what about the plastic animals?

Tom Kelly's Bottle House

Since there were more drinkers than trees in the desert Tom Kelly built his house in Rhyolite out of  bottles.  The AB on the bottles is for Anheuser-Busch.  Kelly lived there from 1906 to 1912, when Rhyolite was largely abandoned.  Judging from this picture of the Strozzi House, it was not the only bottle house in Rhyolite. 

Two other owners lived in the Kelly house from 1936-1969.  Preservationists restored the house a couple of years ago. There's also a miniature town built beside the house.

Rhyolite Ghost Town

H.D. and L.D. Porter, "Rhyolite Emporium"

Cook Bank

Rhyolite, Nevada was established in 1905, a year after gold was discovered nearby.  The population was estimated to be 10,000 people in 1908 when the mines began to fail.  By 1920 the population had fallen to 20.  Nobody lives there today, but there are plenty of signs warning about rattlesnakes. 

The Porter Brother's store was built in 1906.  The Cook Bank cost $90,000 to build in 1907.  The town's post office was in the basement.

Early Portrait

This is me!  I "sat" for a bunch of photos when I was a few months old.  There were twelve photos of a giant head resting on forearms.  Five of the pictures were used in a large collage.  This one of me stuffed under a towel is at the center of the collage.  Pictures one, two and ten have gone missing!  I am hoping they have simply been stored in a different box.

Musical diversion:  Two videos I can't get out of my head.

Great things have come out of Columbus, Ohio - Wendy's, White Castle, Dane, and The Ohio State University to name a few.  All of these pale in comparison to the crabcore stylings of Attack Attack!.

To clear your mind of the auto-tuned-death-metal-euro-disco assault here's Julia Nunes performing Build Me Up Buttercup.

West Taghkanic Diner

I was inspired by The Wapa.  On the way back from upstate a few weeks ago I stopped for dinner at the West Taghkanic Diner.  The spaghetti with meatballs special was okay.  The food is almost beside the point when you have a sign that good!

Nevada Scenery

Nevada sure has some interesting mountain scenery.