Welcome to my virtual home!

I've just added a new link to My Fav Places which is a youtube posting of a video supported by my NGO . It tells the tale of a village boy sent on a quest to solve the mystery of the ecological changes taking place across the Himalayas. This is where I am headed in the spring. Pretty amazing place! My NGO , Muse, focuses on conservation of the environment and culture in this mountain paradise and I get to be a part of it. ALSO, if you consider yourself a potential consumer of my NGO's products which currently include food products and community-based ecotourism in the Spiti Valley of the Indian Himalayas, please take 10 seconds and complete a survey . I am supporting my Indian NGO through the branding process. As part of that, we are determining what brand names appeal to a broad (Indian and international) audience of likely consumers. You can also suggest names in the comment box. I will be collecting results over the next week or so. Thanks so much for your help!

A friend was sharing about a recent car trip with his family. To pass the time, they played 20 Questions. His daughter had the entire family stumped . . . "Can you see it," they asked. "Sometimes," came the response. Any guesses? It was a dot on a wall. Brilliant, I say!

First off, let me take the liberty of disclosing too much information by telling you that, ONCE AGAIN, I'm sick with diarrhea. I'm truly sick of, well, being sick over here -- the sulphur burps, frequent trips to the toilet, feeling my stomach gurgling. Do I REALLY need to use filtered water to wash my toothbrush? My WFR -certified, saver-of-lives, Indian Nepali friend was in town this week and even he encouraged me to take precautions so maybe I'll rethink my water standards. On another note, the siblings made an impromptu trip to India and we had a blast, as you can see. Tim fell through a sewage grate, Lisa was sleepy at 10AM and wide awake at 2AM, and I tried to keep to my itinerary (like that was gonna happen!), but those all became sources of much amusement after the fact. Monk's role as my right-hand monkey was eclipsed by Lisa, who's covering him up in the photo. Not that Monk's been forgotten, but it's much more gratifying to talk to people that