Drunken ramblings

The party tonight was at P's boss' new house. Very nice. Quite modern and geometric. Great colour schemes too. Red, grey and black with a black spiral staircase leading to his study being the main feature in the living area -very cool. Pina Colada's were also very yummy and someone finally made me a margarita that I liked. Quality of your Tequila makes all the difference. P was the DJ for the party as it was good practice for him. He has new software that allows him to mix MP3s but he still has two spin tables for scratching (ok so I know nothing about DJ terminology...). It looked impressive. P's Boss had his Real Estate agent (realtor they are called here) there too, which was a little odd but they are good friends. We were all given take home lolly baggies supplied by the realtor -a plug for his business but the tootsie rolls (chocolate caramel chewy lollies) went down very well.

One highlight of the night was playing with an iphone. Yes I have now touched one. I was very excited. As much as I like technology I am usually hesitant and take a while to come around to wanting what everyone is raving about. Usually on principle. However, before I even touched one, I couldn't help but want one!!! Iphones are very funky!! They are so easy to use. It was fun to play with. I read in the SMH about two Aussies over here for holidays who bought iphones and are hoping to hack them so they work back in Australia. They may have just bought $600US souvenir paperweights if they don't succeed.

Tonight on the way to the party I had to stop and get petrol. While this may not seem newsworthy, it seems to shock people that it is the first time I have had to fill up since G left Houston end of March. I filled up after I dropped him at the airport and then tonight the petrol light came on. One tank (~38L) lasted over 3 months. I do drive my car a couple of times a week but I guess I just don't go very far! Benefits of not having to drive to work. One thing that bugs me here is everyone complaining about the cost of fuel. Wah wah. Petrol ranges $2.74-$2.93US/gallon. That's still ~$0.70-$0.80US/L. They should try living in Australia or Europe... Someone at work actually told me they were cancelling their holiday because the cost of fuel had gone up so much. I know it is all relative but please! Also if they didn't insist in driving gas-guzzler cars, I mean trucks, maybe it wouldn't cost so much. But that's Texas for you. Everything has to be big here. I am unfortunately use to it now but when I first arrived, I felt dwarfed in a normal car. I still hate it with a passion when I park in a carpark and after shopping find that my car is between two enormous truck-like cars. It makes backing out of your car space very scary because you just can't see what is coming until you are nearly all the way out of your spot.

Here's a picture of an Armadillo outside of a restaurant I pass often:



Here's a real one I saw (Jan 2006) in Brazos Bend State Park just south of Houston. We saw so many of these little guys. They are so cute.



G really wanted to see an armadillo when I took him to Brazos Bend (March 2007) but the alligators were out inforce. Alligators are what people usually come to see at the park. They are all wild and just laze about. We saw so many! They are so huge and scarily close just sitting on the path.