that's what friends are for...

Suzanne and I cleaned the condo of my best friend from high school, Kim. Suzanne was our other close friend from high school (Cy-Fair in Cypress, Texas). Here are some before and after photos. Kim was soooooo happy!

BEFORE:


AFTER:

What matters most: a Happy Kim! She was so happy she just glowed! We went out to an awesome dinner at Vilagio's afterwards :)

Three amigos! Me, Suzanne and Kim - a little worn out after 7 hours of cleaning!

rebuilding New Orleans

I leave Thursday morning for New Orleans. I have never been to the city, and I am going with my church (Christ the King Lutheran Church from Kingwood, Texas) on a women's retreat/mission trip. We will be painting and reconstructing homes in a severely damaged section of the city with "Camp Restore." I am looking forward to what will certainly be an eye-opening experience.

This month I will have 4 (a record!) articles out in magazines you can buy on the magazine rack!

Sympathy for the Devil, Scientific American, Mar 07. The web version only includes part of the article unfortunately... you have to be a subscriber to get the whole thing. Here is a link:
http://sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa006&colID=5&articleID=C7780D5A-E7F2-99DF-3F238E0B197AA13C

Or you can read the PDF here.

My other articles this month are:

• Magical Australia E/The Environmental Magazine. March 07. About my Australian travels with Sam & Savannah. Unfortunately you need a subscription to read the online version so pick up a copy to see the photos of the kids!
  
• Ecotopia. Audubon Magazine, Mar 07. A Field Notes news piece about a time share ecotopian island village in Fiji (tribewanted.com) that I have blogged about before.
  
• Texas Parks & Wildlife Magazine, Mar 07, 50 Quick Getaways.
  
  And I do have 2 pieces in TX Parks & Wildlife's Feb 07 issue that are now online.
  Prickly Paradise: A former farm site, Estero Llano Grande, now boasts an impressive crop of wildlife.
  
  Papa Stahl: With his gift for storytelling and encyclopedic knowledge of the natural world, Carmine Stahl helps bring parks and people together.
  
  This piece I wrote about an amazing man, Carmine Stahl, - and now my friend - who is nearly 80 years old and is just an incredibly brilliant, kind, wise, and good-hearted soul.

An Inconvenient Truth

I finally watched An Inconvenient Truth - with my kids - tonight, and then went on to watch the film win Best Documentary on the Academy Awards. I was thrilled, it felt very gratifying.

The documentary was very poignant, and for something with a lot of facts and graphs and charts it kept my kids' attention quite well (my son falling asleep notwithstanding - he always falls asleep when he's tired and it was his bedtime! He has his eyes on it the whole time until the end...) Savannah seemed to enjoy it and they seemed to drink it in. I loved Gore's humor in it and the way he wove in parts of his life, and what he cares about (the earth, his family) with the scientific facts.

Other than that I am decluttering and clearing out my entire universe, from my email folders to my closet and my file folders... and my closets and drawers. It's very liberating! It is part of my participation in The Compact (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/thecompact/) and specifically the "Trash Compact-er." And it's for an assignment! ;) Nothing like getting paid to live and do cool things. Love it! Course my daughter is not at all pleased about me not being able to buy anything... I said just NEW, we can be resourceful girl!

Ugh, it can be so much more convenient and easy to just run to Wally-World... I'm learning. Gotta figure out how to communicate this one better. "Are socks consumables mom, because I need new socks!" LOL. Yes as a matter of fact they are...

my beautiful niece!

I just spent a couple days visiting my niece in Dallas. She flew in from California with her mom, my friend Zofia. I brought Savannah with me because we hadn't seen them in a couple years. It was great to see her - she is a doll!
Kira, Savannah and I were messing around with oreos and I encouraged them to make themselves messy, much to my mom's chagrin!

Kira playing chess with Savannah
At the park.

Self-portrait of myself and Zofia, Kira's mom. We went to this Medieval Times thing in Dallas with the girls.

My best friend from high school, Kim, and I reunited! Going out on the town! OK I look like a dork in these photos but I typically hate most pictures of me and it's something I'm trying to overcome and not be so concerned about that. So here they are!

Planet Earth

My email bohemian@wendeeholtcamp.com is temporarily messed up and not getting to me, so if you emailed me, send it again to wholtcamp@houston.rr.com.

The Planet Earth Animal Profiles for Discovery Channel I wrote are now online! Planet Earth is an amazing followup to the Blue Planet TV series, and will begin airing Mar 27, 2007 in the US. In an online accompaniment to the TV series for Discovery Channel, I profiled 50 animals for these shows: Mountains, Jungles, Shallow Seas, Deserts, and Forests. Or go to the main site for info on the show: Planet-earth.com.

back from the equator!

I am back! Had a wonderful time in the Galápagos, and will put some more photos online tomorrow. Meanwhile just wanted to put this message that touched my heart from my friend Jen. I spent a couple days with her in Miami/Ft Lauderdale en route home from Ecuador and we went out on the town and had such a blast. Crazy me brought a disposable camera and Jen's awesome talking stuffed hammerhead (she is a shark biologist) and they were great tools for meeting people- ha ha!

She emailed me today and it brought tears to my eyes:
"Can't wait til our next escapade! You emit so much light from within that people are just drawn to you! I could have gone out with any one else and not spoken with a single person all night! You're just a super person with many layers to the onion! I just hope you find a man worthy!"

I told her it was just the camera and the shark :) I have decided I am definitely going out on the town more now in Houston and have some upcoming plans with the girls- woohoo!

Hammy the groovy talking hammerhead shark.

Jen and Wen! (self portrait!)

A Galápagos sea lion pup asleep on Española Island.

Marine iguanas gathering in the sun on Fernandina Island. I love their large black lips!

Leon Dormido, or Kicker Rock at sunset. We cruised around this on the first day, which has several nesting boobies and other birds.