Garden + Red Couch + Plumber + Department of Energy =....

Yet ANOTHER blog post!  How excited are you that I'm back on my bloggy blog horse?  Yeah, that's what I thought.  

So here are 4 aspects of my life that I've been meaning to share with the world through the internets.

1.  We have a really nice garden.  In this first shot I'm playing with an African Wildcat in this very said garden.

Anyway, every night we go out and pick basil or arugula for salads - it rules.  And something(s) really nice have "bloomed" in the last few days - check it:  

Yeah, that's a big eggplant.  I'm really excited - we're going to make some eggplant parm this weekend with that sucker plus a little basil, onion, and some tomatoes from the market - you get the picture.  

2.  We have a really red couch.  I'm not even just saying that - it's completely true.

This is where and how I do most of my blogging in case you were curious.

3.  So I was walking around our neighborhood last weekend and I found out that we live right near an expert plumbers office.  Perhaps I missed the sign in the past, but fortunately for you, I had my camera with me: (despite sign's claim, plumber somehow missing)

4.  In my former life I worked at the Department of Energy.  In many ways the DOE was a truly magical place.  Never in my life have I been in the presence of so many white walls, fluorescent lights, space heaters, photos of kids playing with coal, and really, truly awesome folk (I'm looking at you PA&E).  Anyway, in many ways I feel that life is very far away...that is, until I walk into the market in Lilongwe and see this:

That's it for me tonight.  More sharing in the near future because, my friends, sharing is caring.

America, you decide

So I'm really making up for my non-blogging behavior these last few months.  

But I think you'll agree that this subject warrants a post...

So we found out last weekend while looking at a safari animal identification book that Oball is an African Wildcat.  Don't believe me?  Well, you decide:

I don't think there's any question here..

History...just wicked earlier in the morning

How could I not utilize my massive online popularity to make at least a few remarks about last week's historical event?  For those of you unfamiliar, Malawi is 7 hours ahead of EST.  This means, my friends, we got up at 3am to watch the results come in at a local bar that had CNN (not normally, but they set up a projector for the big night).   There were about 40 people there - Malawians, Brits, South Africans, Americans, etc.  I'm going to be up front here - not one person, not one, was pulling for McCain.  

The following photos are organized from the announcement through the jubuliant response.  Apologies for the blurry camera, but it's actually a good lens in terms of our own dizzy, happy, tired eyes...

Go to an island in Lake Malawi? Yes please.

So for the 28th birthday of yours truly, we went to the best place ever place - an island in Lake Malawi that seriously rules.  I took a lot of photos because really, no words for this amazing place.  Not even the photos do it justice though...  

Read: Come and visit Andrew and Emily.  Do it.

A high tech solution for explanation - here's our trip:

View Larger Map

So we took off Saturday from Lilongwe for the romantical weekend.  Hit a bit of traffic and thought you'd like to see it (also better in person):

But we took a really nice route over an escarpment - I took some more photos for you: 

Once we got to Cape Maclear, we had some soda (because we drink A LOT of soda in Malawi) and kayaked 10K to the island.  It took over an hour but well worth it when we saw this:

Just a short time later, Andrew did this:

And here are some photos of our room and its sweet arse views of the water:

Did you see the fish in this last one?  Yeah, we swam with them everyday.  And got horribly sun burned.

During the evening we hiked up to a rock overlooking the water and took these photos for love:

You're welcome for those.  

Obviously, this trip falls into the wicked fun category.

Also obvious, RIGHT ON OBAMA!

Word. 

VIDEO POST! HOLY MOLY!

Oball Loves Roller Coasters

Hughes at work

So I never really say where I work because I figure it's probably best that I don't (for security purposes - my own, yours, Oball's). Anyway, I got an email today that they're starting a staff directory and I realized that my photo (taken by a summer intern-I'm looking at you Mike) provides a unique perspective...of my cubicle. Pasted below for all to enjoy:
A few notes on the photo:

1. I actually have a "window office". As you may notice half way up on the left side of the picture, there's some serious light pouring through.

2. I go for bohemian professional in my work wardrobe.

3. That cell phone was actually purchased THIS YEAR - a real collector's item of a nokia.

Rock and work on my friends.

Longest bike ride ever bike ride

So I'm not going to go through the same rigmarole where I say "I'm so sorry I haven't blogged, but it's this person's/cat's pregnancy scare/job/internet going down's/etc's fault." I respect you all too much for excuses.

...But really, it is the fault of those things. No doubt.

Okay, on with a long overdue post. Let's start with a few updates:

1. Oball's not preggers...turns out it was just worms. After a lot of cat vomit and other such good times, she seems to be back to her old self. And look, here she is RIGHT NOW as I'm composing this on our computer:
2. And you may notice I cut off the majority of my hair.

3. Andrew and I will be back in Springer for Thanksgiving. Tickets are purchased and I encourage anyone looking for the BEST TIME OF HIS OR HER RESPECTIVE LIFE to join a gang of fun loving SHS Alums at KJ's - word.

