WYSIWYG my foot!

OK, that formating was terrible. Those who know me know that will drive me crazy (have you seen my quilts?!?) until I can fix it. I'm going to leave it as it is and ask for outside help. Please bare with.

Safari!

OK, I am sick to death of messing with this formatting. This post will not be beautiful but it will be done! So on our safari ...

We saw Lions:

And Elephants:

(pushing down a tree!)



And Bears:

OK, just kidding on the bears. But we did see Blue Wildebeest:



Giraffes and Impalas:



Kudus
Male and Female:



Warthogs:

(Hakuna Matata for you Disney fans)

And a rare Sable Antelope:

Zebras:



Baboons:


and even a few Rhinoceroses:

And Kristin found a new "happy place." : ) The weather was warm, the food was good and the staff were incredibly nice. I hope this page was able to load up for everyone. I am posting this thing and moving on!

BTW, I have the comments turned on so if anyone wants to say anything go ahead. If you write using any of the Anon functions please include your name. And if anyone has any requests ("More stories about Cheese!) I can do that too. : )

Having technical difficulties

Having spent the afternoon creating a beautiful entry with photos and witty comments.... I was pretty ticked off when the spacing got all funky in Preview mode.

Then spent the early evening searching help sites for solutions...

I will now spend the rest of the evening having fun and not sitting on this crummy hotel couch.

We'll give it another shot tomorrow. : )

Safari!

Hi Everyone!
As some of you might have guessed, Lance and I went on a safari trip this weekend!!!! It was at the beautiful Buffalo Ridge Safari Lodge in the Madique Reserve, South Africa. Behold and be jealous: http://www.buffaloridgesafari.com/ Be sure to check out the Community Link to learn about the people who run the place. They were fantastic and very eager to answer any questions we had. And btw, the room shown in the Chalets link was our room! (!!!)

So South Africa, it sounds far away but it was really just an hour south of our hotel and 30 minutes of that was spent at the border crossing. Three cheers to the whole country for actually having signs on their side of the border directing where to go for what! It was pretty easy though and a good first crossing for Lance and I.

And of course we took pictures... : )

Everyone see the lion snoozing in the background? More to come tomorrow!

Dining at the Yacht Club

So hello everyone. It was another beautiful day in Botswana. "Heavy clouds but no rain" for an hour or so then nothing but sun. Little language lesson, Botswanan money is measured in Pula which means "rain." Nice huh?

I've got a few days of info actually to impart and hope to set up a flicker account for photos before I go to bed. Lance already crashed (he made it to 9:30). "Who is this?" you say. Well these days he tends to wake at 5am. Can you believe it? It's like our sleeping patterns switched and I'm the night owl while he's an early riser. Well it's nice to have a little time to yourself regardless of the time.

So now that I've got their OK, I'd like to introduce you to our Sponsors Extraordinaire, Kim and Luke! That's them with Lance at the "Yacht Club" bar overlooking a man-made lake in Gaborone. Not that there are any Yachts withing 300 miles of the place. Actually it is suppose to be a pretty dangerous area so we left before it got dark. Gorgeous sunset though.


They seems to know everyone and we are enjoying the opportunity to take advantage of their hospitality. They have taken us food shopping, introduced us to Indian food, introduced all around and today Luke took us on a drive into the bush to meet the people behind a grant request his office will probably fund. More pics to follow on that story! They also lent me a bizarre little book called Geek Love. That's "Geek" in the classic circus freak sense. So wonderfully strange. ; )

And now I'm too tired to be eloquent. Big things happening this weekend. I'll fill in all the blanks on Sunday night. G'night!

Mother Nature has it in for my car

This will actually be a flashback post because I just found one of the photos and the story is just too good to ignore. It is generally titled, "Mother Nature has it in for my car." The car in question being my much beloved, black, 2001 Mazda Protege. It has four doors, a tape deck for my audio books and a heart of gold. It presently sits at my parents' house, eagerly awaiting my return.

Unlike my traitorous dog who has apparently moved on just fine without me enjoys swimming with my mom. He's still my dog you guys. We get him back next July.

