tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-42313350548445142252024-03-05T04:50:59.557-08:00Sense and MissenseSamanthahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17470299166892375356noreply@blogger.comBlogger56125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4231335054844514225.post-69690180232926748412012-07-09T21:25:00.001-07:002012-07-09T21:25:53.881-07:00Alice 1998-2012<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="http://senseandmissense.blogspot.com/2008/10/clara-and-alice-beginning.html">Alice</a>, <a href="http://senseandmissense.blogspot.com/2008/10/clara-stories.html">Clara's</a> sister and a cat, was diagnosed with cancer in her chest in April and I had her euthanized a week later. This may sound very similar to <a href="http://senseandmissense.blogspot.com/2008/10/claras-carcinomatosis.html">Clara's story</a>, except it was a different kind of cancer (a tumor mass, rather than lots of floating or semi-attached cancerous cells, as I understand it). I wrote a list of "Things about Alice" as I did for <a href="http://senseandmissense.blogspot.com/2008/10/things-about-clara.html">Clara</a>, but it's on a piece of paper so will have to get transcribed here someday. Or maybe it will never happen. I only found the time to write the list while I was pumping breastmilk in the Mother's room on my lunch break at work... I'm a bit busier these days than I used to be because, as you might surmise or know, I have a kid now. My post on Clara's carcinomatosis is by far the most read and commented-on page on my blog, presumably because of the lack of other information about carcinomatosis in cats elsewhere on the internet. It has also become a place for people to share their own stories about their wonderful cats who developed carcinomatosis. I get sad every time I get an email notifications that another person has commented on that post, because it means another cat is gone and another person or family is sad (though I do also very much appreciate that people take the time to comment). But I'm getting off topic here. <a href="http://senseandmissense.blogspot.com/2008/10/clara-and-alice-enter-my-life.html">Alice</a>, I miss you and I am sorry that you had to compete with a baby for my affection in your last months.Samanthahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17470299166892375356noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4231335054844514225.post-53790425832879275322009-03-28T15:18:00.000-07:002009-04-10T08:23:48.761-07:00Photography immersion<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHjZn0ZCEINkG-xFsYO2DkdXgQ9wm00b8iQTMswqJ1wky4krGzsFAbvICBf9X2E-jJ-ulkloMTvuV7lKxJwSUo3dup7KQhXC_hkKYklfynJYs9A3FDAG6qPCvLuAYzwoRa_i_etL6DLsbA/s1600-h/DSC_0187.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHjZn0ZCEINkG-xFsYO2DkdXgQ9wm00b8iQTMswqJ1wky4krGzsFAbvICBf9X2E-jJ-ulkloMTvuV7lKxJwSUo3dup7KQhXC_hkKYklfynJYs9A3FDAG6qPCvLuAYzwoRa_i_etL6DLsbA/s320/DSC_0187.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5318828138480672146" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">California poppies, and a crazy slow shutter/fast focusing technique I tried.</span></div><div><br />I haven't been very good about writing blog posts lately. I've been busy being mad at the unfairness of life (I know it's pointless, but I can't seem to stop) and doing more physical therapy exercises (I'm doing better physically due to the latter, thank you). I've also been learning more about photography and trying to pick up tips here and there. See, at the beginning of the year I failed to make resolutions per se, but I did decide that I would try to get better at photography this year. Photography makes me happy, and I could use more of that. It helped that a professor visiting our lab for the year from Scotland is also a keen photographer, so we often discuss photography. Since the digital camera era has made a lot of people interested in photography, I thought I'd share some of my favorite websites/podcasts/videocasts that have been helping me learn more about the technical side of photography in case it can help any of my readers--I know three of you (Genevieve, Kirsty, and Kim) are somewhat interested in photography and the other two (that's you, Ian and mom) aren't, but maybe someone else with an interest in photography will come across my mediocre blog in time!<br /><br /><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 213px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitNGYJ-yR9rLyi_7Lbjx_-CSvJS-U8fPZJTHIgXGO-94f2Kh6fFVXDHM0ydTpT8ixyzQRoZtdXj3ecou0jiE_-fmdsY6DW9DTqzIXyYr11ROxh41CSAbScRydW3MiPHne4fgCEMqH22tgl/s320/DSC_0039.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5318828134282330946" /><div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">A hallway on the campus where I work.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><br /></span></div></div><div>The thing I've been spending the most time on is listening to the old podcasts of TWIP (This Week In Photography) on my iPod Shuffle while running and eating lunch, trying to catch up to the current show (I have a way to go--they've been putting out ~1 hour podcasts once a week for over a year). I subscribed via iTunes so you can search for it there. They (the people of TWIP) also keep a <a href="http://twipphoto.com/">blog</a> that has additional information and also the show notes for the podcasts [UPDATE: try this <a href="http://www.photofocus.com">blog (Photofocus)</a> and this <a href="http://www.twiplog.com/">blog (TWIPlog)</a> instead--they moved and diverged a bit]. The podcast is basically a round table discussion of photography news and tips, with the "panelists" being a group of respected photographers and digital perfecting/manipulation types. I am impressed by the breadth of experience of the panelists--I think they were well-chosen because they each have different specialties and thus as a group they have a wide spectrum of viewpoints. My favorite person on the show is one of the original two hosts (he seems to now have have been replaced as a host by one of the long-time panelists for the podcast, but still has a lot to do with the blog): <a href="http://scottbourne.com/">Scott Bourne</a>. As a host, he's pretty good at keeping things on track and I like his direct, practical attitude. Apparently, a number of people (listeners) have issues with him--they don't like the way he flaunts his wealth or his "hard-assedness" that he displays in managing the comments section of the blog etc. But whatever, it doesn't bother me and what's more, I like his voice. I am not alone in liking the TWIP podcast--it is apparently #1 for photography podcasts. The podcast does have quite a bit to do with raving about new technology but even though I don't have the paycheck to keep up with the Joneses in that regard, I find I learn interesting technical stuff when they start discussing the new products so that's okay.</div><div><br /></div><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4PMFn7vCBoom904ogP0VVpt9ZMBI9EP86HR7Mi5RmkT5mSNCmQ3QcMf2-WD2HuBXA4zMFy0cXEzDGbs4Wvdn_b1XtUmzw7dr3Xtv4nNHFM-grKjYKTbOOnEfJyUy8vWWUBjIE8istZCVl/s320/P9290052.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5318828131986827810" /><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">Some bacterial colonies that I grew as part of my experiments. See, bacteria can be pretty!</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div>In TWIP, they talk about Flickr a lot (TWIP runs competitions through Flickr and also has a critique forum etc. there), so I did try to give Flickr another chance by uploading more of<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/claralice/"> my photos</a> and trying to spend more time wandering through other people's photographs there, but I still am not a fan of the Flickr format. For those who don't know, I do the bulk of my photo displaying over on <a href="http://ssorchard.smugmug.com/">smugmug</a>. Yes, I have to pay for it and Flickr is free, but I like smugmug better and it acts as backup storage for my photos. If you'd like to sign up for smugmug too, you can use my coupon code (on my smugmug page) and get a discount, and that will also earn me a discount on my renewal... and that would be the first money I'd ever get from photography ;-)</div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgPEfFannbqMZoBO2p7ceGnUvW_UnjJWfE-Hn6P3G-gcEJE3I_5GhrUidrr4cb__oQW2zEQItXb5gNeYla2Trb39ccW7WD7_DSpIAuuW6XIXrO1x0joGYaYTbUQDj9Es6JTga8tPd7SQz8/s320/IMG_1744.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5318828133661190834" /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">An unusual plant I encountered on a hike.</span></div><div><br /></div><div>Okay, what else? A couple of people from <a href="http://www.kelbytraining.com/">Kelby Training</a> recently started a videocast called <a href="http://www.dtowntv.com/">D-Town TV</a> of tips for Nikon cameras, so I've been watching that. The problem is that my camera is 5 years old and they only focus on the newer Nikon cameras. But, it's only about 10 minutes a week of my time to watch it and it's teaching me the cool things that newer cameras are capable of... downside to that is that it makes me want a newer camera! </div><div><br /></div><div><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHBXxWaGe3P1YAkvG7_Fu6jEcfN0Xlygxvq_0KVYBtSiImdjMPJza27CWpPBgslXoaoXyQ3pV7SMLWSrqSbzFwOkCPyF06AtQp6Xpb0Nj3o2tRXUk_ePCszM17P7wFve1a2fdub2PtVQRD/s320/PondFlower.JPG.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5318828124660168914" /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">An awesome flower (in South Africa).</span></div><div><br /></div><div>As for <a href="http://www.kelbytraining.com/">Kelby Training</a> itself, I have watched the (free) introductory lessons to a few of their courses (you have to pay to watch the rest of the lessons for the courses). I haven't yet paid for them because you pay by the month for unlimited courses and I don't have enough time to squeeze in enough of the courses to make it worth it. Also, a lot of their classes are about using Photoshop and I don't care about that (since I don't have Photoshop). If at some point I find myself with lots of time, I will watch all the<a href="http://www.kelbytraining.com/instructors/joe-mcnally.html"> Joe McNally</a> videos (mostly on artificial lighting--not something I use a lot, but I think it is interesting) and the <a href="http://www.kelbytraining.com/instructors/moose-peterson.html">Moose Peterson</a> ones (wildlife and landscape--my favorite genre of photography is Nature). I was particularly impressed by the Joe McNally introductory lessons so I'm glad that he makes appearances on D-Town TV too.</div><div><br /></div><div>By the way, if you're interested in flash (and especially off-camera) lighting, this is widely viewed as an excellent site for it: <a href="http://strobist.blogspot.com/2006/03/lighting-101.html">Strobist</a>.</div><div><br /></div><div>You might also want to read Thomas Hawk's <a href="http://thomashawk.com/2006/04/10-tips-for-new-digital-slr.html">tips</a> for newer dSLR camera users.</div><div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGxpdICMjXZ0g53LpwvxxdCDXMy6yW8w-bLpzz0FEH2Fh6iToRG3lpf_ECNB310mEwfAa7NC0ZTzSGB8nUsb4s2F_pWdkqu7iPtT0ZfUIHHVb-Gnv6O0ygkeUOkUbRqOE3bMvZW7i8Efsj/s1600-h/DSC_0103.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGxpdICMjXZ0g53LpwvxxdCDXMy6yW8w-bLpzz0FEH2Fh6iToRG3lpf_ECNB310mEwfAa7NC0ZTzSGB8nUsb4s2F_pWdkqu7iPtT0ZfUIHHVb-Gnv6O0ygkeUOkUbRqOE3bMvZW7i8Efsj/s320/DSC_0103.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5318833010578702130" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">A lizard on the campus where I work.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><div>Before this year, I'd basically never edited a photo... I assumed that if I put in enough thought at the time of shooting, I'd never have to worry about editing. Well, now that everyone says you should take photos in RAW format (vs. jpeg), I gave that a try and realized my photos didn't look very good straight out of the camera anymore. My sister then informed me that if you shoot RAW, you basically have to run it through some software to get it to look good (when your camera processes the image to spit out a jpeg file, it does some behinds-the-scene stuff to the image to make it look "better"). So I went back to shooting jpegs while I did a bit of research on software. I'm not about to spend big bucks on Photoshop, and a couple of the guys on TWIP seem to use <a href="http://www.apple.com/aperture/">Aperture</a> a lot, so I've downloaded the trial version of that to give it a try (other people on the show use Adobe's <a href="http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshoplightroom/">Lightroom</a>, but I like Apple so am trying Aperture first. You can apparently also get a free trial of Lightroom). Both Aperture and Lightroom help you manage your photo collection (I'd been using Apple's iPhoto for that) and allow quite a bit of image adjustments, just not as much as Photoshop. To help me use Aperture, I've been watching the <a href="http://www.apple.com/aperture/tutorials/">tutorial videos</a> for it on the Apple site. Rumor has it that Aperture 3.0 may be coming out in the next couple of months, so I won't be buying a license for it until I hear more about that (it was a very sketchy rumor I heard second-hand, so if anyone finds this blog by searching for Aperture three-point-oh, you are in the wrong place to find out when it will be released).</div><div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtrQqduXPRhtXWF4oDShDEP9deIsoQFu36EMtRLTYoC3TpUS9e_1p8wMFi4Ci5osG-yP1B5FAmNA0VtY_sQEgzPJFAzM3bnlDzChly3A330xeaAXKoK-klKQjZ5NGRgv1U4rkA-OzeaOVD/s1600-h/DSC_0206.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 213px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtrQqduXPRhtXWF4oDShDEP9deIsoQFu36EMtRLTYoC3TpUS9e_1p8wMFi4Ci5osG-yP1B5FAmNA0VtY_sQEgzPJFAzM3bnlDzChly3A330xeaAXKoK-klKQjZ5NGRgv1U4rkA-OzeaOVD/s320/DSC_0206.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5318833020207324898" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">I altered this photo with iPhoto! I changed the exposure and contrast, I think, and I like it better than the original. It's of Snoqualmie Falls in Washington state.</span></div></div><div><br /></div><div>As the TWIP panel regularly mentions, writers become better writers by reading, and photographers become better photographers by looking at other people's photos. To help me with that, I subscribe to a couple of professional photographers' blogs: Phil Colla's <a href="http://www.oceanlight.com/log/">Oceanlight</a>, and Ron Niebrugge's <a href="http://www.my-photo-blog.com/">Niebrugge Images</a>. There are many others out there, and for many other genres. Many wedding photographers have their own blogs, so if that's what you're into, you could try those. </div><div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZG_b9UR2BpxaS4DI6ELiXrdkgoMLBOyaljzfYSos1r3HsHFFb_9t9Utpu9bn0yeMOyLzKA9nlC2OU8QtQBSzMYVOn7nSqRThxjqm0HElj3JkFzE9K4GrkAu8AhTCo13I4ZegXzDLpcNyo/s1600-h/DSC_0166.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 213px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZG_b9UR2BpxaS4DI6ELiXrdkgoMLBOyaljzfYSos1r3HsHFFb_9t9Utpu9bn0yeMOyLzKA9nlC2OU8QtQBSzMYVOn7nSqRThxjqm0HElj3JkFzE9K4GrkAu8AhTCo13I4ZegXzDLpcNyo/s320/DSC_0166.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5318833016076772722" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">Grass at Lake Murray, taken after sunset with my 50 mm f/1.8 lens! Amazing that it could let in so much light with a reasonable shutter speed.</span></div></div><div><br /></div><div>All the above has improved my knowledge, but has it improved my photography? Probably not a lot yet, because I haven't been taking enough photos lately! I do think my photography has improved in the last year though, but it happened before I got so into reading/listening to all the above things. First, for my trip to South Africa last year, I stopped using the "Auto" setting on my camera after reading my camera's manual and discovering all the things the "program" settings (like "landscape," "portrait," "action" etc) do. Earlier this year, I took my camera to lab a couple days and went and took photos of whatever during my lunch break, but had my camera set to "Manual"--took me back to the days of using my manual film camera and reminded me of all the things I'd forgotten! On Manual mode, you have to adjust the aperture and shutter speed and ISO settings until the exposure is good--takes a lot of fiddling, and makes you pay attention to your camera settings. Then, the first day that I went to see the desert wildflowers this year, I focused on aperture settings (the aperture in my lens, not the software)... I put my camera on aperture priority (what most pros seem to use for most of their shooting) and then watched what happened to my photos when I changed the aperture. That was a very good experience--helped me get a better feel for what changing the aperture accomplishes besides letting in more light. The next time I was out in the desert, I focused on focus (hee hee). I realized from the aperture day that blurry images just aren't good ;-) So, I recommend reading your camera manual and not using the Auto setting, if you still do that.</div><div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiD__ro-dgtl8l1njTwskL15n8wcli6VCVvGRlCecg4lAaS-7i_gn2rGQDhlZe4ujn-37t4XM9UBZ0EfVx6SL9pQc8sYbyO7HL6yYafFFQ-PUTueEMKuDYiDuS29BGPFZzrfULY9dezR3nA/s1600-h/Flower+and+ladybug.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiD__ro-dgtl8l1njTwskL15n8wcli6VCVvGRlCecg4lAaS-7i_gn2rGQDhlZe4ujn-37t4XM9UBZ0EfVx6SL9pQc8sYbyO7HL6yYafFFQ-PUTueEMKuDYiDuS29BGPFZzrfULY9dezR3nA/s320/Flower+and+ladybug.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5318837080498188482" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">A ladybird on a flower that I took a photo of on the day I was focusing on focus.</span></div></div><div><br /></div><div>By now, you're probably thinking I'm getting paid to plug certain products or productions :-) If only... then maybe I could afford some of the photography gear on my ever-growing wish list! </div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>Samanthahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17470299166892375356noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4231335054844514225.post-10721788115497070232009-03-28T14:55:00.000-07:002009-03-28T15:05:38.597-07:00I have a blog?Oh, yeah, it looks like I do! Oh oh... it's been a while since I wrote anything! Hmmn. Will have to think of something to write about. In the meantime, here's a photo of how I feel:<div><br /><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJkgruClj8Es5g8CLSUoyRCujhgZW0ryiXsHzhyMinhayvFx1O1virtDHKlXnAsapgLLiTeMRzoS2s7gtg7YPHZmJ6foO0D3GOB4zC2r9WO9LZZBXNDPRif3-p_8KukUWJijE_Drmzy7l3/s320/DSC_0004.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5318362996284788066" /></div>Samanthahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17470299166892375356noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4231335054844514225.post-63528947845034000442009-01-11T19:36:00.001-08:002009-01-12T08:42:03.283-08:00Photo diary of the last few daysI'm going to work backwards, since that's the order my photos loaded in :-)<br /><br />I made a knitted kitty, inspired by an ex-roommate of mine, <a href="http://caffeinatedyarn.blogspot.com/">Jodi</a>, and with a pattern from another person's <a href="http://geobabe.livejournal.com/195349.html">blog</a> (if you don't like swearing, don't go there).<div><br /></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhWI15hrUYFh1RNZr28kSHieTahEPGY30XRhyi0W1NDA-v83xQwQPZOHZ_AseeZp8slosrKUovjauO64Jww1cA1JflkR6xiupM3i-SAOZ6LkTGRBYO1zf8Xcs8ncdi4VgmEbDLUfllZomd/s1600-h/DSC_0033.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 213px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhWI15hrUYFh1RNZr28kSHieTahEPGY30XRhyi0W1NDA-v83xQwQPZOHZ_AseeZp8slosrKUovjauO64Jww1cA1JflkR6xiupM3i-SAOZ6LkTGRBYO1zf8Xcs8ncdi4VgmEbDLUfllZomd/s320/DSC_0033.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5290266594658252690" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1DHYIvtJYq8BJBIPBFOUc9QyXjbH6xb8mvBLVH-SuRXHIFODzZOsUXsudRvi64VwtmzzdrVVsezARcSDrnc5wIe5KQJve_MM7mZDMMqgtiaIOJqVHZ-lIXl8uGxMY_eHqZJNBoIJiz7iv/s1600-h/DSC_0007.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1DHYIvtJYq8BJBIPBFOUc9QyXjbH6xb8mvBLVH-SuRXHIFODzZOsUXsudRvi64VwtmzzdrVVsezARcSDrnc5wIe5KQJve_MM7mZDMMqgtiaIOJqVHZ-lIXl8uGxMY_eHqZJNBoIJiz7iv/s320/DSC_0007.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5290266587409307826" /></a><div><div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); text-decoration: underline;"><br /></span></div>To take the photos of the kitty last night, I decided I should practice using my fancy flash off-camera (my camera can remotely control the flash). I couldn't remember how to do it, so I got out my camera manual, my flash manual, and did a google search and finally got it, as this test shot (while sitting at my computer) shows. You can also see the manuals in the background.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJG8DLJI3n_JTZQQyCyXaCPQLoC6upKVEaxbaNypiagesj4LsliEha8CRP65hhvuNh19cxyj0BFJrcR7sDYCauG9IrNC3-LoYaSBI7-Ip418WvFQrTnK8hFBqmQl9Igys_kWGBQXsxqbav/s1600-h/DSC_0004.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJG8DLJI3n_JTZQQyCyXaCPQLoC6upKVEaxbaNypiagesj4LsliEha8CRP65hhvuNh19cxyj0BFJrcR7sDYCauG9IrNC3-LoYaSBI7-Ip418WvFQrTnK8hFBqmQl9Igys_kWGBQXsxqbav/s320/DSC_0004.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5290266579541913394" /></a>Yesterday afternoon, Jesse and I went over to a coworker's house to watch a football game. For those of you who know me and Jesse, you'll know we are not the football-watching types. But, we decided it would be fun to give it a try. As I'm working backwards here, I'll start with after the game--"our" team, the San Diego Chargers, lost, but we sat on my coworker's deck and enjoyed the sunset and city lights.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjn_kG4qgIF4jFRjimR5bVovan3gVaQhBFlVXKDcHadJH-taMF-Md94wkoDPL9XagW8oI2FCUTysmn47TVi5V1fbrtK5doqXgPiMDOAziOOWOKDSFOqKeX3VCxHpnJs8e3G_Zp4LEQnMtc4/s1600-h/DSC_0011.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 213px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjn_kG4qgIF4jFRjimR5bVovan3gVaQhBFlVXKDcHadJH-taMF-Md94wkoDPL9XagW8oI2FCUTysmn47TVi5V1fbrtK5doqXgPiMDOAziOOWOKDSFOqKeX3VCxHpnJs8e3G_Zp4LEQnMtc4/s320/DSC_0011.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5290266577086603922" /></a>I made yellow and blue cupcakes with blue or yellow frosting. My advisor's daughter (my advisor's significant other (and father of the kid) was at the party, though my advisor was not) took quite a liking to the cupcake frosting... she licked the frosting off of four cupcakes, and only then took a nibble of one of the cupcakes (but never ate the rest of any of them). Here she is licking, and you can see another licked one on the table. <br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOz-b_RRj30_xXNEbGk8xrf-Ijer44SYeCymfgPhJZLAWQzTqmwk2_yfwvb80aSCYDCpf3fQ5zKKQkFnB-6uG3ne7ggu_BGdQB_s7XSXpTUchF6iDDroMztHvPc0sMWFeHTq6meToOwJcu/s1600-h/DSC_0001.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 213px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOz-b_RRj30_xXNEbGk8xrf-Ijer44SYeCymfgPhJZLAWQzTqmwk2_yfwvb80aSCYDCpf3fQ5zKKQkFnB-6uG3ne7ggu_BGdQB_s7XSXpTUchF6iDDroMztHvPc0sMWFeHTq6meToOwJcu/s320/DSC_0001.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5290266574675184434" /></a>Here are the cupcakes I took to the football watching party.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYOigfuddHZjr_FkqGpFFh_VZBIYNP3rkVW5CtGqVhSpTFsbs-zebwFmNo9qUcF6tSQqw6gWDyuaac8ePrmwqCQWe4vFaQjBeun6izaJum6rMTuvWHApSsMleaoNRY5Z-bblmAIRPIuJOr/s1600-h/DSC_0009.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYOigfuddHZjr_FkqGpFFh_VZBIYNP3rkVW5CtGqVhSpTFsbs-zebwFmNo9qUcF6tSQqw6gWDyuaac8ePrmwqCQWe4vFaQjBeun6izaJum6rMTuvWHApSsMleaoNRY5Z-bblmAIRPIuJOr/s320/DSC_0009.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5290249477629355202" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGvjMmibFiRNNbhMU0XJIhvANMAkjwWNXI6vVyzGBns6A_oZ4rL0vFYKP2EZNtXpanMMvrMco-GQdmA9DOoCYfxYRmt_QWIIEyESqrzMIhm0gB0pVxZf2Unp15zjvNZCS3mZt08lWAQg7p/s1600-h/DSC_0007.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 213px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGvjMmibFiRNNbhMU0XJIhvANMAkjwWNXI6vVyzGBns6A_oZ4rL0vFYKP2EZNtXpanMMvrMco-GQdmA9DOoCYfxYRmt_QWIIEyESqrzMIhm0gB0pVxZf2Unp15zjvNZCS3mZt08lWAQg7p/s320/DSC_0007.