Oh, Sherry...

Susan and I just discovered that Sherry is perfectly capable of continuing to operate without a key in the ignition.

Highlights from Ethiopia!

Susan and I had a four-day weekend, courtesy of 'Id al-Adha (thank you, Abraham, for being willing to sacrifice Isaac and giving me another holiday in my calendar year).  So we decided to head to Ethiopia to visit Rachel, who happened to be there on a work trip.

We saw churches and old bones, watched some amazing dancing, ate food that was delicious but harbored malicious bacteria, and spent some moneys on beautiful scarves and silver jewelry.  Overall, it was a wonderful weekend, even if it did make me wistfully wish Rachel and the rest of the family were a teensy bit closer. 

an airport shuttle reservation in honor of the Granny and Daddy, who spent some time in Ethiopia waaay back when

Lucy, or perhaps a cast of her? Wasn't quite clear...

Susan showering in Haile Selassie's bathtub - I'll spare you the picture of me and his bidet

he allowed us to take a picture with him for only 25 cents

but insisted on wearing sunglasses

one of the few times we found Coca Cola Light

eating delicious donuts at a bakery my Mom and Granny used to buy their bread at

the top,

side,

and bottom of one of the rock-hewn churches in Lalibela (Ethiopia's Petra)

old bones

and more old bones - outdoor burials grounds = yucky

what I imagined Hobbit houses to look like as a child, before Peter Jackson interfered

the view from the mountains surrounding Lalibela

Poooke!

We got a little punchy on Sunday and resorted to the family's age-old tradition of poking each other with things:

When Ants Get Angry

Our first day in Ethiopia, Susan and I hit up the tourist sites, including visiting Holy Trinity Cathedral where we found this memorial:

I'm sure its to something important but Susan immediately noticed that it appeared to be a monument to the gradual aging of Harrison Ford (look closely - they all appear to be highly reminiscent of Han Solo in carbonite).

The guard wouldn't let us take a picture so I snuck behind a nearby tree and Susan tried to be distractionary by stopping and appearing to contemplate the momentousness of the monument.  

What she didn't realize is the spot she paused to contemplate on was actually a massive ant battleground - they quickly swarmed her feet, leading to much hopping around and swatting of ants off her flipflops and laughter from the guards.  

killer ants

even after losing his body, this ant held on fiercely, trying to kill the flip flop

I, of course, helped her.  But not before taking the picture of the Harrison Ford monument and this short video:

Ethiopia!

Susan and I are off to visit Rachel in Ethiopia.  

We have our bags all packed - sweaters for the "cold" mid-70's weather, swimsuits for use in the hotel's heated pool, extra camera batteries for the day trip to Lalibela and its rock-hewn churches, Jillian Michal's "30 Day Shred" video (a wishful thinking addition) and lots of books for the long flights there and back and around.

Also included are various items of Rachel's that somehow made their way to Jordan and need to return to her, including a pair of shoes, a large mosaic mirror, and some Etruscan reproduction jewelry. We'll swap it for the suitcase she has waiting, full of cookies from Trader Joe's, clothes from Anthropologie, M&M's and caramels.

Family Resemblance?

We found Willy sleeping thusly:

I'm pretty sure I know where he got it from:

Mmmm....America...

Rachel and I were on our way to the Adirondacks this past August and she was inside paying for our gas. Or buying our next round of Diet Cokes. Or something...whatever it was, it was taking awhile.

And so I decided to use her phone to document my delicious dinner which consisted of normal, delicious things, that are completely unavailable in Jordan: fountain Diet Coke, a cheeseburger with real (fake) cheese and not-made-in-Egypt ketchup, and a Cadbury Egg, Halloween edition.

Halloween!

Last night Susan and I loaded Sherry up with six girls, three plastic bins full of decorations, a set of speakers, four transformers, a plate of brownies, various paper decorations and Willy and headed over to the church to set up for the Halloween Party.

