Earlier today I was looking at an image of a strange land feature in Africa on google maps and I remember thinking "The detail in Africa has improved on Google Maps." Then of course I thought of Nairobi, Kenya. We used to live there when I was younger. (I think that was the Jurassic period if I'm not mistaken.) I looked at Nairobi last year some but found the resolution in all but downtown to be lacking. I was happily suprised to see that it had also improved greatly since I last checked it out.

So I can see the town well, and I remembered that we used to live on NGong road, but to my dismay the road was long and extensive. I could still see the flats in my mind and I know we used to walk to downtown Nairobi but still I wasn't sure exactly how far. I decided to punt and ask mom. She would of course remember better than me. I sent her a link to what I thought was the correct area and she gave me just enough advice to point out the location. Her reply:

Wow, that brings back memories! Good ones too. Obviously the build up along that road is majorly different from when we lived there. Lots of those roads didn’t even have official names. I will have to let dad look at this and see if he can pick out the approximate place. I found Uhuru Park, and we were not too far from it. When we walked to town we often walked down Ngong Rd and then cut across Uhuru Park to get to the main down town. It did not take us long to get from our apartment to the park so I’m thinking it was less than a mile but dad has a  lot better memory for that sort of thing. If we walked down the street that came up along side the apartments (and ran into NGong rd) then we walked a good ways, came to a fairly busy road then turned right to walk down town. Going that way , once we turned onto the main road and walked a little ways we went in front of the Pan Africa Hotel.  Then closer in to town, (I think) we went by the Anglican church. I don’t know if those are even still there.

From what I remembered The flats consisted of 3 buildings actual buildings but I always thought of them as 4 since there were 4 stairways. The back of the buildings away from NGong had covered parking. I remember discovering one car there that had an alarm  by accident and after we set it off once or twice, the owner came out and asked us if we were messing with his car. I think we blamed it on a cat. Yes, the cat (who just happend to be walking by) must have been climbing on the car.

Any way, the buildings were set back from the road a bit and had a nice grassy area  with several large trees on the front and side. It was practically a garden and the gardner would mock chase you if thought you were messing with the plants that he took such good care of. In the back of the complex to one side was a servants quarters of some sort. People actually lived in this square compound in one room houses. The rooms couldn't have been any larger than our living room. That's where our friend Joseph lived. He was about my age and me and my two brothers found him to be very entertaining. He asked his mother to teach him English so he could play with us. Little did I know that these poor people in the one room buildings were so much better off than the people in the Kibera slums just a mile south of us.

I shot off another email:

This is my best guess then. 3 buildings (Two gray, one brown roof), with covered parking in the rear only, and a small compound in the back left that the servants lived in. It has the large trees on the side and a grassy area in the front.

The "flats" are in the center of this photo  (Maybe)

So this was my guess. Click the image for the actual google map of the location

Success! That had to be it, and yes mom agrees with me that this had to be the place.

I think you are right! That looks like it. If so we lived in the apartment building that is closer to the front and closer to the corner. I followed that side road and can see that it does ‘t’ into a main road. Following that road there on the right is the roof of a large building set near the road exactly the way the Pan Africa Hotel was/is. It looks very much like you have located it!

Looking again, I think you can even see the bus stop! Also the road curves right after that on the way to town and that seems right.  We had the police compound across the road where we could go to buy a few things like milk etc… I don’t know if that was directly across where the empty looking area is or the place next to it. It did seem like we walked across a fairly open area to get back to the buildings where they had a  small shamba and sold some things. (not a store you could walk into but something set up more like a firecracker stand is. Where there is an attendant who can hand you something from his little store of items).

So that settles that question. Now I'll just have to wait for Google to get street view working for that road. That would be very cool. I'm sure it will be a while before that happens but it will some day I'm sure. I'll have to dredge up some old photos from Africa some time. I do happen to have one on hand. This was in front of a Library The McMillian Memorial Library if I'm not mistaken. I'm the one with #73 on the shirt.

This morning we went out to the big city of Weston TX so Lynsy could ride in their 4th of July parade. Weston is a very small town, but they have a very large parade on the 4th of each July. This year there had to be at least 100 horses in the parade. Honestly the largest group of horses I've seen in any parade anywhere. Organizing this was obviously too much for some people. The horses were all supposed to stage in a pasture just by a small church building. The gate to the pasture was locked, and the fire marshall who was directing traffic was being a grouchy bear telling everyone where to go and what to do. Things got pretty heated when Leah's dad started to unload Rio in an empty grass lot. The fire marshall seemed to be afraid that children would be trampled or the horses would poop where he would step in it. I finally told him he wasn't going to get anyone to listen to him if he kept acting all grouchy. I guess his mom never told him that you can catch more flies with honey than vinegar. 

