100 and Done! (Countries that is...)

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We are back! This last trip brought the total countries visited to 100! It is a crazy milestone. It is difficult, time-consuming and can be (IS) expensive. After I got back from Antarctica in 2007, I started thinking about it. After 2010 I was thinking about it more (as I moved from NY to Georgia) and in 2014 it had become a real goal. Between Angie and I we have been to 109 Countries. We are tied at 100 countries each. We have 9 countries different in our lists. For example, I have been to San Marino. She has not. She has been to Israel. I have not, yet. There has been some fun competition in this area. That's why we had to establish rules. 1.) Must be listed (as a country) with the US State Department 2.) Being in an airport doesn't count. You have to get through immigration somehow and not in a DMZ or a no-mans-land 3.) A passport stamp is not required. I have been to Canada, Paraguay, and Uruguay without getting my passport stamped. There are friendly borders in many places...
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Fauna (Fawna) is still down. It has been over a week. It is below zero outside again. The llama house is warm though. When it gets really cold both the propane and the kerosene kick on, but most of the time just the kerosene needed. The wind is whipping around and the snow is drifting. It is the dead of winter out there. We had fauna in the sling twice today with encouraging results. She is still just too damn uncoordinated to stand up and walk. She has the muscles. The hypotheria seems to create a neurological disorder. The brain gets frozen or something. Our llama mentor agrees. I have built my muscles lifting and exercising her. My biceps are burning right now. Perhaps I have discovered a new fitness system. So much for a laugh though. I think the situation is pretty grim.

The good news is that the two laptops I had that weren't working... are now. The Compaq Armada 1750 cadaver my dad gave me is up and running. That is the fastest machine in the house now!!. It has occured to me that I have not bought a new computer in many years. There has been no need to. The machines are not getting that much faster... the bloatware is certainly getting bloater. But the win 98 machin, the win 95 laptop and the win 2000 laptop are all fine for doing what I do. I should probably reformat the win 95 machine for linux. It will be useful for many more years with a decent OS. Besides, I need to get back using linux so I don't forget stuff.

I start school again this weekend. Work has agreed to pay for a Graduate Certificate in Organizational Finance. It can turn into a Masters of Science in Strategic Finance. It is all online through University of Maryland (www.UMUC.edu). I have to take a couple of remedial classes in accounting and economics before the core coursework. Work is not interested in paying for a PhD. So for now, I will be working on a second Masters Degree. I can't believe that more folks don't take advantage of tuition assistance. I did what I said I would do. I took a year off from school. TV is a vaste wasteland. A man just can't sit around.

I overheated the stove and chimney today. That was exciting. The wind kicked up at about the same time as all the fuel was hot enough to go hog wild. It was a case of classic thermal runaway. The hotter the fire the greater the draft. The greater the draft the hotter the fire. I got the stove pipe up to about 650 degrees.. WoWweee. If it was night time it would have been glowing. It definately scared me a bit.

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100 and Done! (Countries that is...)

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