Lake Nakuru

We did not do anything the first day because we had to drive all the way to the lodge, the most long and boring trip ever. When we got there we had lunch, but shortly after that we went to the room. It was so cool, there was netting on the  beds and the room was filled with all sorts of bright colors.

It rained all the rest of the day so we did not do anything special, so... off to the next day.

The next and last day at Lake Nakuru was the day we went on a drive in the national reserve, which is known for the tons and tons of Flamingos in the lake. As we drove in we saw several baboons, they were so funny to watch because, unlike the other animals, they did not know to get out of the  way of the vehicle. I was worried that we were going to run over one of them, but we didn't thankfully.

All together that day we saw:

• hundreds of baboons with their little ones playing on some tree roots


• Storks 


• spoon bills


• Rhinos


• all sorts of gazelles and antelopes 


• hippos


• hyenas


• elephants 


• giraffes 


• lions in trees  

• and more...

that is all so I will talk to you people later.

Source: http://kzintoscana.blogspot.com/2010/08/lake-nakuru.html

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No Girls Allowed*

First off I must say that my Shame My Sisters Campaign has worked splendidly. They have both agreed in principal to visit. They have no idea how excited I am for that. I was smiling so big when I saw their comments. And let me reiterate, how much I love my sisters, and how awesome they are. I'm glad my Washington friends will finally get to meet them.

I'm a little late on this post. Dare I say, I have been crazy busy working and playing I haven't blogged in a few days. Last fall, I came across a photo essay by Bill Simmons about the National Sports Collectors Convention.  It's basically sports nerd heaven. The asterix in this title refers to the fact that although no girls were allowed on the trip, evidence shows that no girl would want any part of it. Just a bunch of guys wandering around looking at baseball cards, autographs and all manner of sports memorabilia.  When Bill said that next year's event would be in Baltimore, I knew I was in. I told JJ, Dan, and Joe and they too were excited. We looked forward to this for a year.

I decided to make Saturday a Man's day. That meant sports, fighting, and meat. My kind of day. Of course one of my most favorite activities is play flag football. I love it. I've loved it since sixth grade and would play everyday if I could. Even though it was really hot, we still had a very competitive game. Of course I love to win, but I really hate losing. That being said, I don't really remember what the result was, but I can safely say, I probably threw some touchdowns, and probably a few picks as well.

Not from Saturday, but you get the idea

I got back from football and Joe, Dan and I headed up. JJ and Jennifer met us there. We knew were going to have a great time the moment we walked in and saw one of Joe and Dan's personal hero's, Nats legend Dmitri Young. Dmitri took a moment from his burrito to stop and chat with Joe and Dan. I doubt that Dmitri realized that he was in the presence of two of his most loyal supporters. He was also nice enough to stop for a snap shot.

Just behind that I believe they had every baseball card you could possibly imagine. I had decided early on that if I could get a Vlad Guerrero game used bat that I would. I set myself a budget and I was on my way. I didn't even know how to tackle everything. There were so many vendors. I finally found a vendor who had a a game used bat, but it was way out of my price range. I did however take a picture with it. 

According to her mom my niece Savannah liked how I looked in this picture. She is so right.

I am a fan of west coast teams, so there wasn't as much for sale of the Angels, Niners, Cougars, Lakers persuasion, but I did find some treasures here and there. One of the booths that I thought was the coolest was the Championship Ring booth. I guess for some of the guys who don't care about their rings, or are low on cash, sell them, and you can buy them. There was a kid at the booth who was wearing an Angels  hat. I of course started to chat with him, and he showed me the 2002 Angels Championship ring. Heck, he even let me try it on.

I told him that I hadn't seen a ton of Angels stuff and that I was thinking of buying a Tim Salmon autograph, if I could find one. Low and behold this young huckster had one. We negotiated, and I walked away with an authenticated autograph of my third favorite Angel. We met up with JJ and he told me there was a vendor who had a Steve Young autographed picture from his BYU days. As soon as I saw it, I knew I had to buy it. It's a great picture of him running the ball against UCLA. In the end I ended up with an Angels/USA lapel pin, a Tim Salmon starting line up action figure as well as a Vlad card and Steve Young card for Nikki Sixx, and another Steve Young card for me. I felt good about my purchases and even managed to come in under my budget.

They even had the Honus Wagner baseball card. The last time it sold it pulled in 2.8 million. If only my Wally Joyner collection would be worth that.

After we looked at everything and were completely exhausted from walking all over the Baltimore Convention center, we headed to heart of Baltmore to Chaps Pit Beef for some lunch. We saw a lot more than we expected to in the parking lot of Chaps, and there are still a few questions and one in particular that need to be answered.

Our manly day was not over, as we headed back to Arlington, grabbed Scott, and Dan and headed to Bailey's to watch UFC 117. 

It was just the kind of manly day a guy needs once in a while.

Source: http://petechat.blogspot.com/2010/08/no-girls-allowed.html

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Things That Make Me Happy :)

10 Things That Make Me Happy...

I love the whole blogging community and I get lots of enjoyment out of writing my own blog posts and reading others'. I feel like my favourite blogs and those I enjoy reading the most are the ones with personality, where you get to the know the blogger behind the blog.

I wanted to give my blog a more personal dimension like this, and stumbled upon a post idea which I thought was just right for this. I was filling some free-time (something that I have had ample amounts of lately...) and reading back over old blog posts that I hadn't read before. I came across a tag post on Milly's blog which inspired me to do the same. So thank you Milly for the inspiration, and all credit to her for this post idea! (Btw, Milly's blog is one of my favourites, so if you're not already a follower then I highly recommend you check it out!)

