Dorothy knew what she was talking about...

There is NO place like home. I think I may have said that once before, when my project assignment was in Manchester. Well, its true and I will say it every time. As much as I enjoy seeing other parts of the world, there is nothing like coming home after a long trip. And I am blessed to have good friends and family who make that home-coming even more special, like: Mom and Dad, who stopped by my house and left me bagels, cream cheese, milk, OJ and Cheez-Its! Bill, Cheryl and Erin who stopped by and left me blueberry muffins, cheese & crackers, cookies, more milk & OJ and some beautiful tulips. Kathy - who in addition to bringing in all my mail for the past 2 months, left me a 12-pack of Coke Zero (they don't have that in Africa yet) and a huge Easter basket of treats since I missed Easter at home this year. It seems my friends are also well-aware of the general emptiness of my refrigerator! LOL. It was wonderful to wake up at 5:00 in the morning and actually have food to eat without having to run out to the store and it made me smile to think of the wonderful people who made that possible.

Quote of the Day

Real Simple magazine sends me a "quote of the day." This is one of my faves:

Time is a created thing. To say 'I don't have time,' is like saying, 'I don't want to.'
— Lao-Tzu

Easter Sunday - Afternoon

When I returned from tree-surfing, Dan appeared to be feeling better, so we made reservations to go sailing on a harbor cruise. Shortly after we left the dock, Dan decided his stomach was not as well rested as he thought it was, so he pretty much stayed in one place. As for me, learning to sail is on my list of things to do in life and it has been years since I have been on a sailboat. So needless to say, I think I had more fun than Dan did on Easter, but he was a good sport about it. Here are some pictures:



I can't resist adding another picture of Dan with a drink in his hand, but actually the drink was mine and he was just holding it for me. Really.




The water was a bit choppy, so the captain determined it was not safe to make it through the 300m wide inlet and head out to the open ocean, so we spent our time cruising back and forth through the harbor. However, that also gave some of us the opportunity to take the wheel.....



That's the captain on the right and the first mate on the left. They don't look too concerned, so I figure I must have been doing an OK job.



It was a beautiful afternoon for a sail, and I only wish Dan had been feeling better.

The Map of Africa

OK - going back to Easter weekend, Dan and I took advantage of the long weekend by heading to Knysna (pronounced NY-sna), which is east of Cape Town and near the border of the Eastern Cape Province. One of the folks at our client was nice enough to give us an itinerary of things to do and places to stop along the way. We stopped for lunch in a town called Wilderness and also made a stop at the local beach where I picked up a ton of oyster shells. We also saw a sign for something called the "Map of Africa," so we took off to see what this was.

After driving up a rather steep mountain and down a dirt road, we were about to turn back after the next bend in the road when we actually arrived at the mysterious destination. The "Map of Africa" is actually a look-out point - and when you look down, you see that Mother Nature has actually carved out with land and water the outline of the continent of Africa! I am sure that the picture does not actually do this justice, but here you go:



Can you kind of see it??? If not, you'll just have to trust me - it was pretty cool.

It's BACK!

I have NO idea where it went or why, but suddenly the "magic" toolbar is back. Just when I was going to make a quick post and go to bed. Well, now I have to upload all these pictures I have been promising. Well, here goes:






The long-awaited baboon pictures! This was quite a few weeks ago, when Dan and I ventured down to Cape Point. It was also my first day at driving on the left-hand side of the road, so these pictures were taken by Dan. Can you see the baby on the back of one of them?




OK, I am pretty sure Dan used the zoom on this one, as I don't remember the baboons getting quite that close. The glare on the photo is due to the fact that we were dafe in the car, with the windows rolled up!




There was about 6 baboons in this group, just hanging out by the side of the road, or on the road itself. Needless to say, they stopped traffic, but we had a great view.

Technical Difficulties

If you are wondering why there have been no posts lately, well, there are 2 reasons. One - Dan and I have spent the past 2 weekends working, so there has been nothing fun to take pictures of or blog about. We are preparing for our conference room pilot, so its been all work and no play. Please wish us luck this week. Two - even when I have found a few spare moments to compose a blog entry and post a few pics from previous "fun" weekends (I know I promised you baboon pictures and I know you are all still wondering what we did on Easter afternoon - I hope its not been keeping you awake at night), Blogger has seemingly "dropped" the toolbar that allows me to attach pictures. I am stumped. Can't find the darn thing. I thought maybe this was an IE error, so I tried logging inwith Firefox. No go. So, if you want to see more pictures, someone is going to have to help me troubleshoot this. I know quite a few techies are *supposedly* reading the blog (although NO ONE seems to be commenting - ah hem). If you have any insights into my Blogger issue, we can resume the pictures from CPT. Rest assured, Dan and I will NOT be working next weekend. Nope - NOT AT ALL. So, there should be some good pictures to post.... if only Blogger would cooperate with me. Sometimes, I just hate technology! LOL. :-)

PS - this same "missing" toolbar also contains the spell check. So, please ignore any mis-spellings.