a bit of random...

At one point yesterday (while we were outside viewing the transit of Venus across the sun), Tom decided to get something from the garage to rest the binoculars on, in hopes of getting a steadier view for photo-taking. While he was gone, I shot a picture of the tree branches above me. (the original of that shot is the second picture below.) 

This Polaroid-type photo is those tree branches, after processing with about 5 or 6 different editing options in Picasa. I have no idea how many, actually, or what they all were, but I think it turned out way cool! (It reminds me of a fabric design, sort of...)

again, below is the original photo-- (I really think the edited one is much more interesting!)

the next photos are a couple random cat pics... first is Ariel, just 'hanging around' the kitchen. Literally. I have no idea why she likes to drape herself over the kitchen chairs like this, but she does it quite often, and in this photo that Tom took, she's actually got her eyes shut, so she must be comfortable?!? (or else she's narcoleptic, and can fall asleep anywhere... wait, every cat can do that, right? haha!!)

Of course, I can't leave Butters out of this now, can I?? (gotta give the kitties equal time on the blog!) Butters wasn't herself a couple weeks ago... not being very friendly, not sleeping with us on the bed, not very active. She's back to normal now, though! (I think it was because she finally got rid of a couple hairballs... icky, I know, but it's part of life as a cat owner, unfortunately.) She spends her evenings either curled up on a kitchen chair, or hanging out on the back of the loveseat like she is below. Either way, it's so she can have a direct view out to the backyard, and any possible bird / stray cat / lizard action.

For something even more random, how about this next pic?? Over Memorial Day weekend, when I was doing my journal-page-painting on the patio, Tom and I got to talking about how sunny it was outside... somehow, the conversation turned to the fact that I'd never done (or even seen) the 'light-something-on-fire-using-the-sun-and-a-magnifying-glass' thing, so Tom proceeded to demonstrate it for me:

awww, isn't that sweet?? lol!! It's going in my journal! (it really was cool, and really, I never had seen it before. and no, we didn't do it on any ants.)