Right, back to the car.

Story 1: When Trees Attack
So Lance and I are doing our month long "let's see how many relatives we can see before moving to Africa tour" and were driving from Orlando to Naples to see Lance's mom (Betty) and stepdad (Allan).

Well, it started raining. Then it started pouring. Then it really started pouring. Then a tree hit our car.

No really! The rain was really getting bad so I had slowed down considerably. I couldn't see two feet in front of the windshield. I was thinking about pulling over when I see what appears to be a large tree branch falling across the passenger side of the front window. Well that was that and I parked under the nearest overpass.

After several minutes of excited chatter, I got out and took several pictures which I clearly remember showing both Lance and Allan... but now can't seem to find. Instead I will include picture similar to what it looked like.
OK, maybe this photo is a bit of an exaggeration...

The rain slowed and we resumed our travels to Naples. Later inspection showed what might hoave been a flora induced scratch but its hard to tell. Kristin's Car 1: Nature 0.


Story 2: The Great Flood
So I'm visiting the local quilt store in Naples, as I am know to do in any town I'm in for more than 15 minutes, and it starts to rain. No big deal, this is Florida in the Summer and this sort of thing happens every day between 12 and 4. You get wet or you wait 30 minutes and the worst is over. (See story above.)

Well, this was a special day in Naples because that rain did not let up for several hours. I kid you not! It wasn't a little drizzle either. It consisted of solid drops that would soak your shirt in five steps. The customers commented on it. The store clerks wondered at it. I cursed it because look where my car just happened to be parked:
Yes, some dingbat designed this parking lot with a low spot but no drainage! In Florida! According to the folks at the drug store (because, apparantly, I had some time on my hands to chat) this happens every time it rains for more than a few minutes and is particularly unfortunaye because the parking lot was just resurfaced last year. Words fail me. Actually, I had a few choice words I wanted to share with the owners of the mini mall complex but no one seemed to have their contact info other than to say they are part of a crime family in Chicago.

Yes, really.

So I waited out the storm until the water went down enough for me to open my door safely. Having seen a similar model/make drive past my car, in similarly deep water, I decided to attempt an escape. The car started, I sent a big "thank you!" up to the powers that be, and drove back to Betty and Allan's.

The next day... my car kinda stunk. This happens sometimes. Admit it, yours does too for whatever reason. I figured maybe some rain had gotten into the air filter and just needed to dry out. No worries.

The following day .... it stunk even worse. I mentioned it to Lance, who mentioned it to Allan, who recommended we check the floorboards for water... which was soaking my driver's side floorboards and mats.

The water had seeped UP from the flooded parking lot. Gravity ... smavity!

We took the mats out, rolled down the windows and parked the car in the garage with plans of bombing it with Fabreeze once the floor dried out. Perhaps we would park it in the driveway on a sunny morning with all the windows rolled down. You know what's coming already don't you?

So several mornings later, it was a sunny day and I moved the car into the driveway, rolled down all the windows and opened the sun roof. Betty, Lance and I sat down to a late breakfast several hours later and enjoyed the heck out of each other's company and commented on how odd it was that it was raining so early in the day. Two very wet minutes later, synapses fired and I ran out the door.

It was wetter than before. Back into the garage it went. Having only one more day until Lance and I were to drive back to my parents' house in Orlando, we sprayed it with Fabreeze anyway.

It was drivable. Smelled a lot better actually and by the time Lance and I left Orlando it seemed back to normal. Except for the tire marks on the hood and windshield.

Story 3: Don't drive while "tired"
Lance and I are back on the road, headed to Orlando. I'm cruising along listing to a book on tape and he is taking a snooze in the passenger seat. Ahead of me a see a car pulled to the side of the road and what appears to be chunks of tire in my lane. I'm in moderate traffic so there was no sense in changing lanes when I can just slightly adjust my trajectory to drive over the tire chunks. No big deal. Until some dingbat (again with the dingbats) inexplicably zipps in from of me, runs over the tire and sends several pieces back. These pieces ricochets off my hood and into my front windshield. There is one heck of a "Whomp!" and Lance wakes up. Hand print sized black smudges face him trough the windshield and I'm cussing in German.