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5290249471981270930" /></a>Before we left for the football party, I had a little photo shoot with Alice as she sat in some autumn-colored leaves I collected on Friday (more on that towards the end).<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHeIvqDyLT2iQtB2baRoVsNK9MCqBokh2a0BeM6lvo4gv5_Z0vd04zlW3M3CWS6LeFzD5pa_oBTJJK_qdZsQhXe-abawYzW7Ewh_NYZDGuPsSwvet6TiKsHUNA6u876k4gOv3omtIeTbK5/s1600-h/DSC_0058.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 213px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHeIvqDyLT2iQtB2baRoVsNK9MCqBokh2a0BeM6lvo4gv5_Z0vd04zlW3M3CWS6LeFzD5pa_oBTJJK_qdZsQhXe-abawYzW7Ewh_NYZDGuPsSwvet6TiKsHUNA6u876k4gOv3omtIeTbK5/s320/DSC_0058.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5290251585377671250" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgh6hqvJ0Ot-vO4xGZniKrcPavTHGKsDdxL-0cUW-Q3iYOZcwzxnzfjZ4QxUlOb3lEabAD0DJ4PlEm95EdsSmygr8cOfWXPiKPtwg6gH_rcEIjIazonDYabAnvzUL2svyFpFPwAeYb_iCxX/s1600-h/DSC_0051.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgh6hqvJ0Ot-vO4xGZniKrcPavTHGKsDdxL-0cUW-Q3iYOZcwzxnzfjZ4QxUlOb3lEabAD0DJ4PlEm95EdsSmygr8cOfWXPiKPtwg6gH_rcEIjIazonDYabAnvzUL2svyFpFPwAeYb_iCxX/s320/DSC_0051.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5290251581411655538" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGv5Hb-4Z5FFshmmzWGl_qY6R7FVJuCo95cDytOqtElgbMHpA7tHBMgkGtsA6hHpBCiDhKwBDH3wkR5KO1HRXsZSiNe8hgV_29pJl0o55r8Ec4arJ1mYvSsLM_-meD7RRSMrMJipbQCl0K/s1600-h/DSC_0049.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGv5Hb-4Z5FFshmmzWGl_qY6R7FVJuCo95cDytOqtElgbMHpA7tHBMgkGtsA6hHpBCiDhKwBDH3wkR5KO1HRXsZSiNe8hgV_29pJl0o55r8Ec4arJ1mYvSsLM_-meD7RRSMrMJipbQCl0K/s320/DSC_0049.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5290251575768635778" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLtVDyrwt4zRR2ZanFWkK2OTr-t8rkanJ-lSLXkFT_AvUvKF8nNh99lrTmWtW0B2VP8YtWCoOOqODxF-Q5v7zgQCJfBWJUscpssM-Qyzp4fBdb3ran7lhkWzKCWKWmXDxC6oy2kedbJ0hE/s1600-h/DSC_0042.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLtVDyrwt4zRR2ZanFWkK2OTr-t8rkanJ-lSLXkFT_AvUvKF8nNh99lrTmWtW0B2VP8YtWCoOOqODxF-Q5v7zgQCJfBWJUscpssM-Qyzp4fBdb3ran7lhkWzKCWKWmXDxC6oy2kedbJ0hE/s320/DSC_0042.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5290251569821436370" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZe32wcKVWn0TPcq1AlO1AyQlGgAkVxVFOVbabySDfWqNepBWX2kDOYn6gpbbjAw-cnFRZnCJfUtQC4Gl_TsfWxskKtx9AyA_FlGVS6Z1UoxkU1-EDKegdLIprzuOF4-9esxdp5ecHu6yz/s1600-h/DSC_0038.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZe32wcKVWn0TPcq1AlO1AyQlGgAkVxVFOVbabySDfWqNepBWX2kDOYn6gpbbjAw-cnFRZnCJfUtQC4Gl_TsfWxskKtx9AyA_FlGVS6Z1UoxkU1-EDKegdLIprzuOF4-9esxdp5ecHu6yz/s320/DSC_0038.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5290251566880661058" /></a>And here are the leaves, that I photographed separately on Saturday:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1SPteTzie_UWYD_eTUYyPmisMxQZB11LB_JlzazL_0xuhKy1GGGUSHZ9KFgHzhb_rxx7ktL68_slOw1QTPEBR9eXKm3SomTw15sF2P-ipMU4a6rp0UXLv2py09tAmuFa7vevpYy3FQoNE/s1600-h/DSC_0007.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1SPteTzie_UWYD_eTUYyPmisMxQZB11LB_JlzazL_0xuhKy1GGGUSHZ9KFgHzhb_rxx7ktL68_slOw1QTPEBR9eXKm3SomTw15sF2P-ipMU4a6rp0UXLv2py09tAmuFa7vevpYy3FQoNE/s320/DSC_0007.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5290249459195834994" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk_DMfZNnF2m4A1Lu2co891Ov2jcM_JRBzoHOwIl6_YfCekM6f5mPX2Xe1ZnpTHzjCG4POf7FSC6ZcmMQGHHWNIy5rcR4szLn5kl9NbtQqnl_-6IOBdNGOIuVxf3jR1tKDUJz5A9IxV27X/s1600-h/DSC_0006.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk_DMfZNnF2m4A1Lu2co891Ov2jcM_JRBzoHOwIl6_YfCekM6f5mPX2Xe1ZnpTHzjCG4POf7FSC6ZcmMQGHHWNIy5rcR4szLn5kl9NbtQqnl_-6IOBdNGOIuVxf3jR1tKDUJz5A9IxV27X/s320/DSC_0006.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5290249449041267506" /></a>Okay, now we're at Friday, the day I collected the leaves... I sat outside when I ate my lunch because it was such a lovely day (sorry to everyone who lives somewhere that wouldn't be a possibility in January). The leaves are finally starting to turn colors and fall off trees here (took some getting used to when I moved here!). I ended up picking up a whole bunch of the leaves since I thought they were so pretty, and when I got back into lab, I tied a rubber band around them to keep them as a bunch. I happened to have my camera in lab, so one of my coworkers and I had a bit of fun. Here I am throwing my bouquet:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3wIUCNvSKN2LEl31vWMZ1jRggYhO-x04nZwL_qTKYmLxLa45GTESF3_Fy1FVyuxPG9dp_Y0fHoGC3TGjINF1HXxZSRxqyKPS9SKolwNyNW8I3IAwvKsaQD5ePMQUTBBgWDKctcVgfGtq_/s1600-h/DSC_0037.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3wIUCNvSKN2LEl31vWMZ1jRggYhO-x04nZwL_qTKYmLxLa45GTESF3_Fy1FVyuxPG9dp_Y0fHoGC3TGjINF1HXxZSRxqyKPS9SKolwNyNW8I3IAwvKsaQD5ePMQUTBBgWDKctcVgfGtq_/s320/DSC_0037.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5290249442097665746" /></a>This photo was actually taken as a test shot as I was showing my coworker something, but I am putting it in so y'all can see where I work... my desk is at the very back on the right (you can see my desk chair pushed back) and my bench, where I keep my reagents and equipment and set up some of my experiments is in front of that, where my stool with my gray jacket is. Lab's are cluttered-looking places.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAykUvPlfqLyrH79xaFLYa_alGehjtpScZeW3iZARhTsBlavfeCeSuxYWRrFqjHAQWs8TzStpXeUHIIDgRuzAKlj1E6hpRyAIZa0PugsrjzrR5ZhyCv-4QZ4h_FV_jJPUqHQZSr8ypqjPR/s1600-h/DSC_0023.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAykUvPlfqLyrH79xaFLYa_alGehjtpScZeW3iZARhTsBlavfeCeSuxYWRrFqjHAQWs8TzStpXeUHIIDgRuzAKlj1E6hpRyAIZa0PugsrjzrR5ZhyCv-4QZ4h_FV_jJPUqHQZSr8ypqjPR/s320/DSC_0023.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5290247748434083650" /></a>My coworker took a self portrait, and I really like how you can see another of my coworkers in the back.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI38rKonBuDYe4Vl2ajEuhfmBa_7UXYjG6Aq5k2HEodnVeTIcuphsaB2a-znp6gPEdRi2UXlMFGx9g-k-UpRrSi5B7fzHFf0-_Dk_lR2XmOcGAkLKNniBhRUEgxJCKSOTQOV7DcturFYLX/s1600-h/DSC_0022.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI38rKonBuDYe4Vl2ajEuhfmBa_7UXYjG6Aq5k2HEodnVeTIcuphsaB2a-znp6gPEdRi2UXlMFGx9g-k-UpRrSi5B7fzHFf0-_Dk_lR2XmOcGAkLKNniBhRUEgxJCKSOTQOV7DcturFYLX/s320/DSC_0022.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5290247743405033570" /></a>Me posing with the coworker you could see in the back of the previous photo.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAlbdBc357hd6yqZI8icfTZi6p7qPaEky4krdfr0DqzK4pDYgeyZnus7TUmuHHiwLkz2KaIQPgYUW6IXI4Otzs1rgNmij9dvPN7bp-GfWPWYtfak7sy_CCtty96D-ik9EaOjRNwmZBwwu2/s1600-h/DSC_0014.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAlbdBc357hd6yqZI8icfTZi6p7qPaEky4krdfr0DqzK4pDYgeyZnus7TUmuHHiwLkz2KaIQPgYUW6IXI4Otzs1rgNmij9dvPN7bp-GfWPWYtfak7sy_CCtty96D-ik9EaOjRNwmZBwwu2/s320/DSC_0014.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5290247739111200002" /></a>I put the leaves on our light box to get a back-lit shot through one of the leaves.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXmUO2rMYYRmNo68dwFrAF4JsT81vCTDyzRmF2RjSbqIHWBejBQ_iTJC_m2H7LV4d__1zMOBqkDi5aTBKVWXiGfE036e2DBDjLVo039yvhjVLhPSkNos1YZItr2uVqzGOjIFZDUHaPpQJx/s1600-h/DSC_0012.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 213px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXmUO2rMYYRmNo68dwFrAF4JsT81vCTDyzRmF2RjSbqIHWBejBQ_iTJC_m2H7LV4d__1zMOBqkDi5aTBKVWXiGfE036e2DBDjLVo039yvhjVLhPSkNos1YZItr2uVqzGOjIFZDUHaPpQJx/s320/DSC_0012.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5290247734176025442" /></a>Here's my bouquet on the over-turned lid of my ice bucket (we put ice into them to keep reagents cold on our benches, when necessary).<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj09QYNymkfhwvPcPpPmXY9sK15pNlXM4wqowteao_bN5Q4_umRpcue7Jdt2h54cwmW7NRaKlPVnZC2xo0AKPBMjmyLG_2VvyeUFGJsyyi2ClwGtPXwthozPLKd6mt2cVn9VFwHUnbvZhCQ/s1600-h/DSC_0008.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj09QYNymkfhwvPcPpPmXY9sK15pNlXM4wqowteao_bN5Q4_umRpcue7Jdt2h54cwmW7NRaKlPVnZC2xo0AKPBMjmyLG_2VvyeUFGJsyyi2ClwGtPXwthozPLKd6mt2cVn9VFwHUnbvZhCQ/s320/DSC_0008.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5290247729704243378" /></a>And there you have it.</div></div>Samanthahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17470299166892375356noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4231335054844514225.post-15676134086985747312008-12-30T22:49:00.000-08:002008-12-30T23:49:02.379-08:00Vegetarian "French" Onion Soup (with apologies to the French)Vegetarian "French" Onion Soup<div><br /></div><div>Ingredients (this is already a double recipe... I like leftovers)</div><div>1 stick butter</div><div>2 Tbsp olive oil</div><div>4 lbs onions (was 5 large ones for me)</div><div>1.5 l vegetable stock (that's 6 cups... original recipe called for 1.9 l, but I like my soups a bit thicker. Though it was almost a bit *too* thick this time... just add more water at the end to get it to the consistency you want)</div><div>1 cup sherry (very dry) or white wine</div><div>Salt, pepper</div><div><br /></div><div>And if you want to be good,</div><div>1 loaf French bread</div><div>gruyere cheese</div><div>maybe some parmesan</div><div><br /></div><div>Method</div><div>1. Put on your onion goggles. Take a self portrait.</div><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieGULx5ia3E2JfKm7Yr8ONPHMz3HzGKHK2rWvMClXO5M60Pgzhir6wT-FWVTkxfOAzMJ8TXQ5FGi0ss5GXm_JjAlP_ybUO6qADFyWlpkpn4UObhuznVEWQ89zCW4TfMBKYekXmsdrBVq-q/s1600-h/DSC_0002.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 214px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieGULx5ia3E2JfKm7Yr8ONPHMz3HzGKHK2rWvMClXO5M60Pgzhir6wT-FWVTkxfOAzMJ8TXQ5FGi0ss5GXm_JjAlP_ybUO6qADFyWlpkpn4UObhuznVEWQ89zCW4TfMBKYekXmsdrBVq-q/s320/DSC_0002.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5285849570613589042" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">Onion goggles, to prevent you from tearing up. No joke.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><br /></span></div>2. Peel onions. Cut in half then slice thinly in food processor</div><div>3. Heat butter and oil in large pot over medium heat and add onions</div><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaOLGQaTMPxhz-4iqc_VsE6eqA2tifXiOxx-jshG-PIhd_RqZNyY-ytkqsDDBmNnXmhVsOYnCrOGcVqIK3G_xidl5S3LrsRvpxYUfzqxcUmZIQNj5u9AuTcMod9__ct0dhER2Ms6MWdBPO/s1600-h/DSC_0006.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaOLGQaTMPxhz-4iqc_VsE6eqA2tifXiOxx-jshG-PIhd_RqZNyY-ytkqsDDBmNnXmhVsOYnCrOGcVqIK3G_xidl5S3LrsRvpxYUfzqxcUmZIQNj5u9AuTcMod9__ct0dhER2Ms6MWdBPO/s320/DSC_0006.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5285849579699222802" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">The onions at the start. These photos don't do the large size of this pot justice. For scale, my hands fit in those handles on the sides.</span></div></div><div><br />4. Cook onions for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally</div><div>5. In that 45 minutes, there are many things you can get done. I...</div><div>- fed Alice some canned food</div><div>- made myself a sparkling cranberry drink</div><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgClnRZsV4rIay9MlPcOI470MgmT8XGRqTk7gr19WAdarG41Ra0mH_kcuJF_Q0__4LIz8h6tz04h0rdlAxetIBVY8dQtTJ5n6QtJGKbqR1LkhpjNjlwnXw067MrKrExaF9ily1RRP-RbzHD/s1600-h/DSC_0008.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgClnRZsV4rIay9MlPcOI470MgmT8XGRqTk7gr19WAdarG41Ra0mH_kcuJF_Q0__4LIz8h6tz04h0rdlAxetIBVY8dQtTJ5n6QtJGKbqR1LkhpjNjlwnXw067MrKrExaF9ily1RRP-RbzHD/s320/DSC_0008.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5285849590043573314" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">I had leftover cranberry concentrate from Thanksgiving and leftover Club Soda from a silly bet I made and lost (long story). I poured about 1/6th of a glass of cranberry concentrate then filled with Club Soda. Yummy! I had seconds.</span></div></div><div><br />- folded a load of laundry and moved another load into the dryer</div><div>- unpacked the dishwasher</div><div>- opened my long-awaited Kiss My Face package... I needed face wash and lotion and they sent my an email saying that everything on their site was 50% off! I've been using hand soap to wash my face...</div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg56d8_fh5q2Xmxya_4bSRhX2USEqHMiF8zMJlX0UqwA0fiMzlpDzc93iAjXdAW54ZNn2uD_t4ijgpFuLNDR2rrPK5HmCsyqs0LW1ylmeEcLGh6BNQDN7vZ2k48hfz4fotNmMiImbZNd-hb/s1600-h/DSC_0016.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg56d8_fh5q2Xmxya_4bSRhX2USEqHMiF8zMJlX0UqwA0fiMzlpDzc93iAjXdAW54ZNn2uD_t4ijgpFuLNDR2rrPK5HmCsyqs0LW1ylmeEcLGh6BNQDN7vZ2k48hfz4fotNmMiImbZNd-hb/s320/DSC_0016.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5285852155792766962" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">I'm *so* excited! The box smelled lovely when I opened it.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><br /></span></div><div>- checked email</div><div>- cleaned up the onion peels</div><div>- put away my <a href="http://www.bewiseranch.com/csa.htm">CSA</a> vegetables</div><div>Just don't forget to stir those onions occasionally!</div><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdqCcx7x_3S2QM6gbHzjZYTcAyQm7fZ7_-mim-aiSPBqLD5u1VNlpBOG21NUrpcx9uN29cBcJQlgfQRInIn9qtmu9O9JF0LaWejapE_EnjK1F6ZJM8WdwUOLthA7tEQSG6khtcL6757wfy/s1600-h/DSC_0013.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdqCcx7x_3S2QM6gbHzjZYTcAyQm7fZ7_-mim-aiSPBqLD5u1VNlpBOG21NUrpcx9uN29cBcJQlgfQRInIn9qtmu9O9JF0LaWejapE_EnjK1F6ZJM8WdwUOLthA7tEQSG6khtcL6757wfy/s320/DSC_0013.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5285849601331291026" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">The onions at 20 minutes... there's lots of liquid, but the onions have wilted a bit.</span></div></div><div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5PIG5s7vvJEwnvjo-jwUMmRDtvoPApyXPpJj_ZpwueeAc2hxwUXknopIOn6dNAH7mBUG2EnGvqIbtkpFy5XwsIIgs_6akPsN82buwYSCWs7tfbAXYVKrXdZr9Lt0sQlEKkxRw6KfwMErZ/s1600-h/DSC_0014.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5PIG5s7vvJEwnvjo-jwUMmRDtvoPApyXPpJj_ZpwueeAc2hxwUXknopIOn6dNAH7mBUG2EnGvqIbtkpFy5XwsIIgs_6akPsN82buwYSCWs7tfbAXYVKrXdZr9Lt0sQlEKkxRw6KfwMErZ/s320/DSC_0014.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5285852144433022466" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">The onions at 30 minutes... less liquid.</span></div></div><div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtCmAkZZ7VafgdRhS83tRcafIuVNcNRdEdA21kVhHqr0YJ_Anyr7RltQOD3_U2eGubfQ3ZloU_cCtBT47Iwq55EgdZ0AN-kfrBdQfxey1nR7rbY683Jlhg7JcXYBhiGhslqmmdRRVgp5SU/s1600-h/DSC_0015.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtCmAkZZ7VafgdRhS83tRcafIuVNcNRdEdA21kVhHqr0YJ_Anyr7RltQOD3_U2eGubfQ3ZloU_cCtBT47Iwq55EgdZ0AN-kfrBdQfxey1nR7rbY683Jlhg7JcXYBhiGhslqmmdRRVgp5SU/s320/DSC_0015.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5285852150334491586" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">The onions at 1 hour. Yes, I did say 45 minutes (and you can't cheat and make it shorter than that... you need the onions to caramelize slowly), but mine didn't look quite ready at 45 minutes... I think the heat was on too low at the beginning.</span></div></div><div><br />6. When onions have turned a lovely shade of golden, add broth, sherry, salt and pepper. At this point, I realized I had only about 1/4 cup sherry in the cupboard, so I used Marsala for the rest. It's not the same, but when else am I going to use that Marsala (like the Sherry, I bought it for cooking, but no recipes seem to ever call for it now that I have it!)?</div><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMbTeZNuprowEMVHQ366tuvsgcXLmVKM8nB4FFIT5E8xTgbezSXCHvR9GZebJQlXU5sGSS1_ZdWf_4MhN0djWL0r5kg7PfQdiKS_zsTCs4lpUe_TGRRwI-L4AnuMfLtAFLrmLqq13qbeu_/s1600-h/DSC_0018.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMbTeZNuprowEMVHQ366tuvsgcXLmVKM8nB4FFIT5E8xTgbezSXCHvR9GZebJQlXU5sGSS1_ZdWf_4MhN0djWL0r5kg7PfQdiKS_zsTCs4lpUe_TGRRwI-L4AnuMfLtAFLrmLqq13qbeu_/s320/DSC_0018.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5285852161104638258" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">Yummy soup goodness simmering away.</span></div></div><div><br />7. If you're being good, you'd slice up that bread now, top the slices with cheese, and broil them til the cheese looks extra yummy. Then you'd put a piece in the bottom of each person's bowl. If you're bad like me, just heat up whatever bread you find in your freezer first (in was Nan/Naan for me! Way to mix ethnicities!) and maybe smear some butter on it or something. 'Cos if you're like me, you don't just have gruyere lying around. And you would have decided to make this recipe when you got home a bit early one night and thus hadn't planned for it.</div><div>8. After about 30 minutes (or 10, if you're like me and just want to eat while watching The Tenant of Windfell Hall, episode 3 (of 3) on Netflix Instant Viewing and don't really care), scoop some soup up and pour it into the bowl over the piece of bread with gruyere. The bread should float to the top, but get soft enough to eat with a spoon. Serve.</div><div><br /></div><div>Okay, so I hope at this point you understand that while this is a perfectly yummy recipe, I didn't really post it for the recipe itself... I just wanted to show off my new onion goggles (Christmas present from Santa--thanks mom and dad!). Did they work? You bet they did!!! My eyes didn't water at all. But, the onions made me sneeze and my nostrils weren't too happy--haven't ever noticed that effect of onions before, but I'm guessing that because my eyes weren't watering, I stuck it out in the kitchen longer than I normally would have, so that meant my nose got it worse than usual. Or, they could have been particularly potent onions... please don't call animal cruelty on me, but this is what Alice looked like when I went to check on her:</div><div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinxtIxcF9DNQKXxP48n96gavKAJ5wUHHrtGRVQWl2vk2ZQbOFYIqMLZqrg-GP13dsefoMq1d9LM0DO84ZY3q_LJFAYWeYbvtr4u-kC-jhj5fKNOGvdCvpJHINYjT8XEkKR0Rju_GFO3Gud/s1600-h/DSC_0010.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinxtIxcF9DNQKXxP48n96gavKAJ5wUHHrtGRVQWl2vk2ZQbOFYIqMLZqrg-GP13dsefoMq1d9LM0DO84ZY3q_LJFAYWeYbvtr4u-kC-jhj5fKNOGvdCvpJHINYjT8XEkKR0Rju_GFO3Gud/s320/DSC_0010.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5285849596692534434" /></a><br /></div><div>Is that the saddest thing? I immediately went and opened the door to our deck, even though it was cool outside, and got Alice to come sit in the fresh air by playing with her. Her eyes got better in no time, thankfully! I didn't remove my goggles until the onions had been cooking for 30 minutes. Do they make cat-size onion goggles, I wonder.</div>Samanthahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17470299166892375356noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4231335054844514225.post-32390957909654935792008-12-28T21:37:00.000-08:002008-12-28T22:31:01.493-08:00December 1995 South Africa trip, take 2Um, so this is a bit embarrassing... turns out I also had written a journal entry (in prose) in the same book for my 1995 trip. What I typed up earlier was just my bullet-points list. So I'm going to try again.<div><br /></div><div>13 December 1995</div><div>7:42 pm Seattle time [written while in an airplane]</div><div><br /></div><div>Well, here I am on my way to a new continent: S. America! São Paulo, Brazil, to be exact. I am $400 richer, have a $14 airport meal in my stomach, but am losing at least 15 hours of precious time with friends and relatives in South Africa. </div><div><br /></div><div>My story of the last 48 hours is enough to write a short story on. I will start 48 hours ago: I was in Seattle, in my apartment, recovering from my Microbiology final exam and thinking about getting down to studying for my Physics final. The rest of the night was fairly uneventful. My roommate, Jason, brought a few (female) friends over, and Genevieve and I ended up keeping two of them company while Jason flirted and had chocolate syrup fights in his room with the third young woman. [G and I shared a 3-bedroom apartment with Jason, who I think we had met in the dorms the previous year, for two quarters. Then G moved out and joined a sorority for half a day, but that's a different story, and maybe G should tell it :-) ]</div><div><br /></div><div>On the morning of the 12th of December, at 8:30 am, I started writing my Physics final. At 10:30 am, I was done. I went and accepted gifts from my work colleagues and shared a grad. student's birthday cake with the lab. By 12:30 pm, I was on the Ave depositing a paycheck and finally, after literally months of looking, buying myself a new pair of athletic shoes and they were on sale [note to Samantha of the past... you should have spent more on athletic shoes, and you should have bought new ones more often... those shoes wound up causing you a lot of foot problems when you took up running a couple of years later].</div><div><br /></div><div>At 2:30 pm when I returned to me apartment with the rain and wind just starting ahead of the major wind storm, the fire alarms had just started to go off. We all evacuated the building; Genevieve had been in the shower when the alarms went off, and so had to walk outside with conditioner still in her hair. [G, do you remember that? I didn't.]</div><div><br /></div><div>Eventually, that was over too. At 3 pm, my dad was supposed to pick us up to take us down to Olympia. At 4 pm he still hadn't arrived but we got a phone call from my mother: my dad had been in a car accident. His car had been hit from behind and he hit the person in front of him, who hit the person in front of him, who hit the person in front of him-->5 cars! [hmmn, this sounds familiar. Didn't I just write that?] My dad's car was the only one with major damage. He has a large triangular dent in the back of his car, so his boot (trunk) doesn't close and his back bumper is now held on with bungie cords [I totally forgot about the damage to the boot... I think he managed to "fix" that and get the boot closed by drilling holes in the back of the car, attaching a piece of wood or something from behind it with screws, then attaching that to a rope attached to my mother's car... then he drove my mother's car slowly forward to pull the bent metal on his car out... clever dad! Another problems was that the back driver's side door was a bit tight... and he fixed that my adjusting the hinge. Good as new! Except for the accordian-like scrunched metal under the carpet in the boot.] His front bumper is slighted damaged. He was jolted hard enough that he broke his seat and his neck was hurting him. However, he tied up the car and came to pick us up at 5 pm [I'm impressed!].</div><div><br /></div><div>When we got to Olympia, we found that the power at my parents' house had been out since 3 pm that afternoon. Luckily, we had a little propane car-camping stove, so we had warm canned corn, some rice, and spinach for supper. Then I remembered--I had 2.5 weeks' worth of dirty laundry that I wanted to do so I could take some clean clothes and underwear to South Africa with me. But, there was no power. So, by the light of a propane lantern, I packed my dirty clothes into a suitcase. Our water heater was well enough insulated that there was warm water for a shower [thank goodness! Imagine starting a holiday with a suitcase of dirty clothes AND no shower!].</div><div><br /></div><div>After waking at 5 am this morning (Wednesday of finals week), we headed off to SeaTac. There was a lot of tree debris in the road from the windstorm, but luckily nothing to prevent us from getting to SeaTac. Our plane left only 30 minutes late, and we had a pleasant surprise when we found our assigned seats in the business section--yes! There was SO much leg room! The flight to New York was about 4.5 hours and was uneventful. We could see the Cascades as we flew over them and they were beautiful!</div><div><br /></div><div>We arrived at JFK airport in New York at 1:55 pm Seattle time. Our next plane was supposed to take off at 3:20 pm Seattle time, so we didn't have long. Genevieve and I ran to catch a shuttle bus to our terminal in 29 degree icy New York weather. We got to the South African Airways (SAA) counter at about 2:20 pm, Seattle time. They told us they were still processing seats so we would have to wait. (Dude, fly American Airways--they give you the whole can of whatever you are drinking--TWA only gave us a cupful! [Well, the mention of TWA (that we took for the Seattle-NY leg) dates this a bit, doesn't it! And I've since discovered that getting the whole can is a hit-and-miss thing in general]). So, wait we did... with about 50 other people. Now is a good time to mention that we booked our tickets from New York to Johannesburg 8 months ago. Two months ago, we confirmed the tickets and my South African grandmother paid for them in full [sweet Ouma].