Muncipal Soft Drink Branding

Clock Tower

Post Office

Street signs

Everything municipal, even schools, is branded by Coke, and sometimes Pepsi in Moshi, Tanzania.

Children at the Orphanage in Tanzania

My camera has a video option. I started to use the video feature and the children started to ham it up for the camera, especially when I showed them the videos.

Blowing Up a Balloon

I visited an AIDS orphanage while I was in Tanzania. These children had mothers and fathers who had died of AIDS.

One child, in particular, played non-stop with a balloon that was brought to him. He is in mid-inhale, trying to blow up the balloon in the lower picture.

So if you add Altar Wine and Konyagi together, what do you get???

If you add Altar Wine and Konyagi together, you get a concoction I like to call "Heaven and Hell."
I do not recommend you try this combination yourself, especially if you bias the mix towards Konyagi...it will be like releasing the Devil into Heaven.

Konyagi

Tanzania's version of firewater (ie. grain alcohol)...it even has flames on the label.

It tastes a little like gin....or whatever you add it to...Fanta Passion soda, orange juice, etc.

Altar Wine!!!!????!!!

I found this at the Kilmanjaro Supermarket in Moshi, Tanzania...tasted like grape juice.

A Brit, an American, an Austrailan and four beers found in Tanzania

Me with Mt. Kilimanjaro in the background

Banana Beer on Mt Kilimanjaro

Banana beer is served in buckets at about $.50 USD. You drink from the bucket and pass it around.
(My shorts are wet because I just went swimming in the waterfall and I am wearing my swimming trucks under my shorts.)

Banana beer is made from fermented bananas, millet flour, and water. There is a layer of brown detritus floating on the top. This stick is used to stir the mix which is in buckets in a corner behind the bar. The beer is ladled out of the buckets using the large scoop cup.

Waterfall on Mt Kilimanjaro

Making coffee on Mt Kilimanjaro

Crushing the raw coffee beans to remove the hard shell abound the bean.

Roasting coffee beans

Crushing the roasted coffee beans

Mt Kilimanjaro almost swallowed me up

I was walking along a trail on Mt. Kilimanjaro, when the trail disintegrated under my feet. My right leg made this hole. The other side of the trial is nothing but down...

How was your Monday after Thanksgiving?

I have been sitting at work all day with this song in my head:

All By Myself by Eric Carmen

When I was young
I never needed anyone
And makin' love was just for fun
Those days are gone

Livin' alone
I think of all the friends I've known
But when I dial the telephone
Nobody's home

All by myself
Don't wanna be, all by myself anymore
All by myself
Don't wanna live, all by myself anymore

Hard to be sure
Sometimes I feel so insecure
And love so distant and obscure
Remains the cure

All by myself
Don't wanna be, all by myself anymore
All by myself
Don't wanna live, all by myself anymore

When I was young
I never needed anyone
And makin' love was just for fun
Those days are gone

All by myself
Don't wanna be, all by myself anymore
All by myself
Don't wanna live, all by myself anymore

All by myself
Don't wanna be, all by myself anymore
All by myself
Don't wanna live, all by myself anymore

The best version of it is at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3j_fdSpkmE

Kings Dominion 2008 Halloween

Roller Coasters are cool!

Does anyone else remember the Hanna Barbera connection at King's Dominion?

The Dogem Cars at King's Dominion...still cool.

Happy Halloween 2008

Art and I get ready to ride the Metro for Halloween 2008.
I wore my Year of the Pig pig costume from Japan for Halloween this year.

Poke the Pig

Is that a pig on the DC Metro?

Here is the vodka station.

A Disco Ball and a Hottie!

Party like the 80's...the 1980s

Art is Da Man

I love Chippies!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Giving the Bird to the Squirrels

The squirrels attacked and gnawed my nephew's Halloween pumpkin.

The squirrel destruction is displayed below.

I wanted to photograph him flipping off (giving the bird to, giving "the finger" to) the squirrels, but he said his mother (my sister) wouldn't let him give "the finger."

Manny and Olga's Upside Down Pizza

Manny and Olga's Pizza is good...right-side up.

I'm stuck!

My nephew came into my parents' kitchen with an ice cream bar stuck to his tongue. I ran to get my camera...



My nephew:"I'm stuck!"
Me: "What's wrong?"
My nephew: "My tongue is stuck! I'm stuck!"

Unstuck from the ice cream. That is chocolate under his nose and around his mouth.
The ice cream bar was too cold. And, I didn't TRIPLE-dog-dare him (See the movie "A Christmas Story" for the reference). He did it himself.

Weekly Mantra

For the past two weeks, I have been repeating this mantra after work every day:

"Stop kicking me, I'm already down."

Jumbo Slice in Adam's Morgan

Jägermeister

I haven't had Jägermeister since "the incident."
That was 20 years ago.

Jeremy and John exploring Adam's Morgan with me.

I have another pair just like these except for the other foot

On Monday, I worked the late shift, so I was able to sleep until 8AM instead of my usual 6AM. However, I woke up disoriented because I wasn't used to getting up so late and I had problems dressing myself.

I discovered that I had put on two different shoes AFTER I got to work.

Ode to the Athletic Cup by Nephew

Shave and a Haircut on an athletic cup. He's got talent!

Oh, and remember: next Friday... is Hawaiian shirt day

So what am I saying on the phone????

Peter Gibbons: Yeah. I got the memo. And I understand the policy. And the problem is just that I forgot the one time. And I've already taken care of it so it's not even really a problem anymore.
Dom Portwood: Ah! Yeah. It's just we're putting new coversheets on all the TPS reports before they go out now. So if you could go ahead and try to remember to do that from now on, that'd be great. All right!

Why am I wearing the shirt????

Bill Lumbergh: Oh, and remember: next Friday... is Hawaiian shirt day. So, you know, if you want to, go ahead and wear a Hawaiian shirt and jeans.

Take Me Out to the Ballgame...

Ben's Chili Bowl Chili Dog with Cheese, Half-Smoke with Chili, Onions and Cheese, and Chili Fires with Cheese at the Washington Nationals Baseball Game

Gifford's Ice Cream and Bag of Peanuts

Reel to Real

In the library that I work, we take reel to reel audiotape and run it out of this machine with XLR cables to a mixer into a computer and digitize it using Soundtrack Pro.

One tape had 18½ minute gap of dead air on one tape...just kidding...can you say NIXON???!!!

Bob and Edith...and Lamont

Networking

It's not what you know.

It's not who you know.

It's not who knows you.

It's who knows who you know.

Yes, Rico. Kaaboom.

Skipper: Lets blow this popsicle stand, boys!

Rico: [Grabs stick of dynamite] Kaaboooom?

Skipper: Yes, Rico. Kaaboom.

Shitake Mushrooms

Skipper: Shitake mushrooms! No more Mr. Cute and Cuddly.

Rico: [grabs stang of dynamite] Kaboom-kaboom-kaboom!

Skipper: Rico! Enough with the dynamite already!

Rico: [sighs disappointed] Aaah.

What do I do?

Sno-Kone

This is how to get to the essence of a Sno-Kone (Snow Cone).

4th of July at Thirsty Bernie

Thumbs Up to the 4th of July party at Thirsty Bernie
I have the beer, my nephew has the Sno-Kone