From then until now in a Flash!

Well apparently outing yourself as a lazy blogger doesn't work as a motivational technique to get you to update your blog. We shoot hundreds of photos with every intention of posting them but then they stay unsorted in "My Pictures" until some unfortunate hard drive crash erases them for all eternity

So for this entry, imagine you are in some cheesy SciFi time-machine movie where you see various flashes of time going by until you reach the present, or future or whatever. The following is the last 9 months from Dec 07-Aug 08 in a flash. There are lots of things left out and much longer entries that could be made about each series of pictures but this is to get you started. I will be retroactively blogging about past adventures in the near future.

Christmas 07

We start with Christmas of 07. It was the first Christmas that we had not traveled to be with Family.

As hard as that was, it gave us the opportunity to participate in the illuminary in our neighborhood, and our house was in a tour of homes.

It was so much fun, and the weather is so mild we were able to set up a table with gingerbread and cider in or English garden. Sid only bit one person, and it only left a red mark on her face...

Its times like these that make us really appreciate our old house.

Not Much Climbing this Year...

It has been a bit crazy this year so there hasn't been much climbing going on.

Anne did send me to Ouray again this year where I met up with Matt and an old friend Kelly who lives in Ouray with his wife and two kids. That trip is a post all on its own.

Diving, my new obsession

Instead of climbing, diving has been my obsession. I was able to get my advanced open water certification and gained a couple new dive partners.

While diving at Manatee Springs State Park, I found my first artifact (which I left in the spring for others to enjoy). It was a pottery shard. You could actually see the markings were made on the outside. I actually found about five nice pieces that day.

Nieces and Nephews

We have been blessed with a niece and a nephew. One we have seen and the other we will see in person this week for the first time.

They are both amazing and beautiful.

One even has his own blog...www.brandnewshaw.blogspot.com where you can watch him play the guitar with his dad.

Amani Massage Therapy

As you may know Anne opened her own massage studio, Amani Massage Therapy in Dec. 07.

She is so modest. When people ask her what she does she says that she is a massage therapist. Then they always follow with, where do you work? She responds with something like, "I rent this little room ..." Her place is awesome! So don't let here convince you that its a shack back in the woods.

She has done some great advertising in local magazines, newspapers and has been feature on the local business spot light on FOX and in a recent article in our newspaper. Business is booming!

Darton College Center for Adventure based Leadership

I'm still at Darton College teaching students about the outdoors and using adventure based activities to teach them about themselves, others.



Recently my program became a Department of its own. We are now the Center for Adventure Based Leadership. As the program has evolved in the past year, my overall job satisfaction has increased.

The Kitchen Remodel

In addition to work, we took on a huge project this year, remodeling the kitchen. Thanks to the help of my dad we were able to get all of the cabinets in in about a week. The rest of the kitchen took me about three months of blood, sweat, and tears. I am sure to update with a "Remodeling" entry in the near future.

Snorkeling with the Manatees

Although the kitchen monopolized every free moment I had, I still managed to get away for some adventures.Early spring I took a group of students snorkeling with the manatees in Crystal river Florida.





Those who were SCUBA Cert. were able to dive the rainbow river and then at King's Spring Cavern.




If you have never seen a manatee in the wild, it is quite a site. Every year the manatees come in from the salt water and congregate in the constant 70 degree waters of the springs.

Reef Tank Hobby

The fish tank hobby is still in full swing. Nano-reefing requires quite a bit of time and thought. I built this tank set-up about a year ago and continue to tweek it. The corals have grown to the point that I need to prune them and start trading.


I continue to sell algae online to supplement the reefing hobby. That's right, people pay money for me to ship them different types of algae I grow. They use it in their tanks to feed certain types of fish and to use in their filtration systems. It's not a lot of money, but its money for something I am going to throw out anyway.

Visits to and From

In between work, the kitchen, and hobbies, we had some great visits and some great visitors throughout the year.

More Diving Adventures!

I did my first deep water cavern dive this year at Blue Grotto.



One of my dive buddies David (who happens to be a dive master) took me.



As we entered the mouth of the cavern, I must admit I got a little wigged out. We descended into the darkness to 100'. This is the deepest I have been in a cavern to date.


As we ascend , the blue glowing light from the mouth of the cavern is like nothing I have ever seen. There is an erie calm too it. Dives like these make all of the preparation and training well worth it.

