Q19 update and parking deck

With my last post I have surpassed my goal of reading 19 books in 2009. However, not all of them were the intended 19 so I'm not sure there's cause for celebration yet. I've still got 3 books from last Christmas to get through before the end of the year.


Honestly, I know I'll finish the Vonnegut books on schedule but I don't see it happening for The Selfish Gene. Man, this book is going slowly. Right now I feel like I'm reading a basic biology text. I love science. LOVE science. But somehow I just can't get excited about this book. Maybe it will get better. But I've got at least two more books I'd rather read and self-discipline is not my strongest suit as evidenced by the raided bag of Halloween candy at my house.

On the other hand, I'm concurrently reading Welcome to the Monkey House which is mildly entertaining, so I've got that going for me.

On the parking deck: is there much worse than being stuck behind someone who goes the required 7 mph through a parking deck up to the 5th floor? I got through 3 songs (~8 minutes!) and never got out of first gear before getting to a spot.

The Elegance of the Hedgehog

Author: Muriel Barbery
Category: book club

Most of this book was slightly over-intellectual but the underlying story is amazing. Once you brush away all the fancy words, analogies, and references a beautiful and inevitable sadness is delivered perfectly. It could have been written no other way.

Testing mobile blogging

there's no place like home

Rather cliche, but never more true.

Back from my adventure and I've decided I need a day at home to recuperate before heading to work. Here's my agenda for the day:

- wear my pajamas until I have to leave the house

- drink my second cup of tea, and possibly a third (learned behavior from my trip)

- catch up on Gossip Girl, Glee, and Fringe (slightly ambitious, may have to ax Fringe from the plans)

- catch up on 3 weeks of EW (1 down, 2 to go)

- laundry (just a touch of real-world responsibility)

- figure out how to get my cat to stop pissing in my dining room (also slightly ambitious)

- get rice for dinner (the only thing I will leave the house for today) and make black beans

And it's been raining since early morning which makes it even more perfect to be holed up inside. Things couldn't have worked out more brilliantly, well, except for the cat pee.

"There is nothing like staying at home for real comfort." ~Jane Austen

Kenya: Day 9

This is the view of the sunset over Lake Victoria from my hotel. There are plenty of buildings in front to obscure the view, but with a little zoom they can be avoided. This was one of my first nights here in Kisumu - I haven't been back to the hotel by sunset since.

Yesterday we saw a terrible accident where a motorbike (piki piki) got hit by a car. The entire windshield was smashed and you could even see where the piki piki rider's head went through the windshield into the car. We got there some time after it had happened so we only saw the car, thankfully. Point of fact, I'd say about 85% of the motorcyclists don't wear helmets, even though I think John said it was a law.

The driving here is definitely scary. We've taken as much precaution as possible not to be driving from anywhere far after it gets dark. The roads are littered with bicyclists who transport people from place to place via a cushion over the rear wheel instead of a rack (boda bodas) and the drivers of the cars and matatus (minivan-like buses) don't care much for their safety and barely honk when they pass them. At least once I've seen a guy on a boda boda drive off into the ditch to get out of the way.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

Author: Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith
Category: purchases

So, this book was pretty fun. Part of me thinks I might have liked it a little more if I hadn't read the original so recently. The second half was better than the first where I feel like he deviated from the original a little more and made it like a new story for me. Perhaps if I was a crazy Jane Austen fan I would have been offended but I think both versions merit some praise.

Kenya: Day 7?

I’m now around my 7th day here is Kisumu. It’s supposed to be the dry season right now but it has rained ridiculously hard for the last four days in a row. While people in Atlanta are dealing with crazy flooding, it is not lost upon me while I’m here in Kenya.

Sunday night we went out to dinner at Mon Ami restaurant in Mega City. Mega City is a giant mall with a super market (Nakamutt) and then across the parking lot is Mon Ami which has a huge covered patio where we were trying to eat.

It started to rain while we were waiting for our bitings (starters for you non-Africans) and all of a sudden it felt like we were caught in a hurricane. The wind was spraying the rain at least 25 feet – there was nowhere safe on the patio. All of us patrons were crammed up against the wall by the pass thru to the kitchen until it let up enough for us to sit back down at our damp tables and chairs.

The picture is not that great but this was taken from the car as we were stuck in traffic to get out of the parking lot and onto Nairobi Road, which was a complete river. The car in the picture has stalled in the middle of the road creating all sorts of problems in addition to the massive amounts of water flowing. You can see how high the water is on the wheel of the bicycle on the left of the shot.

The craziest part of the night, though, happened when the lot adjacent to the patio flooded and two monitor lizards came flying across the road to go swimming. John actually thought they were trying to get away from the water but got kind of stuck in the wading pool. And then there were at least 2 cars that tried to drive through 3+ feet of water and got stuck. Every time someone attempted to make it through, all 10 people in the restaurant got up and ran over to the side of the patio to watch the debacle.

Kenya: Day 2

Here's the picture I tried to post the other day of the Kisumu airport.