Mom is Almost Here!

This afternoon, I have been watching my mother fly across the country. See.... there she is in the image on the left. Flying at 38,000 feet over Idaho.

This image comes from a nifty website called FlightAware. Plug in any flight number and it will show its progress in route.

I guess I better get dresses and get ready to head to the airport to pick mom up.

Sounds of Africa

It has been a slow week here at work. Found out there is now a hickup with the loan-in job I am supposed to go to in late May. Love the beauracracy at large companies.

So, while I have been working away, I have been listening to (and occassionally watching) Africam. What is Africam? It is a live video feed from a watering hole in the Sabi Sands reserve in South Africa. Now most of the time, all you see is just a watering hole, but every once in a while, you may catch elephants or zebra or baboons playing around.

Since Africa is 9 hour ahead of us time-wise, it is usually night time at the Africam watering hole and not much to see. And since I can't spend all my working hours watching the feed, I mainly just listen with my headphones. And it is awesome! The critters and bird of the night make this wonderful symphony of sounds that is so relaxing. Today there is a storm passing the area so you have the sounds of rain and thunder included in the chorus. It is better than any of those new age sounds of nature CDs you could ever buy.

26 more days until I head to Africa to hear these wonderful sounds myself!

Updates

It's been a busy week so sorry about the lack of updates on my blog recently.

• Got my hair cut on Friday. It was getting looonnngggg, so it was nice to finally get it chopped off.
• I hate doing taxes. Yuck!
• I am almost finished with my second Blurb book. This one is a photo book of my families trip to Yellowstone National Park in December 2005. I can't wait for my mom and brothers family to see it.
  
• The Fodor's Forum is a fabulous place for information on travel around the world.
  
• I got a new Flickr account for my photos. Now I got to transfer them all from Shutterfly and Smugmug to Flickr. That should take a few years. :-)
• I was stopped by a cop last Thursday. I was very distracted and on the phone (I know...not good). He lectured me on appropriate driving behavior and then walked back to his vehicle. I thought for sure, he was just going to get his ticket book so I proceeded to get my wallet out to retrieve license and insurance card. Next thing I know, cop guy is driving away. I actually uttered, "But don't you want my license and insurance card?"
  
• I just found out that I can never go to Uganda or Rwanda to see the mountain gorillas since those countries require Yellow Fever shots and I can't get YF shots due to my RA. Poop... I was actually thinking this might be my next big vacation down the road.
  
• I have a new favorite grocery store now. The local Greenwood Market not only has a HUGE Equal Exchange display in the coffee section, but they also sell Fair Trade teas, sugar, and of course, chocolates. In fact, they carry two brands of Fair trade cocoa powder. YAY!!! I don't drink coffee, but I will be buying some of the Fair Trade kind when my mom visits.
  
• This coming Sunday, March 25th, is the 200th anniversary of the end of the Slave Trade in England. Celebrate it by buying Fair Trade products or going to see the movie Amazing Grace (or both)!

Better than an External Hard Drive?

I was reading one of my English Photo magazines today and happened upon an article about Protect My Photos.

This nifty little website acts like an online hard drive for your digital photos. No separate external hard drive is needed. For roughly $40 years, you get about 40GB of space to safely store your photos.

Pretty interesting.....