The Garden

This spring has been a great year for the garden. We tried our hand at some vegetables in a different more sheltered location with some success.





Last summer all of our produce dried up and died despite the sprinklers.



It is difficult to keep a garden as elaborate as ours while under water restrictions.


I have turned to using mostly low pressure sprinklers and timers and the results have been good as you can see.


One of the nicest things about our garden is that something seems to be in bloom all the time. Even in the winter the Paper Whites will bloom in January!


The front garden has very much the feel of an English cutting garden complete with Crape Myrtles, Roses, and Dwarf English Boxwoods with their colonial fragrance. The Back yard is a whole different story, it is more lush and tropical with palm trees ferns, and orchids.

Fishing on the Boat

Anne says I have too many hobbies, But this is a hobby I can share with some of my guy friends. We enjoy a good afternoon on the river or local lake. This is the first season where I finally started catching fish in our lakes! Last summer was quite disappointing.

The Poppy Seed

Recently, Anne and I went to a local Chinese Restaurant we like, to celebrate. Amazingly Anne's fortune cookie could not have been more dead on! It says "A pleasant surprise is in store for you tonight." NO kidding!



Anne had called me at work that afternoon to tell me she was pregnant! Here is our Poppy Seed at 8 weeks! Anne looked up a website that explains the babies development and size by using various vegetables as descriptions. When we first found out, it was the size of a poppy seed. The nickname just stuck.

Don't worry, we aren't really going to name our baby poppyseed....or are we?

Love to all who have been patiently waiting for our updates.

Apparently we are too lazy to Blog too....

A Napping Warthog at Kichwa Tembo Camp Masai Mara

Many apologies to all of you who have frequently checked in with Team Mzungu to find no updates. A lot has happened in the past 6 months and we just don't care enough about you to let you know....just kidding

From our fist Christmas on our own (without visiting family), continued adventures diving, a booming massage therapy business, job promotions, house remodeling, family visits, nieces and nephews, new cars and yes a new member of team Mzungu: Mr. Wigglesworth Longfellow. All this and more in future updates...if I'm not taking a nap.

Introducing Amani Massage Therapy

I tried to get Anne to write a post about her new business but she is too embarrassed to write about herself. Once again, I am in awe of my wife. She has started her own massage therapy business and has already made allies with two very successful wellness businesses in town, BEE Green Organic Produce Co-op and Kai Yoga. She anticipates opening the doors on Dec. 1. She was meeting with the fire inspector this morning! Its a very exciting and scary time for Anne so she could use any words of encouragement you may have.

I know some of you may say, "you shouldn't put a phone number on a blog", but this is her work number that she is already advertising so it's already public. More info on Amani Massage Therapy coming soon. If you are wondering, Amani is Swahili for PEACE.

Secret lovers, yeah, that’s what we are....

A Ring Neck and Gila Monster(the only venomous lizard in the world) make for strange luvas...Picture taken at our local aquarium here in Albany GA.
Lyrics curtosy of Atlantic Star.

Freezing My Ice Off!

During the winter of 99 while on break from grad. school, one of my buddies and I planned our first winter mountaineering trip. We decided to drive to Durango CO where we planned to climb Engineer Mountain. Neither one of us was an experienced mountaineer at the time,but we both had considerable climbing, hiking and winter camping experience. We researched the trip exhaustively. We gathered maps, inventoried equipment, and practiced our techniques all from the mountainous regions of Western Illinois.

An Illinois mountain scene taken from Jimmedia on Flickr

The climb of Engineer Mountain is a story in and of itself. Highlights include: one climber with snowshoes and the other post holing to his hip every other step; a drunken moonlight hike to base camp, scavengers in our food stash, a late evening search for a climbing partner who went snowboarding alone, and some Acute Mountain Sickness. It was awesome! Learn More about Engineer Mountain here: http://www.summitpost.org/mountain/rock/150328/engineer-mountain.html.

After getting spanked on Engineer, we decided to check out something called the Ouray Ice Festival we had heard about. After a few hours of driving treacherous mountain roads we arrived to what turned out to be one of the coolest events I've ever been to. We arrived late and poached a campsite in a closed campground. In the morning we went to a coffee shop. While reading a current issue of Rock and Ice Mag., we realized that the guys sitting down at our table were on the cover! We didn't do any climbing during that festival but I would later return to the town of Ouray, more experienced and better equipped.

