POTD Day 12 Out And About

I had to go shopping for a gift for a 4 year old and her mom told me she would like books, so I decided since I already had to go to the local library to pick up some stuff, that I would also shop at a bookstore downtown and I would also get in an hour of walking as well.

This shot is the view looking down into the plaza of our downtown area. The christmas decorations are down and the spring/summer ones are up. The day was unseasonably warm. There were hockey players at the skating rink, and all the ducks were at the upper pond because they were working on the lower one. I was hoping to catch a glimpse of our park deer but none were about.

I found a few benchmarks, got a good walk in, some pictures for my POTD project and both errands done. Overall, pretty efficient use of my time!

I took this picture with my Fuji Finepix f50 with no flash. I edited in GIMP 2.6 for color, light and added the fuzzy border.
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Seven Years Ago on In My Words...Caching It High

POTD Day 1 You

Staying with my theme of not posting my face on my blog, I have once again a pic of my feet. This one was taken on a geocaching hike to a lake near here.

The water in the lake (which is an irrigation lake) is super low because we are in a severe drought. This allowed me to walk along the lake shore at a level that is not normal and see some really cool rock formations. My feet are on one of those cool looking rocks. I love taking pictures of texture in nature and this trip really gave me a lot of opportunities.

It gets really muddy in the clay here when it rains so I was glad to get this hike in before we got any rain.

I took this picture with my Fuji Finepix f50 with no flash. I edited it in GIMP 2.6 for color, light, and then added the fuzzy border.
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Two Years Ago on In My Words...Geocaching Craziness

POTD Day 7 Upside Down

So I if you haven't notices, I like taking macros...I like the perspective of things from up close. The details that we miss when we don't look close enough at things. I also love the look of old metal or painted things. I have made two cards from images I have taken at an old fort in Washington State.

So this one is from a great wrought iron gate on the front of a family crypt at this awesome cemetery in Portland. We were out geocaching for the day and needed to find something on this crypt, which is one of the things that I love about geocaching. It almost always takes me somewhere I wouldn't have gone otherwise and to see something new.

I took this picture with my Fuji Finepix f50 with no flash but the macro turned on. I edited in GIMP 2.6 for color, light and to add the fuzzy border.
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Two Years Ago on In My Words...Geocaching Craziness

Chk, chk, chk

Been trying to knock some things off the list lately...and it feels good, but never seems to make a dent...always so many more things on the list.

Today has been a productive phone day, made some calls and got some things scheduled. Found out that the paint on our truck canopy is covered by warranty and the original place we bought it still has the proof of purchase so will be getting that fixed as soon as the proof comes in the mail. It will be weird to drive the truck without a canopy while it is getting repainted. I am betting the paint won't match exactly because the paint on our truck and the canopy has been on the same amount of time and now the canopy will have new paint but it has to be better than the little bubbles we are seeing right now.

Scheduled doc appt, and the HVAC service appt as well. Scheduling worked out perfect. Still have trip to Google later this month on the schedule, and made airline arrangements for annual trip to see Gpa, but still need to reserve rental car.

Tried to play some Wii last night but it seems that something is wrong with the disk drive on it...have to get a special screwdriver to take it apart, so that might be a bit of a wait. I am bummed because I was geared up to get back into playing some of the games (especially the ones that make you move). Hopefully it won't be too complicated of a fix, figure if I can fix computers, I can look at this and see if there is a way to fix it.

Fall is coming rather quickly and I have a lot of stuff to get into the ground before it does, not to mention a lot of yard work to do as soon as it starts getting cold. That is one reason getting these two trips taken care of works out perfectly. It will still be warm enough when I get back to tackle some of the projects.

Been enjoying the football, soccer, golf and Nascar on TV...love this time of year for sports. Need to get some geocaches and more consistent exercise in though...no excuses.

Ordered a leaf net to cover the pool with this fall to catch all the leaves I spent hours fishing out last year...hopefully it works like it should and reduces the amount of time and effort required.

All in all, trying to do what I can do and control what I can control...the rest is out of my hands...LOL
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Six Years Ago on In My Words....Puss In Boots (I miss this little girl).