Right so the bike ride! As many of you know, Lilongwe, while a relatively sleepy capitol, is only an hour and a half (by car) from Lake Malawi (which is really beautiful). Anyway, Andrew and I had this great idea - "why don't we just ride our bikes to the lake!" Note that this was said with one (1) bike ride under our belts SINCE WE GOT TO MALAWI. Also of note, the road to the lake, not flat.

But we thought, ahhh, let's do it. Here are some photos to give you a sense of how pumped up we were before the trip:
Wahoo! Look how excited we are! Lifting up our bikes, big smiles under snug helmets - let's hit the road!

*********

...SEVEN HOURS LATER we arrive at the lake. I should add here that we honestly thought it would take 4 to 5 hours. Holy my moly, it's hard for me to think of a time when I've been that tired, thirsty, hungry and really, almost numb.

And here's the real kicker - we hadn't made reservations at a hotel (the plan was to spend the night) and the two hotels we tried (how predictable) had NO VACANCY. Perfection.

So there we are in Senga Bay at 4pm - the sun will go down in an hour and a half, we're so freakin tired, hotels are full, what are we going to do? Then we see our good friend, the lorey conductor and a plan comes together:
Right so we'll ride to the next town in the back of this truck and then find a matatu/minibus back to Lilongwe. There was a nice group already in the truck with their respective goods:

Man with plastic bottles...

Man with some nice fish. He offered us this one for 1000 Malawi Kwatcha which gave everyone a good laugh - that's about 5 times as expensive as it should be, or about $5 dollars. But what got people laughing even more was when we said we were vegetarians - always a crowd pleaser here where NO ONE is a vegetarian (certainly not by choice).

And this lady definitely looked excited to be seated next to Andrew...uhh...
I actually enjoyed the open aired lorey, but like all good things, it had to come to an end. The best part: we had to ride to the taxi park. Getting back on my bike was excruciating on the rear, but when I saw our ride to Lilongwe, I knew it was well worth it.
As you can see from the shot below, we had to buy some extra seats for our bikes, but the ride itself was lovely.
We made a nice big dinner at our house and hit the hay early.

Then came the next day which I think is well wrapped up in this photo (literally taken as I walked out of bed the next morning).
All in all though, a really fun day and nice to meet all those muscles in my rear that I had no idea even existed.

Guess who's preggers??!?!

Oh, to you die hard fans--I do appreciate your patience and love and really, our collective bloggership. And here's the thing...

I'm back!


And guess what the big news is?


That's right (bet you were thinking the big news was the computer with a camera, right?), but no, it's true, Oball is preggers. We have no idea (well, let's face it, we have some idea) how it happened, but now we've got a teen mom on our hands. This isn't a huge problem with the internet - everything we need to know about cat birth we feel we can pick up on the world wide web. Not to worry though, we're really happy for her and it hasn't taken away from family time:

Anyway, things are indeed going very well. There's so much to update on life (job, home, etc), but let me keep you hanging on through the rest of this week if that's okay. For now, just know that I have a few comforts from home that arrived in a huge box last month...

Okay, I'm back in business on the blog - see you this weekend!

Oh yes, the stuff

So I'm down to my last few days in the US and A, trying to get some things done that would be difficult (if not impossible) in Malawi.

The first has to do with a little something I saw sitting on my shoulder the other day:Do you see it? As it turns out that's my hair. Yup, not brushing it for, uhh, a while has really caught up with me. Have no fear though, in big city Philly, I got seriously trimmed up. And it wasn't cheap - think, over 8000 kwacha.

Ah yes, the "after" photo:
Second, and this is really good news for you dear reader, I got me a fancy pants camera in the NYC. Yeah, check out some of the artsy shots taken thus far:
Holy moly, these are so inspiring.

Lastly, I've been doing some clothes shopping. You know, I want to look GOOD in Southern Africa. I thought, where better to go than The Gap (for further explanation, see: http://www.theonion.com/content/video/gap_unveils_new_for_kids_by_kids). Shopping, however, seemed a bit overwhelming and I quickly became frustrated with all of The Gap Crap (not to mention getting stranded/lost/separated in the parking garage and freaking out).

Andrew, however, did quite well and was super psyched to find a sweater perfect for after lacrosse game wearing in Baltimore.
Anyway, after dropping some serious cash on food (black beans, dark chocolate, other luxurious items), I feel well prepared for the next two years. In fact, I'm really, really looking forward to going back to work (read also: credit card maxed out from US and A "non-negotiable" pricing).

So the next time I write I'll be in Malawi. I promise to be a better blog master this year. Hey, maybe I'll even make a contract with myself (shameless product placement only for you D-man)

Right, but before I sign off, let me send a very big yooo to the peeps at the DOE. After a visit to the old office I was greeted warmly by all my co-workers and perhaps my biggest blog fan - you know who you are Mr. Nuclear Energy Performance Management.

Word out folks.

Home of the Simpsons

As promised, here is the statue erected in the center of my home town, Springfield "Springer" Vermont. I especially like the contrast with the quaint New England church in the background. I am unsure of the permanence of this sculpture, but based on my systematic assessment above, it appears to be made of fiberglass and is most certainly signed by Matt Groening (in black marker).

I would recommend a visit to see it for yourself. Perhaps in the summer--as you can see the snow compromises one's view. If you do visit in the winter, wear snow pants (see hot black pair above).