Last year Wifey and I spent some time in South Africa on safari. Leading up to that trip I was apprehensive and unsure of what to expect. It was a trip she always wanted to take, and I did the best I could to make that dream come true. Every second of the time we spent in South Africa and at Londolozi proved to be one of the greatest experiences in my life. We swore that we would get back there some day and do a vaster discovery of the continent. I didn’t imaging that it would be so soon. We are going back to Africa again this September. This trip will be in East Africa, Mt. Kilimanjaro, Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania, and Rwanda.

We are planning to see a few different areas and varieties of safari this upcoming trip. Part of the trip is going to be in a tent camp. A camp that moves its location based on where the great migration of wildebeests and zebras occur each year. Millions of each animal travel through The Serengeti in constant search of water. I guess they don’t know you can get water in liter bottles now. It is supposed to be quite a spectacle. Our fingers are crossed that we see it from a hot air balloon. Another stop is Ngorongoro Crater, and giant crater formed when a volcano exploded and collapsed on itself several million years ago…oh wait, I think science says the earth is only 6000 years old. No, that’s religion, now I can see why people think it makes so much sense. I recently saw in a documentary that Ngorongoro Crater is the home to a large population of inbred lions. They did not appear to be too different from regular lions, the major differences were lack of teeth, no shoes, jean overalls, and they primarily drink moonshine.

The grand finale of the trip takes place in Rwanda. We will be staying in the Virunga Volcanoes for 4 nights and gorilla trekking. There are only 800 mountain gorillas left alive in the wild and some of them may be lucky enough to meet me. I plan to teach them sign language and the long forgotten art of cross-stitching. We will hike all day through the steep, muddy rainforest to spend time with the mountain gorillas. It sounds exactly like something I would do. I am fairly certain that Wifey is taking me there just so I get Dian Fossey’ed. Is it a coincidence that the life insurance policies on me just renewed? I think not.

I am starting a foundation to raise money before our trip. The foundation’s primary objective is to get the gorillas hair product and combs they desperately need. Yeah, humans don’t come from monkeys, whatever you say religion.

As a precursor to our upcoming trip I went out today in search of local wildlife to practice shooting photos. I came across the elusive Harford County “forest cows”. Apparently one jumped in my car and now lives in The Olympia. Lucky him.

Charlie’s new obsession is swimming. Swimming is all he talks about anymore. When are we going swimming again, can I go swimming again, look at my new diving cap, daddy watch me practice my doggie paddle, on and on and on…it’s cute, but seriously, settle down. Apparently he was trying to learn valuable swimming techniques on the internets. He is learning through research because I am awful and never let him go swimming anymore. Charlie seems to have stumbled across this other Mountain Dog that does more than just swim. This dog surfs. And not just some lame ass dog on a surfboard for a split second while someone snaps a picture. This dog is pure surfer dog. He has all the traits required, shaggy hair, appears stoned, and hates tourists.

This video Charlie found is extremely impressive. I dare say that my video of Charlie is even more impressive. The surfing dog is simply a video of someone doing something they already know how to do…big deal. That is like a video of me doing math, very unimpressive. My video of Charlie is an un-staged video of an impromptu moment in time that could not be recreated, even by a collaborative effort of Peter Jackson and James Cameron. A handsome dog jumps into a pond while that dog’s unsuspecting best friend has his back turned. This dog has never swam before, but somehow survives the terrifying debacle known as, “Learning how to Doggie Paddle”. The drama writes itself!

Enough of my nonsense, here is what Charlie can not stop watching:

I have been working on this multi-cache (a geocache with multiple stages) in Slower Delaware since the middle of the summer. It is called Gone Fishin’ and is centered around lesser known fishing spots in southern Delaware. They are all near ponds. I found the first 5 stages and then got stumped on the 6^th a couple months ago. I found myself driving down south yesterday for some work errands and it seemed like a good time to give that stage another look. I took my trust geo-hound Charlie along with me for the long day of driving and adventuring. We got to the pond area and started to look around. There was nobody else anywhere to be seen, so it was plenty safe to have him running free. I was deep in a briar patch that he could not get into. I had my back turned on him for a couple minutes, but could always see him if I turned to look. Out of nowhere, to break the still silence of the beautiful area I hear a loud SPLASH! My immediate reaction was “no way”….Apparently, way. I turned and ran toward him only to see him splashing around in the water a good 20 yards off the bank of the water. This is a mountain dog that has never been in the water, other than baths in the tub and mountains of frozen water also known as snow. I was caught somewhere between terrified and thrilled. Obviously not too terrified as I had time to grab my phone and set it to video record. It was obviously apparent that he had no idea what swimming was supposed to look like. I always assumed that doggie paddling was an inborn feature to canines. What he was doing looked more like a dummy paddle. I was a bit panicky, but luckily I kept it together well enough to continue recording. He was swimming parallel with the shoreline and not coming any closer regardless of how loud I yelled for him. I finally decided I might have to go in after him, his head never went under water, but he was definitely not treading water properly. I was only a few seconds from going in after him when I noticed he had started coming closer to the land and also gotten some footing in the shallower water. I am relieved all is well, but would not ever count on Charlie to rescue me if I was drowning, unless of course I had dog biscuits in my pockets. What an exciting day for the Sellers men. And yes, I did find that stage of the geocache and go on to complete the entire series later that day. I am glad Charlie was with me to help run through the woods and celebrate our achievement. Ridiculous video below.

