Happy Thanksgiving

Happy gobble gobble y'all. Lance and I just got back from the ambassador's house for Thanksgiving dinner and are both quite thankful that we didn't totally embarrass ourselves.

There was polite conversation with bosses. There was a fancy diner served on family china. It was faux pas potential all over the place and we barely escaped with our lives.

I think it went well but, just in case, I'll let you know if our passports get revoked in the morning.

The Adventures of "Stupidkitten" aka the "luckiest cat ever"

Hey all, this is Lance,

I guess it's time for me to contribute to this Blog (and Kristin refused to post this story anyway)

Monday morning we had a very unexpected house guest. Kristin was on her way to a cooking class with a very grandmotherly Muslim lady, who was introducing her to the group, when they almost hit a little brown kitten which was curled up in fear in the middle of the busy road behind our house. They wanted to stop and get the kitten but there was just too much traffic to even consider it.

Fast forward three hours...

I just returned from French class (bien sur) when Kristin gets home. She is excitedly talking about her morning with a whole group of grandmotherly Muslim ladies (talk about an interesting cultural experience!) When she suddenly stops mid sentence and asks, "is that a cat sitting on our wall?" We go outside an sure enough there is a tiny brown kitten caught in the three layered (yes three! Spikes, barbed wire and electrical) security fence on top of our outer wall. The kitten is pathetically suspended with one paw in the air like a string puppet. So I quickly go over and start untangling the kitten. Fortunately the kitten was mostly caught up in the electrical fence, and even more fortunately we had the fence turned off that morning. As soon as I approached the kitten started hissing and squirming in terror. I get it untangled without too much trouble and it immediately jumps out of my hands and runs for into the bushes in our yard.

Ok, What now? Here I am dressed for a day at the Embassy (nice shirt,tie, pants and shoes) and I have a tiny terrified kitten in my yard in Botswana. Where the heck does a little kitten come from in Botswana anyway? The Botswana are not big on pets, other than big guard dogs and they are not pets, but we have seen a few stray cats here and there. Kristin quickly catches me up on the story of the kitten she almost hit in the road directly behind the wall the cat had been stuck on. Obviously it was the same cat and obviously it was having a bad day.

Now, an older cat even a young adolescent cat I would have said "heck its a stray and stray cats know how to survive on their own , but this was not a cat this was a kitten and a kitten so small I was almost surprised it had it's eyes open. Ok, if we leave it alone I might as well run it over with the car or throw it to the dogs next door because it's not going to make it out there.

But, man... we really do not need a cat!

"Ok, lets get it inside and then we can figure it out" if it climbs over the wall it's a dead cat. Ok, so in my embassy clothes I head for the bushes to catch this thing.

A word about Botswana plants, Botswana is in the Kalahari desert so, you guessed it, lots of cactus, and anything not a cactus has huge thorns on it anyway.

As I approach the cat hides in the thickest thorniest spot in the garden... joy. I try to maneuver my way around, behind and between the cacti hoping to flush the cat into the open (getting stuck a few times in the process). Hey it works! Out runs the kitten, but now I'm semi-stuck in the cacti, and Kristin has gone inside (huh?) and the kitten starts to climb the concrete wall (quite impressively in fact).

Just as I am getting loose from the cacti, out comes Kristin. I tell her to grab the kitten before it gets over the wall. She goes after the kitten, and the kitten jumps off the wall and runs back into the cacti. $%#$^!!!... I of course do the rational thing and begin to lecture Kristin on how she should have gone about catching a little kitten. (I was just trying to be helpful...really!) (Stupidkitten 1 - Lance 0)

Ok, back into the cacti, only this time the kitten isn't going to get flushed out quite so easily. The brush (I mean thorns) were just too thick to actually grab the kitten so Kristin hands me the pool net and I use the reverse pole end to coerce the kitten out of its hidy hole. Out goes the kitten and Kristin commences chasing the kitten around the pool area (A bit more methodically as I had instructed her, though why she listened to me I have no idea). Ok, I get out of the thorns and lo and behold Kristin has the kitten cornered in the bar area (yes we have a pool bar in deepest darkest Africa) In goes Lance, and out goes the kitten and back goes the kitten into the cacti. (Stupidkitten 2 -Lance 0 - Kristin 1)

Ok, back Lance goes into the cacti, out comes the kitten, out comes Lance (a little too fast this time, ouch!) around the side of the house goes Kristin and the kitten. Around the side of the house goes Lance and once again Kristin has the kitten cornered (this time in a cubby holed storage area. This is great! (way to listen to me again Kristin!) Its a one foot square two foot deep cubby with only one entrance. How much easier can it get? In goes Lance out comes the kitten and off it goes around the corner in the direction of, yes the cacti.
(Stupidkitten 3 - Lance 0 - Kristin 2)

Alright! The kitten decided to try going around the other side of the house and forgo the cacti, and that is a dead end! In goes the kitten, in goes Lance, out comes Lance... with the kitten! (now that's how you catch a one and a half pound kitten!)
(Stupidkitten 3 - Lance 7 (extra style points) - Kristin 2)

Ok, lets get this squirmy thing into the house. we go into the house. Kristin closes the door. I drop the kitten on the sofa. The kitten hides behind the couch. Kristin reminds me that we need to get the kitten into the guest bathroom.
(Stupidkitten 4- Lance 0 (that fumble at the goal line really hurt) - Kristin 3)

We pull out the couch, and in goes Lance. I successfully grab the kitten (see I'm getting good at this) and hurry from behind the couch to get the wiggling thing into the guest bath. rip!!! Ok. for those who missed earlier posts, the furniture the Army provided us is not the nicest stuff around, (as Kristin likes to say "the FAO furnature is muy feo!") Apparently the couch has this jagged piece of metal that sicks out from the back left corner and now my pants are torn all the way across one leg and the seam ripped down another 4 inches.
(stupidkitten 5-Lance 0 - Kristin 3) (Game, Set and Match!)

