|
Journal
|
||
|
Wednesday, January 30, 2008 Inspired by a feature in the American in-flight magazine, I wrote a few travel-inspired haikus ahh business travel sleep like crap, I'm sick cranky frequent flyer points? and Passengers to be If seatbelts are a puzzle get thee off the plane My favorites from the article? Your seat will define Exactly who you are now Exit-row aisle. — John Fruehe, Austin, Texas Cruel polarity! For crying babies on board I am the magnet. — Keith Saks, Coral Gables, Florida Manic, the search for A free power outlet at Many an airport. — Jane Raynandi, New York, New York Comments (2) Thursday, January 24, 2008 When I left for work this morning, it was 2 below zero. Since we returned from Africa, I've been embracing my midwestern-ness and foregoing cabs in place of public transportation and walking, so I wasn't going to let a little cold get in the way. Granted, I have completely discarded any sense of fashion until the temperature rises above 40. I look utterly plump and ridiculous, but I'm actually not uncomfortable. Here's an annotated picture for your enjoyment.  As I walked out of my building this morning I thought, "I look like I'm headed for the summit of Kilimanjaro instead of the El". I googled - it's warmer there. Besides, it's much easier to go there using Photoshop :) 
Comments Sunday, January 20, 2008 Last weekend (at dawn, while I was still asleep), Andy went on a bit of an urban safari to the South Loop.  On Thursday, these same long eared owls wound up in the Tribune. It's a good thing he did this LAST weekend because I don't think the camera can withstand sub-zero temperatures! Comments Saturday, January 19, 2008 Ugh - never good when the weather report calls for "brutal cold". 
Comments Friday, January 18, 2008 One of the last remaining blemishes in the neighborhood is almost gone.  This former CHA building, on the corner of Oak and Larrabee, has been vacant for at least a year but the city took for-ev-er to demolish it.   Excuse the "through the window" photo from this morning - it's 14 degrees with a wind chill of 2 so there's no way I'm going out on the terrace :) Comments Monday, January 14, 2008 As I mentioned in a previous blog post, Keekerok advertised a hippo pool. This property isn't fenced so sometimes there are animals there and sometimes there aren't. I was intrigued because our previous hippo pictures are pretty limited. (Not counting malaria-bearing mosquitos), hippos are considered to be the most dangerous animal in Africa. They can weigh up to 7,000 pounds and run almost 20 miles per hour, so understandably to trek out to the viewing viewing area is on a series of elevated walkways. That's Andy on the left. Note the vervet monkey circled in red :)  At night, the hippos haul out of their mudbath, spreading their dung along the way. 1) watch where you step in the morning when you are walking to the pool and 2) do NOT leave your room in the middle of the night to investigate what is munching on grass right outside your window.  Sadly, I waited and waited and waited trying to capture the gunts and bellows(hippaudio?), but all I wound up with was recordings of shrieking Germans and a too loud babbling French family. They are the new ugly Americans. Comments Saturday, January 12, 2008 While at Sweetwaters, we visited their chimpanzee sanctuary. It was heartbreaking to hear their histories, but good to see that they are now in a safe environment. One side of the sanctuary has a viewing platform, and although the chimps were quite close, a fence made photography challenging. The other side of the sanctuary uses water as a natural barrier, because chimps can't swim ("un general" whatever that means). This provided us with some great photo opportunities as we sat on one side of the riverbank and the chimps lounged and played on the other.  We also saw this large, water-friendly rodent that we haven't been able to identify from our various books. So far I'm classifying it as a ROUS ("rodent of unusual size", will only make sense if you have seen "The Princess Bride" :) 
Comments (2) Thursday, January 10, 2008 Of course, it's not all yawning lions and posing cheetahs. We wind up with many, many megabytes of animals' behinds.  And also some fairly uninteresting video - but the zebra noises are kind of fun. Comments Wednesday, January 09, 2008 On our second day in the Mara we (and 14 other land rover/cruisers and one Guerba dump truck-looking vehicle) encountered a lone female cheetah surveying the plains. Though the rainy season ends in November, this particular moment included simultaneous afternoon sun, dark foreboding clouds, and intermittent torrential rain.  
Comments Monday, January 07, 2008 On one of our game drives in the Masai Mara we found a pride of at least ten lions feasting on a wildebeest. It was mostly a calm affair, with full-bellied cubs rolling around and lots of cat-typical cleaning. When a new guest would arrive to the feast, the resulting noises were AWESOME. Comments Friday, January 04, 2008  (Road work in the Masai Mara - just before large open pit) ...and the grand total is: In 12 days we shot 2,029 images (10.7 GB), and once we sift through them all we should wind up with 100 or so "keepers" :) Subject matter break down is as follows: Accommodations, 32 Africa House, 9 Airplane, 7 Andy, 14 Baboon, 6 Balloon, 9 Bartender, 2 Beach, 25 Beer, 6 Bird, Black-shouldered Kite, 12 Bird, Carmine Bee-eater, 1 Bird, Chanting Hawk, 2 Bird, Crested Hoopoe, 2 Bird, Crowned Crane, 1 Bird, Dimorphic Egret, 8 Bird, Egyptian Goose, 2 Bird, Long-created Eagle, 14 Bird, Pale Chanting-goshawk, 6 Bird, Red-and-yellow Barbet, 8 Bird, Secretary, 6 Bird, Supreme Starling, 12 Bird, Weaver, 1 Bird, White-browed Coucal, 5 Bird, Whydah, 8 Bird, Woodpecker, 7 Building Interior, 12 Cape Buffalo, 3 Cat, domestic, 3 Cheetah, 253 Chimpanzee, 84 Crocodile, 13 Dhow Boat, 8 Elephant 68 Flower, 11 Food, 3 Gerenuk, 38 Giraffe, Masai, 7 Giraffe, Reticulated, 102 Guide, 2 Hartebeest, 1 Hippo, 30 Impala, 12 Jackal, 7 Jennifer, 6 Karen Blixen House, 3 Landscape, 68 Lion, 805 Mangapwani, 25 Masai Mara, 981 Mercury's, 1 Monkey, 23 Oryx, 15 Ostritch, 2 Praying Mantis, 5 Rhino, black, 11 Rhino, white, 3 Rodent, unknown small, 12 Rodent, unknown large in river, 6 Samburu, 493 Samburu dancers, 54 Sign, 4 Stonetown, 33 Sweetwaters, 355 Topi, 4 Tourists, 3 Warthog, 1 Waterbuck, 18 Wildebeest, 8 Yet to be identified, 10 Zanzibar, 121 Zebra, common, 18 Comments Tuesday, January 01, 2008 What a difference 24 hours makes. December 31 - 90 Degrees on Mangapwani beach in Zanzibar ) January 2 - 20 degrees in downtown Chicago ("Feels like" 11) )
Comments
|
||
 A picture every few days or so... 
|
||
){kind=link}