The parade itself was great. Lynsy and Rio were awarded 3rd place in the horse entries. Funny note about Weston: The town is so small that they went down Main street twice during the parade. 

Later, back at Leah's parent's house we had some burgers and hot dogs. The kids also played badminton after we figured out how to set up the game that Luann bought. The kids were pretty good at the game, but I found out that I can't hit any shot that comes directly at me. I don't think there's any hope of me becoming a professional at the sport. 

In the evening we went out to Lone Star Park in Grand Prairie to watch Flamefinder race. He did really well and finished 3rd in a group that set a new track record for that distance run. Personally I think he could have won if he would have had his regular jockey. The jockey that normally rides him opted to ride a different horse that finished 3 or 4 horses back from Flamefinder. Durh! That was a dumb decision wasn't it? O well, you never know about horses, but you'd think that 3 wins, and 1 second place finish in 4 starts would have the jockey begging to ride the same horse. Guess you can't please everyone.

After the race we watched the most spectacular fireworks show. The were shooting off fireworks from the backside of the middle of the track. Leah, Luann and the kids managed to get the track workers to produce a nice bench for us to sit on at the opposite side of the track from where the crowd of who knows how many thousand were packed in. So needless to say we had the best view and the best seats in the entire park. A nice end to a really nice day. 

Last night we went to see Superchick's Cross The Line tour concert at the Palladium Ballroom. Ballroom doesn't exactly describe the place. It's practically in downtown Dallas and has this industrial feel to it. Parking was $10. Blah! At least it was close. I will give the place one good positive comment. Despite the fact that it's just a stage and a hardwood floor, you do get to see the bands up close and personal. I did appreciate that. 

On to the show. To start off the night Starlit Platoon got on stage.  The lead singer is Superchick's drummer. I never heard one of their songs before, but found myself actually enjoying their music. It was above par for sure. Especially for a lead-off band. Very nice indeed. So go to their page and check out their music. It's worth a listen. Note the pictures of Leah and Toni below. They were the coolest moms chicks there but I have to give the edge to Leah. Her intensity level was unmatched. (Except for the long-haired woman just in front of us) Leah was jumping and moving around nearly as much as the guys on stage. The kids can't say their mom is boring. No sir.

Next, Britt Nicole came out. She was quite a bit different than Starlit Platoon. She's more of what you would expect to hear on a mainstream Christian radio station. That's not to say that she didn't have an edge, but that it was a softer edge. Her song, Set the World on Fire was exceptionally good. She sang a couple of other songs too. I must have been going deaf by then because I don't remember which exact songs she sang other than that one.

Next up we heard KJ-52. This guy is all about rap, and he was extremely entertaining. He did some new stuff with a bit of an old-school twist. He was the most interactive with the crowd. He had everyone getting into the songs. He made a video of the crowd from on-stage. There's no sound, but you can at least see the energy he puts out. We're somewhere on the right side in this video. By the way, I was extremely jealous of his super cool Transformer jacket. Now that was retro-tastic! So anyway, check out his MySpace account, and make sure you call him  "Tweeezaaay" cause he likes that.

Next up on the list, *Thunderous voice* DISCIPLE! O, I knew about Disciple before the show. Disciple is one hard-core Christian rock band. Don't expect to hear them in a Sunday morning service or on your local Christian radio station. I will say that their message is positive and they even stopped to read from the Bible and give a short message about God's love for everyone. Despite their hardcore image, they seem to really make an effort to let you know about Jesus. *Applause* Now if only I wasn't deaf after their segment. Two drum sets, guitarist doing front flips off of speakers while playing. It was intense and deafening. My ears are still ringing today. It didn't help Leah had decided to park everyone right next to a wall of speakers (although we were right up by the stage and it gave the kids a great view). A deaf guy, no a dead guy could have heard the music. Here's a tame version of one of the songs they sang (slowed down 50 times so you can hear the lyrics). Don't let the acustic guitars fool you. For a more realistic version of what we heard. See video below.

And finally, the moment everyone was waiting for. Superchick! She was super awesome of course and well worth the wait. The main reason we came to the show.  Lynsy and Leah love the positive girl power lyrics with the edgy sound. I think Evan liked KJ 52 and Disciple the best. He even got a Disciple t-shirt. Don't forget Superchick's new cd 'Rock What You Got' hits stores June 24th and from the new songs we got to preview, it's going to be an Awesome CD.

