkans. The post about the retreat will come soon. I wanted to go ahead and post the photos from our day trip to Thessaloniki. We took a train in and spent most of the day wandering around the city (and shopping!) with our fearless tour guide and leader.

This was taken as we were receiving instructions about how long we had to shop at the market. The market was much like our Serbian Flea Market, except that it had a large food section as well. Those pigeons you see were very affectionate and aggressive. Also, huge.

This fish section of the market was Randi's favorite part. I could've taken a million interesting photos, but every time I stopped I automatically signaled that I was interested. The fish guys were shouting and offering to bag up whatever was in front of you. I managed to snap a few photos without having to buy anything.

I wish you could see the scale of this fish. It was huge. Probably about three feet or so. And he had massive, massive teeth. I don't know that I'll be swimming in Greece anytime soon.

This is fairly typical. In Serbia, they'll roast meat like this on spits. There was a guy cutting meat on a wooden stump fairly close by as well.

See the wooden stump and cut meat below the case? I also like how they leave the eyes in the skull. Extra flavor.

This is the White Tower, one of the more famous landmarks. Randi and I walked all the levels and I translated as best as I could.

I've convinced Randi's kids to pose by quite a few random things. Its only fair to get their mom in on it too.

Greek graffiti. Just like my Belgrade. It felt like home.

This is the temple complex of Galerius. It was also full of sleeping cats. Greeks love them some cats.

More of the complex. Its remarkably intact. Many of the mosaics are well preserved.

After a trip to Starbucks, we checked out the ancient sites.

I think the is the first time I've seen heart mosaics in Greece. I loved them.

This graffiti was behind bars, below street level, and in the middle of an excavation.

The other Randi was so very nice and took a bunch of women all over the city and let them shop to their heart's content.

Galerius' arch that celebrated his defeat of the Persians.

Its also known as the Kamara.

Some of this graffiti could have been at home any where in the world.

Excavations of the agora.

We also went up the hill to see Paul's gate. This is the gate that many people believe Paul entered the city through during his travels.

Randi and I being Paul like.

This is a second gate right next to it...in case the other was crowded?

The view of the city from the gate. Also a few of some of our great Arkansas ladies.

A view of the wall, from the gate. The wall used to encircle the city.

 So there you go. We also had lunch at a wonderful Italian place. (odd, right?) And bought a ton of souvenirs and managed to mentally scar quite a few of the ladies during a bus ride that involved a very drunk and frisky man. All in all, a great day in a great city with great people. You can't ask for much more than that.