</div><div><br /></div><div>The story behind our wait started to emerge: the plane sitting at the gate was smaller than they had expected it would be, so there wasn't enough room on the plane for all of us [I now wonder if that was really true, or if they had simply overbooked]. They were taking us in order of check in and handing out boarding passes. Our pack of milling, angry, frustrated and frazzled people thinned down with time: at 3:30 pm Seattle time, there were 16 of us left. Sixteen people who had bought tickets, but for whom there was no space on the plane.</div><div><br /></div><div>We were told that we were each going to be compensated $400 and they had got us onto the next-quickest set of plane flights to Johannesburg. We were each given a free phone card--we used the 3 minutes of international calls on one to phone our friend in South Africa who was supposed to pick us up at the airport, and the 12 minutes of domestic calls on the other to phone my mom, as we had promised. Anyway, so at 7 pm Seattle time, we were told there was a flight to São Paulo, Brazil, and after a 5 hour layover there, a flight to Johannesburg. Total extra time: 15 hours. </div><div><br /></div><div>In May of this year, when I was registering for my fall classes, I registered for an 8:30 am Physics class that messed up my day by meaning I had to insert work [as an assistant in a research lab... I worked ~20 hours a week during the quarter there, and full time in the summers I didn't take classes] between classes, just so that I would finish my exams two days earlier so we could get on the Wednesday flight to Johannesburg. And then, I didn't even get the flight. But, look on the bright side: $400 compensation (the whole trip, 6 flights, cost $2300 each [YIKES! I didn't remember that it was that much. My flights this year, also 6, cost $1600. So much for flying getting more expensive]). I get to see South America for the first time, albeit from an airport window (if I leave, I would have to go through customs). They also gave us a voucher worth $15 at a deli down the hallway. You don't get change for what you don't use, so I got a $6 sandwich (you wouldn't have known by looking at it), two $1.50 bottles of mineral water, a $2 pecan roll, a banana (I don't know the price) and a $1.50 apple/cranberry drink--just short of $15! [Is it just me, or do those prices sound like they're not that much less than what you'd pay now?]. We also found out how rude and unhelpful New Yorkers (at least those working at the airport) are.</div><div><br /></div><div>Now, here I sit on the plane to Brazil, in economy class but with a seat free next to me, and a window to sleep against when I need it. Genevieve has the same (she was assigned the seat next to me, but there were two seats two rows back that were open, and the nice steward invited her to move there).</div><div><br /></div><div>So anyway, I have one less night in South Africa now, and another 5 hour (PS turned out to be 7) wait in an airport coming up tomorrow morning (and even more airline food--yuck!). Oh! And on this flight, they gave us a toothbrush, a little bit of toothpaste, a hair comb AND the movie is going to be "A walk in the clouds", which I have wanted to see for a while (edit: it was "Free Willy" [and "A walk in the clouds," which I must have seen some other time was pretty silly anyway]). AND I get to listen to a lot of Portugese being spoken. Ooh--turbulence.</div><div><br /></div><div>Signing off, Sam, 8:40 pm Seattle time.</div><div><br /></div><div>[Strange... I think I write essentially the same now as I did then.]</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>Samanthahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17470299166892375356noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4231335054844514225.post-83034596499245014972008-12-28T16:43:00.000-08:002008-12-28T16:51:26.371-08:00Egg substitutesAnother piece of paper I found in the pile:<div><br /></div><div>Substitute for 1 egg when baking:</div><div><br /></div><div>1/2 of a very ripe banana</div><div><br /></div><div>1/2 tsp ground/milled flaxseed in 1/4 cup warm water, stirred until gooey (it really does start seeming like egg whites, and this provides omega-3 fatty acids without needing to eat fish)</div><div><br /></div><div>1/4 cup applesauce</div><div><br /></div><div>I've never tried the banana, but I do use the other two options with great success, especially applesauce in sweet breads, such as banana, zucchini or cranberry-apple, that I make entirely vegan (the applesauce helps make and keep them moist) and flaxseed as a partial egg substitute in brownies (I just cut back the number of eggs and substitute flaxseed for the missing ones). I wouldn't try them in cookies or pumpkin pie filling... just don't think they'd do as well in those. But, please let me know if they work for you in other things.</div><div><br /></div><div>Enjoy.</div>Samanthahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17470299166892375356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4231335054844514225.post-3938241257912963152008-12-28T12:07:00.000-08:002008-12-28T13:12:08.450-08:00December 1995 South Africa tripI discovered right after posting the last entry on my 2008 trip to South Africa that I had just typed up my last real journal entry! After that, I more took notes in my journal rather than writing stories. I may still try to turn those notes into stories some time--we'll see! In the meantime, I am cleaning off the top of my bedroom dresser today. It is where I keep a lot of paper. It has gotten a little out of control. I found this in a notebook, and wanted to record it so I could throw away the paper... <div><br /></div><div>In 1995, my sister and I went on a trip to South Africa together. The getting-there part was a bit of a nightmare. Here're my notes:</div><div><br /></div><div>Background</div><div>~April 1995: decided to make trip; ordered tickets</div><div><br /></div><div>~May 1995: planned Autumn 1995 class schedule so that final exams would be before the flight [G and I were undergraduates in Seattle at the time, and we specifically planned our Autumn quarter schedule for the final exams to be finished as early as possible, to give us more time in South Africa before we had to be back in Seattle for the beginning of the next quarter; I took an 8:30 am physics lab (I found that to be a bit early for 3 hours of physics) because the final was earlier for that section than for the 11:30 am one]</div><div><br /></div><div>12 December 1995 [the day my dad was going to pick us up in Seattle to take us to my parents' house, so that they could take us to the airport the next day]</div><div>8:30 am: final exam in Physics 122</div><div>10:30 am: to work; Noel's birthday; presents from Sally and Terry [I was working as an assistant in a Toxicology research lab... Terry was my big boss and Sally and Noel were graduate students]</div><div>12:30 pm: to Ave [street in University district]... cash paycheck, buy shoes and leotard and aerobics pants and waterproof shoe spray at Big 5 [a sports store; I was a big aerobicizer back in those days]</div><div>2:30 pm: get to apartment, fire alarm going off [this was a bit of a problem as my dad was supposed to arrive at 3 pm to pick me and my packed luggage up... I needed to get in so I could pack!]</div><div>4 pm: phone call from mom... dad has been in an accident, but would pick us up at 5 pm [this was the accident that turned his Honda Accord into his Honda Accordian... he was hit from behind while stopped at an offramp light... he hit the car in front of him, which hit the car in front of it, which hit the car in front of it (that's 5 cars total)... his car was a bit crumpled, hence its new nickname, and was later deemed a right-off by the insurance company, but he bought it back from the insurance company for $150 (in addition to getting the $2000 for it's value when it was written off) and that car kept going as my sister's car at least until she sold it when it had >250,000 miles on it... quite the car]</div><div>4 pm: wind really starts blowing... "Windstorm of 1995"</div><div>5 pm: dad picks us up in damaged car; traffic good to Olympia</div><div>6:30 pm: arrive in Tumwater [where my parents lived]; power is out [due to wind storm], can't do 2.5 weeks' worth of laundry</div><div>That evening: pack my dirty clothes by light of torch and propane lantern</div><div><br /></div><div>[Perhaps we should have given up here?]</div><div><br /></div><div>13 December, 1995 [day of flight]</div><div>5 am: rise and shine</div><div>9:30 am: take off half an hour late from SeaTac for New York... in Business class though [about the only thing going well!]</div><div>2:15 pm Seattle time: get to SAA desk in New York [we hadn't been given boarding passes for the New York to Johannesburg leg in Seattle so had been told to go to the ticket counter when we got to NY]... a big crowd of people there that got smaller as names were called and people were given boarding passes... wait and wait to get our boarding passes</div><div>-->plane takes off without us because the flight was overbooked [never mind that we'd got the tickets 8 months earlier]</div><div>-->get $400 voucher [the tickets were about $1600 each, I think]</div><div>-->get $15 meal voucher: one sandwich, two waters, one cran-apple juice, one pecan roll, 1 banana =$14 [and a very rude cashier--I understood then what people said about New Yorkers being gruff]</div><div>-->told our luggage has been lost, presumably left on the tarmac in Seattle but they have no record of it after we checked in</div><div>10 pm: plane to São Paulo, Brazil [the airline rerouted us through Brazil and Argentina to get to South Africa... we were supposed to be on a direct NY-Joburg flight]</div><div><br /></div><div>14 December 1995</div><div>11 am Brazil time: arrive in São Paulo (11 hr flight). In transit lounge until 6 pm</div><div><br /></div><div>15 December 1995</div><div>11 am South African time: arrive in Johannesburg from Brazil via Argentina (~11 hr flight with ~1 hr in Buenos Aires). That's ~7 am Brazil time.</div><div><br /></div><div>Well, we made it to South Africa (a day later than planned), and our luggage did make it a couple of days later. We got to see the Amazon jungle (and its destruction) from the sky and breath South American air for the only time (so far) in our lives. There were 16 people who were re-routed through South America, and all of us had our luggage lost, so G and I weren't the only poor saps. There was no SAA representative in the airport in Brazil for the first ~4 hours we were there, so the 16 of us banded together and managed to get a cafe in the airport to give us as much free food and drinks as we wanted... and before that, since cans of Heineken (beer) was the same price as cans of soda (US$2), G and I bought Heinekens to drink (we were both legal drinking age in Brazil, but not in the USA). There's a photo of us in the lounge with a can of Heineken somewhere.</div><div><br /></div><div>Let me recap the things that went wrong:</div><div>-fire alarm kept me from my apartment for a while when I needed to pack</div><div>-dad in car accident on way to pick us up in Seattle</div><div>-power outage due to wind storm=no laundry, had to pack by lantern</div><div>-8 hours wait in New York, diverted through South America, 7 hours in a transit lounge in Brazil, 1 hour sitting on tarmac in Argentina while they cleaned the plane</div><div>-our vegetarian meals were on the wrong plane, so I actually ate a bit of chicken (last time I intentionally ate chicken; I had been a vegetarian for over 7 years at this point)</div><div>-luggage misplaced for a few days</div><div><br /></div><div>But most importantly, over a day of our precious holiday time was lost! We also had to go shopping for underwear etc. when we finally arrived, since we didn't have our luggage. I think our holiday was supposed to have two weeks in South Africa total.</div><div><br /></div><div>We had a good time in South Africa at least. And the flights to and out of South America were fairly empty, so G and I had a few seats to ourselves.</div><div><br /></div><div>Perhaps some other time I will write down the story of how I got 2 hours of sleep before my Wisconsin graduate school interview because of another travel horror story.<div><br /></div></div>Samanthahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17470299166892375356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4231335054844514225.post-31099568881029684682008-12-11T21:31:00.000-08:002008-12-11T22:24:11.068-08:00A letter about a childhood<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQGA22FjX7gdWG2ceOIdoxI_WIsHXyyrCq80YIgvx22FFNPbkMx1Ty_rGXI7fWGtcrf2dWwYHNhdzzF0VvOJFwnMtoWzsZc6ElX6_H-gdA-X3CEikYbIkBeHmmLlJazhOQcMWYvQy7hVDL/s1600-h/MallensPorchOld.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 224px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQGA22FjX7gdWG2ceOIdoxI_WIsHXyyrCq80YIgvx22FFNPbkMx1Ty_rGXI7fWGtcrf2dWwYHNhdzzF0VvOJFwnMtoWzsZc6ElX6_H-gdA-X3CEikYbIkBeHmmLlJazhOQcMWYvQy7hVDL/s320/MallensPorchOld.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5278777898239358962" /></a><br />I totally forgot to post this back when I was writing about the Hermanus phase of my trip. While in Hermanus, my aunt Anne shared a letter with me. The letter was hand-written about nine years ago to my grandmother from one of her childhood friends. While there, I typed it up and had my cousin Diana send it to me. I feel a bit like I am intruding on someone else's privacy by posting this, but I think it's so lovely that I want to share it and I don't see that it will do any harm.<br /><br />*****<br />13 August 1999<br /><br />Dearest Cathy [my grandmother]<br /><br />My eyesight is not too good so I do not enjoy writing--I hope you can decipher this letter. I have been telling my family what you and your family meant to me so now I have decided to tell it to you.<br /><br />I remember the details of your dad’s tidy garden, the fruit and rose trees all pruned and the trunks white washed, the grape vines that we climbed in and the grenadillas [passion fruits] below the water tank.<br /><br />I visited often for morning tea. We had bossie [bush... I assume rooibos/red] tee [tea] made with hot milk and lovely rusks [kind of like biscotti... for dunking into tea]--at Sonop [the name of the writer's family's house--means Sunrise], if we children were hungry, we found raw sweet potatoes in the shed under the tank!<br /><br />I remember your mother so well--I remember the pincushion on her dressing table that looked like a piece of watermelon--black pips [seeds] and all.<br /><br />She covered your Topsy doll regularly--new beady earrings and all. Do you remember the sweets [candies] she used to make--the peppermint syrup that she pulled as soon as it was cool enough to handle--when long enough, she cut it into sweet-size pieces. The other sweets she used to make were reddish brown and had peanut in them.<br /><br />The storeroom key was attached to a piece of smooth wood. The smell in that store room was heavenly! Especially the dried peaches [funny--I loved the smell in my grandmother's store room, when she had one. She kept onions there, for one thing].<br /><br />Because you were the middle child, I was taken here and there with you to keep you company--I remember going to the Findleys in Sunnyside--I remember coming back from Johannesburg with your family one evening. You mother was trying to get Elise [my great aunt... my grandmother's sister] to sleep when I mentioned all the car lights. Of course Elise sat up to look--you can be sure I was not too popular!<br /><br />I remember details in the house--the photographs of Ben and Rene’s children with their pink cheeks and blue eyes--And the photo of the Catherine after whom you were called--it was the Titanic in which she drowned, was it not [actually the Lusitania, I think]?<br /><br />I remember the cosy atmosphere in front of the fire in the sitting room when your dad used to melt lead to make sinkers for his fishing. I can still see him pouring the lead into the tiny mould and before it cooled down, he put in a small hook.<br /><br />When I was 6 and you 5, I spent a whole month at Hermanus with you--I remember the mussels, the seaweed jelly and the penguin eggs--And Voelklip-the rock from which your dad fell and broke his nose! You had to practice your music before we were allowed to play. I used to sit on the stool with you and we sang all the songs whilst you played.<br /><br />Your Edison records and the diamond needle was the great attraction--with you I really loved the operas--music I never had at Sonop--The other night on TV, I looked at the Great Caruso with Miro Lanza--it was then that I decided to get hold of you.<br /><br />At Sonop, we never had any family life--we hardly ever saw our parents--we had meals with a nursemaid--the only real family life I knew was at your place--Do you remember the mosquito nets and the citronella oil?<br /><br />I hope you can read this--all my love--we had lovely times together when we were young.<br /><br />Love, Eth [Ethelwyn]<br />*****<br /><br />Lovely, hey?<div><br /></div><div>PS. The photo at the top is one of mine... I used some iPhoto tricks to give it an older style 'cos I thought it fit the mood.<br /><br /><br /></div>Samanthahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17470299166892375356noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4231335054844514225.post-4478539172410618102008-12-07T21:05:00.000-08:002008-12-07T22:02:43.169-08:0011 September 200811 September 2008<div><br /></div><div>Apparently there was frost on the roof of the Kalahari Trails lodge this morning and it was 1°C out, but it didn't feel all that bad to me. We had a breakfast that finished off the guava juice and milk and got on our way. After ~10 minutes, I realized we'd left the rest of our stuff in their fridge, so we headed back to get that. The rest of the drive to Upington was mostly uneventful except for all the birds that dodged our truck--I hope they were all successful. Oh! On our way back to retrieve our fridge goodies (a soaking wet Cadbury's bar and bag of apples), we almost hit a Roller [type of bird] of some sort--probably a Lilac-breasted Roller--that was sitting in the road. We both thought it was a dove until the last few seconds, then it took off and just missed our windshield. We hadn't seen any Rollers well while in the park, but I had briefly seen one flying next to us on our way to Mata-Mata. Jesse may have seen one other, but the one in front of the windshield was the best for both of us.</div><div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU_JUq59scLipIwOCEJg8WVUtKjremNUnf6sC9q6yJDVlawmYWEMzzU5Vsump9vFyEjjWcHC3CFYWMGStvYXnyTzckvhWovIFg-eiJGiRgOMOazwl6cGqzcjjPU8N06XQLzxXGXq_xbF_X/s1600-h/DSC_0070_2.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU_JUq59scLipIwOCEJg8WVUtKjremNUnf6sC9q6yJDVlawmYWEMzzU5Vsump9vFyEjjWcHC3CFYWMGStvYXnyTzckvhWovIFg-eiJGiRgOMOazwl6cGqzcjjPU8N06XQLzxXGXq_xbF_X/s320/DSC_0070_2.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5277293371221735906" /></a><div style="text-align: center;">The front of the main house at Kalahari Trails.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><div>We got to Upington just before 11 am and thought we'd see if Neil [guy who rented us the 4x4] would still refund us a day's rental as he'd said he would if we brought it back early (we were 1 h into the 7th day). He readily agreed, and also refunded us for the freezer/fridge not working and didn't care that the battery case was shattered and the one plastic tub was cracked [see post from two days earlier about my crazy driving over sand dunes]. That was a relief. With money back on my credit card, we headed on foot over to the Pick 'n' Pay center (where we'd loaded up with provisions before our northward trip) in search of an Internet cafe. Was a bit of a wild-goose chase, since it doesn't seem there is one any more in that center. However, after we bought a koeksister [basically a donut soaked in sugar syrup] and a tray of melkterts [milk tarts] at a home-bakes store, we were re-directed to an Internet cafe on the next block that only cost R30 (about $4 at the time) an hour.</div><div><br /></div><div>Jesse got bad news via email--our friend Sergio Palacios* died in a car crash about a week and a half ago. No details except that it happened in Mexico. Leo [my co-worker and cat sitter] wrote to say that the cats are fine and that my plants "are still green." He should have defended his thesis yesterday. It was nice to hear that all is well in San Diego. Saw a few of Genevieve's wedding photos [Genevieve is my sister--she'd sent me the link to the photographer's website to see the just-released photos of her wedding that took place at the beginning of August], but the connection was a bit slow to see more. </div><div><br /></div><div>After that, we headed back to the Pick 'n' Pay center for a subdued [because of the news we'd just got about Sergio] lunch at a cafe (toasted cheese and tomato, with chips and a Grapetizer for me, and a vanilla milkshake for Jesse). Then, to Pick 'n' Pay for some snacks for the bus ride and to a pharmacy to buy postcards. We sat in the parking lot to write our postcards, then went to post them at a Postnet (R9 each! Ridiculous). [I don't know why I didn't write about this in my journal, but Das Rollende Hotel pulled up into the parking lot of Pick 'n' Pay while we were there and its passengers spread our all over the mall--there were very few postcards left!]</div><div><br /></div><div>And guess who we saw in the parking lot of Pick 'n' Pay? Richard [the son of the proprietress, and who we'd waved goodbye to earlier that morning] from Kalahari Trails! He was looking to buy some mattresses. As he said, we seem to be followed by Richards (Richard the tourist Brit [see post from our first stay at Kalahari Trails] showed up at Kalahari Trails while we were there last night to look for stuff they'd lost and talked to Jesse about Namibia and the Garden Route... also, we'd seen him at the lion kill earlier in the day [Richard the tourist was a bit of an oddball, and Richard the son of the proprietress, was not to fond of him. Long story, and this paragraph is filled with "in" jokes that I can't really explain]).</div><div><br /></div><div>After some aimless walking around [we had hours to kill before our bus left], we stopped at "Friends" coffee shop and had some Rooibos [red tea] and mini carrot cake. We sat there as long as our butts would take it and then did some more aimless wondering--looking at Mr. Price Home and Mr. Price (clothes) stores. Some nicely-patterned duvet covers at the home store, but they didn't look particularly well made. Too bad. Then we decided to see what Game [a store] sold and bought a bag of mints for Jesse and some red Bic click pens for me ;-) [those pens are one of my favorite things I brought back. I love them].</div><div><br /></div><div>By that time, it was finally 5 pm and we felt we could show up at Elron motors/Mahindra/Kalahari 4x4 to wait for Neil to take us to the Intercape (bus) office, which he did at 6 pm [we'd left our bags at the dealership when we dropped off our truck. Neil was a very accommodating, nice guy]. Now, we're on the bus to Cape Town and Jesse is quite uncomfortable because he doesn't fit [Jesse is 6'4" and has problems with airline seats etc.]. :-( Let's hope we get a bit of sleep! [It was an overnight bus ride].