Today was Evan's 14th birthday. Wow, 14 years old. It doesn't seem like he should be that old now although he's taller than everyone at his birthday party but me. This fall he'll be in High School. (Scary) Oh, and we now have to issue a wind advisory when he blows out his candles. He blew the confetti right off of his cake. 

The party was, of course, great entertainment for all. Opening presents, eating cake and ice cream. Then things got really out of hand and we all ganged up on Aaron and wrestled him to the ground. I have to say he was doing pretty well. At one point he was taking on Lynsy, Leah, and Laurie. Then Evan jumped in and I finally joined in for full effect. It's a wonder we didn't break anything in the house. 

Earlier that day we participated in our communities first annual 5K race. Me and Lynsy spent the last 2 months running some on the weekend gradually working up to about 3 miles so we wouldn't fall over dead after the first mile. Then about 2 weeks ago I did something to injure my knee so I've been riding a bike while Lynsy jogged. The weather ended up being miserable. It was 48 degrees and windy. Not exactly what you want to run in. Leah's dad ran with Lynsy and my participation was limited to just watching. (I tried earlier in the week and found that I was still only good for about a mile before my knee would almost give out.) I was extremely proud of Lynsy. She finished in 28 min. and was the first in the 14 and under group. She even beat her grandpa although he was 2nd in his age group.  Come to find out, Lynsy would have clocked in a little earlier but her grandpa told us that when she first got ahead of him he saw her running back to him to check on him and he yelled at her to turn back around and run ahead.

Moving on to other races, Flamefinder (Leah's Parent's horse) had another race at Lone Star Park. We went out and watched it. I've never seen the race track so crowded, but then I've never been on Kentucky Derby day. (Later heard on the news that it was a record crowd at Lone Star today) To say they were packed in like cattle would be an understatement. We all forgot to bring cash for betting and had to wait forever at an ATM. Just when it was our turn, it ran out of cash. Aaaah! Wouldn't you know it. The race itself went off well. Flame was doing great until he got boxed in on the last turn behind 3 slower horses. He did eventually get out of the group and still ran a neck and neck race at the end and placed 2nd. 

Today Evan and I went to see the final round of the EDS Byron Nelson Golf Tournament. It was freezing cold out. At least for a end of April weekend in Texas it was cold. When we got there it was about 50 degrees, light rain, and about 30 mph wind. One of the officials on the course told us we must be hard-core golf fans to be out in this weather. Yeah, something like that. We quickly found a spot on the first green where we were sort of out of the wind and camped out there till the leader groups started playing.  

Slowly but surely, the weather got warmer and the wind died down a little. We followed group #1(Scott, Bryant, Southerland) and #2(Hoffman, Moore, Garcia) around most of the time. They were all fairly lousy at first. Everyone was picking up a couple of bogeys and we even saw Garcia throw his club once. He should have throw it in the water cause his play didn't get much better after that. By the time the got to the back 9 they came around and started making incredible shots. The sun even came out and it turned out to be a perfect day for golf. 

After walking 50 miles or so, we camped out on the 18th hole and watched the last few groups come in. Thanks to the folks from Direct Energy we had the V.I.P. treatment and got to hang out in their second floor room overlooking the 18th hole. Can't say I've ever had star treatment like this at a sporting event. All the food or drink you wanted, balcony seats overlooking the event, gift cards for the PGA pro shop(Evan and I got a nice cap), and yes they are the ones that we got the tickets from. You can thank them for me by signing up with their service. Personally I'm in an electric co-op and don't have the choice. 

Back in the game, Scott had been leading the entire round but on the last few holes Moore crept up to take the lead at -7. In the classic story-book finish, Scott tied the score with a birdie on the 18th and they went to sudden-death playoff rounds. The first PGA sudden death since 2004. They replayed the 18th and tied. Played the 17th and tied again. Then they went back to the 18th again and finally, Scott pulled out a victory with a 50ft. birdie putt for the win. Evan said he was just glad someone won because all the walking back and forth between holes was wearing him out. I agree completely and was so glad they finally finished.  

Written by Leah

If you know anything about us Benzick's then you know we don't do anything together but what there isn't a little craziness involved.  So we shouldn't have expected anything different about our trip to Pennsylvania. 

A few weeks ago, my brother, my mom and I decided to go to Penn for a quick visit.  I was really looking forward to this trip because as much as I love my husband and kids and my other extended family members, I thought this trip would be really special and bring back memories of when me and Aaron were little and were in Penn with mom and the last time just the 3 of flew to Penn together was way back in 1989 when we were flying back to the 'mainland' from Guam.

