An oldie but goodie. I heard a version of this one probably 40 years ago. Good jokes have staying power!

I was in Tanzania for a couple weeks in late February - early March 2015. I agree with Richard regarding the Ngorongora Crater; I got some excellent black rhino shots there. Lots of elephants and buffalo there in addition to about a dozen black rhinos. A few lions (lots of inbreeding has had an adverse effect on them) but not really good for cheetas or leopards. Ndutu Park is great for cheetas and lions; Tarangire Park for its elephants. And, of course the Serengeti has all the animals plus the great migration if there at the correct time of the year. Since you will only have 2 or 3 days - if you even decide to go to the parks - you would need to choose what you most want to see. I took four lenses and three cameras with me; I would leave the 16 - 35 mm lens home next time. I used my 70 - 200 and 500 mm lenses the most. My guide was Ngomi of Makasa African Safaris; educated at Texas Tech in zoology so very knowledgeable. On www.safaribookings.com Makasa has 114 reviews: 113 5-star and 1 4-star. Tanzania is a great place and I certainly hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

I try to only write to the compact flash card and I only use Sandisk Extreme Pro (160 mb/s) cards. The 5D Mk III writes slower to the SD card -- even if you use the SDXC extreme pro card; this is a performance characteristic of the 5D Mk iii.
In reality the 5D Mk iii is not ideal for sports photography in part because of its limited FPS capability. It is better for landscape and portrait photography. Sports and wildlife (especially birding) is the specialty of the 1DX model. The new 1DX Mark II will be able to shoot 14 - 16 frames per second in raw. But of course it also sets you back $6K.

My wife and I visited Ireland this past fall and had no problem driving ourselves around. Everyone is correct -- the Irish are extremely friendly helpful folks. And a beautiful country!

I just hope the UNC-CHeaters don't win it. They have set the high bar for athletic cheating over the past 20 years. That's what can happen when 70% of the journalists and 70% of the legal system (judges, lawyers, and state legislators) in your state are graduates of your school. Absolutely no oversight and Dean Smith knew it well.

I was interviewed for the local TV news several years ago (when they used film cameras) and the asked me 6 questions. I provided 6 answers. That evening they had cut and spliced such that they aired questions 1 and 5 along with answers 3 and 6. So even then they could "make the news" say whatever they wanted. Never trust a news interview where the interviewer and interviewee are not in the scene together!!

I was a young NASA engineer in Houston (then the Manned Spacecraft Center) at the time of the Apollo 11 launch. Got to travel to the Cape for the launch and stood at the rope fence by the Vertical Assembly Bldg for the launch -- about 100 feet in front of the VIP stands. Couldn't get any closer to the launch vehicle than that.
I was friends with the branch chief of the group that oversaw the design of the space suits; he surprisingly had a geology degree rather than an engineering degree.

Not sure what on-line stores you were contacting, but I have bought many times from Adorama and B&H Photo and have never had an issue. They are both very reputable on-line stores.

Lynda dot com and Kelby One both have several very good video classes on photoshop (and many other topics). You can subscribe for a year or by the month for Lynda dot com. Both frequently offer a free week to explore their sites.

If plausible is your guide, you must be delighted with our network "news" folks, most of our politicians (especially those inside the Washington beltway), etc. They tell a lot of plausible stories which are unfortunately not quite true. Remember, you can keep your present insurance when Obummercare takes effect -- sounds plausible doesn't it?
Regarding our military folks, there are thousands of great true stories of their valor, honor, courage, sacrifice etc. We don't need to create false plausible tales to tell their stories.

You have the words to the song correct, but the origin story about the union officer finding his dead son is false.

The Truth:

According a researcher at West Point, there is no historical evidence that anyone named Robert Ellicombe even existed in the Union army. Master Sergeant Jari Villanueva is a part of the United States Air Force Band and is not only a historian about the tune “Taps,” but is working on an exhibit for Arlington National Cemetery about bugle calls. Both he and Kathryn Shenkle, Historian for Arlington National Cemetery, agree that “Taps” came from Brig. General Daniel Butterfield at Harrison’s Landing in Virginia in 1862. Sgt. Villanueva has found correspondence from both General Butterfield and a bugler which confirm the origins, although there are some minor discrepancies in their letters.

My wife and I recently spent a week in Ireland. I primarily used my 24-70 mm and occasionally my 16-35 for wide angle shots. I don't think I ever used my 70-200mm. I took my monopod and sometimes used it, but you might consider a bean bag or something similar if you are driving a car (such that you can stop and shoot out of a window or from on the car hood.)
Some overseas carriers do have a weight limit; 24 pounds per person (for both carry ons combined) for some. On a KLM flight a few months ago, they almost would not let me on with my camera gear because it weighed almost 30 pounds. Had to put some peripheral equipment (no lenses or cameras) in my checked baggage before they would let me on.

Yes, I use a Wacom Intuos almost all the time. When performing some functions in Lightroom, the pen is very handy (necessary). If you ever move a photo to Photoshop for more editing, a digital pad is almost a necessity. I really like my Wacom -- worth every penny it cost.

On B and H Photo right now, you can get the 5DMkIII plus a Pixma Pro-100 printer, extra battery (not Canon), 32 GB SDHC card, plus some other goodies for a final price of $2149 (after a $350 rebate). If you need a good photo printer in addition to the camera, this isn't a bad deal. Or you could resell the printer on e-bay.

And when Costco or Sam's searches your basket as your leave, they are fingering/touching your property because you paid for it prior to the search. I like to wear clothing with lots of pockets to those stores. After I have paid for my stuff, I cram my pockets full of those items small enough to fit. Nothing Costco or Sam's can do about it since I am stuffing my property into my pockets.