"Ach du liba.....!"

The windshield smudges did come off. I didn't do anything to the hood smudges because, well, they are black on a black car and I was moving to Africa with more pressing items on my "to do" list. They may be there still.

So that last story wasn't really Mother Nature related. Tires were at one time made out of mostly rubber which is natural right?

Of course there also is the trend that story #1 and #2 both involved fast moving, dangerous objects hurtling toward Lance while he was sitting in the passenger seat. So, Ms. Nature could have been out to get him and my car saved his life! My car... husband saver.

So those are my stories. I'm writing them now lest the tree become a forest and the flood become a... well ... bigger flood next time I tell the story. Of course, it could have been worse... http://jalopnik.com/398128/for-sale-clean-mazda-miata-slight-water-damage

Hotel and lunch

Hi Everyone,

I've been told this blog is potentially being read by my very sophisticated quilting and world traveling friends in California. A big shout out to everyone at BACK PORCH FABRICS - the best quilt store west of the Mississippi. It really is. All you Florida and New Jersey people need to put it on your "To Do" list if you are ever in the Monterey area. They have a Kaffe ("like safe") Fassett selection that will knock your socks off.

So, with the varying interests of my readers in mind, I will try to keep things (hopefully) interesting for everyone. "Try" being the operative word because sometimes a girl just needs to get a little excited about Star Trek casting. I mean really isn't the guy from Heroes just perfect for Spock? But I digress again...

So here's a few more pictures to help our mothers relax a little more. This is the hotel Lance and I are currently staying in. The rooms are comparable to a Holiday Inn Express with full size bed, kitchenette, western style glassed-in standing shower and separate bathtub with a handheld showerhead.

Across from the Hotel is the Cafe News where we have enjoyed a few meals. I took the this photo this afternoon when it was warm enough to eat lunch outside. Our first night in I had the Basalmic Seafood and Rocket Salad. Rocket is a salad green, looks a little like raw spinach but is much more bitter.

The other morning both Lance and I had low fat muesli pancakes which are 2 rolled crepes filled with strawberry yogurt and muesli mix. It was pretty close to this with grapefruit instead of bananas. Very crunchy. This evening, Lance had a hamburger (I think it had some very mild sausage in it) with onions and mozzarella, I had "rump prepared in a mediterranean meat rub sauce with mash. This was essentially steak alongside mashed potatoes though I was hoping for something a little more exotic as the menu photo looked like this:
It was ok. Lance was nice enough to switch with me half way through the meal. This is why you travel in pairs. In fact, remind me to tell you the story about our first night in Paris when I thought I was ordering a Steak Tart and ended up with Steak Tar Tar instead. Whoa boy.

Here is the check for all you math whizzes out there. The Botswana currency is the Pula which is roughly 6:1 dollars. 3oo P is $50 and so on. It was an expensive meal for us but was the main one for the day so it evens out. I'm hearing Americans are the only ones who tip and very little at that. We are sticking with 10% for now. It's not much considering whoever serves us has to laugh at Kristin's dumb jokes and teach a word or two in Setswana. : )


After dinner we walked around a local shopping center. All the stores were closed as today is a national holiday, President's Day in honor of the current president rather than presidents in general like in the U.S. We initially hoped to go a public ceremony of some sort for the holiday but got conflicting info where it was being held and whether or not it actually happened yesterday. This would be the proverbial "starting point" from which all FAO spouses grow.

For all the Sells and Coopers out there, Lance is great and doing a fantastic job driving stick shift down the left side of the road. No cow casualties thus far. : )

Hugs to everyone,

K

You need to watch this!!!!

Wasn't that fantastic!?!?!? All legitimate video. No photoshop. Check out http://www.wherethehellismatt.com for the backstory.

One quote from Matt's FAQ that I just love:

How did you get those kids in Rwanda to dance with you?