</div><br />[*Sergio was a very interesting guy--oh, the stories there are about him! He was Mexican, but had lived in England for a while and thus had a British accent when he spoke English. The Mexican government gave Sergio a scholarship to go to graduate school in the USA... he got his PhD in Wisconsin (working in the same lab as Jesse) and then did a postdoc in the USA too. He was back in Mexico to comply with the terms of his scholarship--that he return there to work (I don't know the exact details, but sending Sergio to get further education in the USA was an investment by Mexico). He was a very good runner and entered local road races (I think 5 km was his specialty) to win the prize money and was quite upset when he didn't win his entrance fees back. He also quite liked to drink... one time, he was still drunk from a night of drinking when an early-morning race was going to start, but he ran it anyway. The photo below is from my first Halloween in graduate school (1997). Sergio is on the left--he went as a box. For the record, next to him is Jason Hickman (Chicago Bears fan), Tracey Grimek (biohazardous waste), Jeff Gralnick (monk) and that's me, the cleaning lady in front. We were all first-year graduate students here. I had a brand new kitchen towel I took as part of my outfit and was quite upset (I didn't let on) when someone I didn't know at the party asked to borrow it to clean up spilled beer... it never did come clean. The bright spot on the bottom left is because my camera was on self-timer on a glass table and the flash got reflected back.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfMSHpLAAZxhH6y7WmWytCLo2HSySRAcR9qj2VtuQvS20veBZ9oIvryY6S2Fs2rnfsuOvO30i5glo7xYIhtT87PWwNN5LKdV6cYdm6hee4KQvhj3u7r0JO-ehZwOIsVYAsbgcEF2B8RvyZ/s1600-h/SergioHalloween1997.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfMSHpLAAZxhH6y7WmWytCLo2HSySRAcR9qj2VtuQvS20veBZ9oIvryY6S2Fs2rnfsuOvO30i5glo7xYIhtT87PWwNN5LKdV6cYdm6hee4KQvhj3u7r0JO-ehZwOIsVYAsbgcEF2B8RvyZ/s320/SergioHalloween1997.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5277284866344865490" /></a>]Samanthahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17470299166892375356noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4231335054844514225.post-23354549159658008112008-12-07T16:44:00.000-08:002008-12-07T21:01:56.545-08:0010 September 200810 September 2008<div><br /></div><div>What a difference a day makes! This morning, I got up at ~6:15 am and had to fight my way to a sink because the bathroom was packed with German women from Das Rollende Hotel. We got on our way at 7:30 am, after getting a lecture from the East Londoners about how SA is "heading the way of Zimbabwe."</div><div><br /></div><div>Within a couple of kilometers, we were passing a stopped car when we noticed why they were stopped--2 cheetahs lying in the grass!!!!!! Jesse slammed on the brakes while looking at the cheetahs so we ended up going over the edge of the road with one tire and made quite a dent in the gravel. For ~5 minutes, we watched them lie there, then as one got up and walked to the other, who had a radio collar on*.<br /><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7w8zJSpMDwPN3guZFy9oJYz0S_GoTzqY-MGBoNRHidMvxm0cpjPVSu4hjwqO8vCBo3jUAkEJRNrdLJm9Z410iDnrJr6xUmtvCK9xLXey-G19TCGSsOqOXAIbpQ8WAHaS4ooHDaIzE73q3/s1600-h/DSC_0772.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7w8zJSpMDwPN3guZFy9oJYz0S_GoTzqY-MGBoNRHidMvxm0cpjPVSu4hjwqO8vCBo3jUAkEJRNrdLJm9Z410iDnrJr6xUmtvCK9xLXey-G19TCGSsOqOXAIbpQ8WAHaS4ooHDaIzE73q3/s320/DSC_0772.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5277244763417827362" /></a></div><div><div style="text-align: center; ">Cheetahs in the grass.<br /></div></div><div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi05Y7nUEiZ6inS564c5ORaaWwqY5zSI3H6aasEPVLGrMRDNlq0kVf1XNNBNowwwHvRg0vDc_MTtkuoiCs_fLnL7qaL4FVdN00ObhD9V_d5RoAdOSZ4syqlxlEv2mO2mQ9vGpJynjqbCMyk/s1600-h/DSC_0832.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi05Y7nUEiZ6inS564c5ORaaWwqY5zSI3H6aasEPVLGrMRDNlq0kVf1XNNBNowwwHvRg0vDc_MTtkuoiCs_fLnL7qaL4FVdN00ObhD9V_d5RoAdOSZ4syqlxlEv2mO2mQ9vGpJynjqbCMyk/s320/DSC_0832.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5277244777796357826" /></a><div style="text-align: center;">The cheetahs start moving about.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>Soon after that, they both got up and started walking away, getting quite close to another stopped car just ahead of us. And who should roll up, but Das Rollende Hotel. Actually, perhaps the cheetahs departure was a bit timed by their arrival. The cheetahs paused at a fallen over tree stump and both jumped up, the smaller (younger) one without a collar not being quite as successful at first and having to leap right off. Then the collared one got down and started rubbing her neck against the tree. After a while, they both walked off and up a dune, giving us a great silhouette view. </div><div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRE6B1AmwPBEdu1228HsBo5u_Y6l4KyAGf2UnUFkuHdh396FVYnweDL1BljA9V29DzV5neT-VpB_nX5at8clAWCoxomPrCNs92qC55-CDGsbQMghoiXb_zzRVIFzzb9jmSCgRcO8hw5C4i/s1600-h/DSC_0844.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRE6B1AmwPBEdu1228HsBo5u_Y6l4KyAGf2UnUFkuHdh396FVYnweDL1BljA9V29DzV5neT-VpB_nX5at8clAWCoxomPrCNs92qC55-CDGsbQMghoiXb_zzRVIFzzb9jmSCgRcO8hw5C4i/s320/DSC_0844.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5277244786253531730" /></a><div style="text-align: center;">One cheetah is in the tree and the collared one is scratching her neck.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><div>We continued on our way and after a few kilometers we came across some parked cars--a sure sign that there's a lion in the neighborhood! On our left was a massive male lion with a black mane, posing very nicely. He got up and walked over the hill as we watched, around the same time that Das Rollende Hotel showed up (we'd passed them a little way back). They caused quite the traffic jam as they tried to position truck and trailer around the parked cars. We actually had to move our truck to let them get ahead, then they penned in another vehicle that we had to reverse for, to let it out. Craziness. But, we then noticed two more females (maybe three) and a male on the right, who all started to pose nicely before conking out in the grass. We watched them for quite a while (D.R.H. didn't stay for long), then got moving. </div><div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSiVMGJ60GRTXsEcfGBe9r-Ei6doWMOvmjtGpwZEXYC0SsJFpamO0-FA7BA4dodn41T_u4hGIfJZccIuT0J3f3frFNdNcSw12-Go1Bk9dZvr-fcL9KqnglpFYkDdh61QNSHkIctIke2HXq/s1600-h/DSC_0890.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSiVMGJ60GRTXsEcfGBe9r-Ei6doWMOvmjtGpwZEXYC0SsJFpamO0-FA7BA4dodn41T_u4hGIfJZccIuT0J3f3frFNdNcSw12-Go1Bk9dZvr-fcL9KqnglpFYkDdh61QNSHkIctIke2HXq/s320/DSC_0890.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5277269363331345794" /></a><div style="text-align: center;">A happy-looking cat.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjb5jtlwUHMgQ-ItT19IQjWp4kM1auw4XKyGTLmKizfvkdAAKEb7I3d7J98OI_YWhAfhk4D0F5dorKAw04w0z27_FxrUGEKz1iUXfk4nqCqdDjuRjixHsgtlePB8ZY5PqIpSGyKKcM7Zq6_/s1600-h/DSC_0895.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjb5jtlwUHMgQ-ItT19IQjWp4kM1auw4XKyGTLmKizfvkdAAKEb7I3d7J98OI_YWhAfhk4D0F5dorKAw04w0z27_FxrUGEKz1iUXfk4nqCqdDjuRjixHsgtlePB8ZY5PqIpSGyKKcM7Zq6_/s320/DSC_0895.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5277269372919761298" /></a><div style="text-align: center;">A *BIG* cat.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzxXYKk9UFtTn1o3FmdCmWIoLipUZwJK7N5Z8wLO-3q7uaV1_ZSXjYihgankjVpTsL7wzjBXNURFdR5kGq02J-3R_msphWXfhCbATHYaxfS16fB28hAyqAk0NhA030k_nyBB9CKiXFApzM/s1600-h/DSC_0906.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzxXYKk9UFtTn1o3FmdCmWIoLipUZwJK7N5Z8wLO-3q7uaV1_ZSXjYihgankjVpTsL7wzjBXNURFdR5kGq02J-3R_msphWXfhCbATHYaxfS16fB28hAyqAk0NhA030k_nyBB9CKiXFApzM/s320/DSC_0906.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5277269380148308674" /></a><div style="text-align: center;">A female lion showing how well her coat color matches that of the grass.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><div>We came across a herd of giraffe in the distance and watched them for a while, but then someone pulled up and told us there was a lion kill just up the road. We watched the giraffes for a couple more minutes then headed for the lion kill. Sure enough, there were eight lions around a dead baby giraffe :-( with five males (all with stubby manes [a sign of youth or old age]) nibbling on the giraffe, and three females flat on their sides in the shade. The upper and right parts of the giraffe's head had been eaten away, so we could see its lower teeth/jaw. They'd really gouged out the giraffe's belly and exposed more and more of the rib cage as we watched. The two cars with the best view didn't move while we were there, so I didn't get great photos, and I was looking through the windshield, so Jesse had to take the photos out of his window for me. The lions and giraffe body were 2-3 meters from the road (the other pride we'd seen was ~5 meters from the road).</div><div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzwPayiOSmuSwzN2EiEid8kBkBTmhnQDkHTxup_Jxp4VqP_5kcYEi_antvsEm-QRAJEEefnoa-OaCDtlzsgg8Zhv7eXYzM7YWTE3woDQWtqgJAJXzpKtnU7oC2vKRVzXZNqiLJaLr8Gd6k/s1600-h/DSC_0941.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzwPayiOSmuSwzN2EiEid8kBkBTmhnQDkHTxup_Jxp4VqP_5kcYEi_antvsEm-QRAJEEefnoa-OaCDtlzsgg8Zhv7eXYzM7YWTE3woDQWtqgJAJXzpKtnU7oC2vKRVzXZNqiLJaLr8Gd6k/s320/DSC_0941.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5277269384826200962" /></a><div style="text-align: center;">Lions at the breakfast table.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><div>Well, to top of our "good" animal day, we saw a mommy and daddy ostrich taking a stroll with their eighteen chicks and I got some good photos of swallow-tailed bee-eaters. And we saw some cardinal-breasted shrikes. And we saw Namibia and Botswana on the same day (without actually entering either).</div><div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5eeLILxB4Il4XLlTTxdRF6-QDXYgAgI1bD2G2lkGDnfzSVb4u1lSzdJA8yQzl6_Ir3NUILOlN4M7dbxttI9IJTkGeyFM77WYNkcAnscJNeVScWe2JEoesrGFbMiP7FW-m1-kmqYdDLzjg/s1600-h/DSC_0980.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5eeLILxB4Il4XLlTTxdRF6-QDXYgAgI1bD2G2lkGDnfzSVb4u1lSzdJA8yQzl6_Ir3NUILOlN4M7dbxttI9IJTkGeyFM77WYNkcAnscJNeVScWe2JEoesrGFbMiP7FW-m1-kmqYdDLzjg/s320/DSC_0980.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5277269398045426914" /></a><div style="text-align: center;">The ostriches and their 18 kids out for a stroll.</div></div><div><br /></div><div>We're back at Kalahari Trails tonight, but are sleeping inside the house because Prof. Anne Rasa [the proprietress] thinks there'll be a frost tonight. I got to take a shower and that feels very nice! We've repacked all the camping gear in preparation for returning it tomorrow. Then, there will be the bus ride to Cape Town.</div><div><br /></div><div>Oh--ran into Jared and Susan [who had been our neighbors at an earlier camp in the park] at Twee Rivieren... Susan said Das Rollende Hotel showed up at the picnic site they were at earlier in the day and that they'd totally taken over the place. Of course. We also saw a museum of the dwellings of early settlers today--must have been tough folks! It was a 14-day oxen ride to Upington...</div><div><br /></div><div>[*I sent information on our cheetah sightings to some people who are studying them in Kgalagadi and they sent me the following:</div><div>"Thank you so much for the photos of the cheetah. They are of a female<br />Elena that we first found in September 2006 with her mother (they parted<br />ways shortly afterwards) and her one remaining cub of her first ever<br />litter. She had the 4 cubs in September 2007 and unfortunately they<br />slowly got whittled down to just this one son. We think that she was<br />struggling to feed them and they were struggling to keep up with her. It<br />sure is tough out there!! Her son is now beginning to play a bit of a<br />role in her hunting attempts and he will be with his mother until he is<br />about 18 months old, so 6 more months to go before he is on his own".]<br /></div></div>Samanthahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17470299166892375356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4231335054844514225.post-45812142377835784952008-11-30T17:12:00.000-08:002008-11-30T20:43:01.216-08:009 September 2008Mata-Mata campground, Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park<div><br /></div><div>Well, we're back to camping after the excitement of last night. But once again, we have nice neighbors--an Afrikaans guy and his wife Winnie, from East London. They've been at this campsite for ~a week and this is their last night. They let us share their campsite so we wouldn't have to be next to Das Rollende Hotel--a massive bus pulling a cubicle hotel--looks like there are ~21 cubbies (14 windows on each of 3 levels, anyway) where people [German tourists] sleep. Apparently the whole contraption got stuck on a park road a few days ago and when they were rescued, after spending the night out there in the bush, the Parks people found the Germans wondering all over the dunes, never mind the lions, hyenas (some of which were apparently quite close), leopards etc. Quite the sight, their rolling hotel!</div><div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZglZQX0M73JiBVOugAsglzRLisjCKByOprO3xdHq4A3mG8EdNFNT2PWPqjSOETgEqXGBjkKfDs3qjLa5HrCHUy6ia4_I3p9SRPFapFRkJNPd_8xO22OrsS_RoGLZf3tixbhrDFG_B-NDX/s1600-h/DSC_0763.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZglZQX0M73JiBVOugAsglzRLisjCKByOprO3xdHq4A3mG8EdNFNT2PWPqjSOETgEqXGBjkKfDs3qjLa5HrCHUy6ia4_I3p9SRPFapFRkJNPd_8xO22OrsS_RoGLZf3tixbhrDFG_B-NDX/s320/DSC_0763.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5274634127707186610" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Das Rollende Hotel at Mata-Mata.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><div>Today we had a very long drive from Gharagab to Mata-Mata--7:30 am to ~3 pm. The morning was very interesting--we had some serious 4x4 driving to do, over sand dunes. We got so stuck on one that I had to dig out the tires with our shovel and push the truck just to get it reversed down the hill so we could attempt it again. We had to try ~4 times, if not 5, and I really had to push the truck at times, knowing that lions had been in the area overnight (Jared tracked them to a waterhole, past it, then into the grass). At one point, I was left at the top of the hill with our shovel, with Jesse and the truck at the bottom. [I tell you, there's nothing like the adrenaline rush associated with the fear that a lion or three might pop out of the lion-colored grass all around you at any moment to get you to push a truck that's stuck--it would have made an awesome photo, since I was up to my ankles in red sand and nearly horizontal as I pushed the front of the truck to get it unstuck. Thank you Kirsty for getting me into the "100 pushups" routine--those push-ups paid off!] I then commanded the truck over the remaining dunes, doing some very fancy steering at times to avoid hitting objects as the truck slid around.</div><div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7QDOCdgZlu53Hn5qv3w78kHhfX5-_9cRzqzhToE5Gcmb3oUVilAV7FvpG4kk3hp2l7N5Ya_BGfHpKXQGmqU-6STP5oxcbwwTmCLUGCF8Debrv0B94NDjy45wsbBb-92vkuiWnVSQIwp51/s1600-h/DSC_0637.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7QDOCdgZlu53Hn5qv3w78kHhfX5-_9cRzqzhToE5Gcmb3oUVilAV7FvpG4kk3hp2l7N5Ya_BGfHpKXQGmqU-6STP5oxcbwwTmCLUGCF8Debrv0B94NDjy45wsbBb-92vkuiWnVSQIwp51/s320/DSC_0637.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5274634119043127986" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The almost impossible hill. Those tire tracks coming up from the left and ending in deep sand are from one of our failed attempts</span>.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><div>We finally (~30 km) got onto the main road and back to Nossob, where we got petrol and switched drivers. That's when we realized that the battery for the fridge had jumped around so much that it was on its side and had cracked the plastic case it was in. And there was battery acid everywhere--I could smell it too. So I had to clean that up. Also, one of the plastic bins they'd given us the camping gear in is totally cracked. Oh dear. Let's hope the R90/day "full insurance" covers that.</div><div><br /></div><div>Back to driving over the dunes--I just want to mention that I had a LOT of fun doing it, though I was quite nervous (of getting stuck or destroying the truck) too. I was quite impressed by my dune driving skills! [I don't remember the last time I have had so much fun, nor been so scared. I was driving like a someone in an off-road race... we had to go fast to get over the dunes, then the road would turn just as we crested, so I'd have to make a quick steering correction, then another as the road turned again etc. I didn't know I was capable of it, I have to say.]</div><div><br /></div><div>Anyway, after hours of driving, we finally got to see the giraffe that hang out near Mata-Mata and nowhere else in the park--some pretty small ones frolicking, and some big ones eating the leaves off the tops of trees. It was strange to see such large animals with such long legs after days of smaller animals. Also, saw some Springbok sleeping at the side of the road looking very unperturbed by us driving up to them and taking photos. Saw lots of Swallow-tailed bee-eaters near Nossob--gorgeous birds. Oh! And both Jesse and I scared Kori bustards into flight while driving [this is an old joke between us--the Kori bustard is the largest flighted bird, but you don't normally see them flying because they spend most of their time walking around. One day when Jesse and I were chasing sunset back to camp in Etosha in 2001 (the camp gates close at sunset), we almost hit a Kori bustard that was in the road, but it took off at the last second--so we had proved to ourselves that they do actually fly]. We also saw a whole bunch of ostriches.</div><div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2wYgRKfV6xFgYK7NCLPgdLtD9mVmX7uDfU2ixpW72MAq9HHgbM8M0uIR7JGJewmkXkkNYbCE-q3a4mdAA_YNyBWa2vuf_nGgBp0ciijOlih02Sivgbxynkdm3f2xysxGMyI_nehL1yjo0/s1600-h/DSC_0658.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2wYgRKfV6xFgYK7NCLPgdLtD9mVmX7uDfU2ixpW72MAq9HHgbM8M0uIR7JGJewmkXkkNYbCE-q3a4mdAA_YNyBWa2vuf_nGgBp0ciijOlih02Sivgbxynkdm3f2xysxGMyI_nehL1yjo0/s320/DSC_0658.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5274634134873760722" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">A trio of giraffes (sounds a bit like a Heifer catalog, doesn't it?). The all-neck giraffe on the left is a baby lying down.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy61ZAkKEsTmr7K-iS8n8FAnVy0xKxEMEFhudhNfFye5wUQ81AQuQFb9ky4tymorBlj5B62azmSBmj6Z8p6EsZYPZzcSiRGLJqem6OKcW95OvwrbmPq06WVOs8MutccOMsrb0JdHCJlpSH/s1600-h/DSC_0708.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy61ZAkKEsTmr7K-iS8n8FAnVy0xKxEMEFhudhNfFye5wUQ81AQuQFb9ky4tymorBlj5B62azmSBmj6Z8p6EsZYPZzcSiRGLJqem6OKcW95OvwrbmPq06WVOs8MutccOMsrb0JdHCJlpSH/s320/DSC_0708.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5274634147181889138" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Baby giraffe having a good gallop.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh34a7_v4BYeAULgvqkREXoEI3ziePjBgm7-d7aV8o43WqgaxFxDjkNmbMH_vbiLw2meVmIQw0AL1Z7IR63r8i9RL2FD1wxpJy28XAa7c3cw6cXbnBidX9YuzoMa95K-d8JD1boLGHmlf5e/s1600-h/DSC_0689.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 213px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh34a7_v4BYeAULgvqkREXoEI3ziePjBgm7-d7aV8o43WqgaxFxDjkNmbMH_vbiLw2meVmIQw0AL1Z7IR63r8i9RL2FD1wxpJy28XAa7c3cw6cXbnBidX9YuzoMa95K-d8JD1boLGHmlf5e/s320/DSC_0689.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5274634144380565298" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">An unperturbed Springbok.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWusiN6grQUYSkVT5ZO1BcpZ85DO-dhuWlxMSKTivUQlXl2k1U1D7VYoQ1DpMk-NKATmfIRtsMf2Gc3zMuwM9l47UxHya8BeCAEhMwCYbYJ0b3u9KqvsnXVggBtVFdc8dEWKpdiqkgTIZL/s1600-h/DSC_0740.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWusiN6grQUYSkVT5ZO1BcpZ85DO-dhuWlxMSKTivUQlXl2k1U1D7VYoQ1DpMk-NKATmfIRtsMf2Gc3zMuwM9l47UxHya8BeCAEhMwCYbYJ0b3u9KqvsnXVggBtVFdc8dEWKpdiqkgTIZL/s320/DSC_0740.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5274674094642381330" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">A swallow-tailed bee eater. No really, there's a bird in front of that tree. It's just to the left of center.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><div>Writing by the light of the moon, as this entry has been, is getting tougher, so I'm quitting here [you should see my hand writing! Remember how our flashlight died a few nights before, the same night our lantern died? Well, we were preserving the last of our other lantern's faint glow for important things, so I had to use moonlight to write.]</div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5nbVQNXoJzNE8gfKWaD6mOqoOlxPcrUI9XhOhzl3EfEf4xQve8jrJ8JvjsUwQwnr3E72ofDWNriJpr-SvTJc1K6zMlvYVqo8ZTtBqMKg53mhFn7rSZJC4wtXkXsZfla0U4pfvx7rbNNrz/s1600-h/DSC_0747.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 213px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5nbVQNXoJzNE8gfKWaD6mOqoOlxPcrUI9XhOhzl3EfEf4xQve8jrJ8JvjsUwQwnr3E72ofDWNriJpr-SvTJc1K6zMlvYVqo8ZTtBqMKg53mhFn7rSZJC4wtXkXsZfla0U4pfvx7rbNNrz/s320/DSC_0747.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5274674111963762978" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Jesse at our Mata-Mata campsite. As far away as we could get from Das Rollende Hotel and a campsite that seemed to be full of the partying types. Of which type we are not.</span> </div>Samanthahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17470299166892375356noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4231335054844514225.post-52997255901626502682008-11-30T16:27:00.000-08:002008-11-30T17:11:13.059-08:008 September 2008Gharagab [a camp within Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park]<div><br /></div><div>We're low on water and cash. Saw a couple of bat-eared foxes this morning, but nothing else of particular interest. The drive to Gharagab was partly on a 'jeep track'-like road...</div><div><br /></div><div>...BIG break here... got distracted by various things, including a brown hyena at the watering hole (after 2 jackals and some Gemsbok and a very wary Ostrich earlier), sunset from the lookout tower, gin-and-tonics with our neighbors Susan and Jared and the 'tourism assistant,' Eric, a leopard (!!!!!!!) at the watering hole in the rapidly fading light, then again in the pitch dark, and also a Steenbok (I think) and a Gemsbok. And, dinner of fried potato cubes, naartjies, and mint crisp Cadburys [chocolate]. Yummy.</div><div><br /></div><div>Okay, back to the drive--definitely needed a vehicle with good clearance on that road, and 4x4 would have helped at times (we drove with 4x2)... we almost didn't make it up the last ridge to camp, then we got stuck near Eric's cabin when we checked in. Eric had to drive our vehicle for us to our cabin, after we switched to 4x4 and were still stuck in the sand.</div><div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhF04dTUDPAGphUH4bjSEhaBIkOZQ4dd_A20AMTFWqZrgnViI6d1AqtX4gOFbQd_MQLqOMxmWFEQ8E5er7vztiaLFOYVs_1OalwJ5HGKG17mIDTgn4NjlI2CUlNepnsDAjh90luGWsWgWhO/s1600-h/DSC_0613.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhF04dTUDPAGphUH4bjSEhaBIkOZQ4dd_A20AMTFWqZrgnViI6d1AqtX4gOFbQd_MQLqOMxmWFEQ8E5er7vztiaLFOYVs_1OalwJ5HGKG17mIDTgn4NjlI2CUlNepnsDAjh90luGWsWgWhO/s320/DSC_0613.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5274621466348847794" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The 'jeep track' leading to Gharagab.</span></div></div><div><br /></div><div>It was the hottest it had been get when we got here [found out later it had been 35°C (95°F)], so we had lunch (got here just after 12 pm, I think), then sat around until I got so tired I had to have a nap (!!) [this is remarkable because I don't nap]. I can see why there are siestas in hot countries! The nap lasted ~1/2 hour, then Jesse has a shower, then me. For the time when I was wet, I was actually cool (the 'windows' (screens) let in a nice breeze). But, I dried pretty quickly! Then, more sitting around, going through our bird lists and reading the park brochure we bought. I saw the pair of jackals while Jesse was in the shower, and he saw a pair of Lanner Falcolns while I was napping. The ostrich (a male in breeding colors, pink on his shins) took ~1.5 hours to actually get water--very wary. </div><div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrxI7GN5vx_Xse0RixfQFPUi4_sLQ03kwc9sxO9RapWO6uwOAOlIevq2sRSbQjOlYuJpb8LWLCWoqGjtw9nG5MNi6MkkHkJmHJo2rtNAC7BZ4uj2-8bQTtX2UEf5mLT_bFSDiljRkDaflF/s1600-h/DSC_0627.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrxI7GN5vx_Xse0RixfQFPUi4_sLQ03kwc9sxO9RapWO6uwOAOlIevq2sRSbQjOlYuJpb8LWLCWoqGjtw9nG5MNi6MkkHkJmHJo2rtNAC7BZ4uj2-8bQTtX2UEf5mLT_bFSDiljRkDaflF/s320/DSC_0627.