Dang…been a long time since my last post but we been busier than a one legged wallpaper hanger in a butt kicking contest ‘round these parts…that’s my story and Ima stickin’ to it.

Between Elks stuff, Thanksgiving, routine doctor visits and labs, the Iron Bowl against Auburn, the SEC Championship game, the first round of the college football playoffs, a funeral Mass Connie sang at, several extra masses she cantored at when the choir directory was out of town, choral concerts and their related rehearsals, Sarasota Symphony concerts, and decorating for the holidays we’ve had exactly 6 days since my last post with nothing on our calendar.

However…I was able to get Neil to process me some photos yesterday so I can put ‘em up for ya.

We had lamb and sweet taters for Turkey Day…we don’t do turkeys and haven’t doe one in probably 25 years…but have otherwise pretty much followed our normal routine as well as we could given our calendar commitments. As I type this all of our decorating is done and all the presents are in the house albeit not wrapped and under the tree…but heck, we got days to go for that. We did get a whole chicken for Christmas Day…first whole one we’ve bought in several years and Neil will be spatchcocking it and grilling after a day spent in brine for better flavor. He’s making a Tartiflette as the side dish…that’s a French dish similar to scalloped potatoes but with extra butter, cream, and groo-ey cheese along with some caramelized onions and bacon. Toss in a nice bottle of Chardonnay from Linden Winery in VA that we brought back from our leaf peeping trip and he’s going to make blueberry crisp for dessert…he’s not sure what veggie he might make at this point though, maybe with the heavy potato dish he’ll just skip them and move on.

Anyways…back to day 6 in Botswana…continuing the twice daily game drives at Camp Kanana in the Okavango Delta.

Impala running.

Secretary Bird pair…they mate for life and are omnivores that will eat pretty much anything but it’s mostly small rodents and insects.

Neil liked this giraffe post a lot.

Red Lechwe…this one is obviously a buck. They’re an antelope species and are bigger than an impala but smaller than a kudu.

Southern Yellow Billed Hornbill.

The boys club is how our guide/driver referred to this group. All impala bucks but teenagers or this without a harem so they hang out with the other sexually frustrated ones.

Ya can’t count all of ‘em…but there are 9 lion cubs in that pile.

Vervet Monkey…they’re about 30 inches long plus the tail and weight 15 pounds maybe. Equally happy either on the ground or in the trees.

Colloquially…they’re known as blue ball monkeys…for obvious reasons.

Juveniles are more brownish than gray in color.

Warthogs…they’re skittish and hard to get close to…but fortunately they also have really terrible eyesight so you can stop the vehicle in front of them and they wi just walk right up to it. The white whiskers to the sides indicate a sexually mature boar.

More impala…they’re hard to tell apart from the red lechwe except for the larger size and more chunkier vice svelte body.

Little Bee-eater…long distance shot of a real small bird (a bit bigger than a US Belted Kingfisher and smaller than a Palm Warbler) almost at sunset. A beautiful bird albeit not as much as the Lilac Breasted Roller or the larger Bee-eater…but hey, ya take what you can get. This one was pretty far off the game trail they were driving on and they had no way to get closer to a really skittish species.

And finally…sunset taken from the location where the pack of lion cubs was located although looking in the opposite direction.

Interesting things found on the net…not much for ya though…but again, ya get what ya het.

Neil can relate to this one…too many years in noisy submarine engine rooms, submarine control rooms, and computer server rooms to blame for it.

Cyas.