We landed in Addis about 7pm Monday. We waited in line for visa, customs, money exchange, luggage, luggage to be scanned and on to our ride. We are staying at the Jupiter Hotel. It is a nice hotel, but with really short beds.
Tuesday we ate a late breakfast, got a taxi and went out. Our Taxi driver ended up being our tour guide. We went to the National Museum to see Lucy. She is the oldest fossil. Lucy is actually in the states, but we saw Salome. She is the first child...older fossil than Lucy. We went to the Lions Zoo. This mini zoo is a big deal, because the lions belonged to an Emperor, who is well thought of here. We ate at an outdoor cafe as it rained and got rather cold.
Wednesday was an exciting day...
We got to meet and spend about 2 hours with Alemetu! She is sooo sweet! She has 2 teeth, soft curly hair, easy going and a sweet smile! We met 2 other couples there and spent the afternoon with them. We all stopped by the agency for lunch..injera.. a traditional Ethiopian meal. Next, we visited a monk, who was in school with one of the couples brothers. It was very interesting conversations and views. Then it was on to shop... Mini stores where you haggle! Eve and I ate at the Lime Tree Cafe.. Very American style restaurant.
Thursday, we plan on visiting with Ali and doing a little more shopping. Friday will be court...
Well, I am packing for..I do not know what. I hope a wonderful adventure. My sister, Eve, is adopting a little girl from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. We get to meet her on Thursday, then go to court on Friday, where she officially becomes Eve's daughter. All my life I have said I wanted to go to Africa...I thought it would be on a safari, Egypt, somewhere of awww. Ethiopia was not where that visit would be...but I will experience something more wonderful then lazy hungry lions, or an old stone structures...the miracle of changing a child's future.
My first leg of travel starts in Birmingham, Sunday morning. I then fly to Chicago, then to Washington DC, where I will meet up with Eve. From there we will try to sleep, land in Rome for refueling, and on to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. We land there around 7:40 pm Monday. It will be about 38 hours of travel time! Depending on how we feel, we will go to market and putter Tuesday and Wednesday.
The second leg of my trip will be all about the little miracle about to take place...
We decided to take a day trip and go to the Wild Animal Safari Park in Pine Mountain Georgia. It was an easy 3 hour drive, the park is located just north of Columbus Georgia and close to Callaway Gardens. So here's how it works, you can either rent one of the fabulous zebra painted vans (that have bars in place of windows) or you can drive your own vehicle through if you would like, there was a new convertible mustang behind us and several others drove their onwn cars through, but I wouldn't recomend it. So you basically rent the van, it cost $10 plus your admission and animal feed, and you drive through the park. The animals come up to your car and you feed them, they stick as much of their head in between the bars as they can and then they stick their tongues out as long as they can to get the feed. So it gets pretty disgusting and gross but extremely fun. We got to feed longhorn steer, deer, zebras, wild pigs, giraffes and mules. They also had some animals that looked like a cross between a mule and zebra. The video pretty much says it all. The constant giggling you hear is Sandie, she pretty much giggled the entire time through the park.
There is also a walk through area that has Ligars (cross between lion and tiger) that was pretty neat to see, and a few other animals. Think bad or redneck zoo.
Ingredients 3/4 pound applewood smoked bacon 1 pound chicken tenderloins 1/2 cup beer 1 pound dry elbow macaroni 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, plus 2 tablespoons, plus more for baking dish 1 tablespoon minced garlic 1/3 cup all-purpose flour, plus 1 cup 3 cups whole milk, plus 2 tablespoons 3/4 teaspoon salt 3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper 3 cups grated white Cheddar, divided 3 cups grated mozzarella cheese, divided 1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese 1 large egg 1 1/2 cups vegetable oil 2/3 cup hot sauce (recommended: Frank's Red Hot) 1 cup panko bread crumbs Sliced carrots and celery, for serving Directions Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Coat bottom and sides of a 13 by 9-inch baking dish with butter.
Arrange the bacon on an aluminum foil lined sheet pan and bake until crisp, about 22 minutes. Allow to cool and coarsely chop.
Put the chicken and beer in a large bowl and let marinate, at room temperature, for 20 minutes.