So with that said, I am doing the old tag post on 10 things that make me happy! I thought this would be fun to do and give you bit more insight into myself and not just my makeup purchases!

1). Driving. I got my full license about 2 1/2 years ago and I have never got bored of driving. It's pretty much essential for me anyway, being that I live in a village far away from normal civilisation and without public transport! But aside from this I just love the freedom that I feel when I'm driving around in my little Fiat Punto. I like knowing that if you wanted/needed to you could just get in your car and drive. Therefore Penny (the Punto) and I are a very happy duo!

2). My doggies make me extremely happy as well. I love dogs in general and I have 4 little fluffy Jack Russells which I absolutely adore. I'm not really sure what else to say about them! Dogs give you constant love and affection and are so loyal. They're always there to cuddle if you're feeling down and can be so funny when they're playing around. And on top of that they are generally very cute! We are very much a dog family and have nearly always had a family dog and I will definitely get my own dog when I finally move out for good and am settled.

3). High street shopping is something that I love doing in my spare time. I say high street because, whilst there are certain designer and high price tag pieces that I lust over, I am more than content to shuffle around the town centre and go home with a little collection of reasonably priced goodies. I do my fair share a lot of online purchasing too, but nothing beats the real deal. Whether it's trawling through the sales racks or having a look at the latest offerings in Boots, shopping (generally) puts a smile on my face. Don't get me wrong, I don't have a limitless budget, but I don't even have to be spending anything to be enjoying myself. So yes, shopping is no.3, be it in a group for a girlie day out or alone for some dedicated retail therapy. (Is it just me or do other people enjoy shopping alone sometime? I just find it can be much more productive!)

4). The next thing that is guaranteed to put me in a good mood is sunshine :) Spring/summer is definitely my favourite time of year. It doesn't have to be really hot or anything but if it's sunny outside then I am automatically in a good mood. People just tend to be much nicer to each other when the weather's nice! Although sunshine's not necessarily something we have a tonne of here in England, those first few days of summer are always really nice. I'm not one of those people who get really depressed in winter, I can embrace the gloomy months too. But all in all I just feel more productive when it's sunny outside! Plus there's all the fun things that go hand in hand with sunny weather, like BBQs, the seaside and picnics in the park.

5). Something silly that makes me happy is sweets! They are my weakness. Not chocolate, but actual pick & mix sweets (RIP Woolworths!). They're not something I have too often but once I have a bag I will generally finish them that night. I just love having a variety and just lots of yummy chewy sweets to nibble on. This is not good, as I have sensitive teeth and after a few the sweetness really gets to them. Generally I will eat through the pain though haha! (Yes I know, this is probably why I have such sensitive teeth...). We won't share this with my dentist.

6). The next point, which I don't want people to take the wrong way, is money. I know that money doesn't buy you happiness and I am not suggesting that it does. I also haven't come from a privileged background and do not mean this in a greedy 'I must have more' sort of way! But to me, money equals freedom. Obviously money can help you to have more of the other things that make you happy. But aside from this, being financially independent means that you're not tied to anything and always have options. I'm obviously a student, so debt is a big part of my life choices at the moment! But having a little bit of money does definitely relieve certain stresses. I also would love to be able to treat my parents and repay them for their help when I'm older and have the financial means to do so. (And of course having some cash to buy those beauty essentials is always a bonus!...)

7). Friends are the next thing that makes me happy, and I'm sure this will feature on most people's top 10 (along with family, which shall be coming up soon..!). There's nothing better than spending an evening chattering, catching up and laughing til you cry with your group of nearest and dearest girlies. I've shared lots of fun times with my friends but they're also the ones who pick you up when you're feeling less than fab. Whether we're shopping, going for dinner, hanging out in the sunshine or just simply doing nothing my friends are guaranteed to make me happy (well, 99% of the time anyway!) You can never have too many friends :)

8). New products. Of any kind really. Skincare, makeup, hair products. But new products make me happy. It's the overall experience of choosing them, buying them, waiting to try them out and then experimenting with them. I felt like 'makeup' was a bit too general for this list, so thought I'd narrow it down slightly in this way! Like Milly, lipsticks are probably my favourite makeup purchases and I am always excited to see the results of new skincare purchases. I know it's superficial, but I'm ok with that :)

9). I know that this is kind of a given for this sort of list, but family is my 9th answer. Now I don’t have a perfect family, who does right? But it works for us. They’re always there to offer help and support and I know that we all love each other very much and that is what counts. I love the sense of family, knowing that everyone’s is different and the way you all interact is different depending on the family. Heck, you don’t even have to be relatives to count someone as family. But I just like this sense of a unit. Yes they drive me crazy sometimes, but my family do make me very happy as well.

10). My final entry to this list is kind of hard to explain, but I shall sum it up with the word achievement. I am quite an ambitious person and enjoy the whole learning/achieving thing. I like learning new things in lectures and through reading etc and get great satisfaction out of doing well at something that I’ve really put my effort into. That doesn’t really sum up what I’m trying to say. Basically I’m a geek.

Hope you enjoyed and it wasn't too rambley :)

Hannah xxx

Source: http://heartsandsquiggles.blogspot.com/2010/08/things-that-make-me-happy.html

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