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5274621490189170050" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Our chalet and 4x4 at Gharagab.</span></div></div><div><br /></div><div>Around sunset, Jesse suggested we go up to the observation deck, so we did. Just before sunset (~6:30 pm), the neighbors got back from a game drive (didn't see anything, though we saw the brown hyena here--very cool) and Susan, the woman, came to join us. She met Jared ~10 years ago when they were both working on a rich person's yacht (he as a marine engineer, she as a stewardess) but had recently got back together (she lives in Sydney, Australia, he in Paulshof outside of Johannesburg) and are now engaged. Jared will emigrate to Sydney, and it sounds like kids are planned. </div><div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEtrSw5ZOdAYaXJ1aAhrnRjYj0Bof61RabqdnycVGnZnYAAUKOm0j4VT8JOMwqjO7vk5uiQXD4wwGQMytUgg5RRQjwrVpr6arvj1onRQ5uLtJQCM_3qg20RJldhwGmp314o-hNOqF_GIYd/s1600-h/DSC_0625.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 213px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEtrSw5ZOdAYaXJ1aAhrnRjYj0Bof61RabqdnycVGnZnYAAUKOm0j4VT8JOMwqjO7vk5uiQXD4wwGQMytUgg5RRQjwrVpr6arvj1onRQ5uLtJQCM_3qg20RJldhwGmp314o-hNOqF_GIYd/s320/DSC_0625.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5274621484991244626" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Brown hyena approaching the watering hole.</span></div></div><div><br /></div><div>Susan invited us over for gin and tonics, including Eric when he showed up on his evening rounds. Jared is very into photography--he has a massive zoom lens with camouflage around the hood [I found out later it was a 600 mm lens!], and a professional Nikon body and an SB-800 [fancy Nikon flash... I'd recently bought myself a used one on eBay]. He passed us at a couple of waterholes yesterday and took out the big lens and mounted it on a door mount for stabilization. He took photos of the immature Bataleur Eagle we saw yesterday (when they pulled up in their 4x4, it flew away, so Jared tried to photograph it in flight) and of the pair of Lanner Falcolns we saw on the ground. They had come all the way here after we saw them at that waterhole, which was the last one before Grootkolk [it was a long way still, and not too long from sunset]. Susan was very chatty, and it was interesting to hear about life on yachts (some >100 meters!). RICH clients, by the sounds of it. </div><div><br /></div><div>Eric joined us, so I learned that he spends two weeks here, then has one week off (during which time he lives in Twee Rivieren and enjoys playing soccer--he had a Kgalagadi Eagles shirt on) and his favorite animal is the cheetah. He went to Etosha ~1 year ago. I think from something Susan said that Eric has been doing this for ~2-3 years. Strange lifestyle!</div><div><br /></div><div>The leopard was amazing--drank LOTS of water and took its time. Moved around the water hole, then drank some more. Left for a while then came back... apparently it lives with a female and cubs nearby and the female has brought the cubs to drink in the morning before... they only need to drink every 2-3 days. My first leopard, that I remember!</div><div><br /></div><div>We have a helluva long drive tomorrow (~9 hours?), which I'm not looking forward to. Let's hope Mata-Mata is worth it!</div>Samanthahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17470299166892375356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4231335054844514225.post-461157431255569052008-11-23T12:28:00.000-08:002008-11-23T13:36:39.192-08:007 September 2008Grootkalk [a camp in Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park]<div><br /></div><div>Yesterday, we entered Kgalagadi and spent the night in Nossob (camping). We saw lots of eagles (Tawny (various shades) and Marshall (immature and adult)), but not much of interest in the way of mammals (Springbok and Wildebeest mostly, but a few hartebeest at a distance too). And then the troubles started in earnest--we'd been suspecting that there were problems with the fridge/freezer we were renting--it didn't get cold all the way (only down to ~18-20°C) and had a flashing error light. The battery it ran off never seemed to get charged...</div><div><br /></div><div>(break--lots of commotion here because a Pale Chanting Goshawk [P.C.G.] that was in the tree over the watering hole swooped down to catch something, then flew back up into the tree (didn't see if it got anything), setting off alarm calls in a flock of sparrow weavers and/or red-headed finches that is hanging out in the tree next to me. I was too busy watching an adult sparrow weaver feed a younger one by our outdoor sink to notice the P.C.G.).</div><div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrgHPILZJjzq8hhAQ_myotOMpT1QRFYmdN2VPE4b5tLXj9X8_D92DPquFVztmUFN6OEcYYjPQts4h-7ukAobqg9nZyAe9GWxxOcaoKxKiX7pyJmMBADl0t3rG6VLBQX4-WBRCLRl7X6i-U/s1600-h/DSC_0566.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 213px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrgHPILZJjzq8hhAQ_myotOMpT1QRFYmdN2VPE4b5tLXj9X8_D92DPquFVztmUFN6OEcYYjPQts4h-7ukAobqg9nZyAe9GWxxOcaoKxKiX7pyJmMBADl0t3rG6VLBQX4-WBRCLRl7X6i-U/s320/DSC_0566.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5271962582707336818" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The Pale Chanting Goshawk above the waterhole at Grootkalk</span>.<br /></div></div><div><br /></div><div>...When we got set up in camp (in Nossob), our neighbor came to see if it was okay that he plugged into our campsite's power outlet because his was in use by his neighbor and his fridge/freezer wasn't working off his battery! So we asked him for advice on ours and we tried his plug-in cord on ours, and it ran! He tried to clean our battery leads for us (didn't help) and ultimately let us use his cord the whole night, so our stuff finally got chilled for the first time in 1.5 days [wasn't that nice of the guy? So, his fridge wasn't plugged in at all, but he said it was okay because he was near the end of his 8-day trip through the park (still had to drive back to Pretoria) and so didn't have much fresh stuff anyway. We ran into other helpful people in the park too]. </div><div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1ISzhGPdS7RK8NBjKmFDP6AnoMIhyJ-F5s4pfsuFqYJ0QxHWwVoakKu-dRoshmdA7OF2eW4Wf5-hjCN5Rub3qKLk137PZK84OphhLaYrlqARiVaJte8wYGdAsQVyljcGmVOsWfOdsy8gn/s1600-h/DSC_0546.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1ISzhGPdS7RK8NBjKmFDP6AnoMIhyJ-F5s4pfsuFqYJ0QxHWwVoakKu-dRoshmdA7OF2eW4Wf5-hjCN5Rub3qKLk137PZK84OphhLaYrlqARiVaJte8wYGdAsQVyljcGmVOsWfOdsy8gn/s320/DSC_0546.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5271962575694943762" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Our rooftop tent at our campsite in Nossob (the fridge is the beast in the wooden frame in the back, with battery in front of it)</span>.<br /></div></div><div><br /></div><div>Then, Jesse realized (within half an hour of the fridge problems and the realization that Kalahari 4x4 had given us a bum setup) that he had lost his pocket knife [that he'd had since he was ~12] somewhere along our trip, and soon after that, our lantern started going out (presumably because the rechargeable battery was low) and of course Kalahari 4x4 hadn't given us a cord for recharging that either... and then the flashlight we'd brought from the USA died... and it wasn't the batteries (we had spares) but probably the bulb (no spares of that). And we both had headaches. Not a good evening!<br /></div><div><br /></div>[A note to me delicate readers: Kalahari 4x4 did refund us the money we'd paid for renting the fridge/freezer when we got back, but we were stressed at this point in the trip that we were going to lose all our fresh food AND that we would end up paying for something we didn't get to use but yet took up a lot of space. And don't worry about Jesse's pocket knife... I found it in the console of our 4x4 a week later when I was making sure we'd got everything out of it before returning it... but imagine for the sake of the story that you don't know that either. And our kind cord-loaning neighbor loaned us a gas lantern for the rest of the evening and we managed to get by without needing our own reliable source of light at night for the remainder of our trip, because all but one of the places we stayed had light, and there was a second, very weak, lantern that we used sparingly. All's well that ends well?]<div><br /></div><div>I cooked up some of our vegetables with stock and made up some rice to eat with it. For desert, we had fruit salad (to use up the pawpaw [papaya] and guavas that weren't being kept cold by the fridge). Oh, and we also ate a lovely avocado that Anne Kotze had given us (she lovingly ripened the avocado and pawpaw for us while we were in Hermanus). We slept in our rooftop tent last night and found it quite comfortable.</div><div><br /></div><div>This morning, we set off for Grootkalk, after waiting for a petrol attendant (to sell us petrol since it was going to be two days before we saw a petrol pump again) to get back from looking at the camp water tank that was acting up. Since we were in lion country, we looked and looked for lions to no avail, but finally someone in a vehicle heading the other direction told us they'd just seen lions mating at the next (for us) water hole. It was 15 km away so we sped off towards it. But, we couldn't see a lion (or two) anywhere. We headed back to the road to try to find them from a different view (some Gemsbok were looking especially wary in the vicinity), also to no avail. On the way back to the waterhole for one last look, I thought I saw a leopard-like shape in a tree at a distance and resolved to get a better look at it as we left. Again, no lion at the waterhole, so we went to leave and I asked Jesse to stop so I could look at the leopard-like shape. It was just a pile of twigs. Then I casually looked our the other window and saw a lion! Just its head, then it lay back down again. They really are quite well hidden in the grass!</div><div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitSSINRrOiaaNLLO3tcNTgfqq15uglo2q31RYQzg2GOb6FeEYOTkRJrUsGklfWCZj-5NxkDR_sZRRF3W4jS8GMOVkwlr9X2FIu65G3Om8R5C7Mb_eiPI8D_-WaD2Da7Hom1Pnrv3kPEehX/s1600-h/DSC_0548.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitSSINRrOiaaNLLO3tcNTgfqq15uglo2q31RYQzg2GOb6FeEYOTkRJrUsGklfWCZj-5NxkDR_sZRRF3W4jS8GMOVkwlr9X2FIu65G3Om8R5C7Mb_eiPI8D_-WaD2Da7Hom1Pnrv3kPEehX/s320/DSC_0548.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5271969514474268082" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">There's a lion under that there tree (about 1/3 rd in from the left</span>).<br /></div></div><div><br /></div><div>(Another interruption--just watched the P.C.G. get a sparrow/finch and eat it... and now it's trying to get another one!)</div><div><br /></div><div>Anyway, we finally got bored of waiting for the lion to lift its head again, so continued on our way. Saw loads of secretary birds before finally reaching Grootkalk, where the "tourism assistant," Eric, showed us to our lovely chalet, with an anti-leopard door and separate anti-snake door. Thankfully, it has a gas-powered fridge/freezer, so we can chill our food again! we also have our own bathroom, and there are (solar-powered) lights, so we don't need to worry about our lamps running out. </div><div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRs0rJwEj1fraBnY5Gc6XqnFFYxRepu1MKCPu5Bw9knlmdK0sBMEyPWdePcmJn51DuAaiizlojmBqQJ-PAn_CQpWt-DuBP38mB807hnhWt_CYbTXCj7gHZBhUumKG6EuBAV0pJmoTftFzX/s1600-h/DSC_0596.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRs0rJwEj1fraBnY5Gc6XqnFFYxRepu1MKCPu5Bw9knlmdK0sBMEyPWdePcmJn51DuAaiizlojmBqQJ-PAn_CQpWt-DuBP38mB807hnhWt_CYbTXCj7gHZBhUumKG6EuBAV0pJmoTftFzX/s320/DSC_0596.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5271962587979224386" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Our tent at Grootkolk, with anti-leopard door leading onto the porch (more just deters leopards/lions, since they could of course jump over the wall/gate)</span>.<br /></div></div><div><br /></div><div>The local leopard came to the watering hole here yesterday at 4 pm, and it's 4 pm now, but no sign of it yet. Apparently it visits a different watering hole some days. And the lions that are usually here have moved on to Gharagab, according to our neighbors. Let's hope we see some big cats soon, since Jesse and I are currently a bit disappointed in Kgalagadi (Etosha [where we went together in 2001] and Mata-Mata [where Jesse went in ~1998] are better).</div><div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div></div>Samanthahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17470299166892375356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4231335054844514225.post-40507868138290427462008-11-23T08:36:00.000-08:002008-11-23T09:42:13.634-08:005 September 2008Safari chalet at Kalahari Trails, just outside Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park<div><br /></div><div>After breakfast at Libby's Lodge this morning, we went to Elron Motors and met up with Neil Nel to take possession of our 4x4. Niel was a bit of a chatterer, so it took a while, and my credit card was declined because it looked like "fraudulent activity"--had to call USBank and have them remove the block. Then, off to the airport to drop off our trusty VW Polo. After that, a ~R400 shopping trip at Pick 'n' Pay, followed by a cinnamon-sugar pancake (crepe) in aid of a laërskool [primary school] (R4 each). YUMMY! Wish we'd bought a few more! Then, off on our big adventure to the real Kalahari. </div><div><br /></div><div>Imagine our horror wen we'd used up a half tank of petrol in about 1.5 hours! At 80 l (tank size) and ~R10/l, that adds up. We already miss having a small car! We filled up with petrol at Ashkam, a teeny town along a dust road. A police truck filled up with petrol ahead of us (one working pump) and spent R1060 on petrol! We saw ~20 people total in the town and the only one working was the petrol attendant (the two police were sitting in the shade drinking water).</div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqs0ZFXnwbTYdwvX9lelEAPbKtz9D1kToKEGZi1tcsJ3g1xBujRtMUMP5B8keyHouNErQCJxKBJoGUVLMItM-TwK2f_D9XyxqmudF34jf7Y8PX65YJTuMd_NeHuykarM0YCzQIa_r3j2xo/s1600-h/IMG_0003.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 193px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqs0ZFXnwbTYdwvX9lelEAPbKtz9D1kToKEGZi1tcsJ3g1xBujRtMUMP5B8keyHouNErQCJxKBJoGUVLMItM-TwK2f_D9XyxqmudF34jf7Y8PX65YJTuMd_NeHuykarM0YCzQIa_r3j2xo/s320/IMG_0003.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5271896437825312402" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Our receipt for petrol in Ashkam. Sweet, hey?</span></div><div><br /></div><div>Then, we arrived at Kalahari Trails and were almost immediately led on a ~10 minute drive to our tent. A British couple (Karen (?) and Richard) followed behind us and have the tent next to ours. We all sat in the shade of our respective tent porches for the next two hours, seeing a few Springbok venture to the water source [we saw a herd of wildebeest there on our way in, and had also seen a jackal... Kalahari Trails is a privately owned piece of land with some animals (no big cats)]. We then invited the Brits to come join us for supper, since they were going to have pasta and the same brand of cheese sauce as us, and had no way of cooking without heading back to the "lodge" kitchen. I made us a big pot of pasta with the two cheese sauces, and added in a can of mushrooms and a can of baby corn (their contribution) and a fresh tomato and grated cheese (our contribution). They washed the dishes and then we sat around watching the stars and chatting. Now, am lying on a very droopy mattress [on a camp cot] and am about to go to sleep.</div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEr2Uoed6lspd96B_iSKUMBK-Hj0HWAEzFEdPf_l0zEclK-fOhWkBoa1aO-ecof6v5cFglOmd4ZVlQFi-JLtM2RNnRHByVIsEFlGllgZp39TYW9ajKQm2QTIejBEgQqNvIweVWgHffh1NA/s1600-h/DSC_0508.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEr2Uoed6lspd96B_iSKUMBK-Hj0HWAEzFEdPf_l0zEclK-fOhWkBoa1aO-ecof6v5cFglOmd4ZVlQFi-JLtM2RNnRHByVIsEFlGllgZp39TYW9ajKQm2QTIejBEgQqNvIweVWgHffh1NA/s320/DSC_0508.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5271907037248371906" /></a><div><div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The view from our safari tent.</span><br /></div></div><div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwX2ks7Q4DYM-H6zRAarcBUmxFCwUdcVU_NRwScVK1Hpi67kWftAH2UvH5hn_Xn2JLUuasuJCZ0tAgolv95X2UmdMCO1Dh-DJiFBfzw6iPk6QdTKjswM8XzUpebvwNCaxzxnfISpMohZZW/s1600-h/DSC_0496.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwX2ks7Q4DYM-H6zRAarcBUmxFCwUdcVU_NRwScVK1Hpi67kWftAH2UvH5hn_Xn2JLUuasuJCZ0tAgolv95X2UmdMCO1Dh-DJiFBfzw6iPk6QdTKjswM8XzUpebvwNCaxzxnfISpMohZZW/s320/DSC_0496.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5271906996273112418" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Some critter trail in the sand dune behind our chalet.</span></div><div><br /></div><div>PS. Spoke to mom last night and Roger [my grandfather who lives in New Orleans] is safely back in his house post Hurrican Gustav and the only damage is the loss of his pecan crop for the year.</div></div></div>Samanthahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17470299166892375356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4231335054844514225.post-85549798143619468532008-11-22T16:34:00.000-08:002008-11-23T14:30:10.048-08:004 September 2008<div>[Part of my continuing series on my day-to-day adventures during my trip to South Africa earlier this year. Full photos on my <a href="http://ssorchard.smugmug.com/">photo website</a>]</div><div><br /></div><div>Cosy Mountain B'n'B<br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Had a nice breakfast yesterday at Heidi van Niekerk's (at Kliprivier), sitting with 2 very English-sounding Joburghers. We then went to see the surprisingly very impressive Nieuwoudtville Waterfall then packed up the cottage and headed to the kokerboom forest a bit further down the road.</div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDpmn0VmCFCoHFlBwTz386WrvtiKPJu4NulGeoUpkjVp8NFKFxQO_uZQX-IhsHu4dD1JcEMMokTYZmHwbP_3fftkl6tYfperoJr6_3FBqjbyM0WgoHOXvcS2JrFASizI-36y-3AxKyPwm_/s1600-h/IMG_0001.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 179px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDpmn0VmCFCoHFlBwTz386WrvtiKPJu4NulGeoUpkjVp8NFKFxQO_uZQX-IhsHu4dD1JcEMMokTYZmHwbP_3fftkl6tYfperoJr6_3FBqjbyM0WgoHOXvcS2JrFASizI-36y-3AxKyPwm_/s320/IMG_0001.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5271910658207553074" /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div></a><div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-size:13px;">Our entrance ticket for the waterfall (all in Afrikaans... "Hantam Municipality. Waterfall admission ticket. Adults R4")</span>.<br /></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhu1ksJLTKvalidGkn8y9CHDeQIuBnibaW7H7XyFmQyCBuWU7VRhyxS8TjZql0dHCHwyTV5UP0v1p23r7-nrGsWXx9hQGZJSID6KK98kVXp6fK4RnjUXk0PapdVi2ysRiLxNTwpcn1x4V18/s1600-h/IMG_0004.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 237px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhu1ksJLTKvalidGkn8y9CHDeQIuBnibaW7H7XyFmQyCBuWU7VRhyxS8TjZql0dHCHwyTV5UP0v1p23r7-nrGsWXx9hQGZJSID6KK98kVXp6fK4RnjUXk0PapdVi2ysRiLxNTwpcn1x4V18/s320/IMG_0004.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5271910683054904386" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">T</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">he reverse side of the waterfall ticket.</span></div><div><br /></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8E9-cldgtba4ClBffCuN3lsexcB_NiNnePUTBTq-YG_zEIJ8fqxIJvby3gCkN7SjWZfhAnjlECsu3zC6emSrimG-gyhUXL1E7KRfyFKJmi845w9ML81i4shvyioc9nydtEH0eopP97kXB/s1600-h/DSC_0324.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8E9-cldgtba4ClBffCuN3lsexcB_NiNnePUTBTq-YG_zEIJ8fqxIJvby3gCkN7SjWZfhAnjlECsu3zC6emSrimG-gyhUXL1E7KRfyFKJmi845w9ML81i4shvyioc9nydtEH0eopP97kXB/s320/DSC_0324.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5271648961307555442" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Jesse admiring a succulent plant near the Nieuwoudtville waterfall.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqhxuJpSAUClQkAbVppzZ4nuT6rPuPqNG-sPv6bzUIG-RDsYsiy-loY1TgCAblWtZNCtSlrpkCzVz-fWcTNT34-VsHE_mxJ9B4oUunEVgLeoi4gK33DIHK2Yr2yGrzdq-K5Z3f51lcIJjz/s1600-h/DSC_0356.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 213px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqhxuJpSAUClQkAbVppzZ4nuT6rPuPqNG-sPv6bzUIG-RDsYsiy-loY1TgCAblWtZNCtSlrpkCzVz-fWcTNT34-VsHE_mxJ9B4oUunEVgLeoi4gK33DIHK2Yr2yGrzdq-K5Z3f51lcIJjz/s320/DSC_0356.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5271648966620582386" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">A kokerboom with the kokerboom "forest" in the back.</span></div><div><br />(The morning sun just rose over the mountain behind me and hit my back... my shadow is currently very long)... time for breakfast now.<div><br /></div><div>[Later] ...Was a bit surprised to get charged R16 for "tea/coffee" in addition to the R900 we paid to stay and eat at Cosy Mountain... would have thought that would be included with dinner/breakfast. Oh well.</div><div><br /></div><div>We met some nice people at both Cosy Mtn. (a couple from Joburg traveling with a couple from Hermanus) and at Kliprivier, over breakfast (a couple from Joburg). All retirement age... perhaps because we were there during the week? There was also a woman from London staying at Cosy Mountain... a bit strange. [She] was there to see Michell, the manager. Michell had previously been a home health care worker for her in London, when her husband had had a stroke and she'd had hip (and knee?) replacement. There was an assortment of dogs and cats there too--one of the dogs, Riley, is a cross Rhodesian Ridgeback and Border Collie. Odd combo! Michell's boyfriend (? "Ben-John") studies leopards in the nearby mountains and lives there too with his 20 y.o. big-haired assistant (who is doing her Master's year and finished matric [12th grade] at 15 y.o.... home schooled). They are doing research for the "Cape Leopard Trust" or something. Michell showed us photos from their camera "traps" yesterday--in addition to leopards, they've got photos of many other cool animals--aardvark, aardwolf, two kinds of foxes, etc. etc.</div><div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQ9CvurDkSVN2XfREk8EP48OV19e67gS0NM1LcuxO8IWItqMWx42e1SKy4RUzP8MI3r-iT1M_Mlgz7Jd4aZXR1A6nkmI6t2fVWZ_5EWnSc8C_9GxwUIMUfb5GAg3qyYEnYUln3iOgWGCCc/s1600-h/DSC_0381.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQ9CvurDkSVN2XfREk8EP48OV19e67gS0NM1LcuxO8IWItqMWx42e1SKy4RUzP8MI3r-iT1M_Mlgz7Jd4aZXR1A6nkmI6t2fVWZ_5EWnSc8C_9GxwUIMUfb5GAg3qyYEnYUln3iOgWGCCc/s320/DSC_0381.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5271648991375013442" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">M</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">e closing my eyes against the sun at Namaqua National Park (near Cosy Mountain), with a carpet of orange flowers in the background.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBUjSAlB4ceWU49-2s3jn_KGQdpLb5Bawnq-vPNpi8MPpCQLEKnno4kgvSmxSjkr9DXaSSLInE9D3UTewSEjtrgdqu2eaZ0awxyFU-g2BAhqaseGMmT0EEvbES9vUxB1C9N90bhks2Um4g/s1600-h/DSC_0376.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 213px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBUjSAlB4ceWU49-2s3jn_KGQdpLb5Bawnq-vPNpi8MPpCQLEKnno4kgvSmxSjkr9DXaSSLInE9D3UTewSEjtrgdqu2eaZ0awxyFU-g2BAhqaseGMmT0EEvbES9vUxB1C9N90bhks2Um4g/s320/DSC_0376.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5271658179338006066" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Flowers at Namaqua National Park, near Cosy Mountain.</span></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfxDeDP0BIuX9zZKhAgMH_bzK2nJb8vmgWG0x65MSuCchQUq-ASdci2qlIItT1oWxTaPx4Fh2Qj8qi8BDSOb8frlOGJjksne2_TX_qYQOpKSwNnsnjsIehOLEN2v_52mUJahyPK8fyPY9s/s1600-h/DSC_0431.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfxDeDP0BIuX9zZKhAgMH_bzK2nJb8vmgWG0x65MSuCchQUq-ASdci2qlIItT1oWxTaPx4Fh2Qj8qi8BDSOb8frlOGJjksne2_TX_qYQOpKSwNnsnjsIehOLEN2v_52mUJahyPK8fyPY9s/s320/DSC_0431.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5271649006116755218" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Jesse at Cosy Mountain at sunset.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><div>We left Cosy Mountain and went to Goegap, where we had a quick walk around to admire the flowers and birds. Then we began the long drive to Upington, with a 30-minute stop at Augrabies Waterfall, and enjoyed white bread, cheese and Simba tomato chip sandwiches as I drove. [YUMMMY!]