Geocaching Luck

Signing the log

Today, I went to the Grower's Market with one of our cousins and two of her boys. After we had checked things out for a bit we walked over to a nearby park to let the boys play. I remembered that a geocache had recently been hidden in that park, so I turned on the GPS on my phone and my geocaching app to see if we could maybe find it (even though the phone is not even close to being as accurate as the GPSr is).

With the clues and my basic memory of where it might be, I sent my little cousin off to find it, and he did. He was so excited, even though it was a micro and we could only sign the log. We haven't been able to geocache since last summer so this was a real treat and he definitely has the bug again. I told him, that now since the weather was getting better, we would go more often, and I know of a few parks we can explore that have some in them.

This is one of my favorite hobbies even if I don't get to do it as much as I would like. It gives you the chance for exercise, fresh air and seeing a new place each time (assuming you aren't just doing it for numbers and like finding stupid micros hidden on guardrails).
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Eight Years Ago on In My Words...Geocaching Peeve

New Hike

View from the trail

Today I was determined to find a geocache and the one I was looking for was supposed to be on this little trail near the irrigation ditch, however I didn't have exact coordinates. As I was driving towards where I thought the trail was, I came to the trailhead of another popular trail system in this area. There is no parking at the trailhead itself, so I decided to turn down a side street and check it out. I hadn't see the other trail, so I figured that the geocache would have to wait for another day (actually, I saw the trail on my way out of the area so I will be easily attempting that geocache soon).

I walked up to the trailhead and decided to give it a go...put my headphones on and started moving out. Little did I know that the trail was going to be very steep, so quickly, I was heading uphill quite steeply and decided to take of my headphones and just enjoy the hike. I felt so out of shape as I could hear my heart pounding in my ears and I was stopping at the top of the little hills to catch my breath and take pics. There were a lot of other hikers, many with their dogs and it was a lot of fun. Due to time constraints, I only went a little over a mile out (had to find a turnaround that I would be able to see on the map later) and about 500 ft in elevation change but it was a good first hike for that area. I also discovered that there are a few geocaches on the trail (although poison oak might be an issue for me in that regard too). My muscles were pretty smoked from the climb and the descent (sometimes coming down is harder than going up), and I am sure I will feel the new muscles I have built over the next few days.

I am looking forward to getting up there a few times a week if I can, until the poison oak becomes an issue, and know that it will be a great addition to my workout regimen. I saw a lot of people that were doing the same trail with no heavy breathing and some were even running up the trail so I know it is just a matter of determination and practice.
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Eight Years Ago on In My Words...Walking Lunges Kiss Ass (Literally) 

Twelve Year Old BooBoos

Unbelievably, I fell down like a little girl the other day when we were hiking/geocaching...and I skinned my left knee through my jeans. It took two full doses of OxyClean to get the grass and blood stains out of my favorite pair of 501 jeans.

At first my ankle on my right leg hurt the most and I kind of just walked off the pain, not thinking anything about my left leg. Then at one point, we stopped during the walk and I thought I would check my leg. I pulled up my left pant leg and found that I was bloody and scraped underneath. When we got home, we did the whole first aid thing on it and now it has a nice shade of green added to the mix...

So I head back to workout class next week and I'll have a skinned knee to show off!
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Six Years Ago on In My Words...Getting There

Geocaching Craziness

The cache exposed

Went to a park the day before my run to check out the route and decided to do some geoaching while I was there. It was pretty cool because I had never been to the park and it has a lot to offer that I didn't know about and the geocaching probably took me to parts of it that I wouldn't have explored just to scout for the run.

The cache back in place

One of the caches actually required me to climb 20 ft in the air up a tree....I haven't had to climb a tree in a while so it was definitely kind of interesting but at least I found the cache.

The area it was hidden in

Anyhow, this one took a while to find as you can see it was very well camo'd. I had to check the logs while I was out in the woods and it gave me some clues as to what to look for. After a few minutes of poking around, this cache was found.

There are a few more caches in this park and the adjacent park, so when I go there again, I'll try to get those. I have another race in May that goes through this same area so perhaps I will be able to get them then.
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Four Years Ago on In My Words...Our New Visitor

Slacker

I hate that even when I KNOW I am getting a lot of others things done, there are certain things that will make me feel like a slacker if I don't accomplish them.

