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This afternoon Charles, the gardener, and I were getting ready to trim a tree in the yard when he stopped and said, "Look at this, a Chameleon." It was about 10 inches long and brown when I first saw it, but by the time I got my camera to take a picture it had changed to green with red spines running along its' back (I think Charles had been poking at it.) It moved very, very slowly on bony little legs and two-toed feet, and didn't seem to mind us watching at all. After about 5 minutes, Charles gave a little screech and jumped back because it shot out its' blue tongue at lunch, which happened to be right in front of Charles' face. Guess that's reptile revenge.

Had a wonderful month in St. Louis, Cincinnati and Lexington visiting friends and family. It took a good nights' sleep after 24 hours of travel to realize that returning to Uganda is coming home. At first I was a bit disoriented, couldn't remember where the light switches were (we've only been in the house for a couple of months - and there's more than the average number of switches.) Things always looks better in the morning. At least you don't have to find the light switches. Home is where our life is happening.

I think I watched too much Martha Stewart on vacation. Had the brilliant idea that I'd dye the white seat covers that came with my new/old car to a darker color so that they wouldn't show dirt so easily. I bought a few packages of RIT dye, and on Saturday loaded up the washing machine with the covers and poured in "denim blue". I sat watching blue water swoosh around for about 10 minutes. It looked fine, so went outside to play with Chicky the dog. She gave me a nice welcome home Wednesday night, like I've known her all her life instead of just a couple of months. In friends that probably would be annoying, but in a dog it's not too bad.

After about 20 minutes went in to check the machine and saw a blue puddle spreading under the door. The entire contents of the washing machine had emptied through a valve I didn't even know existed onto the floor, forming a blue pool (it looked like a swimming pool) in the kitchen. Martha would not be pleased. It took me the next hour to clean up the mess, dying my hand and feet blue in the process (they still are tinged), and turning the mop and nice shade of denim blue. The covers didn't turn out as nice, but nevertheless I dried them and went down to my car to try them out. Not bad, not bad - uh, oh.

I forgot the bottom half of a front seat cover. I think I better find a job fast, before I try that homemade bomb recipe Martha recommended.