We were scheduled for a Friday morning flight out of Dallas, but late Wednesday night my mom called me in extreme abdominal pain.  She wanted to know if I thought maybe it was a kidney stone.  Since I have gone through 3 of those myself I knew that it was something different since kidney stone pain is in the back.  I told her that she should go to the ER and get it checked out since the last thing she would want to do is end up with extreme pain on the airplane.  So she spent the better part of Wednesday evening in the ER and came home at 3:30 am with a diagnosis of Diverticulitis and they had just loaded her with lots of IV meds and sent her home with a prescription. 

Another thing you need to know is that the women in the Moore line (me, my mom, and her mom Leona Moore) can't take lots of meds, not sure why but our bodies just don't handle them well and we usually end up even sicker than we started out.  So around 6:30 am my dad had just left for work and my mom got up and knew she wasn't feeling real well so she grabbed her cell phone and called my dad and told him to call an ambulance because she was going to pass out.  Luckily my dad was just at the gas station right around the corner and he raced home to find my mom laying on the ceramic tile floor with a pool of blood around her mouth.  Sure enough she had passed out and fallen face first on the ceramic tile floor.  My dad rushed her to the ER, which is just around the corner from their house, and they spent a good portion of Thursday at the ER and then to the dentist.  She had to get stitches in her lip and when she fell on her mouth it had pushed back one of her front teeth and damaged two others beside it.  X-rays showed that she had broken the roots to those 3 teeth and most likely they wouldn't be able to save the teeth.  (recent update, after giving her teeth a little break and more dentist visits they've done more x-rays and they are going to give her teeth a go at saving them)

Her docter recommended that she didn't travel but even after all that pre-trip drama and the majorly swollen and bruised lip with stitches she still joined me and Aaron for our early flight Friday morning.  Me and Aaron kept joking with her that she had 'a Botox appointment gone wrong'.

So, we all arrive at the airport on time Friday morning.  Me and mom checked in our luggage and printed out our boarding passes which told us to go to gate B9.  Aaron had to check in with TSA and his boarding pass said gate B10 ….. so we figured that since gate B9 and gate B10 are right next to each other we'd just kinda sit between the gates and we'd surely be able to hear when they called us to board our flight.  Our flight was scheduled to leave at 8:50 am and our boarding passes said we'd be loading the plane around 8:20.  So we get to the gates around 7:45 am.  Aaron pulls out a book and me and mom pull out our gossip mags and get to reading all about Suri's big b-day bash and the latest in the Britney escapades.  Around 8:10 me and mom decide that since we would be boarding soon we'd better go ahead and take a 'potty break', then we get back to our gate area and read some more. 

Aaron must have really been enjoying his book and me and mom were enjoying a little down time to catch up on all the celebrity gossip.  Around 8:42 Aaron looks up at us and we all realize at the same time that we should probably be on a plane by now.  He goes up to the desk at gate B9 and asks them if they have already boarded our flight and the lady tells us that our flight is at gate B5 …….. I'm not sure how we were supposed to figure that out since none of our printed boarding passes said B5. 

We start power walking the decent distance to gate B5 and were VERY happy to find that our flight had been delayed and would be taking off at 9:10 now.  That was a huge blessing or else we most likely would have not made our flight.  We laughed at ourselves afterwards about becoming so engrossed in our reading material …… Aaron said we were just anxious to get our vacation started with what better way to start than with some relaxing reading time.

But the craziness doesn't end there!  As soon as we do get to gate B5 they call over the intercom for 'passenger Benzick' . Aaron goes to the desk to find out that he has to go to almost the other side of the airport to give TSA the key to his gun box.  Even though you will not read it on any of the TSA instructions, nor does the lady at check-in tell you, but you have to tape the key to the box that you lock your gun in so TSA can check it out.  I agree with Aaron, what is the purpose of locking the box if you have to tape your key to it?

Anyway, Aaron goes off and then mom has to go to the bathroom again.  I decide to stay at gate B5 and wait.  Mom comes back only to realize that now she can't find her boarding pass.  Off we both go to the bathroom where she thinks she might have thrown it out with her paper towels after she washed her hands.  Next thing I know, I'm searching through the trash in the airport bathroom, let me tell you I would only do this for my mother.  Luckily we found the boarding pass, not in the trash but in her pocket!