After frantically arranging tables, taping up ghosts, bats and pumpkins everywhere and plugging in the giant blow-up spider, we quick-changed into our costumes.  Special thanks to to Mom for sending our accessories and Rachel for sending Willy's bat wings!

Body Painting!!

Susan and I got invited to a birthday party this weekend.  We also got invited to do the face/body painting for the festivities.  

Susan did some deep dive research (google image search "face painting" and then ask yourself why the first 10,000 images are of girls with butterfly wings painted on their faces).  She came up with several sheets of amazing options for the kiddos and drew them out, so they could just point at what they wanted.

Sadly, the kiddos were more interested in the family turtle than having scary witches painted on their cheeks.  So, to pass the time, we became our own customers.  Behold, an adorable monster and not-so-sinister rattlesnake:

In Which We Get All Dressed Up for Nothing

Susan and I got all dressed up, braved the unexpected street closures for the marathon, found a new shortcut trying to get around said street closures, and got to church on time (miracle!) only to walk in and realize that today was the re-broadcast of Sunday morning's session of Conference.

I've never felt so ashamed, sneaking back down the steps but...honestly...we already watched it! I didn't feel nearly so ashamed as I was crawling back into bed for a nice mid-morning nap, though.

Mahir Mulligan and Maryam

The house next door has been slowly demolished and turned into a large construction pit and I'm a little afraid we're going to run into a Mike Mulligan and Mary Anne situation.  

The ramp they are using to get the very large construction equipment in and out of the hole is rather narrow, steep and flimsy looking (in fact, as I was taking pictures of it, a small section broke off in a pile of dust and rubble).

Large Machines in Deep Holes

with Steep, Crumbling Ramps...Not Good

On a plus note, if the machines get stuck in the hole, at least the Mary Anne's, aka Maryam's, are quite beautiful.  I must get some of these for Sherry...  

contemplating their fate...will we be able to leave when its all done?

**If you don't know what I'm talking about when I reference Mike and Mary Anne, see here for a summary of the original children's classic "Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel" and here for a hilarious re-interpretation by Werner Herzog)

A Depressed Dog

We could hear Willy grousing but know where he was until he threw his bone out from under the chair.

He was basically sitting under there complaining about...who knows?  The fact that he'd eaten all the snails in the backyard and was still hungry?  So, I took the camera over, switched it to video and recorded this conversation, in which he poured out his angst, woes, sorrows and frustrations.  

It is kinda worth the view:

Halloween Preview

Halloween parties are coming up so we are pulling together some costume ideas.  A little preview of the amazingness we got in the mail a few days ago:

Lemonade!

I got a text this morning about a neighborhood lemonade stand and so loaded Willy up in the car and went to get a fresh glass.  This young entrepreneur made 15 JD ($22) in just half an hour, which is more than my hourly wage.  I think I still have some cardboard boxes stashed under my bed from the move out here...?!

Awwwwwwa.

We had people over for enchiladas tonight and the attendees grew from four to ten people over the course of the afternoon.  Willy wandered around all night, bewildered, so sleepy and looking for a place to take a nap, but everywhere he went had people in it.  

After everyone went home, we were busy cleaning up and finally came out to find this adorable tableau:

Random Galilee Fun Times

In all of the 300 or so pictures we took in the Galilee, there were of course, some gems.  I share them with you now:

In the Bible Dictionary, it says Chorazim was the site of "unspecified miracles". After visiting the site, we were able to intuit and re-enact them for you, as shown below:

While at the Church of the Multiplication, we saw this very strange mosaic and thought "why don't those squirrels have tails?"

Then we met these as-yet-unidentified creatures whom we dubbed "Rodents of Slightly Unusual Size":

At the Church of the Primacy of St. Peter we joined in with Peter in being impressed by his heavenly visitation and calling:

And wanted to join these guys at the River Jordan but were not sure the legality of what they were smoking:

When you see a tree this swoony...well...you have to swoon:

And last, because we're our parent's children, we had to giggle at this bus full of PilgerFAHRT's who followed us around all three days: