Saturday, February 18th, 2012
|
|
11:01 pm - Getting back in the swing of things
|
|
It's been so long since I wrote on this! We also didn't cache much in the last year. Lots of colds and long work weekends are to blame. But we finally got out as a family today. DiSKette had a blast. After we got back to the car each time, she said "Let's get another cache!" It takes a little more prep-work before going out now since we like to find ones large enough for her to do trades, but this way she has a good time and even Overcast is liking it more. Today she got a fireman and a dinosaur. When we got home, she introduced them to her Little People and they all rode the bus together. Tomorrow, I'm actually hoping to take her out to do a letterbox (keeping fingers crossed that it's a nice day and not snowing).
|
|
(comment on this)
|
|
Saturday, January 15th, 2011
|
|
10:53 pm - So much...
|
has happened and I'm not about to blog it all. But I am starting to get back on track. I got all my 2009 caching pictures uploaded to my caching website (http://labboo.awardspace.com) and I'm working on the 2010 ones. I've also scanned all the sig items I've picked up over the last 2 years and will get those added to that online album soon.
We've been kind of sick (cold/flu) lately so haven't been able to go caching but we did get out a couple of weekends ago. Since we've learned that DiSKette hates to get in and out and in and out of her carseat, we chose a location nearby with 4 caches (park once, walk alot). And despite that it was getting cold, we did pretty good. We found all 4 fairly easily. DiSKette had a blast walking around the park. She even walked up the big snowhill (sans snow) and Overcast helped her walk down slowly. Plus it was good that they weren't all micro caches. In fact only 2 were micros but both of those were interesting (a snake and a bat). And the last one was an ammo can and DiSKette got a toy compass. If only I knew when we'll be able to get out again...
|
|
(comment on this)
|
|
Monday, October 11th, 2010
|
|
6:19 pm - My Big Fat Flash Mob and some cousin caching
|
Yesterday for 10/10/10, we attended the "My Big Fat Flash Mob" Wedding event hosted by RexC & the Girls. We got to the location early and ran into a group looking for a nearby difficult cache. We joined them in their search and after it was found started our picnic on the square. DiSKette had a blast on the blanket eating apples and fries and a burger. I ran over to get us logged in for the event and to grab our great wedding tokens (pathtags with a white & camo wedding cake on them). We brought with us the little basket that my mom had made for our wedding (> 13 years ago) and filled it with leaves for DiSKette to toss at the Bride & Groom. IlliniPhil conducted the ceremony and included some vary cute geocacher-isms in his delivery. There was a quick drawing for door prizes and DiSKette won the first one (a nice ten-year anniversary geocoin). Then a quick group photo and we returned to our picnic with our cousins.
After our picnic, we headed out caching with our cousins. We got 5 more caches. The first one we went to was by a very nice little lake. Shortly after we arrived, a few more cachers joined us and they located the cache. The second cache took me way too much driving to the wrong places before I located the correct area to park. Though the cache was one of the largest ammo cans we've seen. Then we stopped by a cache near an office complex. I was busy searching in the stones and thorns when one of the cousins noticed it hanging - her first true find (a muggle no more). We got two more (one in a cemetery with headstones for a Wealthy & Worthy Wise) and then one at the Shake Shoppe where we stopped for ice cream before heading home.
|
|
(comment on this)
|
|
Sunday, October 3rd, 2010
|
|
12:03 am - LoCo Fall Fling
|
|
Last night, I prepped my GPS and took a look at all the caches in the area that we could go to and figured we could finally get to Edison Woods to get the caches there. But then today was rainy and given how muddy and slick the trails at Edison Woods get, we just couldn't go there with DiSKette (so I'm really wishing for nice cool sunshine next weekend so we can go there with my cousins when they visit). Instead we went to the main event site and did about a dozen of the temp caches there. DiSKette walked by herself most of the time - we had to carry her through areas where the goose droppings here hard to avoid - Overcast called it "Mommy playing hopscotch." For one cache that was too high for us to reach, we tried lifting DiSKette to grab it, but she didn't quite understand and was just pulling leaves off the tree and laughing (hopefully she'll understand by next spring so she can help us cache). After eatting way too many sweets (I think DiSKette managed to snag 2 lollipops and like 4 cookies and a doughnut and some pie frosting!), we went for a semi-real lunch before heading to the site of the Fall Fling Campfire. We were the 2nd caching group to arrive ther (EskimoZooKeepers were there before us), but we did actually get FTF on most of the temp caches there - looks like TEZK only did a few. DiSKette loved playing at the farm site with all it's decorations. And she walked the entire thing by herself! It was definitely way longer than her usual daily walk around the block and she was quite the trouper! By the time we got close to the car to leave, you could see her eyes trying to close while we walked. Even with that, she wouldn't take a nap when we got home and even tried to get Overcast to put her shoes and raincoat back on for more - geocaching is finally starting to get fun with her!
|
|
(comment on this)
|
|
Wednesday, September 29th, 2010
|
|
4:25 pm - DiSKette's Dry Deckhouse Debut
|
Yeah! It didn't rain this year! It threatened to and we had a little drizzle about an hour before the event was to start, but other than a lot of wind, it was a very nice night. We hid 8 temporary caches around the house. One was a mystery cache in our Sukkah (the dry deckhouse) and the other 7 hides were based on DiSKette's favorite book, I am a Bunny! I also hid 3 additional caches up around Coe Lake. We had tons of food and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves whether they were out caching the temps, hanging out in the yard or in the house enjoying a snack. We'll have to decide how we're going to change it up for next year - I'm still wanting to do my Tiki-themed Sukkah so maybe we'll try that next year.
Next event: The Annual LoCo (Lorain County, not crazy) Fall Fling
|
|
(comment on this)
|
|
Sunday, September 12th, 2010
|
|
7:49 am - CSI: The Annual Grand Caching Event
|
Yeah, we had lots of fun. Yesterday was a geocaching event we go to every year. This year the theme was "Cache Scene Investigations." Someone scattered the contents of a mostly signature item filled cache a lied Signal up to a tree. We had a book of suspect and had to solve puzzles and find caches to eliminate the innocent. The three of us were all suspects! I was deemed innocent in a fax in or original evidence bag. Overcast was deemed innocent through a word search puzzle. DiSKette was the image of a jigsaw puzzle placed at the front of the room - innocent with such a sweet face! We had a lot of fun working on the puzzles before we left to run around and get the caches. There were 45 caches and we did manage to get 36 of them before it started to rain. And that's even with stopping for an hour at McD's for lunch and to let DiSKette play at playland and another 45 minutes at a park where she played on the playground with Overcast. She was really good the whole time. Though she was a bit grumpy each time we were back at the main event site. We're thinking she's finally starting to react (a little negatively) to the large crowd - lots of noise thing. Though when they were doing presentations and everyone was clapping, she enjoyed clapping and being the loudest (highest pitched) cheerer.
We had our Cousin join us today - unfortunately we did not team up with PirateFlay and Basselope and Little G this year. Though PirateFlay was another suspect - she got cleared through a morse code puzzle. At the end we still had about 12 suspects left (the perils of not getting all the caches) but our quick guess as to the perp was incorrect. Turned out the winner was the team with the perp! Not that he knew ahead of time, but he was a very good sport about it!
Next year's theme is a redneck feud: Cacher Feud.
Next up: The return of Boo's Backyard Bash after a three year hiatus though this year's event is called "DiSKette's Dry Deckhouse Debut".
|
|
(comment on this)
|
|
Thursday, August 5th, 2010
|
|
10:11 pm - Not much caching but getting ready...
|
|
to post the return of our annual hang-out in our Sukkah event. Hopefully we'll be able to do a lot of caching this fall and it won't be too hot like it's been all summer!
|
|
(comment on this)
|
|
Tuesday, February 9th, 2010
|
|
7:39 pm - Little People Geocacher
|
We got the latest Fisher Price catalog in the mail and there's now a Little People Geocacher!!!! Well it's actually part of a 3 piece "hiking set" that has a redish-headed girl holding a GPS and binoculars, something that looks like a hedgehog, and a campfire. But as far as I'm concerned, it's a geocacher! The catalog lists it at $6. I so want the set! I did find it on Amazon, but it's over $8 there.
http://www.amazon.com/Fisher-Little-People-Hiking-Figures/dp/B002BTUBM0/
|
|
(comment on this)
|
|
Monday, February 1st, 2010
|
|
10:13 pm - January Roundup
|
Well on my goal of getting at least 1 cache a day, I fell a little short this week. Mostly because I wasn't able to get out caching at all this past weekend. DiSKette and I went to SuzyJazz's to join the celebration of her birthday and DiSKette already had the start of a cold. Overcast bowed out with a tummy ache. By late that night, DiSKette's sneezes turned to congestion and I spend most of the weekend either chasing after her with a snot-rag or having her sleep on me. So no caching. As of the very end of the month, I was 7 caches behind.
Today, I managed to grab 3 on my way home from work. So as of this moment I am only 5 behind. If I can get at least 2 every day after work, I should be caught up at the end of the week.
|
|
(comment on this)
|
|
Sunday, January 24th, 2010
|
|
7:48 am - Bark at the Moon
|
|
Last night, Overcast, DiSKette & I headed south to "Bark at the Moon," a night caching event by the Medina Metroparks. It was a warmer night (in the high 30s to 40s) and the trails were pretty swampy. We had DiSKette in her bunny suit (so cute) and the jogging stroller. The stroller worked great. A little tough to to push through the places where there were still snow, but it never got stuck in the mud. The diaper bag in the bottom compartment got some speckles on it, but nothing major. There were 7 caches in all for us to find (but I'm only counting the event as a cache towards my daily goal so as of today I'm behind by 5 unless I can get out - though I doubt it cuz I hurt today). We went through the list of caches backwards (started with # 7). LuvWahoo, CapFantasy and the CityGirls were pretty much with us the whole time. From each cache we had to take a dog (a paper with a black and white image on it). The caches were spread out over about 2.5 miles (hence the fact that I hurt...). I got 3 wolf dogs, 1 chihauha (I know I can't spell), 1 basset hound, 1 poodle, and a St. Bernard. When we got back to the main building, we used the dogs to make a dog sled. Then we went to another room to race the sled. The race was nice for little kids - through a dice with pics of the dogs, move the # of spaces = to the # of that dog you have on your sled. In our heat, 2 other teams tied for 1st and we were 3rd. Oh well! We hung out in the center for a while eating cookies and chatting. DiSKette was walking around and managed to eat some dirt (she didn't like use taking the rest out of her mouth) but she really enjoyed the cookie she'd had before then. Overall, a good night but we're hurting now since we really haven't done any long hiking in quite a while. Of course, going backwards didn't work to our advantage either since at the very end we had to go uphill to finish the trail.
|
|
(comment on this)
|
|
Wednesday, January 20th, 2010
|
|
7:40 pm - I was caught up
|
Last weekend I got my cache maintenance done and managed to hide 2 new caches. I got 6 finds on Saturday and 6 on Sunday and then the last 3 to be on track on Monday. But I haven't been out since so I'm behind again.
Saturday I was out with Overcast & DiSKette. We got 2 regular caches but DiSKette doesn't like to get in and out of the car multiple times. Plus we had to stop for lunch so we really didn't get in a lot of caching.
Sunday I was out with SuzyJazz. We took care of my cache maintenance and I hid 2 new caches. Then we picked up a bunch of micros, had a couple of DNF's (ugh!) and got one regular cache before heading back home.
Monday I got NikkiG to join me and DiSKette for a short caching trip. It's been a very long time since she'd joined us. We tried to let her look for a couple, but she wasn't in practice so to speak. I'll just have to drag her caching at lunch her and there again like we used to do. Then I won't always be 5 caches behind on Saturday!
|
|
(comment on this)
|
|
Sunday, January 10th, 2010
|
|
8:25 pm - Back to blogging
|
I can't believe it's been since October since I wrote anything in this. Well I guess I can since things have been way too busy since I went back to work. We didn't get much geocaching in over the last few months - a few around Thanksgiving but that's about it.
I started out the new year with good intentions and actually managed to get a cache-a-day for the 1st 3 days of the new year. But then I had to go back to work and it was cold and dark when I got home and this weekend has been pretty cold too. I still need to do maintenance on a bunch of my caches - I'm hoping it will warm up a little some weekend before the month is over - something above 30 degrees would be nice for just a few hours.
I figure I'll have to make up the caching days. So my new rule is the first caches of the day make up the days I've missed. So if I had gone caching today, I would have needed 7 finds to be back on track and an extra would just be that - extra. There is a W.E.S.T. coffee on Thursday but with how busy things are at work, that'll just decrease the # of caches I need next time I go out by one. I hope it's warmer next weekend and I'm glad I've got a day off coming this month!
|
|
(comment on this)
|
|
Sunday, October 11th, 2009
|
|
1:34 pm - Starting to CatchUp
|
Well I finally have a few moments to try to catch up on my posts (yeah, like that's possible since I haven't posted since late June!). I'll try at least.
July - I can't remember much right now.
August - don't remember much caching here either.
September - ah, the annual SerenityNow & Finding Fraggle Rock Grand Caching Event! Overcast, DiSKette and I teamed up with PirateFlay, Basselope & Little G and invited our cousin N who is a student at the College of Wooster to join us. PirateFlay rented a large 12-seater van for the day - which turned out to be the best thing with 2 car seats and all of us - the A/C worked well and we were pretty comfy. Though PirateFlay was often a little nervous about some of the spaces she had to pull into and back around from with the monster vehicle. The theme this year was baseball. I'm not a really big baseball fan, but hey this was more about caching than baseball. We managed to get 27 of the 35 available caches. Not bad considering we stopped for an hour at Steak n Shake for lunch and did have 2 young kids with us. Though we probably didn't stop enough to take care of DiSKette as often as we should have - she managed to wet through one of her usually awesome disposable diapers (we really went too long between changings) and got the car seat wet. Luckily we did have a couple of cloth diapers with use to lay on the car seat and it washed well when we got home. DiSKette had her first taste of cookies that trip - she loved them! but they are soooo messy. Just wish we could have done a better job at rotating cache runners (I admit, I like doing that part too much to let others go) and I really wish someone else could learn to navigate too (if we get the chance I really need to get a 2nd GPSMap 60Cx or something comparable that can handle maps so we have 2 good GPS's among the team members).
October (so far) - The first weekend of this month was the annual LoCo Fall Fling. As always, LuvWahoo (or Aunt Wahoo if you're DiSKette) and the rest of the LoCo crew hid tons of temporary caches for the event. We did pretty well. I ended the event passing 4100 total finds in my 7+ years of caching so far (hard to believe it's been that long but we started in Feb. 2002). ToothfairyXN took DiSKette for a couple of hours so Overcast & I could get in some caching without her. She had a grand time crawling and chasing cats and kids. And there was just tons of food at the event - DiSKette loved munching on the oyster crackers that were served with the chili. And caching at Sir All & Lady Closenuf's is always an adventure - though the woods just didn't have as many cool display areas as in years past :-(. Hopefully there will be more in future years - cuz it would really make some cool video - we could totally do a mini/weird Blair Witch thing back there when DiSKette can walk by herself.
So that catches us up. This weekend is a three-day weekend for me and since I'm working today (Sunday) on my part-time job stuff and have the day off from my full-time job tomorrow, I'm hoping we can get in some more Fall caching. We're thinking about heading to Edison Woods but who knows where we'll end up tomorrow.
|
|
(comment on this)
|
|
Monday, June 29th, 2009
|
|
9:17 pm - Road Course & Fireworks
|
Yesterday, DiSKette and I went to a geocaching event at the Nelson Ledges Road Course. It was raining when we arrived. We did manage to grab a few caches in the rain but DiSKette was pretty cranky and her feet and arms were feeling kind of cold. We waited out the rest of the rain in the car. Eventually it started clearing up and we got out the stroller and did more caching! All together, we got 23 of the 40 temporary caches and 2 permanent caches that had been around since the event last year. After caching we had a great time hanging out under the tree with the other cachers. DiSKette had fun making faces and being held by everyone - she loves RunnerBear and Steelbowl and Chris K just makes her laugh (she tried to steal his pie too!). Despite my best efforts, we still both ended up with a light sunburn.
After the road course cache event, we stopped home for some Daddy time before heading out again. This time to hang with RexC and the Girls and lots of the same and additional geocachers to watch the Brecksville fireworks. I wasn't sure how DiSKette would react to them. Luckily RexC said that if she didn't like them we could hang in the upstairs apartment where the sound would be a bit muffled. But she was great! For a while she was laying against me watching them. She got fussy and I flipped her over, we cuddled but every so often she lifted & turned her head to watch. The fireworks started way after her bedtime and she fell asleep not long before the finale. She actually slept through the finale and didn't wake up until I was changing her diaper before heading home. It was a pretty late night for her and I'd hoped it would mean she's sleep in but she was up at 6am this morning...oh well!
|
|
(comment on this)
|
|
Tuesday, June 9th, 2009
|
|
6:42 pm - OOh, too long
|
Well I didn't mean to go so long without posting anything. Time just flies by...
We've been to at least 2 coffees since then and an event in Paris, OHio. Not much new I can report on caching with the infant, though it has gotten easier overall. The only problem now is that if either of us isn't really in the right mood to cache (like grumpy) she totally picks up on it and gets really crabby and no fun at all. And now that DiSKette has discovered her voice, she likes to shriek loudly when she's crabby.
Today was DiSKette's 6-month well baby visit. She's more than doubled in size since birth. She's now 12 lbs, 13 oz and 24.25 inches long.