These things are exercise (which should be the highest priority), corresponding, and time doing all the little things that I am interested in but don't seem to find time for (Japanese studying, writing, guitar, piano, beading, cards, geocaching...etc). This third thing is a real bugger since I can see evidence of these interests all over the house...One of the few things I do devote time to regardless is my reading...have to have my reading.

Lately, corresponding and writing have been the top of the list of things that I have been slacking on. Writing is a release for me and I have always loved it, and used it to my benefit. I have kept a journal since I was in the 6th grade. Corresponding with family and friends has always been something I have enjoyed and taken time for but it seems in the last year, I haven't been very good at staying on top of it.

Part of why I am writing this post is because I hate that I haven't been blogging like I want to, but of course right now I am supposed to be out of the house in 25 minutes and I am still drinking my morning coffee and sitting in my pajamas so this will not be my best composition. I can't tell if it is better that I am writing something or if I should wait and write something better....catch 22 on that.

So here is an attempt to not be a slacker....hopefully I can keep it up.

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Two Years Ago on In My Words...Done Messing Around

What To Do

So I woke up this morning feeling bad about not getting enough exercise, and still having tons of things on my To Do list. I decided I was going for an early morning walk since the sun was shining and the humidity was low....in fact days like this make up for any other crappy weather day I might experience...that is how good it was.

I knew that the walk would give me a chance to breath and prioritize. I have lots to do and not a lot of time to do it in, and I seem to be double booked for most days this week and that has added to my concern. I still have piles of Christmas lights to put out and I have a large piece of furniture sitting in the middle of my office that needs a home by the end of the week. I have not really started on Christmas cards yet even though I have all the makings, and I have to get these boxes shipped by the end of the week if they are going to get to the US in time.

Needless to say, I came into the office first thing, like I do most mornings to say hello to Chase (our cat) and check into the world before heading out. Since all of my family is awake when I am asleep, my first chance on the web in the morning is when I get to catch up on everyone's day and sometimes even catch them still awake. While I was on the computer, I decided to check out geocaching's website and see if there were any that I needed to update. I did find a few and while I was at it, I decided to update my other caches as well. So a mere two hours later (pushing 10am), I had eaten (Slimfast...another thing on my To Do list is to lose weight), organized and updated all my caches, but still had not gotten any exercise.

I head out the door with my Ipod, my camera and my GPS. I hit three different caches...all older ones that I have been watching for a while, and didn't find any of them. Two of them are in high traffic areas so I mostly just did a drive-by on those but I searched for the third one for a good hour. I did manage to get some awesome pictures taken and visit a part of a castle park that I hadn't seen before, but I didn't get any caches....that can be frustrating. Anyhow, after I got home (around noon), I had breathed some fresh air, gotten some exercise and sun, and felt like I had a better outlook on the To Do list.

Since then, I have gotten three boxes packed and shipped, holiday stamps purchased and am heading out for dinner with a friend and a trip to a Japanese spa (having to step out of my comfort zone on this one but that is for another post). I guess I will tackle a few more things tonight when I get home so completely relaxed from my experience...wish me luck.

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One Year Ago on In My Words...Randomness

Geocaching News

Looks like I have two new caches within walking distance of my house....I might have to trek out and check them out if the weather allows for it tomorrow.

We aren't getting hit by Sinlaku any longer but it has swung back around from Taiwan and we are continuing to get some weather from it. It is all good though, because regardless of whether it is cloudy and raining, it is still warm outside. We need the rain and a good rain means I don't have to water much...haha.

So we'll see how close these caches are and I might just get to log a few new ones in the next few days...

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One Year Ago on In My Words....Loving The Space Bag

Geocaching on the Road

A few days ago, I found my first Thailand cache....amazing, I know, that I hadn't found one in Thailand before but I hadn't for some weird reason. So now I have Thailand as one of the countries I have found caches in. This one was located near a Wat that I probably wouldn't have seen if it weren't for the cache, and that is a great thing. The bad thing was that it was hidden in a spot that could have been better but oh well, it isn't my cache so I can't judge too much.

While in Taiwan, I found 3 caches during our travels and they were all pretty good ones. Two were in tourist destinations we were already headed for and one was in this park at the top of a hill near a pottery village and we really had to hike our butts off to get it. The view at the top was worth it and we found it once we got up there without a lot of trouble...and only a few pints of blood lost to mosquitos.