What was supposed to be a quiet weekend at home with nothing much to do, turned out to be packed with activities. I was so excited all week long for this weekend to get here. I knew this would be the weekend that Christmas Jimmy got to go to the Christmas Tree Farm and purchase (not pick out) our 2012 Christmas Tree. Thank you to the Underwood Family for growing Christmas trees around the corner. That was supposed to be the centerpiece of our weekend. Christmas tree chopping and shopping was only a quick flicker of the fun-filled weekend.

Can you picture that physical comedy gag that you always see on the television when someone opens a champagne bottle or a bottle of wine? The releasing of contents under pressure causes the cap or cork to go flying across the room and always hits someone in a comical way. Right in the forehead, or the nuts, something pretty hysterical. That happened to me this Friday night. I was minding my own business having a fajita, and someone across the room was celebrating something. I am not sure what was being celebrated, probably an occasion of excellent companionship. A wine cork smashed me square in the mouth. I made it through OK, minimal scarring, no need for stitches, just a bruised sense of value and worth. Luckily I was done my dinner but this incident did unfortunately result in a cancelation of desert.

I awoke Saturday morning still reeling from the night before and learning to live with the fact that my existence had been boiled down to a scene from The Three Stooges. It was the first of the month so I had to dash over to work and get the first of the month work done. No big deal. The positive about work on a Saturday was that it brought me to Newark on a gorgeous weather day. I brought my (Wifey’s) bike with me with intentions to head to White Clay. I got to White Clay and the place was deserted. I brought along all my Under Armour base layer gear, but did not need that stuff. The weather was amazing. I rode the trails of White Clay, enjoying the weather, the outdoors, nature, peacefulness, and finding geocaches all afternoon. I would have stayed until I ran out of sunlight, but I had MUCH more important matters to attend.

Thanxgiving is over, Wifey is done her volunteer missionary work in Puerto Rico, and it is officially December. All these facts add up to only one thing, it’s Christmas tree time! I had to rush home from White Clay and pick up Wifey to head around the corner to the Christmas Tree farm before sundown. She picked out a perfect blue spruce. We had the tree back to the house, set up, and decorated before the sun extinguished and the Asians borrowed it for the next 12 hours. It looks and smells fantastic. One of the handsome boys that lives in our home can’t decide if he should pee on it, or guard it with every fiber of his being.

Sunday was the day that Team Sellers dipped our toes back into the world of culture and refinement. We had tickets to see Warhorse the play in Philadelphia with Taper Matt and his diverse family. We made a pact to not walk out half way through the show. We were able to stick to our pact this time. We wanted to see the show because of Matt’s recommendation, so when the show came to Philadelphia it seem fitting to see it with him. Plus, Sunday was his birfday, so it was fun spending a matinee and dinner with him to celebrate. He was very lucky to have Team Sellers to himself for an entire day. We typically charge by the hour. The show was fantastic. A well above average story, the acting was good, and the theatrics were exceptional. The way the story of a war was told on stage through the use of theatrics, imagination, presentation, and innuendo was much better than simply having gun battles, bright lights, and explosion sounds. It was a bit of a “heavy” story as Wifey pointed out, but an enjoyable two and a half hours. The show was followed by Thai dinner in Wilmington, the opening of gifts, and the awkwardness of other people’s families. I enjoyed every second of Taper Matt’s 55^th(?) birfday.

I believe the official rule is that 2 years makes a tradition. If that is the case, then this year I continued ¾ of the Sellers’ Family festive ritual. Since Wifey decided she would rather spend her Turkey Holiday with her Puerto Rican relatives, the rest of us loaded up and headed south.
Today was a most gorgeous day. The sun was out all day and the weather was near perfect. The boy half of Team Sellers decided it would be a good day to do some driving, wander around some strange parks, run through some new forests, and log a bunch of miles on a whirlwind geocaching adventure. Charlie is a great geocache companion. He was by my side at all times. He never actually helped me find any, but celebrated with me each time we uncovered a hidden gem. That poor boy is worn out! He ran and played outside all day, met some new canine friends, and saw parts of Maryland that neither of us would know existed otherwise. Baby Girl Sellers got to enjoy a nice quiet day without anyone trying to ear her face. She tells me those are her favorite days.
Turkey dinner with all the fixings…seems like that would be a good idea any day of the year. I guess it is, but when it takes half a day to prepare I understand why those pilgrims and Real Americans didn’t stay friends for too long.
Putting aside everything we know about Thanxgiving, there is one thing we can all agree upon. Forget discussions of political differences, religious ideas, family squabbles, that drunk uncle that wants to play weird games without shirts, the pie is burnt, or there is too much meat in the turkey. There is one thing about this day off from work that truly brings us all together…turkey sandwiches.