I put the kitten into the guest bath and go upstairs to change my pants and go back to work at the Embassy.

Ok now we have an 8 week old one and a half pound kitten who very quickly figured out that this was a much better deal than she had before. She is cute, snuggly, surprisingly healthy according to the vet, and currently purring contentedly on my lap.

We have guests coming in less than two weeks, we will be travelling to Angola and Mozambique in less than three and will pretty much spend the rest of our time in Africa travelling. The vet said that the animal shelter won't take kittens because 50-70% of them are dying from respiratory diseases. The locals apparently don't like cats, and the GS officer at the embassy has been trying to get rid of his litter of kittens for weeks.

We really do not need a cat!

So Kristin is trying as hard as she can to not become attached to it (I gave up the ghost immediately) and we have refused to name it. (it is currently called "stupidkitten" spoken under your breath as one word) So far we haven't found and takers for the kitten and we need to figure out who will take care of it while we are traveling.

We really do not need a cat, but its actually a really really nice cat.

It's all fun and games until...

It has come to my attention that my lovely and talented cousin Lauren received a concussion in a recent soccer game.

We all hope for her precious brain's continued recovery.

And that she will endeavor to be the kicker rather than the kickee from now on.

Or perhaps to just to avoid hitting things with her head in general.

Lauren, dear, if you are brain damaged now to the point that you can't major in Political Science I will understand. There is always Journalism to fall back on.

Not that you should do any more falling.

Seriously. Someone get this girl some pillows.

Your loving and now possibly slightly smarter cousin,
Kristin

the morning after

To quote the Danny Glover character from the Lethal Weapon movies, "I'm getting too old for this sh*t."

The good new: we had a lovely time, Lance looked very handsome and I got to wear the purple dress.

The even better news: it fit... mostly.

Seriously. I'm too old for this.

Okay, okay. Here are some pictures....

Here's Lance looking cute and blurry


















And me looking cute and blurry


















Air Force and Army representing in fine form
And the Marines escorting the most highly guarded cake in all of Botswana.
They brought it back eventually.

All done. All's well. I'm locking myself in the sewing room now for a little catch up.

having a ball

OK so the Marine Ball is tonight.

And for the record I think I have indulged in far less ridiculous self obsession with each passing year/ball/formal/whatever. Honestly, when Lance and I first went to prom I started getting ready months in advance. I could solved international land disputes with all the time and energy I've spent prepping for these things!

But today is the day to bring it so I'm indulging a little.

I am lap swimming, dress hemming, light food eating, hair miracle creating, deity begging and pantyhose finding.

Observations before I get started:

• I may never eat grilled chicken or celery again.
• Next year I'm springing for a tailor.
• Why oh why did I leave most of my ball appropriate support clothing in storage???
• We had people over on Tuesday night. One of the guests brought a cheese tray. The leftovers are still in the fridge. The cheddar... it calls to me.
  
• Strangely enough, I look bigger in my "back up dress" than my "first choice dress." Not fair.
  
• Self tanner smells HORRIBLE. But it works like a champ.
• And, oh for the love of God, let me remember to not shake the hand of the first person in the reception line.
  

OK, gotta get going.

FYI, it's a floor length, royal purple, backless (but not too low) satin bias cut dress with rhinestone accent. And I bought it on clearance for $35 in the Juniors section of Macy's.

Yeah, I said Juniors.

Tomorrow morning I start on world peace.

And a small stack of french toast.

You can go away to college, get married, raise well adjusted pets, have interesting jobs and move to Africa but you never really grow up.

(sigh) It has come to my attention that my mother (my wonderful mother) (my well meaning, beloved, and slightly protective mother) has mentioned to certain people that I mentioned that I wished there were more comments to the blog and stuff.

(sigh) This is her part of her job as a mom.

She does it well.

OK, for all you out there who are mothers, have mothers, or saw a mother once on tv please believe me as I say it is perfectly fine if no one ever comments on this blog at all for ever and ever as long as we all shall live. My psyche is intact. At least it is until I try to make sense of my ramblings from South Africa.

Really.

It's fine.

I love you Mom.

I'm going to get back to editing South Africa now.

At the foot of the Sani Pass

Once again, South Africa is beautiful y’all and we are loving it!
I'm writing from a B&B just at the foot of the Sani Pass and WOW! What’s funny is we weren’t even planning on staying here. It took longer getting out of Durban than we planned so are a few hours behind schedule. We made it to Hillsburough at 3 yesterday, looked at the mountain, looked at the setting sun and decided to crash for the evening.

Taking the advice of the local bookstore owner we found the Seaforth Country Lodge. I am soooooo regretting that second day in Durban now because it would be so awesome to take advantage of some of the hiking around here!!! As it stands we need to get to at least the capital of Lesotho tomorrow night, ideally hustle over to Bloemfontein back in South Africa.

We see amazing sites like on a vacation, eat great food like a vacation, take a few pictures and buy a few souvenirs like a vacation… but we are not on vacation.

So it's time to hit the road which in today’s case will be gravel and at a steep incline. A local asked Lance if he had experience driving a 4x4 up mountains. He didn’t miss a beat and says he had. Later on he tells me he does have a lot of experience with 4x4s. Of course they were government issued Humvees…

Eep.

See you on the other side of the mountain. In the meanwhile here are some snapshots of our time here.



In the meanwhile, someone please remind me to get a tripod...