I just started dancing. There was no prior discussion or explanation. They thought it looked like a fun thing to be doing and joined in. They also really dug seeing themselves on the camera's playback screen.

Unless you're Boggie

Well, it really is an important part. The biggest really. Sure there is a random pencil eraser here and there and whatever they make hot dogs out of...

(Photo by Kristin at a Gaborone supermarket)

Which reminds me, I need to update our infamous list of unfortunate items our dog, Boggie, has eaten!

At last posting it was:
a jumbo box of cherry instant jello
a box of colored pencils
tissues (new)
tissues (used)
a box of crayons (his poo looked exceptionally beautiful - my neighbor at the time picked a dry sample up and said "Oh wow! What's this?" She stopped coming around so much after that.)
pens
an empty can of soda
a No Doze pill
several ant poison thingies - he's a wonder of nature really - Yes, I had the vet on speed dial
a full box of grits
the formerly sealed plastic container holding said grits
oatmeal
two dozen hot blueberry muffins.. at my mom's house
a box of thin mint cookies
cat food
processed cat food (yuck)
a pound of Chocolates... at my mother in law's house... which was at that time decorated with cream colored rugs and sofas.
Vaseline
baby oil - same unpleasant effect as the Vasline but smelled much nicer
and last but not least, whatever florescent colored candy he could find in my husband's seemingly locked field bag. That was some impressive vomit. Think pink, or orange, or yellow, or green foam.
The cat on the other hand has just eaten tinsel which my then roommate (HI SANDY!) pulled out of her butt.

So that was then. Today we add to the list... wait for it...

roughtly 130 chocolate flavored calcium chews with extra vitamin D
and their individual roughly 130 foil wrappers

And yet he lived! Threw up all night but he is still alive.

We will now pause for a little geek out.

Yes ,we are in Africa and yes, we are having amazing experiences ... but I'm still really excited about this...



and over the moon about this...

OMG we're in Africa

Hello Everyone,

Lance and I have arrived in Botswana and are checking in at the embassy. While he is running (literally I think) around to get all the right signatures I'll bring you a little up to date.

The flights were long but doable. We switched seats with some very generous fellow travelers and we able to sit next to each other the entire way.

Orlando to Atlanta we slept. Atlanta to (7.5 hours) Dakar, Senegal we watched a few movies.
(21 - fun movie, The Other Bolin Sister - great costumes, the Henry the 8th character was underdeveloped), Dakar to Johannesburg (9 hours) we watched another movie (Jumper- crap ending, good scenery) and slept. Johannesburg to Gaborone (1 hour) we slept. We were met at the airport by a member of embassy staff who got us squared away at a local hotel.

Funny T.I.A. (this is Africa) stories, one of my suitcases didn't quite make it and won't be delivered until later this evening. Of course this is the suitcase will my more professional clothing so I'm looking a little mix and match while meeting everyone at the embassy today. Lance has his luggage and looks fabulous the big jerk. : ) I understand lost luggage is an Africa rite of passage so we are right on schedule. As are the crummy embassy pass photos and we got that done at 9am. That's 2am in Florida for those of you keeping score. Next time you feel like having a giggle, take a 7, then 9 hour flight, loose your luggage with matching clothing and hair products, get 4 ish hours of sleep, then have your photo taken. Real cute let me tell you.

Another story: when we arrived at the hotel last night the electricity was out. This happens all over town on a regular basis and people plan for it with candles/lamps. We had neither so were glad when the electricity came back on mid check-in.

Last story is not so much a story as it is a running count. Day 1 and neither of us are sick yet! We had local food for lunch so here's crossing our fingers for Day 2.

So that is all the new news. The adventure begins. : )

Love to everyone,
Lance and Kristin

P.S. Hey quilt people! It looks like I'm going to be the new point of contact for a blanket distribution program. It does get very cold here at night and is actually colder inside the stone houses than out. I'm still getting the details but at first glance it looks like a good program. I'm especially interested in working something out with a local womens' shelter. So please keep it in the back of your minds. I'll let you know the details when I've checked everything out. (hugs)