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.