So on this trip, I have been able to add two new countries to my list and had some fun. I picked up a coin that I will drop in Japan when we get home...the cache here was a micro so no option to drop it there...

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Two Years Ago on In My Words...Making a Dent

Two Days Out

We are only two days out from our trip starting. We are planning to leave here for Taiwan and spend about 4 days in Taiwan with some friends that live there. It should be a great time, especially with our own personal tour guides. I have already printed some geocache pages so I can get at least on in Taiwan and add another country to my profile map.

On the 5th, fly to Bangkok and plan to spend a few days there. I am going to get some ingredients for food I can't get here and ship them home from the US Embassy...and I think J is going to take care of some business too. I don't know for sure that we will get a Venus jewelry trip in but I am always up for it, if it comes up.

On the 8th, we will fly down to Koh Samui. We have been there before. The airport is just like a scene out of Fantasy Island (and if any of you don't know what Fantasy Island is, you are too young to be reading my blog...haha). I think last time we were there, we weren't all over the digital camera yet so we'll have to see how much our pictures will improve this time. We will hang there for two weeks and then fly back to Bangkok the night before our flight back here......

It should be a lot of fun, relaxation and great food!!!!!

In the meantime, I am trying to get all the "to do before the trip" things done so we are set to go.

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Two Years Ago on In My Words...Tears

Losing Its Appeal

I went out geocaching the other day after dinner. It seems like it has gotten a lot more complicated to geocache here than I really want it to be. Some caches here are hidden near or in the water and can only be gotten when the tide is out which means coordinating the tide schedules (terrible for me to deal with). Others are camouflaged micros in very busy areas that really don't take me to a new place, but seem to be a test of the hider's ability to stump everyone and cause us to seek caches only in the rain or at night in order to not be seen. Then others are hidden amongst trash in dark scary caves that homeless people live in making finding them almost impossible.

It has been ages that I have gone to find a cache in a nice hidden away place that doesn't require me to beat off habu snakes, or tourists and still shows me something new. It makes the sport very frustrating for me. A lot of the fun has been taken out of it for me. I do it because I want exercise and to see something new. I don't do it so I can drive up to a little spot on the side of the road and find a cache 5 feet from my car, unless the spot is cool and I wouldn't have seen it otherwise.

One other issue is that if a cache is not hidden properly, it is found, quite frequently, by either tourists, landscapers or others not playing the game. Many times because NO ONE here thinks to put a Japanese translation page in their caches, they are tossed in the trash. So many coins, and travel bugs have been lost in just the last few weeks because of this....this makes me not want to put any of my travel bugs out there.

Now all of this is not on the hiders alone...the nature of this place adds to it. The parks here are very manicured...so finding a hiding spot that won't be weedwacked every 6 months is very hard to do. This place is also very crowded so it is hard to find a spot where there isn't someone else already sitting enjoying the space. Creatively camouflaged micros are sometimes the only option.

Okay, that is my bitch session for the day. I want to go out geocaching today but my frustration from the other night, might just lead to me to find other things to do instead...grrrrr.

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Two Years Ago at In My Words...Typical

Observations

Yesterday I did a bit of errand running and hopefully got some things done. I did fine the fabric I am going to use for two more squares I am making for my quilt. I'll have enough to make a few extras of each so I'll put those up for grabs when they are done. I know my friend K wants some of them.

I updated the ToDo list this morning and I noticed that every time I try to type strike to put in the cross out html....I misspell it....every time. Don't know what the deal is but it pisses me off.

I talked to the local authorities about the speeding on our road the other day, but I don't know if it will make a difference. Until someone gets hurt or killed, I am sure no one will do anything.

I need to do some geocaching since I have a coin that needs to be put out.

I had a very weird dream last night about my husband's work...very strange indeed. Can't go into it here because that would blow some of my anonymity so you know how that is.

I managed to sleep (kind of) in until 7am this morning...don't know what the deal is but 6 am seems to be my body clock time to get up, even if I read in bed until 12 at night.

I am reading a book that is only okay right now...actually, I am reading two books but I thought the second one would be a quick fast read so the first one was put on hold. If you want to get technical about it, I have a third one I started ages ago in my night stand that I need to finish too....oh well.