</div></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN0rXUa9aNeDL_kI8nhBnPakNqgRP3N1VY6ZW5rgHfzdu6cA9hIGd2ZgwNPO6Vgb7bssWd0bFYZtiPxHQAaXDn8qrvMuSx-vE1Y_hYoox2Jxd-1lU_d8VvCvk9QQGb97Ha2fDcR-3Kz_1C/s1600-h/DSC_0462.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 213px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN0rXUa9aNeDL_kI8nhBnPakNqgRP3N1VY6ZW5rgHfzdu6cA9hIGd2ZgwNPO6Vgb7bssWd0bFYZtiPxHQAaXDn8qrvMuSx-vE1Y_hYoox2Jxd-1lU_d8VvCvk9QQGb97Ha2fDcR-3Kz_1C/s320/DSC_0462.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5271658189555734402" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Me in the shade of a Kokerboom at Goegap.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_8NgII3LOQ3KtIH2QaJRog1VHfc8iDSU5mZHxkxSyWbdPMpdlDIyZHuWYXlnNr835rRozW6Nu6ndLF7NLxsdaGSMMZiorC-bll7S4v56IzI2WChzlyPzK8zOmX2Aqhg_hbPvfboDjpc9Z/s1600-h/DSC_0487.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 213px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_8NgII3LOQ3KtIH2QaJRog1VHfc8iDSU5mZHxkxSyWbdPMpdlDIyZHuWYXlnNr835rRozW6Nu6ndLF7NLxsdaGSMMZiorC-bll7S4v56IzI2WChzlyPzK8zOmX2Aqhg_hbPvfboDjpc9Z/s320/DSC_0487.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5271972631470400642" /></a><div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-size:13px;">Augrabies Falls.</span><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:13px;"><br /></span></div><div>Now having a nice last night of 'luxury' at Libby's Lodge in Upington before our ~week roughing it in the Kalahari.</div><div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYHkj3U0gGhUcfquZoBK3RkKv2rFHVwEzVrv-CxyouW7kYwABceWx2nYoVG9PaJBpMlYsJ7BrlSTMIK6K8hbhBrvMudVi9754rYYcR9W-BjiWTI_ZWowJYnceu6bobmlS3PCXkTtYh94hX/s1600-h/IMG_0002.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 185px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYHkj3U0gGhUcfquZoBK3RkKv2rFHVwEzVrv-CxyouW7kYwABceWx2nYoVG9PaJBpMlYsJ7BrlSTMIK6K8hbhBrvMudVi9754rYYcR9W-BjiWTI_ZWowJYnceu6bobmlS3PCXkTtYh94hX/s320/IMG_0002.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5271910671171034786" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Business card for owner of Kraaifontein cottage. Highly recommended, but know what you're getting yourself into (no electricity)</span>.<br /></div></div></div>Samanthahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17470299166892375356noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4231335054844514225.post-86887108619986580122008-11-16T09:55:00.001-08:002008-11-16T11:37:09.289-08:002 September 2008Kraaifontein Cottage<div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div>Here I am, writing by the light of an oil lamp--Kraaifontein Cottage does not have electricity, which isn't a problem for anything other than the cell phone, which needs to be charged. </div><div><br /></div><div>Jesse and I went for a little birding walk at Enjolife this morning after breakfast. Saw some weavers over the river, a barbet in a thorn tree, a longspur in a bush near the farmhouse and both a fiscal flycatcher and a fiscal shrike. We then checked out and headed on our way. </div><div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4mIHdlI7Y85K_Jig1nLLgu8ji1hCSNw7IvnG_ohaa9atijAUSdHWPgidCynBmwtSWTgj1TxYq8pjVM9_YyMr48E3g0tTkpLj7azUt3Ko3AI_PewK-9u9F_0jVuZj57EIgdhyphenhyphenCY_ZVVnQ3/s1600-h/DSC_0216.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4mIHdlI7Y85K_Jig1nLLgu8ji1hCSNw7IvnG_ohaa9atijAUSdHWPgidCynBmwtSWTgj1TxYq8pjVM9_YyMr48E3g0tTkpLj7azUt3Ko3AI_PewK-9u9F_0jVuZj57EIgdhyphenhyphenCY_ZVVnQ3/s320/DSC_0216.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5269341119793289458" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Morning light from our Enjolife chalet</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div>We first went to Wupperthal and bought some overpriced soap made with rooibos [red tea... the area we were in is where most rooibos is grown. Also where Hoodia, a "diet supplement" currently popular in the US, is grown]. Then we visited the veldskoen [field shoe... simple leather shoes] factory but didn't buy anything. Jesse got a Stony Ginger Beer from the Mission Winkel [store... it was a *very* Afrikaans town] and I bought a loaf of fresh white bread from the bakery, the taste of which took my back on my Parkview days [Parkview is the suburb of Johannesburg I grew up in, and our local Spar store carried fresh, government-subsidized bread loaves. I would sometimes buy a fresh loaf and rip it open to eat the soft, warm innards]! Jesse liked it too, so we ate slice after slice of it as we drove back to the Biedouw Valley turnoff. </div><div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpHrIDi89UTBG815qGaU2SlLBPd3FbcI_88jOef-vSnZ-ItlS6u3fWDuXUOPE_rsViXwURzOvFN0HhK-YQS2XICOOlQ4VKZhcpy368AHlIvPdNYwo5Ewq64Bbe6djNOg0AsuOC6kyGYbVT/s1600-h/DSC_0241.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 213px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpHrIDi89UTBG815qGaU2SlLBPd3FbcI_88jOef-vSnZ-ItlS6u3fWDuXUOPE_rsViXwURzOvFN0HhK-YQS2XICOOlQ4VKZhcpy368AHlIvPdNYwo5Ewq64Bbe6djNOg0AsuOC6kyGYbVT/s320/DSC_0241.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5269341135874965810" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Me at the Rhenish Mission church in Wupperthal.</span></div></div><div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcVJJtnQWmgXBiPE9hYQnWs_Vd6orgoKyd7KesuSu3KLTclFV7DZXCdFTWSS6FQgcELzWbzbQP_8i9FNfSeTkGp6tlJWNoUcffIqHN2DnAzcbajo66bBbvVQjBaVmlbrGu0SQ2OVfd0OSD/s1600-h/DSC_0254.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcVJJtnQWmgXBiPE9hYQnWs_Vd6orgoKyd7KesuSu3KLTclFV7DZXCdFTWSS6FQgcELzWbzbQP_8i9FNfSeTkGp6tlJWNoUcffIqHN2DnAzcbajo66bBbvVQjBaVmlbrGu0SQ2OVfd0OSD/s320/DSC_0254.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5269324548979215074" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Sheep at a farm at the turnoff to the Biedouw Valley.</span></div><br /></div><div>Just past the turnoff was a rooibos farm and packing shed, so we went in at the same time as a car full of Swiss and I tracked down the owner to see if we could buy some tea [I just thought to add that there was a bench-full of cute kittens and cats sitting in the sun outside the farmhouse door]. We got a kilogram (!) [~2 pounds] of loose tea for R35 (!!) [that was something like $4.50 at the time] and bought a few boxes of bagged tea as gifts for a bit more money. Then we stopped a zillion times for me to take photos of flowers and scenery ;-)</div><div> </div><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidj4vK_MbTEkL36S62tOaTAM-TEMQ0UTjt4-0UjT90Ng2K-Xe52g37dn22u4Ck4dtzG3MmZqHuMyYXrJYwqtwbF4B80O8R26P78Qqajej2Qu4XJ2Nhpvi3Q97uqFQcCZSJy2Kd1v966SXj/s1600-h/DSC_0268.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidj4vK_MbTEkL36S62tOaTAM-TEMQ0UTjt4-0UjT90Ng2K-Xe52g37dn22u4Ck4dtzG3MmZqHuMyYXrJYwqtwbF4B80O8R26P78Qqajej2Qu4XJ2Nhpvi3Q97uqFQcCZSJy2Kd1v966SXj/s320/DSC_0268.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5269324551869974130" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Jesse took this photo of me at one of our flower-photo-taking stops.</span></div></div><div><br /></div><div>We slowly made our way to Nieuwoudtville, stopping at a single-lane river crossing next to a very remote farm for lunch. We passed (and were passed by) the same motorcyclists numerous times--we saw them on the way to Wupperthal, in Wupperthal (they were looking for the tea room), at our lunch site, and a few other places.</div><div> <br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXNsnirdsVG3sTtrR_yOJLP92gxNOvXZGvVNV-pkhQT_g_g5h19qNBCSP9zAVWeyz77lUO-Tc56xpUbIkMEFMNrkkQhyphenhyphens2WQAxTNMZIRj1G1hRBbqut5lutYAJEALvy15328OiZevFIWMS/s1600-h/DSC_0284.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXNsnirdsVG3sTtrR_yOJLP92gxNOvXZGvVNV-pkhQT_g_g5h19qNBCSP9zAVWeyz77lUO-Tc56xpUbIkMEFMNrkkQhyphenhyphens2WQAxTNMZIRj1G1hRBbqut5lutYAJEALvy15328OiZevFIWMS/s320/DSC_0284.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5269324564822906594" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The one-lane bridge where we stopped to have our lunch</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">.</span></div><div><br /></div><div>Finally around 4:30 pm, we made it to Kliprivier Guesthouse, ~1 km from Kraaifontein, and where our hostess, Heidi, lives. I hadn't realized that the cottage doesn't have electricity, but it does have gas stove and hot water. We have a fire going again too, since it is quite chilly here.</div><div><br /></div><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPaXM6nMSbyup6vjMV8zWJiPPoJvuuvbbs5xcUqfECdz7e_CfMsU30N-MSEnf0hmgXETMa1SBZu_ACVhgR3IKktpXNczvLNiclmxCweVW1hyphenhyphenn4APsS142X2reMb934uihO3Zfg0U2EVHA9/s1600-h/DSC_0300.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPaXM6nMSbyup6vjMV8zWJiPPoJvuuvbbs5xcUqfECdz7e_CfMsU30N-MSEnf0hmgXETMa1SBZu_ACVhgR3IKktpXNczvLNiclmxCweVW1hyphenhyphenn4APsS142X2reMb934uihO3Zfg0U2EVHA9/s320/DSC_0300.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5269335446627549762" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The entrance road to Kraaifontein Cottage. The light was beautiful that evening</span>.</div></div><div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMe5bFo8PSd2QZVtys9GRxQe8x6zBTjgKaKxXA7VUHh0P_C3vesI4YPAaZ64G1i2kOBUJRDbD-6Um7GC_e3BsNukGbtUsStB_JlLu5InttWvYoHbyRJ7nw9UW56dot3jFGJu70GvwIMnzT/s1600-h/DSC_0290.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMe5bFo8PSd2QZVtys9GRxQe8x6zBTjgKaKxXA7VUHh0P_C3vesI4YPAaZ64G1i2kOBUJRDbD-6Um7GC_e3BsNukGbtUsStB_JlLu5InttWvYoHbyRJ7nw9UW56dot3jFGJu70GvwIMnzT/s320/DSC_0290.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5269335441707793202" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The front entrance to the cottage.</span></div><br /></div><div>The cottage looked a little rundown from the outside, but it has quite a bit of charm and is nicely stocked [and was really nice inside]. And, it has a good supply of blankets, unlike Enjolife! Speaking of Enjolife, Andrea and Moritz Conrad, the proprietors of Enjolife, came over from Germany 3 years ago and have a 2-year old, a 2-month old kid, and a dog, Rocko, who barks at rocks, chases after them, and drags them through the dirt! Cute dog. </div><div><br /></div><div>Off to my chilly bed I go.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>Samanthahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17470299166892375356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4231335054844514225.post-69704909180591724622008-11-08T18:07:00.000-08:002008-11-08T21:02:36.992-08:001 September 2008<div>[This is a continuation of my journal entries from my recent trip to South Africa].</div><div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCKpiTNnOcIzLxS-nB_rd6VN1FSZFPefaoPehmMexcjnR4RmYsxOr960gUt0ypZH6cdzDsVtixMeq7__a5Qzk7DruCKnJi5N9nSKS7UEY2IgOpnMosvnZSLjdtsbbgbc-AXqEmDhdbMeth/s1600-h/DSC_0054.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCKpiTNnOcIzLxS-nB_rd6VN1FSZFPefaoPehmMexcjnR4RmYsxOr960gUt0ypZH6cdzDsVtixMeq7__a5Qzk7DruCKnJi5N9nSKS7UEY2IgOpnMosvnZSLjdtsbbgbc-AXqEmDhdbMeth/s320/DSC_0054.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5266515664856632562" /></a><div style="text-align: center;">Large wave hitting a rock at the New Harbour the day after the big storm.<br /></div></div><div><br /></div>[I] was trying to read an article on mitochondrial DNA in National Geographic that Anne had recommended last night, so no diary entry. [I now think the sentence would have been better as: "Last night, I did not write a diary entry because I was reading an article in National Geographic that Anne had recommended. The article was about mitochondrial DNA and one interesting thing I learned from it was...(insert interesting thing here)." Just the other day, my advisor teased me about my attention to grammar etc. I do love editing, even if it is my own work].<div><br /></div><div>Yesterday was another stormy day, with hail, rain, and wind. And the night before that was ridiculous! Thunder and lightning and a helluva wind. In the morning, we went to pick up our rental car--a VW Polo "Playa." Can't even fit both of our suitcases in the boot (trunk) [we had this problem in all the South African cars we were in... Americans just work on a larger scale, apparently. And we really had packed light.]! We also did a bit of shopping at Fruit & Veg and Spar for our west coast trip. Then, lunch with Anne and Ouma. </div><div><br /></div><div>While Ouma was napping, we (Jesse and I) drove to Onrus to see whales, but instead we saw a very stormy high tide--sea foam on the roads and benches, part of a road closed off with water over it , and water up to the bathrooms at Davie's Pool [a beach I've swum at, and bathrooms I've changed in before]! Quite a sight. When we got back, we had tea with Ouma, which I skipped most of to visit [my great aunt] Elise in frail care. I only cried when I said goodbye [that is significant, because Elise and I have been known to just sit and cry with each other the whole time we're in a room together. Elise lived in the same neighborhood as my family did when I was very young, and I said my first two words to Elise... I said "hello Elise" when she came over to see me and my mom one day, or so I'm told. Elise is very sentimental, as am I, so bring out the tissues when we're together]. She talked about the Alaska trip she did with my mom that she loved and said she "only regrets that she won't see your [my] parents again." I told her that my dad would be there in two months! [In 2001, when I went to say goodbye to Elise at the end of my visit, she told me that it was the last time I was ever going to see her, meaning that she would die before I saw her again. I cried for days about that idea. Well, I saw her in 2004 (and cried the whole visit with her) and now 2008, and she is still doing well-ish.]</div><div><br /></div><div>Then, Anne drove me, Jesse and Ouma's neighbors, Arthur and Emsie, to the New Harbour and to Onrus to see the stormy sea--crazy! In was no longer high tide, so the sea wasn't quite as crazy as it had been earlier, but there were some massive waves at the harbour and we got to see why the road was closed in Onrus--rocks and bricks strewn all over the road and into people's lawns and into their garages, with door bashed in! I took some photos of the mess [I hadn't taken my camera with me earlier in the day.]</div><div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP9esFJpBPw3wJyt-A4WIjApnxO466kAw65vsI2DHOcq5qZ58oYdoUSr45Sw8WU6rqzU38ZbCfMBcpSRmFac_uNKt6Fu4ewFBMSeUhhdpW0R0jGh7BjJxyC2VOvhYScEm6LXS_8f3Zapqg/s1600-h/DSC_0061.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP9esFJpBPw3wJyt-A4WIjApnxO466kAw65vsI2DHOcq5qZ58oYdoUSr45Sw8WU6rqzU38ZbCfMBcpSRmFac_uNKt6Fu4ewFBMSeUhhdpW0R0jGh7BjJxyC2VOvhYScEm6LXS_8f3Zapqg/s320/DSC_0061.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5266515669145977794" /></a><div style="text-align: center;">Dented-in garage door and debris from the storm that was carried over the road and into this yard in Onrus.<br /></div><br /></div><div>Anne made us lovely cheesy omlettes for dinner. I spoke to mom--hurricane Gustav was still bearing down on New Orleans, but Roger, Betty and Gabriel the dog were all safe in Baton Rouge (?).</div><div><br /></div><div>Today, we set off on our "big adventure" trip at ~10 am. Anne provided very well for us--2 large jars of fruit salad, full of guavas and kiwi fruit and bananas and pineapple with orange juice, 2 plastic containers and spoons to eat the fruit salad with [and boy did those plastic containers come in handy--we rented camping equipment later in the trip, but they only had plates, no bowls! We used those plastic containers over and over and over. One had been the cover for a hamburger someone had bought at the grocery store sandwich case... still had the label on], a large pawpaw (papaya) [that Anne had been lovingly trying to ripen for us the whole time we were in Hermanus], an avocado, a box of firewood, which we used tonight, an extra sweater for me, a cold bag [I meant insulated bag], and much more, I'm sure! </div><div><br /></div><div>We left Anne and headed north--over the Franschoek Pass on Anne's suggestion (breath-taking!), down through Franschoek and Paarl, then up the N7 [highway] to Clanwilliam. At this point, we thought we might have ~30 minutes to an hour to go... we arrived at Enjolife [the farm we were booked to stay at] 2 hours later, having been almost entirely on muddy, potholed dirt roads, and having forded a few small streams [the rains we had experienced at the coast also affected the interior of the country].</div><div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiABCw9qEdIHbSVAYBF2gXCFMsW-0MiUfAgDbAkK8rZvPzDcXUU-3P2yU5oHzX4b9DaQyDMh2Jw6sXqGP-iqpjwKDdr_ad2-ZGjURKWcPpxOGcsBW_zn31eYp2wIbbuUSgKWiOchBrI1wnh/s1600-h/DSC_0102.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 213px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiABCw9qEdIHbSVAYBF2gXCFMsW-0MiUfAgDbAkK8rZvPzDcXUU-3P2yU5oHzX4b9DaQyDMh2Jw6sXqGP-iqpjwKDdr_ad2-ZGjURKWcPpxOGcsBW_zn31eYp2wIbbuUSgKWiOchBrI1wnh/s320/DSC_0102.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5266515679391206962" /></a><div style="text-align: center;">Franschoek valley from the pass.<br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><div>Unfortunately, the sun set right as we got to our chalet, and it got quite chilly again (we'd been positively warm for the first time in days not long before that!). So, I started a successful fire in the fireplace and put on a pot of water to boil for our supper of pasta and sun-dried tomato mix. Jesse and I had dinner around the fire, then admired the stars for a while before climbing into bed, where I am now. Oh, and Andrea, the Enjolife proprietor, told us we missed flower season by 2-3 weeks--it was a particularly short and early season. Oh dear!</div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBZ44dRr0DNkFnRk8ltZLFaxcCtENRo4mqx8ZqrDO0UsA5qOlEfw-AwL-pAd6uSKjRc_IT_CjAyVIbKf0HWml3g_YMzN9p8eZS5aSmG-fhX4PW_r8BRevf8mV02u2-mbpWjhu2CAP6GCw6/s1600-h/DSC_0201.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBZ44dRr0DNkFnRk8ltZLFaxcCtENRo4mqx8ZqrDO0UsA5qOlEfw-AwL-pAd6uSKjRc_IT_CjAyVIbKf0HWml3g_YMzN9p8eZS5aSmG-fhX4PW_r8BRevf8mV02u2-mbpWjhu2CAP6GCw6/s320/DSC_0201.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5266515684353520642" /></a><div style="text-align: center;">Jesse at our Enjolife chalet.<br /></div>Samanthahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17470299166892375356noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4231335054844514225.post-4916512948632792712008-10-26T16:05:00.000-07:002008-10-26T18:05:12.955-07:00Things about Clara<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitNMg4840cPaJCz5EiiyjBP5a-BL_7ogo-wuio_TuE1b3aOwiFxv7oAhV19gmqwFxQoARXM29A444TgIeln1HM9Saar12UOx-VSVWeSTI-c_d4iUN92tmI0Ji-Bhi8HzBgs4xZZU8nRu5R/s1600-h/Claralice_0056.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 213px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitNMg4840cPaJCz5EiiyjBP5a-BL_7ogo-wuio_TuE1b3aOwiFxv7oAhV19gmqwFxQoARXM29A444TgIeln1HM9Saar12UOx-VSVWeSTI-c_d4iUN92tmI0Ji-Bhi8HzBgs4xZZU8nRu5R/s320/Claralice_0056.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5261628304726866338" /></a><br />I have this one last post to make about Clara, then I'll be back to the regularly-scheduled programming (i.e., recounting my recent trip to South Africa).<div><br /></div><div>When I thought Clara had FIP, and thus perhaps only weeks to live (with medication), I started making a list of things I like about Clara. My memory is poor, and I was quite worried I would forget things about her. Then, two days later, I found out that she had only days to live (turned out to be less than a day) and realized I didn't even have time to post the list in the present tense. So here, in past tense, is the list I made during Clara's final days.</div><div><br /></div><div>1. Clara liked warm butt spots. Warm butt spots are comfortable places left on the couch when someone gets up. I eat dinner on the couch and Clara would sit on my lap as I ate. When I got up to take the dishes to the kitchen, Clara would curl up in the spot where my butt had just been. Sometimes, she would even leave my lap to take Jesse's warm butt spot when he got up. When we returned to the couch, we'd have to pick her up to get our butt spot back.</div><div><br /></div><div>2. Clara liked to get under the covers of my bed occasionally. She wouldn't stay very long--I think the limited air got to be a bit too much. Often, she'd want to get under the covers just when I was trying to go to sleep and would paw at the sheet around my neck. I often didn't want to make the effort to lift up the sheets to let her in, but I almost always did, thinking that I wanted to have as much happiness as possible in her short life (it was going to be short whether she lived 10 or 15 years).</div><div><br /></div><div>3. Clara would sit on the (closed) toilet while I brushed my teeth. My nighttime routine with Clara is probably the thing I'll miss most about her, and I'm pleased to say she did the whole routine the last night she was alive. When I would stand in my bathroom brushing my teeth, Clara would come into the bathroom (pushing open the door to get in if necessary--and if I had shut the door too firmly, she'd just wait patiently outside for me) and sit on the toilet, with her tail hanging over the side. When I needed to use the toilet, I'd pick her up and put her on the side of the sink, and then she'd follow me to bed when I left the bathroom. She also loved to watch the toilet flush when she was younger--she'd run over and stand on her hind legs with her front paws on the rim of the toilet, and intently watch the water swirl away. I'm an internet addict and sometimes (always?), I stay up past my bedtime because I'm on my computer. Jesse sometimes would come and tell me that I should go to bed because Clara was waiting for me. I burst into a fresh round of tears on Clara's last night when she jumped onto the toilet, then I gave her a good rubdown on my bath mat. </div><div><br /></div><div>4. Clara would sit on my chest when I turned the lights out at night and when I opened my eyes in the morning. I often read for at least a few minutes before I turn out my light and get settled in bed. Clara would sit at the foot of my bed until I turned the light out and lay down flat, then would walk up and lie down on my chest, facing me. I would pet her for a few minutes, until I wanted to go to sleep, and as soon as I stopped petting her (or when the petting slowed down because I was falling asleep), she would get up and walk to her sleeping spot--between my legs. I still haven't quite got used to being able to sleep with my legs together. In the morning, my alarm wakes me up by turning on NPR, but I don't always start stirring immediately. When I did, Clara would come sit on my chest again. She was a devoted cutie.</div><div><br /></div><div>5. Clara had amazing speed and agility in chasing toys, especially laser pointers. She was amazing to watch. My friend Dean reminded me that he instituted a "rule" that when we played with the laser pointer with the cats, that we had to always end the game by making the dot disappear into the same spot--the red light on the carbon monoxide detector I had in the hallway. Dean thought that way the cats wouldn't be as confused about where the red dot had gone. About a year and a half ago, I got the cats a toy that consists of a bunch of feathers at the end of a string attached to a stick. When I made the feathers fly around the room, Clara would leap up really high to try to catch it, twisting her body as she went. I had to stop to let her catch her breath sometimes--she would be visibly huffing and puffing after a good session of playing with the feathers. </div><div><br /></div><div>6. Clara was the bravest scaredy cat. She would often see "monsters" in every day objects, like a shirt on the floor. She would approach the object very slowly, then finally stick out her leg and poke the object to try and figure out what it was. We appreciated that even though she was scared of "silly" things, that she was brave enough to face them. She never did get used to the vacuum cleaner though--we'd put her into a room and close the door so that we could vacuum the rest of the house/apartment</div><div><br /></div><div>7. Clara didn't like bare human skin. If I were wearing shorts, she'd do everything possible to avoid touching my legs while she was sleeping on my lap. Some nights when it's really hot, I'll sleep with my shirt pulled up to expose my belly. Clara would also deliberately avoid touching my belly then. Funny cat.