When we get back to the gate they are now boarding our flight so me and mom end up on the plane without Aaron.  Mom is getting nervous but for some reason I thought that if they are the ones holding Aaron up from getting on the plane then they would surely hold the plane for him.   Not true ……. while Aaron was dealing with TSA he looked at his watch and realized it was almost 9:10 and he told the lady that his flight left soon so she looked up his flight number then told him to run because they won't hold flights for anyone.  Right before they close the airplane doors Aaron arrived.

After all the craziness we were just happy that all 3 of us had made it onto the correct plane together.

Luckily our time in Pennsylvania went pretty smoothly.  We enjoyed spending time with grandparents and Aunts, Uncles and Cousins.  The weather turned out to be pretty good despite the prediction of rain the entire time we were going to be in Penn.

and our flight home was drama free!  When we got off the plane in Dallas we were near gate B9 and we all looked at each other and laughed and said we should meet up there again sometime soon for some relaxing reading time!

It's fun to get away and catch up with family members that you don't get to see that often and to make memories, but I'm always glad to come home.

So today I did pretty much nothing. Got up, went to work, ate lunch with Leah, and…O yeah! Got a new tattoo. I've been wanting to get this lion tattoo for over a year but I could never really get around to doing it. Then Leah and I were discussing getting a tattoo set for our 15th anniversary (15 wonderful years). We finally decided on a key and a matching locket.  We actually thought about having them done in Vegas. That never worked out.  Then it dawned on me. What about a lion holding a key. Yes! I could do both at the same time.

Well, I set up an appointment a few weeks ago and today I went in and got my tattoo. Have you ever watched Miami Ink? I know the guys at Cat Tattoo would hate the comparison, but it was a lot like that. Strange people came and went, the banter at the shop was near hilarious at times. It kept your mind off the pain. I wasn't all painful, but at times when he was on the far right of the tattoo it was enough to make me wrinkle my brow. It feels like someone has a very warm iron on your back. Since it's on my back I couldn't see it while he was putting it on and one lady kept coming by and making comments like, "O a pretty pink unicorn. That's sweet" and "Cool, two dolphins swimming into the sunset". 

No, it's a lion holding a key. The key to Leah's heart. She just needs to get a heart locket tattoo now. Matching tattoos sound like real commitment. Yes, but you should have seen what this other guy there was having put on his arm. It was a portrait of his wife wearing just his hockey jersey and her panties. Yikes! The tattoo was very well done. I'm just trying to figure out how that works into a conversation at the family reunion.

I was feeling quite normal with my noble lion. The lion of course has multiple meanings. Let's see, I'm a Leo, and it goes well with the cross tattoo(Lion of Judah, Cross). Aside from that it just looks awesome. Some people were in there getting tattoos of skulls, people, flowers. Not me a noble lion beats them all any day. So here's a couple of preliminary photos. Yes, it's a very large tattoo. I imagine my mother will be shocked, just shocked that her son got yet another tattoo.  She thought the cross tattoo covered most of my arm, but what you can't tell real well from the picture is that the lion tattoo is a decent size bigger and covers up my shoulder blade.

I know, after such a promising headline you're expecting something out of the ordinary. Well, nothing like that here unless you count crazy egg games. We went to Leah's parents and had a very nice lunch. Afterwords we played lots of egg games. We hid the eggs from the kids, raced with an egg balanced from a spoon in our mouth, and pushed eggs across the living room with our nose. You'd think that with a nose like mine I could win such a contest. No, I just ended up dragging it on the carpet. I did win the spoon egg race though. Someone said it had something to do with my big mouth.

So this weekend we all loaded up in the car and drove out to West Texas to visit this dude ranch.  Actually it's my parents house near Snyder TX. They do have lots of horses out there. Currently they have somewhere around 15 horses. 4 of them were new babies that were just born this year. I'd tell you about how cute all of them were but I must single out one. A two week old miniature horse. She wasn't much larger than medium size dog. You could have easily picked her up under one arm. Sort of a pocket pony. I think there are about 5 miniature horses and the rest are thoroughbreds which have to be some of the most beautiful animals in the world.

We also drove up to Lubbock and saw my uncle, aunt, and one of my cousins. We went bowling and I had the worst score. I was never really good at bowling. I either get a strike or a gutter ball. I think the gutter ball comes up more often. It would be so much easier if they didn't have those little ditches on the side of the bowling lane.

Other items found in West Texas. Oil drilling rigs (of course) and wind powered generators. The generators are taking over the skyline out there. There are hundreds and hundreds of these things. Here's a couple more photos and of course the picture page has even more.