I woke up a bit later than normal this morning. Between a late rise and daylight savings, there was a bit of glow to the sky this morning when I stepped into our closet to chose the attire I would adorn while tackling today. I got a view out the window of something in the front lawn, I had not idea what to think. I meandered down the stairs and got a better view of what looked like a front lawn that had been TP’ed. Once I made it to ground level and was able to focus outside into our front yard I saw what looked like an overturned trash can with litter spewed about. My brain went from “great, we got post-Halloween TP’ed” to “marvelous, I have to go clean up someone else’s garbage”. When I finally got myself ready to go outside, I started to walk around the front of the house. It became clear that whatever I was seeing was no accident, it was no post-Sandy debris, it was nothing done in malice by the neighborhood toughs…it clearly was something methodically and tenderly placed. My first instinct that kicked in was remembering that today was my wedding anniversary. I thought how sweet it was of Wifey to wake up in the middle of the night and place something in the front yard for me to see first thing in the morning. That lasted about a second until I realized how many flaws were actual in that single thought.

As I made my way around the corner of the driveway it became clear what had happened. Someone had pranked the local Oil Baron pretty damn well. I jumped to an immediate assumption of who was involved, but my assumption jumping was incorrect. Not only is there no time in the lives of the originally accused, creativity and spontaneity have also gone missing. It was only a few minutes later that the actual culprit was positively identified. That culprit will pay dearly. Lots of new evidence is coming in almost every minute. Apparently the voting has been suspended in our area to divert all resources into apprehending and punishing the guilty parties. The joke is on the Middle-of-the-Night-Marauders though. We don’t support any party. I refuse to vote until there is an app on my phone for that. I can’t see a reason to have to leave my home for something so silly.

I spent almost the entire day last Saturday biking in fair hill. I was there in the morning and out until I almost ran out of sun. It was the last day to do much of anything because of Hurricane Sandy Pants. It was probably also the last, and best day to be out leaf peeping. Beautiful fall foliage everywhere that would be destroyed with the upcoming storm. It was the first time I rode with my new fanny pack camera bag, worked out perfectly. Strapped around my back I hardly knew it was there. I made an album of some of the better shots HERE. I rode almost 20 miles on the trails and surrounding roads. I was able to clean up most of the geocaches in Fair Hill that had eluded me earlier in the summer, which was fun.

I was joined for part of my day by the notorious head of the Finazzo Family, Eddie. We had a blast. He was still getting used to his new bike shoes, I’m sure he will come to love them in time, we all do. Eddie made for a great camera subject most of the day. He was constantly doing thrilling things, like falling down. He was gracious enough to allow me to shot him with high-speed photos. He was determined to climb a hill that I have not seen anyone able to climb. I don’t want to ruin the ending or say whether he made it or not, but I did put together this quick time lapse video of his attempts. I think the video turned out just fantastic, considering it was made with all still photos.

Between the amazingness of GPS, an app on my phone, and Google maps, there is a way to export my entire ride into Google maps for viewing. I think that is pretty freaking neat. Check it here. Wonder if this link will work in 10 years from now.

Tropical Storm Sandy could not stop our house from doing some light redecorating. Trapped in the house, scared to death exclusively by words from the media, and starving for ways to make our friends laugh, we dove headfirst into bathroom redecorating. Three of my favorite photographers are now proudly displayed in the most illustrious room in our home. The master bath is now adorned with our favorite shutterbugs, Matthew (Sub)Urban, JDT and Peter Lik (actual name, not changed for internets humor). I informed the team from Mobius that they were sharing wall space with Mr. Lik, and also sent Mr. Lik a similar email informing him how honored he should be to share wall space with the other two boners.

Ain’t no party like a hurricane party, ’cause a hurricane party stops at 9pm and everyone goes to bed. People were panicking, power was going out, flood waters rising, shingles coming off, Indian River Inlet Bridges collapsing. None of this matters when Team Sellers has a house party planned. Even if our power had gone out last night, we had a contingency plan in effect. That plan was to do what every young, hip, in love couple does in a state of emergency…finish our Big Five Africa puzzle.

We finished that sucker and started our new puzzle. The new puzzle is one I had made from a collage of our own personal pictures from August Holiday 2012. Not only are we the luckiest people I know, we are probably also the most exciting.

Take that Hurricane Sandy!

It is too late for Team Sellers, please save yourselves by any means neccesary. If we never see you again, thank you Earth fo the memories. Sincerely, Team Sellers