Looking for animals and cameras

This weekend is going to be dedicated to finding some kitties for the house and a good camera for Dan. A friend says there are some kittens that I can go look at. If they are cute enough, they will have a new home. And, because I need a NICE camera and have had camera envy for the last few years since the good SLR digitals came out, I am now going to make the investment.
Stayed home this week as we had several company meetings and one of our planes has been down for maintenance. That made it easy for me and it's a good thing because I had a pretty intense cold there for a few days. It's mostly over now and I am feeling much better - and, it wasn't the swine flu - ha! Interestingly, my son in California has a cold at the same time, must have been a genetic cold.
Had a going away party with my Tuesday night study group for Pele from Australia. Just a great guy and one of my favorite people since I came to India. He says I have an open invitation to come see him in Brisbane!! Karen and I actually have Australia on our list so we'll be there eventually!
The weather is getting so much nicer here. Just amazing how much better it feels in the early morning especially, but the going away party last night was on the roof of our friends very nice home. What a place - it must have at least 6000 sq ft and the terrace up on top has lots of yard and a hedge. I asked Cindy about the mowing up there and she admitted they are a two lawn mower family so they have one for the real yard and one for the yard up top. Anyway, last night looking out over the skyline of Gurgaon and the beautiful sky was really a nice evening and the temperature was perfect.
Back home Karen tells me that when they went into town to register the car, the notary place they went was the same guy who answered the AAA call the other night when she was stranded and out of gas. He said the story of the "crazy woman" who was out putting out yard sale signs at 2 in the morning and then ran out of gas (although she thought it was other problems at the time) had been making the rounds in the local businesses and bars. He did admit to falling back asleep after AAA first called and that's why it took over 2 hours for her to be rescued. So, not only did she sit in the truck from 2-4 a.m. but she had to go potty the whole time and now she finds out the guy just fell asleep and then came back and told her story to the whole town. She is just loving Western Pennsylvania at the moment. I thought it was pretty funny so it's good that I am 9 and 1/2 time zones away so no bodily harm occurs on this one.
I did have something new and funny happen this week. I have a nice little mall about 5 blocks away from where I live and its and easy walk through a pretty nice neighborhood to get there but when I first come out of my apartment complex, there is a dirt road that crosses an open field and there are usually construction workers and animals, etc, as I cross this field. On this day there were also several large cows that were just hanging out, eating the grass and looking for whatever food they could find. I had gone to the store for groceries and was walking back across the field towards my apartment carrying several bags of food when one of the smarter cows started moving in a triangulation move to cut me off before I got to the gate into the apartment complex. At first I thought it was just an accident then I saw this cow really cornering me with her nose headed right for the grocery bag!! When the natives standing there working in the field saw their cow headed for me and the food they began to shoo the cow away from me but it wanted FOOD and was not going to be dissuaded. I was laughing so hard at this industrious cow I almost dropped the bag, but these Indians were seriously yelling at the aggresive cow and I had to hurry through the walkthrough gate holding my bags high to keep that large, wet nose from invading my grocery bag. It was a hugely comical moment for me because I just never imagined in this life that I would be protecting my new groceries from a cow in the field who apparently knew exactly what was in the bag and wanted it worse than I did. See what an adventure I am on, I can't even get from the store to the house without an aggresive cow trying to grab my groceries. And, the people that were yelling at the cow were several men and women working on moving some dirt and bricks for construction. The men were doing nothing while the women were putting huge loads of dirt and bricks on their heads using a round platform that's about two feet across and balanced on their heads using a cloth donut that helps them keep it balanced. I can see the look on Karen's face the first time she gets over here and sees the guys loafing and the women working heavy physical labor like that.
Us American men have just sold ourselves out I guess, not really sure what happened - ha!!