So, I’m back!  I’m still getting used to everything here.  With the help of a steadier internet connection, I’ve put pictures up about Murchison Falls, Prom and Kampala for your enjoyment. I’ve also started the cultural detox of trying to use regular English a bit more (still saying a Ugandan rendition of “sorry” and I “ah-ah”-d our dog as if she were Ugandan).  I’ve been home for a good week now, and things are finally settling.

Saturday I launched full speed into life.  I met our dog Cindy, who is completely adorable and kind but can be very timid – sometimes I think she’s scared of me.  I’ve enjoyed walking her, though, and it’ll be nice to get to know her better.  Saturday night Kim and I took her to a dog park in Scottsdale and met up with Kenny.  I also cleaned out the rat cage, and Vlad and Jasper have gotten really skinny, so I’ll be checking on their health and making sure they’re okay.  Sunday I went over to my parents’ house and enjoyed a nice welcome back party.  Almost all of my family showed up and I got to see everyone and have some delicious food.  I ended up doing a (somewhat) impromptu slideshow and talking about random points of interest before we watched a movie.

Mariah, my car, is completely broken.  She worked okay on Saturday but has been out of commission ever since.  I got a new battery and I fiddled with the terminals a bit, but it’s looking like it might be the starter or alternator, which sucks a lot.  Hopefully I’ll get everything patched up before school starts.  Speaking of which, I’ve spent the past couple of days buying books here and there getting ready for a rompin’ course load.  School starts on Thursday, so I’ll be getting into the groove soon enough.  I’ve enjoyed my first and last full week of work – back to the grind of splitting my time between building ScanGauges, boxing them, and answering e-mails.  Things haven’t changed too much while I’ve been gone, so that’s good.  Next week I’ll be dealing more with car problems and school starting so we’ll see how I fair then.