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over medium heat. Add the macaroni and cook stirring occasionally, until cooked al dente, about 6 to 7 minutes. Drain and reserve in a large pot or mixing bowl.
Melt 1/2 cup butter in a large saucepan over medium heat; whisk in the garlic and cook for 1 to 2 minutes or until golden. Whisk in 1/3 cup flour and cook until golden, about 1 minute. Whisk in 3 cups milk, the salt and the pepper, and bring the mixture to a boil, stirring frequently. Add 2 cups of the Cheddar and 2 cups of the mozzarella (reserving additional cheese for topping) and stir until melted, about 2 minutes.
Stir the cheese sauce, blue cheese and bacon into the macaroni until well combined; pour evenly into the prepared baking dish and smooth the surface.
Put the remaining 1 cup of flour in a medium-sized shallow mixing bowl. In another medium-sized shallow mixing bowl, add the remaining 2 tablespoons milk and the egg and whisk until combined. Drain the beer from the chicken tenderloins and dip into the flour to coat well, then dip into the egg mixture and back into the flour. Put on a plate until ready to fry.
Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat until hot. Working in 2 batches, fry the chicken until golden brown and cooked through, about 4 minutes per side. Remove to paper towels to drain. Add the chicken and hot sauce to a large bowl and toss until well coated. Carefully slice the chicken into bite-sized strips. (Avoid knocking off the batter).
Evenly top the macaroni with the sliced chicken, and drizzle with additional hot sauce, if desired. Sprinkle remaining 1 cup of white Cheddar and the remaining 1 cup of mozzarella cheese over the top of the chicken and sprinkle with the panko bread crumbs. Melt the remaining 2 tablespoons butter and drizzle it evenly over the bread crumbs. Bake at 400 degrees F until golden brown and bubbly, about 25 to 30 minutes.
Riley has joined Cub Scouts and our first overnight expedition was to spend the night on the USS Alabama. We arrived at the Ship around 5pm and met up with the rest of the pack. We got our safety briefing and boarded the ship, and were led to our sleeping quarters, which consisted of a room full of three high bunks.. looks like I won't be sleeping tonight :). We choose our bunks and stow our stuff then we have about an hour to go explore the ship, so up and down the ladders we go. We meet back up with the pack to eat.. Domino's Pizza delivers to the ship. After we eat, we are sent on a scavenger hunt around the ship. we have to find out things like how many loaves of bread were made dailey on the ship (550), How many gallons of ice cream were eaten dailey (100.After about two hours of scavenging around the ship we meet back up with the pack to play a game of Battleship bean bag toss, the younger boys won against the older boys!! Then it was time for lights out, about 10:30. We all get some "sleep", I think Riley woke up around 4:30 Saturday morning, we finally get up and going around 6:00. The line for breakfast was a little long so we go to the air museum and to the USS Drum Submarine to check them out.
My birthday was amazing! My day started when I walked to my car to find the yard decorated with flamingos and spinning things (thanks to Kim and Velma). Next, I found pictures of me as a child all around school...of course they were my "the best pictures." There were buttons too, that about 20 coworkers were wearing. Along with a picture of me in a high chair with food all over me...on the cafeteria door, and other pictures down my hallway. My classroom was covered with streamers. My students and parents did the posters, streamers and a birthday party...of course Rodger did the printing of the posters and pins. He also brought a cake for the Verner staff.
When I came home there was a flurry of activity..2 mothers, 2 kids and 1 husband were all over the house getting ready for a party. There was so many great friends and family, and really yummy food (thanks to my mom). Yes, there were more posters of me around the house! Way too many "old" cards. Rodger even made a CD for me (voicequilt.com). It is a CD where people call in and record a message to you, then it is burned on a CD. I cried when I heard all the friends and family voices, and all their cool memories of me (yes, I have tears as I type this :-).
Then on Saturday, a group of adults were going to eat in Birmingham. I thought we would just pile in 2-3 cars..nope Rodger rented a limo! So we all rode together in fancy style. We laughed the whole way and the driver even had to make a u-turn. When we got to the restaurant and were walking to our table, a lady asked me if it was my birthday... I turned to say "yes" and OMG it was my sister, Eve, from Boulder, Colorado!!! I was just speechless...well except for the squeal that was heard across the restaurant! Rodger had her fly in. My mom picked her up from the airport and she was there waiting on me. It was soooooo great! We had a great dinner and all rode back home. I hung out with Eve and just marveled at what a great birthday I had. I even took Monday off to spend a little more time with my sister.
