Who watches the Watchmen? We did on Sunday afternoon.

Hey All,

First and foremost, the service for Daniel was great. People told jokes, a guy played Jimmy Hendricks on guitar and, of course, there was a quilt or two hanging around. Now this is not as good as the "greatest memorial service ever" which had quilters, motorcycle dudes in leather and a pan flutist. That was really something! Wish it wouldn't have been necessary of course but darnit, if you gotta have one of these things its nice to go eclectic and really reflect the person's tastes.

As such, Lance and I have decided that if we ever need of a memorial service then someone needs to come dressed as a superhero. I'll let you guys work the details out amongst yourselves. Just let us know when you come to a consensus.

Speaking of superheros. Lance and I and nine of our closest friends saw Watchmen this weekend!
The movie that everyone said would never happen, happened in a big and beautiful way.

Note: if you have not read the comic book (or graphic novel... whatever) and don't particularly like dark movies, skip it. If you did read Watchmen at some point... then I'm preaching to the choir and what do you mean you've only seen it twice since it opened on Friday???

But if you didn't read it and think that "Superhero Movies" have gotten a little ridiculous in the past few years, (Spiderman III, Superman and Xmen III, I'm looking at you) see this movie for a good wake up. That's what the original comic was meant to be, a frank look at what the world would be like if were really were people who dressed up in costume and did heroic things. People are saved by people who need saving sort of thing. To steal a line one of the characters, "Why are so few of us left active, happy and without personality disorders?"

Oh, and it was a possibly crazy Englishman's 1980s response to the cold war and game theory gone arry. : ) Here is a link to the first page: http://www.scottdstrader.com/blog/ether_archives/000249.html

So that was Sunday afternoon. That morning and that evening in to the weeee hours of Monday, I worked on a new quilt class to be taught Monday morning. HAND PIECING, omg. The class went fine but I think I'll stick to machine piecing for my personal stuff.

Lance has discovered that colleges are a little more flexible with their deadlines if you don't need financial aid. As such he has been filling out applications and writing personal statements for Ohio University, Indiana University, Georgetown and Johns Hopkins. All look like they would be in good quilting locations so I'm game for whatever. Lance has already been accepted to the Navel Post Graduate School in Monterey... which would be wonderful... but he is interested in a civilian education so will probably go somewhere else. Maybe. Who knows! More info as it comes in.

Speaking of quilting, I need to get to work before the sun goes down. Colors change color in crappy embassy housing light.

: )
Kristin

home again home again

And we are back in Gabs. We are tired, we are hungry, we smell funny and are at the embassy frantically trying to work out some details before the fiscal year ends in .... basically 45 minutes.

YIKES!

Lance and Kristin represent American and don't bring up comics once!

Tuesday morning and after another quick walk around Sun City (as none of my night photos turned out very nice - must read the camera manual) and we were off to the South African economic capital of Pretoria. This is a very large city with traffic that would make a Dallas driver say, "Dang." Thank goodness for the Garmen gps unit. It, like the ice maker and dish washing machine, might have saved the marriage.

Our first stop was the obligatory/educational/depressing as hell Apartheid Museum. Which just happens to be across the street from an amusement park and you go in at the same gate. How weird is that and do you suppose people ever go to the wrong place on accident? "Hey this doesn't look like a farris wheel to me..."

What can I say about the museum? I can only speak for myself but was very moved by what a scary place Johannesburg and Pretoria must have been, for everyone involved frankly, in the 80s and 90s. America, we didn't have a clue. At least high school Lance and Kristin didn't have a clue. The country today is a miracle. There are still very significant issues of course. I won't get into the specifics because this ain't that kinda blog. Nothing more controversial than advocating machine sewn quilt bindings for this place. (I've just alienated half the quilt readers with that one.... come back!... I'll be blogging about a quilt show next!) Suffice to say that I am hopeful about the future of South Africa and look forward to learning more.

Nuff about that. Heavy. Heavy. Heavy.

So that night we stayed with a wonderful couple: Greg and Reagan (Hi Guys!) their three cool kids and two dogs. No we didn't steal either of their dogs and yes, we were tempted. Lance and I originally met them on our safari weekend. Much to our surprise they invited us to stay in their guest room and much to our delight they fed us! America, what we have been calling a BBQ all these years is called a "Brai" over hear in Sub-Sahara and it is all good. We asked them a million questions and tried to present ourselves as good representations of "American Adults" (will our parents please stop laughing now). The next moring it was breakfast and travel hints and we were on our way again.

On the move!

Hey folks. Lance and I are moving out of the hotel and into temporary housing. It will be very nice to have all the nice housey things (washer/dryer/more then 15 feet between us) but we will not have internet. We'll do what we can when we can but if we don't post/email/im don't think we are dead in a ditch. Most of the bodies are dumped behind bushes here anyway.

Just kidding. : )

Quick note before I sign off: Last night Lance and I went kayaking with a friend from the embassy in the local water reserve. Nebraska people, think Big Mac with hills. It was beautiful!!! And we didn't flip which was much more challenging than I expected. Kayaks are not canoes that's all I'm sayin.

So, love to all and I'll update when I can. We move into perm housing in a few weeks!
K

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...