We're off to Michigan to do some caching this weekend and visit some old college friends as well as cousins.
|
|
(comment on this)
|
|
Tuesday, April 14th, 2009
|
|
4:08 pm - Website updated
|
I finally got some of the Signature Items I've been collecting scanned and posted to my website. Now I just have to start my photo album for this year's caching adventures.
http://labboo.awardspace.com
|
|
(comment on this)
|
|
Sunday, April 12th, 2009
|
|
9:47 pm - Geo-Cache Easter Egg Hunt
|
|
On Saturday, DiSKette and I attended a 1-hour geo-event. We had a good time. We were given about 45 minutes to find as many Easter Eggs, Film Cans and Smiley Bowls that were hidden in the park as we could. With DiSKette asleep in the Snuggli, I managed to find 19 eggs of various sizes. In the eggs, we got tickets for the drawing of a whole bunch of prize baskets. We managed to win one and DiSKette now had a pail & shovel, a stuffed bunny, several coloring books, and some high bouncing balls. Very cool for a short event. Thanks to heyubear & timeage for hosting!
|
|
(comment on this)
|
|
Friday, April 10th, 2009
|
|
3:43 pm - April W.E.S.T. event
|
|
Last night was the April W.E.S.T. event. This time, timeage hosted at the Jammin' Java Place in Parma. DiSKette and I managed to go. Overcast was due back at work (his paternity leave ended the night before) so he didn't join us. I really wish it hadn't been Passover - there were a number of very tempting desserts in the cases and everyone who ate said things were tasty. I hope we come back to this location - there was plenty of parking and space for everyone. There's even a small stage and sound system - might be good for a 1K party even (though those tend to get even more attendees than our monthly coffees so it might be a tight fit). Maybe Overcast & I can plan another puzzle cache event like we did before Davia was born and base it from this location, that might be kind of neat.
|
|
(comment on this)
|
|
|
3:35 pm - Caching with DiSKette, Part IV
|
|
Last Saturday, we met up with Chris K in Geauga at one of his caches in Middlefield for a day of cache touring. We ended up with a grand total of 19 finds. A number of those were puzzle caches that I spent time solving before our trip (with some hints and help). Most of the caches were in cemeteries or small parks. Usually, either Overcast or I would stay in the car with DiSKette while the other went to find the cache with Chris K offering hints if needed. We stopped for lunch about half way through our caching at Mary Yoder's Amish Restaurant. Overcast wanted pie. He had Coconut Cream, I had Chocolate Cream & Chris K had Banana Cream. DiSKette had some of the Cream from her Daddy's pie (she seemed to like it too). We did get one cache in with Daddy carrying DiSKette and another cache with her in the Snuggli with me. However, she got pretty fussy by the end of the day. Lessons learned from this trip: 1) bring more diapers than you think you'll need and then bring a few extra - after several days of fewere than we're used to #2, she let loose while we were out - we went through all 6 disposable diapers that we went through and had to stop to buy some more. 2) Luckily from our last adventure to this area, we managed to bring enough milk with us and were able to breastfeed her in the car while the men were out hunting caches (a couple of 2-fers and once during a 3-fer made it all possible). Plus during the stop for lunch she was bottle fed. But the car bottle warmer doesn't work so well on the small skinny bottles that we sometimes use - better for the larger ones. 3) Geauga County is always a bit colder that it is by us - plan accordingly - the weather isn't always what you want or expect. Though I will say, when DiSKette is in the Snuggli it is super warm...
|
|
(comment on this)
|
|
Wednesday, March 18th, 2009
|
|
11:16 pm - Caching with DiSKette, Part III
|
Monday was a nice day, so we went caching again. I wanted numbers so we tried to do a little numbers run. For the quick easy caches, one of us ran out of the car, got the cache and ran back while the other stayed in the car with DiSKette. We did manage to do a series of 3 caches in a single park. Overcast carried DiSKette and I found the caches and signed them. We had forgotten the Snuggli carrier (my bad) so Overcast couldn't really look. We need to remember it when we go back out Friday with SuzyJazz to get a Cleveland Metroparks cache.
Today, Overcast & I finally had the chance to go on a "date". LuvWahoo watched DiSKette for us. We'd never been to Dave & Buster's before, so that's where we headed. We got one cache on the way and one on the way back. Dave & Buster's was a lot of fun. I won lots of tickets but was still a little short for the prize I saw that I wanted to get for DiSKette. But Overcast has promised we'll go back again soon (on another Wednesday since that's half-price game day).
|
|
(comment on this)
|
|
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=92.1){kind=small}
labboo's journal