</div><div><br /></div><div>8. Clara would sniff anything you put in front of her face. If you brought something near her, she'd stretch her neck to smell it. She loved sniffing fingers in particular and you often had to let her sniff your fingers before you petted her on the head. On Clara's last Thursday night, she was lying in my lap and her breathing got slower and shallower. Jesse was sitting on the couch next to me and we both thought she might be very close to dying. Jesse reached out his hand to Clara, and Clara didn't move to sniff it and that just convinced Jesse and me even more that she was actively dying (and we both burst into even more tears). But, a few minutes later, Clara lept up and went over to her food bowl. In retrospect, we noticed that for over a day after coming back from the specialty vet, where she'd received a tranquilizer for her ultrasound, that Clara didn't close her eyes at all and we think that at times like that night on my lap, she was really "sleeping" as best she could and that's why she wasn't responsive.</div><div><br /></div><div>9. Clara only used her claws on us once--when Jesse had to carry her through airline security, as I described in a <a href="http://senseandmissense.blogspot.com/2008/10/clara-stories.html">previous post</a>.</div><div><br /></div><div>10. Clara was very good at not being caught when she'd escape from the house when she was younger. I let the cats go outside in the day for a couple of years when they were very young. After seeing Clara almost get hit by a car and having one too many critter (most still alive and unhurt) brought to me as presents, I decided to make them indoor cats. They clearly missed going outside at first* and they did escape on occasion (or even when they were allowed outdoors during the day but got out when I didn't want them outside, like in the evening). Alice would climb the nearest tree to about 6 feet off the ground, so I could just go pluck her off the tree and that would be that. Clara on the other hand was very sneaky--she would stand nearby and sniff everything in that spot. But as soon as I got within striking distance, she would run a bit further away, then stop and sniff everything in the new spot. And we'd repeat our little "game." I very rarely won and often had to just rely on her wanting to come back inside on her own accord. [*But I still recommend that people keep their cats indoors... Alice and Clara only missed going outside for a very short time and then turned into seemingly very contented indoor cats. They didn't have to get as many vaccinations by being indoor cats, which reduced their risk of getting injection-site tumors, and they weren't at as high a risk of getting run over, sick, or injured. Also, critters such as mice, chipmunks, baby squirrels, baby rabbits and baby robins weren't as terrorized as they had been once Alice and Clara stopped going outside.]</div><div><br /></div><div>11. Clara would rest her head directly on my (clothed) leg when she slept on my lap. She didn't always do this--she used to rest her head on her leg or something, but lately had been just putting her head straight onto my leg. I don't know why I liked that so much--maybe because it seemed very trusting of her? She particularly did it a lot her last few days, including her last minutes at the vet, while I was sitting in the room waiting for the vet--I took her out of her carrier and she lay down on my lap with her head on my jeans. When Clara wasn't sleeping with her head on my leg, she'd stare at me from my lap. It was quite unnerving at times, actually, and I often asked her to stop staring at me (no, she didn't understand). At other times, she would look back over her shoulder at me--also very cute. No one could claim that she wasn't devoted to me.</div><div><br /></div><div>12. Clara loved to chew paper and cardboard. No paper was safe in the house! Clara shredded bills, receipts, scientific articles, you name it. And she loved to sit in a box and chew the lip of it. She didn't eat the paper/cardboard... she'd leave all the debris all around. The night after we put Clara to sleep, Jesse was about to hide a piece of paper before going to bed, then realized he wouldn't have to do that anymore. We're still getting used to not having to put books/laptops on top of loose paper when we go to bed.</div><div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhy1lluetvoAo1ppoDJx99H5m6LGmZ_up1cyX2Rv1i6UUv_q4AmLdusG4VMP1sJ-JGTdeME0q7rSYeL1j_pDWMJ8hU_vEnnzVcoYOZf86Ks0tM4eawvQCwWcRXWVPDIRjW9Dg3U4Y6JiqKc/s1600-h/Claralice_0066.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 211px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhy1lluetvoAo1ppoDJx99H5m6LGmZ_up1cyX2Rv1i6UUv_q4AmLdusG4VMP1sJ-JGTdeME0q7rSYeL1j_pDWMJ8hU_vEnnzVcoYOZf86Ks0tM4eawvQCwWcRXWVPDIRjW9Dg3U4Y6JiqKc/s320/Claralice_0066.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5261631247797262434" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">C</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">lara chewing on the lip of a box while lying inside it. Alice is looking on.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><div>13. Clara was Alice's "mom" in some ways. Alice is a pound bigger than Clara was, but Clara would often lick Alice and clean her ears for her. This is probably why Clara always had dirtier ears than Alice and also more hairballs. I'm going to have to start cleaning Alice's ears now (but not with my tongue!). Actually, the noise of Clara licking the inside of Alice's ears was quite unpleasant--very slurpy and loud. It was hard to fall asleep if Clara was licking Alice's ears.</div><div><br /></div><div>14. Clara loved catnip. She would eat it and push Alice out of the way to get Alice's too. She would sometimes start chewing the carpet to get loose catnip flakes. When I put Clara into her carrier to take her to the vet one last time, I gave her a little pile of catnip to enjoy.</div><div><br /></div><div>15. Clara had the softest belly and chest--I loved stroking them. When she was younger, she didn't really like being touched there, preferring to have her head played with. But, at some point she learned that if she rolled over, I would pet her because I couldn't resist her chest/belly. And forever after that, I was a sucker for her when she rolled over. She would start by putting her head on the ground, then flop her whole body over and stretch (even her toes--another thing I loved about her) into a crescent shape, opening up her chest/belly as much as she could. Unfortunately she would try to do this when I was working out in the apartment, too, so I often had to move her out of the way then so she wouldn't get hurt. On a related note, I regularly do exercises (on an exercise ball) that were prescribed by a physical therapist for the problems I have with my pelvis. One of the exercises involves me lying face down on the ball, lifting alternating opposite hand and leg pairs from the ground. Clara would sometimes meow when I got the ball out, jump down from her cat perch (where she would sit and watch me from in the mornings) and come running over, then flop down next to my hands on the ground. As I lifted a hand, she'd scoot over to that hand to get petted, then scoot to the other one when I lifted the other hand. That cat knew how to get attention, for sure! The other softest spots on her body were behind her ears and on the front of her neck (where she had a large orange spot I loved to touch).</div><div><br /></div><div>16. Sometimes when Clara slept, she'd put all four paws together in a row (not always in the same order). I found that very cute. Alice does it too.</div><div><br /></div><div>17. Clara used to love bean water. Bean water being that thick fluid that you pour off of canned beans. She used to come running whenever I got the can opener out, hoping that I'd drain the beans in the sink... then she'd lap up all the liquid. She didn't care for it if I poured it into a dish for her, and at some point, she stopped caring about it altogether, though she still did come give it a sniff every now and then. On the same note, Clara seemed to prefer almost any liquid to the water in her bowl... I used to frequently find her licking the remaining water out of the bathtub after I'd had a shower, but she did seem to outgrow that too at some point. She also, to the end, loved to stick her head down into my drinking glasses to get at my water. It was a funny sight, seeing her whole head through the side of the glass.</div><div><br /></div><div>18. I loved the way that Alice and Clara would sometimes run with their sides touching each other down the hallway in front of me when I got up in the mornings, or when I put down canned food for them (an occasional treat--they had kibbles available the rest of the time). I felt like they were my matched pair of carriage horses or something. They did it on one of Clara's last days and it made me happy (and sad). When they ate side by side, I could use one hand to pet them both, and I'd run my hand up their tails, with each tail between a different set of fingers.</div><div><br /></div><div>19. One of the cutest things about Clara was the way she used her ears--when she was paying attention to something, you could see them move as they pointed forwards and down. It was very cute. Another cute thing (there were many, as you can tell) was that the back of her back right leg was solid orange, and I loved watching her walk away from me with her orange leg, and her tail hanging down but curled up at the end so that it wouldn't touch the floor (she seemed to have a long tail for her size).</div><div><br /></div><div>20. Clara would frequently bring me "presents." Her favorite thing to bring me was a pelt of (real) fur that an ex-roommate of mine, Jeff, had given me for the cats. Jeff's dad had bought the pelt for Jeff when he was a kid--I think he got it from somewhere called "Davy Crockett world" and one day in Madison, the cats found it and started licking it and carrying it around. Jeff kindly left it with me when he moved out. When I would sit on the couch at night, Clara would drag the pelt from my bedroom to the living room, making funny meowing sounds as she went. In the morning while I was still in bed (sometimes still sleeping), she would drag it from the living room back into the bedroom. Her other most favorite toy of all time was a catnip-filled "body pillow" that I got for her about a year and a half ago (at the same time as the feather toy). Clara had a love-hate relationship with it--she would lie on her side licking it and holding it with all four paws, then suddenly start biting it and kicking at it with her hind legs. We imagined she was saying "I love you I love you I love you... I hate you I hate you I hate you" to it. We actually had to take that toy away from her a couple of nights, because it got so intense we were worried she wouldn't sleep. When the catnip wore off a bit, she started dragging it around as a present for me.</div><div><br /></div><div>21. Clara and Alice used to "wrestle"--they would take turns being the cat on their back on the ground or the cat standing next to the one on the ground, pouncing occasionally. Then, one cat would grab the other one around the neck with her front paws, and kick with both her back legs (the same thing Clara did with her catnip pillow).</div><div><br /></div><div>22. One night, Jesse saw Clara do something that I never saw: Clara was lying on a cat bed, and Alice jumped up next to her and started doing "pushies" (as Jesse's mom calls them... when a cat "kneads" a bed before lying down) next to Clara. Apparently Clara got a bit fed up at some point and took her leg and laid it across Alice's front paws. Alice took the hint and stopped doing pushies and lay down. I wish I could have seen it.</div><div><br /></div><div>23. When I would watch documentaries about birds, Clara would often go sit next to or on top of the TV, trying to get to the wing-flapping sound. </div><div><br /></div><div>And that's the end of my long list. I'm sure it's not even complete, but I will stop here for now. Thank you for bearing with me as I recount my many stories about Clara. </div>Samanthahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17470299166892375356noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4231335054844514225.post-71657713890931544842008-10-25T16:24:00.000-07:002008-10-25T22:18:24.960-07:00Clara's carcinomatosis<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTqTNTlOHextcuMMVSiW7vpFbJ_7e-BJorr57aHabM_DmIP0LHl8Vt65ji3N4Daa0_gcTwjYuqDGgcvWaLDLWl-JVrih7o3Svl3EFOUrPTW3W7aZcn_fdpjkTWXWp_quHBMH-sE0f6zOW7/s1600-h/DSC_0071.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTqTNTlOHextcuMMVSiW7vpFbJ_7e-BJorr57aHabM_DmIP0LHl8Vt65ji3N4Daa0_gcTwjYuqDGgcvWaLDLWl-JVrih7o3Svl3EFOUrPTW3W7aZcn_fdpjkTWXWp_quHBMH-sE0f6zOW7/s320/DSC_0071.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5261321896401741762" /></a><br /><div>My sweet cat, Clara, was diagnosed with carcinomatosis in her chest on October 17, 2008 and I had her euthanized the next day. It was all very sudden and I didn't have much time to think about things. Though I knew that there was nothing I could do for Clara except make the decision to have her put to sleep so that she wouldn't suffer more than she had, I still wanted to find information on her condition--I wanted to understand what was happening to her and why (if there was a why). But I could find almost nothing about it on the Internet. <a href="http://www.passionaterations.com/2008/01/14/minu-mine/">This website</a>, about a cat named Minu who also had carcinomatosis, was "comforting" to me--it helped to read other people's stories about their cats (several people whose cats had the same problem have left comments on the blog too). <a href="http://www.harpsie.com/cancer.htm">This website</a> has the story of a cat named Harpsie with quite a few links (but I didn't find the links helpful for Clara's specific disease--they're mostly links for various other types of cancer in cats etc.). I want to share what little information I have on Clara's diagnosis in case it helps anyone else searching the internet for information on their own cat's condition.</div><div><br /></div><div>The first symptom I noticed in Clara was that she was breathing more rapidly than usual. This evolved then into her breathing being very labored--it looked like she was hyperventilating. The first time I noticed her breathing faster than usual, she was sitting on my lap, but I assumed she had been running around or something. A week later, I noticed a flea on Clara's sister, Alice, and gave both cats a flea bath. While I was bathing Clara, with her hair matted down, I could clearly see her breathing wasn't usual. Again, I hoped it was because I was stressing her by giving her a bath. But the next day, a Sunday, I saw she still wasn't breathing normally and took her to the vet on the Monday. The vet suggested she may have asthma or a heart condition (common in older cats) and recommended chest X-rays. When he called me later that day with the results, he said that he couldn't even see Clara's heart because there was fluid in her chest (not in her lungs--around her lungs) and that was never a good thing. The "best" possibility was that she had a diaphragmatic hernia--a hole between her abdomen and chest that was letting abdominal fluid leak into her chest. But that condition is normally seen in animals who have suffered physical trauma, such as being hit by a car. Other possibilities included a heart problem, a tumor, or feline infectious peritonitis (FIP), a lethal virus infection. He had also drawn blood from Clara for some tests, and asked if I would consent to the blood also being tested for viruses. I said that would be fine. Because the best way to look at Clara's heart was by doing an ultrasound (echocardiogram), he referred me to a specialty clinic. </div><div><br /></div><div>The clinic could only see Clara on Wednesday morning, and I needed to bring Clara's X-rays and blood test results in person, so I picked those up at my regular veterinarian first. No one ever discussed the blood test results with me, but I managed to figure out a lot of it and so could tell that Clara did have elevated white blood cell (especially neutrophil) counts (consistent with FIP) and was positive for the FIP test, though that doesn't actually mean much because the test detects exposure to other related viruses too, and cannot specifically indicate the presence of FIP (so why it's called a FIP test, I don't know... if it had been negative, I suppose it would have ruled out FIP, so I can see that it is still useful to get the test results).</div><div><br /></div><div>The internal medicine specialist I met with at the specialty clinic agreed with my veterinarian that the best thing to do first was an ultrasound--it would have told us if Clara had a heart problem (which seemed to be what the internal medicine veterinarian suspected it was) and would also have shown evidence of a hernia (e.g. intestines/liver in the chest) or tumor. She also extracted the fluid from Clara's chest to have it tested for FIP and other things (protein content, cellular content etc.), and if she'd seen a tumor, she would have biopsied that too.</div><div><br /></div><div>When the vet finally gave me her assessment that evening, she told me she had found that Clara's heart was perfectly fine, but that the fluid had tested positive for FIP by their "bench-top test*" and that the ratio of immune cell types she'd seen under the microscope was consistent with inflammation caused by a FIP infection. In other words, she was worried that Clara did indeed have FIP. If the pleural fluid she'd sent out for testing came back negative for FIP though, she said she might then need to do a CT scan on Clara's chest to look for evidence of cancer. She said she had seen some stuff waving around in the fluid in Clara's chest during the ultrasound and that it was possibly fibrin, another indicator of FIP-induced inflammation, but possibly cancerous masses. [*I don't know what her "bench-top test" was, but I know that pleural fluid from cats with FIP has a certain appearance (straw/yellow color) and that it foams when shaken because of the high protein content. Perhaps that is what the vet had seen?]</div><div><br /></div><div>The test results were due back the next day, Thursday, but the lab was backed up so the results didn't come in until late Friday afternoon (it was agonizing). We assumed that Clara did have FIP--everything was consistent with it. FIP is incurable and somewhat contagious, so we were going to have to worry that Alice might get it too, if indeed Clara had it (there's ~5% chance that other cats in a household will get it, and a higher chance in siblings). If Clara had FIP, there was the option of giving her prednisone/prednisolone (corticosteroids--they reduce inflammation and would thus have potentially helped keep the fluid levels in Clara's chest down, at the expense of making her immunocompromised). With treatment, Clara's life could have been prolonged, though I'm not sure how long as I saw lots of conflicting information about FIP on the Internet. Possibly only weeks, but possibly months. When the vet called and told me that Clara didn't have FIP, I was amazed. But then she told me Clara had an incurable, untreatable cancer and thus only days to live before breathing would get too hard for her. The diagnosis had been made because a technician in the lab who examined the fluid from Clara's chest had seen the cancerous cells. I later found out that in about 75% of the cases, the cells are not seen and the cat has to undergo more tests for a vet to figure it out. So in some ways, we were "lucky" to find out so promptly, sparing Clara from more poking, prodding and visits to the vet.</div><div><br /></div><div>Carcinomatosis is a cancer of the epithelial cells in either the abdominal or chest cavity. In Clara's case, it was her primary and only cancer. A cell in her chest had mutated and become cancerous, and now there were masses of growth throughout her chest. The physical presence of these cell masses was irritating to her body and so her body had initiated inflammation to deal with it. But it was the inflammation that caused Clara's chest to fill with fluid, pushing on her lungs and restricting her breathing. When I took Clara in the next day to the first vet to be euthanized, the vet told me that they do sometimes treat cats with carcinomatosis with corticosteroids too, and that makes sense, because it would reduce the inflammation, which is the same problem with FIP. I realized though that prolonging Clara's life would be for my sake and not for hers--she was still going to have cancer and likely still be uncomfortable and would have to get medication every day. So, we proceeded with the euthanization.</div><div><br /></div><div>The other symptom Clara did have was weight loss... when I took her to the vet on that first day, I realized she had lost 0.3 lbs (had been 6.5 lbs for years, then was 6.2 lbs at the vet on the Monday). At the specialty clinic, she'd had over two ounces of fluid removed from her chest, so she was probably really only 6 lbs. I could feel that her backbone was sticking out more than it usually did and that she didn't have as much muscle on her back near her tail as she used to. That muscle wasting is apparently common in these diseases. I'd been feeding Clara lots of canned food her last week, to try to keep her energy levels up and to keep her eating. It worked--she was still eating and drinking on her last day--but it wasn't enough to keep her from getting thinner. And I knew that at some point, she probably wouldn't want to eat and drink, and she'd be extra skinny and would perhaps even lose the strength to jump onto my bed or onto the couch (her two favorite places). I'm glad that Clara didn't suffer more than she had to (I assume her last two weeks, when she was having breathing difficulties, were somewhat uncomfortable for her), though I felt like I had been hit by a freight train having her euthanized so suddenly. I never thought that I would lose her when she was only 10, and in very good general health.</div><div><br /></div><div>Well, that's Clara's story. I hope this information is useful to someone else some day.</div>Samanthahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17470299166892375356noreply@blogger.com61tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4231335054844514225.post-61985358923721963582008-10-23T21:14:00.000-07:002008-10-23T22:40:47.576-07:00Clara storiesClara had many friends. After having her euthanized, I had a number of people I had to contact to tell them the news before I announced it to the world. One such friend is Dean, who is the person who connected me with Clara and Alice the humans (Clara was his aunt). He also lived in my house for a while when Clara and Alice were kittens, so he got to spend quite a bit of time with them.<div><br /></div><div>Here are some things that Dean remembered about his time with the kittens:</div><div><br /></div>"<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">Didn't they used to sit and study birds at that feeder that hung outside the window at the foot of your bed?</span> [they did]... <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilMumpdTlhP7c4rAZnJ9ZJM-fxglJHt0cJ5jh-KWFQ2GGG3vizI9TMZfzwe1G_EJn3MXJsCv6rOUhgGIITmkz5YYq3a7MJlmoLFCC-u1yOLSkJpgZmIY-K5AjmpHzGETac6KOmHIRjYvoW/s1600-h/Cats+on+sill"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilMumpdTlhP7c4rAZnJ9ZJM-fxglJHt0cJ5jh-KWFQ2GGG3vizI9TMZfzwe1G_EJn3MXJsCv6rOUhgGIITmkz5YYq3a7MJlmoLFCC-u1yOLSkJpgZmIY-K5AjmpHzGETac6KOmHIRjYvoW/s320/Cats+on+sill" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5260583348213325938" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Clara and Alice hoping some birds will come to the feeder attached to the window. As a side note, the foil is on the soil of my plant there because I was trying to deter the cats from digging in it!</span></span><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>...And I remember making the cat sill on the new window so they could look out the window.</span> [I had an extra window put into the house by some guys from a construction/roofing company... but I didn't find out until they showed up that that's all they were going to do... they weren't going to re-do the drywall around it etc. So Dean came and helped me with that and, because the cats liked looking out windows so much, we put a windowsill in for them. They seemed to appreciate it.]