In 2006, Anne surprised me with an airline ticket that would get me to the beautiful town of Ouray CO via Grand Junction just in time for the Ice Festival. One of my friends, Kelly Webb had recently relocated to Ouray with his wife and daughter. Not only did he pick me up from the airport but they put me up for the weekend. He also acted as my very own private guide in the ice park.

The festival had grown quite a bit since the last time I had been there. It was insane! More vendor tents, more competitors, louder music, more spectators, more media, and more freebies.

Onlookers can stand on the bridge crossing the lower end of the canyon to watch the competitors climbing.

There is also a slack line competition where the bravest, drunkest or craziest climbers attempt to tight rope walk across the canyon. It makes for a great spectacle.

Above all the competition and spectator crazinest is where the climbers will go. Designated a "Crampon and Helmet Zone", steep and icy trails skirt along the edge of the canyon. Although many routes were reserved for classes and workshops, it is a pretty long canyon with a number of fingers and climbing areas. The areas have been given some great names such as South Park, New Funtier and Shit House Wall.

Kelly and I would start our morning off with coffee and a short drive up to the Canyon. We wanted to be on the ice by 7Am to be sure that we got a good route. It was very crowded if you can believe that. In most cases we would pick our route, set up our top roped anchoring system then drop into the canyon by rappelling.

In many cases we were belaying from on top of moving water. In some places, ice fall had broken through and the rushing water was apparent.

Its hard to get good photos when there are only two of you. One person must work the ropes as the belayer while the other is climbing. You can't really yell up to the climber,"Don't fall while I take my hands off the rope to hold the camera?" That's why you will find a lot of "before" and "after" shots as well as pictures of people climbing next to you.

These are some of the images from one of the narrow corridors in which we climbed. These aren't of us but of the folks climbing next to us. I only wished we were climbing with a third person who could have taken these silhouetted shots of our climbs. Maybe out there somewhere these guys were taking pictures back at us and have posted the same.

The canyon falls into a shadow most of the day, but as the sun moves overhead the condition of the ice begins to deteriorate. Larger and larger chunks of ice continue to break off with each climb and plummet to the canyon floor. Everyone in the canyon must pay close attention to their surroundings so that they don't get squashed.

Imagine that as a belayer standing at the bottom of the climb, someone on the cliff side continuously throws buckets of crushed ice cubes on your head. Every time the climber swings his or her ice tool, the ice shatters a little. Occasionaly a larger chunk will break free. You constantly hear people screaming "Ice!!!" or "Rock!!!" as these chuncks come down. Belayers try to position themselves to protect from these falling hazards. The sound of the ice falling in the canyon is much like 100s of glass bottles being shattered in the street.



We aren't just enjoying nature in the Ice Park. As a matter of fact, the ice has been created artificially. For more info see the video at the end of this posting. There is more of a party atmosphere in the air. In the background we hear an eclectic mix of music pumping through the canyon; Red Hot Chili Peppers followed by James Brown, then The Chemical Brothers. It really sets the atmosphere and gets you pumped.

We climbed like this for fours days straight. Kelly and Jen were the most gracious hosts. The Festival never disappoints.

I can't describe the sense of satisfaction I get from spending time climbing with my bros like Kelly. It is always a powerful experience, being in nature, experiencing God's creation so fully, sharing such a close bond with friends, and pushing one's self to achieve.

One of the things I love so much about my wife is that, even though she doesn't share quite so perverse of a love for the outdoors as I, she recognizes how important it is to me. I was unable to make a trip to Ouray in 2007 but thanks to Anne, I will be "Freezing My Ice Off" again at the Festival in 2008. At around 11am today I was on speakerphone with my long time climbing partner and good friend Matt trying to get signed up for the same workshops at this year's upcoming festival. Registration went on line at 11 this morning! This will be Matt's first Ice Festival, Its never boring when Kelly is around, and hopefully this year Jen will be able to join us climbing (as she had a baby in her belly in 2006!)

Just to give you a little taste and get you as psyched about this as I am; here is a little video footage of the Ouray Ice Festival from Youtube. For full effect, turn up the computer volume, turn the AC up, fill two bowls with ice and put your bare feet in and enjoy...