By the end of the weekend my face had more wrinkles, and hurt from laughing and smiling so much. I can not explain how wonderful Rodger was to do all that for me!
This is a friend, Kim singing... she had too much aspertaine...
After a fablous birthday weekend, I had to just laugh at myself the next weekend...
Everyone made the joke that "It's all down hill from now." BUT I never knew there was a cliff!!!
The following weekend started like this...
Riley had a roller skating party on Friday. So I went and yes, I put on a pair of roller skates and yes, I still got it! Frontwards, backwards, spinning, sideways, remembered it all from the '80s! Until the last 5 minutes of the night... I fell ON Riley's skate with Kacie on me. I layed there thinking they were going to call 911 because I had just broken my butt. I gathered myself and hobbled off. By the time I got home my middle finger (ironic at which finger) was swelling and turning purple...yep, I fractured it. I think I did break my butt (but I did not get x-rayed...too embarassed). Saturday, I could not bend over, sitting and standing up was a challenge, and no way could I pick things up off the floor. AND to top it off I had the worse heartburn I have ever had. It was so bad that I could not eat or drink even water without pain. Sunday was not much better. Thus it lead me to my first "after 40" doctor's appointment. Which lead to a upper GI, only to find "a little acid reflux." (Little my foot!) So I am now on medicine and doing so much better. My butt is still a pretty purple, black, yellow, and green color and there are certain ways I can not sit or pick up things.
So if this is how my year will run... then I will have a lot to blog about. Maybe this was just a minor cliff and it will just be hills from now on...
We were lucky enough to attend the BCS Championship Game in Pasadena California. We traveled with neighbors and friends Johnny and Kim Sandras. And there is absolutely no way for us to convey how much we laughed during the 4 days of this trip.
We traveled out on Wednesday before the game n Thursday... it was a full day of traveling, Birmingham to Houston to San Antonio to Denver (lots of snow they had to DE ICE the plane..a first for me) to LA (Orange County Airport) We checked into our first hotel... decided it was a gross hotel so we moved to a new hotel just down the road.
Thursday, game day, we slept in a little, had breakfast at the hotel then drove in to Pasadena. Me and Sandie had on new matching houndstooth outfits, that received lots of attention all day. One quote that Sandie got at breakfast was... "ain't nothing prettier than a woman in houndstooth." We arrived at the Rose Bowl around noon, wasted time at the ESPN Gameday Experience, had our photo taken with the BCS Trophy, several Texas fans, Demeco Ryans and just watched all the people. We enjoyed the game, I mean really enjoyed the game!! After the game we headed back to the hotel for a good nights sleep. Did I mention that our cheeks hurt from laughing so much yet?
Friday is a goof off day we sleep in and have breakfast at the hotel again (did I mention it was cook to order? yummy) Our only plan for today was dinner at Duke's of Malibu. So we spend the day driving up the coast road, we stop at a Little street market, we eat lunch at Hof's Hut that started out as a beach burger place, pretty good meal. Then on up the coast road to Malibu where we stop at a road side flea market looking place that has weird and cool stuff, where I got recognized as "the guy with the pants from the game." We had an incredible meal at Duke's, it was right on the water with waves crashing on rocks outside the windows. Hula pie for dessert, it was big that the four of us could not finish it. Have I mentioned that our cheeks hurt from laughing so much yet?
Saturday morning early flight out of Orange County to Phoenix to San Antonio to Houston then finally Birmingham, another long day of flying. But it was so worth it!!
We got to meet and spend about 2 hours with Alemetu! She is sooo sweet! She has 2 teeth, soft curly hair, easy going and a sweet smile! We met 2 other couples there and spent the afternoon with them. We all stopped by the agency for lunch..injera.. a traditional Ethiopian meal. Next, we visited a monk, who was in school with one of the couples brothers. It was very interesting conversations and views. Then it was on to shop... Mini stores where you haggle! Eve and I ate at the Lime Tree Cafe.. Very American style restaurant.