<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgx2pISVno5u8sycoTC_GUFgZHToS7G265Iv2bdVNbvvXJ2WtmxheY6Xgg5hpLCyUuPO8az72l_tsf-jvIq0-x7bzRJ6UUnxRkUAHLPKdimDW8CjYag4c7MYe38hph_t0o__nUgWiK6-tKB/s1600-h/Cat+post+room"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgx2pISVno5u8sycoTC_GUFgZHToS7G265Iv2bdVNbvvXJ2WtmxheY6Xgg5hpLCyUuPO8az72l_tsf-jvIq0-x7bzRJ6UUnxRkUAHLPKdimDW8CjYag4c7MYe38hph_t0o__nUgWiK6-tKB/s320/Cat+post+room" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5260583336571325906" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The "new" window that Dean refers to, with windowsill. My mom bought the cats that big scratching post/adventure center and they loved it from the minute I started unpacking it.<br /></span></div><div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">Didn't you have some kind of running water toy thing there for them?</span> [That was a water bowl actually... and the noise of the pump drove me crazy and then it broke, so I returned it. The cats didn't seem to care one way or another about it] ...<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">And the cat door that what's-her-name's cat came in to enjoy some of their food. </span>[My neighbor Anne's cat (Nicholas) used to sneak into the house through the cat door in the days when my kitties used to go outside. He was a BAD cat that Nicholas. That cat door caused other problems: one night I had to go fend off (with a flashlight) a raccoon trying to come through that door... the raccoon had busted through the screen door beyond the cat door but was having a bit of difficultly getting through the small cat door... the noise woke me up] <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">Do you have a picture of them on top of the upper cabinets to the left of the stove? That was a favorite place especially in winter time.</span>" [I *wish* I had a photo, but alas there is not one.]<div><br /></div><div>In the kitchen in Madison, there was an air vent above the cupboards. The cats would jump up to the kitchen sink, then from there to the top of the fridge, then from there to the top of the cupboards, and then walk all the way to the other end of the cupboards in order to sleep in front of the (hot) air vent. Alice in particular loved the heat--we'd often find her there hot to the touch, so we started referring to her as "roasted kitty" at those moments. One of my roommates from Madison, Jodi, also remembered a top-of-the-cupboard moment:</div><div><br /></div><div>"<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">Clara was always such a sweetie. I loved snuggling up with her to read or watch TV. One of my favorite memories of her is when she unwisely continued to sit on top of the kitchen cupboards while I was making onion puree in the blender (for kebabs) directly below her. Poor girl -- her eyes were watering like mad (huge crocodile tears), and she just couldn't figure out what was causing it. Such a funny and wonderful little kitty</span>."</div><div><br /></div><div>Poor Clara had many such onion incidents--she seemed to be particularly sensitive to onions and would often have to keep her watering eyes closed while we were cooking. We felt so bad for her.</div><div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9JiGNJD0_eWDfpUu416SxgZX_FoVidxGqku9NUHchUCJ6hJzhm5i0sHo2Pl7Q7BQY8irhax1z962ThroaLhEmZEGjdADNcaPwojizJ8oJdZBfACMrAWm9fVkHhc6bwwp7BzAjJtarHoYk/s1600-h/Claralice_0081.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9JiGNJD0_eWDfpUu416SxgZX_FoVidxGqku9NUHchUCJ6hJzhm5i0sHo2Pl7Q7BQY8irhax1z962ThroaLhEmZEGjdADNcaPwojizJ8oJdZBfACMrAWm9fVkHhc6bwwp7BzAjJtarHoYk/s320/Claralice_0081.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5260583356255994338" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Clara and Alice on Dean's bed. It was sometimes hard to know where one cat ended and the next cat began.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div>The vet I took Clara to for her breathing problems told me (when I went back to have him euthanize her) that she was a very sweet cat (and that he wasn't just saying that) and that the technician who drew blood from her told him that she could have done it all by herself (since Clara was so gentle). The technician at the specialty clinic was very excited that I was going to leave Clara there for an afternoon to have the ultrasound and fluid removal done--she said she couldn't wait to hold her and squeeze her (I was a bit worried about the squeezing part, given Clara's breathing problems, but I assume she didn't mean it literally). The internal medicine vet, after examining Clara, remarked how nice (and rare) it was to have a sweet patient--Clara didn't complain at being poked and prodded... there were no claws, no hisses, etc.</div><div><br /></div><div>Speaking of claws... Clara did use her claws once. Jesse has the scars to prove it. When it came time to move Alice and Clara to San Diego, I decided (after 6-9 months of deliberations, I kid you not) that the best way to do it would be to have them in the passenger compartment of the plane. What I hadn't thought about was that cats can't go through the X-ray machines, and cat carriers can't go through the metal detector. That meant that Jesse and I had to each carry a cat through the metal detector while their carry bags went through the X-ray. I got Alice (she's bigger and not nearly as sweet as Clara... she has no problem using her claws on people) and Jesse got Clara. Since I was used to holding the cats while I cleaned their ears and cut their claws, I got Alice through and back into her bag without too much trouble. Clara, to say the least, was <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">freaked out</span> at this whole being-in-the-airport thing and in an effort to get away from Jesse, stuck out her back claws and tried to push off of Jesse's chest. She didn't escape (the security people told me it does happen), but Jesse was a little bit the worse for wear. A funny story from that day: Jesse and I didn't have seats together on the plane, and we each had one cat under the seat in front of us. The cats meowed during take-offs and landings (it took two flights to get to San Diego), but were quiet during cruising. During a take off, the guy next to me said "do you hear a CAT?!" He hadn't realized that Alice was in the bag at my feet.</div><div><br /></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">I've realized now that Clara is gone that I have very few photos of her with people in them too. There are some of me holding her and Alice, but none of Jesse and none of Dean or Jodi with the cats either. It's too bad. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1t6Fm30Etqh1TwDcWgGX0DGztQKIj4DBpzWhSi4XPVC2KI7eDTv4puuLHM5zmS1_alrHWkE6EtXPpkq0rzu5qUec60SNISQ24RpDH4b2vhdZEJ8vXGKmhH5L36aCTMAH29DkzIUv7SEVY/s1600-h/Claralice_0071.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 213px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1t6Fm30Etqh1TwDcWgGX0DGztQKIj4DBpzWhSi4XPVC2KI7eDTv4puuLHM5zmS1_alrHWkE6EtXPpkq0rzu5qUec60SNISQ24RpDH4b2vhdZEJ8vXGKmhH5L36aCTMAH29DkzIUv7SEVY/s320/Claralice_0071.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5260590117798788178" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">I assume that Dean took this photo of me and the kittens. I have spent many of my evenings over the last 10 years with at least one cat on my lap, if not two.</span></div><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Thank you to Clara's friends for sharing their memories of her.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">PS. I've put up more cat photos on my <a href="http://ssorchard.smugmug.com/gallery/6305000_8Z99o#397679006_RziXE">photo website</a>.<br /></div></div>Samanthahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17470299166892375356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4231335054844514225.post-40199610941902616872008-10-21T22:09:00.000-07:002008-10-22T08:58:47.740-07:00Clara and Alice enter my lifeWhere were we? Oh yes... I had just, out of the blue and without fully considering the commitment I was making, offered to take in two ~3 month old kittens. And without first asking my roommates/tenants if they were allergic (thankfully they weren't, and they actually quite enjoyed having cute kittens running around the house). So I bought all the things I'd need for the kittens (litter box, food, bowls, toys etc.) and drove down to the farm near Milton. When I got there, I met Alice and Clara the humans and went with Alice to feed the colony of cats in the barn. She fed them out of large communal bowls. I also met all the house cats and was introduced to the two cute grey kittens that were soon to be mine--they were sleeping together on a chair.<div><br /></div><div>I haven't explained that <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="">I</span></span> named the kittens Alice and Clara--their human namesakes did not name them after themselves, in case you were wondering. They'd actually named them something else, but I don't remember what (something along the lines of "Spots" and "Sparkles"). Before I went to meet and pick up the kittens, I had already decided that I'd name one Clara*. And after meeting Alice the human that night, and finding out just how sweet she was, I named the other kitten (the one who'd bitten her, of course) after her as I drove home. It was about an hour drive, and I spoke to the kittens as I drove to reassure them, saying their names to them over and over. I've spoken to them ever since, too. I think that is one of the reasons it seems so quiet around here without Clara. </div><div><br /></div><div>When I got back to Madison from picking up the kittens in Milton, it was just about my bedtime, so I showed the kittens their litterbox and hopped into bed. They managed to jump onto the bed too, and thus began another tradition--sharing my bed with two cats. I was very nervous the first few nights--worried that I would roll over on them--but I don't move much when I sleep so it worked out just fine. The next day, I had some studying to do, and found that the kittens were very good at distracting me--Alice lay down on my notes, and they both ran around and played together, biting each other's necks. In fact, they used to spend so much time biting each other's necks that their necks were often wet and I nicknamed them "vampire kitties." They did outgrow that phase at some point, but they continued to play together until Clara got too sick (about a week before she died).</div><div><br /></div><div>Over the next three months, I spent half of my pre-tax income (I was a graduate student, so it didn't amount to much) each month on vet bills--the cats had various infections when they arrived and needed tests for feline leukemia virus (because I was going to let them go outdoors), tests for worms, tests for eye problems, vaccinations, medicine for ear mites and of course, to be spayed when they got to 6 months. I was a little worried about what I had got myself into... so much so that I turned left against a red light while in shock on my way home from paying for them to be spayed (there was no one around to notice, thankfully). Clara had the most problems--she had polyps in the tubes that connected her nose to her ears and, as a result, was a very noisy breather for a while. Alice also had a habit of sitting on Clara, and one time I saw that Clara wasn't breathing with Alice covering her head and had to push Alice off. Clara started to breath again without paying much attention to what had happened. After trying various types of antibiotics in Clara's ears, the vet finally gave me some antibiotic pills to give Clara--they cleared up her breathing problems in no time, but had the lingering affect of making Clara not like it when I'd hold her on her back (as I did to give her pills, though I never had to give her another pill her whole life). </div><div><br /></div><div>At some point early on, I added "surnames" for the cats. Or maybe middle names. Clara became Clara May, and Alice became Alice McGregor. More recently, Clara became Clara Mara. I can't even imagine how many nicknames I've had for them over the years! Alice's current nickname is "Alice Walice" or "Wals" (rhymes with pals) for short. Clara was normally "Sweet Potato" or "Sweet Petite." Petite because Clara at her heaviest was 6.5 lbs. Alice is about 7.5 lbs.</div><div><br /></div><div>And that's it for today. I'm not sure what I will write about next. Maybe Clara's sickness.</div><div><br /></div><div>-S</div><div><br /></div><div>*I should mention that Clara the human pronounced her name "Clar(as in clarity)-uh," but I pronounced Clara the cat's name "Klaar-uh" (South Africans will have no problem saying that... that first syllable somewhat rhymes with "car" in Americanese even).</div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-RJ7j4TOeDFW7gzzeqL1USrwTaAYbgSQYUazl0kUM96U2nNqun9s_hDQwCJu9gl0duLvSOjcSDAIqHHftd6M1yPtkTI8jc2s6lzSJvzYGY2RBh0IL1Lf22MVMw4bsBhXyCShD-GF5FmCE/s1600-h/Clara.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-RJ7j4TOeDFW7gzzeqL1USrwTaAYbgSQYUazl0kUM96U2nNqun9s_hDQwCJu9gl0duLvSOjcSDAIqHHftd6M1yPtkTI8jc2s6lzSJvzYGY2RBh0IL1Lf22MVMw4bsBhXyCShD-GF5FmCE/s320/Clara.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5259847231395838978" /></a><br />Clara playing in my window while I was trying to study. I've realized, after spending this past Sunday gathering all my photos of the cats so that I could get them scanned in, that <div>1. my photographic skill has improved over the years </div><div>2. I used to buy cheap film and have my photos processed cheaply, and that's too bad </div><div>3. I didn't used to be very good about focusing. But just seeing Clara's shape is enough to see how cute she was--she had an expressive tail.<div><br /></div><div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjspb8wAa65BL1u4TgLnNM0wXXd6M9ZE52rdTRx3lZOjxkd7HCBuAcEVmCed3AJbuCxlVxGLjk0IVbSPwxCFo8TAmOUZ87R-B9V23wHr6vjcCi2mfCvTwh5MNY09nW3Kjn0dX0b0RTuz-d4/s1600-h/Claralice_0047.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjspb8wAa65BL1u4TgLnNM0wXXd6M9ZE52rdTRx3lZOjxkd7HCBuAcEVmCed3AJbuCxlVxGLjk0IVbSPwxCFo8TAmOUZ87R-B9V23wHr6vjcCi2mfCvTwh5MNY09nW3Kjn0dX0b0RTuz-d4/s320/Claralice_0047.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5259847237511177314" /></a><br />Here's goopy-eyed Alice on my notes. I think I was TA-ing Bacteriology 612 (Prokaryotic Molecular Biology?) at the time, and those are the notes from that class. <br /><br /></div></div>Samanthahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17470299166892375356noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4231335054844514225.post-32644477658157322032008-10-21T08:30:00.000-07:002008-10-21T09:20:52.983-07:00Clara and Alice: the beginningI thought I'd start by recording what I know of Alice and Clara's beginnings, and of their years with me. I really don't have a great memory, so some of these memories may be a bit different from reality, having changed with each re-telling over the years.<br /><br />Alice and Clara were likely born in or near a barn on a farm near Milton, Wisconsin in May or June of 1998. When they were about 1 month old, they were perhaps orphaned, because they approached the farmhouse together. Inside the house was Clara the human, the owner of the farm and who had terminal cancer, and Alice the human, Clara's long-time friend who was looking after Clara in her last months. The human friends had a couple of older house cats as well as some other cats/kittens they'd taken in--there were something like 40 cats that they fed from big bowls in the barn, too. Alice the human decided to give the two kittens who'd approached the house a bit of food, but Alice the cat bit Alice the human when she tried to feed her off her finger... thus resulting in Alice and Clara the cats becoming house cats while they were monitored for signs of rabies. Alice the human put them in a cage of some sort with food, water and cat litter in an empty Spam (or was it just ham?) can--the cats started using the litter box immediately and warmed their way into the humans' hearts. Because Clara the human was dying of cancer, they decided (a couple months later) to try to find permanent homes for all the cats in the house. I knew Clara's nephew, Dean, and somewhat by accident, ended up saying I would take the two kittens into my home--I'd really been enquiring about the kittens because my friend, Tinsley, had said she was thinking of getting cats, but then she decided not too, and I felt bad that it had fallen through, so I said I'd take them. And I'm very happy that I did.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgytgitptiJsiNmx6lZfuvoT6LvqYWBoMsNc-kRTpb9E16QEygIXRMQzDhWqReqtPm5zMiPxGQHaaxeY8D9N-fXJh_jKoFO-mtX_AgmpHjT9cEw9rISZj4MtxUz7ECQ8aFIdi2I3nMSstvH/s1600-h/Claralice_0061.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgytgitptiJsiNmx6lZfuvoT6LvqYWBoMsNc-kRTpb9E16QEygIXRMQzDhWqReqtPm5zMiPxGQHaaxeY8D9N-fXJh_jKoFO-mtX_AgmpHjT9cEw9rISZj4MtxUz7ECQ8aFIdi2I3nMSstvH/s320/Claralice_0061.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5259633800868034674" /></a><br />This photo is likely by Alice the human and the miniature house in the center of the photo is from Indonesia, where Alice and Clara the humans spent something like 40 years of their lives as missionaries (with regular trips back to the States for fund raising). This is the only photo I have of Alice (in back) and Clara (jumping down) from before I took them in.Samanthahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17470299166892375356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4231335054844514225.post-77859247732708223962008-10-20T21:46:00.001-07:002008-10-20T22:14:37.661-07:00Clara Mara<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxRp_RnWpvBTm98jXZgL8DzrJocXgmAGZDjnSix6S48NVITIw-QCqQ-jkIR81OzBrt5EiDam84iwsEz2j_nWYqr7at_UreEQSiS7q912NKdRGynaJKYe0bX9m_dfE30AAdqi0XQeRuxm5I/s1600-h/IMG_2511.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxRp_RnWpvBTm98jXZgL8DzrJocXgmAGZDjnSix6S48NVITIw-QCqQ-jkIR81OzBrt5EiDam84iwsEz2j_nWYqr7at_UreEQSiS7q912NKdRGynaJKYe0bX9m_dfE30AAdqi0XQeRuxm5I/s320/IMG_2511.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5259470276780989618" /></a><br />I cannot at this time continue writing about my South African trip. My beloved cat Clara was diagnosed with cancer (carcinomatosis) late on Friday afternoon after a week of vet visits and tests, and I had her euthanized on Saturday afternoon. As I loaded her up into her carrier to take her to the vet on Saturday, I couldn't believe what I was about to do with my "little girl." And yet I knew I had to, so that she wouldn't suffer any more.<div><br /></div><div>When I found out on Wednesday evening that she was likely terminally ill (we didn't think it was cancer at that point, as I will elaborate on at some point), I started making a list of all the things I love about Clara, with input from Jesse and my mom. I had hoped to post the list before she died--I thought at that point that she had a few weeks to live--but her end came even sooner than I thought possible and now I am going to have to post the list in the past tense.</div><div><br /></div><div>I also want to write about what little I know of her condition--it was very frustrating to find almost nothing about it on the Internet, and the most "useful" information Jesse found for us was actually on someone's blog (their cat had the same cancer). So I want to add my observations to the blog world in case it helps someone else.</div><div><br /></div><div>I will eventually get back to writing about our trip, which seems like it was an awfully long time ago now.</div>Samanthahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17470299166892375356noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4231335054844514225.post-80850486272241945192008-10-12T16:37:00.000-07:002008-10-12T17:08:59.699-07:0030 August 200830 August 2008<div><br /></div><div>Well, apparently the Cape is having one of the worst storms in 7 years. Guess when Jesse and I were last here together? [Yes, winter 7 years ago.] </div><div><br /></div><div>This morning, we picked up Ouma at 10 am in her car and drove her to Voëlklip [a part of Hermanus where she used to live] and back. We stopped at various places--just past the old harbor, Voëlklip beach, Kammebaai, Kwaaiwater and 1 or 2 others. At the first stop, we saw a whale or two spy hopping and tail flapping--pretty good view of it! But, no whales after that--one guy trying to surf though!</div><div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCb9mOzSnsbzzbobvobxP8Pvxc9LBw0dNIWLWflCKXM1D_d0oCZOPW9rlGl_KMO-FNTJssrpzEUYGOK9btCAyB8nCa-UNWs4uupokNE7vChRMmeto84ZvUsEfsu8MLFfDaiatL3OCp25CK/s1600-h/IMG_2702.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCb9mOzSnsbzzbobvobxP8Pvxc9LBw0dNIWLWflCKXM1D_d0oCZOPW9rlGl_KMO-FNTJssrpzEUYGOK9btCAyB8nCa-UNWs4uupokNE7vChRMmeto84ZvUsEfsu8MLFfDaiatL3OCp25CK/s320/IMG_2702.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5256422058023832786" /></a><div style="text-align: center;">Voëlklip beach. That's the lifeguard house on the left.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7iTrx1ONgEU05VZMQwRMFFrx7aiEwrfu4DslrsXzy47gw5U1adFLo4P5TVQUESFbeHN_vPCRxCDJ7CQmPFMEIrJt0qhx5hHaLkYtAgZ_VIcrtTwEdOSCgrg5eXGvg9dR3MmlXJTGScPAY/s1600-h/IMG_2710.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7iTrx1ONgEU05VZMQwRMFFrx7aiEwrfu4DslrsXzy47gw5U1adFLo4P5TVQUESFbeHN_vPCRxCDJ7CQmPFMEIrJt0qhx5hHaLkYtAgZ_VIcrtTwEdOSCgrg5eXGvg9dR3MmlXJTGScPAY/s320/IMG_2710.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5256422065330645618" /></a><div style="text-align: center;">You can see how windy it was here--look at that spray!</div><br /></div><div>Then, lunch at the cottage and, while Ouma napped in her old room, I took photos of birds in the rain. Quite a few visitors--guinea fowl, francolins, weavers, shrike...</div><div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKgSFEwPgGH8PFWjvRn9kC9hJFC6D6sUEftrO3mkFM3feqJn85AktQatBhCfwMC3HaMZdhE1SO0jdTgQoRsfuoHCyKwy9FdW5-b897Qwx7lsL8MCHi_lMKwbrRjLFJqESgHxh5xPvoojei/s1600-h/DSC_0009.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKgSFEwPgGH8PFWjvRn9kC9hJFC6D6sUEftrO3mkFM3feqJn85AktQatBhCfwMC3HaMZdhE1SO0jdTgQoRsfuoHCyKwy9FdW5-b897Qwx7lsL8MCHi_lMKwbrRjLFJqESgHxh5xPvoojei/s320/DSC_0009.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5256422070538570274" /></a><div style="text-align: center;">Guineafowl in the neighborhood</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitI-DQCLp8b32wMK_UUTV7lrAxuV7_xWLu-SMgLi3-slgFwIYK7rWqF6r8jLprciGSUAmO6Ghzep_9WzRFgucpAbd7jNG2M9f09XfdkuR8BJH89Kz6sx2kK0-Ea7o5-M4ABZiSHeORHRr9/s1600-h/DSC_0037.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitI-DQCLp8b32wMK_UUTV7lrAxuV7_xWLu-SMgLi3-slgFwIYK7rWqF6r8jLprciGSUAmO6Ghzep_9WzRFgucpAbd7jNG2M9f09XfdkuR8BJH89Kz6sx2kK0-Ea7o5-M4ABZiSHeORHRr9/s320/DSC_0037.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5256422072274203234" /></a><div style="text-align: center;">A weaver bird in the rain</div><br /></div><div>Diana then gave Ouma a lesson on computers and we then took Ouma back to frail care [we were staying at my grandmother's cottage and she now lives in an onsite assisted living building].</div><div><br /></div><div>For dinner, the Kotzes [Anne and Diana] and us went over to Joe and Neil's house for dinner, though Joe and Neil weren't there [it's a long story how I'm related to Joe, but I am]. Leanne, her boyfriend and Laura were, and Sally (50) came over with her boyfriend (29) [Laura and Leanne are Joe's kids, and Sally is my dad's cousin.] Mom and dad called me on my [rental] cell phone while were there there--there's a hurricane [Gustav] heading to New Orleans again and Roger and Betty [my grandfather and his wife] are evacuating. And Roger no longer has hurricane insurance.</div><div><br /></div><div>[Roger and Betty survived Hurricane Katrina... their house had ~4 feet of water in it at one point, but they ripped everything out and rebuilt with money from their insurance company. However, then their insurance rates went up so much that Roger decided to cancel his policy. Thankfully, hurricane Gustav didn't prove to be as much of a menace as was being predicted at one point, so apart from losing their entire crop of pecans, Roger and Betty did just fine]</div>Samanthahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17470299166892375356noreply@blogger.com0