I have been doing my brain age training on my Nintendo DSLite in the evenings...it still tells me my brain is 56 years old...I am wonder if I have a younger brain in the mornings.

I spent an hour at the 100 yen store last night on my way home from my friend's house. I got some things to mail out but also some things for the house. We could learn so much from the Japanese on economy and efficiency...it is amazing. I could sit in one of those stores forever thinking up ways to use the stuff in there. I even found some little screen repair things I am going to try out in the office screen. We'll see if they work. I did find some big soup bowls. They aren't matching to the ones I have already but they are blue, white and black so they will go with all my other stuff. If I ever come across my other ones, I'll grab them up.

The sun is out and I am meeting some friends for coffee at the Starbucks that opened a few weeks ago less than a mile from my house.

Gorgeous...But Busy

I woke up today after a very rainy Easter, to a beautiful sunny, breezy, dry Spring day. I guess Spring did officially start the other day. I managed to take down my snowflakes off the window that I leave up for winter.

I also cleaned all my silver and did my bi-annual switch over to silver. It tells me that Spring is here and Summer is not far off and I am really looking forward to Summer this year in particular.

I have a little list of things to do, and I plan to get some of them tackled today if I can...hopefully I won't be inside too much and can fit a little bit of geocaching in as well. Days like this are the kind we live for. The birds are chirping and the wind chimes are dinging happily outside my office window.

One of the things to do was added by the workmen that were here for three days recaulking all the windows in this house (it is definitely a three day job when you consider how many windows we have), and they got caulk all over them so I need to clean them. Today is a great day for that, not too hot, but warm and dry enough that cleaning them will be easy. Oh, and cleaning my car....I can take it do a little gas station down the road from here and have them wash and wax it in their machine, then clean the windows, wipe down the interior and vacuum the whole thing for about 10 bucks (1000 yen). Can't beat that.

Hope you having a nice Spring day where ever you are as well.

Beat Up

I have managed to ding myself a bit in the last few days. The other day, I was trying to find a cache that was located in a stupid spot and had to reach through some very sharp palm leaves to get it. I was stabbed in the arm a few times and then slid on the coral have scratches on my knees and shin.

Then yesterday when vacuuming the house, I ran over my big toe on my right foot with the vacuum during the back pull. My toe ached all night.

Last night after vacuuming, I was putting the bath mats back down on the floor of the bathroom and on the way down to the floor, I wacked my head on the glass sink counter. I actually saw stars...and now I have a tender lump on my forehead. I haven't looked in the mirror yet but I might also have a nasty bruise.

New Cache And Bug Drop

Went geocaching on my walk yesterday for one that is along one of my walking trails. It was in an interesting area but the spot itself was not the best. I would have chosen a few other spots but oh well. I probably won't ever go to it again. I was able to drop two TBs I had had for a while...and that was the main purpose of the search.

The walk was nice, it was blustery out but not cold and I was able to get 2.5 miles in by the time I was done. I should have done some lunges but I didn't....will have to try for that tomorrow.

The Urge To Search

I so need to get out and get some geocaching done. I have two TBs that I need to move along and I just got notice today of a new one placed not far from my house. I wish I was a bit more adventureous because I am often afraid when people place them in places that I don't think are public areas. I don't want to get yelled at in a language I don't understand for breaking some rule I didn't know existed...this makes me a bit more careful than I would be if I was geocaching in the states.

I still have not found the one near where I took this picture because the tide has to be out to get to it and you have to climb up on something in a very visible place to find it....not a big deal but I think I am more geared to the caches that take me to new and interesting places or require some effort to get to, than the ones in popular spots that require a ton of stealth. I never feel I am being stealthy enough....

Caching at Zakimi Castle

I went geocaching the other day for two different caches located on or near Zakimi Castle (which is not far from my house). I didn't really think I was going to get a workout in, but I ended up getting a great one. I won't go into a ton of detail since I'll probably end up doing a post on this on my travel blog but I just wanted to share the site I found that can give you an idea of this castle ruins along with several of the others around her. The first one was off the grounds just a bit but the second one took me to a section of the grounds that I had never seen and a trail that was just great with lots of stairs and jungle. It was a lot of fun and I didn't have to make time in my day for a workout because I got both done in one...